Monday, August 26, 2013

Dear Mom, School has begun.

week of August 19 - 25

It was a busy week with school starting, but we all looked forward to Saturday when we would get to see a live broadcast of the Fort Collins Temple ground-breaking. 

On Monday we had our traditional end-of-summer “breakfast in the park.”

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In the past we usually did it at Mills Park in Bryant, but this year we had to pick a new spot, of course, . . . .

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. . . .so we went to Horsetooth Reservoir, where the boys had gone boating with the youth and actually so had I, with the Relief Society. (Yeah, our RS goes boating for activities. We’re pretty cool that way. :)

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DC cooked up the waffles while we got to know the swimming area and after eating we all swam for hours.

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That was also the day that we decided (with his input) to homeschool Fluffy for 7th grade this year. I’m excited!

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The next day was the first day of school for the boys.

Exacto in 10th grade.

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Pardon the headed-to-early-morning seminary lighting! (and yes, he was extremely underwhelmed with my pulling out the camera at that godly hour :).

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And Hummer in 4th grade.

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He rollerbladed to school. :o)

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And Fluffy, who is homeschooling for 7th grade with band 2-3 times a week at the public middle school.

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Rosebud already knows all about homeschool “fashion.” haha!

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Rosebud is enjoying having a buvva home still during the day. And one day she found a pet beetle and named it, I can’t remember what.

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Friday was DC’s first day of school, with an all-day orientation event. Of course I had to take his picture, too. . . .:)

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He usually bikes to school, but that first day he took the city bus. There’s a stop very close to our house.

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We had a pretty good first week, although it was overwhelming figuring out all the logistics of getting people there and back and where to meet them and Fluffy’s curriculum (I’ve never taught 7th grade before! yikes) and just all the paperwork and homework and tiredness from a new schedule. We made it, though!

And meanwhile it was so awesome to have Saturday to look forward to. . . .

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I want to do a separate “Day of Gratitude” post for the temple groundbreaking, so the above is just an appetizer. :) Suffice for now to say that it was amazing and we had reason to rejoice.

That afternoon we went back down to Denver so as to see DC’s parents who had come to help Bob and Dani and of course to see our new niece again.

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More cousin fun!

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More ice cream!

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A good time was had by all!

And the next day, Sunday, DC and I spoke in Sacrament Meeting, which proved reason enough for Mom and Dad Baker to drive up and attend our meetings and then have lunch with us afterward. Yay! I don’t know if I’ve ever been so glad I was giving a talk. :)

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before church

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after church

It was quite a week!

Love,

Michelle

P.S. Hope to share soon about the groundbreaking! I know you’re anxious to see more photos from that. . . . :)

Monday, August 19, 2013

Dear Mom, The end of summer is always bittersweet.

week of August 12 – 18

For Exacto, the summer was already basically over. He spent the week at school for the band’s Spirit Camp.

Other final summer highlights. . . .

Catching potahto bugs. (That is how she pronounces it). She loves putting them in the roly-poly playground we got at Mardel in Arkansas.

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Are we the only people in the world that call them potato bugs? Everyone else seems to call them roly-polies or pillbugs. . . .

Epic Monopoly games in the basement. And I’m talking games that lasted for days! They had to create more money to keep playing! (Wish I had gotten a picture.)

Chalk portraits on the fence. This was unauthorized as well as impromptu when I was distracted with our friends who had come over for dinner!

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(Can you tell where our sprinklers hit the fence? Shocking waste of water, especially for Fort Collins, haha. :)

Last day of summer sports camp with some families from church.

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Nutella popsicles. (Idea from Pinterest, where else? :) They were yummy.

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Starting on the Granite Flats series. We are enjoying it, and it fills that dark void we all feel while we wait for Studio C’s next season. :)

I think our collective favorite part is always in the opening credits when the jello jiggles. :)

Going to the Spirit Camp grand-finale concert. Some serious energy going on at this concert! It was great!

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(Exacto’s in the shadow in the middle, right behind the clarinetist wearing a red cape.)

Garage-sale shopping. Hummer haggled them down to $3 for this lava lamp. It was a great way to meet our new neighbors! haha.

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(That is his current trademark picture-taking face. I suppose it’s better than a tantrum.)

A fun date with DC where we hung up “my dream” in the tree in our backyard, shared some CafĂ© Rio, and then spent hours just sitting on the grass by a lake and talking, talking, talking. It was awesome.

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But again, the highlight of this week, was the arrival of a baby.

This time, a new niece for us, courtesy of Bob and Dani in Aurora! Yippee!!! She is just beautiful.

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We took dinner down to them on Sunday. Chris’s sister also came over with her two kids, and we had a heavenly afternoon.

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(Cousins are the best! I love it when our kids get to be with them.)

And so, we bid goodbye to summer vacation. Thank you for teaching me to enjoy it and treasure it. Those childhood summer days you created for us growing up are some of my very best memories.

Love,

Michelle

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Dear Mom, Just look at them swim!

week of August 5 – 11

The birth of Benjamin J on Tuesday was definitely the highlight of that week.

But arriving home was pretty awesome, too. I immediately gave them their “BYU” gifts.

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They love the Studio C shirts--thank you!

And the next morning I was able to catch the last day of swimming lessons for Hummer and Rosebud.

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The Wal&$#mart bag there contained his towel, which he kept handy to wipe his eyes after every single submersion.

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Rosebud’s class was adorable. Not to mention R herself.

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On Saturday -- after compelling our children to slave away cleaning our house (haha) --we had a fun outing to the Cache la Poudre river. We mostly just waded and caught crawdads and took pictures.

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Got the boys all registered for school this week.  sigh.  I don’t love back-to-school.

But it was good to be back home. DC always does awesome with keeping house (probably better than I do:) and he finished his pre-requisite classes that weekend. Straight A’s, I tell you! I asked him how on earth he did that while taking care of everything while I was gone. He said he couldn’t have done it without heavenly help.

So all was well that ended well. (I shouldn’t have worried so much during my week in Provo! :0)

Love,

Michelle