Rachel senior and 18

 Rachel has had a full and fun fall so far. As a senior, she only had 2 classes she still needed to take, so she's taking AP Literature, AP Government, and 3 band classes: marching band, symphonic band, and jazz band. Tough year. 

She's part of a trumpet quartet that has been able to play at a few different events so far. 3 of the 4 members of the quartet had a solo in the marching show this year (2 solos for Rachel), and the other was a drum major. One of the judges at a marching competition, upon hearing the 3rd soloist, said in the judge's tape, "How many good trumpets do you have?!" 

The quartet was invited to play at a 9/11 memorial at a nearby elementary school. Rachel also played Taps at her school on 9/11 during a short memorial/moment of silence that morning.

Rachel was recognized as a National Merit Commended Student! Unfortunately no National Merit Scholarship, but still cool.

There were some special things to celebrate the marching band seniors as the season wound down, including senior banners. 

The Freshie Four. Olivia, Rachel, Bella, and Paxton were freshman trumpets together. Bella moved on to baritone, then drumline, but they're still buds.

All the marching band seniors with Mr. Bailey. 

For senior night we walked with Rachel.

I made Rachel faces because we all want to be like Rachel when we grow up.

The trumpet quartet was asked to play at the heroes assembly honoring military and first responders for Veteran's Day. I had a delivery at the school that morning, so snuck in to listen to them for a while. 

Rachel is now an adult! We made her a strawberry cake, decorated by Annie, and she got wisdom for her birthday: An Adulting Handbook and 18 things she can do now that she's 18. 

We got gifts that coordinated (sometimes VERY loosely) with the 18 things she can do now that she's 18: vote, get married without parental consent, invest, drive an Uber, get a passport, go to jail, get a credit card, buy spray paint, be in charge of your own healthcare, enlist in the military, change your name, get a piercing, skydive, walk to Grandma's house, serve on a jury, move out, submit mission papers. 

The day after her birthday the church announced that women can serve a mission starting after they graduate and are 18, so Rachel got to decide if she wanted to stick to her plan to do a semester of college before a mission, or if she wanted to go directly after high school. As of now she's planning to do a semester first, then a mission.

Here are a few things that were included in her adulting handbook: 

Being an adult is like folding a fitted sheet. No one really knows how.

It’s more important to be loving than it is to be right.

Always pay off your credit card bill in full.

When you’re having an awful day, take time to think of and write down 5 positive things, no matter how seemingly small, that have happened or you’ve seen that day.

Don’t take counsel from your fears.

Always make sure you put the shower curtain inside the tub before turning on the water.

Don't put it down - put it away.

Don’t sweat petty things, and don’t pet sweaty things.

Find balance. Being responsible is important, but so is sleep, time with friends, and downtime. Schedule fun and stick to it.

Old age comes faster than you expect, it is better to start wearing adult diapers too early than too late.

Marching band

 The 2025 marching band show was When the Dust Settles, based around the Dust Bowl. Annie and Rachel enjoyed doing band together this year, and I enjoyed hanging with them as a band mom, too. Annie on the front sideline during one part of the show: 

They went to an evaluation show where they got to perform in their comfy clothes, not in uniform, to get feedback to prepare for the season without recieving a score. Annie is in front of the fence on the left.

Rachel did a great job with her solos this year. It was so fun to hear her play every week, and she killed it!

The fun part for me was hanging with the band kids before and after the performances. They're such a good group of kids. 

The trio turning their musical skills to singing:

At Flowing Wells they got a great score, a big jump from the previous week, and were so hyped about it. 

This was the first year to have regional championships and Cienega won the southern region this year!

For senior night we made super cute mini shakos along with some flowers and a candy lei.

The seniors will be very missed.

For the last Monday night practice of the season Mr Bailey has all the band line up in one end zone and march across the field, leaving freshmen at the 25, sophomores at the 50, juniors at the other 25, and seniors reaching the other end zone, representing how far they've come in their high school marching career. It was an emotional night for the seniors, and many of the other kids. The seniors got their band "dot" that had been signed by all the students in the band. It was a fun night to watch.

Senior trumpets with Nate, the high brass tech:

Their last competition of the season was at Campo Verde in Gilbert, and they did such a good job. Some of us band parents have talked through the season about how fun it is to watch Mr Bailey after they have a good run. I snagged a video to try and capture it, and finally got his reaction. He is such a great director and really puts his whole heart into these kids, and it shows.

 After the performance they got a group picture, then all the bands lined up on the field for awards.

They came out with 83.775 points, taking 2nd place in the state! With first place getting 91+ points, and 3rd place getting 83.700, and the others following closer behind, it felt like first place, since Campo Verde was so far above them that they weren't really competing with them. It was a fun and VERY BUSY season. Lots of friendships were forged, and now we're enjoying having the girls home on Mondays, Fridays and Saturday nights, after not having them home those nights since August.

Living Life

Rachel won a gift certificate to MetroGnome Music and was excited to get a new 3C mouthpiece for her trumpet, so on a half day we headed over before continuing on to a shoe store since each of the girls needed new shoes. Megan was pleasantly surprised to find out there was an accordion at the music store and the store workers let her try it out. She's been dreaming of having an accordion ever since she saw Brother Ollerton play one at a church activity. Unfortunately, I was not willing to pay $500, or even the $400 price they were willing to give us as a deal. So she's still dreaming of an accordion. Rachel is also eager for Megan to have an accordion so she can borrow it and learn how to play, too.

