Birthday Shenanigans

 What the what?!? We have a 15-year-old in the house, people! Our man Jack just turned 15. He's a man of simple needs, so he asked just for nachos and brownies for his birthday meal. We also decided to go play paintball. He invited three of his cousins (Ryan, Craig, and Brooke) and his friends Ryan, Noah, and Dubs. They had a blast, and then a few of them came back to our house afterward to hang out, watch movies, play video games, and sleep over. We're all a bit tired now, but in a good way. Happy Birthday, Jack Jack!

First Day of School

First Day pictures - like the first day itself - are a bit different this year. At least this first semester will be 'virtual.' Which means that Jack will be doing 10th grade and Ellie will be doing 8th grade from the couch .... and from the basement ... and from the bedroom ... and really, I don't care, from anywhere as long as they log onto their Chromebooks and TRY to do some learnin'. Not sure how it will go, but crossing fingers!

A Bit o' Summer Fun

OK, let's be honest. With the whole COVID shutdown thing, the kids' summer pretty much sucked. No trip to L.A. or Utah, no lake trips. Not a whole lot going on. But we did manage to get our act together to at least have a fun last weekend before the start of school. We headed on up (over? geography is hard) to Hershey Park and Chocolate World. Lots of fun in the sun and in the water, and not nearly as much drama as usually accompanies the Sorensons. Yay, itty bitty summer fun!

They had a strict mask rule except for while eating or in the water, which meant that I said "mask, Ellie!" roughly 8,356 times. 

We lucked out and had beautiful weather the whole day. 

Fun on the Coal Cracker. 

A study in contrasts - the photo of me and Jack, Jack with his hands firmly at 10 and 2, and me likely reminding him to use his blinkers when switching lanes. 

Meanwhile, Ellie and Jared literally attempted to jump the tracks just to see if they could. (Spoiler alert - they couldn't.)

Baby Steps!

 We're getting there! COVID has really slowed things down, but step by step we're getting there. After a couple of months, we've finally gotten our fence! Oliver will miss escaping into the woods to chase squirrels and bunnies, but we are thrilled to be able to let Mr. Doggie out into the yard without having to chase him as he chases squirrels and bunnies.