August – Terry Family Shenanigans

First Day of the 2024-2025 School Year

It was a big year for the kids in school this year!

Emilee is officially a middle schooler now. She started at Forest Spring Middle School. Because of our move she is attending a new middle school that Matt or Allison didn’t attend so she gets to blaze her own path. She was a little nervous to start without really knowing people. It was hard to not be going to the middle school most of her friends were at. She was a good sport about it and crushed her first day. She even made a few friends right away because she was pretty good at opening lockers so she helped some girls around her a few times. She was most excited about her FACS class and engineering class. She catches a bus each morning which I think she likes because she is on her own schedule and doesn’t have to wait for anyone.

Allison left middle school behind and became a Freshman this year. She is planning on doing wrestling in the winter. She decided to give Spanish one more try because last year was a disaster with a new teacher that has now been fired and not a lot of Spanish was learned. She rides with Matthew and is pretty gracious with accepting that she is the Freshman and he is the Senior so she doesn’t get to pick the music or where they park. She started seminary this year and has done great at getting up and getting there on time. She likes to be in the know so she is quickly learning every person in the schools name. She has a good group of friends that seem to get along pretty good for the most part. She would love to get a job and is keeping her ears open but opportunities are a little scarce for 14 year olds.

I remember when Matthew was in kindergarten they called them the class of 2025 and I thought I had forever until then. Now it is here and it doesn’t seem like it took forever at all. He has the confidence of a senior that has high school figured out…but is in no hurry to graduate yet. He should have 9-12 college credits when he graduates and could take a few less classes his last semester but he loves weights and lifetime fitness so much he is going to take them. He has Campbell and a solid group of friends that keep him busy along with his part time job at Costa Vida. Seniors had a first day of school sunrise event that he went to the first day. We are all going to try and make the most out of his last year in HS and enjoy all the things. Starting with senior pictures which he is not as excited about but his mother has told him are very required. I know his eyes are closed in most of these pictures. These were the best our of the 20 options I took. He said, “Its ok mom, it will remind me I was to tired to even open my eyes on the first day of school.”

Matthew and Campbell and a few other friends started the first week of school off by going to a Zach Bryan concert. He is one of both of their favorites. Matthew says one of his top three favorites. They had a great time and stayed up really late on a school night, just like seniors should.

Zach Bryan Concert

The End of Summer 2024

After the float trip it was pretty much time to get ready for back to school. Since we weren’t doing our own family vacation anywhere this Summer I was a little worried it would be a boring, slow Summer. It really wasn’t though. We had lots of family come visit and between camps, sports and the kids going to visit grandparents we were pretty busy.

Sherrie and Dave (Ryan’s birth mom) came up for a visit at the beginning of Summer to watch Matthew play baseball. We had some extra time between games and were right by Liberty so we went and saw the Liberty jail visitor center with them. His half brother Dave and his family came up to visit for a weekend too. They took Allison to the zoo with them on the day Emilee had a softball tournament. Emilee went home with them for a week and spent time with her cousin Lizzy and then they stayed at our house for a week too.

We squeezed Matthew getting his wisdom teeth out between baseball seasons. He recovered pretty quickly. We were very grateful for that because a week after he had them out Campbell wanted him to take pictures with her for part of her senior pictures and we were worried he would have bruising or maybe still be swollen. He was fine, still a little hard to smile a full smile but the pictures turned out great. Campbell is a sweetheart. She is outgoing and responsible and beautiful. Her and Matthew are pretty cute together.

