Summer 2018

We began the month of July with our traditional 3rd of July Fireworks by the Kalamazoo river. People have discovered "our spot" by the VA building so it was more crowded this year unfortunately. We still had a fun time though hanging out waiting for sunset and then enjoying the amazing fireworks they do every year.

We also had a fun picnic at the Bonnaire's house and the kids had a great time kayaking all over the pond. 

After spending the last two and a half years in Primary at church I was called as the new Young Women president. So one day I planned to meet with Cassandra Betzold, the previous president, so she could walk me through some of the expectations and pass along all of her supplies to me. I brought Lynnsey so she could watch Cassandra's little girls while I met with Cassandra. They are such sweet girls--just so adorable. Almost as cute were the baby kittens they had!

                                       

Kaya took part in one of the summer camps at the nature center again this year and she and her group made a giant tee-pee out of fallen logs and branches.

 The Potter Family Reunion was supposed to be held in Kentucky this year with Susannah in charge, but due to some financial concerns, she had to cancel. That was a bit of a relief actually because I was still doing classes for the BYU-Idaho Pathway program and I had been really concerned about being able to do my finals week during that week. But we still wanted to see everyone so we held the reunion here in Michigan. It was a fun time with most of the family here.

We went to a concert in the park with the Bramhall's who arrived a few days before the Utah groups.

 And we spent a day at Swain's Lake--always a favorite of the Bramhall's (and us).

 Once more family arrived, we went hiking at the nature center.

 And went miniature golfing.

 In the middle of all that we had an interesting experience with a wasp nest that we discovered attached to the fabric that hangs over our front porch. Unfortunately we discovered it because our mail carrier was stung by a wasp and because she was allergic, had to go to the hospital and wouldn't deliver our mail until we could locate where the wasps were coming from. I don't blame her--especially with the allergy. She thought they must be ground wasps that were hiding under the porch steps or something but after hunting around I found the nest and just about got attacked myself by a massive swarm of wasps. I managed to spray them all and the stragglers that kept returning to find their home destroyed.

 We had a really fun trip to Lake Michigan. It was a beautiful day, though the water was a little colder than was comfortable. Everyone had a great time though and it was a great way to wrap up the reunion.

 Finally, after ten months of the Pathway program, I finally finished! It felt almost like graduating from college but in reality, it just means that now I can take online classes from BYU Idaho and finish up my degree that I started so many years ago. It feels great to be working toward that goal again and as happy as I am to have my Thursday nights back, this was a great group of people to be in the program with.

 We celebrated the end of July with Spencer's 13th birthday! We have another teenager in the house!

Kendall designed and decorated the cake.

 August always begins with band camp. Lynnsey had an exhausting but fun week working on the new halftime show for the school year and having a great time with friends.

 We managed to finally squeeze in another zoo trip before the end of the summer too.

And Kendall and I embarked on an adventure that wound up lasting much, much, MUCH longer than I had anticipated it would. I have never been a fan of our blue kitchen cabinets--particularly when combined with the blue walls and the flowery wallpaper. It looked dated and dark and over the years I grew to dislike it more and more. Then one day Lynnsey burned her toast. And I mean, she really burned her toast. Like, it was on fire. And the flames burned a section of the paint off one of the cabinets. It looked bad. And it needed to be painted. But I really didn't want to go buy matching blue paint. So Kendall and I decided to undertake a whole kitchen painting project. We significantly underestimated the time and energy such a project would take. He actually left on his mission before we could get it done. He had been working so much before he left that he didn't have much time and once school and babysitting started for both me and the kids, I didn't have the time. I worked very sporadically and so for months we had a really horrible kitchen. I did finally finish it and will post more before pictures and also the after pictures in a future post. I just thought I'd include this picture of Kendall at the very beginning stage of the project when we were starting to realize after spending hours stripping wallpaper that we may have bitten off more than we could chew. 

Spring 2018

Spring was absolutely crazy busy! We started off with a fun spring break visit in April from the Bramhall's. We spent time visiting and catching up and we took some fun trips to our favorite places. We spent a few hours at Kid's n' Stuff.

And we went to Bouncin' Play to bounce and play. The kids had a great time playing the arcade games and jumping on the inflatables.

And we took in a movie at the Bohm.

 Kendall decided to go to the prom sort of. He dressed up and went with a fun group of friends for pictures. Then instead of going to the dance, he and his friend Wade went back to Wade's house and played games until after the dance when the group all got together again and played more games.

All of Kaya's Girls on the Run training culminated with a freezing cold and wet 5K. Lynnsey ran with her and it was really fun to watch them helping each other to keep going at the end. Kaya's friend Vondy ran with her school too and they found each other along the course and ran together for a bit too.

 One day I was getting the mail and realized that the wreath outside the front door was looking a bit different. Upon inspection I found a nest full of tiny little eggs! We left it alone as much as possible with a few checks periodically to see if they had hatched until one day we saw that they had. It was pretty cool to see the process. A second batch of eggs was laid after the first and another set of birds made the nest their home for awhile. Now I'm trying to convince myself to go pry the wreath off of the wall so we don't have another bunch. It was fun the first couple of times but now there is so much bird poop all over the wreath and the side of the house that I don't think I want to go through it again this spring.

