Rhodes Family Page: Summer fun - Jobs for boys, Tennis for Avery, 4th of July, Huntsville trip, Home projects

We got back from Disneyland on June 5th and celebrated Caleb's birthday on June 6 (see post below). Then summer vacation 2023 officially began!

Summer sports/activities

Right away, Caleb started to have football practice in the mornings at the high school from 7-9am. Most days it was just lifting and he would get done before 9am, but I was happy he was getting out of the house and taking a break from video games. He also started working his summer job part-time at Rexburg Rapids as a lifeguard. Gabe also did this the summer he was 15. He probably only works about 20 hours per week, but that's good for him because he still feels like he works "all day." The shift that he seems to work most often is 12pm to 4pm. This is good because he goes to football in the morning, comes home for a few hours, works for a few hours, then still has the evening to himself and to be with his neighborhood friends, Benson and Jameson. Sometimes his friend Cole comes over too.

Caleb's other big excitement was that he traded up his PS4 to a PS5. (It's a new video game system.) We sold the PS4 on the Rexburg garage sale page for $130, then sold about $40 worth of other old DVDs and old videogame accessories at Game Stop, then he chipped in about $150 and Gabe chipped in $100. It cost $400 for this new game system, which I think was ridiculous, but he was very excited about it. Gabe likes to act like he doesn't play it, but he does. Here are some pictures of Caleb:

Avery has been mostly sleeping in and relaxing this summer. However, she did do about two weeks of tennis lessons in the second half of June. She would go Monday through Thursday from 10am-11:30am and it was really nice because we would just ride bikes over to the high school and it was at those tennis courts. Then at 11:30, I would ride back over there and ride home with her again. She's tall, a fast runner, and pretty good at hitting, so I think maybe tennis could be her thing in high school. She has insisted that she doesn't want to ever do dance again, but I did also put her into a cheer/gymnastics class at Madison Gymnastics Center. It's just once a week on Thursday evenings, so she's been to that for about a month so far. Here are a few pictures of Avery. One day, we went to the Idaho Falls Zoo too.

Gabe kind of lucked out this summer with his job. He was almost about to work construction, but then at the last minute, Josh decided to call this guy, Greg, who is in charge of the ground/parks department for the city of Rexburg to see if they had any openings. Greg said he would find something for Gabe to do and he could pay him $14 per hour. Gabe wasn't sure about it at first, but he really likes the guy he spends most of the day with (Cale, this 27-year-old kid with a mullet who just got engaged) and they just drive around and check on sprinklers. He also was in charge of prepping the baseball fields for this big tournament in June and he spent a whole weekend just watching baseball games and running out in between games to reset the fields. He typically works from 7am - 3pm on Mondays - Fridays, which is a shift he really likes. I tried to stalk him one day and take some pictures, so here they are.

4th of July 2023

This year was one of the first years that I can ever remember that we were home and Josh DIDN'T work for the 4th of July. Last year, we went to Wisconsin, which ended up being kind of a letdown because it was thunderstorming and they didn't even do fireworks at Lakeside Park! So this year, we started out by going to the parade in the morning. We sat by the Milners in front of the Family Crisis Center. The setting up chairs thing is always a hot debate in the city of Rexburg. Some people try to set up chairs in their "spot" on Main Street the night before to save it. However, Gabe was instructed by the city grounds manager on July 3 to drive around and collect chairs that were set up on Main Street that were blocking the sidewalk from local businesses. Haha He and Cale had a blast doing that. He said they got yelled at by some old ladies. Oh well.

Anyways, after the parade (which Caleb couldn't come to because he had to work at Rexburg Rapids from 9am-3:30pm) we came home and put on our swimming suits. We stopped at Freddy's for lunch, then we went over to Rexburg Rapids. We kept Caleb company and swam there from about 1:30 - 3:30pm and Brittaini came and brought her girls too. Then, we went back home, showered and changed into comfy clothes, and got some food ready (fruit pizza) to take to the Milners. We went over to their house (next to our old house that we built!) for dinner and fireworks from about 6:00 - 10:00. Jay's parents were there and a few other friends, and we watched Jay as he tried not to start any houses on fire! He always buys some big fireworks, and we always are a little nervous. One did start to shoot towards the house, and we all got up and ran into the garage to avoid death! I was secretly happy that we didn't own the house next to him as he was lighting of fireworks!

Huntsville with the Ensigns

One of my favorite things to do around the fourth of July is to go hang out with Chris and Holly and their family in this cute, white, farmhouse that they rent every summer in Huntsville, Utah. (I had to include this picture of Chris and Josh we just came across from their mission! 25 years really changes things!) We didn't go last year because we were in Wisconsin, but I think this is the third or fourth time we have gone. This time it was just our family and the Ensigns and no one else for those few days. It was really nice! We went down there on Thursday morning, July 6th and just stayed until Saturday afternoon. We did boating on Thursday night and all day on Friday. The kids spent a lot of time tubing and wake surfing. Caleb and Gabe really got the hang of it by the end, and were even throwing the rope into the back of the boat and just going without holding onto anything. Holly and I spent some time on a little beach with her two sets of twins and Avery. We also spent lots of time just riding on the boat. It was a fun couple of days!

Getting the yard done and the office fixed up

When we moved into this house in March, I knew there would be some things we needed to do to make it our own, but those things would have to wait until summer when the weather was nicer, and when I had more time because I wouldn't be teaching. One of my goals was to get the office room looking cute. We just kind of threw our Ikea desks in there when we moved in and that was it. So, I finally convinced Josh to help me one day put shiplap on the wall and get these Ikea bookshelves set up with trim around them and the desk in between. It's still not completely done (I want to put gold handles on the drawers) but it's 90 percent of the way there. Here is a before and after picture.

The yard is still a work in progress. We knew we basically would need 3 steps. Step 1: fence. Step 2: sprinklers. Step 3: Grass and bushes. The good news is, we have step one done. haha That's it! It took most of the month of June to get the supplies ordered and picked up, the fence posts set, and then the panels put in. Now it's mid-July and we are HOPING these sprinklers get done by the end of the month. Then maybe in August we can get sod laid down and get some bushes. It's a process. Sometime in the future, I want to do a pergola with some outdoor hanging lights too. I would be shocked if that happened this year though. So for now, please enjoy this picture of Gabe, Josh and the Burtons working on the fence.