Back To School!!

The kids are back in school, and just in time too.  We were about ready to kill each other.  Good thing that seems to happen every year or going back to school would really be hard.  Zack and Kate are in middle school together this year, which I love.  They leave the house at the early hour of 7:10am to catch the bus.  Sage doesn't leave for another hour.

Zack is in 8th grade this year (meaning he goes to high school next year - heaven help me).  He's so far enjoying most of his classes, except for english.  I don't think he'll ever enjoy english.  Ever.  He's taking an agriculture class that he loves and I love because maybe we'll learn how to handle our goat and chickens.  (PS - when Sage is asked if she has any pets she says 9 - 1 goat and 8 chickens.  Perfect.  Now we don't need to get a real pet).  He's doing catalyst math and is doing 9th grade math this year.  He gets great joy over telling everyone he's doing high school math.  If he hasn't told you yet don't worry, he will.

Kate is breathing a sigh of relief that she made it through a rough 5th grade year and is in 6th grade.  She has friends in most of her classes, which is awesome.  She was a little nervous about switching classes all day, but I think she's loving that she doesn't have to sit in he same class with the same people.  Her favorite class is english and journalism (crazy how different kids in the same family can be).  She gets to be in 7th grade orchestra and is happy they don't spend the whole class learning notes.

Sage is in 3rd grade with most of the same kids she's been in class with since kindergarten.  Since she's in dual immersion they stay together for a long time.  Which is good and bad.  Her spanish teacher has a different accent this year, so its taking her a second to figure it out.  She had an interesting first day of school.  She came home all upset (I wasn't surprised, she tends to get worked up and not enjoy big days).  Supposed girls not being nice and other stuff.  She had a snack, we talked about it, snuggled it out, and an hour later she was still crying and being super dramatic.  I finally told her it was time to move on and that she still has a pretty good life.  She got super mad, told me I don't love her, and said she was leaving.  She put her shoes on and headed out the door.  Kate was so worried that I wasn't going after her.  She headed down the street on her bike, then came back for her coat.  Then she stayed around the house and kept hiding in the trees.  Kate finally came in and told me Sage said she would come back in if I went outside and told her I love her.  Oh the drama.  This girl brings a lot of joy to our family, but the drama may kill us.  The next day she told me she thinks 3rd grade will be really fun.  You're killing me smalls.

Final Summer Days

This summer was one of the best.  Really.  We got some good camping in, spent some fun days at Lagoon, swam, spent time with family and friends, and just had a good amount of fun.  I loved having a short camping trip planned every few weeks.  It was fun to always have something to look forward to.  We definitely had our moments of kids fighting and me losing my sanity, but all in all it was a great summer.

We ended the summer by trying to do as much as possible in the last two weeks.  We went to the lake, visited cousins, went on one more camping trip, went swimming, to a bike park, and fit in a couple more trips to Lagoon.  Basically my kids hit the "I'm bored" part of summer and started fighting constantly if they were home.  I decided I couldn't handle it and so I planned non-stop activities.  Yes, the kids won.  I was exhausted by the end of the summer, but it was worth it.

I can't finish talking about summer without addressing the "Great Garden Experiment of 2017".  We planted a huge garden.  It was a lot of work, and as we were planting I couldn't help but think about how much work it would be to harvest.  Anyway, we gardened following a new method.  The method is tried and true, but we've never done it before so for us it was an experiment.  (Zack insists it can't be an experiment if its already been done, but whatever.)  We put posts in the ground, put rebar across the posts, and tied strings to the rebar.  All to try some vertical gardening.  We also used a special fertilizer, and let me tell you, it worked.  I've never seen such big plants that produce so much.  It's crazy.  Our skills at the vertical gardening definitely need work, but all in all I'd say the experiment was a success.  Now we're into the agony of the harvest.  Those of you who have never had a big garden might wonder why this is agony.  I'll explain.  Yes, it's great to have fresh veggies.  So great.  And you eat a lot.  And really enjoy it.  But then it just keeps coming and coming and coming.  The other problem is that harvest time does not follow your schedule.  The vegetables don't wait for you to have time before they ripen.  Oh no.  So of course it was time to harvest everything the last couple weeks of summer.  Kids are all home.  We're running around crazy.  And somehow I'm supposed to find time to preserve all this food.  So I did a couple of batches of dilly beans.  A couple of batches means 14 jars.  These jars are like gold because of the time they take.  And then the kids eat a whole jar in 5 minutes and I want to cry.  So I limit them to one jar/week.  We've made fresh salsa, so much squash, lots of zucchini bread and muffins, 7 jars of pickles (hopefully I'll find time to do more of these), and lately we have 2 ears of corn each for every dinner (because we can and because there are like 1000 ears of corn).  On Sunday the girls and I loaded up a wagon with squash and delivered it to poor unsuspecting neighbors.  They acted grateful, but I know the truth.  And I don't care because I just needed to get rid of squash.  Surely we won't do this again you say?  Oh, but we will.  Because Jake loves gardens and you must have big gardens.  Maybe after I have a nervous breakdown he'll shrink the garden size, but until then if you come to our house plan on leaving with some squash.

