First Days of School

We didn’t start school until Sept 8th this year.  We had the option to stay home and have virtual school or go to school in person while wearing masks and practicing social distancing.  There was no easy choice, knowing both were going to be weird, but the kids all wanted to go in person.  It turned out our schools were each at about 40% for in person.  That’s one way to enjoy a smaller school in Houston!  

Mike is still the seminary teacher, but it’s online this year and he’s only doing one live lesson a week on Zoom.  The students read the online lessons, watch videos, and submit answers to questions every day.  Mike reads their answers and marks attendance.  Lydia gets up early and does her online lesson before school, like regular seminary, but she’s the only one in her class who does.  Mike says everyone else submits theirs at night, some sliding in at 11:58 pm.  I’m so proud of Lydia for being diligent.  She does it all on her own.

Here’s Lydia off on her first day of 10th grade.  Off to catch the bus at 6:30.

So grown up, but her dad still has to tie her shoes sometimes.  

Isaac off to catch his middle school bus just 15 minutes later.  7th grade!
Elementary school is at 8:40.  To begin the year we drove the girls to school.  2nd grade and 5th grade.
Ready to cross the street to school.  (One perk of having Mike furloughed is he gets to be here for all the school stuff!)

Alice’s preschool didn’t start for another week, but we got to go in and meet her teacher before preschool started up.  Alice and Mrs. Dana.  The kids don’t have to wear masks, but the teachers wear face shields and there is lots of hand washing.

Alice’s first day of preschool!  She goes MWF 9:20-2.  Here we’re in the parking lot where we drop off Evelyn and Bridget.  At preschool we’re only allowed to drive through and drop off, so I needed to get a picture before we got there (see her cool arm band?  It has her name and classroom on it.  Alice loved it so much that when she came home she wanted to put it in her baby book.)
At the drop off.  The office ladies take everyone’s temperatures and ask screening questions as you pull up, then they help the kids out of the cars.  Yes, I did cry like a baby when she left.

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Alice loves preschool!  This was sent by one of her teachers. 

Alice: these people (pointing at some) are my friends.

Me: what are their names?

Alice:  I don’t know.

Everyone is really enjoying school.  I know it’s different and not how everyone would want it to be, but the kids are happy.  We are raising resilient children.  

The Beach

With this year being so crazy, we found ourselves almost at the end of August and we hadn’t even been to the beach!  What?!  So we took off to Surfside just an hour and a half from our house.  Surfside isn’t known for its beautiful water.  It is rather brown.  But I do love the beach.  

We found hermit crabs galore!

Look at the variety of shells!  It was ironic that all the pretty shells we found were already inhabited.

Since we had the time we drove 5.5 hours to South Padre Island, known for its beautiful beaches.  We picked a weekday to beat the crowds and got an apartment right on the island.  Turned out the island was far bigger than we expected.  A veritable town.  We drove on a long bridge to get there.  See the skyscraper hotels?  Let’s just say it was far different than the islands in Australia we stayed on.  

The largest sandcastle in the U.S. (or something like that) in the middle of town.

We checked into our apartment to change and headed for a late afternoon swim.  The water was definitely bluer than our Surfside, but from what I heard it wasn’t as clear as it usually was.  That probably had something to do with Hurricane Laura going through the gulf just the week before.  

Snack break!  I tell you, cold watermelon on the beach is the best.


The sand was fine and nicely buildable.

My favorite part about this picture is Isaac’s reflection.  I couldn’t reproduce one that clear no matter how many pictures I took.

See?  (Look at all those beachfront hotels.)

Eventually we realized we needed to eat dinner so we headed back to our apartment (NOT beachfront) and while the kids bathed, Mike and I made a gourmet dinner (a box of pasta, jar of pasta sauce, and some sliced cucumbers).  After the kids crashed into bed Mike and I decided to walk along the beach in the moonlight.  It was so dark!  I expected the light of all the hotels to make it bright, but it didn’t.  It was nice anyway.

