summer and summaries

Woohoo! Time to jam in a quick summary of our last 4 months into a few photos and maybe a paragraph or two.

Winter: We skied! It was so fun, we went lots of times and I found some extra gear at Goodwill (helmets, tiny ski poles, a set of skis and boots for me) so we were really pretty ready to go whenever we wanted. We got up on the mountain 4 times in 2 months! I thought that was pretty impressive. Next year we hope to go as much, if not more, especially since my last trip to Goodwill awarded me a kid-sized SNOWBOARD (with bindings!). The boys have been practicing in their room, strapped in with winter boots.

Spring: The house has really come together! We have many trees that blossomed and lots of flowers in the front yard - the previous owners had some lovely landscape, we just need to keep up with watering and weeding. I love the cutesy decorating we have done where we have done inside, and we both look forward to a few more serious projects, like bringing out bathrooms into the 21st century. Joe has been hard at work with the sprinklers - he declared it his second full-time job.

Friends: All the kids have made friends fast and furious - Patrick has gone to a birthday and a Moab hike with his friend Weston, Ethan practically lives at Ray's house (the neighbor over our back fence), Caroline asked to have a "live-over" with her cousins instead of a sleepover, and Eli gets along really well with his cousin Espen and they love playing soccer and football together. The chaos of it all is lovely and even better than we had hoped for.

As for Joe and I, our friends are pretty much Kari and Jonathan; I hang out with my mom a lot, and sometimes go golfing with my dad.

The Nut House: It sold! We went under contract FOUR TIMES, but finally it stuck and we closed 2 weeks ago. That was the craziest thing we've ever done! So now of course we want to do it again.

School: Kids are doing great! Patrick and Eli were recognized by their teachers and peers as Student of the Month for Perseverance and Persistence. As well as being a STEAM school, students also participate in Project-Based Learning: Patrick's grade focused on food waste and how we can help to minimize it; Caroline's grade has been working on the Crayon Initiative - recycling crayons instead of having them to go the landfill; I really have no idea what Eli's class has been up to, but I bet it's great; and Ethan is all signed up for Kindergarten next year and has begun reading to me at home. There are only 7 more days of school until summer! This has been a short school year for them - Olympia school start in September (late) and Grand Junction schools get out in May (early) so they got the best of both worlds, without actually changing the length of any of their summer breaks.

Summer: We have many camps and classes the kids are signed up for! The first week of summer they get a free pass - give them a chance to get bored before we give a little bit more structure! Then Caroline is staying with her cousins's Grandma for a week in Pueblo and the boys will spend their mornings that week at a golf camp. Grandpa Gustavson (aka King John, as he likes to be called) is thrilled to have up-and-coming golfing buddies, so this will help them hone their skills.

The next week Caroline begins an Equestrian Vaulting class that goes once a week for a month - it combines her love of gymnastics with her love of horses. I have no idea why she loves horses so much, I have not encouraged her at all! But I discouraged gymnastics for years and she was STILL persistent (SHE should have been recognized as that student of the month!) so I finally gave in, and she not only loves it, she is progressing quickly and can do pull-overs and the splits. Tennis lessons for all 4 kids begin shortly after, then swimming lessons after that. For many of these activities their cousins are signed up as well, including Kalena and Will coming in from Kansas City for 2 weeks and joining in swim lessons! It will be an epic June and July, I'll tell you what. On top of that, we have about 100 neighbors and friends who have pools so we are making it a point to pool-hop and try to hit them all, plus hopefully travel a few fun places out of town for some swim excursions (Glenwood? Ouray? The wave pool in Craig?).

(Ethan with his best friend Ray)

So I lied, that was 5 paragraphs. But there you have it!