August was a busy month! In the midst of all the youth camps, we were also working, running,
soccer-ing, building, trip planning (and cancelling) and moving!
I got a plan in my head to add a built in storage bench to the preschool to house all the extra toys, and did the little bit of demo right at the beginning of summer. I was sure that this was a project I could tackle on my own, since Dustin is more than a little busy right now with work/church duties. But, as often happens, it was a bigger project than I anticipated, so I sat and stared at it for two months, wondering what I was going to do. In a stroke of inspiration, I remembered my builder dad (he built a house, for crying out loud!) and convinced him to come help me, assuring him it would be an easy day project. Well, he's amazing, and he did come save me, and it did only take a day, albeit a very very long day (and a little of the next morning before he had to leave), and after Dustin and I finally got the hinges on and I got it painted, I am so happy to have my storage bench in the preschool!
We did a tour of the Layton Temple site with our youth group. So fun to have a new temple so close!
We got ready for school to start! (With lots of Costco convenience food. It's all about survival, people.)
The kids all have had summer jobs, and on this day, we said goodbye to Avery's Mrs. Cavanaugh's Chocolates job. We were especially sad to lose her amazing discount for all that delicious chocolate and ice cream.
Avery climbing the tree, one last time.
Enjoying old homemade Christmas gifts as Avery packed up her room (a homemade puzzle from Maren from year's ago).
Lots of pretty sunflowers in our yard.
Grant and I went to breakfast while the kids were all gone to the first day of Youth Conference.
A fun car show (Maren currently loves vintage 50's stuff).
Maren is running with the cross country team this year and is doing well. She's enduring the long distance running so that she can enjoy the team aspect.
We had a very smokey August, which was no fun, but it did make for some pretty sunsets.
Ryan is in 9th grade and Grant is in 7th, both at the Junior High. It is our first year without an elementary school student!
Later that same day, we packed up the van for Avery to move to BYU. She had been going down off and on throughout the month of August to train for her job she has on campus. She ended up having to work all day that day, so we took the van down and met her that evening. It ended up being kind of a fiasco because there was a 2 hour delay on the freeway for an accident. We attempted to bypass it on side roads and it took us 2 hours to get to her (wouldn't you know it). She hadn't eaten all day, which was creating a little hanger, so we speed ate a dinner, ran to the store for some supplies, and then hurried back to her dorm to move her in. It was close to 9 before we actually got her stuff up to her apartment, and her roommate was waiting to go to bed because she had to work early the next morning at 6:00. With the stress and worry of that, plus all the nerves associated with moving out, plus a long day of working, Avery was a little on edge and anxious, so we took just long enough to make her bed so she could sleep that night, and then we said a tearful goodbye. Not quite how I imagined moving her in would be.
So, the next day, I went down by myself and helped her actually get settled, and that was a little more fun and more along the lines of what we both had envisioned it would be like to move your daughter to college!
And now, she's down at BYU, living the college dream, working hard and having tons of fun! So excited for her! And we miss her, but we've actually had tons of chances to see her since she moved out (wisdom teeth appointment, BYU volleyball game, my nephew Ammon's wedding, and she came home for a weekend).
We found some rogue vegetables in our garden that got a little out of control in size. On a side note, it has been a lovely year for my pumpkins! I currently have 26 cute little guys growing strong! We'll see how many make it now that our secondary water is shut off, but it is sure fun to go count them every day.
Our friends, John and Debbie, took us to a BYU volleyball game and we had floor seats! We felt like celebrities as the team and the BYU athletic director all gave us five as they ran off the court. And we saw Avery on the jumbo tron, so she was famous, too.
Dustin's dad came in town for the weekend to put some money on a property in Logan. We'll be excited to have him closer next year!
You'll notice Dustin is wearing his mask with his dad. We all had to (the boy's took theirs off for a minute, apparently) because we found out on the second day of school that someone in our carpool had Covid and we were exposed. This was especially disappointing because Dustin and I were supposed to leave 4 days later for Iceland to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We had to cancel our trip because even though we are vaccinated, and we tested negative for the virus, we couldn't get on the airplane having been exposed in the last 14 days. It was a bummer. However, we both felt calm about it, and after our crazy busy summer, we were less excited than we should have been to take another vacation. We were able to cancel everything and we now have vouchers for a trip to Iceland sometime soon!
