As you have seen, August was a very busy month for us. We had Alpine Days and camping at the Spruces. But here is a summary of the other things we were up to for the rest of August.
After Jonah’s two month baby appointment, Nancy joined us for some school and backpack shopping for Charlie.
My cousin, Ashley, and her husband had been living in my parents basement for a good bit while Ashley finished her dental schooling. It was a lot of hard work and she graduated! Her family from Idaho came into town and I helped tend Bri’s girls while she went to the graduation. Afterwards, there was a party at my parents house that I went to while Jason stayed home and watched the boys.
Charlie had his first grade open house at Orchard Elementary. He was so excited he even wore his new backpack. This year he would be doing Spanish Immersion, meaning half of his day and subjects would be taught solely in Spanish by one teacher, and the second half of the day and subjects would be taught in English by another teacher. This open house was for the purpose of meeting his teachers and helping him get acquainted with the classroom before school started. The whole family went and we met Senora Colorado and Mrs. Largey. Charlie was quiet, shy, and zoned out as expected. Jason and I were in complete shock and quite nervous when we read a sign that said Senora Colorado spoke no English. We looked at each other with anxious faces, not knowing how this year would work, especially if we couldn’t even communicate with Charlie’s teacher. Luckily, we quickly learned that this sign was actually for the purpose of the teaching method. Senora Colorado did indeed speak English, but as far as the children were concerned, she did not. That way, in the classroom, she was never expected to break from the Spanish speaking. The children knew to only speak to her in Spanish. But for our parent-teacher relationship, luckily we could communicate in English when the children were not present. We were relieved.
Jason attended a party night at Dan and Sammie’s house for Sammie’s graduation.
Charlie finally had his first day of first grade. He was so excited! School began at 8:00 am, which makes for a pretty early morning! After school, he walked home with Mayci Peacock, and Kenyon and Ethan Proctor. It was a good twenty minute walk, but for the first month or so, this was Charlie’s favorite part of the day. He loved walking home with the other kids. When I asked him how school was on that first day, he told me he cried twice, and that it was kind of boring and kind of fun. The teachers were nice, but he couldn’t touch anything. I was happy he saw Kenyon at lunch and at recess. That year, Charlie would take cold lunch every day except for Wednesdays (Pizza Day).
Ethan, Charlie, Kenyon, Mayci
Colson FINALLY had his preschool open house. After seeing Charlie go to school for years, and seeing his excitement, Colson just couldn’t wait. Colson also wore his new backpack to the open house. His preschool would be every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at Miss Laura’s VIP Preschool, which just happened to be next door to us! Miss Laura was our next door neighbor, Laura Sellars. She had been teaching preschool for 20 years, loved it, and did a phenomenal job! She always had a waitlist of students wanting to enroll. Colson loved it! He got his first Bookie Bag that week and so he came home with a white stuffed polar bear and the book “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?” We read the book before bed and he LOVED sleeping with the bear each night. Each week, he would trade out the bag for a new book and stuffed animal. It was always an exciting thing for him. It was adorable.
The sweetest note left by Charlie for Colson!
I took Colson and Jonah to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point while Charlie was at school.
Bryan got his mission call! Everyone came to our house to have him open it up. He was called to the Chesapeake, Virginia Mission and would leave November 28th. We celebrated with homemade churros.
Charlie cashed in on his birthday present from Camry, a McDonald’s lunch. Colson and Grandma and Grandpa A were also there. While they did that, we did some shopping and had lunch at Traverse Mountain.
We walked around Sundance one Sunday afternoon after an attempt to find a shortcut to Stewart Falls. Jason was wanting to find a route to the falls for an upcoming YM activity. It was a fun atmosphere at Sundance with a live music event going on.
The hike Jason did later with the YM:
We went miniature golfing at Cascade for family night. The boys had a blast! We thought they might enjoy it, but we didn’t know how much they would really love it! Of course their adherence to the actual rules was nonexistent, but they didn’t care. The way they played with their own rules was all the joy they needed. They asked countless times to go back after that (calling it “mini gulf”. It was a beautiful and fun night; one to remember!
Jason and I watched Bachelor in Paradise on and off. We love that show!
At this point, I decided to start trying to consistently go to the gym, now that I was over six weeks post baby.
And last but not least, we had a complete parenting breakthrough! Thanks to the genius inspiration from Amy Tuttle, when the boys were misbehaving, on their third warning (“okay, that’s three”), their punishment became doing an “extra job”. The extra job was typically something along the lines of washing baseboards, vents, blinds, floors, the floor of the van, wiping doors, just anything that needed doing in the moment or that I rarely would get around to doing. It was great! (And is still great to this day!) It worked really well. It would keep them busy doing something else, was a real punishment, they learned how to clean, and things got clean that usually never got clean. So rather than just be completely frustrated every time the boys didn’t obey, something positive was coming out of it for me! This was such a game changer for us! We loved it!
Here are some more pictures from the month:
Tyson's Birthday Dinner:
Time at Vasa KidCare:
Jason's glass work truck
