September

The day before my birthday the new couch I ordered arrived. We've had the same used couch since we were married 15 years ago. I considered this my early birthday present. Unfortunately the screws to attach the feet were not included so we had to wait a few weeks to put it all together. The kids were most excited about the big boxes the couches came in. Brooke and her friend Asha built a clubhouse with them. It's been in our garage for a month now.

On my actual birthday the kids were doing online school, so Brooke was home to make me breakfast in bed.

Kaylee made me a chocolate cake and that was about it as far as my birthday celebrations went.

Kaylee had her first cross country meet on my birthday!

September 13 was our first Sunday back to church since March. It was a short Sacrament meeting only and no singing since it may spread covid more and masks are required.

The kids started the school year fully online for the first week. The second week of school they switched to hybrid model of every other day. Before the official first day of in person we had our annual back to school feast.

This years theme was "When life gives you Lemons". We knew this was not going to be a normal year- school every other day, masks required, only seeing half their friends since only half the school kids go each day, and the chance that at any time we'll be moved back to fully online learning.

We feasted on Lemon chicken Linguine, lemon meringue pie, and lemon aid.

It's a crazy year but perks of sleeping in every other day and more playtime since online school days are usually done a lot sooner.

First day of 3rd grade for Austin- Mr. Runyan is his teacher

First day of 1st grade for Emma- Mrs. Howard

First day of 8th grade for Kaylee

First day of 6th grade for Brooke

Kaylee ended her cross country season at the end of September. She beat her personal record time and ended the season with a 1.5 mile run in 12 min 30 sec.

Brooke turned 12 on Sept. 27! We had a breakfast tea party per tradition.

Brooke could not wait until later for presents so she opened them early before church. She got shoes, books, a yoga ball, jewelry making kit and gel pens.

For dinner she wanted German Pancakes and for dessert we had lemon meringue pie, and chocolate cream pie. Oma and Papa were in town for cousin Maddie's mission farewell and temple trip so they were able to join us that night.

Earlier that day we spent at the Oto's church and then house to support Maddie who was called to Japan on a mission. The kids LOVE their cousins so there was no better place to spend Brooke's birthday.

 

Jake Crushes his Goal

Jake's goal for the year was to hike Mount Borah. The Oto family joined him and Kaylee for the adventure. They drove 4 hours and camped. They woke up at 4:30 and started their hike.

It looked pretty intense and Jake said it was "10 hours of brutal pain". 

They felt great making it to the top and I'm glad they got to do it together.

Their knees killed them on the way down and they had a 4 hour drive back home. They were exhausted and I was glad I didn't go.

 

While Kaylee and Jake were hiking I took the rest of the kids to Utah for Labor day weekend. We went paddle boarding with Kevin, Aidia, my mom Jack

We also swam at Brian and Carrie's.

And celebrated the September birthday's in the family. We had a nice relaxing trip.

 

Cour de Lane

In Kellog, ID where we stayed was Crystal Gold Mine. We toured the mine and it was pretty cool. We could see many minerals and even gold in the walls still.

After the tour we got to pan for gold. The kids loved it. There were lots of cool rocks and minerals they found and brought home. I struck it rich and found a fleck of real gold! The kids were super excited about that.

After the gold mine we headed to Cour de Lane. On our way we passed Old Mission state park and decided on a whim to stop there not knowing what it was. 

It was an old church - the oldest standing building in Idaho.

A catholic priest with the help of Indians built it. It was really impressive.

We had a picnic lunch while there and wandered the grounds a bit after touring the church.

Our next stop was the Cour de Lane resort. 

My co-worker recommended we stop there for Gooeys which are these huge desserts in goblets. 

They were delicious but we could not finish them.

We had so much fun.

After Gooeys we wandered some shops.

When we checked into our hotel all the kids wanted to do was swim... so we let them before going out to explore some more.

For dinner that night we couldn't all decide on the same thing so we went to a grocery store across the street from our hotel and got a bunch of ready made meals from the deli section. It was actually a really good feast- from pasta to meat loaf to burritos.         

After dinner we went on a hike...

And then back to the hotel for bed.

Our last morning there we found a fun park and played.

We also explored Cour de Lane lake beach

Emma made a sand girl.

The kids and Jake had one last swim and dip in the hot tub before we left for the 8 hour drive home.