Allison was not in a hurry to get her learners permit once she turned 14 but I was. Kansas makes them have it a full year from when they get it before it can become a limited license and they can drive themselves to school and work. Allison is young for her grade so I need her to have that before the start of next school year so she can drive herself to school. Matthew and her go together this year- which I love- it is great sibling time for them. So…we braved the stupid DMV to get her learners permit. They tried their best to be difficult. My deep breathing exercises before and during all interactions helped me remain calm. Even though we had an appointment to get a learners permit scheduled through their system they tried to tell me they wouldn’t have time to do it before they closed. Even though their computer stopped working so they thought we wouldn’t be able to finish. Even though my valid drivers license with my current address wasn’t proof enough and I had to find an electric bill that anyone could forge to prove my legal, valid, #1 source of identification drivers license did in fact have my real address on it. Even though the employee had to work until 4:32 instead of 4:30. Even through all that made up stupid drama, we all persevered, Allison passed the test, took a beautiful picture and got her learners permit! When I took these pictures in the car she told me she had used up her one good picture for the permit so this is the best I was going to get.

Ryan had a work trip to upstate New York right as school was starting. I had never been there so I decided to tag along. It is a lot different than New York City. It is a lot like Kansas. We stayed in a VRBO with his boss and a few of the other VP’s of the company. There were some other spouses that came too. There were several nice dinners, and the main work event was a day at the Saratoga Race Track watching horse races. Neither of us had ever been to a horse race so it was a cool experience. We also wrote our names on a table at one of the places we went to mark our spot in history that we were there.🤣 We had a great long weekend. We did a ferry boat tour of one of Lake George. I am glad Ryan has found a place that he loves to work at and feels pride and happiness from it. He works hard and works with good people. I am proud of him and appreciate all he does to provide for his family.

A few years back when Ryan found is biological mom and met her and more of her side of the family, he also looked into his biological dads side. His dad passed away back in the late 90’s and the only family he really has left was a sister and a cousin. Ryan didn’t reach out to either of them because he was a little overwhelmed at the time and was working through the emotions of meeting Sherrie. His information was public on the 23 and Me website so his dads cousin saw the connection and put it together and he and his aunt-Rae-Ann reached out to Ryan to see if he would be interested in meeting them. He talked with them on the phone and a few times after that as well every few months but it never worked out to meet them in person. In August he was traveling pretty close to where Rae Ann lives and he felt ok about meeting her so he reached out and they set a meeting up for an afternoon while he was in the area. He said said it was a nice afternoon and he appreciated meeting her and getting to know her and more about that part of his history from her. He plans on keeping in touch with her and his cousin going forward. Here is a picture of there first meeting. I can see a family resemblance in them.

Summer Float Trip

We didn’t do a big vacation this Summer because we are going on vacation in October together-more about that later- but we wanted to have a mini-cation together at some point this Summer. We have been wanting to do a float trip with the kids for a while so we decided it was time to do it. Ryan had a friend from work that lives by the Current river in Missouri. They have people come stay with them a lot and they have all the stuff you need to float the river. They have invited us several times and it hasn’t worked out so we decided it was a good time to do it.

The week of our trip Allison went to girls came Monday through Thursday. She was actually pretty close to were we were going to be so instead of having her drive home and then all the way back to the same place, we left on Thursday and picked her up at the camp she was at before they left to come home. She was actually at camp for her birthday. We had lots of little celebrations to celebrate her this year. Becky made her a cake and we celebrated with the rest of the KC Terry’s on Sunday before she left for camp. I sent a surprise gift bag for her to open on her actual birthday at camp. Her main gift this year was a new bed and mattress for her room. She wanted a queen bed instead of a twin. She also wanted to but some board and baton on one wall in her room and make an accent wall. We got that put up for her and painted it the blue color she wanted. Then we let her pick a place to eat out for her birthday dinner when we were on our float trip and Matthew and Emilee were back.

