June 2022

 

June 2022 ... there were a lot of quick rainstorms that weren't really adding much water, but ruining a recently washed car. Very windy too. Unlike past years where the Westra Father's Day party had to be pushed into the evening to avoid the heat, here we had to shift it earlier before it cooled down too much. The gardens are growing (flowers and veggies, see the difference in a couple of plants from the beginning of month compared to the end of the month - photos in the top left corner, Hibiscus and milkweed). Here's a quick recap of the month ...

• Medical: Jen had weekly PT appointments and at home workouts for her shoulder ... only slight improvement. There was also an echocardiogram (doctor suggested after the fall) which came back without any serious issues. Keaton got in for an annual exam and will try to follow up (skin issues, carpal tunnel). Colton has been under the weather. We pulled out one of the Covid tests - but it was negative. In the extended family, Grayson's sister Ana was diagnosed with MS.
• Family Gatherings: Big group gatherings on both sides. The annual Westra Father's Day party (last one at Scott&Amy's house - on the market and sold!) and a Zundel Family Reunion - originally planned at a park in Hyland, but moved to a church per the windy weather. The 9-square was played at both parties.
• Treadmill Troubles & Other Exercise: Cooper is a regular on the treadmill down in J&G's gym, but it's had some sudden stops, flipping the circuit breaker and throwing an error code. It's made Coop wary of going fast (Jen has never had an issue on it, but she's just been walking). Looking into repair. Meanwhile Coop returned to RingFit (he'd gotten into it a couple years ago, but only for a couple of months - I little like WiiFit) which has given him a good set of new exercises. Jen and Coop played pickleball every Thursday, and Jen Zumba's Mon/Wed/Fri. Gray has been running again.
• Weight Loss: Gray started a weight loss program a while ago, and is down 50 pounds!
• Golf: After spending several years in storage, Gray got out the clubs and went golfing with some work colleagues. Ironically enough, the very next day, Colton went golfing with his friends ... so the clubs which haven't been used in forever got a workout two days in a row!
• Gray's Getaways: Gray took the RZR down to the dunes for a day, and then did an impromptu outing to Arizona for a couple of days (first time he's been able to fly without a mask since Covid). He's meant to get the wave runners up to the reservoir but hasn't made that happen yet, but did play some "lake poker" on a boat with buds. 
• Basketball: Colton had some travel too, going to St. George for a couple of days with the school team. They also their team camp  and have been having "conditioning" at the school almost every day. The team also hosted a car wash to raise funds and played several games up at the University of Utah. Colton's Wolves team played in a tournament at the Expo Center in Sandy - so Jen was there to watch as Colton got a new high score, 46 points in a single game! 
• Kitties: Snagged a couple cute shots of Oreo (he's conversing with a magpie out the window, and posing with the plants). The other picture looks a little like Joy, but it's the "wild" kitty who comes over every day to see if we've put food out for him ... which of course we have. He's super skittish and will run away if anyone gets close. We don't know if he has a home, but he's gotten quite comfortable hanging out here.

There's a new DEAD END sign at the entrance to the circle, a nice addition after living here for 25+ years. Gray and Jen had a date to Desert Star - Hunkules, and got a cute picture of Cal&Kate as they went to a wedding (and they celebrated their two year anniversary).  There was a  family dinner at Tepanyaki to celebrate Coop's recent graduation. Keaton has returned to jumping out of airplanes. Concrete poured in the back. It's watermelon season, but pineapple has been the big favorite recently. We go through two a week at least. Colton is a "Stranger Things" fan, and when Season Four dropped May 27 ... he'd watched it all before June even started. Coop was catching up, so he and Jen watched it this month... the last two episodes drop July 1 (and as this recap is going out a little late, I can say that we've all already watched the rest). 

Here's a look at the month ONE SECOND style ...

Cooper - Class of 2022

ConGRADulations to Cooper! There was a time or two when he was struggling with school when I wondered if he might just get his GED instead of finishing up traditional high school. We'd already gone a non-traditional route, with Mountain Heights Academy, a local, but online school. 

A few years earlier, after trying a couple days at Bingham High School, Coop decided that traditional school wasn't for him. This is something that had come up for years. He'd wanted to be home schooled (we'd had a few days of it here and there) in elementary. We'd switched from year-round at Columbia (every off track time was last starting again) to traditional at Terra Linda, and Coop had met some great friends there. He went with those buddies (on permit) to Elkridge, but the school struggles started up again, hitting hard 8th and 9th grade. We managed to get the permit to Bingham, went in and scouted out all his classes ... but it was not to be. And that was okay. I'd had some online options on the back burner, and Mountain Heights started a bit after the in-person schools, so Coop was still able to take a week off, and then start on time.

Mountain Heights Academy was a perfect fit for Cooper. Every class had the year planned out, schedules were flexible - with weekly assignments due on Friday each week. Students could do their work when/where they wanted ... a little from each class each day, or as Cooper tended to do, he'd do everything for one class on Monday and be done with that, then do another class on Tuesday, etc. He could sleep in, he and I could get some pickleball in during the day. I'd watch some of the school lectures, take notes, then go over assignments with him. His math teacher gave him personal tutoring (as I'm NO help there) as needed. When it was time for the ACT, he went in to the main offices (here in WJ) and scored higher than his brothers to date. He graduated with a cumulative GPA of 3.93.  

Cooper started Mountain Heights Academy as a sophomore, Fall of 2019 ... BEFORE Covid hit. Mountain Heights had started back in 2009, so they had 10 years of online education under their belt already. It was interesting to see how well they were set up, much better than all the traditional schools switching to online education during the pandemic (not really a fair comparison due to the circumstances, but we felt lucky that Cooper's school had everything so organized and was so on top of things). Even before the pandemic hit, I remember a snow day giving Colton the day off, and Cooper sighed "just a regular school day for me!"

When graduation time came ... it was set for Wednesday, June 1, 2022, downtown at the Capitol Theater. There were 154 graduating seniors. Unlike the Jordan District schools, where you "rent" a gown, this was an actual purchase (and I think cost less!) ... and I went ahead and ordered one, even though Coop said he wasn't planning on attending the ceremony. Which ... was okay with me, as I really struggle with ceremony and crowds and downtown. It was livestreamed, and I tuned in for part of it. 

I loved that the school came over personally to place a "congratulations graduate" sign in the yard! Graduations were back in effect ... the year before, when Covid concerns were so prevalent, graduations were cancelled and "drive by" parades were done instead. 

Just out of curiosity, I looked up the size of the graduating classes for the other boys - Landon's was 759, Callahan's was 914, Keaton's was 895. Still waiting to see what Colton's will be (probably in the 500s). Couldn't find the actual numbers for the other schools in 2022 - but this document had some interesting stats. 

(Posted in May2024 and backdated to it's chronological spot. With Colton's graduation upon us ... I realized I never did an official post for Cooper! Blogging, and life, got away from me a bit in 2022 when I had a seizure and ended up in the ER early in the year. Can that be my excuse? Updating now, and will backdate to June 2022 ...)