First Day of School

OK, I lied. This isn't the first day of school- not by a long shot. We actually started school slowly on August 1, and today was day 19. I read that if we start school the first week of August, we can take one week off every 6 weeks, take two weeks for Christmas, and still be done by Memorial Day. How awesome is that??? So I tried to match up better to that schedule so we can take more long breaks throughout the school year when we start to feel burned out. Or want to take a trip to Disneyland!

But, well, when you homeschool it's all the same.

Camille really wanted to photo bomb Audra:

Here's where we are at:

Camille:

She really likes kindie. I am being completely hands off, for better or for worse. All the other moms are volunteering and doing all these great things, and I'm like "I just need her to get speech therapy. I really don't care about anything else." As long as she has fun, that is all that matters to me. There are a few days I will be pulling her out of school for homeschool co-ops, camping trips, or whatever, and so I'm happy with the situation we have right now with her kindie schedule. I figure if they could cancel school for two days this week so that each child- including kindies- could come in for a 30 minutes testing slot, I can pull her out to go to a co-op to learn about dragonflies.

Audra and Claire:

After a lot of contemplation, I decided to go back to Sonlight. This is the reading based curriculum that we did our first 2 years of homeschooling. I switched from it last year to do Konos- a unit based curriculum. I really enjoyed the units, and last year was a great year, but I decided I like spending an entire year on one big theme. The units, in my opinion, chopped up the year and jumped around just a little too much for me in the end. We may go back to it at some point, but for this year I decided to go with Sonlight. We are studying early American History this year.

We are sticking with the same grammer (First Language Lessons), handwriting (Handwriting Without Tears), and spelling (Sequential Spelling). It was a stressful decision, but I decided to switch up their writing program. We have been using Susan Wise Bauer, and I love it, but they advanced enough they could move on. So we have switched to Institute for Excellence in Writing. This program is unbelievable- it is so good! And, very expensive, so I am glad I got it for free from our enrichment program! I am certain my girls will be fabulous writers with this program- I love it!

Audra is continuing with Math U See, which is a perfect for her learning style, but I switched Claire to a computer based program called Teaching Textbooks. It is a much better fit for her, and so far has been about a thousand times better than Math U See. I am really glad that I trusted my gut and switched her.

We also added in geography and vocabulary- Worldly Wise- and Sonlight Science, which I haven't been very good at implementing in years past.

On our first day of school, it took us 7 hours to finish. That's ridiculous for homeschool, and I knew we couldn't keep that pace. Thankfully, as we have settled in, we are back to finishing in 4-5 hours, which is much more manageable.

It is nice to be back in our routine. We had a wonderful summer- a busy, busy summer, but a great one. Now it's nice to settle into our routine and feel a little more normal instead of crazy.

"Thank You, God!"

The best quote of our Eclipse trip was right after the full Eclipse. My friend Marissa turned to me and said, "Thank you, God, for giving us this amazing and beautiful experience."

There simply are no words to describe this experience. All of the plans, all of the exhaustion, all of the preparation, led us to have these 2 1/2 incredible minutes that made everything worth it. In fact, I am already planning to go to the next one in 2024- only next time we will fly and book a hotel years in advance so that Ben will come, too.

Anyway, on Friday (before my trip to Seattle) Joanne and I loaded up my van.

We had so much stuff for one night!

My girlfriend Cindy reserved a spot at Martin's Cove for up to 30 people. About 7 families drove up- most from our church, which was really fun.

Even though in an ideal world we would have left on Saturday to avoid traffic, because of my reunion we couldn't leave until around noon on Sunday. Joann picked me up in the van, and we headed out.

We did run into a little bit of traffic- probably about 20 minutes of back-ups. Not too bad considering the horror stories we were prepared for.

The kids had SO MUCH fun with the hand carts! It was hilarious- they just kept walking around with the carts. It was really cute.

We also stopped by the visitor's center, which was really great.

We got a horrible nights' sleep, and then we woke up bright and early to leave for a tiny dirt road to get to almost the center of the Eclipse.

It was completely organic, and it was wonderful. Cindy's husband, Reid, planned everything out for us. The full Eclipse was at 11:48, but the Eclipse started at 11 AM. We got to our spot on the side of the dirt road at 8:30, so the kids had a couple hours to play. They made up games, Claire and Liesl went to go climb a "mountain", and the adults sat on chairs and talked, etc.

