Everybody's Working

For the first time, everybody at our house is working! Dad, of course, has his job as a teacher. This year he took on a new task for the first time. Instead of just teaching fourth grade for the 25th time, he taught a 4th/5th split. It was frustrating at times, but he had such amazing students, his favorite being Seth, that he really enjoyed the year. Still, he's excited to be back to fourth grade full time next year.

Seth had a great year with Dad in 4th grade!

Mom works hard volunteering at school, and she puts a lot of time into her website. She hit several major milestones, including amassing 50,000 followers, and conducting a complete website overhaul. This was much needed as the website hadn't been updated since we moved from blogger ten years ago. Mom also excelled at another job this year, which was usher coordinator for the Saratoga Springs Temple. She put in countless hours, and suffered many headaches organizing thousands of volunteers from our stake for three full days working in the temple. She and Dad enjoyed working in the temple, and Mom was amazing at getting the temple shifts covered. We can't wait until the open house is over, so that we can have our very own temple.

Mom and Dad loved serving at the Saratoga Springs Temple Open House.

Mark took on umpiring youth baseball games at Vet's park. He worked three to four nights per week through May and June. He usually put in about 6 hours. Mark balanced his schoolwork and new job beautifully, managing a 4.0 while earning very good money. We were a little worried about him, because we've seen some pretty critical fans at sports games, but Mark handled his job really well. He received as many compliments as complaints, which is great for an umpire. He even got his own debit card and started handling his own account. Best of all, he really loved being on the field and the friendships that he developed with other umpires. It was an awesome experience.

Mark had a great time umpiring.

Dax and Seth continued their soccer refereeing this year. They worked hard on most Saturdays and always worked together, which they really loved. Both boys liked reffing the little girls' games, because "they are so nice to each other, and the parents don't take it so seriously." After working hard all Spring, Dax and Seth decided to pool their money and buy their own shaved ice machine. They were really excited to make snow cones for anyone in the family throughout the summer! We all enjoyed the fruits of their hard work!

Dax is an experienced referee since he has done it for so many years.

It was awesome that Dax and Seth could work together.

Seth enjoyed being a referee a lot.