Wrapping up Summer, Ramping up Fall

Random post!  These ones are my very favorite.  Here's everything that got filed under "Miscellaneous" for the end of August/beginning of September.  As per usual, no particular order--just however they appear.

Starting school IS a good day, especially when you missed half of the prior year.  It's seventh grade for Miss Annika at Hillside Middle School.  This year she has math with Ms. Caldwell, Science with Ms. Robert, Band with Mr. Watson, Digital Literacy with Ms. Benzion, Art with Ms. Proctor, Language Arts with Ms. Leavitt, and P.E. with Mr. Vonlintel.  Of course, when I think of her seventh grade year, I will mostly remember wolves.

Our Hillside Husky.  Seems only appropriate that Zion should tag along for school drop-off.

As for Eli, he's so grown that I didn't even get a first-day of 10th grade picture!  But when I think of his sophomore year, I will think of cross-country and robotics.  Here he is rocking it at one of his meets.

This year Eli is taking AP physics with Ms. Bulson, Pre-calculus with Mr. Vawdrey, Language arts with Ms. Algarin, Advanced jewelry making with Ms. Delfin, Welding with Ms. Hevner, Chemistry with Ms. Hunt, Concurrent enrollment Spanish with Ms. Rodriguez-Malo, and AP US history with Ms. King.  

This boy has GRIT.  We love you Eli!

As for our Talia, she's back to being a freshman, as I talked about in my last post.  But here's a photo of the amazing sign that Salt Lake County gave her as thanks for all of her work with the Salt Lake County Youth Government.

And Brooklyn?  Well, this is the only photo of her in this batch.  Her missionary plaque used to be part of a full row of those currently-serving, but now she is the only one left.  Almost time to come home, cutie pie.

 

Fun pictures of feeding the giraffes at the zoo.

The Hogle Zoo's giraffe herd is quite lovely.

More zoo pics.  The tortoise has an IV.  Annika relates.

Sea lion training.  As a child, Callie had an impressive seal "arf!"

Larry Montgomery from our ward knows that Annika loves animals, so he keeps carving her these precious figurines!  What a special gift.

Perhaps the most significant thing to happen this August was NomiAnn and Papa Kay's move to Salt Lake City.  While there are certainly parts of their Omaha home that they miss dearly, NomiAnn's new sewing space is fantastic!

Of course, her fabric bins stretch into a spare bedroom.  I feel like these beautifully organized walls are her dream come true.

On the less fortunate side, they couldn't fit their leather couch into the basement so they gave it to our family.  Our beloved couch was literally falling apart so we decided to finally let it go.  Even so, it was a sad moment for our family.  This couch has many wonderful memories wrapped up in its tattered cushions!

Like Talia's sign?  Super comfy, kinda ugly.  There were no takers in the neighborhood, so our couch eventually made its way to D.I.

Jason married this beautiful couple in August!  Here is his co-worker Zizheng and his bride Kambree.  It was a lovely, simple ceremony.  I know Zizheng would have loved to have his parents there in person (they live in China), but I'm glad we have the technology for them to join virtually.

As for our family, we made it to the temple to perform baptisms together.  I hope we can do the same again soon.

Gathering for an ASSIST family barbecue.  Some of these co-workers spend more time together than with their spouses.

Annika's friend Berkeley did her nails to celebrate the beginning of seventh grade.  As expected, they turned out SO cute!

Here's our Annika doing her usual unusual thing: like setting up a pulley system to send her stuffed animals rappelling out the window.

At some point in the month, all of her stuffed animals got put in time-out on our bed.  She has a LOT.

Annika also got to do an OT evaluation at TOSH where she fell in love with their play room.  I seriously wish we had the space to create a room like this in our home--I'd play too!

Speaking of playing, we all headed down to Provo to bike the Provo River trail with Talia.

Playing "the ground is lava" on the playground afterward.

At the end of summer we also attended a community walk supporting Intermountain Healing Hearts.  Thanks to the Andruses and Wilhoits for joining us for this special event!

Let's see, what else.  My neighbor Elaine Clark hiked up to Cecret lake with me.  What a fun way to spend the morning!  I haven't been up into the Cottonwoods nearly as often now that we have Zion.

A helicopter kept flying back and forth overhead.  At first we were concerned they might be cleaning up debris after a recent crash in the area, but they were actually loading chairs on a new ski lift.

We had to reroute slightly to go around the helicopter's flight path, but we made it!

Ultimate Frisbee came back into our lives this fall.  Annika joined and participated...briefly.  She did great for the time she was there, so perhaps she will be motivated to try again in the spring.

But hey, the great news is that Eila joined as well and is thriving on the team.  Yesterday they took second place in their middle school tournament.  Way to go Eila!

As for Annie, well, it turns out that sometimes she'd just rather read.

Sports look quite different at Kauri Sue Hamilton, the special needs school that I frequent as my client's nurse.

The PE teacher does and AMAZING job of adapting the equipment so that everyone, even those with severe mobility impairments, can play.

So inspiring.

Each September brings the Avenues Street Fair, another gem in our community.

Awesome finds, Eila!

Talia joined us again!  This gal is a gem.

Annika bought this super cool fox mask.  I'm glad she wore it as often as she did because Zion shredded it a couple days ago.

Stupid dog.  There are definitely moments when I wish he belonged to someone else.

Fortunately Zion redeems himself on the trails.

Plus when I asked Eli what it's like sleeping in the basement all by himself, he said that it's a little lonely but having Zion really helps.

So I guess he can stay.  After all, we'd miss those ears and that curly tail.