When the Eclipse started, we put on our glasses for a couple minutes, took them off for a few minutes, put them back on to awe at how the sun got smaller and smaller, etc.

Here's the kids with their glasses- aren't they cute?

They loved watching the sun get smaller and smaller, but then when the full Eclipse came out and we took off the glasses and saw the most glorious heavenly experience, all the kids were jumping around in excitement- amazed at what was going on.

Camille was too cute!

I love these pictures because they show how organic this whole experience was. It was like the greatest tail-gate party in the world. Just pulled off on the side of the road in literally the middle of nowhere.

Right before the full Eclipse- you can see the darker clouds and the start of the sunset feel. When the full Eclipse came out, we could see Venus and a couple of stars. It wasn't pitch black, but it was like a dark dusk. Truly, there are no words.

As soon as the Eclipse was over, we quickly packed up the chairs and got on the road. We took back roads through the mountains the whole way, and didn't hit a bit of traffic.

We made it home at 6:45 PM. Ben said, "I really thought you guys would be stuck on the side of the road and unable to get home until tomorrow or Wednesday." Thanks for being our protector Ben. Thanks a lot!

Who wants to go to Cleveland in 2024?? I promise, it really is worth it!

Whirlwind Weekend

In what can only be described as the craziest weekend of my life, on Saturday I flew to Seattle for my 20 year reunion, flew home Sunday morning where my girlfriend Joann picked me up in my already packed van with our six kids and we drove 6 hours to Martin's Cove, WY to camp for the night and then see the Eclipse on  Monday.

It was crazy.

A million things could have happened to make this not happen and all our plans fall apart.

But the worst didn't happen.

In fact, everything went incredibly perfectly.

To be sure, we were prepared for every contingency: We had extra gallons of gas, plenty of food, printed out road maps with plenty of alternate routes, and even walkie-talkies in case we needed to separate and we didn't have cell coverage.

Thankfully, we didn't need any of those contingencies.

But, it started with my 20th reunion.

I wasn't sure I wanted to go. It was not very well planned- we didn't even know the date of the reunion until June. I also didn't want to go without Ben, so we needed to figure out baby-sitting for the kids and it was going to cost a lot more money.

In the end, my dear friend Dani convinced me that Ben didn't need to come, and I should just fly out- so I did.

And, I am so glad I did! I know I would have regretted it forever if I didn't go.

The crowd was small- only about 50 (if that) of 450 graduates attended. But, I saw a lot of people who I haven't talked to in 20 years and who were once very important people in my life. I was incredibly grateful I got to caught up with them.

One of my dear friends who I have known since 2nd grade, Adina, was my chauffeur for the evening. Well, after my sister Melissa picked me up from the airport and I had a wonderful lunch with Melissa and Stephanie. But after that, it was all Adina.

We got the the Bicycle Bar (no joke, that's where it was held) way early and we were nervous to go inside- we didn't want to be the first ones. But, we also didn't want to stay all night, so we were the second ones to go in.

What a blessing to see these lovely ladies! We rocked the AP scene back in the day, so it was really fun to see them once again.

Honestly, even though it was crazy, I'm so glad I went! I know that I would have regretted it forever if I hadn't gone. I can't believe it's been 20 years, but it has.

4H Camp Out

 On Friday night I drove Audra and Claire to a 4H camp out in Rye, Colorado. I had never been to Rye. It was beautiful! Apparently it is labeled the "wet forest." There's lots and lots of rain, and beautifully tall trees. It reminded me of home. It was nice.

There were a lot of games. In one game, Audra and Claire had to do rock, paper, scissors to decide who won. Claire won.

We actually hiked up this river. Well, Claire and I didn't like how fast the current was going, so we mostly walked alongside the river. I wasn't in Audra's group, but I was told that she has suction cup feet and that even though she was barefoot (making everything more slippery), she basically rant up the river.

More games:

Each kiddo was given an egg to keep alive through the weekend. Claire broke hers in about 5 minutes, but one of the older girls allowed her to co-parent her baby egg. By the end of the camp out, a lot of eggs were still alive, so an egg race was the answer. To Audra's delight,she won!

