Gabe's High School Graduation, Josh and Grandma Sue Come to Visit, End of the School Year

Well, it's been a busy past couple of weeks, and I've taken a LOT of pictures! Here are the main events!

End of School Year Festivities

Avery finished up 6th grade this week! She will no longer be at the middle school next year, and she is excited to come to the junior high where I will be teaching 8th grade again in the fall! Her last couple weeks of school had a lot of fun things. She took field trips to the Idaho Falls pool, the movie theater in Rexburg, Gravity Factory, and Porter Park. She had lots of fun with her friends, Nora, June, Sarah, and more. I think she's kind of on the outs with Sarah at the moment, but it seems like there's always some drama with girls this age. On the Wednesday of the last week of school, Avery came to school with me and Grandma Sue! She played a Kahoot game about "Mrs. Rhodes." She took first place, and my mom took second, so we let the three people after her and my mom get candy! Also at the junior high, we had an end of the year BBQ one day, we had an assembly on the yearbook handing out day (Tuesday), and we had lots of fun and games. I decided that my last day of school would be Wednesday because my mom flew in on Tuesday night and was only going to be here until Saturday morning. So I brought her and Avery to school with me on Wednesday. Then on Thursday it was the attendance final day, so I took that day off and hung out with my mom. On Friday, it was a half day (out at 11:45), and I took that day off too, so I actually had to get a sub for the last day of school! I had told my students that I wasn't going to be there past Wednesday, so we did all our fun stuff on Tuesday and Wednesday. Here are some pictures of the last day in my classroom with my students and with my mom and Avery!

Gabe's Seminary Graduation

Gabe graduated from seminary on May 19th, the Sunday that started off the last week of school. He got asked to speak by Brother King about a week before the graduation, which he was not super excited about, but he did a great job! He talked about Brother Woolley and how he enjoyed learning from him these past few years and living next door to him! It was a fun night! The Hughes family came to support him and Grandpa Rhodes, but Josh was still gone and Grandma Rhodes was at Halle's seminary graduation on the same night. Gabe's friends, Sophia, Kamryn, and Jackson, also came to watch.

Gabe's High School Graduation

Gabe had his big graduation ceremony at BYUI on Thursday, May 23. They have typically done the graduation ceremony at the high school out at the stadium, but we've had such wild weather the past few years, that they decided to ask BYUI if we could have it in their I-Center. They said yes (most likely because President and Sister Meredith also had a daughter graduating from Madison!) So, for the first time ever, the high school graduation was at BYUI indoors. I think the principals probably liked it so much that they will try to keep doing it there, but I kind of wish it was at the stadium. It was bad weather that night though, really rainy and cold, so I'm sure they were glad we had done it inside. Josh and I got to sit up in these really close seats among all the graduates because Josh got a special ticket for being the police chief. My mom, Josh's parents, Caleb, and Avery sat a little bit farther back. I was able to get some good video of Gabe accepting his diploma. Here are some pictures of graduation day! (Claire took some more just yesterday of Gabe in his cap and gown, so I will post those later when I get them back!)

Gabe's soccer team

I just need to share these pictures of Gabe's little soccer team. I can't remember if I've talked about it before, but Lauren asked Gabe to coach the team that her two little boys, Tommy and Clay, are on because no other parents wanted to do it! Right now, their record is 2 wins, 2 losses, and 2 ties. They have one game left, so we will see if they tip the record in their favor or not! Here is a picture of Gabe with his team and of me and my mom freezing as we watched their game on Wednesday night!

Josh and the boys go fishing

Josh was home for 3 days for Gabe's graduation. He got home on Wednesday evening. Thursday was graduation, and then Friday he went out fishing with the boys and Porter. They didn't really catch anything, but they had fun! Here are some pictures! (Doesn't Josh look so small next to the boys now!?)

That's a lot of stuff about Gabe on this post! But Caleb and Avery are doing well too! Caleb started his summer job today (Memorial Day) at the golf course. He had to wake up super early to be there by about 5:30am. He was there until about 10:30. He said he had a lot of fun. He and his friend, Benson, are working there together this summer. He came home and said they were driving this little modified go-cart around the sandy areas to smooth them out. He said it was so much fun that he would do it for free! haha I was like, "Um... really?" It's nice that he's getting paid $15 per hour though! 

Avery and I went shopping in Idaho Falls today. She has suddenly grown like, 4 inches in the past few months I bet. We did a HUGE closet cleanout a few weeks ago. Today, the goal was some new swimsuits. We went to this store in the mall called Janela Bay, and she found 3 really cute swimsuits that she liked. (Goodbye, money!!) I told her that when I was her age, my mom would buy me exactly ONE swimsuit for the year. If it was wet when I wanted to go swimming again, that was just too bad. I would be putting on a wet swimsuit! We also went to TJ Maxx and got her some new t-shirts and a sweatshirt. Then we went to Shoe Carnival and got her two new pairs of sandals because none of hers from last summer fit! We bought her a size 9!!! That's what I wear! Crazy! Sometimes I wonder if she's going to be 6 feet tall! She's probably about 5'4 right now and she's not even 12 yet!

Prom, Mother's Day, Mission Pics, and more

Spring is here! The weather has been so nice lately. I think they said it's an El Nino year or something, so that means it's unusually warmer this spring. Today it's about 65 degrees and sunny! Here is what we have been up to the past month!

