End of August

Since returning from Utah, we have been trying to get back into the school routine. It has been easier for some than others. Paige is struggling a bit to manage time in middle school. She has homework daily and that never happened in elementary school. She tested best on clarinet for the band so we rented one for her. She started practicing last week. 

Stella is getting used to the schedule too. She waits for the kids by the door. Darby and Paige get home first and she is always very excited. 

Brendan has a lot of extras to do as it is senior year. He has been working on college and scholarship applications. There was Senito Night where the counselors gave us a TON of information in 45 minutes. It makes him feel a little stressed but a good kind of stress. And the school is pretty good about helping remind and support the seniors.

He will need to make a scholarship resume complete with a picture. So I took a picture of him last week and photoshopped it to perfection. I am quite pleased with how it turned out. I can't believe he is an adult now. 

We are back to having weekly dates with the kids. This month was my month. Darby wanted to go to Savers. I found a Fitbit Versa that I had been wanting to try anyway. The thrift store had it for $9 (I don't think they knew that it sold for $150). I took a chance that it would work since the battery was dead. I bought a charger and was excited to see that it was fully operational.

That weekend Jason and I took Brendan to Savers for another suit coat. He found some other silly things along the way. What do you think of the sleeveless America vest? He also found a tie that has school supplies on it and the words "Learning is fun" at the bottom. I hated it and he thought that was funny so he bought it just to bug me. For the record, I don't hate it for someone else (an elementary teacher maybe), it's just not a classy tie for church or job outside of education. He also wore it to church on Sunday. Sigh.

The next week Paige and I ate out at Crave (her choice) and also went to Savers. Its becoming a popular date place. She got a lot of books. She is a pretty fun date She is almost too old for the children's menu but enjoyed drawing on it. 

Darby has been doing Duolingo for a while now. This year she started taking Spanish in school. She is already ahead because of her Duolingo practice. In fact, last week she had a 200-day streak on it. She also has been getting 100 percent on her last two Spanish tests. She actually really loves the class and talks about it most often. 

Brendan had been doing Duolingo as well on his own as he wanted to learn German. However, he has to take Spanish 2 this year at FHS  and he has to do Duolingo for that. I told him not to confuse the two. Yesterday he sent me this email. "Hola ich bin Juan". So funny!

It was a blue supermoon last night. Since Brendan is in astronomy he got extra credit for taking a picture of it. Jason got a better one though. 

Church Crafts

Our ward's youth activities moved to Tuesdays at the start of the new school year. The Activity Day Girls also changed times and are now at 6 p.m., right before the YM and YW activities. It makes it a bit challenging, but it will work since Jason usually drives the older kids to the church on his way to jui-jitsu. However, I was asked to sit in with the middle YW class this week so I just picked up Paige and we waited at the church for 15 minutes until youth activities. No big deal. 

For the activity the ADG group made slime. She said she made hers to resemble the ocean. It is blue and has sparkles. So did her hands though. She was very blue-handed afterward.

Darby's class was making vision boards so they were being crafty as well. The middle class (Eva's class) was painting tote bags. It was super fun to talk to those girls. Some are very quiet and some are very chatty. I tried to interact with all of them. We have a few VERY artistic girls and I was impressed. Paige got to make one too and she was so happy. In a few months, she will be in YW too. Crazy.

 

Lake Trip

Today was the annual Redd Ward Youth Elephant Butte Lake Trip. I knew I couldn't go because I had Paige and Jason was doing one of his long runs that day and wouldn't be home all morning. But the older three were excited to go. They have had so much fun in years past. They had to be at the church for a ride at 5:30 a.m. I warned them to keep reapplying sunscreen. The first year Eva came home so very sunburnt. I told them that they'd probably be home around 3 or 4pm

Paige and I had a fun morning by ourselves. When Jason got home we went to get some Bahama Bucks and to Lowes for a few items. I'm sure Paige enjoys her time alone with her parents. When no word from the youth leaders came by 4pm I texted Sister Marshall. She said some of the cars had left and Brendan was in one of those. The girls, however, were with the Bandleys, who brought a boat and, having to clean it before loading, were the last car to leave. They wouldn't be home until closer to 6:30 or 7 p.m. 

Brendan came home totally sunburnt, maybe the worst I have ever seen him. But he had a ton of fun. I was told later that when he found out there was a kayak he spent most of his time paddling around in that. When Darby and Eva came home they were tired and grumpy. Darby was burnt too but Eva was not. However, Darby was in the water most of the time and Eva was on shore most of the time. There was wakeboarding and inner tube rides, as well as sand volleyball and fishing. They both had fun but it was a very long day. 

Going Home

 We had to wake up super early for a flight leaving Salt Lake City at 6:30am. Since Jason and I were staying in the apartment over the garage I had to go inside the house to wake up the kids without waking anyone else that early in the morning. However, someone had locked the door and I couldn't get in. We had to text Fred to ask him to unlock it and I felt bad for waking him up at 4am. The puppy woke up too and began to bark. I think we woke up Fynn too. Luckily we had done so much prep work the night before that we were able to leave the house in record time. We returned the car and made the loooong trek through the Salt Lake City airport. If you have been there you know what I mean. 

Jason and the girls were marked as TSA prechecked (due to military) but Brendan and I were not. Welcome to adulthood, son. They confiscated my mini Gerber tool this time because it had a blade on it. I have flown with that many times and it hasn't ever been an issue but oh well. Here is the family waiting for me after they all got through security and I was detained. Sigh. We made it on the first flight and, being active duty, got to board early so we could sit together. 

