Florida Boys in Seattle!

 We got to finish the school year and start the summer with Devin and David here from Orlando.  It was so fun to have them.  It's so much work parenting younger kids!  Haha.  I forgot. But it got me out doing some fun things during that first week of summer.

The PNW beaches are NOT Florida beaches.  And Aunt Trish forgot towels every time we got wet. Fired.  Davey was shivering like crazy! 

Then we went to Lake Ballinger to paddle board.  Also too chilly outside.  Since it was sunny I thought it would be warm enough, but it wasn't!  Luckily there was a fun playground at the lake, so they loved that. 

Devin was teaching Davey to pump.  It was so cute.  He is almost there! 

Superman on the swings!  

Story/scripture time

We made chocolate chip cookies for our road trip

Loved cooking with them. 

Libby and Sarah took the boys to the zoo.  They had a blast.  

Libby's friend went with

Watch out! 

Then we drove to La Grande and met my parents to do the hand off to take them to Utah for the next few weeks.  It was a quick camping trip--but my parents enjoy the chance to use their trailer.  

I helped Papa put together the new grill he bought. 

Sarah whooped everyone in chess. 

Poor Davey had a cold.  So much coughing in the car.  Then lots of snot the next day.  

Devin was a good helper in getting the trailer all set up

Glad we'll get to see them again when we take Sarah to her writers workshop in Utah--and again at Tahoe!  It's going to be a fun summer. 

It's Summer! School Year Goals in Review

 Every year (summer and school year) we set 6 goals.  We hang them on the kitchen wall, so we can review them anytime.  (And frankly, change them at any time, haha.)  This year we were pretty successful.  We did finally make fresh pasta on the last Sunday before school got out so Sarah could finish her last goal.  Also, she changed one of her goals at the last minute--but didn't need to! (See below) 

She wanted to read around 10 books.  She got in 9 and then drew in the girl with the white flag.  But we did read Fablehaven on our drive this week--and she's well into The God of the Woods which we started on the way home.  So I call it good.  She did Duolingo every day, and then stopped as soon as summer started. Right in the middle of a friends quest with me!  We did the pasta from scratch.  She thought she wasn't going to get a 4.0, so changed to a 3.9--but then she got a bump up from her Pre-calc teacher (she thought she missed the A by .5%) and kept her perfect 4.0.  Wahoo! She did place at 2 wrestling tournaments!  I think she hit the 30K words in her writing.  Super proud of Sarah's great school year efforts. She's super excited for her AP score to come in.  She feels really good about it. 

Libby had a great school year, but also a hard one.  She had a hard time recovering from  her breakup with Andrew.  It made her first semester (esp. her running start classes--one of which was with him) a mess.  But we helped her through it.  Then 2nd semester, after wrestling, got rocky too, with some friend drama and intro of some friends who weren't good for her.  Ugh.  So successful goals were to place in Top 3 at state--EXCEEDED!  She sold pottery.  (Her stuff is SO AMAZING).  She hung out with some new friends--some good and some bad.  She didn't raise the GPA to 3.3...still hovered just above a 3.0.  She didn't start taking her own meds.   But it's on the summer 6--and so far so good.  It's all up from here! 

Ben did get all As/Bs.  (Science and math were more B classes.)  He won more than 4 matches--District Champ!  He got some playing time in football--but is really loving SW Spring Football.  He's at football camp right now!  I think he crossed out read 4 books--but I think he did that?  Scythe series, reread Fablehaven series, etc.  He did hang out with friends a few times.  (Why are kids so busy that they don't have time to hang out?  And yet--I'm happy when they are busy.)  If you count Fortnite hangouts, where they play and yell at each other through headphones, there were a lot of those. Super proud of Ben this year.  He got so many ROAR shoutouts! (A shoutout from a teacher where I get a Parent Square message.) 

Dad's C Team did a have a winning record.  He had 3 state placers.  So close to having more.  He didn't leave the country.  State at the end of Mid-winter takes away that opportunity.  He read 10 books.  He read the D&C.  And he did something at 225?  I think that's weigh?  Not sure. 

I love the stop work by 5 goal.  Haha.  I had so much going on this year I rarely had the chance to stay until 5 if I wanted to.  It was a busy year!  I didn't really do a shutdown routine, but sort of.  I used the digital to do list and a notes at school to try to stay on top of it.  I also had a routine where I did certain things on certain days at school.  That helped too. I did rock wrestling communication.  I wasn't always correct.  But I got the info out.  Haha. We did the AP study group all year.  It was so fun.  I'll miss it this year--but maybe we do it for US history as well? I did not do evening workouts on seminary days.  Not enough time/energy.  I did yoga on many Fridays.  Sometimes I forgot to do a shorter walk, so I didn't get to. 

I'm happy for summer and a chance to get some things done! New goals are written and up on the wall.  Let's go! 

Sarah's Final SCC Concert 2025

Sarah had a solo in "Fields of Gold."  It was a beautiful concert!  

 

Grad Party!

 Okay, so I had way too much fun and put way too much effort into the grad party. 

It was my first kid to graduate.  So I went all out!  Haha.  I wanted it to be fun and memorable. Clark and I looked through her photobooks and found her favorite foods from over the years.  We did some practice runs and decided to make brown butter and mizithra cheese pasta, cheeseburger sliders, pizza bites, and pbnjs.  I also had kid cliff bars, Nutella & go (sadly they didn't have any Nutella be-ready bars at Costco).  We also had ice cream cups.  And because I thought it would be fun for Sarah and her friends, as well as fun for the participants, we had a mocktail bar.  We ran out of grenadine, so that sort of shut down the bar early.  Live and learn!  

But it seemed like everyone had a good time.  They loved seeing the pictures of little Libby, and even asked to see the photobooks.  So I brought them down for people to look at.

I took zero pictures during the party.  But just know people had fun.  Haha.  Thankfully my friend Cindy took some pics of the decor before it all started. (She was also a rockstar in the kitchen.  She and Clark kept the food coming!)

Also fun news, the boy in the back that isn't Carter is Sarah's new boyfriend.  They made it official earlier that day at her concert! 

Libby is a Graduate!

There were some amazing highs and some pretty low moments this year, but we did it.  We made it to graduation.  She walked, she got her diploma.  She's heading to Indian Hills in the fall.  She's already gotten 2 scholarships, an art scholarship ($1500) and a scholarship from the SPOG ($2000).  Amazing.  She's going to do great things.  

Some of the biggest cheerleaders! 

I got to hand her her diploma.  It was so awesome.  Although I was FREEZING.  It was a super hot day, but once we were in the shade (I thought they were giving us robes to wear, so I didn't even bring a jacket!)

Lots of pictures of the cap because it was a very expensive cap!  She spent a serious amount, then realized it didn't look good, and had to redo it--but that required buying another cap.  Ugh.  And, it doesn't say HI.  It says IH for Indian Hills.  It was pretty spectacular (lots of gems!)  She also rigged it up on a headband, which was good because it was breezy!

After several months of not talking, the dymanic duo (Chip and Dale) are back to being friends.  I couldn't be happier about this.  

 

The support team. We couldn't have done it without them!  And look how beautiful the sky was!  Our Stormray is ready to become a Warrior!