Christmas Newsletter

Merry Christmas!

In 2020 we had to cancel a trip planned to visit the eastern US, but this year we were able to use our airline credits to take two trips to the east and finish our goal of visiting all 48 continental US states. 

With Covid still being prevalent and many restrictions and closures, our trip was different from what we had originally planned years ago, but we were still able to see everything we wanted, even if only from the outside. We were able to visit New York City (my favorite), Plymouth, Boston, Niagara Falls, Kirtland, Columbus Zoo, Philadelphia, Jamestown, Washington DC, and much more.

Ben has been extra busy with work in the City as the Assistant Leisure Services Director this year and teaching a class at the University. He also just finished creating an online class for the college. With the little bit of extra time this year, Ben built a large shed in our backyard. He even designed the shed himself. Ben and Westley also spent a week hiking and camping with Ben’s brothers and dad again this year. He has also kept busy serving in the Bishopric in our ward, which has been a blessing to our family.

Jill has been busy homeschooling the kids and chauffeuring them to all their activities. She also volunteers for many of their activities, including helping with costumes and backstage. As with most moms, she never gets enough credit for all that she does (I had to add this so she wouldn’t downplay all she does). Jill is now serving in the ward Primary and enjoys the children. She is very happy to be back in person at church with the Primary children after over a year.

Jenna has been busy with dance and theater. She has performed in 3 musicals this year, Les Miserables (her favorite), The Wizard of Oz, and Addams Family. She was also Assistant Choreographer for Addams Family, which is something she has dreamed about doing one day. She continues to take dance classes in multiple styles. Dance is still her passion and she hopes to own a studio one day. She has also been working hard to complete all her schoolwork. She will graduate with an Associates Degree this spring. She has applied to BYU and BYU-Idaho and plans to start college officially next fall studying Dance and Business. She is president of her class at church and was happy that Girls Camp was in person this year.

 

Westley still loves sports, math, coding, and anything that can be remotely competitive. He began running with the high school cross country team this year. He has really enjoyed high school sports so far. He still has a passion for coding. He is taking his first ever public school class, AP Computer Science at the high school. It has been a very different experience for all of us. He continues to be homeschooled for the rest of his classes. He has also found an outlet for his passion for math, math competitions. In February, he won 1st place at the virtual Mathcounts chapter competition (the best 6-8 graders in the county). He then placed 5th at state, only 1 place away from making it to Nationals. Even though all the competitions were virtual this year, he still enjoyed his experience. He also continued to participate in the MathClub hosted at the university and is happy to be back in person this fall. He was very excited to see the MIT and Harvard campuses while on our trip this summer.

Charlotte enjoys the arts, performing and fine. She loves musical theater, dancing, art, drawing, cake decorating, reading, and sleeping. She was in two plays this year, Addams Family and The Wizard of Oz as Toto. Her barking and dog noises were very realistic. She also continued to participate in her children’s choir and sang a solo at the spring concert. She loves any opportunity to be on stage and perform. She also loves drawing and making clay animals. She entered many art pieces into the county fair and a couple of items won special ribbons.