Redfish, Swim Lessons, and Kindergarten

The end of summer was very busy. The Monday after we got home from Mexico the two big kids started swim lessons in Rigby. Sherry Browning does private lessons out of her pool scheduled four days a week for two weeks. My plan was to take the trailer and just camp at Rigby Lake those four days and zip to her house in the morning for lessons while we did other adventures throughout the day. This was harder than expected with Beckham tagging along. After one night I loaded everything up and headed home. I resorted to driving back and forth to Rigby every day until lessons ended. Yeesh!

Our one day at Rigby Lake

I parked the trailer!

Beckham grew to like the water after all.

Mom has let us pick some of her raspberries this season and they have been abundant! I bottled 12 quarts by the time they slowed down. It was so fun.

The first weekend in August we took the whole family to Redfish. It was on a weekend this time and the crowds were unbelievable. The weather wasn't as nice as when I took the two big kids for our overnighter, but we still enjoyed it a lot. We almost stayed two nights but ended up with just the one. Our camp host offered a site to us to stay an extra night but we decided to zip home after all. 

I parked it again! I'm getting better...

We had another stunning view at our campsite

Behind our camp site offered tons for the kids to play with

My goodness...adding another boy to this crew 💙

Checking out fish early the next morning.

Several pictures of the "end" of summer (I hate calling it that just because school is starting).

Beckham is such a cuddly boy.

These two just hanging out while I picked raspberries

Meanwhile Logan made block creations indoors.

We got some training wheels and have been working with Logan but the boy really just prefers to pump his legs on his balance bike. I keep telling him if he'll learn to pedal his bike life will get much easier haha... oh well.

Logan was my big helper one morning when I bottled six quarts.

The land is officially ours

Feeling baby kicks.

Logan gave a talk in primary.

We had a hen go broody! We put her in the kennel for a few days to break her. Thankfully that didn't take long. We also bought four more hens at the Butte County Fair. We won't talk about how much they cost...

Justin and I had an appointment with the bank in Idaho Falls so they boys got to have their favorite babysitter that afternoon...they sat like this forever waiting for her to come.

This guy working hard to make our home build a reality.

Emmett is quite the artist. He loves to draw and he's pretty good if I do say so.

The night before school started. We soaked in every moment of this night.

I spy two boys playing in the garden.

Emmett and Hobbs.

Logan cut me a flower to put in my hair.

Teachers were to report to school August 15th. I went to one meeting on Monday and one on Tuesday and called it good. I got into it with the superintendent when I found out three days before school started that they had signed me up to teach Health 4th period. I let leadership know that I didn't know how this mistake came about but I absolutely could not do it. The superintendent went on to Mansplain to me that I was the only one with a Health endorsement, so rather than have kids do it online, this was the solution.....Uh, okay but was anyone going to ask me? Or even tell me? I was lucky a student happened to say something to me when we were at the Fair the weekend before school started or I wouldn't have shown up on that first day and then they really would have had a problem. Bunch of idiots. So as of now I have my regular schedule of afternoons only and I somehow dodged getting stuck with an Advisory class which is so awesome. Crossing my fingers they don't pull a fast one on me.

Emmett is starting kindergarten this year! I've read a lot of books on raising boys so our decision of when to start school for him was very intentional. It's likely we'll follow suit for all our boys but I give myself permission to change my mind. On the drive to his first day, Emmett said, "I think when I'm at Kindergarten, Jesus will come down to see me and I'll be like 'How do you know my name?'" Hahaha cracked me up! I drop Beckham and Logan off in the afternoon with their babysitter and then Emmett and I drive to school. On the first day when he and I were driving to school Emmett said, "Logan...Logan!" and I had to remind him Logan wasn't in the car. "Oh yeah, I forgot" he said...it's a big transition year for everyone!  Logan and Emmett have always had each other as long as they can remember. Now Logan has to stay behind while big brother goes off to school ... it's been a transition for him for sure. I'm grateful he has his baby brother and hope it will give their relationship time to develop too. During my 7th period class I have a couple of students walk to Kindergarten pickup and they bring Emmett back to my classroom, then we go get the brothers. Emmett has a lovely teacher who is young and vibrant plus his class size is about 12 kids which is every teacher's (and parents!) dream, so I am really happy about it all. 

Emmett up at 7AM, got himself all dressed for school and let me know he was ready! Haha okay buddy you have five hours...

Mom's ideas for our house

Emmett's iconic Kindergarten picture

His shirt matched the orange rock outside - ha!

A friend got me flowers for my first day back to teaching💜

We met Clint early one morning on our spot for them to dig a 10 foot hole to take a soil sample for the septic tank.

Beckham giving Logan loves at dinner time.

Early morning car rides heading East make for improvisation to keep the sun out of their eyes.

Signing our lives away for our loan.

Check out that crazy down pour!

We went to Idaho Falls early on a Friday morning to sign bank papers. After that I had an appointment with Tabitha for baby and then an appointment for my braces so we stopped for lunch in Blackfoot and ate it at this park while Justin took a call in the car for work.

I have two 7th grade science classes and one 8th grade class. My 8th grade class has 25 kids in it compared to the other which has about 15 so that's a little rough but we'll get through it. Our room is swelteringly hot so I have to be careful I'm drinking enough water and feeling good until the weather cools off with this baby. I'll be 24 weeks tomorrow. This pregnancy is going by quickly. I'm measuring small and baby is also resolving a heart arrhythmia so we're keeping an eye on things. His arrhythmia was really noticeable at my appointment before our Mexico trip, and last week when I saw Tabitha it was significantly better so it should totally resolve itself in time. As for the measurements, if I'm measuring small again at the next appointment then I'll go in for an ultrasound to make sure baby is growing as needed.

Our home is progressing! We are official - bank loans have been approved and signed and our builder said he should be digging the foundation next week! We spent this weekend using twine and pvc pipe to try to plot out where to put this dang house. It's a big decision! With feedback from Mom and Dad we think we've got the right spot for it. We decided to angle it so you can see more house as you drive up to the front, and to give our backyard the best view of King Mountain. Our guess is once they get going they will move quickly to get walls and roof up so they can work on the inside all winter long. My goodness... we can't believe it's real! But sure enough this time next year we should be in our new home.