Rest of September, beginning of Fall Break

 Megan got invited to her friend, Alice's birthday party at Skate Country. She was pretty excited to go since she hasn't been to a birthday party in years because of COVID and they usually seem to be on Sundays. 

Since it was during an open skate time, I took the other kids, too, and they had a fun time. Everyone wants to go back again soon. 

For once Peyton is taller than Kenzie (since she took off her skates). 

The following weekend was pretty full. There was a YM/YW campout and rappelling trip and the kids' piano recital. Rachel and Jacob went on the campout and had some fun. It rained in the night and luckily Rachel's tent kept her dry (unlike a few other tents), but most of her tent-mates had left their shoes outside where they got wet. Rachel's (old, crusty) shoes were the only dry ones, so the girls took turns using them to go to the bathroom that morning. 

They got an early start to rappelling, luckily, so Rachel was able to jump off the cliff once before Jacob brought her down for the recital.

She had fun and would have liked to have gone again.

 It was Ryan and Megan's first piano recital and they did great. All the kids did. We're grateful for Sister Bauer-she's a great piano teacher.

With that done, Fall Break officially started. Todd decided to postpone their trip to Washington, so instead of leaving Monday as originally planned, they waited until Friday. Grandma helped out a lot with watching their kids, which was great for my kids because she's a lot more fun than I am. My plans for fall break were cleaning sheets, going through clothes to get rid of too small clothes and get out the cold weather clothes, and deep cleaning the kids' rooms. We're about halfway through my plan. Grandma had better ideas. Tuesday we went to the Cienega Creek Preserve to go on a hike and play in the water there. Every time we go there the kids comment on how it doesn't even feel like Arizona there.

They had fun playing in the sand and burying the boys.

They even found some frogs that they were able to catch.

Rachel was more than ready to go home, but the others could have stayed and enjoyed the great outdoors for hours. 

The next day Grandma found a Groupon for bowling, so we went for lunch and some fun.

Rachel hardly used the bumpers, but when she switched to the lane without bumpers she couldn't throw it straight. It's all in her head, I guess.

Bowling was definitely a fun outing for everyone.

Friday night Jacob and I had reservations for initiatories. Since the younger kids haven't been to the temple in such a long time we took them with us to hang out on the grounds while we were inside for a short while. 

All three of the younger ones needed to use the bathroom at some point, so they all got to go inside the temple anyway. We had just read the dedicatory prayer for the Tucson Temple as part of our Come Follow Me study during the week. Ryan remembered the part about dedicating the grounds of the temple, so as soon as we got out of the car he bent down and touched the ground and told everyone "This is dedicated ground!" 

We left my phone with the kids while we went inside and came out to a LOT of pictures on my phone. 

I also took a few, though the lighting was bad by that time. 

This weekend was General Conference. We did "Fantasy General Conference" where everyone chose songs they thought would be sung, which session each of the apostles would speak, who besides the apostles would speak, and other such stuff. The kids were pretty good at listening, and trying to see how many they had gotten right. This is the only picture I have of our conference viewing: 

Ryan decided my exercise band would make a great sweatband (as long as he wasn't actually sweating). LOL

We all enjoyed conference and are grateful for a prophet and apostles.

Mt Lemmon and Mesa travels

 Megan made sure to enjoy her time with Pooh while she had him. And it got us a few extra pictures of what life is like many days. In the afternoons after homework and chores are done the kids often play board or card games together. 

The first weekend of September we helped move Marie into a new place across town. She stayed in Todd and Savannah's house this summer while they were in Georgia and Utah, then have been staying with us since then. She had been debating moving to Washington to stay with her parents or to stay in Tucson. We're glad she ended up staying in Tucson. Peyton and Kenzie still come out in the afternoon/evening most days to sleep here while Marie works nights, then Savannah takes them home when she goes to her classes at the U of A. 

We had some leaks pop up this summer in our roof. With it being the second wettest monsoon season on record there were a lot of people needing roof repairs, so we were glad to get someone that could replace our roof. The other estimate we got said he could probably get to it around December.

The roofers worked through the weekend and finished Sunday mid-day, just in time for a big storm that blew in that evening. Phew!

The storm blew in while we were at Grandma's. The weather made everyone feel the need to get cozy, so they got out a bunch of blankets.

The kids decided instead of Sunday scoops, hot chocolate would be more appropriate. It did drop probably 25-30 degrees in a half hour or so from near 100 to 70 degrees.

The following day was Labor Day. Savannah had lots of work to do so the rest of us decided to head up Mt. Lemmon to make sure we stayed out of her hair. We did a short hike to look for a geocache, and found lots of cool, large rocks to climb on along the trail.

Pooh, of course had tot come along. 

