Jane's Initiation

The weather over the past six weeks has been glorious.  Sunny, clear skies every day, with only one day of rain.  I have been so jealous every time I see a car that's not mine with a kayak on top!  

Since the fantastic four has been temporarily disbanded...Brooke has developed severe motion sickness, Mariann moved to Houston, and Gretchen has a baby...I've been lamenting my lack of kayaking opportunities.  Then earlier this week Gretchen texted me this:  "Hey guess what I bought yesterday--an infant life jacket.  It was the last clearance one at Costco.  Can you kayak this week?"   

Can I kayak this week?  YES!  Unfortunately, I was at a cleaning job when she texted, or I would have replied, "How about right now?!"  We set the date for Wednesday, noon, at Manzanita.  The forecast was for 79 and sunny.  Every morning, for the past six weeks, I've woken up to clear skies.  Except of course, for Wednesday (and that one day it was raining).  I woke up and it was foggy!  The fog eventually lifted to a nice thick marine layer.  At 11:40, just as we were debating via text whether it was worth it to still go, I stepped out on the back porch and noticed a patch of blue sky.  I called Gretchen and during our five minute conversation, the sky magically cleared to a gorgeous blue.  Ten minutes later, the kayak was on top of the car, and I was out the door!

Jane has officially been initiated into to the "Fantastic Four," taking Mariann's place until she returns.  Now Brooke just has to figure out how to get rid of her motion sickness and we're back in action!

Gretchen is positive Jane will love it!

Doesn't she look excited?!

See? It's great!  She's thrilled to be out on the calm, clear water, gazing at the sea creatures below, feeling the breeze in her hair, soaking up the sun.  Come on, Jane, what's not to love?

Gretchen tried multiple arrangements with Jane's positioning.  She really doesn't like the sun in her eyes, so this worked well when we were going into the sun.

Overall, I think it went well and we'll definitely try it again.  It's been such a beautiful late summer, hopefully it will last well into fall.  We'll make a kayaker out of Jane in no time!

A Visitor

I looked out my back door yesterday and saw this little guy sitting on my garden fence:

I tried to get closer to see if he had a message for me.  He swiveled his beautiful head, looked and me and blinked a few times, then turned and swooped away.  Jillian has seen him a few times sitting on a tree in the woods, but never this close.  Hopefully he'll come back to visit again!  

19

That's right, he's 19.  Seriously?  Only one year away from 20?  How did this happen?  I'm still only like 29, right?  We had a family party on Sunday and my camera batteries were dead, so I didn't get any pictures.  But then on Monday, his actual birthday, the door bell rang at about 9:00 pm and it was the pizza delivery guy, with this!  His friends, Alex, Jared, and Gabe, who are at BYU-I and BYU had it delivered for him.  What great friends!  Happy Birthday, Nate!

Worth the Wait!

The first day of school was August 29th, for Kylie and Jillian, anyway.  Ben had to wait until today, September 4th, because the new Wilkes wasn't quite done!  We found out at 1:00 the day before school was supposed to start that it wasn't going to happen.  Although the classrooms were just about ready, there were issues with the safety fencing not being in place, so the school board decided it would be better to be safe and hold off until after Labor Day.  I wish the whole district would have started after Labor Day, but that's another story.  

Ben was delighted pretty disappointed to have an extra three days of summer.  Finally, today was the big day and I decided I wanted to see the new school, too, so I drove him this morning.  It is beautiful, and well worth the wait!

Ben standing in front of the office area. I didn't see any signs saying "Wilkes Elementary School" so those must be coming later.

In his classroom, at his desk.  Everything is so bright and cheery!

Looking from the back corner of the room towards the front.

Ben and Henry, best buds!  They've been in class together since first grade.  I'm so glad they're together again!

The gym, which is on the lower level.  There are huge windows looking down into the gym from the main level.

The main hall way, the large windows on the right look down into the gym.

The cafeteria, or "Commons" also on the lower level.  Their old school didn't have a cafeteria.  They ate lunch in their classrooms, so this will be a fun, new experience.

Another shot of the hallway, a little farther towards the front of the school. (Ben's classroom is at the very back of the school.  There is this main hallway, with four "wings" branching out.  Each wing is a different grade level, so the 4th graders are on the last wing.)  Camille Hooyer and Hannah Harris just happened to be walking down the hall together when I took this picture.

Looking out over where the parking lot or maybe playground will be...still under construction.

The new library!  It's beautiful...and HUGE!

Another shot of the library.

Looking into one of the courtyards towards the main office.

Out over the parking area again.

Walking from the main hallway to the office area.

The front of the school from the bus loading area.

I'm glad one of my kids gets to experience the new school, even if it's only for one year!