Back to School 2018

It's amazing how fast summer comes and goes each year.  We are always so ready for the break from school!  I love the freedom that summer brings. I love not worrying about bedtimes, homework and making lunches!  I'm always a little worried about entertaining the kids during summer vacation, but we always end up busy with so many activities that I'm actually looking forward to down days.  We had a fabulous summer, but by the second week in August I was ready for the kids to go back to school.  I think I was worn out from our busy summer and tired of all of the hard things about summer break; the fighting, the kids constantly being hungry, the kids complaining about doing jobs and constantly having friends over at our house.   The kids didn't want to admit it, but I think we were all craving schedules and routines.

This is the last year that I will have three Lakeview Lions.  I really like their school and so do the kids.  We got a new principal this year.  I hope he keeps focusing on character development like Mr. Daniels did.  The day before school started I took the kids to their back to school night to meet their teachers.  This always helps the kids get more excited about going back to school.

The kid's first day of school was two weeks ago. I still think it's odd that they go back to school on a Wednesday and even more odd that they only go for half days for a week!  The kid's were all up early and ready and excited to go.

The boys didn't want pictures, but they always humor me.  They were anxious to get to school so they could play before school started.  Jonah goes thirty minutes early every day.  I used to fight him on it, but he loves to get there and play sports with his friends, so why not?  Sometimes Wyatt goes with him and sometimes he goes later with me and Hallee. The kids all meet up after school and walk home together.  I was worried Hallee would slow them down too much, but it seems to be going okay.

Jonah has Mrs. Buringham like Caitlyn did in 6th grade.  He was sure she was going to be mean and strict, but he really likes her.   I think she will be good for Jonah and help him learn a lot this year.

Wyatt has Mrs. Anderson and he loves her.  He was sad that not very many of his friends were in his class, but he still sits with them at lunch and plays with them at recess.  Onesi is in his class, so he is happy about that. 

Hallee was happy to pose for pictures.  She loves to have her picture taken.  After the boys left we kept taking pictures of her until it was time to go.

So cute!  She was so excited for 1st grade!  She loves it and she loves eating lunch at school.  She loves her teacher and she has made new friends that she can't stop talking about.  Amanda May is in her class.  Amanda is a year older than Hallee, but she waited to start Kindergarten so they are in the same grade, but not the same class at church.  They are in the same class this year and hit it off on the first day of school.  They have already had a few play dates together.  We love the May's so I'm happy about that friendship. 

Hallee wanted a picture with Jackson.  I walked her to school the first day and reminded her how to get to her class.  She walked right in and didn't look back.  She was worried that she might miss me but the other day she said, "turns out I don't miss you mom, I'm having too much fun with my friends."  I'm so glad.  I'm ready for this stage of life and I'm able to enjoy my kid free days so much more when I know they are all happy and doing well at school.

Caitlyn didn't have school on Wednesday because it was 7th grade day at the middle school.  I decided we should have a fun day together so we got pedicures and went shopping together.

It was fun to spend that one on one time with her.

Caitlyn was really excited for school this year.  She was also really excited about her new clothes.  She was the only one that needed new clothes and shoes, the other kids only needed one or two things.

I can't believe Caitlyn is in her last year of middle school!  She is looking so grown up. 

Caitlyn hasn't loved school as much as she thought she would.  They placed her in honors math and honors English and that has been an adjustment for her.  She has a lot of math homework and she does not like that.  She also misses her teachers from last year, she always has a hard time with change.  She has a lot more friends than she had last year, so I think she likes the social part of it. I think she will be just fine after an adjustment period.  She likes it enough that she doesn't complain about going, so I'm grateful for that. 

Spartans

Jonah's soccer season is officially underway.  He had a lot of practices this summer and sometimes I wondered if we should have made the jump to competition, but I'm glad we did and so is Jonah.

Jonah looks so grown up in this picture!  Jonah has learned so much and he has really developed as a player.  He has pushed himself and is doing things that he didn't think he would be able to do when he started, I love that! 

I'm so glad that Jonah and Christian are on the same team.  It makes it more fun for them and I love that Angie and I can carpool and visit during the games. 

I really like Jonah's coach.  He strikes a great balance of pushing the boys and expecting their best and making them feel good about themselves and their progress.  He used to play professional soccer in Europe so he is very knowledgeable about the game and sports conditioning.  He is really good at having the boys stretch and warm up and push themselves while listening to their bodies.

Jonah plays midfield which means he runs a lot!  The games are 35 minute halves and sometimes he will play almost the entire game.  The fields are huge and he does a good job at running back for defense even though you can tell he is exhausted.

This is such a Ham face.  We all purse our lips.  I purse my lips when I am mad and my kids know to back off when they see it! 

