Jorgenson Adventures: August Happenings

With August comes the last of the birthdays. Hallelujah. Kate's birthday was on a Sunday. A fast Sunday no less. She was so excited. We still managed to make her birthday good, I think. And then the next day she invited a few friends to go boating. It ended up being all girls because Zack wanted no part of it and Jake was busy so he just dropped us off. We girls had a good time. Sage's birthday involved having her BFF over all day, going to a trampoline park, and having Grandma and Grandpa over for dinner. She was very specific that the grandparents come on her actual birthday. The poor grandparents are always really sick of us by the end of birthday season. They get stuck making way too many trips to Midway. But we enjoy it! Sage wanted pizza for dinner and donuts instead of a cake. I was happy to comply. Kate asked for homemade ice cream instead of a cake. I think I've trained them well.

The Saturday before school started we managed to convince Jake to leave all the things we needed to do at home so we could go boating at Starvation Reservoir. We had a lot of fun! It's a really pretty reservoir and we were able to boat for most of the day. The kids are finally figuring surfing out, and a little bit wake boarding. We spend a lot of time going in circles to pick people up. But it's great fun with all of us together. Love it!

The kids have been in school for almost three weeks now. We're enjoying every second and feel blessed that they get to go. This is the first year ever that there was no complaining about school starting. And there still hasn't been much complaining. Zack and Kate are enjoying high school. Kate is so happy to be out of middle school. Hooray! Kate and Sage scored because Zack takes them to school every day. I kind of love watching all of my kids drive off together. Good memories in the making. Sage struggled a bit with middle school at first, but now seems to have found her groove. She's made a good little group of friends and is so happy to not be stuck with the same kids from dual immersion. Six years with the same group is more than anyone should have to endure.

Last week was our first, and hopefully not last, mountain bike race of the season. It was at Powder Mountain, where Zack had his big wreck last year. Gratefully there were no wrecks this year. In fact, Zack and Kate both did great. This was Kate's first time doing two laps, so she was nervous. But her hard work all summer paid off and she finished strong! Zack has also been working hard and really wanted to do well. His wreck the first race of the season last year kind of threw his whole season off, so he was hoping to make up for it this year. He had to start 47 people back, so there were a lot of people to pass. But he went hard and ended up finishing 5th! We're so excited for him! This year especially because this is the first year the kids have to qualify for state. Looks like he should make it. I was so surprised to see him early that I didn't realize it was him and got no pictures. What a failure. Just know that he went fast and looked great. Jake's been Zack's coach all year so I think he was doubly happy.

I guess I shouldn't end this post without discussing the bats that have been living in our house. That was part of August after all. Even though I'd like to forget it. Last week Zack came downstairs one morning and said there was a bat flying around his room. What?! We've had a couple of birds get in the silo, but a bat is a whole other story. We couldn't find the bat after a bit, so Jake and Zack were convinced it went out the window. I wasn't so sure. And the more I thought about it during the day the more I was convinced that we were dealing with more than one bat. When Jake got home we went to look outside at the silo. Jake really thought they were just hanging in the eves outside and just one got in. I insisted we look inside the silo, and when we did it was very apparent that there were a lot of bats in there. A lot. Up inside the insulation. I think a hole got made in the plastic, so that's why we were now seeing them. Ugh. I still can't even think about it. Makes me want to puke. Anyway, long story short, we ended up having two bats in our actual house. The rest stayed up in the silo. We're paying people an obscene amount to get them out. It's a process apparently to get rid of bats. First they came and filled in all of the holes. They left a few one way doors that allow the bats to leave the house but not get back in. They waited a week and are currently here cleaning it all up. Although I'm paying a ton of money, I'm so so so glad I'm not the one cleaning it. Now we know that most things Jake refuses to pay and does himself. Except when it comes to bats. He draws the line at bats. Thank heavens. People keep telling me that some day I'll laugh about this....

Happy Birthday Kate! 14

Birthday boating!

Oh yeah! Our washer and dryer of 20 years finally broke. Love my new ones. It took Zack and I a few hours to install them and Zack was born again squeezing out the side after we plugged everything in.