August 2019

First Day of School for Rachel 10th grade

She can drive! Not alone yet, but very very soon.

She named this car Marshmallow after the big ice guy in Frozen. This car has two big dents on each side of the hood that we call dimples, because they match her dimples.

Tyler suggested this location for family pictures before Sarah leaves to BYU.

Now that Adam and Rachel have both started school we can focus on packing up the college kid and collecting all the things she'll need for school.

 Sarah loves Post-its, but we have never seen such huge post-it notes. They cracked us up. What college student would want such giant post-its?! Part of the post-it genius is the convenient size.

Posing with Mom's wedding bouquet as we celebrate our Palmer Day...aka Debi and Tyler's anniversary.  The dusty thing has seen better days and is leaving the house.

There were some tears as we sang around the piano and reality sets in for Rachel that Sarah is really leaving.

Adam fell at school and got a nasty injury. At least he didn't lose any teeth.

We surprised Rachel with a phone 2 months early so she can keep in touch with her sister.

Goofbye Snuggs.

Goodbye hugs.

The very last goodbye moment before we drive away.

Sarah and I drove to Utah alone. She asked to stop at the St. George Temple

This girl sure loves the temple.

We both do.

Welcome to Heritage Halls. 

Keep your apartment clean.

We first had to GET the apartment clean. There was a service cat in this unit before Sarah and Hannah moved in, and there was hair and dander everywhere.

Hannah and I scrubbed everything clean vacuuming and taping.

While Cory helped Sarah install her Dragon hands free software.

He also helped us out with getting oriented at the bookstore and the Accessibility Center.

I took Sarah on a dry run to all of her classes so we could find all the ramps and handicapped doors.

She loved the little grove in the Joseph Smith Building.

Sarah will have a German class in the Maeser building

She loved the sculpture garden, this dancer reminds her of Rachel.

Sarah loves Museums, so we stopped at the MOA too

Then took a little nap.

Her room was all set up, and we could have some fun.

Of course, Sarah wanted to got to the temple.

Sadly, we got there right as the baptistry was closing. But this allowed Sarah and I to have a great talk where she mentioned she would like to be endowed. So we began the process.

The next day Grandma Cole came with us to Salt Lake to see a Gastroenterologist.

We are all a little out of order

The next day was Sarah's orientation. She didn't want to be in the wheelchair the whole time, but I was able to pull her leaders aside and leave it with them and explain how to help her should she require help. They were great. I stayed only a short while and let Sarah go on to her day of activities and slipped away to get driving home.

My Mom and Dad and I had a special little birthday lunch for my Daddy. August thirty-worst, as he calls it. Then I drove back home and chatted with Christine most of the way to make the drive not lonely. Thanks sis!

Back at Home, Rachel had been doing cheerleading and school.

She made this darling children's book.

Adam had been going through the items in his bedroom. 

I guess this Thanksgiving hat wasn't sparking joy!

Time to get on with our new stage of life. 

In some ways nothing has changed, in other ways everything has!