I'm surprised that Jonah likes midfield so much, I thought he would want to be an attacker.  He is supposed to back them up and always stay a little bit behind them in case they need him and then he has to hustle back to help the defenders. 

Jonah works so hard in his games.  He is doing a really good job at being aggressive even when the kids are bigger than him, that has always been hard for him.

Jonah has gotten off some great shots in the last few games.  I thought for sure a few of them were going in, but the goalie blocked them.  They have really good goalies in this league, we have a great one too!

Jonah is really developing in his footwork.  He does a great job of dribbling around the other team and switching directions to throw them off.  He also does great passes. 

Jonah's team is pretty new, a lot of them are straight from rec.  They lost all of their games in their tournament, but they gave most of the teams a run for their money.  They won their season opener and they lost by one on Saturday, I thought for sure they were going to pull it off.  The team they played on Saturday was a team they played during the tournament.  They lost 5-1 to them during the tournament and Saturday they lost 1-0.  It is great to already see that much improvement.  Jonah is having a great time playing soccer and we are having a great time watching him.

Party with the Ham's

Gary and Julie came into town a couple of weeks ago.  They were picking up Lindy from EFY and dropping Kyle off at school.  On Saturday most of us went to Cowabunga Bay.  Keith was at his convention so it was just me and the kids.

Jonah and Caitlyn were off with their cousins all day and Wyatt and Ammon spent most of the day in the lazy river.  I'm glad Wyatt had a friend who didn't want to go on the big water slides either.  These two had a blast together.

Hallee was happy to see Lindy again.  Hallee and I spent most of our time in the lazy river. Alexys and Ataiya were sweet and watched Hallee for me so I could go on some water slides with the group

I was surprised that both of my parents swam and went down the water slides.  How fun is that, to ride water slides with your grandparents!  I was glad I got to go on a few with them. 

On Sunday we went to my parents ward and saw Dante be ordained to a teacher.  It was fun to visit the old ward and say hi to people.  After church we had an early dinner so Gary and Julie and their family could head out to Bryce Canyon for a little family vacation.  The kids love going to grandma's house and playing with cousins.

On Thursday Gary and Julie came back into town.  We all met up to ride tubes down the Provo river.  My kids were back in school at this point so I arranged for Nadia to come watch Hallee and Wyatt and Jonah and I would pick Caitlyn up from school and head up there.  I was worried about getting there on time because we were doing the last run of the day.  Caitlyn forgot and got on the bus and wouldn't answer her phone (she always forgets to turn up the volume, much to my frustration).  I had to make a quick decision so I decided to just head up there with Jonah because I was afraid we wouldn't have time to pick Caitlyn up.  Caitlyn was so disappointed and I was stressed about it.  We ended up getting up there quickly and I would have had time to pick her up. I was sad she wouldn't be there because I knew this is an activity she would love.  It was a good learning experience for Caitlyn and I was very proud of how she handled it.  She took responsibility and didn't get mad at me, which made me even more upset that I didn't go back to get her. 

Jonah and I were both a little nervous and didn't know quite what to expect.  We did the river run in the raft last year, but the tube was very different.  If I ever did it again I would do a double tube. 

The river was swift and there was a lot of different currents so it was hard to control where you went.  Case in point, I hit tress right off the bat and lost my hat. Luckily, someone told us to take paddles and they helped a little, but it was really hard with all of the different currents. 

The ones that went in the river first got pretty far ahead of the rest of us pretty quick.  I wanted to stay close to Jonah, but that didn't last very long.  Mel got out of her tube and waited for the rest of us to catch up, so I jumped out of my tube to wait too and what a mistake that was!  I couldn't get back in it!

Paul and Tiff were my guardian angles that day.  Paul helped me get back in my tube and luckily they stayed close to me because not too long after that a current hit me and I did a back flip out of my tube. Paul helped me get back in the tube.  I hit my leg on a sharp rock in the river, I'm so glad it was my leg and not my head.  Even though I was near Paul and Tiff we weren't close enough to talk very often.  At one point you have to get out of the water with your tube and walk around a bridge and then get back in.  The bridge is too dangerous, so they tell you to get out and go around it.  I wasn't up there, but poor mom got out of her tube and then the current took her away and she went right under the bridge.  She said she was terrified and stuck under the water for a while.  She got lots of cuts and bruises.  Luckily EJ was there and went after her and was able to catch up to her quickly.  We were all nervous because we didn't know if he had caught up to her and if she was okay.  Finally some of them caught up and they were able to yell back that she was okay.  When I flipped over in the tube my paddle broke, so I only had half a paddle.  Paul was so nice and offered to trade me, but I think I actually had a little more control with the small paddle.  We were getting near the end when I got stuck in a little whirlpool, I just sat there spinning on my tube and couldn't get my tube to move forward.  I just decided to jump out and walk the rest of the way because I didn't think we were far.  Well I didn't realized that the water was probably seven feet deep at that point so I was a little shocked when I jumped in and then I got a charly horse so I could only use one leg to swim.  I was sure glad when I saw EJ waiting to help me get my tube out of the water at the end.  I have thought since then that maybe it was a blessing that Caitlyn didn't come, who knows what danger she could have been protected from.  I actually enjoyed it for the most part, I just hated the out of control feeling and unfortunately I had that a lot!  I also think it would be a lot more fun to go down on a double tub and visit while you went down. 

