We've been long overdue for a family update, so I apologize in advance for the length of this. We'll try to be more timely in our future updates. It seems to work best if we divide up the news by family member, so I'll go from youngest to oldest today.
Calder is enjoying school, for the most part. He is in a 2nd/3rd grade split class, which was a little worrisome to us at the beginning, but it is a small class (only about 17 students) with an incredibly kind teacher. Calder especially enjoys the specialty classes that are spread throughout the week. They do art, science, music, and PE. Calder also spends time with the school speech therapist once a week and is involved in a group that the school counselor has put together for students who need help learning how to regulate emotions. So far it seems similar to things he was working on with his Occupational Therapists in California. We're still working on finding an OT here...there just aren't very many pediatric OTs here. We have a private speech therapist who comes to our house once a week to work with Calder and she is great. He always looks forward to her visits. Calder is excited to have his birthday in a couple weeks. His baptism day is on December 7th. We'd love to have you all come, so mark your calendars! Calder was "Quidditch Harry Potter" for Halloween. He and I have been reading the books together...we finished book one and are now on book two, but that one will be slow going until Rella finishes reading it or we find our other copy!
Rella is enjoying school more this year, probably due to the amount of electives students are able to take at the junior high! She has ballroom, cooking, and Spanish in addition to her normal classes. She is dancing, dancing, and dancing after school with Ballet, Pointe, Jazz, and Dance Company classes at the dance studio she took classes from before. She also takes a conditioning class once a week to help with strengthening muscles and increasing flexibility. She loves being on pointe, even though it makes her feet hurt. Rella has slid right into place in her YW class and is friends with everyone. She and her best friend Maggie both dressed as 50's girls for Halloween and looked as cute as could be! Rella is trying to decide if she should take voice or guitar lessons...she's currently leaning towards voice lessons, so we'll see how things go.
Adria had a wonderful 15th birthday in San Francisco seeing "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" with me, her best friend, Lilly, and Lilly's mom, Nikki. If you haven't heard about this play, here is a quick introduction. It's a play done in two parts (in other words, it is long). It begins with the epilogue of the 7th book and centers around Harry's younger son, Albus, and their relationship. Adria and I had both read the script a few years back, but it is so much better to watch it! We watched part 1 in the afternoon, then had a 3 hour break for dinner, and watched the second part in the evening. It was a fabulous show with a lot of neat practical effects for the magic. We absolutely loved it and were so sad that it was over! Adria also got to go see "Phantom" at Hale Centre Theatre with her French class last month. She enjoyed it and especially loved spending time with her classmates. The French 3 class is a small one, so they are a tight knit group. Adria finished her cross country season with a 3rd place win in the district championships and has been working out with a soccer team that only plays a spring season. She's preparing for her learner's permit test and likes to practice driving in the church parking lot. Friday night we hosted a game and movie night for the 14-15 year olds in our ward for Adria's birthday. It was fun to get to know some of the teens better.
I am volunteering at the elementary school once a week changing out the home reader books for Calder's class (as well as another 2nd grade class), enjoying serving in the YW 16-18 year old class, going to Zumba a couple times a week, and working. I took 2 trips out to California to hold mini sessions for my clients in the Bay Area. One was a solo trip and the other the girls came with me to see their friends. Both were fun trips. I also participated in the Lindon Halloween Festival for the first time as a sponsor and Adria and I handed out candy for the Trunk or Treat. It was fun, though super crazy how many kids came through! I had brought over 750 things to hand out, but ran out with a half hour to go in the event! Fortunately the car next to us had brought extra and gave us a bag of dum dums. They were representing the PTA at a local elementary school, so I donated a photo session to their carnival's silent auction as a thank you.
Shane is working hard, as always, and really enjoying his job and the people he gets to work with. The executive team all traveled to Phoenix last month to attend an awards dinner (hosted by Inc 500) celebrating the fastest growing companies in the country. SimpleNexus was in the 300 range, if I remember correctly. They stayed at a fancy resort and got to relax and play in the pool. One of the highlights of the trip was getting 6 grown men all on one of those inner tubes that is meant for 2 people. They also had door dash bring them ice cream after the awards dinner (because, why not?) Shane still doesn't have an official calling, so the primary has been taking advantage of that fact, asking him to sub in classes when they need extra help. He subbed Calder's class a couple weeks ago, then in nursery (his favorite calling he's never had), and then last week helped sub the 10 year olds with our friend James (Lilly's dad). For Halloween, Shane dressed as Hagrid for his work party, which was all Harry Potter themed. If you aren't familiar with Hagrid, he is the huge, half-giant gamekeeper at Hogwarts. Shane borrowed the costume from James, complete with stilts, football pads, and a few props. He was a big hit at the party, though there were several small children who were terrified of him. Shane either has a very subtle Halloween costume or goes all out. There's no middle ground.
House projects are still abundant. We finally got the chairs we ordered for the living room and they look great (hooray!) Shane has been diligently painting the kitchen cabinets and is about 2/3 of the way done. The banister project is next, then the fireplace. It will all look really nice once it is done. He's also swapping out doorknobs and painting the interior doors as he goes.
I think I'll stop there. We hope you are all well and that we will see you soon!
Love, the formerly West Coast Westras (we need a new catchy name!)
Shane, Alicia, Adria, Rella, & Calder
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