Classroom Prep

 Since Girls Camp, I've been cleaning, gardening and getting my classroom ready.  Since I was at WIFYR when my year ended, and I was interviewing for and hoping to get a new job, I let my classroom languish in semi-disarray.

So once I knew I was staying at MP (kinda sad, but also super relieved) I did a massive clean out.  Sarah and Ben helped a couple of times.  I also had an awesome parent from last year come and help out.  It is shaping up so nicely that I didn't even have to go in yesterday.  (I worked on wrestling instead, ha.) 

 My theme this year is related to our dreams giving us wings and helping us fly.

I'm pretty excited about it.  We are going to make catapults instead of cars.  We are doing our first activity with paper airplanes.  Should be fun.

Each year I learn some things as I put together my door quotes.  Mostly I learn that I should slow down and be more careful with my letter placements.  But I think this year turned out pretty good. 

Almost ready for school to start on Sept. 1.  Glad I have another paid workday tomorrow to get things ready. 

Youth Camps 2026

 Planning YW Camp again this year was super fun.  The girls basically said they wanted to do again what we did last year.  So that was nice!  Going to the same place at the same time meant we knew what we were getting into in such a great way (although we didn't plan on smoke.) 

Sarah had two other girls join her as Youth Camp Leaders this year, and they had great energy as a team.  We had several girls bring friends this year, so our numbers went from 16 to 25.  We had such a fun group.

Sarah designed the logo for the shirts.  Loved them! 

Front of the shirt

We added a hike to Franklin Falls on the way up.  It was amazing! When I did the hike to test it, it was cold and rainy, so no one was playing in the water.  On a lovely sunny day, the girls loved playing in teh water. 

Some fun decor (still waters, green pastures and sheep in our balloon towers.) 

Feed my sheep

Sheep lights

I only took my camera out a couple of times.  One was for the slip n slide

and Rope swing! 

I'll also add the camp schedule as a record.  We did have to deviate due to smoke.  We drove down back toward Seattle to get out of the smoke for our lake day. On Friday we did indoor competitions since it was too smoky for pickleball.  Then it cleared up for a fun evening.  I've said I'm taking a break from camp.  I've been for six of the last seven years, 4 of those as director or assistant director.  Time for someone else to have some fun. Next year I'll have one or two daughters to get off to college! 

I also got some pics of Ben having a great time at surf camp.  His most memorable moment was when they tried to walk to town in the middle of  the night, lost a flip flop in an encounter with a mean dog, and ended up being rescued by the police to get back to camp.  Oh boy.

IKEA! Ben's Happy PlaceI

I have been having so much fun with Ben lately.  He's started drivers ed, and it's M-TH in person.  So he drives us there and I sit in a nearby Starbucks and write.  It's been a beautiful way to catch up on all the writing I've not done all summer, and spend time with Benny.  

We also went to IKEA!  He really wanted some new shelves.  And I love a good IKEA trip--turns out as much as he does.  We got a new shelf for my office (I now have my own printer hard wired to my computer because wifi and printers don't mix sometimes).  Ben got new shelves for his lego collection, and we got a new coffee table for the family room.  It was a bear to put together.  But we had fun. Then Ben decorated it with all the silver things.  So hilarious.  It still has the silver tray on it because who has time to decorate any more?  It really just points out how much we need a new rug, new couch, and new chairs in that room. Ugh.  Oh well.  Next summer probably?

Ben is driving really well!  I even let him drive home from Ikea (once we got pretty close to home I we got off the freeway and I had him drive the rest of the way, ha.) 

I did not leave the grater and the compost bin, but nice idea Ben. 

The table opens up so you can use it as a computer table or whatever. 

 

Ben Summer Update

For some reason I didn't do a Ben summer update when I wrote the girls'.  

Ben just got back from YM camp.  He had a great time.  He's also been doing lots of fishing and swimming at Logboom Park with Jack.  He's been chatting with a girl from FSY (she lives an hour or so away.) 

He had back to back to back camps this summer--he was busy, but very happy. (FSY, Reunion, Youth Conference, Wrestling Camp)

Tomorrow he starts football and driver's ed.

He helped clean out the pod at Grammy's house.  

Fish! 

The bouncy house party at Aunt Maren's

Spiderman! 

Young Men's camp

Lake Easton Camping Trip 2026

 I was heartbroken when I realized that the Lake Easton camping trip overlapped with the drive to drop off Libby.  But we headed up early on Thursday so I some lake time on Thursday and a bit on Friday before I had to come home and finish packing Libby up (hard to pack in a sling.) 

The weather was just about perfect.  I see from the photos that everyone continued to have a great time after I left.

Ben got his permit while we were there.  Sadly I didn't download it and now we need to go in and get a printout (or we'll get a photo version.) 

Had a great time chatting with Harlow.  Harlow and I became the giardia twins after both engaging in high risk behavior.  They ate a chip that fell in the water.  My cup tipped over and my straw got in the water.  Oops.  (Luckily we both came out okay--at least I did.) 

These boys are all so old! I just saw in my FB from when we first did this campout 6 years ago.  They are so big now. 

My meals worked out great.  Hot dogs, beans, veggies, and chips the first night with elephant ears for dessert.  Boiled omelets & hash browns for breakfast.  The nice thing was super easy cleanup.  Which was important so I could make my exit to drive Libby.  

It is for sure the weekend of summer I usually relax.  Will I be okay without it?  I hope so...

Iowa or Bust Round 2

 This year getting Libby off to school had several more challenges than last year.  

The first was that after showing that she didn't make good decisions about driving, we wouldn't be taking her car.

2nd, she had surgery so she couldn't drive.

3rd, her move in was the day before girls camp.  Oh boy.

So, I found a plane ticket that could get me out in the evening on Aug 10, so I could move her in and get back for camp.  I rented a van.  Then I realized that me doing 26 hours of driving over 2 days was not going to work. Thankfully when I realized the issue, Derek hadn't filled his weekend with OT yet, AND the plane ticket for him to come home with me was reasonable.  

So it became a 3 person roadtrip to Iowa.

We stayed in Centerville Utah on the first night.  Sadly my parents were still in Africa. 

We stayed in Omaha at my cousin Stephanie's house the next night (total blast to crash the cousin sleepover.)

Then we did what maybe was the fastest move-in + Target trip ever.  She was all set, including meeting her coach by 3:15 pm so we could hit the airport.  

The flights home went smoothly enough (the final leg through SLC was 20 min delayed, but that wasn't too bad considering).

Sarah picked us up so I could finish the girls camp packing and be ready to head out at 8:00 am.

Not ideal, but so thankful that it went well.  

Libby's new dorm set up is really awesome.  She has 3 freshman teammates as roommates.  Hopefully they don't mind a mess.  Or maybe she'll turn over a new leaf? 

She starts school tomorrow.  Yay for a new year.  It's a much bigger school than last year (would be hard not to be bigger.)   So lots of new things to navigate.  Excited for her (a little jealous honestly.  I loved college.) 

3 full Target carts since she needed some stuff for a bathroom this year too. 

Fun with new 2nd cousins. 

My favorite sign on the road trip. 

Derek and I read two Harlan Coben books.  (Actually we have like 2 hours left of one book...we need to hang out this week and listen!)