After a picnic lunch and hanging out by a stream for a while our girls were ready to head home. Todd and his crew wanted more fun, so Ryan hopped in with them and Grandma and went to search out another geocache while Jacob and I and the girls headed down the mountain. When we were about a half a mile from home we got a phone call telling us they had been in a car accident and everyone was fine, but they needed a ride down the mountain so the kids wouldn't have to wait for the tow truck. So I dropped everyone off and headed right back up the mountain. Apparently the other guy's tire popped, which pulled him into the other lane right into Todd. Thankfully it was at a curve in the road, so they were both going relatively slow, and it was at a part of the mountain road where there was a good shoulder and even a road that gave plenty of safe space for the kids to hang out while waiting for me to come.

We all felt very grateful that the wreck wasn't worse and that no one was injured. The car didn't fare so well. With a broken axle insurance decided it was a total loss, so now Todd has to find a new car. And with the car shortage going on right now the prices for used cars are crazy high. 

The family reunion in July that we didn't make it to turned out to be a COVID spreader event. Unfortunately Jacob's uncle, Robert, caught it and ended up passing away because of it. Friday there was a memorial service for him in Mesa so Jacob and I drove up while the kids were in school. As funerals usually are, this turned out to be a nice mini family reunion and a chance to visit with some of Jacob's cousins and aunts and uncles that we don't see very often (even though we only live 2 hours away). 

Janet, Sharon and Cari were able to fly down, so it was good to see them. We visited at the luncheon afterwards and for a little while at Uncle John and Nanette's house before we headed south to try and beat the traffic.

Ryan and Jacob matched today for church. We had to get a picture of my handsome men.

August

 I guess my diligence with posting has taken a hit. There has been a lot going on. Luckily, there have been no new quarantines or sicknesses after the first batch those first few weeks of school. 

In my new stake YW calling we jumped right in, planning a youth conference as the first big activity since before COVID. Friday night was at the Allens farm with dinner and just playing and hanging out.

The next day there were lots of different classes to choose from. It was also Jared's birthday and I managed to sneak a name tag that said "It's my birthday" onto Jared's back. :) This is Jared helping to build Little Libraries as a service project.

After the classes we had lunch while the missionaries put on a pretty great talent show. There was a big group service project and a youth panel, then they wrapped things up with a bunch of youth, including Rachel and Jared, singing a song they had just learned in one of the class rotations that morning. 

The whole conference was great. As we drove home Jared told me how he had felt the spirit all day, not just when someone said something true in a "boring sermon." Rachel also had good reviews, especially enjoying the quick choir and the meals in minutes class.

Knowing it was Jacob's birthday on the weekend of youth conference, I had a friend put me in contact with her mother-in-law that is starting to sell her gluten free creations. She made this delicious chocolatey creation.

Besides the cake and some Thai food for dinner, Jacob's birthday was pretty low key. We sure are happy to have him around, though. 

Rachel continues to enjoy volleyball. After the first few games the coach decided to re-do tryouts and moved some of the girls around. Rachel ended up being moved up to the B team and has been doing a great job there.

When she played against Rincon Vista she was excited to see one of her good friends from elementary school, Isabella. Super fun to catch up with old friends!

A few days before Jacob's birthday I saw that Dry Bar Comedy had a show coming to Tucson. Jacob and I watch Dry Bar a lot since it's always clean comedy, so I knew he would like it. Todd and Savannah decided to come along, too, so we made it a double date. So a few days after his birthday we headed downtown for the show.

It was very strange being crammed together with all those people we didn't know in such close quarters after all the social distancing we've done the last year and a half. 

The show was great with 4 great comics. My cheeks were tired from laughing so much by the time we headed home.

With a Relief Society activity (the first one in person in a year and a half!), Dry Bar, and a trip to the temple, I knew Megan would not be too happy about being left home without Mom at bedtime for three nights in a row, so I made a deal that we would go on a mommy-daughter date that Saturday. She had a good attitude for Rachel, who was left in charge those nights, so we went out for ice cream at Candy World. 

The following week Megan was super happy to get to take Pooh Bear home from school for the week. She had to write about their adventures in the class journal so other people could read about where Pooh has been (and as a fun writing activity). 

Tuesday, August 31 we were able to go see Annie be inducted in the National Elementary Honor Society. 

Out of about 150 students in 5th grade at DWE, there were just about 20 kids selected to be involved in NEHS based on their scholarship, leadership, and service. 

We're super proud of Annie.

Back to school

I forgot to take first day of school pictures, but after the second day Annie reminded me, so we got first week of school pictures, at least. Rachel is in 8th grade, Annie in 5th, Megan in 2nd and Ryan in 4th. So both Annie and Rachel will be moving up at the end of the year. 

