2020, August 24-30

An eventful week, this one, with the first full week of school, many trips back and forth in and around town, BYU's annual all-university conference, and other notable activities. 

Mike and Hallie went to the Springville farmers market on Monday. We saw many local crafts and foodstuffs and even bought a few tasty treats.  

Eliza enjoys having Fergus as her fellow classmate. He usually sits next to her and even lets her comb his fur. 

As we were driving home from taking Landon to school, Eliza and Mike saw this cute ladybug car. Ladybugs are Eliza's favorite insect.

Mike "splurged" on a "tapestry." Online image-to-print is amazing and surprisingly affordable! 

He also got some fun pins for him and the kids to put on our backpacks.

And facemasks. 

To help with her fidgeting, Eliza had little tubs of thinking putty and Play-Doh. She challenges herself by making tall sculptures. 

For recess, we'll take rides along Hobble Creek. This week, Eliza would skate while Mike rode his bike. On Monday, we rode to the library and got some books and videos. We also rode through some rough burrs, and Mike's tire sprung a leak. He thought it was just a slow leak, as has happened with the kids' bike tires, and that generally worked. However, on Friday we discovered that if we take too much time riding around and enjoying the stream, the tire will go too flat to ride on. Fortunately, they were only about a mile away from home, so it wasn't a terrible walk. Eliza raced back to get the pump, but somehow we missed each other as she came back. Once Mike walked the bike home, he searched for her by car. An eventful early afternoon, for sure.  

We had a bit of excitement on Saturday afternoon when we saw black flames erupting from across the freeway. Turns out there was a fire at the Springville Transfer Station (the local dump). 

We have spent the last couple of weeks following along with Taika Waititi and friends as they read Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach (one of Mike's all-time favorite books from his childhood) for Partners in Health. We finished the series on Sunday, and now it's time to read the book (and watch the movie) again! 

We wished Diamond a happy birthday and visited some with her and Caleb in the afternoon. We then had dinner at G & G M's later. As we were leaving, we noticed that the van's tire had gone flat. Fortunately, it was a slow leak, and we were able to pump up the tire and drive home. It just means that next week already promises more of the unexpected.