end of Aug: school begins, mission update, byu ed week, referee

Spencer's cute painting that he proudly displayed and wanted a pic of to remember. 

I get a little nervous riding with our new drivers. Jerky turns, rolling over curbs, not stopping completely or stopping way too abruptly. But it's a necessary step for her improvement and growth so I do my best to not act too scared (she'll probably tell you otherwise) while she's at the wheel. 

Janelle, Annie and I hiked Lower Bells Canyon Falls and then jogged back. It was beautiful as always. 

At our annual ward summer BBQ, Nora entered into a watermelon eating contest. She felt sick after a short while and quit early on in the contest. It was pretty gross to watch with all the drippings and slobberings and chewed up bits dropping down on the table. 

I tightened up Charles short mullet cut. I think I did a pretty good job! I think it's so funny that he only wants me or Becca to do his hair. I've offered to pay to have him go to get it cut at great clips or somewhere similar, but he refuses. I don't actually mind. It's fun to have that time together. 

First day (or second day) of school pictures! Annabelle and Charles are at the high school, Jane's at the middle school and Nora and Spencer are at the elementary. 

Elisabeth took a field trip to AZ for the day so she could appear before the consulate and get her Visa. She loved it! The missionary life at the MTC can be pretty monotonous so anything different is exciting. And she loved eating out at Texas Roadhouse, rather than having the typical cafeteria food fare. 

Alyssa arrived at the MTC a few weeks after Elisabeth and they were so excited to see each other! 

Garden boxes all done and filled...but we planted too late and maybe we didn't water enough, but either way nothing we planted survived. We'll try again next year. 

I was able to meet up with Elisa L and Amanda at BYU education week Friday (I don't work Fridays this year! Woot Woot! I'm still at the elementary but now I'm a literacy aide). I went to my usual favorite class with Tamara Fackrell, and this year her husband taught with her which was fun. I also went to a couple of classes with Anthony Sweat which were also favorites! I always go away feeling uplifted and like I'm ready to do better and be better. 

Right across from the Marriott Center (which is where my first class was at BYU) is the MTC and the BYU shipping center. They get mail to the MTC for $1 and same day delivery. So i brought a small package over for Elisabeth before my classes began with a few small things she requested and a couple of treats. I sent her a text on messenger while I waited outside for the shipping place to open, hoping she'd get it quick and be able to look out a window and see me, but no such luck. 

Charles, Annabelle and Nora all went through referee training and are doing some reffing this year to earn a little extra money...Scott's mostly not reffing, although he has done a couple of games when they were super short. As a coach of 2 competitive teams, he wants to thoroughly understand all the rules, and this experience helps, plus it's good to see what it's like to be a ref, and be able to help when they're so short refs that they have to cancel games. 

Nora and her teammates like to play around after their practices for a little bit. I'm glad they enjoy being together. 

Jared entered the MTC the same day as Elisabeth which was fun for them, and Cole got there around the same time as Alyssa. She loved running into her friends. 

Elisabeth and her companion sister Hupp

 

Aug: Sprint Triathlon, traveling tabernacle, A at Subway

Look at that sunrise! Amazing! 

Nora and I participated in the multi-stake sprint triathlon that the church has put on for several years in our area. It's free and the swim is done in a swimming pool, and you can touch the bottom, so it's a good one for first-timers. This was Nora's first so we stayed together. 

She did great! She enjoyed the swim and bike, but said the run was hard. It was a 600m swim, a 5 mile bike ride and a 2 mile run. 

There was a traveling tabernacle that came to our area. Scott and I volunteered to help one day along with other ward members, and then we took our family back to walk through. It really made the scriptures come alive where they talk about the old testament tabernacle. 

Scott and I made a date out of our volunteer experience and got Acai bowls after at our favorite Rio Acai. 

Annabelle started working at Subway in the beginning of August. Which means all three of our working-aged children have worked at Subway...it's become a sort of rite of passage I suppose :). 

Someone started a painted-rock-train on the sidewalk near our house. So the week before school started we decided to go buy a bunch of sparkly acryllic paint and the girls painted rocks, one for each Taylor Swift era, in the color and with the name of each album on it.   

Jane watches Saige for a few hours each week and we love having her around. We went to the splash pad one day and had fun splashing around and taking pictures. 

We love our Penny Lady.