New Schools For Everyone

Monday July 23, 2018 -Another First Day of School minus one.

It was kind of weird only having 2/3 kids start school today.  Their start times were so different I couldn't even get a picture of them together.  Derek was long gone before Trey woke up.

Derek is now a Freshman at Hamilton High School.  He is coming full circle with Hamilton, this is where he attended his pre-K classes Huskie Pups.  I can't believe how fast that went. Derek went from Middle School starting at 9:00 a.m. to High School starting at 7:00 a.m.  That is a drastic change for the morning alarm clock.

First day of 9th Grade Hamilton High School

Derek enjoyed his first day and is liking Hamilton.  I was nervous because Hamilton is such a ginormous school 4000+ students.  Bigger than my H.S and college combined. He is taking Honors World Geography and English, Tennis, Algebra, Photography and Seminary.  He did sign up for a 7th hour class of Honors Biology.  I didn't realize that until I looked at his schedule after he left for school.  Derek was home from school by 2:30 I told him he just ditched his last class of the day.  He didn't believe me.  We pulled up his schedule and sure enough he was not where he was supposed to be.  Then we got a call from the school saying he was absent from a class.  Nice way to start out the school year ditching the first day.  I was fine with it, once I realized what his class load was I thought the honors biology was too much for him to take on as a Freshman.  I had him drop the class.

First day of 4th Grade-"Foy's Falcons"

Trey started at a new school as well.  He is now at Jacobson Elementary.  Hancock was great and we loved it being across the street from our house but they don't offer gifted classes.  Trey tested into the gifted program a few years ago, we always wanted what was best for Trey.  Hancock and his teachers were great about challenging him, and he was always in the upper level reading and math.  It came down to he wanted to be with "his people"  he struggled working in groups with the regular class room.  He would get frustrated with their thought process and mostly ended up working alone, which he was quite content with in that situation.  We just decided it was time to give the gifted program a try,  his teachers and the principal at Hancock all agreed it was time and they were excited for him to make the move.

He is now in Mr. Foy's 4th Grade Gifted class at Jacobson. He rides the bus to school now.  He actually knew a few kids in his class from church and kids from Hancock who had also transferred into the gifted class.  I think he was a little bummed about that.  He was excited for a fresh start and 100% clean slate.  It is going well.

Dax LOVED not having to start school today.

He is legal (almost)

Dax turned 18.  What a great day, actually pretty uneventful.   We gave him some money, went to Olive Garden for dinner, then as a family we went to Improv Mania in downtown Chandler.  It was a fun night.


Dax had planned to go on a mission soon after he graduated and turned 18 (which would be about now).   It turns out our Bishop is very slow at this process.  When Dax started meeting with him in April he said it would be about 5 months before he could submit his papers. Initially the bishop told him the church allows you to submit your papers 3 months before you are ready to report.  What the heck, now he is saying 5 months before he will even be ready to submit the papers??? We all thought it would be a few weeks, submit the call, wait a few weeks to get the call, then wait a few months getting everything ready and then report.  We thought he would be leaving about August instead of just turning in the paperwork.  This is just how our bishop rolls.  I heard similar stories from other parents.

As we started the process, Dax had doctor appointments etc. and he was diligently filling out paperwork and regularly meeting with the bishop.  Because Dax has been diagnosed as being on the Autism spectrum the church is now requiring a psychological evaluation. I wish this had been brought up in his first meeting with the Bishop back in April, instead of June.  After a few appointments, we had a final meeting with the counselor the other day.  She said Dax scored 7/9 of the indicators for early release.  Anything over five is a red flag.  Some of the indicators for Dax were he is too rigid (difficulty going with the flow), changing environments regularly, other people not following the rules,  difficulty staying engaged in an activity (ADD), not making good eye contact and connecting with others.  This was not a surprise to us.  We have come up with a new plan. We have decided that Dax will wait a year for the mission and give him some time to grow up and mature in the areas he is struggling with.  His plan now is  to start ASU in January, study Astrophysics, and live in the dorms.  This will hopefully give him an opportunity for independence and maturity before he submits his papers again.  Dax was a little disappointed initially, but I think he is excited about this new plan.

San Diego

We have decided we are done staying home for the 4th of July Holiday.  I love 4th of July, but it is not fun here in the heat.  Too hot to do anything but stay inside.  My kids don't realize it is a really fun holiday.  They think it is just another day to stay inside and play video games.  We settled on San Diego.

We stayed in a really nice Vacation Rental in Carlsbad right on the beach.  I guess that area is called "The Strand"  The kids had fun boogie boarding and enjoying the cool weather.
First we visited the USS Missouri Aircraft carrier

Dax , Trey, Derek outside the USS Missouri

A statue made of the famous picture after the war ended.

Trey aborad the USS Missouri, he loved the morse code area.

Trey inside the ship Infirmary 

Our View from the vacation rental

a very cute boy sleeping

Wet Suit Extravaganza

Boogie Boarding, I think Derek enjoyed this the most.  He kept asking for other's to join him again.

View from our Condo- Sunset at the pier

On the 4th of July Dax and I first took a stroll along the strand.  It was fun to see so many people out wearing patriotic clothing, and they had their bikes and  porches decorated.  We had some snacks from food trucks.  Then we went back grabbed the family, then went back out for the festivities.  There were lots of street vendors and food trucks out.  Curtis and I shared a yummy gyro.  It was so yummy we wished we each got our own and not shared.   Then we attempted to walk to a boat parade at the harbor, which was much further than I anticipated.  By the time we got there we missed the parade, the kids were grumpy we walked so far for nothing.  Curtis bought them an ice cream, then we took at UBER back, and they forgave us.

We (Curtis) decided to extend our stay, but that meant we had to move to a new location because our current place was booked.  So we packed up and moved to a cool Polynesian themed hotel that was more south.  We took a few adventures along the way.

We stopped at a cool place and discovered tide pools, sea weed and other things you don't see in AZ

Beautiful photo op.  I love how we look so  patriotic on 7/5/18.  Not planned.

While waiting for our hotel to be ready we came across this treasure.  I think he robbed my grandma's basement, there were security 4 camera's on this  thing protecting these "valuables"

This made us laugh, we thought it said "stupid code"

We met up with our friends the Thomas' to go kayaking.  Janae, & Steve in one, Curtis and Trey in another, Derek and Weston in another.
Dax and I waited on shore and took pics.

We ended our trip by visiting the Mormon Battalion and eating yummy Mexican food.