Matthew and Emilee came home from their Florida trip late Wednesday night and we left to get Allison Thursday morning and then go straight to the river. On Tuesday Ryan’s work buddy that was going to take us to the river and let us stay with him called and said that his wife was pretty sick with COVID and he would still let us use stuff and take us to the river but it might be best if we don’t stay at their house so we didn’t get sick. I would always rather stay at our own place than with someone so I thought it worked out great. Ryan decided to see if he could find a VRBO even though it was last minute. There were literally two options available. One was a definite no and the second was pretty new but had a handful of decent reviews. Once we gathered our kids from Florida and girls camp we headed to the Current river. We had some time to pass before we could check into our place so we stopped and watched the new movie Twisters on the way. It was pretty good. It still makes me feel old to watch ‘new movies’ that are remakes of movies that came out when I was young. After the movie stop we finished making our way to our little VRBO that the kids quickly nick named the “Crack Shack”. We were a little concerned when we pulled up. It looked a little rough from the outside. Luckily it was clean and not as bad on the inside, and had good door locks. It was literally 30 feet from a Dollar General store which is a little ghetto but very convenient. We settled in and went to dinner at an outdoor burger and ice cream stand. We watched the Olympics and played games the rest of the evening.

The next day we met Ryan’s friend and he hooked us up with all kinds of floating options. Ryan decided to get a kayak and the rest of us went with a tube. He drove us to a spot on the river to get in at and planned to meet us about 4-5 hours later at the pick up spot. Allison was a little tired from her week at girls camp and was a little less than excited about the whole trip. It took some convincing to get her to come out of her room and do anything with us the first night. With a little bit of help from us, mostly her brother Matthew, we loaded up and headed to the water. Once we got on the river it was much better. All of us loved it. The weather was great, the water was clean and a perfect temperature. It was so relaxing. We had the river to ourselves most of the time too because we went early instead of in the evening. We stopped to swim and play in the water a few times. We caught a baby turtle, saw some fun animals, got tan, and enjoyed each others company. I love float trips. It was the perfect length too. About the time we were getting tired and had run out of snacks we saw the pick up point.

After we dropped off the equipment we went home and showered and went to a pizza place that was recommended. It had potential…but they must have been short staffed and had a new cook, and something. It was comical how ridiculous it was. They only had half the items on the menu available…no pizza, which is what we went there for. Once we ordered the waitress (who had to go ask someone else about everything because she was brand new) said it would be about 45 minutes before the food was ready. We decided to try some of the games they had…the only one that worked was the dart board. That after asking almost everyone that worked there only had two working darts. They had axe throwing-another reason we went there… but it wasn’t available. When the food finally arrived it was ok. Nothing great. We decided to see if we could save the meal with shakes for dessert. After what seemed like forever waiting for the shakes we asked if they were coming and our waitress said they were almost ready. Then we watched her walk over to check on them and they must have told her to do it herself because she then went over and made them by herself one at a time. It took a while and we think it was her first time handling ice cream ever. By the time we got the shakes, the first three were liquid, two were the wrong flavor, mine was only half full and tasted like thick milk. It was so ridiculous from start to finish we just all laughed about it. We left and went back to our crack shack. The Dollar Store was still open so we got some junk food and played games the rest of the night. The next day we headed home.

It was a short but sweet vacation. Lots of little hiccups but I will still probably remember it as one of my favorite vacations with the kids. Our season of life is getting ready to change after this year. I have loved this season. I love the kids being older and a little more independent and watching their personalities develop. It is a time they are developing themselves and trying things but it is still a little bubble that their lives don’t have to much craziness or stress. They are all awesome people and I love spending time with them.

The Race

For the past many years every year on Matthew’s birthday, he has raced his dad. Dead sprint, about 100 yards, winner gets bragging rights for the next year on being the fastest. Of course when this started Ryan smoked Matthew. In recent years Matthew is more and more convinced it will be the year he will win. Once or twice we have had a false start or some shenanigans that has resulted in a race being disqualified and having to run again. Ryan has been the clear winner each year though. This past year when Matthew turned 16 Ryan had a tweaked neck and wasn’t able to race. Then Matthew was sick, then it was winter, then something else and it was many many months after Matthew’s actual 16th birthday and they still hadn’t raced. Both trashed talked each other and said they other was scared to race because they new they would loose. Blah blah blah. They are both talkers. Finally one nice sunny day this Summer I told them both to get outside and race. I can’t remember when exactly they raced Matthew was closer to 17 than 16 (luckily it was before he broke his arm) but we are calling it the 16 year race. After being a late bloomer waiting semi-patiently for growth and puberty to catch up Matthew finally had some man muscle mixed in with his youth. Combined with his dad having old age mixed in with his man muscles and the perfect storm occurred and Matthew had his day. It was a proud moment for him.

