First day of school

My last two years with Emily 😢 have started.  Emily is a junior and loving it this year- especially choir and musical theatre.  She is thrilled to avoid a certain math teacher by taking math online in the library.

Man I love my two little buddies - although they aren't so little any more.  They are so good to each other, rarely argue or get impatient with each other. They genuinely enjoy being together.  It is such a wonderful phase of life for me.

I can hardly believe what a beautiful, mature girl my Lily is becoming.  She is loving 8th grade with jazz band, 8th grade band, and percussion TA.  Her online science class is getting her high school credit and time with her favorite librarian.

I don't buy the school pics but it is fun to see them 😂

Kids in their ballet classes are always surprised to learn they are sisters with their different skin, hair and eye colors, but they are great sisters 💖

Easton Reunion

The last weekend of summer we headed to Utah for an Easton reunion and Whitney's reception.  We headed down Thursday after work.  Upon our late night arrival at our hotel we discovered that we only had two queen beds, no couch or roll away bed, and five people.  Emily volunteered to sleep on this chair, it didn't work well and she eventually moved to the floor.

The next morning we met up with cousins at temple square and got to tour the new visitors center.

The model of the remodeled temple and the temple experience were super cool - made me really excited to walk through the temple during the open house.

The next morning we had a delicious breakfast on Beth's porch and Emily enjoyed kitty time.

Then we headed to the lake where Brett spent all day taking the kids out and letting them try wake surfing.  They had a lot of fun.

From there Greg, Emily, Natali, Miguel and I went for a hike to get a little exercise before dinner.

Emily's hair looked incredible in the sunlight.

We ate pizza at the air B&B while the sisters got Laurie's house ready for Whitney's reception the next day.  Sunday we went to church then headed to Laurie's.  We helped with all the food and decor and got to enjoy a few minutes of the party before we hit the road.  We had to get home at a decent hour because the girls started school the next day.

Summer Time Random Fun - July and August

The girls accompanied Greg and I to the Shakespear Festival.

One Sunday when there were two missionaries speaking these men realized that all 6 Bishops of the 4th/River Ranch Ward were in the building so they had to get a picture.

First Saturday in August means clothing drive so the girls went through their closets and sorted all of our clothes into sizes.

Then we delivered them to the downtown building and helped put them in their proper places.

Day of I helped check volunteers in while Greg and Emily helped keep the clothes organized and assisted shoppers.

Then we helped with clean up.  It is quite a project but 940 people visited the exchange on Saturday- amazing good was gone.

During the 4th gen academy Lily got to play with her buddies, including a day out shopping with Hazel.

That Friday night before we visited Salisbury's wedding reception we stopped by DeWayne Hill's assisted living center since we had missed him at Christmas.  He was happy to see us.

The last week before school started the girls had lots of work to do, finishing their online course and deep cleaning their bedrooms.  To celebrate their completion the girls each invited a friend and we went to Boise to play.

We relived Zoo Boise memories, ate at Chick-fil-A and visited the climbing gym.

Thoroughly worn out we made our way home - goodbye summer.

Academy of Enterprise - #2

2026 was the Sumer of the second Academy of Enterprise.  We had 17 kids, 5 newbies, and 12 returns.  This is a pic of Kelly doing his history presentation.

After day 1 the kids and the local families gathered at Reed and Linda's for BBQ, swimming and outdoor games.  

The smoke made it a bit uncomfortable but the kids still had a pretty intense game of soccer.

Our first timers plus Holly ( because she missed it last time due to flight issues) and Charlie (because they chose so) toured the Emmett Sawmill with Jonny.  Mark D and Val joined the party as well.

On Wednesday just the first timers toured the Fruitland plant with Greg.

While the second timers got to explore the fab shop.  We were all amazed by the things they are able to make.

That afternoon we put welcome bags together for the families coming to Camp Rainbow Gold next week.  The kids split into groups and made a Walmart run with their specific list then they returned to the plant to assemble the kits.

Thursday was field trip day for the first timers.  The second time attendees stayed in Fruitland for some classes and job shadowing while the newbies hit the road.  We started at the Nampa Door plant, then learned about windows at Redstone.  After lunch we drove to the Boise Distribution warehouse and learned more about distribution.

Our favorite part was watching them pre-hang a door.

Friday we covered the last of our info and talked about how the week had gone, at 2:00pm the kids were done and hit the road to Banks for rafting.

Andrew, Myra, Jonas, Anson, Isaac, and Sam

Emily, Anna, Robyn, Natali, Holly, and Hattie (Natali drove up Thursday night after work and worked east coast hours on Friday so she could join the rafting and hanging out for the weekend).

Freddy's stop on the way home for some very hungry rafters.

Most of the kids headed home Saturday morning but these four hung all day Saturday, late into the evening.  And they were so sweet to bring me these flowers to say thanks for organizing the week.  It takes a lot of work but it was worth it - fun to have them all together and I love watching them learn together.