This will be backdated to the end of August ... I generally try to stay on top of the monthly recaps, but in actuality, it's October. There were a few things deserving of their own individualized posts that I needed to get done before the monthly recap.
With August comes the end of summer ... fitting in all the fun we can before school starts up (even though Colton is really the only one in school full time). There was hiking and biking, Topgolf and Zumba, and pickleball (not pictures of pickle this month though, although the new "picklesmash" game got some photos and video). Coop, Landon and Jen tried out some racquetball as well. A couple trips, some birthdays and a new job. More details below ...
- Basketball: As always. Cal and crew (including Colton) finished up the men's league with a championship win and t-shirt. Colton had practices with Coach Scott most Mondays/Saturdays and went to ball in Orem a couple times too.
- Birthdays: Happy birthday to Cooper (20) and Keaton (23). Group birthday dinner was pushed to September (Landon's B-day coming right up too). We had a couple of cakes, but our go-to favorites (the Sam'sClub chocolate, Reams Cookies&Cream Ice Cream Cake) were no where to be found. Costco's white mousse cake is a newer favorite and filled in for Coop's birthday celebration (and it must be smaller, because it was pretty much eaten in its entirety) and Keaton got homemade lemon jello. The new PickleSmash game was a gift for the boys and it's a lot of fun.
- Hiking and Biking: Gray joined Scott for a bike ride, and got in a couple rides with Zac from work. More hiking with the Symphony/EMI Hiking Challenge ... too much for one post! You can see the original post from April/May, June/July Hikes and August/September Hikes. The BIG one for August was a night hike up Timp to see the Sunrise. Landon joined Gray and others from Symphony. Check out the posts for details, songs, poems from Gray and ChatCBT - his clever write ups for work preserved here on the blog.
- Hale/Newsies: I've enjoyed Newsies ... both the Disney-fied update and the stage version. It was on my list of shows I'd like to see, so Gray got tickets and we hit a show.
- In Diapers: Symphony does several community outreach projects. A monthly dinner at Fisher House for Veterans, and here in August, a diaper drive ... a "Parade of Homes" with the homes being built from boxes of donated diapers. Check out more about this DiaperDay, there was a little newstory and you can see a familiar face in the video clip. It was fun for Gray to run into several former co-workers too.
- Travel: The BIG trip was Grayson going to London/Paris for a week+ ... it started out just him and a Symphony buddy, then another Symphony couple joined them. Gray was good at keeping in touch with pictures, emails and texts, which was a bit of a built in blog post. You can see more about his travels HERE. At the end of the month, Grayson, Keaton and Cooper headed out to SanDiego for a birthday weekend. More on that next month, as it overlapped into September. Landon also had a weekend work trip to Idaho.
- Lake Day: Gray had hit the lake a few times in July with work friends, but we got a Blackham Family Lake Day in August. Perfect weather, and everyone got wet and a little sunburned.
- NEW JOB! Coop was finishing up his work at the school for summer, but gave his notice that he wouldn't be continuing once school started up again. He wanted something full-time, and we were hoping a perfect job might happen along ... and it did! You can read more about it HERE.
- School Starting: Colton is a SENIOR this year!
- Repairs: It's always something ... the Durango wouldn't start. It was a few days of Jen needing to run Cooper to his shift at the school before Landon replaced the battery, and that did the trick. Back up and running (well ... driving). The recliners we had purchased a few years ago had a recall (something with the lights) so one afternoon a repairman came in to switch some stuff out on those.
- Garden: The garden has been growing, lots of pumpkin vines, zuchinni, cucumbers, beans and tomatoes. And marigolds, reseeded themselves like crazy! The hydrangea and hyacinth have been blooming in the front flowerbed. The sprinklers cover the lawn, but the garden needs handwatering, which gets a little tiring - worth it? Received a LOVELY bouquet of home-grown flowers from a friend in the neighborhood.
- JenBsBooks: Two bookclub meetings (Mickey7 and The Peach Rebellion) and an extra one for The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion ... meeting with one of Mom's friends. 30 books and 8945 pages total, everything reviewed and rated on Goodreads and Storygraph.
I think that about covers things for August ... love that I can backdate on the blog!
https://youtu.be/ici-nxUI8pA?si=hyz99sOJ2qph6I7G
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