It was a lot of fun. I'm glad the girls got to go and have some fun. I'm always so impressed with 4H!

Monet's Place

For over a year I have been excited to do this co-op: Monet's Place! There is a beautiful garden that is inspired by Monet's artwork, so for a co-op we met at the garden, learned a little bit about Monet, and then painted/sketched his garden. It turned out great- despite the threat of rain.

Claire's favorite part was catching tad poles after the drawing:

One thing I learned was that Monet was one of the first artists to paint outside instead of in a studio, and he had to deal with the elements. It was a bit windy, so we got to experience some of the trials of painting outside instead of in.

Raingutter Regatta

The Cub Scouts at church challenged the Activity Day Girls to a Raingutter Regatta- basically, where the kids build boats and race them. The girls were super excited, but me? I felt overwhelmed. Just one more thing to do- ugh!

But, thankfully, my dad came to the rescue! He saw the packets of supplies for the kids, and he took it over and helped the kids make their boats. I was SO grateful!!! Even though in the end it only took about 10 minutes to make the boats, it just one ONE MORE THING on the never-ending to do list, so having my dad help them out was huge.

And, the girls did great. Audra really didn't want to race the boys- she was really nervous. But, both Claire and Audra did awesome. They both won most of their races. Unfortunately, though, they did have to race each other. Audra won, which devastated Claire and she no longer wanted to race.

In the end, Audra took second in the second bracket.

Camille made a boat with leftover parts and insisted on getting in on the action:

Overall, it was a really fun night.We really did have a great time (but, it made me SO glad to not have scouts! All the work that goes into Scouts- no,thank you!).

Our Last Hike Day

I can't believe it, but our hike days have come to an end. This summer has gone so incredibly fast! These hikes have been so much fun, and I really do feel like we have gotten out and explored nature. I read an article that said kids need to be outside for 3 hours a day. I'm pretty sure we easily hit that mark most days. They watched very little TV and really just played, played, and played this summer. Which is why, I suppose, this also happened to be the fastest summer of all time.

I Can't Wait Until I'm Eight!

There's a song the kids learn at church that says,

I like my Birthdays every one,
Each brings a special joy to me,
But I can't wait, until I'm 8,
For then I'll be baptized you see!

We have been very excited for Claire to get baptized!

Claire was REALLY scared to have everybody watching her. In fact, she said she didn't want to be baptized because she didn't want people watching her.

I was surprised by this. She did the Fashion Revue. She wanted the main part in the play they did last winter. She does get nervous, but at the same time she seems to like being front and center. We did our best to assuage her fears. She kept asking us who we invited. For Audra, we invited a lot of people and made a big deal out of it. Because Claire seemed afraid, we didn't invite nearly as many people.

But, my parents were here, we  had family, and one of her best friends, Mia, came which was wonderful.

She was baptized with another boy in the ward. Thankfully, his mom did almost everything. I have really felt out of it. I haven't had the energy to do all the things that I should have done, but she totally picked up the slack which was awesome, and I am so grateful!

But, either way, it was a fabulous day! Claire ended up not being nervous at all. She did great.

And Audra gave a beautiful talk on the Holy Ghost (Camille helped her by holding up a visual).

Afterwards, the family came over for chicken salad sandwiches. It was really nice, and not overly stressful (since I didn't hardly do anything).

I had to bribe Camille with cookies to get her into these pictures. Overall, she was really well behaved, but she did NOT want her picture taken!

I know this seems really weird, but I really love religion. I don't care what religion- Catholic, Jewish, Islam, Mormonism, whatever. I think religion is so incredibly important to ground families together and to teach virtues, and to give kids (and adults) a sense of self, belonging, self-worth, peace, and hope. Obviously I love Mormonism and I am ALL IN on Mormonism, and I'm so grateful to pass my testimony on to my children and for them to grow up in faith. I hope my kids know how much their parents love them and love our Savior!

Anyway, it was just a really special and beautiful day. Claire is a special, special girl. When Ben bestowed upon her the Holy Ghost, he said, "I bless you to bring good to the world." I LOVE that! I think I'm going to have it blown up and hung up in our living room. What is better than bringing good to the world? I thought it was perfect.