After I quit my job to clean my house, the Baxters hosted the Iowa cousins for a week in July! (Ok I joke about quitting my job to clean my house, but it sure was convenient timing). It had been 8 years since the last time my brother and his family made it to Utah so I made sure to roll out the red carpet for them (or shampoo the carpets as it were). My SIL is really allergic to cats among other things, so with 3 house cats I attempted to scrub every allergen from my house. We ran extra air purifiers 24/7, put the cats on a special allergen reducing diet, used allergen reducing spray on their coats, shampoo’d every carpeted surface in the house and dusted every other surface. The cats were probably like “what the hell?”. It’s hard to tell how effective it was, but they managed to stay with us for the week and nobody needed breathing treatments in urgent care. I will count that as a win?
It was really fun having the nieces at the house. They LOVED on the cats all week. Again, I’m sure the cats were like “what the hell?”. Logistically, having them stay with us made things so much easier for meal planning, schedule coordinating, and naptimes. We checked out the local playgrounds, went on a few short “hikes” in the mountains, played in the pool, and set off fireworks (it was the July 24th state holiday here). Andrew loved having cousin Clara to play with and they all thought that the older boy cousins were pretty neat. Hopefully no one was traumatized too much by the work of visiting Utah with small children and we can do it again before another 8 years have passed. Next summer it’s our turn to drive to WI as we’re long overdue–our last visit was in 2022. Eeek!
Immediately after cousins departed we switched gears and hosted the annual neighborhood block party as part of Midvale Harvest Days. The parade is always a highlight (because CANDY) but the boys especially like the block party for reasons I don’t totally understand. There aren’t many kids for them to play with, but we do play bingo and they drink their weight in homemade root beer? Maybe they just enjoy hosting. This year it was HOT, but we set up misters on the front patio and it was pretty tolerable. Jason even begrudgingly admitted the misters were a good idea after I ran to get them at the very last minute. It was a small turnout, hopefully next year we have a bigger crowd. I really like being able to know my neighbors and quite a few new ones have joined our block this year. 
After the great dahlia debacle of 2024 where spider mites killed nearly everything, this year’s dahlia season was the best I’ve had yet. We started having a free dahlia table on the front yard just to share them with the neighborhood. Andrew especially liked hanging out in the hammock and babysitting the table. Keeping up with sourcing jars was the biggest challenge, but thanks to some helpful friends and neighbors who brought me their glass recycling, I gave out 377 bouquets this year–95 of which went to making sure every staff member at the elementary school got one to enjoy. The elementary school even kept a dedicated jar return bucket in the front office for me for the duration of the season so I could pick up and reuse jars. I know the flowers made a lot of people smile. We added an additional garden bed for next year and I’m already planning for spring!
Summer is always long and short at the same time. Before we even knew what happened we had back to school nights and middle school orientation for Christopher. This fall we have a 4th, 6th, and 8th grader.
Christopher hit the ground running in middle school and got accepted to be on the student council. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a bigger smile than when he got the notification that he’d been “elected” (it’s not really an election in middle school). He is so much less apprehensive about trying new things than William and it’s awesome to see him carve out his own identity separate from his older brother. He signed up to help during parent teacher conferences, and is interested in MC’ing or doing stage crew for the spring talent show. He’s having so much fun!
William and I wrapped up our summer workout program mid-August and I didn’t realize how much I missed having my own dedicated spotter until he was gone. Now I have to talk to strangers. Ew. He made a lot of progress in the gym this summer and has a strength and conditioning class at school this fall which quickly became his favorite. When he turns 14 he can work out at the rec center for free, so I’m not sure if we’ll get another summer lifting program together or not. Time will tell. William continues to excel in 8th grade. He’s on the chess team and flying through 9th grade math (as an 8th grader). Math really is this kid’s love language. I think he sees the matrix. It’s wild.
Andrew had a bumpy start to 4th grade (new teachers and routines are hard) but is now flourishing. We’re still not seeing him do a lot of actual classroom work, but the counselors and staff have been great in working with him and he’s made so much progress in expressing what he needs. I have to hold him back each morning or he’d be at the school waiting in the dark to play tag with his friends. One of his rewards for good classroom behavior is helping out in the office for 15 minutes at the end of each school day. He LOVES this. He’s made friends with all the front office ladies and is their afternoon courier for all the school deliveries. The more he feels like he’s part of the school community the more he thrives. We’ve assembled such a great team for him and I really appreciate each of them deeply.
In September we hiked to a suspension bridge just to re-create this photo:
And also hiked to Timpanogos Cave. I think the photos outside the cave are prettier than inside…Jason may think otherwise, but I’m the one who writes, so here you go:
Here’s to cooler weather and fall fun! Take care everyone!
S.~