School's Out!

Welp, no more elementary kids in this house. 

Only Middle/High Schoolers. 

Insulation was installed the other day. 

Any day now this baby will be done and we can move in. 

We have two bears in our area. 

They came walking right up Sagebrush lane. Our neighbor four houses down got them on his ring camera. 

There is bear poop on our back roads and trails. 

Looks like they like cherries. 

The last day of school/first day of summer break 

we had a weenie roast at the beach. 

Right as we were getting cold and ready to pack it in, the boys got a fire roaring. 

It felt so good against the chill, but it's time to go!

So they had to carry the giant flaming drift wood logs to the water and douse the flames. 

Yay summer!

The second day of summer, the boys went to Whistler for a day trip.

See that bear down there in the trees?

They saw lots of bears and rode all day, got Whistler hands, crashed a little.

Evan is doing trails that Jim and Joe do. All those younger boys are going to surpass the dads soon. 

Third day of summer: 

To the beach of course. 

While Evan was doing all that, 

Avery has been at girls camp:

And Andrew has been slumming it on Sagebrush with his boys. 

They spent an entire day up and down the street,

and then the next night a massive sleepover at Hunter's. 

A Sunday walk with this wolfpack. 

All the kids are massive and adult sized. 

The straddle pet.

Lastly,

Sunday Robbie sent this to me. Annie found it in a Book of Mormon from the library. 

They go to church in the building I grew up going in.

This is my class - our teacher Laurie Bendickson. 

I can't explain how this picture makes me feel. 

That's me! And I know all of those little friends. They are all my cousins in one way or another (except the boy on the left. I don't know him). 

I don't know. It's just so crazy to realize that I'm a grown, old adult. I'm in charge. 

I just don't feel like I am very different from that little girl in this picture, but also I am massively a new and different person from that little girl. How can we be the same? Our souls are the same? How. 

Our brain grew and learned new things. Do I have the same brain? 

I just can't figure out how I am the same person as that little girl. 

Literally everything about me is different including all my cells that have regenerated. 

So what is the same? Our memories? 

This picture situation combined with the fact that my kids are huge - I just can't figure it out. 

I Cheerfully Accept

Well the school year is ending, so lets review some of the good things happening around here before we plunge into summer:

Evan had his last band concert and I am telling you they have gotten SO GOOD. Compared to the beginning of the year...wow. It was such a fun concert. 

Andrew's last practice was super fun. We had pizza and pictures and a "parents v kids" scrimmage. 

Like I said, the triathlon is fast approaching. I ran a 6 miler the other day while Jim mountain biked. It was hard. 

I feel ready. My goal is always to finish before the 3 hour cut off time. I don't even care about pr's anymore. Just finishing before they end, pack up, and leave me on the course. 

We have had such a mix of great weather and rainy weather. I guess that's what spring is all about.

One night we had a weenie roast. 

It was the prettiest.

Us moms sat on this bench and watched the colors change around us as the sun set. 

We tried to figure out life when hard things happen. 

Our children disappeared while we were sitting there trying to nail down solutions.

They all returned to the fire pit around the time when it got dark and cold.

Andrew's last game was so crazy. The other team was rude and pushy. 

Moms stepped onto the field to yell across the way at each other. 

The other coach walked right into the middle of the field to protest a call the teenager ref made. 

Nikki went to fetch some officials to come maintain order on the field before someone got hurt. They had to get involved multiple times before they finally called the game early before real fights broke out. 

All in the name of rec league. 

They only lost one game all season. By one point. 

We eat a lot of Boomers after a day at Galbraith. 

Hey it's cubing season! I taught the boys how to solve a 3x3, and then I learned how to solve the dodecahedran. It's so fun! They like to speed cube, breaking their previous record.

I like to leisurely turn the chaos into order, taking my time putting the disorder back into place. 

My brain thinks and thinks and feels wonderful once all is returned to it's proper slot. 

Evan "graduated" from middle school. 

Wowee I have two high schoolers. What a fun time to be a mom.

Andrew is nervous to enter the middle school world. I think he thinks it will be worse than it actually is. 

The after party with his buds.

I'm so proud of Evan. He works so hard and gets straight As and has fabulous friends.

He treats his teachers with respect and wants to do the right thing always. 

Also he's so handsome. He is really tall, but standing next to Christopher, you can't even tell. He has a lot of tall friends. 

Also puberty is crazy. 

I have spent years and years lifting weights almost every day. You can barely tell about my muscles.

Then Evan goes ahead and goes through puberty and that earns him some giant arm, leg and shoulder muscles. For no reason at all, his body turns into lean muscle. 

What a thing. 

I'm so thankful for men and muscles. I can't lift heavy things so I'm glad I live in a world where men can lift all the heavies. 

Lots of Galbraith this week!

Ok, I've never been to a book signing, but Friday me and Lisa went to meet Leif Enger, the author of the book I just read and loved,

 "I Cheerfully Refuse". 

It is a five star book and I am currently on my second reading of it because that is how much I love to have the words from this book rolling around in my brain. 

He wrote "Peach Like a River" another 5 star book I read way back in 2012. 

Then Jim and Joe met up with us and we had an awesome dinner with this awesome view. 

It was such a fun night. I can't stop thinking about it. 

The restaurant had license plates on the ceiling. The book takes place in Minnesota,

 so yeah. 

Last night,

Up and over the mountain, six miles, sunset, sore legs. 

Eat at Boomers of course. 

I Cheerfully Accept.