The next morning we got up and ready to watch the sun rise over the ocean.  Everyone agreed that was their favorite part of the trip.  The beach was so quiet.

Waiting. (A photography lesson in light positioning.)

Almost here...

Behold Evelyn’s power!

And because I’m kinda dorky.

We had a wonderful morning at the beach.  Then back to the apartment to bathe and change and check out.  Before leaving the island we visited the Sea Turtle hospital.  They take in injured sea turtles to get them back out to the wild.  They also have 4 injured resident sea turtles that live there and are part of a neat exhibit.

South Padre Island was neat.  We all had a good time on our trip, but I think we all agree that, as far as beaches go, our closer Surfside is just fine.  

Happy Birthday Bridget

Bridget turned 7!  Evelyn made piggy pancakes at her request. 
Our good friends, the Batemans, surprised Bridget with a birthday song and cards.

Bridget with special flowers they made for her.  (And Bridget let me do her hair all fancy, a rare event.  She looks so elegant in a bun.)

A birthday swim at the neighbor’s pool.

Bridget asked for a blue watch, gum of her own, and fancy chapstick.  Happy girl.

Last year Bridget had a piñata cake and she wanted another one this year.  (Apparently a candy filled cake wins over the doll cake.)

Success!  Look at that face!

Jellybeans, nerds and sprinkles inside her strawberry cake.  (Nice, Lydia.)

Happy birthday to our sweet Bridget!

Summer Adventures part 2

After our crazy huge road trip we were happy to be home.  For a time.  Then we decided, Mike is still furloughed, our church responsibilities are sort of on hold because of COVID, let’s get out of here!  Mike’s family had a proper reunion scheduled back in Idaho in August so we cancelled our plane tickets and took to the road again.  This time we decided to hit some National Parks along the way.  Thanks to Evelyn technically still being in 4th grade we got free entry to the parks.  To be clear, we did not camp.  I’m not THAT crazy.

First we explored Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. 

Then we drove to Moab to see Arches.  It was soooo pretty!  I couldn’t stop taking pictures!  Here are just a few.  You can see Delicate Arch waaayyyy in the background on the left.  We took the shorter overlook hike instead of the long hike up to it.

The Double Arch was everyone’s favorite!

The rock was so red!  I loved it!

So pretty!!  I want to come back and spend days here!

Then we got to Idaho for the Johnson reunion.  We had a blast even if I took near zero pictures.  This place had pool, a bounce house for the little ones, and a rock climbing wall (with harnesses and everything).  Evelyn did great!

Mike discovered he’s not as young as he used to be to compete with his young adult nephews at capture the flag (he still has a scrape scar on his arm over a month later).  Here are some pictures I took after we were all cleaned up for professional family pictures.  I love Alice’s grimace.  Eventually kids learn how to smile.

Three beautiful Johnson girls.
I’m telling you, the teenagers we have are amazing.  I’m so glad they had this incredible time with their cousins. (RM cousin Jacob crashed the picture, but he’s pretty cool too.)

After the reunion we headed to Orem, Utah for a couple days with my family.  Beautiful women in fabulous Italian scarves from Amanda!  We look like 4 million bucks!

Creeking.  The water was so frigid it hurt my feet!  But the kids were unfazed and they had a blast.

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Lydia was somewhere and Victor was being held, but other than that...

After a wonderful visit with the Tammens we headed home with a few stops on the way.  Bryce’s Canyon was our first stop.  It was gorgeous!

I love that this picture looks like it has a fake backdrop.



We drove through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Park and saw some crazy rock features on that 30 mile dirt road. 

A quick stop at Glen’s Canyon.  It was like 100 degrees and we were tired.  But it was gorgeous.

We did some great hikes at Natural Bridges.  It was beautiful and quiet.  We saw maybe two other people there.  

And there you have it.  Family and God’s beautiful creations.  We had the most incredible summer!