Back to School

The first day back to school for Jacob and Claire started EARLY in the morning in their Sophomore  year at Sycamore High School.

At the beginning of the day, these days, Jacob and Claire start their day off with seminary at the house.

Torin starts 1st grade

and Kate and Liam start 4th grade!

These kids are all very excited for this school year in Maple Dale.

 

Time in the Temple (again)

Now that the temples are re-opened, Dani and Jared are trying to get to the temple at least monthly again. It is a 1.5-2 hour drive, but it is well worth it! The Columbus temple has been closed since COVID, now due to some renovation.

Recently, there was a photographer outside the Indianapolis temple who took a couple beautiful pictures of us!

And the trip to the Louisville temple coincided perfectly with a beautiful sunset!

 

Days of Summer

Summer happenings in Cincinnati continued after the family reunions extravaganza.

Caitlin and Andrew came out for a visit and for a bike ride on the Loveland Bike trail.

There was LOTS of time at Nana's pool, which included

aqua jogging

and bull riding! We even got Nana (and her new knee) on the bull. It was much harder, but we also got Papa on the bull for a short time.

  

We made good use of the Kings Island passes The younger kids got some driving practice time. The teenagers didn't, though maybe they should have given they will get their learners permits in a few months!

We took our first rides on Orion, Kings Island's first "gigacoaster" - with a hill of 305 feet tall! Jared and Dani went for the first time at different times, but the kids who took Dani reported that she was hilarious to ride with because she kept yelling out when she would get "air time." That may be her one an only ride on Orion!

I love this picture! Jacob is such a loving, tender older brother. He genuinely loves his little brothers and tries to find ways to spend time with them. They, meanwhile, adore him and look up to him. He is a good example to them and sets a wonderful tone for the kids.

Jared returned back to the office in mid-June after 16 months working from home. Only the vice president and president levels are returning to the office, so Jared is still working via Teams calls quite often (which feels a little silly), but he is enjoying running downtown again!

 

The views are AWESOME from the top of Mt. Adams.

Another benefit of working downtown - Jared got to go to a Reds day game in the Diamond Club with Tim and some co-workers.

Jared decided his brisket was so good, he should make it again when Caitlin and Andrew came and visited. Also, Caitlin and Andrew made fried chicken at Nana's house - it was delicious, though the cleanup and deep fried smell were a bit of a funny ordeal.

We took a few family bike rides, sometimes on the Loveland Bike Trail and sometimes to get ice cream at Walker Bros.

We had a paddling date night with the Spencers at Winton Lake. We paddled for a long time, and Jared and Nate jumped in for a little swim, until the lake's boat captain called out to them "AHOY" and informed them swimming is not allowed.

We enjoyed a few thunder storms - including one cloud that had lots of lightning at dusk that was really cool to watch.

We also had some beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

It has been an awesome summer!

Belated birthday celebration

Due to travel schedules and other events, Kate and Liam had to celebrate their birthdays with their friends over a month late, but they were happy to do it. They both had friends over for trampoline

Fire pit and s'mores

hanging out in hammocks

and a backyard movie.

It was cute to see them with their friends! Happy birthday again!

Summer at the lake

We found a number of times and excuses to head up to Caesar's Creek this summer. 

We were excited to get all our kids up, even if briefly - Here is Claire

and here is Liam and Kate. We brought Drew with us, and he and Jacob were helpful in getting the smaller kids out of the water - or at least holding them steady with the super buoyant skis! Even Torin got up on skis (on his first attempt!), though the videographer (Claire) was so excited she missed a little bit of his ride! He was super proud.

 

Jacob enjoyed skiing the most out of all the kids and liked showing off a little. He always liked to tell his cousins in Wyoming how long he could water ski!

That same day, Jared sent Drew out of the tube! It was pretty funny.

While people weren't on the boat, they were paddling around the beach 's swim area

One of Jared's happy places - on the lake behind the wheel (also, Jared likes being behind the boat on a  ski)

The waterski has a super tight binding and was hard to get on! By the end of the season, we were smart enough to bring dish soap, which helped a lot. Jared even could relatively easily squeeze his foot into it.

When the kids are in the tube together, it becomes a game. Sometimes, it becomes a musical game!

One evening, we went out to the lake with Caitlin and Andrew and stayed as the sun started to go down.

 

They had a fun ride with Torin, and Caitlin got up and skied for a while!

 

There were a couple hot days that called for the bimini to be put up. It made a nice difference for the boat driver!

We took Sarah and Eric Brown and their family to the lake too. Eric skied and the rest of the family tubed. We brought Colin on a calmer ride than Ella wanted! But the most memorable was Sarah's ride - which I'm sure most of the lake could hear!

Another time, we got up extra early to get to the lake on a Saturday early enough that there would be smooth water before all the other boats got there. Skiing on smooth water is awesome!

 

Near the end of the summer, Jared joined Dave Pratt, Dan Brown, and William Andrews on their boat for some surfing. It was fun to be with the guys. 

Also, Jared got up on 1 ski for the first time! I think that the boat's power and the rope being on the tower made a difference!