Reunion and Back to School

Some of the girl cousins gathered for some bonding at Aunt Kirsti's house the week before the family reunion. Korinne was there the entire week and Jenna arrived a few days late so she could attend Youth Conference with our stake. 

Ashlan T., Sarah N., Aubrey G. and Korinne

Ashlan, Sarah, Korinne, Jenna and Aubrey

Kirsti and Topher have a boat so the girls had a great time riding on the tube.

The weekend of Aug 10-12 was a family reunion for Adam's side of the Family in American Falls, ID.  We rented a large airbnb for 5 families and the rest stayed at Kirsti's house. We missed Loren and Stephen and their families, but the other 8 siblings were in attendance.

The first day we went to farm that had 2 "redneck" waterslides, a pavilion, zipline and volleyball court for families to use.

AJ loved being doted on by the older girls.

They also had a candy cannon that they filled and shot off about 3 times.

We left the farm around 5 p.m. to have dinner and get ready for family pictures at 7 p.m.

Gramma and Grampa

Marci, Kirsti, Josh, Adam, Bethany, Kimberly, Micah and Jaclyn

Dave & Bonnie

Things get pretty crazy when they are all together.

Unfortunately I don't have the pictures of the big group because the photographer sent them to Gramma and Grampa. AJ wasn't super cooperative, but he was at least present.

The house we rented was quite large and very comfortable, but we were absolutely dumbfounded by the master bathroom.  The master bedroom was enormous, as was the closet, but the master bathroom didn't have a shower at all and the bathtub was a mini-tub that could barely fit children.  It was the weirdest set up I have ever seen and explains why the owners weren't able to sell the property and now rent it out on Airbnb.

Nothing like an intense game of MEMORY while the kids are busy playing.

 The next day we set out for Lava Hot Springs, but after the first families arrived and saw how incredibly crowded it was we abandoned the plan and went to a smaller water park in Pocatello.  That night we played games and hung out at the rental house before our family had to leave around 8 p.m.  We had ward conference the next morning and while that doesn't mean much to people in the ward, it does mean something to the Bishop so Adam had to be there ready to go at 8 a.m. on Sunday morning.

That last full week before school started was busy with a soccer tournament in Layton for Britton, a final summer trip to Lagoon, school registrations, hair cuts and last minute school preparations. The cross country opening social also happens the week before school starts.  They have a pot luck dinner at a park for all runners and their parents and then they go over the schedule for the season.  Here are the runners in attendance at the social:

It's a big group. They always have over 100 kids the team which makes it a lot of fun for everyone.

On Monday, the 20th Britton turned 17 years old!  He went rock climbing in the morning with friends, went to lunch with Adam and me at Even Stevens and then had a family party that night as part of FHE. 

Opening presents with AJ

AJ wants every birthday to be HIS birthday and really struggles when the presents and fun aren't for him.  Britton was nice and let him help open presents which included a small speaker, a hydro flask, a journal and new bedding. He invited friends over for a movie later that night after family home evening and 16 of them showed up. They looked like sardines all lined up on the couches to watch the movie but they had fun.  Britton has a great group of friends.

On Tuesday we had quite the day trying to get to all of our events. First up was a XC meet about 30 minutes away.  Britton and Jenna both ran their opening races of the season and did well.

Jenna in the middle waiting to start

Britton running the 3rd mile of the course.

We had to race back from the race to make it to back to school night at 3 different schools. AJ will be at River Heights with Mrs. Kami and he couldn't be more excited

AJ and Mrs. Kami

Super Preschoolers!

AJ with the school mascot- an Eagle

 Our elementary school is a dual immersion school teaching French starting in the 1st grade.  They select the kids who can participate in the program by lottery and we were informed in January that Jameson had not been selected. We had assumed he would get in past on what happened in past years and were really disappointed when he didn't. The lady in charge of the program told us there was no way he would get in because he was just too far down on the wait list. Basically the only kids that got in for this year were kids that had older siblings already in the program because they get priority over other students. The district then filled the rest of the spots with out of boundary kids so they could keep all four 1st grade teachers at the school. To say that parents were unhappy with this decision was an understatement.  Anyway, while we were at the family reunion I got a very unexpected e-mail saying that Jameson got into French. What?! I don't know what happened, but a lot of the kids that didn't get in initially were getting in at the last minute.  A bunch of out of boundary students must have dropped out to make way for Jameson to get in. We still have no idea how it happened, but we'll take it!

On back to school night Jameson met both of his 1st grade teachers.

Madam Abuou teaches in French for 1/2 day

Mrs. Stringham teaches in English the other half of the day and the kids switch classrooms in the middle. By the time the kids graduate from High School they will be completely fluent in French and will have learned it from native French speakers.

 We went to back to school night at the middle school for Korinne as well, but didn't get a picture because it wasn't the "cool" thing to do. 😀

On Wednesday, Aug 22nd, the kids headed out the door for a brand new school year.

Britton is a Junior and was wearing his class officer sweater for the first day.

Pretty fancy if you ask me

Jenna is a Sophomore.

Korinne is in 7th grade and is at the middle school this year.

And Jameson is starting 1st grade.

AJ's preschool doesn't start until Monday and he was terribly upset that he wasn't allowed to get on the bus with the big kids.  He wants to be in the center of the action AT ALL TIMES.

He didn't stop crying until he found his friend Klein outside and had someone to play with.

Jameson went with a friend to the Aquatic center after school on Friday. They pretty much had the pool to themselves and Carrie sent me these pictures of Jameson jumping off the high dive. Last summer he wouldn't even put his face in the water and this summer he is doing stuff like this and loving it.

Front flip off the high dive

We've come a long way!

On Saturday Britton and Jenna ran in their first invitational at Westlake.

Jenna on the left

Britton on the left.

Britton also had 2 soccer games this week.  One was 2 hours away and while he and Adam were driving to it there was a HUGE rainstorm so the field was completely flooded by the time they arrived and the game was cancelled (double grrr). The other game was yesterday at home so we had to race back from his XC race to make it in time.

I always feel like our schedule goes from 0-60 mph overnight once school begins, but fall has always been my favorite time of year.  Bring it on!