Week at a glance

I gave blood on Thursday morning. I hate doing it and can’t think about it too hard otherwise I’d never go back. But in the grand scheme of things, I think it’s so important and even though I hate it, it’s a relatively easy thing I can do. I’m up to 5 pints now, just 3 away from a gallon!

After that I met up with these ladies for lunch at Okada where we closed the whole place down. We celebrated Alecia and she deserves all the celebrations and love because she’s amazing. ❤️

Frankie woke up that morning with pink eye. I don’t know why my family loves pink eye so much, but we really do. Sooo thankful she was the only one that got it. Matt was working from home again, so he was able to take her to the Dr and her eye cleared up with the first drop. 

We had nothing scheduled for Friday, so we let the girls completely veg after their first few days of school and it was lovely. 

Matt had an all day seminary training at the church by the temple on Saturday, so he went to that and said it was great, then he did a temple session, which was also great. The girls and I went to the ward beach party. Alecia got to Newtowne Neck before 10:30 and they’d already filled the 30 parking spots so they’d closed the main beach. So then they paid several park rangers to stand there turning people away and managing traffic and it just seems to me that money would be better spent making more easily accesible beach access. Because then we had to walk 15 minutes down to another beach, which was a lovely walk, but no one wants to lug beach stuff for 15 minutes. 

Mark and Amy showed up with their jet ski and that really made everyone’s day. Adi was the first brave girl to knee board and she got the hang of it immediately. By the end she was doing turns on it, it was so cool!

Frankie’s always good at anything athletic, but she couldn’t get her arms all the way around her life jacket to turn. 🤣

And Delaney was having a day, but she did deign to ride the jet ski and she also got the hang of it right away. 

Delaney’s grumpiness continued and the afternoon was a little tenuous, but we are teaching our kids to apologize, to forgive, and to be resilient, so we figured it out. She worked on her first sacrament talk and she read it to me several times and we timed it to figure out how much she needed to add. 

So many pictures like this. Delaney’s talk went well and church was wonderful. I had stake council in the morning and then came home for a bit to go to our ward. 

Also, my best time ever on the crossword. 

Cleaning out my phone I came across our whitewater rafting the Chatahoochie trip picture and that reminded me of our amazing trip!

We got a surprise package from papa. We still need to research Ilona because she made an impression on him. We love matching!

And finally, look at me go. 

First day of school 2024!

I got up extra early and grabbed donuts for the first day of school. The girls have said just make sure to get lots of chocolate in the past, so I’ve tried telling the Dunkin people that a few times, but then I get stuff like this. 

Just not a lot of variety. 

Since seminary hasn’t started yet, D left first at 6:44. 

It was still extra chilly, so the girls were all sweatered up. 

I was having her do different poses and she turned around and did this adorable Lorax dance. 🤣 She really is so fun at home. 

And off goes the baby, our very last middle schooler ever. 

Next up was the high school crew. 

Their bus comes at 7:27. 

Together again! 🎶 

Look out world, she’s a junior!

Adi sniped a shot of Frankie and Julia being bus buddies. 

Then Michelle sent me this of Frankie and Julia on the 1st day of 9th grade. 

And this one of Frankie and Julia on the 1st day of 1st grade. 😭

I had a mega list of things to do and I chopped away at them, and Matt was also home and he chipped away at me. 🤣 not really, and I actually like having him home, but he was extra chatty all day and I was task oriented. 

We had a taste of Africa when the girls got home and we all decided we’re not fans.  

Just for good measure I showed the girls pictures of Lexi and Christian on their first day of freshman and junior year. 

You’ll notice it’s dark because seminary used to start on the first day of school. 👀 

We had our back to school dinner that night but since the girls had young women we even kept that pretty casual. We got Happy Dragon and Delaney got McDonald’s and we ate at home and shared all the first day fun. Everyone had a good first day!

Before school

We came home with 2 days till school started. Monday was open house day. I took Frankie and Delaney and somehow no pictures. I’m annoyed at myself, but I was tired. We liked all their teachers.  Delaney is looking forward to her easiest year of middle school, and Frankie’s core classes are a bit smaller to accommodate learning disabilities. We’re hopeful for a good year! Since Adi is a junior and nothing has changed, she didn’t want to go. 

