Well, the day came. Our first Princess has officially graduated from HS. She's officially, officially adult and could be on her own. Le sigh... :)
Since Sarah was an SBO, she got to speak at Graduation and was in charge of introducing all of the dignitaries, including board members. (I got to be there) This also meant she was the first person to receive her diploma after all the talks. The Principal, Mrs. McPhail, was all about efficiency, so it took a whopping hour and 20 for the whole thing. Not sure what to expect when Steven graduated with his class of 1k in a couple years.
Each year a member of the Board of Trustees formally "accepts" the graduates and gives a short speech. The honor fell on me this year since I have a graduate. I guess I could have modified the speech, but I just went with what Mrs. McPhail gave me. In hindsight I could have added more, but didn't want it to come off as braggy or too centered on Sarah. It was pretty cool that we were both able to be a part of the ceremony.
Here is Sarah walking to get her diploma. She actually left the stage without it, but Mr. Marshall got her another one.
The grandparents and siblings took off after the ceremony, so we only got a picture with us, Audrey, and Sarah. I was on the stand, so I couldn't tell everyone to wait, but my parents, Lynette and Andy were at the ceremony.
After her graduation we had an open house for her friends to attend. We had more food than necessary, but it was nice to see how many people came to show her love. I apparently only took one picture of guests, but she felt loved.
High School graduation is just the beginning of this kid's adult life and we're grateful we get to see where her road takes her. Congrats princess!
Audrey just finished up her second year of preschool at The Smartypants Preschool with Miss Angie. We started Audrey at this preschool because Mike's five months at Weapon School had given Audrey crazy separation anxiety from me and this was just up the street from us. We kept her there because she loved it. Her graduation was at the library and Audrey had some serious ants in her pants while singing. It was cute and comical. We may have been doing yard work and not watching the time, so we brought her friend Ruth to give her some strength. Next up, Kindergarten.
Here she is on her first day of pre school and last day.
Sarah made the Varsity tennis team and had this cool banner put up in the school. Turned out pretty great. She wanted to make sure I wouldn't miss her too much, so she had Mike hang it up in our kitchen. I don't mind at all. :)
Sarah applied to Southern Utah University, the University of Utah, and Westminster University. She got in to all three but decided to go to SUU. The University of Utah offered her 5k/year, Westminster offered her their presidential scholarship worth 32k/year and SUU offered her their Founders Scholarship work 3k/year. Even though SUU is offering less, the school costs less, so she'll still come out ahead.
Sarah had her last day of school on Friday, May 17th. Audrey and I volunteered at the senior breakfast and then watched the parade. This tradition started with Covid, since the class of 2020 didn't get a traditional graduation ceremony, and they've kept it.
On the 21st they had their senior award's night and Sarah cleaned up. It was kind of funny all the ribbons she and awards she received. One of the things we have really loved about PH is all of the opportunities kids have. I had Sarah send me a list of her awards/chords.
- Two STUCO cords
- Two NHS cords and a light blue stole
- Focus cords for English, Spanish, History, Government and Foreign Language
- Medal for her Seal of Bi literacy from the state
- Medal for being a Distinguished Graduate, which is a program that demanded A LOT of extra work.
This season Steven started on the JV team but was quickly moved to Varsity. Each week he'd play part of a JV game and most of the Varsity games. We loved coming to watch him play. His banner was up on 134th this year and it was fun to drive by it. We love watching his kid play.
Steven usually had a few friends come and watch him play, and Audrey would sit with them when they were there. We didn't mind. :)
We decided to do Ragnar Zion again but only half our team could make it. We supplemented with men, but I missed our women's team. The men were great, but I missed having my family there along with the women. Still, it was a great weekend with Emily and Jackie. I need to download pics from the team drive, because I apparently only have them of other people. :)
I married a good man. If you read my 20th anniversary shout out you'll see that, but he's a good man. He bought me a small purse I wanted and then built me a shelf for himself that he pretends he didn't want and doesn't love. ;) I've been telling him for months (years?) that he needs another shelf above his clothes. We have a "small" closet, so I wanted to maximize space. He said he didn't want/need one so he wouldn't build it. Before leaving I told him that I wanted one for Mother's Day. He begrudgingly built me one and found clothing he didn't know he had. :)
Sarah is the family card maker and she is always very thoughtful. I love the different flowers on my card this year.
We kept up our tradition of getting Mother's Day pedicures as Lynette's gift.
Audrey and her preschool descended on Wheeler Farm May 3rd. We used to visit as a family regularly, but haven't as much lately. Audrey had fun riding the tractor and the little cow train. I guess this is all the pictures I took. :)
