1st Day of School 2026

First day of school 2026 . . . & then there were 3.

Craiger is a sophomore this year & is super excited about learning sign language, dancing on the varsity ballroom team, chemistry, & just being with friends.

Bladen is our senior this year.  He is the E-sports president at the high school, a member of the leadership academy (student leaders), & is excited for his 5 college courses this year.  He also is happy to be in advanced percussion again.  It's going to be a great year.

Canyon is in 8th grade & is focused on being a leader this year.  He is a Web leader, part of the PTSA board, a member of NJHS, is running cross country, singing in choir, part of the drama club, & playing bass in advanced orchestra.  There's 2 other leadership positions he's applying for at the school so we'll see if he gets either of those, but he's happy to be around all the students, leading them, & helping make the school a great place.

Good luck kiddos.  It's going to be a great year!

 

Craiger's Homecoming Surprise

Craiger asked one of his best friends to go to Homecoming with him this year.  He's got such a fun friend group & I love them all so much.

He asked her with an axolotl with a cute saying about "asking a lot (axolotl) for her to go to homecoming with him, but we were not expecting this as an answer & it was SO hilarious.

Video:

She showed up with all her friends & a TOILET saying "I was so excited I pooped my pants!"  Then when you lift the lid it says "Yes."  We were all laughing so hard.  These 2 are such good friends that this was a hilariously perfect way to answer Craiger.  She's such a fun person that makes everyone laugh.

The most hilarious part though was that after all this happened (at almost 11pm at night), we went to church the next morning & one of the boys in our congregation started telling us a story about how a toilet wound up on his front doorstep at midnight the night before.  We knew instantly what toilet it was.  We told him what happened the night before & showed him pics & he confirmed that was indeed the toilet on his porch.  I guess some of the guys that were helping with the answer knew him & knew that he lived close to us, so they left the toilet there.

I made Craiger go pick it up so they didn't have some random toilet on their porch that they had to deal with.

And then of course Craiger decided he wanted it as a decoration in his bedroom.

SO, long story short. . . that's how a toilet wound up in Craiger's bedroom as decor.  These kids are so funny.

 

Saying Goodbye to our Missionary

August 5th, we said our goodbyes to Taya for the next 18 months.

Lorien came the night before to say goodbye.

Craiger had to say goodbye early in the morning because he had Ballroom Practice all day long.

The rest of us drove down to Provo & had lunch at Brick Oven with Cadence & Amkaa so they could say goodbye as well.  We ran into Taya's friend Jeff while we were there.  (They serve missionaries for free on Wednesdays.)

Brick Oven's homemade root beer is SO GOOD.

Amkaa had to get to work so he said his goodbye & the rest of took a little walk before having to drop her off at the MTC.

We took some cute pics with Taya at the top of the riverwalk on campus.  It's so pretty up there.

There may have been some tears.

We dropped her off at the Missionary Training Center & got about 30 seconds to say final farewells, then we watched her walk away.  I pretty much cried the entire way home, but I am SO PROUD of her.  She is going to go out & be an amazing missionary to the people of the Philippines.  She is SO excited.

She found her companion right away & started getting everything settled.  She got moved in with 3 other girls & everything is great.

As sad as it is to say goodbye, we are SO excited & SO PROUD of Taya.  She is going to be an amazing missionary.  Go & do great things kiddo!  You are AMAZING.