Tappana Times: School's in Session

We planned our Utah trip the very last week of summer, and two days after we returned to Washington, the older kids started back up at school.

Ammon started first grade this year.

Many people have commented lately on how grown up he's starting to appear, and boy are they right. This guy has matured and grown and flourished right before my eyes. I have to admit I miss my little baby boy Ammon, but I sort of adore the little man he's becoming.

He's curious and sensitive and silly. All the things that a six year old boy should be.

I was truly, truly worried about his transition to first grade. I just didn't think he was ready to be at school all day. I mean, this is my kid that took four hour naps and fell asleep in sunbeams so his teachers would have to hold him up on his chair. I worried about his focus and attention span, and I worried about his shyness and if his teacher would be patient enough to listen to him stumble over his words to actually hear what he's so eager to share. And would my boy be able to make friends?

Well this kid busted through all my worries and transitioned seamlessly to first grade. It helps that he has an amazing teacher, but he adjusted like he's been going to school all day for his whole life. He's enjoyed it much more than I thought he would, and he only came home tired enough for a nap one day, and at that point he just took off his backpack, walked to his room, and climbed in bed.

Ammon has been enjoying hot lunch, art, P.E., and math. He really hates writing time and comes home excited whenever they missed it that day. He's made friends with lots of girls, and plays sports with some other boys at recess. I'm so proud of how far he's come.

Lydia started third grade this year.

Lydia is the one I never have to worry about when it comes to school. She loves it and thrives in learning. However, this year we've had more struggles than before. Unfortunately, Lydia was placed with a teacher that isn't our favorite and the adjustment has been hard for Lydia. The first couple of weeks Lydia would come home crying and say that she didn't want to go to school the next day. Brigham and I went over and over what we should do.

Finally, we realized this could be a growing year for Lydia as she learns to adjust to working with someone she doesn't care for as much, and if she can learn to do that she will be able to use it for the rest of her life.

After a couple of weeks, Lydia was able to adjust and she no longer dreads going to school. She has to come home and tell us three things she liked about the day, and she has even been able to find some positive attributes to report about her teacher. I don't know that this year will be her favorite to remember, but she is learning resiliency, patience, and making the best of a situation. (I'm sort of sad she has to learn these in third grade when she should just be loving life, but what can you do?)

Lydia has enjoyed learning about the salmon life cycle, seeing her friends, reading, and having her teacher read Charlotte's Web and Wonder to them. She's killing it at school, as usual and growing up more than ever. She amazes me with how much she can do and her wonderful personality.

It was just as hard this year to send these two off to school, as it is every year. I love having them home with me during the summer. But it was the first year I sort of looked forward to it as well.

Watching them walk together onto the bus, I felt proud, nervous to be by myself with Kendrick all day, and sad to miss them. And as we've settled into school, we're all grooving in our new routines.

Besides starting school in September, we were able to enjoy a fall family hike out to a nearby state park called Kanskat Palmer.

The river trail is more of a walk with a shorter distance and hardly any elevation gain, but it was perfect for us to explore and the kids loved it. Kendrick wanted to walk as much as possible with his sticks behind the older kids, and he was livid when we finally put him in the hiking backpack because he was slowing us down too much.

The weather was perfect and the scenery was as gorgeous as always.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the river was FULL of huge fish swimming all around and jumping like crazy. We were floored. We had never seen so many fish. Brigham walked out in the water and they pretty much swam around him. He was ready to start scooping them up with his hands. And when they jumped it made such an awesome splash. We sat and watched them for quite some time, never tiring of the spectacle.

The kids loved throwing rocks in the water and Kendrick stirred and slapped the water with his sticks between his rocks splashing.

Ammon found a large fuzzy caterpillar and carried it along until we made him find it a home before we left.

Lydia found her second four-leaf clover in two weeks and I was pretty impressed. I've never even found one, but I've never really had the patience to look very long for one either.

It was a lovely weekend evening and we'll soak up the rays of sunshine and the fresh leaves before they disappear to rain and winter.

