Our Journey as we chase the dream of sailing the world!
As an apparent obligatory event, here are the school photos of the kids on their first day back this year. They are all attending Summit Academy schools this year.
Andrew will be starting Kindergarten next week, but you don’t get a photo of him since his first day hasn’t come yet. These kids were all super excited to get started with a new year, new school, and new friends.
One of my favorite persons that I’ve met since coming back to Utah has got to be Les Hamilton. We were in the same ward for a few months before a split, and have only talked a dozen or so times. But every time I talk to him I like him even more than before. He happens to be the AD at Summit Academy High School.
A few weeks ago I wrote about how we had gotten the kids all ready for school. Well, last week Les shared a post on Facebook that Summit Academy High School was still accepting applications. I had known that Summit was the closest school to my parents house, but I thought there was no way we could afford it.
When Les shared his post, I contacted him and told him I would like to consider it but that I was worried about cost since I’m a disabled vet who just lost everything.
Turns out I’m an idiot (no shock to the rest of you, I know). Summit isn’t a private school… it is a charter school. No tuition!! There is no reason my kids couldn’t attend.
So I got online ASAP and put in applications for all of my kiddos. They had room for all of them but Andrew, the one going into kindergarten. They were reasonable enough to tell me that if I registered the others that they would “make room” for him.
So now the kids are all changing schools again. It’s been a pain in the “lower torso” to take care of the withdrawals, fees, new schedules, and uniforms. But I think the change will be a good one. My kids are now attending Summit Academy schools in Bluffdale.
And this morning, despite the headaches and current life turmoil, we were able to successfully get the children off to school. I think they were all even wearing clean clothes!
Nikki was nervous about the new school. She really thrived at Central Elementary in PG. She’s a bright little girl and I’m sure she’ll thrive here too. Josh wasn’t interested in classes but more excited about Cross Country and Volleyball that both start after school today.
Caitlin just wants to find people she knows. Kris and Charlee and excited to find friends too. They all are looking forward to a great school year!
And so are we!!
Funny side note. I called and withdrew the kids from the public schools. The people who answered were all nice and polite and said it was no problem.
They all said they needed to note where the kids would be attending. When I told them Summit, they ALL became much less polite, and borderline rude. One of them asked the new school, and when I replied with “Summit Academy” I got back, “Summit?! OK, got it” and she hung up on me.
I know there is political tension between public school advocates and advocates of other options. But this was my first taste of it on a personal level. I was a bit surprised at first.
I understand that public schools don’t want to lose the money that comes with each kid, but apparently they don’t understand that they are also losing the COST of the kid and the needed effort/energy to care for him/her. But since they (and almost everyone else) focus on money…
I was feeling pretty good on Monday evening, and we wanted a break from housework, so we went rock climbing.
Unfortunately I can’t climb AT ALL! Julie can climb pretty well, though hasn’t done so since we got here to UT. Our climbing time is all about the kids. They love it. They feel accomplished and strong and love to tackle new challenges. Like all siblings, they especially love trying to outperform each other by making a climb faster or by accomplishing a harder route. It is an individual event, but great for the whole family.
There is an indoor rock climbing wall in Provo called The Quarry that is just right for us on Monday nights. On Mondays, the cost is only $6 per person from 6pm-10pm. This is a serious discount that we would like to take advantage of far more than we do (this was only our second time).
They have more climbs than I have been able to count. I haven’t asked, but I’d guess the walls are up to 45-50ft tall. They have many, many options. even the youngest enjoy “climbing the alphabet” (alphabet handholds that ascend the wall). The staff is polite and helpful as well as the other patrons!
Most of the wall space is set up with ropes in place waiting for climber and belayer to connect and climb. These range from a beginner/youth level to advanced difficulties.
They also have a significant amount of space for lead climbers as well. This section has carabiners in the wall waiting for a climber to ascend with rope in tow. This section is all advanced climbing.
Not only do they have traditional climbing walls where harnesses and a belay are necessary. They also have an awesome “bouldering” room. This area has shorter walls but requires some high-skilled technique to complete the “routes”. My kids don’t follow those, but just climb using anything available. This is great fun because they can each climb at the same time rather than waiting for Mom or Dad to be available to belay them on the traditional walls.
I admit I can be a braggart about my kids, and this is no exception. They are awesome!! None of them are afraid to try even the hardest walls, yet they still succeed more often than they fail. When they have shown mastery over an entire section of wall then they attempt to just do one route on that section (doing a route limits your hand and foots holds to only a certain color rather than simply using anything within reach, this makes it much more difficult and requires more skill AND strength).
Steven, our littlest monkey who can climb, has yet to make it up an entire section of wall. His short arms and small hands make it very hard. But he still gives his best and is getting better. He likes to show off when he finds an overhang with a hold he can hang from.
