September

We snuck in a mini end-of-summer trip to McCall with the Wells family. We have come to love this place, and even with all of our summer explorations abroad, the girls insisted we fit in a summer trip there, a summer must. Labor Day weekend we made the trip. The weather was cool; the water was cold; the fun went on!  We only had one day on the lake so we made sure to make that day count.

Somehow Adele just pops right up on water skis!

And the trip wouldn't be the same without doting on Trooper.

And every trip to McCall has to include sunset at the beach.

Geoff took Tennie and her friend Sonya camping, and took Ceci along to keep him company.

Meanwhile, Adele and I had a weekend together at home that included the Avenues Street Fair with family:

We had Ceci's birthday party at the Olympic Park in Park City. With a Groupon, she took Tennie, Adele and Bailey to celebrate with a day of adventure.

First they tried out the ski jump water slide. This was the smaller version and later, when they were ready for the big daddy, the lines were two hours long. Rats. Next time. Here's Ceci:

Ceci's helmet kept falling off. Good thing SHE didn't fall off! 

They took the lift to ride the alpine slide down:

The Fall leaves were amazing!

The ropes course was last, and they really could have spent several more hours playing there.

I couldn't believe how all of these girls just whipped through all sorts of challenging rope configurations. Fearless. 

After conquering both levels of the ropes course they took the zip line to the free fall bungee jump.

Can you see Adele to the left of the tower arriving by zip line?

Here she is ready to jump:

And there she goes!

On Geoff's birthday, Utah Davises met in the mountains for a picnic. It was gorgeous.

Ceci wanted an olympic cake on her birthday:

Can you believe she is TWELVE!?!

Since she was pretty much the only one eating her cake this year, for various reasons, we encouraged her to dig in:

And as one last birthday surprise, we rented a puppy for a few hours. This puppy sure was loved!

Geoff and Ceci took off on Ceci's twelve-year-old daddy/daughter temple trip. It was going to be the San Diego temple, but it was closed, so they went to the Newport Beach temple. She did dozens of names that she had found herself. She loved every minute. As a matter of fact, she went every day that first week, even after she got home. And she has gone every week since.

They went to the beach a few times too. Ceci has decided she wants to be a professional body surfer.

They got pretty silly while listening to the Narnia series on the way home. We got several videos of them mouthing the words and laughing themselves silly.



While they were out of town, Mitch and Nate were in town for a University of Utah football game. They stayed with us for the weekend, and it was fun to catch up.

And all that just on the weekends! School was going full swing. Here is a little breakdown with everyone's goings on:

TENNIE

Tennie is in early morning seminary. She squeezed in driving hours whenever a parent was available, which wasn't very often. She was accepted on the madrigal choir team preparing to compete in October at the Cedar City Shakespeare Competition. She auditioned for a lead role at the Utah Children's Theater and was called back, but another girl got the part. She's on the AISU Dance Conservatory team. She got asked to Homecoming, but kindly turned down the offer so she could go with a group of friends instead. She is on the Stake Youth Committee at church (which helps plan stake-level activities for the youth). She has a 4.0.  Here is the madrigal choir performing at the state capitol. Can you spy Tennie?

ADELE

Adele is in high school! She is also in early morning seminary, which is a little bit of a challenge since she isn't much of a morning person. She is on the Junior Board of CHOICE Humanitarian and had several meetings in September to plan a humanitarian carnival in October. She also did some fundraising for the cause, which is to provide school scholarships for children in Guatemala.  She tried out Decca once a week after school, but by the end of the month decided it wasn't for her. She has made some good friends this year, and went to her first concert with one of them (Oh Wonder). She also hosted a little party. Here she is at the concert with her friend Alexa:

CECI
Ceci is LOVING the new Waldorf school. She and her cousin Bailey are in the same 6th grade class. If not with Bailey, she has a little posse of boys that are her best friends. She comes home from school and tells me every detail, and I don't complain because I don't think it will last! She is required to play the violin at school, and we tried out an additional violin lesson once a week, but by the end of the first month she couldn't stand it, so we pulled her out. It is the only part of school she doesn't like.  She laments that her sister's time is filled with homework and phones and that they don't want to play with her. Geoff tries to get her out to the park for football or frisbee as much as possible, and I try to play card games with her in the evenings, but she would really like a friend nearby.  Maybe someday... She loves going to the temple, and she loves being in young womens!

GEOFF
Geoff is working on some new projects at work, and I'm not sure exactly what he does all day so I'm not going to misrepresent his work here! All I know is he works HARD, and when he comes home he fills every single minute with driving with Tennie, helping Adele with homework, playing with Ceci, taking them to the temple or doing visits as high priest group leader. Seriously, he is a marvel. Our lives are so full that often we simply exist in the same house, but don't get much time to catch up with each other.

ME
Having kids at different schools, both 30 minutes away, is hard. I spend 2.5 hours a day just getting them to and from school every day. I wake up at 5:45AM to take Tennie and Adele to seminary at AISU. I have a carpool to Waldorf (thank goodness!) and they provide the ride THERE in the morning. I pick up Tennie and Adele at 3:10, then pick up Ceci and the carpool girl at 3:25, then take the girl home in Rose Park and arrive home at 4:10ish. Tennie and Adele could take trax home, but Adele hates Trax like I don't like to drive, so I told them I would provide a ride home until Tennie drives. (That can't come soon enough!)
I am spending 1-2 days a week at Bab's home getting her ready to move at the end of October, and I am the chairman of the Festivals/Events Committee at Waldorf, which I wouldn't have signed up for had I known Bab's move would happen this year. The back-to-school nights and meetings with teachers and appointments for this or that keep me pretty stretched for time. September was busy with stake YW stuff, but I anticipate that slowing down quite a bit over the next several months. I went to an orientation and got a background check to mentor a refugee family, but that commitment will have to wait for another time. And I'm slowly chipping away at catching up on posting past months/events I haven't recorded, yet! Up next: May, June and TREK!

Life is good and full. No complaints!