Gary and Julie stayed at Tiff's house for the last few days of their trip.  I went over Thursday night and stayed up way too late laughing and talking to them, but it sure was fun. Gary and Julie and the kids were going to do baptisms for the dead on Friday morning.  I almost didn't go because I was so tired and overwhelmed with such a busy week, but I'm glad I went. 

Kyle had found all of the family names and Gary got to baptize and confirm me, so that was pretty cool.  It was fun to have this extra time with them.  After that they headed to BYU to get Kyle checked into his apartment and take a campus tour.  They dropped the other kids off at my house while they took Kyle grocery shopping. I got to check out Kyle's apartment when I took Lindy over later.  He is only about 10 minutes from our house.

That night we all met at Leatherby's for dessert.  The kids all love this tradition.  I was so tired from our long week.  The kids started school, which meant two back to school nights and three parent teacher conferences (it is really strange that they do them on the first week of school).  Jonah had a soccer tournament so that meant four soccer games that week, including some during school, so I really didn't get much time without the kids that first few days.  You mix all of that with the fun things we did with family and it made for one crazy week.  It was a great week though, I was just ready for a break.  We said goodbye to Gary's family at Leatherby's. It is always hard to say goodbye, it was so fun to have them here.

It's going to be so fun having Kyle live so close.  We invited him over for dinner on Sunday.  The kids loved it.  I asked him to teach the lesson for FHE and he did a great job teaching the kids how to gain a testimony for themselves.  I guarantee they put way more stock in what Kyle says than in what Keith and I say.  After that we played scum for a while.  The kids went a little crazy showing off for Kyle.  When I drove him home he asked if the kids were always that crazy.  Hopefully we haven't scared him off because we sure love having him around!

Provo Beach

At the beginning of August we took the beehives to Provo Beach to do the ropes course while the older kids were at youth conference.

The girls all started out a little nervous, but they all did great.  Caitlyn was really nervous at first, but she got the hang of it really quickly.

I took Hallee and Wyatt and let them play in the playground while the girls did the ropes course.  I went back and forth between the two activities.

They loved the play ground.  It was pretty big and they had it to themselves for a lot of the time.

I played croquet with the girls.  I sure do love my beehives.  We have had a few girls turn twelve and one move in.  It is nice to have more girls.

Hallee and Wyatt had fun playing croquet with us.

Caitlyn has been dying to go back and do the ropes course again so we decided to go back for family night.  Keith had been gone at a convention for a few days so we were excited to have some family time.  His boss handed him $100 bill that day and said thanks for all he did for the convention so we decided to go blow half of it on a fun night out.  We started with pizza and ice cream.

Caitlyn was so excited to take Jonah on the ropes course.

Jonah was a little slow and timid at first, but he got faster as the night went on.  Caitlyn walked around like she owned the joint!  It was fun to watch them.

Hallee and Wyatt played in the play ground again.  Keith and I had fun watching the kids.

We got some tokens and Keith and I played a few rounds of basketball and then we let the kids all play skeeball with the rest of them.  They had fun picking prizes with the tickets.  It was a much needed fun family outing. 

Summer Nights

I love summer nights. I love that it cools down at night and that we don't have to be up early the next day and the freedom that gives us.  We had a free night and I really needed to get out of the house and I really needed some nature therapy so we loaded up after dinner and headed up to South Fork in Provo Canyon.

I played soccer with the boys and loved it.

I wore my water shoes so I could walk up the river with the kids.  It was so fun.

We all walked up the river together and had fun exploring and playing together.

It was nice and cool in the canyon and the cold water felt great.  This heat is killing me this summer, so I love any chance to escape the heat.

We walked in the river as far as we could before it became to narrow with all of the trees.

We walked back down the path and stopped to look at horses.  We weren't in a rush so we could just take our time and look at everything that the kids wanted to look at.

After that we walked down to the other side of the river to show Keith one of the kid's favorite spots. 

Caitlyn wanted to walk across the logs, but she was really nervous about it.  Keith was great at encouraging her and helping her along.

Caitlyn was determined to get across the log on her own and she was able to do it.  I decided I wanted to get up there and try too.  The kids love when I join them on things like this. 

Hallee and Wyatt found some fun sticks to climb on too.

It was a perfect family evening.  One of those rare times when everyone is happy and there is no fighting.   The beautiful scenery made it even better!