Back to School!!!

Oh, it's been a long summer.  It's also been unbelievably fun with the kids getting older and more adventurous!  

Anna is now in 5th grade and the queen of the elementary school.  Her teacher's name is Mrs. Hawkins.  How special is that? 

 Dallin is in 3rd grade and has a brand new teacher, Mrs. Eggertz.  She's lived in Midway for a while actually and all her kids have gone to school here.  What a fun transition! 

 Drew is in all-day kindergarten with Mrs. Knight.  Who knows what he does all day?  He comes home with all sorts of pictures and trinkets, and runs quickly off to play with friends.  Oh, to be in kindergarten!  

Tommy started afternoon preschool a week after the older kids.  He seems to like it.  I wouldn't really know.  He doesn't say much about it.  I love that he socializes and works on his speech with our favorite Ms. Sherri.  He also has many new friends in our babysitting co-op, which has really taken off again!  Our group of mommas are so willing to help and be helped.  It's been such a relief!  

Cousin Julie's Wedding

We all knew it would be a good party.  I mean, this is the FIRST cousin wedding on the Ackerson side!  

1 down, 35 to go.  

Good thing we all love Spencer.  He's a catch.  Sadly, we couldn't all be there for the actual sealing (still holding onto those ol' covid capacity rules), but we had a party in their honor at the cabin.  Yummy barbeque and fun cousins ate up every spare minute until it was time for the reception.  It was in Heber at a beautiful neighbor's property.  Like most Ackerson parties, we just never left!  Long after Julie and Spencer took off, the cousins were still dancing and eating, because we knew that cleanup would only take 10 minutes with that many people there.  Conrats Julie and Spencer!  Oh, and Anna caught the boquet.  Sometimes it pays to be short... and standing WAY in front.

Ackerson Family Reunion- Bear Lake!

 This was our 4th time to Bear Lake for the reunion and it was just as good as ever!  Like I mentioned before, it's so much more fun camping now that Tommy is older.  He just runs around and plays with cousins and gets dirty.  Of course, we were the LAST to arrive on Thursday night. But we had lots of help setting up our tent in the dark.  The kids got all wound up and nobody slept well the first night.

Friday was "lake day" out at the beach.  Bear Lake is so low right now, we got to drive right out on the sand.  There was a sand bar and a tidal pool with shallow, warm water.  The weather kept looking like it was going to do something, with dark clouds all around, but it never did!  The temperature was perfect and the kids got nice and sunburned.  John bought 3 giantic 36" pizzas for dinner and our hungry family polished them off quickly... very quickly!

Saturday morning was finally my turn to cycle around Bear Lake with Bevan, Nora, Vanessa, and John.  Every other year, I was either pregnant or nursing or had a fussy baby that wouldn't sleep.  It was so beautiful!  I got a couple flat tires which were changed out in no time.  Tom drove the support van, which I was VERY grateful for.  He shuttled me up to the rest of the pack so they didn't loose any time.  I guess it's time to think about new bike tires?  That afternoon, we toured Mannitonka Cave and it was super cool, literally.  It was a great way to spend a hot afternoon!

Sunday morning, we hit up the new "visitor's branch" at Bear Lake.  I was very impressed to see so many vacationers there and so many full-sized hymn books! It's been a while.  It was a perfect way to end the reunion.  If we made this the permanent venue for our reunions, I'd be okay with that!