 The nature center is always so beautiful in the spring time. And Lynnsey is developing a real knack for iPhone photography!

The kids were able to go on a youth temple trip together--Kendall's last one! I can't believe how fast the time has gone.

 Spring soccer season was fun. I hardly saw any of Kaya's games though unfortunately (so no pictures) because of Spencer's schedule. He had a great season and is so fun to watch.

Spencer hurt his foot during the game so Lynnsey and Kendall assisted him to the car.

 Kaya had a piece of her artwork selected for the Oaklawn Hospital art show. Now her work is displayed in the hospital next to the gift shop for a year. She called her piece "eclipse" and you can see the sun and the moon overlapping in the picture.

 Kendall had his spring concert with Marshall Singer's and all the seniors were recognized and given a rose. They did a fun concert with all sorts of music including a bunch of the boys singing "Greased Lightnin'".

Kendall also had his very last band concert and won one of the awards for outstanding student. Mr. Root became really emotional as he talked about this group of kids who are just a really amazing bunch. Lynnsey also had her concert band performance that night and did a great job. She auditioned for symphonic band for the 2018-19 school year and made it in so she's super excited about that.

 Kendall had a fun time participating in the senior Class Night. Most of the skits and performances were really dumb and some were borderline inappropriate but everything that Kendall was involved in was really fun and just so hilarious. He made a fun appearance as his recurring character "The Street Professor" and our favorite was the Spanish soap opera that he put together with some of his friends from his Spanish class. He also participated in a drumline and several musical numbers.

 We were really happy to learn that for Memorial Day the MHS bands were splitting in half and one group would play in the parade in Marshall and the other would play in the parade in Albion. Since the high school moved to Marshall, our poor Albion parade hasn't had a band to play in it and we have felt bad because since our kids had to play with the band, we and all of the other band families always had to go to the parade in Marshall leaving Albion's parade with a lot less attendance. It was really great to stay in Albion again for the parade!

 One day we discovered this adorable little baby squirrel hanging out in our driveway by the big maple tree. He was young enough that he wasn't scared of us and we had so much fun just watching him. He love the popcorn that we brought our to share with him!

Seminary ended and it was a big ending. Not only was it Kendall's very last day of class but it was the last one for Ruth Montross as well who has taught seminary in our branch for ELEVEN years! She has been such an amazing teacher for Taylor, Kendall and Lynnsey and we will miss her tremendously.

Kendall was the lone seminary graduate from the Marshall Branch this year. We are so proud of him for making that early morning sacrifice for the past four years to begin his day with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 And then we had Baccalureate for the Marshall High School seniors. It was optional since it's geared toward the kids who are religious so it was a fairly small group but it was a nice program.

 The Marshall Singer's were performed several numbers at it and sounded really great.

Julia and Kendall met in band freshman year and since both play the clarinet they had a great time getting to know each other over their four years together. Julia is just one of Kendall's friends that we will be forever thankful for.

And these two friends, Kaya and Mailee, will be wearing graduation caps for real before we even know it!

 Kaya was awarded an American Legion award. It was a bit tragic at first. One night I got a text from Nina Aeschliman in our branch asking if Kaya was coming to the American Legion Awards ceremony. Well it was news to me but she said Kaya's name was on the program along with a few other Harrington kids who also appeared not to be there. Apparently due to a miscommunication with the school, Harrington was never told about the ceremony. The teachers had been contacted and turned in the names of the recommended students but no one was told when and where the ceremony was to take place. Once I alerted the Kaya's teacher and the principal, they did some contacting and in the end the American Legion came and did a special assembly at the school for all the kids who had missed out. So it all worked out in the end and Kaya was thrilled to be recognized with her beautiful medal. All of our kids except Kendall (go figure!) have been recipients of the award so she was pretty excited about hers.

 And then suddenly it was high school graduation. I am not even kidding when I say I can't fathom how quickly this day got here. I remember when Taylor graduated thinking that I was so glad that it was still  four years away for Kendall and then suddenly here we are! It has been an absolute joy watching this kid grow up. He has had great friends and some really amazing experiences and through it all he has made wise decisions and earned the respect of everyone who knows him.

The MHS Class of 2018

One last performance by the Marshall Singers.

A great group of kids: Kendall, Nick, Pat, Natalie, Nadine, Wade, and Julia

Clarinet players: Meena, Kendall, Delaney, and Julia

Kendall and Riley--great theatre pals

Kendall and band teacher Mr. Root

Grace and Kendall

Kendall and Lynnsey with their "other sister" Mary

This amazing lady has watched Kendall grow from the time she was his kindergarten teacher till now. Mrs. Turner gave Kendall the best start toward this day!

Kendall and Julia

Kendall and Jack

We thought it was really classy that the Bohm honored their graduating employees with their names in lights!

 Because of my classes and babysitting, I wasn't able to accompany Kaya on her big 4th grade field trip to Mackinac Island like I had wanted to so badly. But Taylor was happy to take my place and they had a phenomenal time together and it was a great bonding experience for them both.