So, a while ago a friend pointed out that it's been a while since my last post. Here's what I did this summer (sorry, this is going to be a long post.)
After graduation I watched a little 18 month old boy three days a week. It was fun :) He's a cute little guy. For a week in July, I was a counselor for a session of EFY in Ogden. That was an awesome experience. It was very time consuming, but definitely worth it!
Then my family and I went to Washington, D.C. for a week. We got to go because Intermountain Donor Services selected our family to represent Utah at the National Donor Family Conference held annually. It was great honor Dad's memory in such a positive way. Abby and Cathy (my aunt and cousin from Nebraska) and Trudy went with my mom, Jennie, Matt, Garrett, and me.
We arrived on Friday, and while we were checking into our hotel - the Omni Shorham - the fire alarm went off, so we had to evacuate to the sidewalk. That was kind of funny, all of us out there with our suitcases. It turned out to be a false alarm, but it was a great way to start the trip!
Here's the Largent crew with the fire trucks outside the hotel.
This is us by our quilt piece. Part of the Donor Family Recognition is a quilt pinning ceremony. Each family is invited to make a bring a quilt square representing their loved one who was an organ/tissue donor, and then they get to say a few words about the person and pin the square to be added to the National Donor Quilt that travels the United States and Europe. Our square is from the t-shirts we had made for the 5-K we run every year for Dad's birthday. It says "Wish Big Live Large" with Dad's name and birthday and death date on it. It is in between mine and my mom's heads in the picture if you can see it.
Here we are in front of the capital. (Matt enjoyed not being normal in the pictures - he's warming up here because it's just the first day still.) The capital is such a beautiful building! I absolutely loved it!
Jennie and me at the World War II Memorial with the Lincoln Memorial in the background.
We saw a lot of cool things in Washington DC, walked ourselves to death, but it was an awesome trip! I definitely recommend it to anyone! It was so cool to be in our nation's capital and see incredible things, places, and memorials for w
hat makes our country great.
(By the way - there would be a lot more pictures of DC but I am annoyed at how long it takes to put them in, so maybe more later.)
A couple of weeks after we returned from Washington, I was offered a job to teach second grade at T.O. Smith Elementary in Ogden. For those of you who don't know where it is, it's on 32nd St. and Grammercy (just southwest of Ogden High School.) The principal and the other teachers I will be working with seem great, and second was my first choice for grades so I am very excited. (http://www.toes.ogdensd.org/ here's the school's website) Lucky for me the teacher whose spot I took left me a lot of great materials and other things I'll need for my class. The bad new is that the room was left in a disaster with more stuff than I knew what to do with. I have spent the last week and a half trying to clean it out and get it ready for Monday Aug. 24 when the kids come back. This is the before picture of my room. The after will be taken in a few days.
The second weekend of August was the Intermountain Donor Services 5K was the second weekend in August. We run every year to celebrate Dad's birthday. (August 15) This year the course was really tough - I got my worst time ever and I was bustin my butt. However, there is only so much you can do when the whole thing is one steep hill after another. Oh well, it's for fun. :)
Last, but not least, football season is upon us. Trudy, Garrett, and I have season tickets for BYU football. I had to get tickets because I just can't see myself not going to all the games, and Garrett has wanted season tickets for a long time, but never had a way to get down there for all the games. Now that I'm back home, he can go with me, and Trudy loves BYU football too, so the three of us will make the trek to Provo six times this football season. I can't wait! I got a Cougar Club membership with graduation, and we are going to a football kickoff event this coming Saturday. I am stoked!
The other football team I am excited about is good old Morgan High. Matt is a senior this year, and it will be his third year as the varsity quarterback. He is excited, and knowing how much work he has put in since the day last season ended, he will have a great season! Garrett will also be seeing time on varsity this year. He is a sophomore. He plays running back and outside linebacker. However, he broke his hand in practice last week and it's in a big cast, so he'll only play defense for a couple weeks.
Check out these articles about the team from the Deseret News. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705323311/Morgan-Trojans-football-preview.html
(Matt is #15 - you'll see him on the front page of the article)
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705321554/High-school-football-Tough-as-ever-in-Region-11.html
Your trip sounds awesome! Next time you come out there we'll drive up and meet you. Congratulations on the job. You will be an awesome teacher. I have close contacts with some 2nd grade teachers if you have any questions:) Good luck!
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