A fresh school year

August 23 was a big day in our house -- all five kids had their first day of school (well, mostly, as we'll explain in a minute) -- including one beginning college and one beginning kindergarten. Talk about big changes.

Melissa, already in Idaho, started her freshman year of college with freshman orientation before a full week of classes (none before 9:30 a.m., though, so her sleep time isn't disrupted too much).


Colin and Carson are back in middle school (8th and 7th grade, respectively). We are fans of their school and it's pre-high school program. Colin is taking high school geometry, and Carson high school algebra.


They're also looking forward to their CCP (core curricular period -- time during the school year that they can explore other interests such as fossils, cross country, or extra tutoring).


Dylan is in fourth grade. No big deal (just ask him). He has a "man teacher," his first. He made a good group of friends last year, so he's happy to back with his buddies. He is hoping to be selected to the band so he can learn how to play drums.

And then there's Levi. As the youngest of five, he's been waiting for this moment to arrive for years. His anxiousness to start school elevated as we shopped for school clothes; multiplied as we shopped for school supplies; and was further amplified as the calendar wound down to August 23rd.

And then, a week before school started, we got a letter (in our house, THE letter). Levi would start school on Wednesday the 25th. Ouch.

But we made the best of it. Levi got dressed for school on the 23rd, got his picture taken, and went to school with Dylan. Then, when the bell rang for classes, he went to Dunkin' Donuts.


On Wednesday, his official first day, he decided he would ride the bus with Dylan. Yvonne offered to drive him to school for his first day, but Levi insisted that he would ride the bus because it WASN'T the first day for him. He had been to school. Over Levi's protestations, Yvonne went to the bus stop with him (Jason, under the presumption that school started Monday, was away on travel).

As you can see in the photo below, Levi was ready for her to leave so he could get on with his day. He got his photo done, and got on the bus. He came home from the full day of school dog tired. His comment: it was kind of boring, but he enjoyed gym time. It's gonna be an interesting year.

And then there were six...

It's official: Melissa is gone to Idaho, starting her college career at Idaho State University. Our household of seven is now a half-dozen.

For several years, Mel's college choice was dependent on softball -- whichever school offered her a scholarship would be her choice.

Since moving to Maryland a year ago, though, she started looking more to the West and softball, while still an important part of her life, was no longer a deciding factor. She narrowed her choices to four, then two, and then (after campus visits) one: Idaho State. She hasn't looked back since (although she has reached out to the school's softball coach and will try to walk-on; the dream didn't die, but it's not the top dream anymore).

As parents, we're happy with her choice. She made the choice on her own, for the right reasons. And she'll be in familiar territory -- we've lived there, Jason and Yvonne both went to school there, and we have lots of family and friends there.

Her last week in Maryland was fantastic, and it illustrated just how good the move was for her. She had lots of late nights and early (well, relatively early for her) mornings hanging out with friends and with her brothers.

On her last Sunday in our ward, she received her Young Womanhood Recognition Award. That's been a significant goal of hers, and she worked very hard over the last several months to complete it. She wore her medallion with pride.

That night, we had a party for her, and our house filled with people excited for her new adventure while also sad to see her go. Friends and neighbors from church and school and work, teammates, classmates, kids she helped coach, kids from her primary class, and kids' parents all came to wish her well. It was gratifying to see how many lives she had touched in such a short period of time -- and how many people influenced her life.

Monday we had one last family dinner before she left, at her favorite Italian restaurant in Frederick. She enjoyed being with her brothers, and by the end of the meal all the kids were sitting practically on top of each other so they could watch ESPN's Top Plays on the restaurant's television. We wish we had a picture of that.

The farewell with her brothers that night was tough. She has always been their big sis, best friend, protector, and role model. They've shared music, baseball, silly games, car rides, meals, and lots of laughter over the years. That night, they shared tears.

Mel had more tears that night with her best friend, a high school senior this year, who arrived home from a family vacation around midnight. They talked and laughed until 5 a.m. -- when we left for the airport. They'll be friends forever.


After a milkshake in Salt Lake City (it just seemed like the right thing to do), we faced a crossroads: the freeway onramp showed south to Las Vegas, or north to Idaho. Deep sigh. Most of our lives have been spent in one of those two places. We hate seeing signs for Las Vegas (on the road or at the airport), because part of us wants to turn that direction. But school was calling, so we went north.

