I also didn't take too many pictures this month. Adele and Ceci went to youth conference and had a great time. Geoff attended Summit Mountain Series in Powder Mountain and loved it. All of us joined him one afternoon and evening, meeting lots of interesting young people doing good things. Geoff really wanted to buy a cabin at the Summit Series community at Powder Mountain. It would be a good investment. We explored the idea at length and decided against it. It sure is beautiful up there though. From there we went to Bear Lake for a day to spend time with Geoff's brother Christian and Heather who were in town.
Christan and Heather blessed their new baby, Jayce, in Salt Lake. It was great to share this event with them.
This is their adorable family...
Ceci continued her physical therapy through August and even tried acupuncture, a first for her.
I'm happy to report she is back climbing as often as she can.
I went to a dinner party with several old friends, which was so fun!
Geoff went to Mexico for a week in there somewhere. He also bought a rode bike and is super excited to have the energy to be active. He'll leave fingernail marks on summer as he tries to hold on to the hot days...
Ceci and I hit an IMAX movie about Apollo 13 and then explored the science museum.
We went to Eli and Kate's sixth birthday party (a kite-making party). Erica didn't bother planning any games knowing Geoff was attending, and he didn't disappoint in entertaining all the little kids for at least an hour. Boy do they all love him!
We had our back-to-school dinner. This year Adele requested we have it in the canyon, so we packed a picnic and headed for the hills. We found a lopsided little site near a stream that was hidden away from the crowds and enjoyed the rare time of us all spending time together. For all being home this summer, we sure ran in different directions! Our theme this year is Let Your Light Shine (based on 3 Nephi 12:16 in the Book of Mormon). This has led us on a serious study of "light" in the scriptures to discover deeper levels of what it means to have light and how to share it. Good stuff.
Our more serious conversations often get overshadowed by these three crazies...
This wasn't our smoothest school beginning. Ceci agonized over whether or not to go to the local highschool or to join Adele at her charter school. Both had some pros and serious cons. Finally, a week before school started, she decided on the local school. Phew. Decision made.
Getting Adele and Ceci both registered in new schools, registering Adele in concurrent enrollment, working to recover lost transcript and seminary credits in the closing of Adele's old school, and persisting with Ceci's counselor to get the classes she wanted took an insane amount of time and energy. But we finally got it all sorted out and Adele started her senior year and Ceci started her freshman year. Here is Adele on her first day of school with her friend Sami...
And I didn't get a picture of Ceci on her first day, but here she is the day we got her student card, and it is more of the student card than Ceci. Oh well.
The reports coming home that first day weren't super positive. Adele was really bummed about how much she didn't like her new school for a variety of reasons, and Ceci came home wanting to homeschool. We encouraged her to give it a week. To add to her anxieties about being lost in a sea (3000+) of kids and not having any flexibility to pursue her individual interests, in addition to a high learning curve of figuring out how high school works, we made her try out for the soccer team. We've never made our kids do anything, so this came with some resistance from Team Sisters. Sometimes you feel something will be good for your child, something they may not pursue on their own. This was one of those times. She had actually missed the tryouts for the JV team, but there was a development team, which trains and can be called upon to play on JV, when needed. I was really proud of her for submitting to our will on this. And for having the courage to give it a try since she hasn't played soccer since she was 10. She came home from that practice and asked me to take her to a soccer field where she could practice. She was NOT going to be the worst one on the team. Well, turns out the school canceled the development team a few days later and Ceci was off the hook. She was relieved. We'll miss the beautiful evening practices at the park though!
The desire to homeschool persisted those first few weeks and the grueling decision-making process was back in full swing (and still isn't totally snuffed out). We'll see how it unfolds. This isn't the easiest season for Ceci. Luckily in the midst of it all I find pictures like this on my phone to help me see she still has her sense of humor!
One night Ceci was laying on my bed talking to me and I wanted to freeze time as I saw her beautiful girlhood before me. She is growing and changing quickly. I grabbed my camera to attempt to capture her cute freckles, rosy lips and fading girlish body. Oh how I want to hold on!
Adele, who is co-chairing the youth board for Choice Humanitarian, hosted another fundraising carnival. Em, Mike and kids (and a friend) came to support Adele. It was very well organized and thought out. Her organizational and event-planning skills continue to improve!
Tennie finished up her summer of painting houses, spent a week in Lake Powell with a friend and then we moved her down for her second year at BYU. She is happy to be living in a house south of campus. It is old and little on the worn down side, but she loves it and is excited about it. Once almost settled in, we took off for Labor Day weekend. I'll write about that in another post.
Contrary to Geoff, I'm ready for cooler temps! (Especially because our AC is broken and the building says they will fix it in the Spring. Not too helpful now!)
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