Back to School

It was back to school this week, but not before Britton got his learner's permit.  I'm excited for him to get his real license a year from now, it is really going to help me out in the driving dept!

On Tuesday only the freshman and sophomores went to the high school for an orientation day and then it was Back to School night for Jenna and Korinne.

Korinne's new teacher Mr. Reynolds

Wednesday morning was the official start of school for everyone.

Britton, 9th Grade

We are the furthest neighborhood from the school that doesn't have a bus so Britton will be riding his bike to school while the weather is good.  Getting there is super easy, it's riding uphill for 1 mile with a backpack after a cross country workout that might be a bit of a challenge.

Jenna, 8th Grade

Korinne, 5th Grade

Korinne and Cara decided to be matchy matchy the first day of school.  Surprisingly they have never been in the same class at school, but that didn't stop them from wanting to be twinners.  They even had the same shoes!

Jameson doesn't start his preschool for 2 more weeks.  Fortunately, all of his friends in the cul-de-sac are in the same boat so they haven't skipped a beat and continue to play all day.

He is kind of a "ask forgiveness and not permission" kind of guy so it isn't uncommon for me to check on him and find he has taken matters into his own hands.  On this day I found Jameson and his friends in their swimming suits with the hose on making their own waterslide in the backyard. 

Saturday morning dawned very early for us.  Britton had to be to the school by 4:40 a.m. to catch the bus to the cross country invitational.  Races started at 8 a.m. in a location 2 hours away.  Adam, Jameson and I left around 5:50 a.m. and made it in plenty of time for Britton's 8:25 a.m. race.

There were 30 schools at the invitational and well over 200 boys were in the boys freshman/sophomore race.  That's a lot of kids!

Britton was very happy to run his first PR.  He is in the blue and green uniform.

We had to take him home early with us because he had a soccer game here locally that afternoon and the bus wasn't going to get home in time.  His soccer coach was impressed that even after running a race that morning he ran hard for all 90 minutes the game in the heat and didn't slow down.  Running XC has certainly helped his fitness level, but he is still plenty tired afterwards when he has 2 events so close together.

Yes, it's back in the saddle for us.

Fifteen

Britton's soccer team usually plays in the Strikers Cup the week before school starts. He had games on Tuesday and Thursday. 

A double header on Thursday which made for a long day.  Playing in this tournament meant he had to miss his first Cross Country Invitational on Thursday in SLC.  Fortunately this is the only direct conflict he will have between the two sports this season which is a miracle, really, since they are both so involved and time consuming.

Tuesday night was one of the nights they open up the refugee garden for service volunteers to help with weeding.  Adam, Britton and Jenna went to mutual, but Korinne, Jameson and I participated in the SOS service project with the rest of our neighborhood group.

Jameson pulling some weeds.

We were able to see a few refugees working in the garden as well.  They do a lot of work and then benefit from the produce when it's harvested.

It think this was our last SOS project for the summer.  It's been a great summer of service for the kids.

Wednesday night was the Ridgeline Cross Country opening social which is a dinner at a park for all runners and their parents.

Here is a picture of the boys team.  The girls team is slightly larger, but I didn't get a picture since we had to leave  a big early.  The coaches gave us the race schedule and the kids were able to vote for their team captains.  They also did the awards for the kids who made the 300 mile club and the 500 mile club with their summer running.

Our neighbors borrowed 2 Segways from an Uncle for the week. The kids sure had a lot of fun cruising around the neighborhood with them.  They even doubled up when someone was already on the other one.

Korinne and Cara

Adam and I even got to try them out.

I didn't realize they are controlled exclusively by the way you lean.  If you want to go you lean forward, if you want to stop you lean back.  Turning is also done by leaning. It took me a bit to get used to it, but it was really cool.  Too bad they are so expensive, it would be perfect for the kids to get home from school since we live at the top of a long, steep hill.

On Saturday Britton turned 15 years old.  To celebrate we decided to do something we haven't even done before and we went and floated down the Oneida Narrows in tubes.  Our friends even let us borrow all of their gear to do it!

The Birthday Boy.

It was the last Saturday before school starts so it was kind of our last summer hurrah.

We had two 2-person tubes and a single tube.  Adam, Jameson and I started out on one, Jenna and Korinne were in the other and Britton went solo in the single. We tried to stay together as much as we could, but it wasn't easy because the weight difference made it so we floated at different speeds.

I didn't take my phone on the river because I didn't want it to get wet, but here is a picture of the river once we got out.  Jameson was a little nervous at first and there were a few moments he wasn't sure he liked it, but at other times he really seemed to enjoy it. 

To float the narrows you have to take 2 cars, one to get you to the start, and another to leave at the finish.  It takes about 2 hours to float and since it was a beautiful Saturday we had quite a bit of company on the river.  The first hour or so is pretty calm and then you hit some mild rapids during the last 30 minutes.  When Adam, Jameson and I hit the rapids (or the "rabbits" as Jameson called them) we were quite a bit ahead of the girls and Britton.  I started to get nervous after awhile because we couldn't see them and there wasn't a place for us to stop and wait and see how they were faring with the rough water.  Finally we found a place to "pull over" and did so.  A few minutes later we saw Korinne floating by herself in the double tube without a paddle. "Korinne, where is Jenna?!"  We could see she was scared and didn't know what to do. "She fell out!" She yelled back.  WHAT?!?  Adam got out of the river and started running along the bank to see if he could see any sign of Jenna.  I stayed with Jameson and helped Korinne get to where we were.  I was trying to decide how much I should be panicking when I finally got a glimpse of both Britton and Jenna coming down the river in the single tube with 2 paddles laughing and having a great time.  Apparently Jenna fell out of the tube and onto a big rock when she was trying to paddle around it.  Britton saw the whole thing happen and had to make a decision, save the paddle that was floating away or go to Jenna.  Seeing that Jenna was safe on a big rock he went after the paddle for which I was VERY grateful because it was a borrowed paddle and it would not have been good for us to lose it!  Once Britton had the paddle he moved to a calm and shallow place in the river and then Jenna got in the water and floating down to where he was. Boy was I glad Britton was there to save the day!  Korinne decided that she wanted to be with an adult after this little adventure so we all swapped tubes.  Adam went with Jameson and Korinne, Britton and Jenna stayed together and I went solo in the single.  Once we finished and were in our car Jameson kept saying, "When are we going to float the river again?" only to respond a minute later with, "I never want to do that again."  Even when it was all said and done he couldn't decide if he loved it or hated it.

