Back to School, & a Super Speedy Summer Summary!

 Hello, Blog! It's been a while! The spotlight is on Rosa for this one, as she is officially our last kid at home now! 

This spring she finished 8th grade, right after getting her braces off!

After all those years at the charter school with a dress code, she immediately dyed the underneath of her hair blue

And when Pearl moved out (more on that below), she got busy moving into the bigger room and redecorating it, including repainting

She then got busy enjoying her summer, which mostly including doing a whole lot of nothing. Though she did pick up music this year, and has been teaching herself guitar. She also likes making art, watching 80s movies, baking, and eating chocolate. 

Now fall is nigh, and she started school this week as a freshman in high school!!!

People often say that four kids is a lot, and how do we do it all? But I don't think we'd know how to do it WITHOUT this kid; she has always been such a joy! We are so thankful for her!  We can hardly believe she is so grown up already, but we are really excited to get to enjoy the high school experience one more time with her. 

Now, the super speedy summer summary-- Yes this will be a brief update for now, but it also really was a quick summer! I don't understand how it goes by faster every year! It feels like we didn't really do much. Maybe WE didn't... but our kids DID!

We were happy to see a bit more of this girl lately. Winter had been in Yosemite for about 18 months, but came home at the end of June and spent her summer traveling. She went to the Oregon coast, South Dakota and the Badlands (where she also went skydiving!), hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, and currently she is in EUROPE, where she did some sightseeing in London and is now walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain! Never sure what she'll do next, but we sure enjoy following along on her adventures! 

I was glad for the chance for a photo of everyone together, it's rare these days! 

Pearl moved to her own apartment (with roommates) at the start of the summer. She is enjoying having her own space, but still comes over most every day to see us (and we babysit her dog). She spent the summer working, first at the dog daycare she has been at for a year, and then just recently she got a new job as an Equestrian Instructor at a local nonprofit that works with the disabled population! She is loving it, and we are so proud of her!

Summer also means horse shows: she showed at a couple, and helped her teammates at a big show in Estes Park, which was a lot of fun! 

Jesse moved to a new apartment this summer as well. He has been working at a local movie theater for a while now. He likes the not-early hours compared to his previous jobs, and the laid-back atmosphere.  He enjoys hiking and camping with friends, and has been expanding his art ventures and other hobbies-- experimenting with turmeric sun art with flowers, gardening, and bottling his own nature perfumes and scents.  

Luke continues to work on his new business, Two Track Campers.  He went to several shows this summer, and I even joined him at one-- in Gunnison, near our old stomping grounds! It was cool to be back in that area, and it is exciting for Luke to be connecting with the Jeep crowd from all over. We're hopeful that the business will pick up speed and continue to grow! 

So that's the update for now! There are lots more photos I could have shared, I may need to just do a "photo dump" post soon. For summer having seemed so short, there really has been so much going on!