First week of summer and beyond

The first GREAT thing about summer is not having to wake up at 6:00.  Yeah!!! 

Jena started the summer off with a bowling activity with new friends in Salt Lake City--Lily and Ally and their parents on May 30rd.

Jena always enjoys a game of bowling..........

and posing with new friends, Ally and Lily

 

 

And then the first Monday of the summer, we met other friends and their moms at the Syracuse Fun Center which is now called the RUSH....

 

 

new work shirt

 

Tuesday Jena and I had an orthodontist appointment at Primary's and then got to have lunch with some of the staff at the nearby Marriott hotel.  We had a "business lunch" as we talked about their goal to hire staff who have Down syndrome.

 

Wednesday was Young Women's.

 

Thursday we went hiking at a nearby Bird Boardwalk with Emily and her mom.  We got to talk to two "Mosquito Abatement Officers" while we were there and learned a little bit about their job of keeping the mosquitoes "abated".

 

Friday we attended a sweet funeral for Gary's Uncle Keith.  He is Gary's dad's brother who happened to be married to Gary's mom's sister.  That made it extra sad for Gary's mom and for all of us as now she is the last of that close foursome to be still here.  It was great to see his family gather especially all of Uncle's Keith's family as most of them live away from Utah.  Some of their children and now their grandchildren we have never met. 

 

If there is ever good timing of these types of events, this was an example of good timing.  The Hall Extended Family Reunion was on Saturday.  We have just been doing these reunions for the past few years and most of Keith's family have never attended so it was nice to share this event with many of them......

 

 

....except for Jena and I who were down in Herriman, UT, for the Summer Games for Track and Field.  She had missed three of her events on Friday as we attended the funeral but we made it for Saturday so that she could take part in her first 4 by 100 walk relay.  Their team got a silver metal with their fast time ever.  It was fun as she was also able to see some friends from other teams or from school.

 

Some of the carnival games at the Meet

Friend, Krissy from Legacy



Jena told me on the way down to
the meet that they were going to get
a silver metal today.  I think they have
potential to be a good walk relay.
their passes were great.

The second Monday of the summer found us up at 5:30 a.m. (Yuck.)  We had to get her to Clearfield High School for her FLY team conference which was held at Utah State.  She spent two action packed days up there fulfilling along the way one of her life long goals to stay in a dorm.  She loved it all.  She only knew a few of the boys on the team prior to leaving and had worked with one of the leaders for a term as a helper in the library.  She didn't seem nervous about it at all.  We got a few random texts--"Got over me got here"  I told her to have fun and she replied "Okay".  around lunch time "Mom have chips"...that's was a relief, I wasn't sure she could live without chips for a couple of days.  On the way home she told me "Tell dad need treat milk shake".  She text Gary "Miss me  watch dogs".  We loved it and were glad she had a good time.  She said dorm food was good and she wanted to go stay again.

Fly Team shirt--when she got home

Then last Friday night she and Gary took the RV and went to the Stake Daddy Daughter campout.  They played a lot of yard games and also served as porters running the handcarts they have to carry your supplies from the parking lot to your campsite back up to the parking lots for others to use.

 

In between all of these things, the rest of us are also busy.  For one thing between Gary and I we have to get Jena to all of those events you see her smiling picture at.  The reason there aren't cute pictures of us is that we do boring things like sit at computers--Gary-job, Church, bowling alley, family and me: UDSF, family or housework or yard work. 

 

Ben is on his computer a lot doing research and looking up products to buy and sell.  He has spent some time getting an old lap top set up to give a friend with a cognitive delay.  He is trying to put on some games and activities which would be useful for her.  He recently quit his job over conflicts with his supervisor and also had a total breakdown of his bike which might not be recoverable.  Medication is still difficult.

 

Jessica is busy with Elessia working in a cat shelter and also today are getting their first batch of kittens to foster at their home.  Work is good.  Scott and Chantel are busy getting ready for their new baby as are Tosha and Austen.  Lots of pink and blue going around.  Both moms and babies appear to be doing great.  We are so thankful.

 



The Actual End of School

was listed as May 3oth.  However since Clearfield's graduation was set for Thursday morning, the end of the school assembly and yearbook signing was on Wednesday morning with school closing up by noon.  Since Memorial Day was on Monday, that left one day and a couple of hours!  That was kind of a waste of a week!!!  Oh, well, it was all fun times for Jena.

