An Update

 Well life continues pretty much as it has been - with work, school, extracurriculars, etc. Ben is getting closer to participating in his monthly "drills" with his Army unit. At least we think . . . He did go up to Fort Carson in Colorado Springs a couple weeks ago and got his Army get-up. It just made me laugh seeing him in it, but it is pretty neat. Lucy had to take a picture of him in his camo and share it with her friends and teacher. :)

Work and life is good for me. I don't love having all the three kids home all day (Emmy is at school every other week, so then it's two kids home all day). It's just hard to work on things, etc. with them all home and around the house. I feel if I work on something, I am distracting to them and their schoolwork. I help Emmy a lot with her assignments and homework.

Miles and Jonas have finished their mountain biking season. Well, the riding part. There is some "gathering" happening next week - although I am not sure that's allowed from Gov. Polis at this point, so we'll have to see . . . Miles has started two college classes: College Algebra and College Biology. He's doing Spanish as well and all seems good with him. He works once a week (10a-4p) at Crash Burger and that's good for him. 

The boys have been going climbing at the Rec. about once a week. It's pretty limited and so it's good they can do it once a week. A neighbor/friend/ward member was kind and took our 2 boys, plus their friend Aiden, to a cool outdoor climbing area in Ridgway yesterday. Alex, the gentleman who took our boys, taught them how to lead-climb. My boys were super-excited about it. Jonas is doing okay with his schooling - although online learning is not for him, really. He's set to begin the public high school come next semester in January. He's doing pretty good, though. He drives his car in the church's parking lot and does great with the stick-shift.

We are remodeling their basement room and they are super excited about - especially Jonas. The man we hired, a gentleman named Phil, is really nice and is working fast. I spend the past few days staining and sanding 50 12-feet boards for their room. I hope the idea/plan I have will turn in to a cool room!

The girls are fine. Emmy likes being in-person, but also doesn't totally hate her at-home weeks. Although it is way more boring for her. I do allow one of her best-friends to come over on Wednesdays and they do their school and such together. Emmy babysat for our friends yesterday for almost 6 hours! The mom is out of town with their middle child, Aidrey, so Emmy babysat Milo (5) and Trent (1). I may have had to come over and help Trent go take his nap . . . he was quite screaming. :) It was their dad who took our boys climbing, and so I had offered Emmy to babysit. She loves that family - as we all do, really. The parents are awesome and the kids are adorable.

Lucy continues to be happy (except when she's crying) and loves school. She's doing great at gymnastics and both girls love it a lot. I had our parent-teacher conference this past week and it was all glowing reports for Lucy. :) I choose not to do Emmy's conferences as it was all Zoom and I am way over Zoom. Plus, they are for 5-minute time-slots. As Emmy's home every other week, I feel I actually know what's going on with her and schooling anyways.

Brigham had audible farts yesterday. Ha. The dogs go wild foraging in our garden and it's all fun and games until they have diarrhea, toots, and the such. :) Bella continues to be her spunky self.

Pictures: (Totally out of order)

We went to the pumpkin patch in Junction and had a lot of friends there as well. It was a lovely day and the kids all had a blast. Here are some cute kids, Aidrey and Trent.

I didn't take any pictures of our day in the pumpkin patch in Junction. Luckily, others took a few. These are of Miles and Aiden on the pedal carts. Ha.

Oh! Miles' Onewheel! Long story . . . he had been looking for one. We found one . . . sent the specs to Uncle Derek who approved of the Onewheel. Only problem? It was in Utah and my people (i.e., parents) who always pick-up items for us, were away in St. George. The seller wouldn't hold it and had someone coming to look at it on Friday. So, I was able to get my Uncle Randy to check it out and buy it on Thursday. Yay. Then my dad picked it up on the Monday they got back. On Tuesday, my dad and I met in Green River and I got the Onewheel and surprised Miles with it. It was fun. Miles paid for it all and loves it. He rides it all around, to seminary sometimes, etc. So cool.

Jonas and I spray-painted some lockers yellow at first and Jonas sprayed one of our garden flowers. Lovely.

Jonas climbing the Ridgway Dike Wall.

The boys' demolished room.

How one looks going to school during Covid, cool weather, and the month of Halloween.

Emmy likes to do make-up art, specifically wounds. Some are really amazing and totally look real!

A fat Jonas made by Instagram.

The girls love taking pictures of themselves . . . 

Emmy's newest hair-color: purple.

Peace selfie.

Coach Kirk had to sell all of his gym stuff because his building was sold (have I mentioned this before?). So we ended up buying these lockers. We painted them yellow at first and I hated it. So we went with white and I like them! They are pretty bulky, but I'm getting used to them. They are handy to hide all the kids' coats, backpacks, etc. So that's nice.

We are doing drywall on the top half (plus a few inches more) and then will be doing wood planking for the bottom section of the boys' room. In multi-colors! I stained the wood brown, white, gray, blue, and green. The stacked pile on the right were all the ones I had sanded at that point. I finished them all Saturday night. Jonas helped with staining about 1/4 of them - he would have done more, but had to go mowing. He was quite helpful when he was around and it went so much faster with the two of us. I was bummed he had to go mow . . . as was he. Ha.

Miles way up high (scary!) - lead-climbing. I guess Jonas and Aiden were pretty nervous, but Miles just went and did it. Alex didn't trust the boys to belay him, so he didn't climb. Ha. 

Emmy and Trent at the pumpkin patch.

And our favorite video. I don't know why we all love it. I mean, it's so weird, yet funny for some reason.