Wow! What a month it has been. Summer is coming to an end, hikes, Ava's Baptism (covid style), windstorms andthe start of school for the kids and I.Jake has been busy with a lot of projects at home and work pretty much every day. He is so great! He wears me out just watching all his hard work. He was able to sneak in a little fun with us here and there and is always great to keep the kids entertained while I do school stuff.So I started out with 6 classes this term for the first week. I wasn't planning on taking all of them, but wanted to read through all the syllabi and figure out which ones would work best with my schedule. I stuck with three classes, which I think is still somewhat ambitious while trying to keep up with the house and all that comes with that. Oh and not to mention helping my kids with virtual learning. I spent my 3 weeks off organizing the house and trying to have a little fun with my familyThe kids have been enjoying being outside and taking advantage of the last few days before school starts, which they ended up getting a few extra with windstorm (which they thought was the coolest thing ever). Class was supposed to start Tuesday and we were already to go, and then the windstorm Monday night through Wednesday morning knocking out the power of over 160,000 people. It is kind of hard to do virtual learning without power. We lucked out and had our power a few hours longer than all of our neighbors. We were out of power for about 10 hours on Tuesday. We enjoyed a camp stove cookout for dinner and ate it to candlelight around the coffee table. Many people were out of power much longer and some are still waiting for power. There were so many branches thrown around and trees uprooted. We got a few crazy pictures of Liberty park before the cop kicked us out. So every evening this past week we would get another message that school was cancelled the next day so the kids ended up with the whole week off. The kids were up and running this morning and are off to a good start. They all enjoy their teachers and we are all feeling pretty good about things. The older 2 sat through a full day of virtual zoom and did great keeping on track. Pierce only has about an hour on zoom and then some assignments to work on, but I had to keep him on track pretty much the entire time. It is hard to focus when you are five. Each of them had to go to a short assessment at the school and get supplies before school started.Lawson enjoyed a virtual stem camp for 2 days a few weeks ago. He learned a lot and designed a prototype of a backpack. It was pretty cool. He has been a good helper to Jake with projects as well.Ava was baptized a couple weeks ago. It was a lot different than we expected. We just had her grandparents come, the Bishop and his wife. We would have loved to have everyone there, but we weren't sure how long the group restrictions would still be in place. We have such a big family and figured this would be the best way. It was still a special day with each one of us there taking part. Wes and Pierce gave the prayers, Jake conducted and performed the baptism and confirmation, which was so sweet. I gave a talk on baptism. Grandpa and Lawson were witnesses. Grandma Julie and Carol gave a quick thought on the Holy Ghost. Then the Bishop welcomed her to the ward and Jake read a message from the primary. She missed having more people there, but it was still nice. Pierce is really excited about Kindergarten and I love to see how proud he looks when he knows the answer or learns something new. I can already tell it is going to be a lot of work to keep him on track, but we will do our best. He is so passionate about everything which can be so sweet and wonderful yet infuriating at times. He is our little firecraker for sure.Weston loves to tell stories of lately and they usually involve his favorite little cousins. He always asks me if I am happy, which makes it easier to stay positive. He wants to be big and do school like his siblings. He likes to "work" in his paw patrol ABC workbook. I am not sure he comprehends all of it, but he is sure cute! He and Pierce were champs at the dentist (we all have had dentist appointments this past month, those two are the only ones with a pic)