Last Days of Summer

After celebrating Grandma and Grandpa’s 50th Anniversary we had a few days of Summer left before school started. We did school shopping and back to school nights. Aaron’s birthday this year was a pretty rainy day. We decided to go see him anyways. Our original plan was to go to the temple and do baptisms that day but Matthew had some doctor appointments and was still pretty limited to being up and about a lot so we bumped that and did it with Grandpa and a friend of Allison’s later. Ryan’s brother David and his wife Jen came up to KC one night and took us to dinner.

Our house was moving along but not ready to move into yet so we stayed at our rental and started another year of school. Matthew had surgery at the end of August on his elbow. They had to reattach some tendons and bone and he was pretty out of it for a few days. Now he is working on getting back into shape for baseball in the Spring.

My sister Sherri got a big promotion at work so DeAnna and I decided to send her a congratulation gift. We settled on a Potato Parcel. It is literally a potato that we had a picture and message printed on. Can’t get more unique than that. We think she liked it.

Then school started!!! Matthew is a Junior. Allison is in 8th grade. Emilee is in 5th grade. This is the last year with one in each school. Next year will be down to only two schools for a while. It was a bit of a rough start, the girls bus driver was new and it took a bit for her to get the girls picked up and to the right school then dropped off at the right spot after school. Matthew missed some school with surgery and Dr appointments. A few weeks in we started to get into our school grove.

Celebrating 50 Years!!

Roger and Rhonda were married for 50 years this past August! They decided they wanted to have a family reunion to celebrate. The plan was originally for a place in Colorado but as it got closer Roger wanted to make a few changes to make it a closer travel location for Rhonda. We moved our plans to Branson Missouri at Table Rock Lake. It is the same place we met last year for a Terry get together and everyone had a great time so we voted to do it again.

We all headed up to the cabin we rented on Sunday afternoon and got settled. It was a nice place. Plenty of bedrooms, a little shy on bathrooms, but we made it work. Everyone was able to come which meant we had 26 people. The first task Roger and Rhonda wanted was a family picture. Lauren did a great job at organizing us and we managed to get some pretty nice pictures. Lauren also makes a collage of pictures of each of the grandkids every few years so she took individual pictures of them to update that for Roger and Rhonda.

Lauren trying to ‘herd cats’. She did great as you will see in the following pictures.

Here are the individual pictures of grandkids. For some reason I don’t have Kiara, Alex or Dalion’s individuals. They are in the family ones though. I believe I have them in youngest to oldest order but there could be a few mistakes in the middle. We start with Kaden, Chloe, (Kiara missing), Sadie, Tristan, Jovee, Alex(missing), Tyler, Emilee, Jesse, Allison, Leah, Dalion(missing), Ethan, Matthew, and Nadia.

Once pictures were done we ate dinner and played games the rest of the evening. Monday we headed to the marina and rented a few boats. We did a speed boat for the older kids to get pulled and bounced around more in the tube and a pontoon for a calmer experience on the tube. It also has a slide so it is fun to anchor and just swim and play in the water around the pontoon. There was lots of fun and everyone had a great time. The weather was perfect.

