A New School Year

We're already a few weeks into the new school year, but here are their first day of school pictures.  This was the first year I wasn't home to see either of them get ready and leave.  Jackson leaves later now since he's in middle school - so we don't have anyone getting on the early elementary school bus anymore!  Michael took their first day of school pictures this time.  It's Jackson's first year of 6th grade - middle school...and Rachel's first year of 9th grade - high school!  It's all moving so fast.

Sweet Lucy...

Jackson gets to do band now that he's in middle school.  His first choice was trombone and he got it!  Oh boy!  He's very excited about it though.  And he did not want to do percussion...

Rachel's first football game for marching band was this past Friday night.  The band itself wasn't ready to perform their big show for halftime yet so they didn't bring down the big bell sets (xylophones, vibraphones, etc) and those are what Rachel is playing this year.  She's in the front ensemble (or pit) and will be standing still playing those instruments while the rest of the band does the marching around on the field playing theirs.  Well, since they weren't ready yet, and they didn't bring down the big bells, Rachel and three other kids, didn't have anything to play Friday night.  So they sat with the band and marched in and out with them, but didn't play anything.  So she was pretty disappointed about that but she made it through. 

And yesterday, Michael and Jackson went on a floating trip down the river with Jackson's scout troop.  They were supposed to be in canoes but the river was a little high so the outfitter had them use these collapsible kayaks instead.  They had a great time.  It was about a 3 hour float.  And the boys got to stop and get in a couple of times.  

July

 And July was also busy.  Started out with the 4th of July - didn't get a lot of pictures.  We did go see the parade and they went to see the fireworks two nights in a row.  I came home early to stay with Lucy - she's getting to where the loud boomers bother her a lot more now.  And with everyone in our neighborhood lighting up the sky, it's a lot.  

We went out to celebrate Michael's birthday

And Jackson went to his first boy scout camp.  It was supposed to be for seven days and was going to include a trip to go whitewater rafting.  Well, about 3.5 days into it, we get an email saying that 3 kids at the camp had tested positive for Covid - so they shut it all down.  The whole camp had to leave the next day.  So that was a bummer in a lot of ways, but he seemed to handle it pretty well.  

Many of you know that for the last several months, Michael was working on a huge woodworking job - making custom benches for a vet's office down in Boca Raton, Florida.  It's kind of a long story how he got the job, but still.  He's been doing more and more woodworking this past year and really likes it.  However, this job in particular turned out to be a little much - for the space he has and time he has available.  It took a solid three months but in the end, they turned out great and the vet was very happy.  Michael even drove them down and installed them.  

Our garage for months...it was a maze to walk through every day and it changed on the regular.

And the final product installed. 

And Jackson turned 11 towards the end of the month.  We went out to brunch the day after his birthday instead of dinner on the night of.  And then the following weekend, he took a couple of friends to Dave & Buster's to play and then the next day got to go to a Braves' game - which he'd been wanting to do.  

Grandpa, Jeremy and Samuel came down to go to the game with them that weekend.  Jackson was so excited for all of it, but was really looking forward to spending some time with Samuel.  

We enjoyed a nice evening out the night before the game.  

Jackson got his hat signed by one of the Braves' pitchers before the game.  He was very excited about that.  

And he got to run the bases after the game.  

And a little bit about Rachel's summer...she took two classes over the summer to decrease the amount of classes she needs to take in high school.  They are required classes, typically taken in 9th grade - Personal Fitness and Health...they lasted about 7-8 weeks and took up way more of her time than she expected.  Then two days after the classes ended, she started band camp for the last 2.5 weeks of summer.  So she basically didn't have much of a summer.  

Band camp was a LOT...and she was exhausted, but she made it through.  This is one picture of her percussion section.  

Now on to a new school year...