2024, May 20-26

We head into Memorial Day weekend with both kids out of school and the parents done too. 

On Monday, the deer came down to feed in a field near the high school. Hallie was excited that Eliza wasn't with her so she could take a picture. 

On his walk, Mike finally got a picture of the non-Fergus orange cat in the neighborhood north of ours. This old feller has seen better days. 

Kai came back early in the week, much to everyone's delight. 

Eliza really likes to get pictures taken of herself with Fergus. Fergus puts up with a lot from her sometimes.

Mike finished his guest teacher assignments for the school year on Wednesday, and Landon finished sophomore year on Thursday with a half day. School's officially out for summer! 

The weather was pretty good for kite flying, so Mike got his out. Unfortunately, a rogue gust got the tail/wind sock caught on the second story gutter. We tried to get it down from below but had to resort to cutting off the tail. 

Fortunately, the kite still flew fine.

 

Later in the day, Mike was able to get the tail down from the roof and reattached. All's well that ends well!

 

Eliza enjoyed a riding lesson at BUH on Friday. Hallie was able to catch Eliza warming up the horse before her lesson.

Eliza and Hallie took Kai to a local dog park with our friend Amanda and her dog Frankie. Eliza was able to get smart Kai to run through an agility course there. 

Now that school is out and the weather is warmer, Eliza wants to go camping in the tent out front. Thing is, we've had some stormy weather leading into the weekend. We thought about doing it Thursday night, but we got some light rain in the evening, so Mike postponed it. Good thing too, because the sprinklers went off in the wee hours. Then Friday going into Saturday, we got a lot of rain. So, Mike and Eliza made a fort in the living room with chairs and a sheet and her mattress. 

Hallie and Eliza went to a horse show at Eliza's old stable, Creekside on Saturday. 

Eliza enjoyed having the mattress in the living room. She got to lounge while watching TV. Here's something Mike found funny and a bit ridiculous: She had to turn her head to watch this video shot in landscape mode.

  

Sunday dawned sunny and delightful. We have a number of wild animals in the neighboring fields. On his walk, Mike met up with this lone quail calling out for the rest of its covey before it flew off. 

He got a nice view of Timpanogos and Buckley Mountain with furrowed fields in the foreground. 

Later in the day, we had our Sunday social in the front yard rather than in the alley. Going out front has the advantage of the view, the shade from the trees, and the playground all close at hand. 

2024, May 13-19

As we close out the school year for Eliza and Hallie, we also celebrated Mom's birthday this week. 

Here is Landon dressed in a clone trooper helmet. The helmet came courtesy of his friend Sonny who was in a band concert at Springville High that Landon and Hallie attended on Monday. The theme was video games. It was a good concert to go to. 

Turns out that several of Landon's friends and Hallie's students played at the concert. 

Eliza and the other girls who participated in the horsemanship show last week got a photo posted on BUH's Insta page. 

We had Kai for a couple more days this week before he went back to Brittany's for the rest of it. Hallie is in love with the second picture. When Kai is not with us we miss him!

He always enjoys a chance to run errands with Mom and stick his head out into the breeze. Landon was driving so Mom got to get a first hand glimpse of the action.

Do you recognize Hallie in this picture? (Hint: She's not wearing red.)

Mike got to fly his kite not one but two days this week. 

Hallie spent the week helping Mrs. Kelly move classrooms and to ready the preschool to move next door. On Thursday Hallie was able to substitute for Mrs. Kelly while she was doing something for the district. The students were awesome as usual. 

She called up Mike on Thursday to hear that Eliza, Kai, and Fergus had him trapped on the couch while he tried to work from home.

Here are Eliza's zany Yates Place friends. Friday was their last day of school. The students had their end of year presentations and talent show outside Peteetneet Academy. 

Eliza showed off her taekwondo skills and acted in a play. 

We celebrated Hallie's birthday over the weekend. On Saturday we shopped around for a car for Mike and had Panda Express and treats from The Chocolate. On Sunday, we went up to Hallie's favorite deli in Midway, Hidden Peak Provisions. We kept each other entertained while we waited for our meals. 

Our food tasted delightful and was presented beautifully. 

The owner even brought Hallie a birthday waffle! 

