Back to School

After a funfilled and busy summer it was back to school time for Ryker, Avynlea and Rylee. It was a little weird not including Kenedy in this years back to school picture but fun to have Rylee on the same schedule as the rest of this group.

Ryker is now a Sophomore, 10th grade, and is taking more Honors classes this year. He had a good first day of school but his complaint was his teachers did not give them a chance to settle in to school it was all back to business and lessons immediately. I told him welcome to life :)

Rylee is now a 6th grader and she was super excited but a little nervous for her first day of Middle School. She will be taking the bus but requested that I take her and walk her in this first day. I was happy to oblige and after taking Any to her bus stop I drove her to Star. We found her locker after a little bit of searching, we got confused with the layout and even though we found her locker the week before we couldn't remember where it was. We saw her friend Taycee Olson a couple of lockers down struggling to get her locker open and looking really panicked so I went over to help her. I tried a couple of times and couldn't get her locker open either, A teacher saw us struggling and came to unlock it with her master key when Taycee suddenly realized we were trying to open the wrong locker. The one right next to it was hers and she was able to open it no problem.

I walked Rylee to her classroom and gave her a hug goodbye. As I was leaving the school I started to feel a little emotional and got really sad leaving Rylee. I was never one to cry when my kids started school but this one was a little hard. I think it was mostly because she was all alone at this new school without her sister or her best friend and I was worried. 

When Rylee came home she said she had a good day but she struggled with getting her locker open and she couldn't find anyone to eat lunch with so she sat by herself. I was sad for her but she seemed positive and so I didn't dwell on it I just encouraged her to reach out and make friends.

After a couple of days of sitting alone at lunch she finally got the courage to talk to a girl she shares most of her classes with and has been sitting with Grace ever since. Thank heavens

Avynlea is now an 8th grader and she couldn't be more excited for her last year of Middle School! Since we are not in Meridian boundaries anymore we do not have a bus for her coming to our neighborhood. Earlier in the week I called the Bus Barn to find the closest available bus stop for her and the closest one is the corner of ten mile and ustick. Not too far but it is a rush to get out the door to catch it. 

She had a great first day and had fun catching up with friends and meeting new teachers.

I took another picture of Rylee outside her Middle School this time it's a first day of school picture.

And then one of her opening her locker :)

Peterson Family Pictures 2018

I was really hoping I could get Lindsay Hurst to do our family pictures again this year but her Mom had just passed away from cancer and I did not want to bother her about pictures. I wanted to get the pictures done before Kenedy left for college so  I asked the next just as best thing Lana if she would do them for us. She is so sweet and happily agreed. We went back to Eagle Island and did them there. In trying to choose what colors and outfits to wear I asked the kids if they had any thing they would want to were and Avynlea and Rylee were the only ones who had ideas. Rylee wanted to wear her new yellow shirt and Avynlea wanted to wear her white shirt that had fun little pictures on it. The colors on Avy's shirt were yellow, green, blue and white and i managed to pull together the yellow, blue and white. Kenedy did not have much options in those colors so she wore one of my shirts. I love the colors and I think the pictures turned out really cute.

Since Kenedy was leaving us soon to head off to college I had Lana take pictures of each of us with Kenedy.

I love my beautiful family and love the pictures we take to capture us each year. These kids are growing up so fast!

Beautiful Girls

Heather and I both ordered the same dress from my favorite online boutique Hattie and Grace, she sent me a picture of her in her dress so I had Rylee take a picture of me wearing mine to send back.

I thought the arm shadows in this one was pretty stinking funny!

On Sunday we were hanging around and I decided to take some pictures. First I did a pretty picture of Rylee...

then I styled the girls hair and dressed them up to take some pictures for my Hair page. I went with sparkle and fancy for Avynlea using Kenedy's prom dress...

and a little more edgy and rock and roll for Rylee using Kenedy's sunglasses and my faux leather jacket

They are so cute!

Rylee had 6th grade registration the week before school started and I took her over to Star Middle School to check it out, get her schedule and figure out how to open her locker.

When we moved to our new house one of the reasons we picked this location was because it kept us in the Meridian Middle and High school boundaries. Well wouldn't you know this last year a new middle school was built in Star and they changed our boundaries to Star. I sent in requests to have both my kids stay at Meridian and Avynlea was accepted while Rylee was not. When I went in to appeal to the Principal she said she did not realize they were sisters but there was nothing she could do. I guess only 8th graders were accepted to stay. I wanted to fight it but after praying about it and pondering over the summer I decided to let Avynlea stay at Meridian and keep Rylee at Star.

When I took Rylee to look at the school and get her schedule and locker we both got a little more excited about her going here. It is a beautiful school and her classes are basically down the same hall with a few in other places like orchestra, digital tools and PE.

As we were leaving I asked Rylee if she wanted a picture in front of her new school and she did.

Avynlea took this selfie on my phone and then it was edited to look like a cool cartoonish version of her.

Ave and Rylee were cleaning some clothes  out of their closet to give to Brielle and Qiana. Rylee stuck in this cool art she did to give to them and they loved it and had to send a picture of themselves holding it. 

Back to McCall

Kenedy has been wanting another girls trip to McCall with her friends for quite a while. She asked her Grandma Alison when would be a good time and after a lot of thought and rearranging they finally settled on a date and Kenedy invited her friends. Kefford was going to try to go up with me but he had to do Scout stuff with Ryker and Alison was going to go up with us but Whitney just had her baby and she needed to stay back and help her. I was not really excited about being up there alone with Kenedy and her friends but I understood why the others could not come. I tried to get Any and Rylee to come up with me but they wanted to go to the farm and be with their Grandma and cousins. No big deal.

Kenedy invited multiple people but most of them had to keep dropping out even up to the last minute. Gabi Caroaca and Lauryn Warner were the two who ended up being able to come with Makayla Wilcox coming for the last night. 

The girls spent a lot of time hanging out, making iMovie trailers, playing games and swimming in the lake. I spent my time watching tv, reading, hiking, playing games with them and relaxing. I was bored a lot of the time with no one to hang out with, I could have hung with Kenedy and her friends and I did a little but I didn't want to be too invasive and I let them do their own thing for the most part.

One of our friends from the Verona ward, Russ Pollock,  happened to be at the cabin next to ours doing their landscaping. We could hear them working throughout the day and it was actually a comfort to me to have him next door so that if I needed help I had Russ that I could call. 

We went over to say hi and see what they were creating and after visiting with him and the owners for a while we were invited to check out the owners sisters house on the other side of the Peterson home to check out the landscaping Russ had done on theirs.

We went over and found the most amazing and beautiful view and the landscaping was stunning. I fell in love and told the owner not to be surprised if she looks out her window and saw me sitting in her chairs enjoying the view.

The girls wanted to take some pictures and I was the photographer and helped them pose.

Kenedy enjoying the scenery.

Gabi, Lauryn and Kenedy

Lauryn was being sasquatch 

After the pictures we headed into town to get some Ice Cream and walk around the shops. Lauryn didn't want any Ice Cream so when the girls wanted to take pictures she borrowed mine to use as a prop.

Kid size Ice Cream from Ice Cream Ally, basically the size of my face.

Kenedy wanted to take some pictures in front of this yard filled with Back eyed susan's and daisy's, she is pretty cute!

Later that night Makayla arrived and the girls decided they wanted to do a little skinny dipping in the lake. I would not let them go by themselves because it made me nervous to have them lake jumping at night so I drove them and sat in the car turned the other way talking to my Mom on the phone while they did their skinny dipping. Funny girls.