Kayaking for Rachel's 40th

We're a little late, but this morning we went on an adventure to celebrate Rachel's birthday. Siblings and spouses conspired to enjoy some fall weather and the tiniest bit of changing of the leaves. And a great big thank you to the weather gods because IT DID NOT RAIN!

Poor Rachel. We actually didn't tell her what we were doing. I emailed her a packing list and we picked her up at 6:45am. To soften the blow of the early hour we did come bearing Starbucks hot chocolate. 

And then drove an hour and a half into the mountains. The drive was definitely worth it as our destination was a very calm river with water that was often so still it created a perfect mirror. The area was scenic and we had the river to ourselves. We opted to let the nice people at REI bring the kayaks and the gear so our responsibilities involved arriving and putting on our lifejackets.  

The rest of us have kayaked before, but this was Cody's first time kayaking and he was a machine. Doug and Cody may be the proud owners of kayaks in the near future. I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

It was a lovely morning and a lovely way to celebrate a birthday.

Fundraising

This is the look of an ecstatic child whose mother has finally FINALLY told him that we would participate in his school's fundraiser. I have been a stick in the mud for several years and refused to participate because the school has used third parties. Third parties take a large chunk of the donations and I am not interested in supporting those or asking other people to do so. The marvelous PTA decided to run a color run all on their own this year so we are in. 

With a few donations in he won a few prizes and is excited to promote the activity by dancing in front of the school with the PTA crew after school for the few minutes he can get away with until his mother drags him off to walk home.

Flat Isaac and his Isaac

It's not every day that you get reunited with your creator after traveling wide and far on the European continent. Indeed, Flat Isaac may have a book in the works (okay, it might be a book created on Shutterfly, but still!). 

We learned our lesson with Flat Michael (he spent a brief period of time in a Ziploc bag to protect him from the elements), so Flat Isaac was laminated. However, his extensive traveling has taken its toll and he may need to go into retirement or see if his lamination can be redone. In the meantime, it's been a couple of years since he and Isaac have seen each other in person so we got a few pictures of the reunion.

First Day 2023

Academic year 2023-24 is off and running. It has been a rough start. Skyward was down for the summer. The kids got an email stating it would be available that day. This was a lie. The parent accounts went active eventually (but most of the tabs weren't populated) and the student accounts were another week away. Michael's requested course changes didn't happen until the night before school started and his schedule listed two classes for 6th period (the original one and the updated one). We assumed this would sort itself out, but we got a notification Friday telling us he had been marked absent for 6th period all week. Unexcused absences and school sports don't mix. We received no notifications about the bus before the school year started. On the second day of school we received a bus text saying the bus would be late for an indefinite amount of time - students should just wait until it comes. 

Hopefully things improve. None of the issues are huge problems, but combined the frustration level is mounting.

I will put up with all the issues as long as these lovely human beings are in school and safe. I think they are going to rock this!

Doug and Cody

Ding dong bells are ringing. Wedding bells! 

Ok, maybe not really. We aren't that ostentatious at the district court. Bells or not, a wedding is always a happy occasion. With plans for a larger wedding celebration planned for the spring, today's event was low key but still moving. 

We celebrated with Jason and the boys at their house afterwards with a ridiculous amount of delicious apply desserts. Congrats Doug and Cody! And, welcome to the crazy, Cody!

August on FB

Isaac is supposed to read for 20 minutes a day during the summer. For the first 5-10 minutes today he followed me around (as I tried to eat my lunch) presumably so I could listen to him comment on and argue with the book. Luckily his sense of self preservation then kicked in and I managed to escape to another room until he is done.

Why is summer so long?? 

When one writes a paper with a requirement of 2000-2500 words for a graduate-level class and reaches 1997 words, is it acceptable to finish the whole thing off with "The End. Love, Me"?

Asking for a friend 😉

Let the punishment fit the crime:

Isaac stayed up waaaay past his bedtime last night reading the first Harry Potter book in 3 hours--

So tonight he gets to watch the first movie 😆

Alrighty folks with lots of kids - hit me up with what type of washing machine you have IF it works well. There are six of us and we chose POORLY with our last machine (hint: don't get a Samsung). I will spare you the details, but the pictures are pretty gnarly.

What is your preferred method of cheating on the Sunday NYT crossword puzzle (or any others)?

A)Asking friends and family for specific information

B)Casually looking at your globe or books in your house that are related to the clue

C)Using Autocheck

D)Google search

E)None of the above - I ROCK crossword puzzles

Should I start waking the boys up earlier to help them prepare for the upcoming school year schedule? Absolutely.

Am I willing to give up my quiet mornings yet? Absolutely not.

I feel seen

M has recently started driving. He tells me he can drive in the bike lane because he has "the expansion pack". I am both horrified and terribly amused. 😆😆

(just as an FYI in case you are concerned: he is totally joking)

Tubal Cain

Because she is awesome, Alison invited Ben to go on a backpacking trip with her and Myles. Well, she is awesome, but she also claimed that Ben was going to be their cougar-bait. There was a cougar attack in the general area a few weeks ago. Of course, Ben runs faster than Alison so that plan may not have worked out for her if there was a cougar. But, spoiler, they saw no cougars.

It's been almost a year, but with some digging around in the house we managed to pull together his gear. The pack was pretty heavy, but Michael offered to give Ben and his pack a ride.

I was super sad not to be going, but glad he could go.

Photo cred to Alison for the rest of the pics. Their campsite was near an abandoned mine and the site of a plane crash (not recent).

Pretty dang cool. And Ben said there was the added benefit that the mosquitoes seemed to prefer  Alison and Myles over him.