Afterwards, we saw the movie IF together at the theater and enjoyed a quiet evening at home. Now that the girls are done with school, Landon looks forward to school ending next week. Work will start for Landon soon for the summer. Mike is transitioning into other part-time endeavors, and Hallie is keeping her eye out for something to keep some money coming in over the summer.

2024, May 6-12

As the school year winds down, the celebrations wind up. 

A local police officer lost his life in the line of duty last week. Law enforcement personnel from the state helped bring his body back to Santaquin on Monday. His funeral is on Monday the 13th. Hallie and Eliza had the chance to watch the motorcade pass by.  

Mike found this interesting Utah-shaped LEGO creation at work. 

Here we have Kai with his new-ish stuffed toy. Hallie had to throw another one away because Kai managed to tear it apart. He can be very tenacious when he wants to be. Cleaning up the fluff is not what we like to do.

A tree that Mrs. Kelly had in her classroom got moved out into the hallway. Mrs. Kelly and Hallie are on the swing. All of the high school students/teachers are featured on the tree. Mrs. Kelly decided to move it where the preschoolers and their parents entered for their graduation so the parents could see pictures of all of the teachers.

 

The preschool program is coming to an end, and the preschoolers and high schoolers all celebrated this week with festivities and programs. Hallie brought cupcakes on Tuesday, and here some of the high schoolers are enjoying the sugar.

Here are some of the four-year-olds Hallie worked with over the past two years. They have been so much fun and it is great to see them moving on to Kindergarten.

Meanwhile, Eliza is teaching Kai new tricks. Alas, he went over to his other family on Friday, but we'll see him back on Monday.

 

Eliza came to school with Hallie on Thursday. Here she witnessed the high schoolers thinking quickly on their feet on how to keep the preschoolers busy before their parents came for the program. It was quite funny to see most of the students pitching in to act out The Three Little Pigs. 

Here are the students from Hallie's B Day 1st and 2nd period classes.

We got some precipitation and with it a rainbow midweek. 

Celebrations carried on all the way through to Friday, which was Hallie's last teaching day. She'll help Mrs. Kelly move the preschool to its new location next week. Below are a majority of the A Day teachers from 1st and 2nd period.

Below are a few of the three-year-olds from Hallie's class. All but one is coming back next year. These three-year-olds have been so much fun! To listen to them talk to each other is so insightful.

Eliza wasn't around to dissuade Hallie from taking pictures of the deer. Here's the backside of one. 

BUH had its annual open house and horsemanship show on Friday where they showcased the classes and the girls' riding skills. 

Eliza's horse Rome wasn't so sure about going into the arena. Eliza had it under control, however, and once she got him in there, Rome did his job and they worked beautifully together. Eliza has a great touch with animals, and it is fun to watch her work her magic. 

Eliza took first place in both categories in which she rode. Congratulations to her and all the other participants!

Hallie and Eliza went up to Salem Hills High to participate in a fundraiser they had on Saturday. Students sold plant seedlings for us to plant in the garden. 

Landon will work at Splash Summit again this summer. He and some friends had an orientation Saturday afternoon, and Hallie took them up. On her way back, Hallie stopped by the new home of Beehive Bazaar on State Street between Provo and Springville. 

On a walk, Mike spied this bumblebee pollinating a neighbor's garlic plants between afternoon rain showers. 

He also got some (fairly) dramatic views of Mt. Timpanogos, or whatever counts for dramatic from a camera phone.

 

Hallie found this unique way of growing strawberries as she and E went to Rockwell Ice Cream and IFA. Rockwell is having a month-long promotion of new flavors with new ones each week. Hallie bought some of the planter supplies and is hoping to try to get her version finished this week. When you live in a townhouse, you have to be creative on how to garden. Up seems to be the key for us.

Someone on Instagram who does a bee-themed armorial drew a rendition of Mike's arms, so now he's part of an exclusive club. 

On Mother's Day Sunday, E took Mom and Dad over to see Jack and Raunchy, whom we hadn't visited in several days. The boys were in serious need of some brushing. 

Diamond and Caleb sent Hallie a fun LED rose and butterfly display. Thanks, guys!

Eliza likes to baby Fergus. Fergus doesn't always like to be babied. 

We are excited as this week brings Eliza's school year to a close with a scene from a play she is in, a party that includes her taking part in the talent show, and her ballroom dance class showing their final number.