Avery Plays Viola, Finally Got Grass, Tyson is home, Caleb at FSY, Family Pictures!

Well, it is officially Sunday night and school starts again on Tuesday. I am honestly really questioning my decision to teach full-time this year, but I am trying to have a good attitude. I think I'm already deciding that I won't teach next year for sure, and the school year hasn't even begun! haha I just really am not looking forward to it, but I have to just make the best of it! So here is what we have been up to for the last little bit of summer 2023!

Avery Plays the Viola

Avery decided that this year she is going to give orchestra a try! I honestly don't know how long it will last or if she will enjoy it, but I'm glad she's willing to try something new! Usually, they start orchestra in 5th grade, but she did art last year. She loves being artistic, but she did NOT love the art teacher. On the other hand, the orchestra teacher, Mrs. Loveland, is basically like a Disney princess and everyone who knows her loves her. Avery is trying this just because she wants to have Mrs. Loveland as a teacher. She decided to play the viola over the violin because less people play it and I think the sound is a little less squeaky! We went to Ferguson's rental shop and got her a viola a couple weeks ago. Then, she participated in an orchestra "camp" every day last week for an hour where Mrs. Loveland taught the basics to every student who is brand new to orchestra this year. This gives them more confidence for the first day of school. They did a little concert and played along to the song "All-Star." It was super cute. 

We Finally Got Grass!

I think I had forgotten just how much it work it was to put in a yard. We did it about 12 years ago for our first Summerfield house, but I don't remember it being such a challenge. I feel like getting this yard in has taken us all summer long. The fence took the whole month of June, the sprinklers took most of July, and then finally on August 11th, we got the sod delivered! We had a bunch of men and boys come help us lay it down on possibly the hottest evening we've had all summer. But the sod was delivered at 3:00 on Friday and by 6:00 it was all done and everyone was heading home! I got a bunch of pizzas and drinks when they were done and hopefully they went home feeling happy about helping! We were just dripping out there! It was 92 degrees. Even I was sweating and I wasn't doing that much! So then over this past week, we've gone and bought trees, and plants, and we just need to get some wood chips still. It's about 95 percent of the way done. So close! Today is rainy and cloudy (but still warm) and I'm glad our poor grass is getting a break from the hot sun.

Tyson Got Home

The first of the Rhodes grandsons, Tyson, got home from his mission to Oregon the first weekend in August. We all went to the Idaho Falls airport and welcomed him home with signs and everything. It's crazy to think that Gabe will be the next one to leave in a year! I am not ok with that. 

Caleb at FSY

Caleb missed Tyson's homecoming at the airport because he was at FSY at BYU-Idaho with his three closest friends, Cole, Benson, and Jameson. He kind of grumbled about going, but I think they had an ok time. I wouldn't say he came home as a spiritual giant like I was hoping, but he did make some new friends. The apartment complex they stayed at was the Loft and it was right across from the Nauvoo House near BYUI campus.  He was gone from July 31 - August 5. He basically had to go that week because it was football "dead" week where they didn't have any practices or anything. We are just getting started with the football season! More to come on that later. Caleb also worked his last day at Rexburg Rapids right before he left for FSY. I think he made a total of $1000 or less this summer because he didn't work THAT much (maybe 15 hours per week for $10 per hour), but it was probably the perfect amount for his first summer job. He still got to hang out with friends a lot and go to football practices. 

Family Pictures

The last big thing on my summer to-do list before school craziness starts was to get our family pictures and Gabe's senior pictures taken. We got my friend, Claire, to come out to the Saint Anthony sand dunes with us one evening in early August and we got them done. We may go out again and take a few more of Gabe, but we got two really good ones that I couldn't decide between for the yearbook. Gabe wanted the one in the blue shirt, so we ultimately went with that one. Here are a bunch of pictures!

That's the update for now! This week is about to get crazy and I am NOT ready for summer to be over!!!

Avery's 11th Birthday, Pioneer Day, Floating Warm Slough, House Lights

Two blog posts in the same month! I'm doing great! Summer always has a lot of fun things going on, and I actually have time to post because I'm not teaching school, so that's why!

Avery's 11th birthday

Avery turned 11 a couple of days after we got home from Montana on Tuesday, July 18! We decided to do the Gravity Factory thing again this year. I think we also did it two years ago. Last year, we were in Wisconsin for her birthday. She invited a few new girls this year that I had never met before. She invited Kendalin, Maddie, and Briella (those are her longstanding friends) and then she also invited girls named Collete, Mya, and Kate. So there were seven girls including herself. We met at Gravity Factory at about 1:00, they jumped for about an hour and a half, and then we had ice cream cake in the party room upstairs. She got some little gifts, including slime, a koala stuffed animal, a journal, and a couple other things. Our family got her a new pair of rollerblades because she had outgrown her old ones, and an LOL dollhouse. I honestly think that purchase is one that she'll grow out of in about a year, but she's been asking for it since we lived in the Meadows and we had told her, "When we get into our big house..." Then we sold that house and it became, "When we move into our new Summerfield house..." so I think she just wanted us to follow through on our promise made two years ago! Josh spent from about 3:30-5:00 after her party ended putting it together in our living room. She also got two new LOL dolls. Here are some pictures!