Sister Hansen had reached out and said she’d be in town and wanted to come visit. I love love love when missionaries come back to visit. They are amazing and sacrificing so much and I want them to feel loved and appreciated and supported, so when they come back that tells me we did it. It was fun to visit with her and enjoy the spirit she brings with her. 

That night was a surprise birthday party for Steve Howell, and I love a good surprise. I also love the wildwood pool and also we’ve been gone so I was excited to see friends. Unfortunately it was a stormy evening and there’s a weird rule that you can’t be on the pool deck at all once there’s lightning, so the whole party moved to the gazebo nearby.

So much joy in this shot. ❤️

Delaney has been struggling in social situations. She just wants to stay home and read her book. How much autonomy should we give kids? I don’t know, but it feels like a pool party with friends should be a fun thing. Unfortunately she is often rude to others and goes off by herself. Gahhhh. She’s so lovely at home, which is where I’m really left scratching my head. She’ll be fine, I know she will. Just what to do with her now. 

Anyways, the kids got to swim for about 15 minutes before more lightning and that’s when everyone packed up. Whomp whomp. Though it kind of worked for us because we were tired. 

The day before school we always get together with the Darrows and have an adventure and get ice cream. Usually Mrs. Moo’s, but really any delicious ice cream works. Lily and Curtis had actually mentioned going back to Pot Rocks, and I casually brought it up to Alecia, but it’s still too fresh. 🤣 I also found a YouTube video of a family that also got lost hiking to Pot Rocks and then said it wasn’t all that great. Maybe it’s only great when you accidentally stumble upon it? 🤷‍♀️ Anyways, Alecia suggested Flag Ponds and I had been thinking of going there too so it was a plan. 

I came here once years ago with Lana and Colleen, but we hung out in the pond area. 

This day we went to the beach and it really is a lovely beach. 

The younger kids played in the sand, even though we didn’t bring any toys for hours and the big kids meandered. 

So many selfies I find on my phone. 

The bigs made their way up to the cars and sat in the car listening to music. That was Adi’s fav part of the day because she can’t wait to take a friend road trip and she said that’s what it felt like. 

The sand was pretty cool with all of the layers. 

Unfortunately all that week was unseasonably cool, so swimming was out of the question. We all wore our suits just in case, but it was a no go. I even wrapped up in a towel because I was chilly. 

So fun to catch up after a wonderful summer of travels. 

We went to Coldstone and let the kids pick whatever they wanted, it is a celebration after all. 

And that concludes our end of summer celebration.😭 😭 😭 

The rest of the day was spent gathering the last of the school supplies and cleaning out backpacks that should have been cleaned out in June. Preparing outfits and figuring out lunches, and then fathers blessings. 

I had aspirations to make a fancy back to school feast, but we ate giant ice cream cones in the afternoon and no one was really hungry so it was a fend for yourself night which felt strange, but I can still blame Summer. 

A few more songs from the all-night radio

I was dreading our one day 14 hour drive home since the second I agreed to it. And then that awesome thing where I can’t sleep before a big day happened, and I tossed and turned and didn’t pick up my phone because I was really trying hard to sleep, but it was rough. 

Anyways, we left a little later than I wanted, but still at 6:15, so I think that’s pretty good. 

And then within the first hour of our trip we got stuck behind this giant truck that wouldn’t let anyone pass and it slowed us down for like 45 minutes. I was so frustrated. 

I decided with this crazy long drive to do a quick stop every 2 hours and that really kept me going. I’d count down and remind myself - you can stop in 1 hour and that helped so much. 

Also, this little lady took a turn. 🎉 

Quick lunch to buffer our snacking. 

I called Damian Dominic once or twice when we first met and now everyone jokes about it. So Delaney grabbed this keychain and asked to have Damian in the sibling gift exchange. 🤣

This crew chatted and sang and ate and ate and ate. I also listened to my book to keep my brain occupied because I am vigilant about staying wide awake and avoiding falling asleep while driving. I’ve never come even close to falling asleep, but I’m also not prideful enough to think it couldn’t happen to me. 

And finally, at 11:15, after 16 long, but safe hours on the road, we were home again home again from our very last summer trip. Hard to wrap up an epic summer, and also we love home. Two things can be true. ❤️