She still likes to give gifts to her teachers so the night before she made notes for those she had chosen and we got bags of chocolates.  She was very clear that chocolates was the gift she wanted to give.  I told her that I would bring the gifts to school by 10:45 as the functional skills staff had asked us to pick up all students by 11.  When I arrived, Jena was not in the classroom which wasn't a surprise.  I waited for while talking to the staff (who told me that they discuss chocolate a lot.  It is their go to break when things get tough in the classroom. So that is likely where Jena got the idea.)  Mr. Andreason had to head to a meeting so we went off to find her.  There she was sitting on the floor with about 12 other kids all signing each other's yearbooks.  Many of the people I recognize from our area including our neighborhood.  She had the biggest smile on her face. I wish I had taken a picture of that moment.  This is why we wrote all those emails, attended those long IEP meetings, and read and worked and talked--for these moments where she feels a part of typical life--completely and abundantly!  It's not perfect, but life isn't perfect for any of us.



2014 Yearbook

 It was great to visit with her teachers and friends as we walked around the campus.  Jena had a great year and not because of being Junior Prom Queen, but because of students and teachers who taught and mentored her and also allowed her to do the same for them.....

And her senior year is setting up  to be AWESOME!

May 15th --Revisited

 

May 15th is Jessica's birthday as I mentioned earlier in a post but it was also the day that both Scott and Chantel and Tosha and Austen got 3D pictures of their new little ones. How fun is that!

Chantel with Miss Scarlett:  I think this is at 30 weeks on May 15th.  Scarlett was weighing about 3 lbs. 5 Oz. at this visit.



Tosha:  She does some fancy editing with her picture up-dates

Tosha and Austen had to go to a private place to get their 3D imagine of Niki as their doctor only does one major ultrasound.  They said he was a bit of pill--hiding up in her ribs.  But they sent us some copies of his sweet face and we loved them.

Hard to take these pictures of our pictures without
having a glare, but here is our cute boy--Niki James

Can't tell if his fingers are in his mouth yet.
Maybe he was trying to hid behind his fingers.

May 15, 2014---they will be here before we know it.  How exciting is that!

Winding down the year of school......

 

This week Jena didn't have theater and golf, which was good because she had a couple of choir practices after school for the final choir performance on Thursday evening.  Here is Jena with Shelly and Brooke, two friends who are in choir and also in functional skills with her.  The performance was centered on Broadway music and was a very fun concert complete with costume changes and dancing.  That means Jena loved it.  Her favorite songs were "Edelweiss" with her teacher's husband playing the guitar and "Rainbow Connection".

Wednesday they went on a "field trip" to "The Lego Movie".  I am not a big fan of these bus trips to attend movies but Jena likes going with her friends so we let her go from time to time.  Thursday was her field trip to Lagoon which she also loved.  High School can be rough!!???

Brooke and Jena at Lagoon
Bracken, one of the peer tutors who went with
Jena posted lots of pictures from
Lagoon so I copied this one.
Jena gets so excited when friends post pictures
of things they have done together.
Whatever we might think of Face book, it does
provided a social interaction for Jena with
typical peers which wasn't possible 20 years ago.

Jena also brought home her art work from her painting class.  We have been hearing about her pictures all semester so it was fun to see them.

A sunset:

 Elsie and the Ice Castle

 

After track on Saturday, Ben and I went to work on our garden and Gary and Jena got the flags ready for the first flag flying holiday.  I love that about Gary--how he takes care of the flags.  I didn't have it on my list of husband qualifying  traits but it is a good one.  There were lots of traits I didn't know I wanted in my future husband that I lucked out with Gary.  He loves Cub scouting and pinewood derby races, he understand my obsession about the beach and helps get me to beach when possible, he likes planning parties with me and he is totally supportive of my "Just for Fun Mortal Goal List"  (most people call it your bucket list , but I hadn't heard that title before I created my list.) and he makes me laugh (I might have had that on that original husband list.)

 All of those thoughts as I watched him and Jena check the flags for the year.  I love you, Gary Hall!

Speaking of flying flags we enjoyed all of the flags posted at our Syracuse cemetery today when we went to visit the graves of our family members.  It was the first Memorial day (well, the Sunday before) since Valerie (Gary's sister) passed away.  She and Allan had designed their tombstone and it had been sitting on their plots for a couple of years.  I teased her all of the time about it.  It just seemed creepy to see you names on a tombstone.  However this year, as Allan looked at the tombstone it made it very happy.  It has a very calm scene of a single man catching a fish in a mountain lake.  He said it made him feel so peaceful and calm just looking at it.  I never heard Valerie talk about dying before Allan.  I don't know if she had a feeling about it or not.  But I was thankful that she had followed through because I think none of us could have design a better tombstone to represent them, their relationship and would leave Allan with a peaceful feeling when he looked at it.  Good job, Valerie.

The sound of the flags in the wind and watching them flutter

is such a sweet reminder of our country and those who serve it

in the military--Shout out to our current military men-- Airman Austen Russell and Nate Williams--Marines(my nephew in law married to Kristen Ipson Williams) and Johnathan Page-Air Force and all who have served in the past from the Hall, Page, Quigley, Giberson, Owen, Ackley and other family lines.