Our short week in Idaho was great. We caught up with family and friends. Jason worked a couple days at a project in Idaho Falls, while Melissa shopped with her grandmother, aunts, cousin, and Yvonne to outfit her dorm room. Her four suitcases of stuff (yes, she needed all of it -- at least that's what she told Jason repeatedly as he helped her pack) were joined by new dorm essentials.


Our apprehension over leaving Melissa abated as the week went on. She was anxious to get started, and her confidence became contagious. She's ready.

Friday was moving day. Moving into the dorm was fun, and easy. We didn't even need help from the several college guys who offered to help the new freshman out.

Before leaving, we shared a special moment as Melissa received a blessing from her father and grandfather. Emotions peaked there, in her grandparents' living room. It was time. Dropping her off at the dorm, we met her roommate (from Caldwell, Idaho) and roommate's parents and little brothers and sister. That made us feel even better.

As we drove away, instead of tears or sadness, we felt calm, and proud. Our baby girl is grown up, a strong and bright young woman, with a good head on her shoulders. We did our best. She's ready to take on the world, and she's starting in the right place.

She's already shared a meal of Top Ramen with her roommate. And she's excited for classes to start. In the couple days we've been home, we've enjoyed hearing about her new adventure as she settles in, meets new friends, and discovers college life. We'll enjoy many more of those conversations over the next few years.


(If you'd like Melissa's mailing address, send us an e-mail or comment on this post, and we'll forward it to you.)

Our Stay-cation

It’s funny how you can take the things around where you live for granted, and put off visiting cool things in your area because "we can always go there." And then you never do.

For instance, our best vacation in the southeast Idaho area occurred three years after we moved from Idaho – where we had lived for almost nine years. Once we didn’t live there anymore, we realized we should have spent more time at the Grand Tetons and some other neat places, so we went back and did that. It was awesome -- but now we wish it was easier to get back there.

Before we moved from Las Vegas last year, we made a bucket list of things to do before we moved. Our kids toured Hoover Dam and saw the Grand Canyon and many parts of the Strip and lots of other things for the first time, all within the last two months of our almost nine-year stay there.

So we are determined to enjoy the neat things around our new home now, rather than wait until right before we move again (whenever that might be). For our vacation this year, we chose a stay-cation, spending the entire trip within an easy drive of our house.

We started with a day in D.C. with our good friends the Whites, visiting the American History, Natural History, Air and Space, and National Building museums. Our legs were tired, but it was fun. One word of advice from the kids – don’t eat street vendor pizza (the unanimous critique of the cardboard crusted glob of processed cheese: "Nasty"). We ended the day with Fuddrucker’s hamburgers; the burgers were good, and the kids enjoyed saying the restaurant’s name and making the adults squirm.

Another highlight was a full day at Hershey Park in Hershey, Pa. We drove up in the morning and were greeting with heat, humidity, a large crowd…and the smell of chocolate in the air. As the day wore on, the humidity and the crowds seemed to dissipate, but the delicious aroma lingered. We think that's what heaven will smell like.


Levi proved to be a roller coaster machine, riding anything that he was tall enough to get on, including a giant wood coaster (the Comet) and the Super Dooper Looper, complete with a loop. He was really nervous to ride the Looper because of the loop. But after the coaster completed its vertical revolution – and while it was still screaming around the track – Levi yelled “That was awesome! But I’m not riding it again!”

He rode it three more times.

The highlight of Hershey Park for Jason: vending machines with ice-cold Hershey’s chocolate milk for $1.25. Ahhhh.


Heat and humidity was the theme of the week, so we took one day to float the Shenandoah River near Harper’s Ferry, W.Va. The company that rented us the tubes and life jackets had a certain "Deliverance" quality about it, but we had fun, and the water was perfect. The most fun, though, was the high-speed ride in the old school bus that shuttled us from the end of the tubing run back to the parking lot. Dylan cracked us all up as he alternated between careening from side to side on the bus and mimicking the driver turning the oversized steering wheel.