Annie participated in the drama lock in while Jacob and I were in Mesa. Since there was marching band practice the following morning, she didn't stay all night, but even leaving at midnight left her pretty darn tired by the time she was back from marching band practice.

The girls had their first marching show of the season, Rachel has a solo this year, so it's easy to find her on the field. I'll have to work on finding Annie since she's harder to see.

Always fun in the stands :)

Despite not being in any gymnastics classes right now, Megan still enjoys practicing tumbling and gymnastics tricks. Annie decided to jump in to "help" her out.

For Labor Day we had a lovely day of fun and relaxation. Grandma came with me and Annie and Megan to go shopping at the mall. We didn't find all that much, but had a good time and the girls came back with more smelly bottles (body mist) than they'll use in a year. 

Later that afternoon we invited the Merritts over for a BBQ. The kids had so much fun playing. We had a little extra excitement when we found a tiny snake under one of our bricks that was holding down the trampoline. Turns out it was an adult snake, though we were assuming based on size that it was small. With its diamond shaped head we were cautious, assuming venom. Turns out it was a night snake, which is mildly venomous, but not a big danger to humans. Jacob took him to be released in the desert away from our house, accompanied by a couple Merritt kids. 

Friday night was middle school band night. Ryan, however, preferred to go to the ward campout, so he and Jacob went together, leaving Megan to hang with Grandma for the night, and the rest of us to be there for middle school band night. 

All went nice and smooth after the lightning delay was done and we could actually get back to the stadium. Unfortunately that made everything be later than planned, so I rushed to leave a little early so I could relieve grandma from her babysitting duties. Also, I learned how to find Annie! She's on the 4th fence to start the show. 

Look at us, all matchy matchy for church today. Jacob decided we should take a "prom date" picture. :)

 

August happenings

 The Elder's Quorum hosted an activity with the giant hamster balls. Megan came to help inflate them because she knew the Merritt kids would be there. They all had fun trying the balls out. 

Megan upside down:

Ryan was jealous, so after I took Megan home we checked if there were many adults, and there weren't so I brought Ryan back to the church and he joined in the fun there. He figured out it takes about 7 rolls to get from one side of the gym to the other. He also managed to build a snowman... or he was inside the ball while others built a snowman on top of him.

Sister Bauer encouraged Ryan to prepare to do prelude music at church, and while he didn't think he was quite ready, after practicing for a while, he was ready to go and did a great job on the prelude music. 

Cross country season has started and is HOT. Ryan is leading his school, as the fastest runner in both the races so far. In the first race he came in 4th, and in the next race he came in 5th, but cut 30 seconds off his time, so he's making great progress towards his goal of a 6 minute mile. 

The Copper/Navy game was the first game (scrimmage) of the year. Rachel pulled out her senior pants for their debut at the pep assembly that morning.

I happened to get to attend the first part of the assembly, since I was there to award some ACT scholarships as part of my role as PTO president, so I got to see the band playing as the kids came in, and get the assembly kicked off in style. It was fun to see them.

The game that evening was delayed by lightning, but after starting a half hour late, it was fun for everyone.

Megan has been begging to go to a trampoline park all summer, and when that didn't happen, we had plans to go another day, but she hurt her ankle just before that, so we had to postpone. We finally made it to the trampoline park with Ryan and Megan, and they had so much fun.

They both got better at some flips, even on the least bouncy floor they have, and they had fun with that.

Rachel and Eden made paper dolls of themselves this summer and made their clothes, as well. Maybe Rachel used her paper doll to decide on this outfit that she wore to her job interview with the library. She finally heard back from them last week and she got the job! She starts in September. 

She applied for this job back in June, was invited to come test for it in July, the day before school started, then got a notification that her interview had to be postponed (though she hadn't heard anything about an interview). A few days later she got an email saying we're sorry, but you won't be moving forward in the job selection process, if you think you've received this in error, please reach out. She was bummed, but couldn't stop thinking about it for a few days, and finally decided maybe that was a prompting so she emailed and asked if that was an error, and it was! So she was invited to interview, and ended up getting hired, and will get to work at the library half way between our house and her school. Really a pretty ideal situation.

For Jacob's birthday, we left the kids at home and headed up to Mesa for an overnight getaway. With Rachel being nearly 18, and my parents just down the road, we figured they'd be fine, and they were. We hit PF Changs and the Mesa Temple since the Tucson Temple is closed for 2 weeks for cleaning right now. It was a nice night away.

It happened to be a busy weekend, and Annie had a thespian lock in that was supposed to be all night, but since she had marching band practice Saturday morning, she just stayed until midnight when grandpa picked her up. Band practice the next morning, and Grandma taking Ryan and Megan to a service project at the church putting together the new hymns in binders, meant that Jacob and I returned to an empty (but clean!) house, though the kids soon returned, as well. 

Saturday night was a regional music festival and dance. There was a carnival theme, including carnival games, and it turned out pretty awesome. There were 668 kids that came. It was huge! 

It was a great night, and if there was outdoor air conditioning it would have been perfect.