After lunch things got a little crazy. Ross decided to try skiing. He popped right up and did great. When he was done he let go and his ski flipped up and hit him in the forehead. We pulled him in the boat and could tell he was going to need a few stitches. We drove back to the dock and Roger met him at the boat ramp with the car to take him to urgent care. It took him a few hours but a few shots, some antibiotics, a gnarly headache and 12 stitches later he was back at the cabin. While he was gone the rest of us took a break from the boats for a bit and swam around the docks. Then people were ready to go back out. I went with the little kids and Kris on the pontoon. Ryan and the older kids went on the speed boat with Jake and Becky. About 20 minutes later Matthew fell off the tube and dislocated/broke his elbow. Jake had to jump in and help him back into the boat. Then Rachelle met them at the boat dock with her car and took Matthew and Ryan to the emergency room. Jake came and found me on the boat with Kris and told me what happened. That took the rest of the wind out of the boating sails for the day. We dropped everyone off. Ross had just gotten back from urgent care so we got the boats ready and took them back. Several of our cars were at the marina so I went with them to return the boats and then got my car and went to the hospital. They were pretty backed up and it took about four hours by the time Ryan got there initially and they got us back to a room and medicated, x-rayed and decided they could reset it and he could have surgery later up in Kansas City. It was a rough couple hours. By the time we got home it was pretty late and Matthew was ready for bed.

Tuesday everyone was planning on going to Silver Dollar City. Most people still went to Silver Dollar City (it is a fun amusement park). We tweaked the plans a bit. Emilee doesn’t love roller coasters so Ryan found a horse ride he was planning on doing with her. Roger and Rhonda wanted to stay home. I talked with the Doctors in KC about Matthew’s arm and they said to let him rest a day or two and bring him in on Thursday. So he found a comfy spot on the couch and grandpa kept him supplied with pain meds when he needed and he slept the day away. Ross decided to go on the horse ride instead of the roller coasters to give his head less jerking around and I joined them since it was just an hour or two. It was a pretty good day all things considered.

After everyone’s various activities we all ate dinner together and then had a family gathering to chat and celebrate Roger and Rhonda. Ross and Lauren had made a slide show with lots of pictures from their 50 years of marriage. Roger shared some home videos and everyone shared experiences or asked questions about them, like their first date, places they lived, things like that. It was a fun evening. Becky made a cake and Ross made a plaque for them. I think they had a great evening and enjoyed the family time.

Wednesday we headed back to KC, except for the Lee’s they headed back to Texas. The Bourne’s stayed another day or two and then they went back to Idaho. There was lots of cousin time. Along with grandma and grandpa’s anniversary we celebrated Chole and Allison’s birthday too.

First Day of School 2022

As is always does, Summer eventually came to an end. Emilee and Allison started school on a Wednesday. Matthew started the next day.

Emilee is in 4th Grade

Allison is in 7th Grade.

Matthew is in 10th Grade.

Last Week of Summer

After the reunion we had a week left before school started. We got all the school supplies, clothes, shoes, did back to school nights, and enjoyed the last few days of Summer Vacation. Since we had just done an amusement park in Branson for our annual cousins trip to World’s of Fun we went to a creek and played for the day instead. Matthew brought his fishing stuff, he caught one fish and four sticks, and lost three lures-including a frog. He does that a lot. They made up a few games- one of them ended up in losing Jovee’s water shoe. It is a fun little spot they like to play.

Ryan is having to try a little harder to make sure he still beats Matthew when they play basketball.

The next two pictures are demonstrating the difference between Matthew and Allison preparing to go to school. This is Allison’s locker that she organized three times and still had a back pack full of stuff to bring the next day. Matthew grabbed a handful of pencils from Allison’s stack and ripped the pages out of a notebook that he used last year.

We went to Arkansas for the weekend. Ryan’s biological family invited us to come visit. His brother David and his wife moved from Utah to Arkansas in April. Now two of the four siblings live there and his mom lives about two hours from them.

We stayed at David’s house. They have a swimming pool and the kids loved being able to swim basically anytime they wanted. We got there about 8:30 Friday night. They were in the pool within five minutes. Saturday we played games and swam. That night the adults went to dinner then they set up an outdoor movie for everyone to watch. Jen had all kinds of movie treats, my kids were very impressed. Emilee thought it was so cool to swim, eat cotton candy and watch a movie outside, all at the same time. Ryan taught everyone a new game and his brother David a few new games. Matthew learned the card game hand and foot and really liked it. It was a fun weekend. It was nice to see them and get to know them better. We went to church with them on Sunday and then came home.