We also took in a day at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. It was warm, and the sand was great. Unfortunately, a series of storms out in the Atlantic Ocean pushed in frigid water. We made the most of it by making sand sculptures (including sculptures containing each of the boys -- Carson as a turtle is probably the only one we ought to share, although Colin in a little cocktail dress and Dylan as a sexy mermaid were both pretty funny), splashing each other, and getting Friendly’s ice cream before leaving town.


We wrapped up where we started, in Washington, D.C. The view from the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial was breathtaking, seeing the Iwo Jima Memorial against a background of the Lincoln Memorial and U.S. Capital Building. The scene reinforced that this great Nation is built on the bravery and sacrifice of our Armed Forces.


In D.C., we ate dinner at Capital Q, a Texas barbecue joint in D.C.’s Chinatown neighborhood that Jason frequented often during his many visits while he worked in the West. Pulled pork, brisket, smoked mashed potatoes, and cold sodas did our stomachs good.

Our final stop was at the Newseum, a fairly new museum dedicated to journalism and broadcast news. The kids figured they could find a way to handle an hour or two in another museum, but we spent about five hours there. Besides the cool exhibits, we had fun with their interactive exhibits and watched several short movies (including a creepy “4-D” movie, where you could feel the movie’s rats at your feet; newreel footage of Elvis Presley's career; and a documentary on journalists covering the 9-11 attacks in New York that choked us all up). Dylan even got to jump in the studio and "broadcast" from Wizards training camp.


So we checked off a good chunk of an early bucket list. And the good thing is, it's a big bucket, so we've still got plenty to do close to home.

Four days in San Francisco

Last week brought record high temperatures to Maryland...or so we heard. While the kids told us tales of 100+ degrees and 90+ percent humidity, Jason and Yvonne enjoyed four days of cool summer weather in San Francisco.

The trip started when Jason was assigned to work for several days in Livermore, Calif., a short drive east from San Francisco. With Melissa leaving for college soon, we realized this was our last chance to get away while our built-in babysitter was home (not that the boys aren't capable of taking care of themselves, but it's nice having a driver home). So Jason went to work, then picked up Yvonne mid-week.

Our hotel was in a great location, right downtown. First we walked to the Embarcadero for fish tacos (we miss those in the East), and then a production of Peter Pan 360 on the Embarcadero.



We enjoyed the play, and the combination of aerial stunts, computer graphics, and the small arena made for a great experience.



Since our hotel was within walking distance of so many things, we walked (and walked, and walked). We enjoyed the Ferry Building and the Financial District, and we scaled many of the famous Bay Area hills to explore the Fillmore District (second-hand stores...wow) and the North Beach neighborhood (where it was all about the gelato).




We climbed the steps on Filbert Street to reach the iconic Coit Tower for a 360 degree view of the bay and the city. Then we went down the Greenwich Steps to enjoy the view of the bay and the gorgeous flower gardens.





We ate well. Fish tacos, sourdough bread, clam chowder, and, for a special treat, steak and halibut one night at the venerable Tadich Grill.



We mastered the Cable Car system, saving our soles from even more hiking. We went to the Levi Strauss Plaza, just because we thought it was cool to send our Levi a photo of a big building that said Levi's.

On our last day in town, we rented a car so we could see some more of northern California. We grabbed burgers at In-N-Out (we miss those in the East, too), then drove through vineyards in Sonoma (we enjoyed the scenery, but didn't sample any wine). We also toured the Charles Schultz museum in Santa Rosa to see more of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and their friends (we laughed a lot here -- and Jason paid the 5 cents).



To end our trip, we drove through Marin County and hiked to the Point Bonita Lighthouse at sunset (at the point that the San Francisco Bay meets the Pacific Ocean) for spectacular views of the city, the bay, and the rugged Pacific coastline.

We still miss the West, and San Francisco reminded us why -- especially during a hot, humid week in the East.

A day at Gettysburg

This past weekend we found ourselves with a free Saturday and everyone home – a rare occurrence. So we did the logical thing. We packed a cooler and hit the road.

In less than 40 minutes we were at the Gettysburg National Military Park, site of one of the most critical battles of the Civil War. Inside the visitor’s center and museum, we learned more about the three days of fierce fighting that occurred July 1-3, 1863.