Andrew can make it to the top of certain portions of the easier sections (like the alphabet) and finds a way to scamper up many portions of the bouldering room. His arm/leg length is the only thing holding him back from the most difficult sections. Kid is a great climber.
Nikki, only slightly taller/longer than Andrew, has the same issues he has. That little bit of difference though shows up in what she can do. She can scamper up most walls that her older siblings can do.
Charlee is soooo strong at this! On Monday she was about 1/3 of the way up one of the harder sections when one of the college kids next to us started up near her. In short order their heads were at the same height. I jokingly told her she’d get $2 from me if she beat him up the remaining 30ft. I just paid out the money!! (Poor kid really heard it from his friends for losing to a little girl!)
Kristie is a whole ton of strength wrapped up in her petite frame. Her light stature and strong grip make her a machine on those walls. She is able to get anywhere she decides to get to! Any time I give them a new goal (“climb this route and touch that hold”) she is likely to be the first to accomplish it!
Joshua, well, being the biggest and strongest tends to make him the best at our sporting activities. This isn’t any different. In terms of pure ability, he is our best. The others are more impressive because of their size, but he is our strongest climber and most skilled. He tries harder routes than the others, and so he fails more often. But he keeps at it and gets better quickly.
Caitlin didn’t make the trip this time. She was sick and stayed at home with the little one.
As with all such activities, I’m always left wanting more. Mostly I want to be able to participate myself, I admit. But the kids have so much fun and do so well that I want more for them too. I love their smiles, laughs, and effort to do well.
Unfortunately time is scarce, and money is even more so. So this isn’t a regular event for us. But it is one that we will try to repeat as often as occasion and finances will allow. If you are looking for a fun activity to try as a family, then I highly recommend you give this a try!
I should add a shout out to Paul Murray and his great rock wall at the Family Cinema in West Plains, MO. His wall was the first one to which we took the kids. It is also an awesome location and we have had a ton of fun as a family there as well. If not for Paul’s friendship and suggestion we might not have tried rock climbing as a family, and we would have missed out on something awesome if we had. Thanks Paul! Hope all is well!!
Like dominoes, there are a lot of things that have to fall in place to accomplish even simple tasks around my parents house. Answering “where will we park?” is one of those.
The driveway at my parents house is about 400 ft long and takes a near 180 turn into the garages on the back. Unfortunately nobody has been able to park there for some time.
The culprit is the 40′ motorhome that my parents bought that dominates that space. That huge machine doesn’t really fit into the space nicely, and it makes it really difficult to park another vehicle in there. And so for years now nobody has. Instead my parents (and visitors) have been parking single file in the driveway and walking across the front lawn.
“Dad, when we move in, where will we park?” With more than just my parents living there soon, we need to find another way to park. It’s totally impractical for us to continue to try parking single file in the driveway indefinitely.
Because the area in front of the garages has not been drivable, other items have taken over that space. So, to answer “where will we park”, the answer was “right there were those bags of mulch are.”
That answer naturally leads to “where are we going to put the mulch?” Well, in one of the flower beds of course. The only problem was that none of the flower beds were cleaned out and ready for mulch. So we set the younger kids to pulling weeds out of the flower bed bordering the soon-to-be-parking area.
The kids did great. They were aided a lot by Julie and her boundless energy who would go over and help them out when ever I took one of my all-too-frequent breaks.
With that flower bed getting cleaned out and looking much nicer, it became painfully apparent that the tree in the corner of the bed was in dire need of a good trimming. And so that task was set upon as well.
A good 90 minutes were spent trimming and grooming that tree. There were numerous branches reaching out and rubbing against the house/shingles. Those were largely removed. Many branches were crossing over/under each other or growing down toward the ground that needed removal as well. And then a whole lot of others that were growing over the parking area were so low that a car would have a hard time getting through them. Some branches were so think that the loppers were traded in for a reciprocating saw.
Not letting that be enough, now that the weeds were pulled and the tree was trimmed we could easily see how much stuff and been placed under there while we were doing our cleaning. So now we needed to find a new place to hide quite a few “eye sore” items. That led to the need to clean off a pallet to place those items on…
You see how this is going right?
In order to fully complete one project another one is required, which needs another, which demands something different. It is a long line of dominoes that need to fall to make this house comfortably livable for the 12 people who are going to live there.
If there are any expert domino players out there, I’d love the help!
Did you notice that with all that work, I didn’t mention what we’re doing about the real problem, the motorhome? Well, my parents will be taking it on vacation shortly after we move in. While they are gone we will clear out a better place in the yard for it to go when they return.
This post is for you if any of the following apply:
You know Joshua
You like to laugh at Joshua
You are considering having a child
You have a child
You wonder why that child can’t find anything, ever
You like to look at grass!