First Day of 4th and 7th!

 And, now we have Claire and Camille officially starting their new school year:

There is a massive debate raging as our health department last night voted for masks for students aged 2-11. On Monday those kids and their providers are supposed to start wearing masks- and the pitch forks have come out. It's actually really obnoxious and terrible. And dangerous as many threats have been made. It's terrible.

So, I'm trying to just focus on how wonderful these kids of ours are and how we plan to have a wonderful school year this year!!!!

Sunflowers and Sweetheart

 Camille came with Ben and me on our daily walk, and we noticed all of the sunflowers. Camille was so sweet in the sunflower meadow!

Sister Love

 We have missed having Audra with us all day everyday! Yesterday we went tubing at Clear Creek in Golden, and we had a blast, but it would have been even better if Audra was there.

On Monday and Wednesdays, she is gone from 6 AM to 7 PM. Sometimes it feels like we never get to see her.

But, it still has some perks. When Audra FINALLY comes home each night, Camille and Claire are SO EXCITED to see her, and they tell her literally every little thing that happened during the day. I don't know if most siblings are like this- I certainly wasn't. We were all off living in our own different worlds and we didn't talk to each other nearly enough.

So it is sweet to still watch them being so close and still being best friends. This is Claire and Audra tonight at Culture on the Green. I had to go pick Audra up from marching band and then bring her back to the park- and then Claire couldn't stop talking- I don't think I have ever heard Claire talk so much! It was pretty funny!

Georgetown Half

 At the beginning of summer some friends asked if I wanted to run a half marathon. I said no. They asked again. I said no even louder. They asked a third time, at which point I wondered if they knew English and I began to feel sorry for them, so I said yes.

When I told Ben the exciting news, he said, "WHY ARE YOU WAKING ME UP AT 3 AM?" When I retold him at a more appropriate time, he said, "if you break your leg while training, I'm not rescuing you," which in German means, "I support you in this incredible goal 100%," at which point I swooned in marital bliss.

Today was the race. The 4 of us were never altogether due to staggered start times, but we supported and cheered each other not just today but throughout the summer with our training.

I did this race back when Ben and I were dating. At that race he came at the end to cheer me on and drive me home. I asked if he would do it for this race and he had no problem saying no.

I don't have an official time because my chip didn't work, but based on doing some sleuthing, I think it was about 2:46:00 or thereabouts, which I am pretty proud of. I did the first maybe 6 miles with a 12:00 time, then did a couple of more at 13:20, then around mile 10 I really started to struggle, but I still made it!

Georgetown puts on a great race. I don't know if I would call it "fun" but I am pretty proud of myself. At the beginning of summer I couldn't run 3 miles, but I did 13.1! It's a pretty cool accomplishment. I mean, I got a medal, so I'm pretty much an Olympic athlete now.

Go Grizzlies!

There's lots of emotions over here as Audra starts full time school at the local high school. The past 7 years with her have been nothing short of wonderful. I am so incredibly grateful for the time we have had with her. It's hard to give that up- especially because I know we pretty much won't see her during these high school years.

I will never, ever regret these years with her. I am certain these homeschooling years will be the best memories of my life- and hopefully they will be for my girls as well.

But, nevertheless, the time has come for Audra to leave the nest.

She attended band camp in July. She was very nervous, but now she loves marching band.

And today was her first full day. It was only freshman orientation. She rated it "ok." The school is so big that she doesn't know anybody in any of her classes. I guess she will have lots of opportunities to make friends!

I know she will thrive, but I also know the first couple of weeks will be rough as she gets used to having to ask to go to the bathroom, how to live by a bell schedule, homework, grades, etc. I hope she will retain her love of learning and make good friends. She is a pretty special young lady- she will rock this!

Fair

 I'm super proud of my girls- once again they rocked fair.

Five of their six projects made it to state fair, and Camille and Audra both won Grand Champion for their age group and sewing projects. They worked very hard all year, all throughout Covid which made everything more difficult. 

This quilt took Audra over a year to make. It is super complicated, but she worked hard and it turned out simply beautiful. What a wonderful heirloom for her!

New Deck

 It took 7 months and way more stress than we thought, but we now have the deck of our dreams. I can't tell you how much I love this deck- how much we all love this deck! Camille will go out frequently and take naps. We all go and read out there almost daily.

Ben and I designed every piece of this deck, and we are so happy with how it turned out- I just want to show it off to everybody!

Here is our deck before:

And after:

I would say they spiral staircase if my favorite, but honestly, how could I choose? We definitely LOVE the spiral staircase- we decided to go with it because our backyard is so small that having this smaller footprint from the spiral was necessary.

But then, I LOVE this fan, and the cover, and the white ceiling with a cape cod feel, and the super comfy furniture, and the gas fire pit table, and the cute rug to really create this super cozy room, and just absolutely everything. I LOVE it all so, so, so much!!! It is now pretty much all of our favorite place in/out of the whole house!