We just got home from Maine, and it was fantastic. The weather was perfect (cool with crisp blue skies), the trees were changing, and the mood was relaxing. We went to a pumpkin festival with ginormous decorated pumpkins, we built and lit a sukkah, we visited the Cryptozoology Museum, we went on a haunted history tour, and we picked apples and made apple crisp. But the best part was hanging out with our amazing family. Suzy taught Tessa how to glaze the pottery she made over the summer, Granny Gail let Riley, Tessa, and Emmett each try their hand at driving, and Matthew and Ilia created chef’s kiss worthy meals almost every night. The conversation was thoughful, and we felt welcomed and embraced. As is always the case upon our return, we can’t wait to get back to our Happy Place.
In addition to Maine, our late summer and early fall has been full of adventuring. Riley was on the Mountain Biking team at school and raced in 4 races. He crashed (but got back up) in three out of the four races, and he was rained out in one race, but he persevered and did great. More importantly, he had fun. Tessa performed in a series of theater skits about the nature of art after taking a First Quarter theater class, and she was amazing. Asher was on the soccer team and competed in 3 games, the first he’d ever done on a full sized field, and he loved it. And Emmett is rehearsing now for the fall high school play, with performances in November. All of us are knocking our academics out of the park, we are participating in clubs, and both Riley and Emmett went to Homecoming. Of course no one loves school all the time, but we’re settling in pretty well!
This upcoming quarter, Riley’s Rock Climbing on the school team, Tessa’s doing the Improv class and competing in Robotics, Asher’s doing the DND club and Mountain Biking, and Emmett’s taking a theater class and continuing with Student Senate. We hope things are a bit calmer, but they won’t be much less busy. Riley’s got rock climbing competitions, Tessa’s got Robotics competition, and in December, Emmett’s attending a Thespian Convention with his theater class. We’re excited to see how it all goes!
Tomorrow, Riley turns 15! That means he’s taking Driver’s Ed, and he’ll behind the wheel with a permit in a matter of weeks. Emmett’s progressing slowly but surely with his driving education. He’s got more than 1/2 the allotted hours logged, and he’s not even due to take the test until April. He definitely does not enjoy driving, but it’s not because he’s not good at it, and he’s slogging through. It’ll be good when someone else in the family gets their license, as Mom and Dad are having trouble driving us everywhere we want to go.
Coming up, we have Halloween (Riley’s already hitting up the local haunted house attractions with friends), Emmett’s play performance, Thanksgiving, and then Emmett’s birthday (can you believe he’s going to be 16?).
Time flies, but we are making sure that we have fun while it does.
Pigs out.
Leave a Reply