Our layover was in Phoenix and we were all a little nervous since our last Utah trip had us stuck in Phoenix for hours with a delayed plane. But everything worked out well and we took off only ten minutes late. We even had the entire El Paso Locos soccer team on our flight. And both flights had snacks so the kids were happy about that. However, they were tired, and even Brendan fell asleep on me, which NEVER happens. We got home around 11:30 with enough time for Jason to dress and get to the Resler Ward Conference during which he was supposed to teach. 

The kids and I unpacked, got into pajamas and a few of us took a nap. You can see that Paige fell asleep on me. Tomorrow the kids go back to school and need to finish up their missing work. Some teachers were more helpful than others about it. For example, Darby was able to do most of her makeup work during the trip. The fact that it was part of the first week of school they were missing helps. Not that much work was going on yet for most of the classes for the kiddos. Both Utah trips are done and now it feels like we really are in the school year. 

Drew and Aryi's Wedding

Drew's wedding was today and it was a two-hour drive to get there. He was being married at his grandparent's farm in Idaho (his mother's parents). We all woke up and got ready. Danica tol dBrendan that she had had a weird dream last night abotu D&D. She was fighting monsters and Brendan was there. He kept trying to leave her but she said she needed his help because he knew all about these monsters. Hahaha.

Aunt Danica straightened Darby's hair and put a braid in Paige's. The girls dressed up in the dresses that we bought especially for the event. Jason put on his new suit and finalized his remarks. Brad and most of the guys left a little earleir to set up. Bostyn had a dance event she had to attend and Danica and she would drive up at the last minute. It was a hectic morning. We left in time to be an hour early for the wedding for set up and maybe a quick run-through. The invitation said the wedding would start promptly at 1pm.

The farm was very rural and we had to drive on a dirt road to get there but it was beautiful. 

They were setting up when we arrived. Jason went to see if he could help and I took the kids down to the pasture. They found a dog to pet too. We took some pictures of the gorgeous scenery.

Paige is a goofy girl. Okay, well Darby is too.

Aw, look at my beautiful girls. 

Grandma Nancy arrived soon after we did. She sat in the limited shade. In fact, we all tried to find shade and stay cool since it was a super hot day. But Nancy's health specifically is affected by extreme heat. There were fans at the reception table where you sign in so that was very thoughtful.

Well, 1 p.m. came and went with no sign of the bride and most of the bridal party. In fact, there were only very few guests who had arrived but then. We waited and waited and 45 minutes later we heard the bride had arrived. Finally, the wedding started closer to 2pm.

It was a lovely ceremony. Bostyn was a bridesmaid and Fynn was a groomsman. Lochlan was the ring bearer and they had a cute little badge showing he was ring security. He also had a little briefcase with the rings inside. He looked like a cute little secret agent.

One of the other groomsmen came in a floral shirt and very short shorts. I was confused. Side note: Later that groomsman stepped in an ant hill and was only able to avoid getting horribly bitten because he could see the aints starting to crawl up his leg. This happend while Jason was talking to him. So maybe the shorts were a blessing?

The bride, Aryi (pronounced like RG) was escorted by Fred as none of her family from Venezuela were there. Her train said, "For Time and All Eternity".

I loved their rfaces as they looked at each other. They lit up. I also loved Aryi's face when she saw Loch and his outfit. It was too cute. 

Jason gave a few words of advice to the couple and they exchanged vows. Then they gave each other the rings. And lastly, the first married kiss. 

Then the reception began and it was picture time.

Nancy was suffering from the heat and developed a severe headache. She had to be taken home so Danica left with her. The food was tasty and the conversation lively. They even had snow cones. You can see by their faces what color they had.

The most unique part was that they employed an artist to draw caricatures. The line was long but the girls got one and later Uncle Fred went to Brendan to sit for one. Drawing in fancy hats was requested. ;)

There were questionnaries on the table to see how well you knew the bride and groom. Fynn and I made it our goal to get all of them right so we conspired and talked to people who would know. When the reception was almsot over Drew and Aryi revealed the answers. We only missed two questions. Drew and Aryi had planned on the reception lasting 5 hours but I figured it would go more like 2 or 3. Things started to slow down around 4:30 and the bride and groom wanted to go take more pictures at the temple nearby. We left for South Jordan after helping tear down. Jason kind of took charge of asking the guests to help with the chairs as he felt bad for Drew's mom and grandma who looked like they were the  main work crew.It always amazing how clean up takes less time than setup. ;)

When we got home Danica wasn't there. She had gone to help her sister. I hoped she would be back in time to thank her for all she had done for our trip. Jason promised Fynn that hw would play Settlers with him and so they did. Jason won. Bostyn showed the girls and I how to make ice cream iwth the ususal ingredients and plastic bag. It didn't totally set up as ice cream but was tasy. 

Lochlan thought it would be fun to draw some caricatures of his own. He drew one of most eveyone at home. Here is one of Paige (top) and Brendan (bottom). He was just being silly but Brendan was not amused. I thought they were funny. 

Brendan had been wanting to play One Night Alien the whole trip and we finally got in a game or two so as to keep our promise. After the games we told our kids that they needed to pack up and get to bed because we would be waking up very early to catch the plane. The trip is almost over but it was so great so see family.