Back to School

After months of decline, Covid cases in Utah started rising again over the summer and we went back to mask-wearing at the beginning of August.  It was a disappointing step back but we're glad we have an easy method of improving our chances of staying healthy, and helping others to stay healthy.  This meant wearing masks to school, which the kids don't like, but they didn't fight it too much.  It's nice that there are a few other students and teachers at their schools who are wearing masks too, so they're not alone.  

Eliza and Luke met their teachers at back-to-school night the week before school started.

They're both excited about their teachers!

Eliza's best friend is in her class, and took the liberty of
setting up Eliza's things in her desk cluster.

At back-to-school night, Luke was given a get-to-know-you poster to fill out.  We thought they were due on the first day of school, so he had a few assistants helping him finish so that we could have some movie time the day before school started.  It turned out that the poster won't be used until Luke's birthday in the Spring, but oh well.

First Day of School!

11th, 8th, 6th, and 3rd Grades

It was a big day for me too!

I completed a challenging hike I'd been thinking about ever since my surgery.

Then Ben and I went to Salt Lake to replace my wedding ring and have a yummy lunch.

I caught Cat doing homework in the backyard that night.

In addition to the poster, Luke's teacher also gave him a page to fill out, except that with all of the papers I got at back-to-school night, I thought it was for Eliza's class (one of these days teachers will learn to label the papers they give parents at these things with the teacher's name).  Eliza filled it out, brought it to school, then brought it back and said it was for Luke.  So we used white-out and made a copy for Luke to fill out.  He was still finishing the coloring on the way to school on Day 2.  Off to a great start!

The trend continued with these two... on the third day of school, Luke left his

backpack at home (and it contained a homework assignment he didn't tell me about)

and Eliza left her lunch at home on the fourth day.

But all in all, it was a good and smooth week.  I appreciated that we eased into homework (except for Cat) and extracurricular activities (again, except for Cat).  Jack started playing with the middle school baseball team at the end of the first week, and Eliza's new activity, Aerial Silks, began the second week of school.

I couldn't believe what they were doing on the very first day!

And just for fun, these are two of the first assignments Luke brought home:

Notice the mess in the middle of the floor - at least he's accurate.

For the ease of reading:
This was one of my favorite summers in my entire life!
I went to Hawaii.  There we went to Turtle Bay Hotel.
There was lots of food and pools.  At our pool there were two slides!