Flashback Fashion

Tonight, Katelyn wore my eighth grade "graduation" dress (specially ordered by myself, and made by my talented mother) to her eigth grade "completion" celebration.

Rebecca in her backyard (with her grandparents), 1990

Katelyn in her backyard, 2011

In my case, it really was a graduation, because I was leaving junior high and starting high school. 

 In Kate's case, it's just a "completion", because even though Katelyn will be a Freshman in the fall, she is not graduating from junior high.  Our local junior high hosts 7th-9th grades, and the high school is just 10th-12th.  And that means that Katelyn will spend more time in junior high school than she will at a high school, since she started 6th grade at a junior high school in Washington.

In Katelyn's lingo, she might say that's "Pretty grand, eh?" 

That's My Kid!

This morning, I woke up early and found Emily on the computer.  She explained that she wanted to write a poem.  In a matter of minutes, here's what she composed:
 

Happy Memorial Day!

Here's a little message for those who've passed away:

Thank you for the work you did, and who we are today.

For without you we wouldn't be! Nor this place we live.

We're honored by your sacrifice. Your lives you'd freely give.

You fought in battles, long and hard! You raised our parents well.

Because of you, we freely talk, and learn and work and dwell.

So, on this Memorial Day, We'd just like to claim:

Thank you, and we miss you! We'll try to be the same.

We'll strive to do our very best; examples, just like you!

Lastly, I'll just again say: Thank you and we love you, too!

 Emily Larson, 12 years old

Some Strange Place

To cap off our family reunion weekend in St. George, we visited Snow Canyon.  It feels like another planet!  The sand feels sweet beneath the feet, and the plants add an ocean of bright aqua.

 So bright, in fact, that as we walked through the canyon and glanced down at our arms, our skin looked blue!  Pictures don't capture the magical color. 

But they do capture some of the fun.  Gravity check:

After playing in the sand dunes, we drove through the canyon, and then some of us made the return trip to the park entrance on our bikes.  It was about a three mile ride, and 97% of it was downhill!  We smiled the entire way down.  We saw birds, butterflies, and chipmunks, and even a long black and yellow snake on the trail...Olivia joined the I Spy fun and pointed out some other familiar creatures: "See those humans?"....but no gila monsters, and no turtles.  Maybe next time.

What's Next

I always need something on my calendar to look forward to.  As soon as one anticipated event ends,  I start to ask myself, "OK, what's next?"  And I've come to realize that all of these little things I anticipate have an underlying theme: getting me closer and closer to SUMMER!  I think this is why January is always so hard for me.  There's not much to look forward to--it's all too far away!   2011 has gone something like this:

January - looking forward to Hawaii!  Then I'll come home from Hawaii and it will only be a few more weeks of winter, probably!  Spring Break will be just around the corner, and after that I'll be busy planning our Family Reunion in May.  By the time we come home from our Reunion, the girls will only have two partial weeks of school left, and then it will be SUMMER!  CAN'T WAIT!

Those were my thoughts, starting the day after Christmas.

Doug always warns me not to expect too much, because it leads to disappointment.  He's right, but somehow that lesson just hasn't kicked in yet.  I have been disappointed that winter seemed to last much longer than anticipated, and Spring has been much less thrilling than I thought it would be...in fact, it hasn't felt much like Spring at all yet.  And now that I was anticipating Summer, I'm afraid I'm going to be let down once again!

If I could just make friends with Mother Nature...but she's such a fickle gal!  She should know I'm not a very patient person when it comes to high maintenance drama queens.  I think that's why our relationship is on the rocks right now.  I'm really trying to focus on the positive, you know? 

Like this:

One of my favorite pics from the Reunion.  It shows a lot of elements that made my weekend so wonderful--family gathered together (6 of Doug's 8 brothers + their families), sunshine, playfulness (and a little bit of competitiveness mixed in), relaxation, laughter.

We came home and I looked at my calendar.  This week is pretty much empty.  Soccer has ended, school is winding down, and time seems to be slowing down...which would be perfect, if we weren't back to that January weather! 

Oh! Somebody's Got a Birthday!

...and Doug had to stop somebody else from blowing out the candles for her!  Also notice that the birthday girl can multi-task: brush little Polly Pocket-size-Rapunzel's hair, and blow the candles mid-stroke!

How we love our three-year-old Olivia!