The kids were happy to get back to school. Unfortunately on day 3 Rachel woke up with a fever, so she had to miss the next 3 days of school. The fever lasted 2 days, but she hadn't been fever free for 24 hours yet so she had to miss Friday, too. At least she didn't miss the first day of school, but missing the first week still kind of stinks. 

The following week Annie's class had a covid positive kid, so we decided to keep her home for a few days so anyone who might have caught it would have time to get sick and stay home and we'd miss the contagious period. Since Annie and Eloise are in the same class, they did their school work together at home, then had time every afternoon to do something fun: watching the olympics while working on their pinewood derby cars for an upcoming primary activity, swimming, or a lunch date with Grandma. It's almost enough for them to wish they could quarantine more often. 

That Friday Rachel came home from school with a scratchy throat and by nighttime it was a full blown cold. Saturday she felt miserable so we did a COVID test just to make sure, but it came back negative, thankfully. She slept a lot more than normal, and when we got home from church that Sunday she had just woken up and was feeling totally better. Though she did have a bit of a cough. 

That day we had a Come Follow Me lesson centered around D&C 84:56-57 and not treating lightly the Book of Mormon and making sure we value what we've been given. We made a stop motion video for the lesson. One of Ryan's series "Biscuit Asks a Question" and in this one the question Biscuit asks is, "What is your favorite Book of Mormon story?" Everyone had their stuffed animal come and answer the question on the video. It was pretty good. 

That Monday we had the day off of school. We took the kids on a bike ride and everyone came back super sweaty because it was pretty hot and humid. Everyone felt relieved to get a frozen treat at Grandma's house afterwards.

That night we got an email that Megan's class now had a covid case. We planned to keep her home a couple days just in case, but when I went to school the following morning to pick up her work for a few days I found out that she was actually a close contact so it was no longer a voluntary quarantine, but a required one. She was not at all sad about it. She loves spending time with me, so staying home for a week was super awesome.

The recommended quarantine rules are to quarantine for 7 days after a close contact if you get a negative covid test on or after day 5, or just for 10 days if you don't take a test. Tuesday Rachel went back to school, just making sure to wear a mask since she still had a lingering cough and we thought it would make everyone uncomfortable in covid times to have her coughing all day and unmasked. It probably still made them uncomfortable with her masked, but she was no longer contagious and it wasn't covid so I felt fine sending her to school. Tuesday afternoon, however, Megan started feeling a little warm and yucky. Of course since she was in quarantine that made me worried it really was covid, so I made her stay away from people all afternoon. Annie came home from school saying she thought she caught Rachel's cold. Turns out both Megan and Annie caught Rachel's cold. Luckily it was a one day cold and we just kept Annie home on Wednesday, but she was back at school on Thursday. We did an at home COVID test just to be sure, and because it was day 5 of quarantine, so we could be sure Megan was ok to get back into real life. Thankfully both tests came back negative.

We thought Megan would be able to go back to school Monday since day 8 was Saturday and she had tested negative on day 5, but Friday we got an email from the health department explaining quarantine rules for the class and only giving the 10 day quarantine option. I guess because they couldn't require proof of a test? Anyway, Megan stayed home for one more day, making it so out of the first 15 days of school all 4 kids had only been at school for 4 of those days. The biggest streak we had of everyone going to school was 2 days. We were very happy this last week to set a new record of 4 days in a row of all the kids going to school. This coming week we're hoping for a full week with everyone at school.

For FHE last week Ryan finally got his wish. He had been trying to convince people to play the tap game with him for days, and since it just happened to be his turn for FHE, he was super happy to be able to demand everyone play with him. 

Rachel had her first volleyball games last week. She made the C team and is really enjoying playing volleyball for the first time. They won their first set of games, with Rachel serving the winning point on the first of the two games in the set and getting in some other good points and hits. Friday they lost their games, but she still had fun, and they had some good volleys with Rachel making some great saves.

So far this monsoon season is the 4th wettest on record. With more rain Friday night Jacob was eager to go off roading at Reddington Pass and wanted me to go with him. The steep hills right on the sides of the washed out roads are not my favorite places to drive, so we didn't last very long, but it was beautiful and the desert is so green from all the rain the last month or so. 

Ryan and Annie are both very excited to be participating in band this year. Annie chose to play the clarinet, and after Ryan checked out lots of different instruments, he decided to follow in Savannah's footsteps (and use her instrument) and play the french horn. It needed a tune up, so he anxiously waited for Max (the french horn) to return from its tune up. He has been very excited to practice with it and will love playing such a loud instrument, I'm sure.

This week our afternoon schedule starts getting even more full with Megan switching to a new intermediate gymnastics class, and band starting up, besides all the volleyball, piano, and church activities we already have. After a year of absolutely no activities because of covid, this is taking some getting used to.