Pioneer Day and Floating Warm Slough

On Pioneer Day, the city of St. Anthony always does a cute parade. My friend, Claire, just moved back from Arizona and so we invited her family to come along with us. They had never been to it before and their daughter, Annie, who is 8 said, "This parade is better than Rexburg's 4th of July parade because they throw more candy and there are better floats." This is very true! So we went to that parade in the morning and then in the afternoon once Caleb got done with work at Rexburg Rapids, we all went and floated Warm Slough, We did this a ton last summer, but surprisingly, this is the first time we've done it this year! It was a perfect evening for it. It was about 90 degrees, sunny, and no wind!

New House Lights

I also thought I should mention that we continue to do things for our house to get it where we want it to be! One thing we had done on our big house that we built in the country was we had kind of splurged and paid to have these nice, permanent Christmas lights installed. It was about $4800 on our other house, and I wasn't sure if I really wanted to spend the money again on this house. The other thing was that I felt like when we got it all done, I wasn't super happy with the way the white Christmas lights looked on our house. They had a really bright white fluorescent look to them instead of the nice glowy warm white of traditional Christmas lights. So I wasn't sure I even liked them enough to do again on this house. But we saw this house in the neighborhood that seemed to have some really nice warm white lights on one night, so we asked them which company they used and they gave us their number. (It was called High Country Lighting for future reference.) I got a hold of them and they sent someone out and we had them installed within a couple of weeks. It was about $3300 for this house, so a little cheaper. I LOVE the way they look and it has a nice, warm glow for the white lights. We did have a little hiccup the first night when we were trying to get the app working on Gabe's phone and they got "stuck" on this neon green color! All our neighbors were getting a kick out of that! Luckily, we were able to unplug it and plug it back in and it worked fine! Here is our neon green house and a picture of Gabe and Caleb in the driveway trying to figure out the app! Caleb looks taller than Gabe in this picture! I think it's the perspective that the photo was taken. I think they may be almost exactly the same height right now - about 6'1! They have both officially passed Josh (who is 6'0 at best. I think he may actually be even starting to shrink, to be honest.) 

We continue to try and work on our yard and are hopefully getting the sprinkler lines pulled this week! Josh did the metal edging around the spots where we plan to do flower beds and the trampoline and a shed and everything. Next step is the sprinklers, then finally the sod! It will be soooo nice to have grass! I'm so sick of dirt! It is nice having the fence done though for Zeus!

Also, Avery and I went and saw the new Barbie movie on opening day. A little weird, but still okay!

Only 3.5 weeks until I have to be back to work, and I'm trying to cherish every second of sleeping in, having fun with Avery, keeping my house clean, and just getting things done that have been on my summer to-do list! I am NOT ready for school to start! :{ I LOVE summer!

Montana Trip to see Aaron's family and Poppy & Melissa

We just returned from a weekend in Montana! I honestly was kind of dreading this weekend, but it turned out okay after all. I kind of try to maintain and "arm's length" relationship with my dad most of the time. He's the type of person that's good, but in small doses, so when he called Caleb and told him that he was planning a trip to come see us and wanted to stay at our house for a few days and then also drive to see Aaron for a few days, I was like, "Ummmm.... no. This is my nightmare." So, I called him and told him it would be better if he would just fly into Montana and then we would drive up there and see him. That way he didn't have to rent a car and drive from Salt Lake to Rexburg to Montana. 

I was lucky to find a cute little cabin house on VRBO that was near Aaron's house and also close to Lake Como, and we rented that for Friday and Saturday night. My dad and Melissa (and their dog) flew into Missoula and arrived late Thursday night. We drove up on Friday afternoon, dropped our stuff at our cabin on the way, then when to Aaron and Amanda's house for dinner. Melissa had planned a cute little July birthday surprise celebration for me, Avery, and Amanda. We had cake and it was cute. They got Avery this little Yorkie dog that looks like a real dog sleeping in a bed. They got me a little purple zip-up hoodie that I actually liked and will wear! After celebrating and chatting until about 9:30pm, we drove back to our little cabin house and slept for the night.

In the morning, Aaron, Amanda, Colter, my dad, and Melissa all met at Lake Como. This was nice for us because it was only about a ten-minute drive. For them, it was about 40 minutes. We brought a bunch of inflatable tubes and floaties and spent the day on a cute little beach just relaxing, floating in the water, and talking. It was HOT, so really every single one of us got into the water. It was about 90 degrees and fully sunny. It was a fun day. We stayed there until about 4:30. 

Then we packed up, quick stopped at our cabin so we could all change, then drove to Hamilton and ate dinner at a place called Kodiak Jaxx. After that, Avery and I took turns having explosive poops, and it took us an hour and three gas station stops to drive the 20 minutes to Aaron's house. That was fun. Finally, we made it and we spent the evening playing giant Jenga and a game called Cubs. (We threw wooden sticks to try and hit other wooden cubes on the grass.)

At about 10:15, Milana made her first appearance of the trip! She had been working nonstop that weekend between two different jobs and this was the first time we had seen her. We snapped a couple pictures, said our goodbyes, then our family headed back to our cabin. 

We slept in until about 9:00, packed up, and drove back to Rexburg today (Sunday). It was a fun little weekend and I'm glad we did it how we did! Here are some pictures!

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. 

That's all for this post! I also now need to write next about our little Montana trip. Next post!