Oh, our chickens have also started laying eggs.  We're up to 4/day.  So you'll probably leave with some eggs too.  But you can't take eggs unless you also take squash....

The Garden

Zack wiping out on the flow rider.  He did get better.  I promise

Making pickles

Precious jars of pickles

Dilly beans

Fun at the park

Camping up above Strawberry

Don't ask why we didn't take the trailer.  Just know that we're no longer going to get rid of the trailer, so mission accomplished;)

We watched the eclipse at Lagoon

Sage at back to school night

Birthdays Part Two!!

We made it through all of our birthdays!  Hooray!!  Kate and Sage both celebrated theirs in August.  Kate got to celebrate hers in Bear Lake with the whole family.  She got a huge birthday cake with lots of people singing to her.  Before her birthday we had a shopping day.  We got her lots of cute clothes and even stopped at the makeup counter for some makeup tips.  Then we went to my hairdresser for a trim and some cute hair style ideas.  It was definitely a birthday for a tween!  I think she liked it but is a little unsure about the lack of toys.  Kate is the compassionate one in our family.  If anyone is hurt or sad she's the first to try to help.  We love her giggle and also love listening to her play the piano these days:)

Somehow I survived Sage's birthday.  If this girl doesn't have a business organizing then she should be an event planner.  She loves planning events and is the one who makes holidays and other special occasions fun in our house.  She's been talking about her birthday since the day after her birthday last year.  I finally had to forbid it from being discussed until she got out of school.  So I was feeling a lot of pressure to get it right.  Luckily, she was very specific in what she wanted to do, which was very helpful.  Her BFF Kami came over bright and early for waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.  Then we went shopping.  We got some clothes, stopped at a toy store, and she got her ears pierced.  She's been begging to get her ears pierced for years, so this was a big day.  We went to lunch and then we came home and she and her friend watched Descendants 2 and ate popcorn.  We had pizza for dinner with the grandparents and cousins and then presents and cake.  Phew!  Needless to say I was exhausted by the end of the day.  Sage brings a lot of fun to our family.  She loves life and makes everything a party.  She helps us smile and do fun things more.

Birthday Season is over!!!

Kate learning how to do makeup

I think those cousins want some cake!

It begins bright and early!

Ears pierced!

Best Friend necklace

The heavies

Bear Lake!

The whole Spjute family actually got together for a few days.  I mean the whole family.  Including 10 day old Henry and his tired mamma.  It was a Christmas miracle for sure.  We had great fun eating good food (of course), visiting ice caves (most of us), holding babies, and talking a lot while doing those things.  With mouths full of food of course.  Some family friends let us use their beach and water toys, which was especially awesome because there aren't any beaches this year because the water's so high.  So we got to drive past all of the poor souls on their 20 feet of beach and laugh....or at least be glad it wasn't us.  The Jorgensons got to try paddle boarding and kayaking for the first time (on a lake that is).  We loved it!  Paddle boarding is harder than people make it look, but fun.  Sage loved getting in her own kayak and paddling all over the place.  She's a water girl for sure.  A bunch of people went to the ice caves in Paris (Idaho that is).  Some of us tried to go to the caves, ended up at the wrong place, and went to get a shake instead.  The shakes lived up to their reputation by the way.  We tried three different places and decided Zipz was the best.  Yum.

We went to the Raspberry Days parade.  Officially the best parade ever.  In addition to throwing out tons of candy, they also threw out mini shakes and I scored chips and salsa.  Doesn't get better than that.  We had a camp fire one night, and every night we got to learn about ancestors.  Grandpa told ghost stories, but kids are tough these days.  They were not phased by them.  Or maybe Dad is getting old.  Probably a little of both;)  Jake and Greg and I went mountain biking one morning.  Greg wouldn't let me take any pictures.  I'm glad I have one sibling who will mountain bike with me.  It was a fun trail.

I loved being together with everyone.  We all had to work hard to get there (some more than others), which meant there was some stress while there.  But I think we handled it, ate chocolate cake, and had a good time anyways.  Its good to know that we can enjoy being together even when things are hard.  I'm sure that next time we get together no one will be stressed and it will be one big party (right).  I love being around my little nieces and nephews.  Its so fun to play with them, but I have to admit it's pretty great having older kids and not having to worry about things like naps, diapers, melt downs, etc, etc.  I'm getting old, but at least there are some good things that come with old age:)

Cute Sofi

Megan and Kate

The hot tub was definitely put to good use

First round of shakes

Parachute fun

Grandpa wearing weird pirate goggles found on the bottom of the lake

Our own private beach

Relaxing on the patio

Cool animals in the parade

The kids swam in the pool.  A lot

The whole family!