Back to school 2023 and Juliet’s birthday!

Lucky Juliet, she got to start her first day of junior year on her 16th birthday! (Rough, right? We had her celebrations beforehand.) 

Jules and Isaac are together at the high school in 11th and 9th grade. 

Luke is flying solo in middle school in 7th grade. 

And Nathan rules at the elementary school as a 5th-grader! Matty is his faithful 1st-grade sidekick. Sidenote: this is the last year that Matthew will ever share a school with a sibling. Crazy. 

The week before school started was PACKED with all kinds of back to school walk-throughs, orientations, kickoffs, etc. 

And I think this is so sweet--Neil is part of the Turtle Dads (finally revived post-pandemic!) and on the first day of school they all showed up to help kids find their classrooms, get a high-five or fist-bump, etc. I just love the push for more inclusion of dads as well as moms. 

 Meanwhile Abigail has been working two jobs and packing up her stuff for college--we fly out a week from today!

Indiana Dunes National Park & Lake Michigan

We had two weekends in a row where we got to go hang out with friends at the beaches along Lake Michigan--so fun! I'm just going to combine all the photos into one post, but we FINALLY made it to Indiana's national park after driving a gazillion hours to go to other more far-flung parks. Hah!

We went to our favorite beach in St Joe the second week and I have to say I really don't think the national park is that impressive! Maybe if we were hiking around through the dunes in the fall or winter, but in summer it was SO hot and humid that I did not want to be anywhere other than in the water. 

So much fun going with friends; we've done this the last weekend before school for years and it's one of my favorite traditions. 

My friend Steph and I soooo often show up dressed alike. Sometimes it's just something similar, sometimes it's the exact same piece of clothing (we've done this with shirts, sweaters, swimsuits...I finally just cut to the chase and started buying stuff when Steph sends me links because she nails my preferred style!) 

So grateful for our framily (friends who are family). 

Not sure why this one is so washed out but...I'm not going to fix it. 

Matty decided to chill in the shade with my special snacks (frosted circus animals, yum yum). 

I think this is from the second week--it was chillier! 

Totally chuckled when I saw this group of dads very intently discussing BYU's conference changes. 

Nice photo bomb, Aaron...

Always a fantastic day!

 

December

December! One of the best times of the year, amiright?? We celebrated Christmas this year on the 17th (and the kids very graciously waited to open presents until I finished my live 90-minute Peloton ride, I told them that was the gift I wanted more than anything, haha!)

It was a BUSY month. We practiced with our snorkels in anticipation of our big trip (gosh I am still so heartsick about that, ugh). 

Ate a million candy canes...



Isaac and Luke spent a ton of time working on their robot design (their robot qualified for state next month!!) and spent a lot of hours over the Christmas break at the school in the robotics lab (the dad of another guy on their team is the athletic director so he was able to access the school). 

Did a lot of puzzles, including this beautiful one my grandma sent us. Hopefully someday this won't be bittersweet (Matty just came up as I was typing this and said "I wish we could go to Dry Tortugas...")

I think we made sugar cookies when Neil was out of town and I sent this picture to him bc he knows how much I HATE making sugar cookies. 

Poor guy had to go to Colorado for work, he had an awful weekend...

Funny texts I get from my kids. So many good ones. 

One of my favorite things at the holidays is all the yummy treats, a friend in our ward brought these and they were so beautiful! 

About a million Peloton rides and trying my third attempt at the return to run program...

We made SO MUCH CRANBERRY BREAD. 

Got these gorgeous pics back of Abigail (I really need to download and print these!). So many beautiful ones, here are 4 I really loved. 

One of my best friends took these and I was so happy she was available because Abigail felt SO comfortable and natural with her. 

We made our annual gingerbread house!

And we went to Luke's first band concert, they sounded SO good. Like amazingly good. Neil leaned over to me and said "That's how you get national champs by the time these kids are in high school." 

I don't remember what this dinner was but Matty's face was so funny. He really hated it. Ah! It was shaksuka. 

We did SO MUCH PACKING and trip prep...

So. Much. Prep. 

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Lots and lots and lots of game nights!

This game is SO awesome, my sister introduced us to it at Thanksgiving: Quacks of Quendlinburg

And tons and tons of puzzles.

And here are our Christmas pics! 

This star bread is so yummy and beautiful. 



Petit fours from my grandma, one of my favorite holiday things. 



Cute little Matty setting the table for our Christmas Eve dinner. 

 

Always love a good Christmas morning photo--here's Luke with his block and tackle!

And a few from other times that break--more cookies...

Cheese board night...



And this is always a favorite, basically all appetizers and sushi made by the kids. I think this might have been right before we left, judging by all the packing stuff in the background.