Back To School

 Rockwell is in 11th grade

He's started wearing blue-light glasses. They look good on him!

This is how he felt about starting school. :)

Tessa is in 8th grade

This is how she felt about starting school. :) They both loved summer! 

They both leave before Damon wakes up. It's looking like 9th grade will move up to the high school next year, and they are excited about having a year together in the same school.

Damon is in 6th grade

Damon was super excited to start school! He's on Student Council this year, and he came home from his first meeting absolutely pumped to get back to school. He loved helping at Back to School Night. He has loved having Ms Jensen for a teacher and loves seeing all his friends every day. His friend Cody is the mascot this year. :)

It's always an adjustment to get used to early mornings, classes, and homework. They're feeling tired, but hopefully will get used to the schedule quickly and will have a good year!

Tessa was making us laugh during the photo shoot. :)

This & That

 Tessa, Scout and Brynn went to the temple for baptisms.

We had a Post-FSY activity up the canyon. We had the youth do some reflection and discussion in small groups.

Rockwell was a great group leader!

The rest of the night was games and food. I think the youth had a good time!

It was a lot of work to put the activity on, but I did get a few moments of fun line dancing. :) I do love being with the youth, and it was a great night reflecting on FSY and having fun together as a stake.

Paul and I celebrated our 21st Anniversary!! We went to dinner at Chom Burger and then went to the Wick Lab to make candles.

We started out smelling a whole wall of different scents and writing down any that we liked.

Then we went to the counter and a chandler (a candle maker) helped us find and combine the scents that we wanted. We could squeeze bottles and smell the vapors to see if the scents smelled good together.

Paul chose a fruity combination that smelled like his favorite shave ice, Love Potion #9. I chose a Christmas combination that smells like fresh Christmas trees.

It was a fun new experience!!

Damon went to the Lindon Pool with the Rosequist's for Dr Thompson's pool party. He won the hula hoop contest there too and won a Swig gift card and some candy. :)

Rockwell and his friends went to the sand dunes.

He said it was one of the most fun nights of summer!

He took a super cool picture of this weed! It looks like a big tree out in the sand, but it was actually a tiny weed. Super cool, Rockwell!

Cross Country boys are so funny! They found this couch on a corner on one of their runs. They picked it up and ran with it all the way back to the high school. Elsa said she wanted it for her room, so they loaded it up for her to take home. So random and so funny!

Premier Invite & Pre-Region Meets

 Rockwell had his first race of the season at the Cottonwood Complex. 

It was fun to go to a meet again!

I love that you can see Koy cheering Rockwell on in this picture. :) He's a great coach!

Rockwell ran well. He could breathe, so he was really happy about that!

He finished 28th place (4th on the team) with a time of 17:15 (This course is a shorter one, just 2.9 miles)

Both the boys varsity and the girls varsity teams took 1st place at this meet! Apparently Rockwell and Luke both kissed the plaque to celebrate?? Haha!

Their second meet was Pre-Region at the Scera Park.

Rockwell looked like he was feeling good.

He was holding in 4th place on the team again the whole course, and so I thought I had it timed right to get to the finish line. Somewhere in the last stretch, he kicked it hard though. I almost missed him going through the finish line, but luckily I made it there right in time for him to run past. He was so so so excited that he could kick at the end again! It's been a long time since his larynx has let him do that, and he said it felt so good! I'm thrilled for him that he's learning his breathing techniques and having success with it so far this season.

He finished in 18:02.8. This course was longer than a 5k, so I think they all took about 30 seconds off their time according to their watches. It's impossible to accurately compare times with every course being a different length. Anyway, he finished in 16th place (3rd on the team). 

Life Lately

 The XC team has been doing Waterfall Wednesdays this summer. They hike to a different waterfall each week. So fun!

Rockwell went to Lagoon with a bunch of friends from the team. He had a blast!

We had Jeff Palmer paint our house for us. The basement looks so different, in the best way! :) The walls were an orange-brown when we moved in, and the baseboards and doors in the basement were really dark brown. It always felt so dark down there, and it's been so refreshing to have it all white and so much lighter down there! Paul and I shopped for new furniture, and then I shopped for blankets, pillows, and artwork to finish it off. I love how it turned out!!

Rockwell had his friends over for a taco night and Just Dance contest. They usually do the Just Dance contest at XC camp, but camp was a day shorter this year with Tate starting his mission. They love that tradition and Rockwell really wanted to make it happen still. I'm so glad they did it at our house so I could watch. It was so fun! The girls did You're The One That I Want, and they did great!

The boys did Dancing Queen and 24 Karat Magic.

Rockwell and Luke did awesome thrifting their outfits to look like the two guys in 24 Karat Magic.

Paul and I were dying over the boys' dance. They were hilarious, and we were both quite impressed with Rockwell's moves! He can dance!! After the contest and tacos, they spent the rest of the night doing Just Dance in the back yard. It was such a fun party!

Tessa and I went to watch Finlee in Guys & Dolls Jr. at the Scera Theatre. It was a fun night out with Tessa.