Wrapping up Our Lazy Summer Days

We have a big calendar on the wall in our family room where we can see at a glance what the main events are each day. The difference between the days in the first half of August and the second half was significant. The pace of our lives started to speed up in the second half of August; the back to school season is both exciting and busy. We love the lazy days of summer but the new school year is a great time as well. Something about the whole school year ahead of us makes me want to make resolutions and set goals more than January ever does.

Emily has been talking about senior photos for a while. She definitely wanted to have photos beyond the ones that are taken at school for the yearbook. One of her school friends recommended a photographer to her, but it was way more money than either of us wanted to spend. Does anyone else feel as if high school events like senior year, prom, and graduation are becoming as big of a deal as a wedding used to be? I mean, we're proud of Emily and all she's accomplishing but pretty much everyone graduates from high school. Actually, I just looked it up, 83.2% of American kids graduated from high school in 2014-15. So not everybody graduates, but the odds are pretty good and while we're glad she's going to graduate I don't think this is going to be the biggest accomplishment of her life so we're going to hold back a little and skip the ticker tape parade. Wow, longest sentence ever right there....

Sorry, back to the senior photos story! She wanted senior photos and we wanted to make that happen if we could do it affordably. This is where our sweet and talented friend Sherrie comes in. Emily is friends with Sherrie's daughter Mikayla and when they were talking one day happened to mention that she wanted to have senior photos done. Mikayla reminded Emily that her mom is a photographer and would probably be happy to take Emily's pictures. After a few conversations about location and dates we had a plan and were in Bury St. Edmunds taking pictures in the rain at the Abbey Gardens. We are so grateful for good friends! 




The week before school was Girl's Camp for Emily, Abigail, and Samantha. Every year our Stake here camps in the same place, Camp Liahona, and we're lucky that it's within our ward boundaries and just a short twenty-minute drive from our home. That was an especially good thing this year as Abigail and Emily are both on the Student Council at the high school and had obligations at the school almost every day that week. They were able to drive to and from camp and school, fulfilling their obligations at school but not missing out on all the fun at camp. Natalie and I spent a day at camp as well helping the camp cook feed all those girls and leaders. It was a quiet week at home with just the two of us so it was nice to be there and see our girls.


It's a good thing the girls spent so much time camping in the back yard this summer. It helped them be well prepared to set up their tents on the first day of camp.
Samantha and Jamilah are always so silly together
Abigail and Lucy, the only fourth year girls from our ward, were tentmates this year
Samantha traversing the tightrope on the obstacle course
Whoever decided to put Abigail and Emily head to head in a competitive situation was either a genius or didn't know our girls well yet. I just hope there was no yelling and fighting involved.
Emily kayaking during free time (she did not like it very much)
Even Natalie took a break from kitchen duties and navigated the obstacle course
It's a pretty common thing for the spouse of a deployed military member to try and fill their lives and their days with as much as possible to keep their minds off the separation and make the time apart seem to move faster. Or at least that's what I do. I become super-productive Sarah when Jared's gone because it's easier to focus on a mile-long list of things I want to accomplish than to focus on the fact that my husband is away. The problem with this for me is that I sometimes take on more than I can really handle.

For example, I thought it would be fun to have an end of summer/back to school party so I set up an event on Facebook and started inviting people. We have a good house for parties and the kids always love having people over. It wasn't until RSVPs started rolling in that I added up the number of people we were going to have here. FIFTY! We didn't consider numbers when we were inviting friends, just who we wanted to have over. Fifty was way more than I was imagining when I decided we should have a party. But the weather looked like it was going to cooperate so we had all of the outside space to use. Plus I wised up and realized that making rolls for the pulled pork sandwiches from scratch was a stupid idea when I could just buy buns at the store. Things started to seem less overwhelming and it ended up being a really fun evening that we would absolutely do again. But probably only when my husband is here to share the load of all the preparation, clean up, and (most importantly) small talk.

The first day of school finally arrived, no matter how much we wished it wouldn't. There's not much to say about school this year yet as we're only one week in, but we're all involved in one way or another with learning and school.

Jared's making good use of his time away and, when he's not breathing fire, is working on a Master's Degree in Organizational Leadership. 
Madison has completed three semesters at Utah State University. Thanks to the AP courses she took in high school she is officially a junior this year!
Emily is a busy kid this year - school, student council, NHS, work, volleyball, soccer, church, and maybe sleep. Her senior year is going to be crazy.  
Abigail is our sophomore and she's also got a busy life. Pretty much everything on Emily's list is on Abby's as well. Just take out work and NHS and switch volleyball for cross country and you get an idea of what fills her days. 
We love this middle schooler! Sometimes middle school kids get a bad reputation, but Samantha is a sweetheart.
It's Natalie's last year of elementary school and we all agree that there is no way she is old enough for middle school next year. We're excited to see how she grows and matures this year!
Even I'm busy in my new position as the new PTO president at Natalie's school. Just another example of Jared's deployment leading me to keep busy. It's a little overwhelming for this non-PTO mom, but I'll figure it out and I think it will be a good experience!
And that's a wrap! August is over and we're officially looking forward to autumn. September is already filling up with school activities and sporting events and here in England the weather is already making that shift to cooler nights.  I'm ready for sweaters, soup, and hot chocolate with breakfast, how about you? 
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