We stopped in Preston for dinner and Britton selected Big J's of Napoleon Dynamite fame.  It is a Mom and Pop fast food restaurant that offers a variety of foods like tator tots and baked potatoes along with the usual hamburgers and fries.

I got such a kick out of the décor.  You could tell it was locally owned and operated. "We're so glad you're here!"

Check out all of the county fair decorations in between the 2 doors.

Oh yeah, and the fresh raspberry shakes were DELICIOUS.

Back at the house it was time for Britton to open his presents.

He got tickets to see a Real Salt Lake game, scripture marking pencils, some school sweats and 5 lbs of sugar candy pumpkins.

He loves these stupid pumpkins and was more than pleased with his haul.

We aren't really cake people, but Britton decided he might be an ice cream cake kind of person. It was delish.

Early Sunday morning we got up and left for Tanner's "missionary opportunity to speak".  We were on the road by 7:50 a.m. to make it to the 11:00 a.m. meeting.

Tanner is the first missionary to leave from my side of the family.  He will be serving in Pennsylvania.  We stayed for the block meetings and then had a lovely lunch at Heather's house. It was Grandpa's birthday so Grandma made a super yummy coconut/pineapple cake to celebrate Britton, Grandpa and Heather's Mother-in-law's special day. 

We hung around for awhile and then left to go home around 6 p.m.  It was fun to share this special day with family. Good luck Tanner!

RHS

On Tuesday they opened up the new high school to the public for the first time.  In the morning Britton and I went for student registration and that evening they had an open house for anyone in the community who wanted to see the new building.  Pepperidge Farm even provided free cookies for the event. What's an open house without a free cookie, right?

We thought it was beautiful and Britton is excited to be a part of the first freshman class of RHS.  Class of 2020 is in the house!

On Thursday evening Britton participated in his first cross country race. It was an alumni meet which I guess is a tradition at Mountain Crest. The entire team runs the home Mountain Crest course and alumni runners are invited to participate. The very large Mountain Crest XC team has now split in two. The boys in orange stayed at Mountain Crest, the rest of the boys went to Ridgeline (uniforms haven't come in yet).

You can see how large the high school team was when they were all together. Not only are there a lot of guys, but I think there are even more girls! When I was in high school we were small in number so it is going to take me awhile to get used to having a big team.

On Saturday the kids went to the county fair with Grandma and Grandpa.

Korinne got stung by a few bees on her hand and shoulder.  Here she is receiving some first aid.

 We didn't think much more about the stings Korinne's got on last night, but when she woke up this morning her hand was very swollen. I guess she has a little bit of an allergy to whatever stung her.

We believe in the 2nd amendment around this house!

I have no idea where the boys got these costumes, but they came in one day with camo and nerf guns so I had to stop and take a picture.

For our SOS service project this week we went to a big cemetery in town that has a lot of pine trees and picked up pinecones.  Apparently they have a lot of trouble keeping the grounds pinecone free and it was a good project for about 30 kids to do.  Britton has the pictures on his camera so I need to get them from him. We took a break from our service projects in July, but were back at it in August.

Ready, Set, Rio!

While Adam, Britton and Jenna were at pioneer trek the last week of July, Korinne, Jameson and I tried to do a few fun things like go to the Jump Zone.

They now have these zorb things that you can rent for 30 min which makes it even more fun.

Our family pioneers arrived safe and sound on Friday afternoon. 

Adam with a rare 4 days of stubble.

Everything went as planned and they had a fabulous experience. The final day they were able to do Rocky Ridge and trek 14 miles so it was a challenging but great day.  It was kind of cool that Britton and Jenna got to have their Dad along for the ride.

After they got home Adam and I had one day to figure out what we were going to do about a family car. We happened upon a 2012 Honda Odessey with 46,000 miles at the GMC dealership where Adam's friend from high school works. They had just received it on a trade-in and it had all of the bells and whistles our other van didn't have. I really loved my van so I was kind of dazzled by all of the upgrades. Since we are "buy a car once a decade" kind of people we decided to go ahead and get one that will see us through for many years to come.

 It has 8 seats, a DVD player, leather seats, a backup camera and many other features. We are all in love.

While we were car hunting Korinne and Jameson were having fun with the neighbors slip and sliding with a bubble machine. Best. combination. ever.

After a month with our cousin Abigail around it was time to say goodbye. She and Tiffany headed back to Texas on Tuesday morning.

Group hug!

This week it was back to normal with piano lessons, soccer, cello, YM/YW activities, ballroom dance. cross country and other summer activities. There is never a dull moment around here. We were most excited about the start of the 2016 summer Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  I love the Olympics and I love Brazil so I'm really excited about the next 2 weeks!

We watched the opening ceremonies together on Friday night. Not sure how I'm going to be able to watch as much Olympics as I would like, but having it all recorded so we can skip commercials and  parts that are going too long definitely helps!  Good thing it happens only once every 4 years.