Annual Utah Trip

Because we left so many beloved family members behind when we moved from Utah to Washington, we end up usually visiting Utah at least once each year. This year we started our Utah vacation with a camping trip with my side of the family in Fairview, Utah. We had a cabin all to ourselves and we crowded in, sleeping on couches, mats on the floor, cots, tents, and hammocks outside.

We spent time exploring the area on atv's and riding around until we were covered in dirt and happy with exhaustion.

The kids spent hours each day on a fun little zip-line.

There was a fun little lake and we went canoeing, kayaking and more. One morning, a group of us woke up extremely early to go fishing.

Scott and I were in one canoe, while Kenny and Taylor were in the other one. My dad fished from the shore but headed back early when he didn't have much luck. Using spinners we were able to have success from the boats. Kenny and I caught three fish each, Scott caught two, and Taylor caught one. We all lost quite a few off the hooks - those rainbow trout were fighters! I LOVE fishing and it was a blast. Totally worth waking up so early.

We may have caught all the fish, but Ryan deserves a reward because he gutted all nine of them in freezing cold water for us while we watched.















We enjoyed eating the fish for breakfast and dinner in the following days.

Sitting around the campfire roasting marshmallows and just being all together as a family for the first time in a few years was the best part.

We enjoyed each other's company, a Sunday devotional, discussing gospel topics, playing would you rather, and relaxing together.

Watching the three toddlers play and interact with everyone was also fun. They each have their own little personality that cracked us up.

We also had family pictures taken with the beautiful scenery as our backdrop.

The Tappanas

Nelson siblings. Oldest to youngest from right to left

All the Nelsons and families in our BYU gear. These are my people.

An attempt at getting the grandkids together

That's a bit better

The parents who started it all.

This weekend together was a blast. I was sad to see it end.

However, we had many more people to see and visit, including Brigham's family who I love as well.

Brigham and I took our kids and went and stayed at his stepmom's house to visit with the Tappanas. One day, when Brigham went to the city to have lunch with his brother, Nonie and I took the kids and a couple cousins to a store called Scheels to check it out. They rode the ferris-wheel, did a fun little shooting game, and looked at all the animals on the walls and the fish in the fish tanks.

We made friends with a large, friendly-ish bear.

Another afternoon we spent time at a splash pad in the hot, summer heat of Utah.

After a couple hours, the heat got to us and though we dipped our feet in the water, we moved on to dinner at Chili's and then dessert at Nonie's house.

We were all pretty tuckered out by the end of the day, but spending time with cousins is my kids' favorite, and it was so nice to catch up with everyone.

Brigham and I met up again in Provo with my family to help move Ryan into his dorm at BYU. Saying goodbye to him as he leaves for college was sad, but we are excited for all that he can do.

We showed him around campus and ran into Cosmo in the Wilk. Go Cougars!

Later that night, we said our final goodbyes to Kenny and Ryan who both leave for different BYU schools. We had a pool party with pizza and food and a rambunctious round of pool basketball. I don't think my ankle will ever be the same. Totally worth it.

We watched a BYU football game with Nonie, and we discovered Kendrick's deep love for football.

He moved closer and closer to the tv on his little stool, clapped and cheered, and to this day still loves yelling out, "HELMET!" and "football" as he watches every football game with us. My little cougar.

We spent a lot of time visiting relatives, like my uncle who has cancer, and my paternal grandparents. We also visited my maternal grandmother twice since her health took a sudden turn for the worse. A bunch of family came into town to visit her and it was lovely seeing so many of my aunts and uncles who I rarely get to visit with.

We also took a trip to visit Brigham's dad's grave.

It was as beautiful as ever up there, and letting Brigham heal just a tiny bit more and say hello to his dad was just what we needed.

Our trip to Utah was long, and fun, and sometimes sad. It was mostly about family and seeing all those who we love. We missed some people who are no longer there, and we were sad to leave those who didn't come back to Washington with us. It was nice to be home again after a long trip, but I'm sure we'll be back to Utah again next summer!