Prom

Gabe's senior prom! Caleb decided not to ask anyone to this dance, which I didn't push because it's expensive and he doesn't have any money, and I didn't want to pay for it! Gabe went with Isabelle Marshall, a girl from his English class. He's not super interested in her romantically or anything, but he had a fun group of casual friends and he's been hanging out with some of them more lately. His group was Amos and his date, Davi and his date, Brock and his date, and Sam Billman and his date, Jackson and Kamryn. I honestly didn't know all the girls. He has known Amos forever and has gone with him in his group before, but this is the first time he has gone with all the other people. I'm glad Amos was in his group though because his dad takes really nice pictures. ;) For their day date, they went bowling and then to the BYUI ropes course. Then they came home and got ready. Then they met for pictures at the BYUI gardens and then went to dinner at Red Rabbit and then to the dance. He said he had a fun time! Here are some pictures:

The End of Track Season

Gabe and Caleb both did track this spring. Caleb had done it last year, but this was the first and only year for Gabe. He kind of just joined for something to do, but soon it became clear that he had one goal: to beat Caleb in discus. Caleb is naturally bigger and stronger than Gabe, but he doesn't really ever work hard to get better at things. Gabe, on the other hand, would go out into the field by the clubhouse every day after school with Nathan Hughes, and practice throwing the discus. At first, he could only throw about 80 feet. With every meet, he would throw a little farther. Caleb was always averaging about 105-110. As time went on, both boys improved on their scores. They both qualified to go to Districts because they both ended up being in the top five for throwers on the Madison team. Then, at the district tournament last week, Gabe ended up finally out throwing Caleb at a meet. Gabe threw a 120 and Caleb threw a 113. Neither of them qualified for State because Rigby has a whole team that can throw over 130, but it was fun for Gabe to finally throw farther than Caleb. Here is a picture with their track friend, Davi, and a picture of their final scores from athletic.net.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year was a little weird without Josh here because I kind of still had to do most things around the house. The kids did things here and there (mostly Gabe), but I still did the dishes after dinner and did some laundry and all that. It wasn't really a full day off. We went to church and then came home and Gabe made chicken on the grill. Then we went for a bike ride around the neighborhood. The weather was probably the best day we've had so far this spring. Also, the day before (Saturday) we went to the temple. It was a young women's baptism day activity, but they needed Gabe and Caleb and a couple other young men to come along and do the baptizing. I just went along and helped Avery in the locker room and watched the baptisms. It was a lovely day! Here are some pictures!

Josh Tours NYC

Josh has still been living his best life at the FBI Academy. He would say it's not his "best life", but the pictures say otherwise. He recently spent the weekend in New York City, touring the World Trade Center memorial, the Statue of Liberty, and other police sights. Here are some pictures of him that he texted to us. He will be coming home in about a week for Gabe's high school graduation, along with my mom who will be flying in from Wisconsin! They will both be here for about 3 days, and then go back to Wisconsin and Virginia. Then we will fly out to Virginia on June 5th to watch Josh graduate and drive back through Wisconsin on the way home. The past two months with Josh gone have actually flown by. I can't believe I almost didn't teach this year because I was so worried about being a single mom and teaching at the same time. I think I have realized just how much I typically handle on my own on a normal basis anyway! Sorry Josh if you ever read this! Whoops! But it's true. 

Avery's Orchestra Concert

This year was Avery's first year playing the viola, and she did great! She has made a lot of improvement! At first, we had to have a viola tutor named Ellie (a former student of mine who is now in 9th grade) come over and write the letters of each note in her sheet music. Now she can do that by herself, and she's really getting the hang of it! That is probably because Mrs. Loveland is the best teacher ever, and makes being in orchestra SO fun! She is excited to do orchestra again in 7th grade. At the concert, she played a song from Jurassic Park and Mrs. Loveland came out dressed in a dinosaur costume! It was so cute. She conducted the whole song dressed up as a dinosaur. Here are some pictures of Avery after the concert! I am also throwing in a picture of me and Avery on an evening bike ride around the neighborhood, which is something she is ALWAYS asking me to do! I have to document te fact that there are no houses currently built behind us, which is something that I know sadly won't always be the case!

End of the Year and How-To Speeches

There is so much more excitement coming up in the next few weeks, but I can only talk about what has happened so far because this company I use to print my blog books is going out of business and I want one final book before the do!  So, I will just mention that we have been busy with our How-To speeches in English class and I always love the fun we have! There was a little drama involving some boys giving out buzz cuts in the bathroom yesterday... lol... but I think it's fine now. Never a dull moment! Here are a few pictures of students! I actually have loved this year and I told my students yesterday that this has probably been my favorite grade I have ever taught!

Gabe's Missionary Pics

Last but not least, we went and got a few pictures of Gabe taken at the temple the other day! I am still probably going to have Claire do some more, but this girl on Facebook was offering to do them for free, so I jumped at the chance! They turned out really nice! I can't believe we know where Gabe is going, and he will be leaving for Spain in a couple of short months! I am going to probably cry every day, no lie. He is such a good and easy, helpful kid. I love laughing with him and talking with him about my funny moments from school. It's going to be really hard! I am secretly hoping President Nelson announces that missions will be shortened to 1 year soon so that Gabe doesn't have to be gone so long! I'm not holding my breath, but it would be cool! Here are some pictures. 

That is all for now! I can't believe in the next two weeks, I will have a high school graduate! There's going to be a lot of things coming up this summer!