You are 8 1/2 going on 16. I think probably most parents feel this way, and I am also sure that you are not as dramatic as most girls your age. In fact, I know it. But, you have discovered selfies in a big way as you can see evidenced in the photos below.

A lot has happened these last 6 months, so let’s jump in with some high level items:

• Visited Tita in palm Springs
• You made your 5th (or 6th. can’t keep track) trip to Maui
• You graduated 2nd grade!
• You started 3rd grade!
• Dad got a new job
• You are finally good enough at soccer that’s it’s not painful to sit and watch, and you scored your first goal!
• Your cousins all came and visited for 4 days
• You mom and I celebrated our 13 year anniversary
• We visited Sun Valley many, many times
• …just to name a few

School

You are officially a 3rd grader! You finished the year with Mrs Zito, and learned over the summer that you will have Mrs. Patrick for 3rd grade. Can’t remember which of your friends are in her class vs the other, but some of your friends include: Avery, Alexis, Lucy, Paytin, Norah, Cora and a bunch more I am probably missing. You still love school, and you are testing at a 3rd/4th grade level in both reading and math (the only two you were tested in so far).

You began 3rd grade middle of August, and you were so excited to return. You and Ethan are at the same school for the first time and you couldn’t be happier about it.

You absolutely love to read as well. You read dozens of books over the summer. There were plenty of times when I would get out of bed in the morning thinking you were still sleeping, only to pop my head in and finding you in your chair with your light on reading. You had been up for some time already.

Art is still your favorite – and when asked that is what you want to do for a living when older. We even talked about college the other day and you said you want to major in Art and Minor in Art as well. You also said that you are going to stay and live in Boise forever with us – your mom is pretty excited about that prospect…I am on the fence :).

Trips

As always, we went to Sun Valley for the 4th of July. We stayed for about a week, which was the limit before your mom was on the edge of physically attacking Papa. We also went a number of other times. We fished, biked, camped at Lola Creek, went to Stanley, had great meals, did waterslides, played in your treehouse and much more. You guys are enjoying it more and more each time we go now.

We also went and saw Tita over your spring break. Your friend Paytin and here family were there, as was my friend Jeff and his family. We did the Living Desert, had In-n-Out, did pool time and more. We were going to get together with the other families, but unfortunately you got pretty sick so you and I spent most of the trip having you rest. Took you to urgent care and we spent 4 hours for them to tell us you were negative for everything. This was still during prominent covid cases so that added another fun dynamic. Overall though, to be honest I enjoyed it. Your mom and Ethan went out and did activities to keep him from going nuts and we just hung out and read and watched shows. With the exception of you not feeling well, it was great to get the quality time together.

We took another trip to Maui, and the big note this time was that it was the most enjoyable trip we had all been on. This was due to a few factors: you can both ride on planes without assistance (just need tablets/coloring stuff), getting you to sleep is easy nowadays, you can dress and feed yourselves, you can play independent of us and you love to play with each other. But, the biggest change is that you can swim! No longer are we having to worry about you sinking like a stone. We went to the pool everyday, and you jumped right in. We would come in with you, and also sometimes read a book while you swam. As you guys get older these trips become more and more fun.

It wasn’t a trip for us, but your cousins also came and visited – and this was by far the highlight of your summer. You were so excited to see them and they all stayed at the house with us. You had sleepovers with them every night, and played with them all day. We are planning on meeting them again next summer in Monterey to do the aquarium.

Soccer

You are also a soccer star! Well, that might be a bit generous. You are getting better, and you are pretty fast though. We are working on the aggressiveness, but your ball handling is actually pretty solid. You are hesitant when on the field about going after the ball, but so is basically everyone on your team. You play on a team with a bunch of St. Joe’s girls that you are friends with and it is easily your favorite activity (to your mom’s chagrin as you like it more than dance).

You also scored your first goal! The part that was so cool was that before we left to go to the game we were at home and you, out of the blue, said to me “Dad, I am going to score a goal today”. Then you went out and did it, early in the game even. For a team that scored maybe a handful of goals all season (as a team you didn’t win a single game), it was cool that you were able to get one. You also handled it like you had been there before. A lot of the girls on other teams, and some on yours, when they score they run around screaming or doing cartwheels and shit. You scored and ran back to the middle of the field for the kickoff as your team patted you on the back on the way. Couldn’t have been more proud of you.

Family

Figured it would be worth introducing a section on the rest of us as well moving forward.

Ethan finished up preschool and just started Kindergarten with you! You are both so excited. We looked at Riverstone for him as well as you are each a little different, but he wanted to be at school with you, which we couldn’t deny.

Mom is preparing for having both of you at school all day as this will be the first time. You go from 8-3, so there is a 7 hour block for her to fill. You would think this would be something exciting for her, but instead she is already missing you guys being around. We also hit 13 years this year married – which is just insane.

Big news for me is that I took a new job. I mentioned in my last post that I would start looking, and I recently accepted a role with a company called Shiftkey as the VP, Growth Marketing. It is a tech company that matches part time nurses with facilities that need them through an app and software. My job is to get both more nurses and facilities on the platform. I was at Vacasa for almost 4.5 years, and am excited to get back to the tech world.

Other than all that – business as usual. You are still incredibly sweet, love your brother more than anything, are an incredible student and an even better daughter.

I love you more than all the world.

Love, Dad