Nathan’s baptism and the end of school

A couple weeks into May, we had a really special day: Nathan's baptism!! 




A day or two before his baptism, we had another round of pandemic restrictions lifted, but we went ahead with our original plan for his baptism (just our family in person + our friend in the bishopbric). We then had a Zoom for everyone else to join; we were so happy that my parents, my sister Elise's family, and many local friends were able to attend virtually! 



Nathan was so sweet and it was a really special experience for us all. My parents gave the talks (via Zoom), Abigail played all the music, Juliet & I gave the prayers, and Luke and Isaac were the witnesses. 


A few days after that, we got to go to the temple with Isaac! (he actually went earlier in the week with Neil & the rest of the young men, but this was the first time that I went with him.) 

We went with our good friends and it was such a neat experience to see all of our kiddos in the temple together--and this was the first week that the temple was open again after the pandemic! 



And then of course we went to grab ice cream downtown afterwards. It was a really special night. 



We held our annual (scaled-down) end of school party for the first time in two years, which felt very celebratory after this year!! Normally we invite everyone we know and have a giant ice cream party; this year we kept it small with just 3 other families and did a cookout. I only grabbed a couple of pictures but here's the dry ice rootbeer & the pre-party decor (I was pretty proud of myself for pulling this together because we left for vacation the next day!). 

We had some really amazing flowers this spring; I think I already put up pictures of the tulips which were AMAZING but the peonies put on a good show too! 

They made an amazing backdrop for our last day of school photo!

A few more last day of school pics...

Cute macarons that my friend brought over--I couldn't get over how darling these were!

Another last-day-of-school tradition returning with the Kona Ice truck coming to our neighborhood...

This was the Sunday before school got out, but I randomly snapped a picture of our weekly Sunday night hangout. Love these people so much!

One day my sweet friend texted about taking the boys & I for a ride (she knows how obsessed they are with cars and they think her BMW convertible is about the greatest thing ever). They were totally in heaven!

My friend & I chaperoned the 8th grade end-of-year celebration--it was such a fun night and the PTO did a great job adapting it for the pandemic! Normally this is an indoor dance but it was SO much fun that I think they might just keep it as a carnival going forward! 

Can hardly believe this year is on to high school!!

And here's Isaac finishing up his first year of middle school with the big coveted Scholar Athlete award...he did such a good job adapting to a crazy year and kept his GPA at the tip-top while doing 2 school sports! Go Isaac! 

 

Spring beginnings

Last Tuesday's track meet was cancelled because we had three inches of snow dumping down; tomorrow (Tuesday)'s track meet will be 84 degrees. Spring in the Midwest, I tell you what. 

But gosh I love this view. That weeping cherry on the right basically covers the laundry room windows this time of year and I LOVE IT; out the laundry room door window I can see the crabapple and Bradford pear and it is a blossomy wonderland. 

A few pics from the last few weeks:

Friday night hike at Fort Harrison followed by a Saturday of painting ceilings (ugh). 

Tulips!!! We planted all these last year when we made the raised beds and I love them soooo much. 

Goodbye braces!!

Hello outside dinners!

Some pics from my runs...

We've been cautiously enjoying playgrounds again (don't mind the child who looks possessed; I just noticed that). 

Nathan asked me to take this picture on the way to the park; we were meeting friends to play frisbee and fly kites. I don't know what this face is but he was really invested in it and asked me to take like ten pictures. 



We found this cool grapevine and the inevitable happened...



And then after a weekend where we had a game night with friends and a bonfire with friends and a park date with friends because IT WAS WARM AGAIN we woke up to this. 

Two days of it!! I really hustled to get those sheets washed and dried again and back out on the plants in between thawing/snow starting up again. Thankfully it worked and my peonies, tulips, and rhododendrons all came through. 

Ah, Midwest. Never change. (Really. Let's stop climate change in its tracks, mmkay?)