August was a full month.
And it started with a hike. I had to take this picture, because while I love hiking table rock. my children do not. And Emmie actually agreed to go with me on this day!
August was a big month for Owen because he turned 16. But in true 16 year old fashion, he spent most of the day with his friends. Which is great. I'm glad he as good friends. He went to his first cross country practice that morning, and then his friend Logan took him for a pedicure and a couples massage...(hmmm). They said it was super awkward but neither one was brave enough to go into a room by themselves! After their outing we met them at my parents house. I brought over pizza and drinks and there was supposed to be a swim party. The party was a bit of a bust, school sports started that day and between that and peoples work schedules not many people could make it, and those that did didn't bring swim suits. But the kids seemed to have fun eating and hanging out. After that we had some family time, we went with my parents to eat at Cafe Rio and then back to our house for cake and presents. Everyone was so full that no one touched the cake, but Owen did get to open presents. He is obsessed with Nike shoes right now, so he got another pair of those. (Funny story...I accidentally wrapped the wrong pair of shoes. I wrapped up a ridiculously expensive pair that Owen and John won in a shoe drop that they needed to return. So we had to take those away and then give him the right pair. Oops!) He also got some shirts and some bracelets. After presents...I got the stomach flu and spent the rest of the night in the bathroom. But I seem to remember that Owen got back together with his friends at some point. Thankfully I made it through his birthday before I got sick, and thankfully no one else got it!
The long awaited summer camping trip finally happened the week after Owen's birthday. Sadly, we got rained out. Like torrential and constant downpour rained out! But we were able to have a little bit of fun as well. We left Leo with my parents (thankfully) and headed up to my not so secret Northwest passage campground north of McCall. I've had a plan for this camping trip for a year. Little did I know that mother nature had plans of her own. We got there on a Wednesday night. The weather was gorgeous (and the bugs were thick) but we spent some time on the river as soon as we got camp set up. The river north of the Payette Lake is gorgeous and so amazing to kayak. That night the water was amazing. We had dinner that night and enjoyed playing Sequence, which was a good thing because that was the only game in the trailer and we forgot to grab any others.
The next morning we got up and spent some more time on the river. And then slowly that afternoon the rain came. And then it refused to leave. I have never been in such pounding rain when I was camping. We ended up covering what we could and hunkering down in the trailer for the night. There was so much water that even our shoes that we had put under the trailer to stay dry were soaking wet. The next morning we woke up to a soaking camp. SOAKING!!! But we got dressed and pulled on our wet shoes and headed over to Ponderosa State Park for a hike. The hike was great. We hiked for about 5 miles, and then the rain started again for about the last mile. It started as a sprinkle, and then it POURED again. And we had left a lot of our gear out in the sun to dry when we left...that was a mistake. After an hour of downpour, the clouds parted and we went into town and visited the rock shop (where I bought a pretty white stone bowl to hold my rings and remind me of our wet trip) and got some ice cream at Ice Cream Alley. At this point we decided to call it. We were soaking wet, all of our stuff was soaking wet, our wood was wet, our chairs were wet, and we didn't even have any dry towels.
So we threw all of our wet stuff into bags and into the truck and trailer and drove home. Where we unpacked everything and set it out in the sun to clean it and let it dry. And then, since my parents felt bad for us, they made us some hamburgers and built us a campfire, since we hadn't had a single one the whole time we were camping. It was a true "Welch Family Camping Trip"!
And then....there was a mad dash to get everyone ready for school.
The begining of the school year was tricky because Ainsley had to leave for check-in and freshman orientation on the same day thatSchool started. Ainsley and I left for Provo on Owen and Emmie's first day of school. Which was kind of a bummer for me. To be honest, I was a bit of a wreck. Sending your oldest off to college is not for the faint of heart! Everyone says that your 18 year olds are so difficult and frustrating that your ready for them to go. But I never felt that way! I was just sad!
Owen: 11th grade
Emmie: 7th grade
Emmie and Elsie off for their first day of 7th grade.
Emmie, Molly, Aly, and Elsie. This crew walks to the but together every morning.
Ainsley: Freshman in College
Ainsley drove the Scion down to Provo and I drove the van. Both cars were full with all of her stuff. I was a little sad that we had to drive separately, but I think it ended up being a good experience for Ainsley to drive that far by herself. For someone that had previously refused to drive on the freeway...she handled the 6 hour freeway drive like a champ.
As soon as we drove into BYU we got her checked in and started unloading her things. It took us a few hours and several trips. We were both hot and sweaty and exhausted by the time we got it all up to her room. That evening we were starving and went to get some dinner and went to the grocery store to get her some food. After getting her parking figured out and just a bit settled, I headed back to John's parents for the night and she got to hang out with her roommates. Two of her roommates were staying there that night, Hanna (in her room) and Maya (the self proclaimed sleeper and gamer). They went out that night and got some martinelli's and made some brownies and invited over the neighbors...which made me so happy!
The next morning I woke up early and made a run to Target and Ikea to grab a few things that we realized she needed. I got to Provo that afternoon and helped her finish up her room. She did a good job!
The view out of her bedroom and kitchen window are incredible. I told her to enjoy the view because it might be quite a while (or maybe even never) before she ever has a daily view like that again.
I took Ains around to find her classes that afternoon, but we were so hot and tired that our hearts weren't really into it. Colin and Melanie were getting there that evening, so we met up with them and went out to dinner. And Ains got to meet Colin's roommates. They are a fun group of guys, who Ains and a few of her roommates had fun with during orientation, but then the fun fizzled a bit after Hannah overstayed her welcome and they weren't really invited back much anymore. It was kind of strange, but Hannah and Colin started spending TONS of time together, even though Colin's girlfriend was moving there from Georgia the next week. But I guess at least they had friends to do things with for the first week of school!
Ains is sitting in the bottom left of this picture. Somewhere in the 'foot' of the Y.
That night after dinner I said my final goodbye to Ains. It was so hard! I was so excited for her and so sad all at the same time. I didn't want her to see me sad, but I failed at that and started crying when I had to hug her good-bye. I was grateful to be able to drive back to Salt Lake with Melanie that night or I think I would have just cried by myself for hours.
The only thing that has made Ainsley leaving home easier was seeing how much fun she was having...more on that later.
When I got home, we were in full school mode. Cross country and soccer were in full swing and life continued on as normal. Except we were missing someone.
But the good news is that Ains calls almost every day as she walks home from campus. And I love hearing from her! She loves being on campus, is loving her classes, is having fun with her roommates, joined a needle point club all by herself, and has waffles and watches survivor with Colin and another girl every Wednesday. She is thriving!