We viewed artifacts from the war and saw a demonstration on the firearms used by soldiers. A volunteer showed us how to load the muskets for each shot – a process that allowed for three shots per minute (“but likely two shots per minute in the heat of battle,” he said) – and allowed us to briefly hold them to experience the weight.

Following sandwiches and cold sodas from the cooler, we drove to Little Round Top, a high point held and defended by the Union – and a key strategic position of the battle. For three days the Confederate Army tried to take the hill, at an awesome loss of life for both sides.



At a memorial for soldiers from New York state, a young couple wearing period clothing was greeting visitors. On a sunny, steamy afternoon, the man wore the uniform of a Union soldier: boots, navy blue wool trousers, a navy blue coat buttoned over a white long-sleeve cotton shirt, and a navy blue wool hat. The young woman wore a long cotton dressed with buttoned at the neck, along with a cotton slip, full bonnet, and leather boots. Dressed in shorts, t-shirts, and sunglasses, we didn’t complain much about the weather after that.

We talked with the couple for a few minutes, and asked them if they had a good story for us. The soldier (we later learned his name was Dave Hancock) said that if we wanted to take a short walk, he had “a heckuva story about the 20th Maine.”

So we took a walk.



In a clearing in the dense woods, he described the courageous efforts of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, ordered to hold their position under all circumstances to protect the flank of the Union line at Little Round Top. We stood on the Maine’s line, and saw the woods where the vaunted 15th Alabama Regiment (which had never lost a skirmish) attacked repeatedly. As we listened, we could almost see the ferocious battle in the trees and hear the frenzied chaos as the boys of the 20th Maine “closed the gate” and defeated the mighty Alabamians.

At the bottom of the valley, we scrambled through Devil’s Den, a clustered rock formation 500 yards below the Union line. We steadied ourselves behind the granite and sighted imaginary sniper rifles toward the monuments on the hill – the view of Confederate marksmen who rained lead on the Union troops above.



As we left, we thought about the courage and sacrifices of so many men and their families made to protect the Union – along with the bravery of the Confederates who fought for their cause before being welcomed back. Casualties numbered more than 46,000 during those three days of fighting, including nearly 8,000 dead.

We also thought of the burden placed on the people of Gettysburg (population 2,500 at the time) who had to care for the wounded, bury the dead, and repair their town.

Our path out of the park took us past the National Cemetery where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address, honoring fallen warriors and extolling the purity of their cause in as eloquent a speech as has ever been given – all, as Colin pointed out, in fewer words than are printed on a Lay’s potato chip bag:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Another Levi-ism

Sitting at the dinner table tonight, we were talking about the yard work we would finish following dinner, including trimming a dense row of prickly bushes that would require a lot of contact with its scratchy branches.

"We'll start in a few minutes," Jason said. "I'm going to be climbing in those bushes, so I'm going to wear Levi's."

Levi got a confused look on his face and pondered that for a minute. Then he looked at Jason.

"You're going to wear Levi's what?!"

We all busted out laughing at Levi trying to figure what article of his clothing Jason would wear in those bushes. (For the record, Jason wore his own jeans.)

Melissa's Senior Prom

Melissa's last day of high school was Friday. To make the day even better, Friday was also her Senior Prom. Jason and Yvonne were out of town for Junior Prom (they were house shopping in Maryland -- choosing the home we live in now), so this was their one chance to share the prom experience with Melissa.

Her date was Danny Dixon, a pitcher on the high school baseball team, friend of Levi's, and an all-around good guy. She got her hair "did" (as she puts it) at a friend's house, then came home to get dressed and ready. She looked fantastic (we think she looks great in eye-black and a dirty softball uniform, too, but being dressed up really works for her).

She was ready a few minutes before Danny got there, so Levi helped keep her entertained in the back yard -- a neat moment shared between our oldest and youngest.



Soon Danny arrived, looking sharp. They exchanged corsages...



Then Melissa asked Yvonne to help her make Danny's corsage look good.



And then, after a few photos, they were off to meet friends for dinner and the dance.



She was home on time, happy from a fun night with friends, on her last real night of high school. Graduation is around the corner, then...on with the rest of her life.