Here are the pictures that I could gather up for the "back to school" for this month.
Luke 2nd grade, Noah 6th grade, Eli 8th grade, Brantley PreK, Nick 12th grade, Ryan 8th grade, Weston 8th grade, Owen 10th grade, Savie, 6th grade, Enola Ashlyn 13th grade, Elders Simms E grade, Alex 40th year, and Nathan 13th grade. Nathan flew to BYU on August 28th. (When Jaden drove back to Utah, on Monday, August 12th, he took a car full of stuff for Nathan then.)
On Monday, the girls wanted to go shopping and see downtown Santa Barbara. This was Audrey's first trip to Santa Barbara, so she especially wanted to see some "sites". All weekend, anyone staying at the house were riding bikes or playing games. The Simms kids and the Christiansen kids had choices of where to sleep each night. In the camper trailer, on the trampoline, or in a tent in the back yard. Mike only came down Saturday afternoon and left on Sunday afternoon. He had a motel room at the same place as us, for one night. We had breakfast with him on Sunday morning before church and then he took us to church. We had to get a ride with someone or borrow a Simms car for the time we were there. Here are pics from the shopping trip and dinner on Monday evening at Los Agaves. We and Audrey needed to head to the airport about noon on Tuesday and the Christiansen's headed toward Utah, that day. (Jaden drove back to Utah on Monday.) It was an amazing weekend.
Of course, Sunday was filled with church stuff, a missionary setting apart for Elder Simms, and a fireside from two return missionaries. The pics here also include Elder Simms leaving to go to the Lima Peru MTC, on August 21st. (He started home MTC on Monday, August 12.) The mission he will be serving in is the Paraguay, Asuncion mission. Both he and Nathan have valiant testimonies of Jesus Christ. Nathan returned with honor and Jared will serve with honor. We are proud of them both, and their parents, and their siblings. The stake president gave some touching remarks at the setting apart. I love this first photo collage... top pic from 2009 and bottom pic from 2024.
Our next trip after Canada was to Santa Barbara, California. This was for the second weekend in August. Both Nathan and Jared were speaking in church on Sunday, August 11. A Homecoming for Nathan and a farewell for Jared. We couldn't miss that, a "two for one" deal 😉. (I think I already mentioned somewhere that was a much better option for us than going to graduation in June.) Jaden drove out, Audrey flew out with us, Mike drove down from Danville, and Christiansens drove out, with a camper. (Almost a mini family reunion). I am going to divide up that trip for posts. This one is CA- Beach! We packed as much as we could into 3 days, plus 2 days of travel. I didn't get pics of everything... but at least the main things. One day at the beach was swimming and volleyball. Running for Audrey, and a campfire and smores, in the evening.
Here is my current decor. I used to do this in May, but I decided August/Sep was better... right after the July/August Sunflowers. (with a little "Texas" thrown in.)
