Best present

Courtney’s best friend, Sammie, brought over Courtney’s birthday gift. It was so cool! She got photos of them and made a collage.

And then she gave Courtney her soccer number in wood. The 1 has a soccer ball that has been cut down the center. It is really cool.


Courtney immediately hung them up and I think it looks awesome.

Friday at Success Academy

They had a bit of orientation at Success Academy on Friday. Courtney and Hayley (her friend in our ward who is also doing it) went over together. They played games, took a tour of campus, learned more about what they would be doing, and other stuff. They have another orientation on Monday and then they start into classes on Tuesday. 

The District has a new early out every Friday schedule which threw Success off because the morning cohort would have to miss one class at their boundary high school each Friday. In order to avoid that, they have adjusted the Friday schedule so they only do one virtual online lecture each Friday at 2 pm and they don’t even go into Success on Friday. I’m hoping it works out ok. Courtney will get to sleep in and do homework Friday before going to SCHS.

First day of school

Courtney actually has 2 first days of school. Thursday was the first day at Snow Canyon High School and then Friday will be the first day at Success Academy. 

SCHS has sophomore orientation where they talked to the kids about expectations, had their school picture taken, etc. Courtney said it was “super boring”. At lunch, she came home because she didn’t have class again for a while. She went back for her 2 classes she has on A day. World civ is going to be “easy” and seminary is full of kids older than her so she isn’t too thrilled. But she survived

I got a text midway through the day asking when I was going to leave work. I told her 3:30 and she asked if she could just come hang out with me and not ride the bus home. I told her sure. Her motives were not to have quality time with me! She wanted to drive home. So we drove home. See the perma-grin? She did a great.


It was a successful first day.

Birthday present

After Courtney’s soccer game she was able to open her gift from us. 

“Is it a washing machine?!”  “No, it’s a counter top ice maker!”










She was so excited and loves it saying that it is the best gift ever. She loves ice and there are many times when our ice maker can’t keep up with Courtney. We have ice trays she puts in the freezer but this is so much better. It makes ice in 8 minutes. She is in heaven!!

Face shields

The Washington County School District bought face shields for all the admin and secretaries in the schools. They bought half face shields for the secretaries. The teachers were all given full face shields but they kept digging up and it was a pain so a bunch ordered their own half face shields.

They look like the old head gear from braces and they feel dumb but at least we can breathe. We used those last week for the first week of school and it was nice. We had a few students that had panic attacks because of the masks. When the counselors talked to them and explained that they can use face shields it calmed them down and parents were excited for the option.

Friday, the governor of Utah decided that schools can’t allow face shields without a mask underneath. I’m wondering how the school district is going to respond because we have already set a precedence with the shields. So next week is going to be very interesting.

First soccer game of the season!

The first game was an exhibition game against a team from northern Utah. Courtney was excited to drive to the game, can you tell by the huge smile on her face?!?

Also note that the seat in the car is all the way forward so she can reach the pedals. 🤣😂

Courtney is #14 and is on the zero of the 40.












The JV team lost but the the varsity team won. 

Courtney’s 15th birthday!

It’s crazy that Courtney is 15 years old!!  We decorated with balloons and streamers, as usual.  I had to find a new place to get a Texas donut (because we had a bad experience when we went to get Ethan's) but we found that Smith's also does the Texas donuts and they were great to work with.

So we got her a donut and some lemonade for breakfast.

I don't have a birthday morning picture because when we went in to wake her up she looked so peaceful that we didn't want to bother her. So we went to work and let her sleep in.

I had made an appointment for her to take her driving test to get her learner's permit and it was the morning of her birthday.  Bryan came home from work to take her to the DMV.  It took 2 tries but she passed!!

Courtney then wanted to drive all over the place.  Bryan took her to a church parking lot near SCHS so she could practice then he let her drive home through the subdivisions.  She was so excited!! 

She had a soccer game on the night of her birthday so we didn't get to do much celebrating but we did buy her dinner.