September 2021

 Dallin is the only one doing soccer this Fall. He's been so fun to watch as he has progressed with his soccer skills. He still loves the sport fiercely! His school teacher says she expects to see him in the World Cup one day because he takes recess soccer seriously. 

And back by popular demand are random pictures of Carmen with Sister Cone! This took a hiatus due to Covid. Candace tells me that she LOVES when Carmen stops by her classroom to visit with her.  And I even got a rare appearance of Aliza with her. 

More bridge fishing. He gets home from school and opens the front door wide enough to throw his backpack inside, grabs his pole off the porch and heads to the river. It's really adorable. 

Carmen's rowing coach, Coach Craig, asked for some parent volunteers to help out during practices. David and I both volunteered to help. We had to go through all the coach training, CPR, child protection  training to do so. Here I am pretending like I know what I'm doing.

Our job was to supervise and lead the land practices, while he took the other half of the team out on the water. So we'd make overlook the ergging and planks. It was fun to get to know the kids a little better and to get to see more of Carmen in her element. She just loves Crew so much. It's seriously the best sport. 

Dallin was sure missing his buddy Case since he had to move schools. We invited him over to fish and play in the river. It was like they were at Disney World, the two had so much fun together. They explore all over the river and through the woods. 

For Labor Day we decided to head to Busch Gardens. All the kids are into roller coasters now and David loves to take them on all the biggest ones. I'm happy to sit and wait. I just can't do those things anymore. Aliza was happy to oblige and go on the tea cups with me though. 

And this flying carpet was about as crazy as I was willing to do. 

And we had to recreate this picture from the last time we were here. They've all grown so much! 

We got to interact with these beautiful birds that would come and just land on your arm and drink sugar water. 

More bridge painting, we have to sand it all down to get the chipping paint off and then come back and paint it. 

Koda has settled in just fine here. He LOVES the river and can't go outside without getting in the water. It's his favorite thing to do. He is missing a fenced yard to run free in, but I guess the river makes up for it. 

Football is back in season! It felt good to be back in the stands cheering on our WAHOOS! 

Dallin, in his boredom one Sunday, decided to have a poetry reading night. Gotta love that Shel Silverstein. 

Then the very next day we decided to get him tested for COVID. He hadn't been feeling great and we got an email stating his entire 4th grade class was on quarantine because so many of them have COVID. So it was time to get him tested. I didn't really think he had it but decided to get him tested anyways. Lo and behold he tested positive. We were told to all get tested before anyone else could return to school. Everyone else was good except for me. I was positive as well. I wasn't too surprised. The symptoms definitely got worse over the next couple of days. 

He got a sweet treat from our friend Emiy Evans. 

He was actually over the worst of it I think at this point. He still wanted to fish and be outside. 

And the best part of being COVID buddies, was getting to share ice cream and snuggles together. 

And that same sweet friend brought me beef stew once she heard I tested positive. It was wonderful. 

While Dallin seemed to get better quickly, mine lasted for a good two weeks. Exhausted, short of breath, coughing and congestion. All the fun COVID things. Everyone took pretty good care of me though. 

I did finally get a picture of Charlotte on trash duty. She opted for the walk it across method vs. driving it across. Im sure that water gets pretty dang chilly in the winter, but for now it feels good. 

A little tubing fun...

Mike and Stacie got married the end of the month and he moved out of his mountain man cabin. We decided to have church one day down there since we were still quarantined from COVID and couldn't go in person.