A friend of mine sent me this picture of our boys getting ready to do the sacrament on a Sunday. These three are quite a group. They are all good kids and I am glad he has a good friend group to hang out with.

August Kick Off- Terry Reunion

The first thing that happened in August was we got Allison back from Grandma. We were heading to a family reunion in Branson Missouri the next day so there was a lot of family here to welcome her home. It was great to have her back. She and Grandma Jana made some hats for babies at the hospital while she was there. She made one for her newest cousin Kaden. He loved it and it fit perfectly. She got home later in the evening on Tuesday, so Wednesday morning we woke her up with donuts and candles and sang her happy birthday in person.

Leah made a cute welcome sign for Allison.

Then we were off to Branson for a Terry Family Reunion. People came and stayed a few days before and after but Branson was the official reunion part. Ryan arranged a place for everyone to stay and organized a day of boating for everyone. Ross organized and planned the food and did most of the cooking. Wednesday everyone left Kansas on their own schedule and then we all met at Lamberts for dinner.

Becky, Rachelle and Roger and Rhonda went to an aquarium on the way down. Our family and Ross’ and Nadia went on a tour of the Fantastic Caverns. Then we meandered around a giant Bass Pro store until it was time for dinner.

Lambert’s is a fun restaurant for a family dinner. They have really good rolls that they bring out fresh from the oven. If you want one you raise your hand and they toss it across the room to you. It was a good kick off to the reunion.

Matthew, Leah, Chloe. Kiara, Allison, Chole, Dalion, Alex, Ethan (Nadia is taking the pictures)

The next day was our boating day. Ross, Lauren, Ryan and I made a pancake breakfast. It was a little rainy in the morning but it cleared up pretty quick. We all headed to Table Rock Lake and spent the day riding in the boats, swimming in the water, and tubing. Everyone got lots of sun and had tons of fun. Grandpa, Ryan and Ross were the drivers for the day. We played all day, the cousins had a blast with each other.

After a day on the lake Ross and Ryan made dinner for everyone and then we hung out and visited, played games, and watched old home videos that Roger brought. It was also Chole’s birthday that day so we sang happy birthday to her and had cake and ice cream.

The next day was Silver Dollar City. Despite everyone arriving over a period of an hour and fifteen minutes we took a group picture and then the older kids went off on their own and the rest of us divided into groups based on our sense of adventure. The lines were not bad at all, we were able to go on any of the rides we wanted, even multiple times. The Lee’s left and headed home around lunch time. Grandma and Grandpa went home after pictures, and the rest of us spent the day and left that evening. The weather was pretty good and there were lots of water rides to keep us cool.

Here are pictures from before and after the trip to Branson of people having fun together.

BACK TO SCHOOL 2021

Well, unlike last year school started one the original day it was supposed to. That was a plus. To make a long story short our school district said it was up to parents if their kids wore masks or not. I think that is a great idea because 1-they are my kids and I should be the one making decisions for them. 2- there is no mask mandate anywhere in our entire county right now. 3-Despite the news and politicians making it look like people are dropping dead in the streets and hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID patients, its not. One hospital (ironically Children’s Mercy) has made a public post TWICE saying they are not full and have very few COVID patients. However, the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners decided they know better (despite ZERO children’s deaths in our county and very low infection rates for children since all this started in March 2020) and made an order requiring all K-6th grade students to wear a mask. Our school board found a way around it by providing a mask exemption form for parents and/or doctors to sign but it has caused quite a tizzy. It is all kinds of crazy. The world and people are getting crazier everyday. But my kids are back in school, mine have the option to wear a mask ONLY if they want and unlike the other districts around us they did not have to define their sexuality and declare their pronouns the first day of school. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Emilee is in 3rd Grade. She has the same teacher Allison had in 3rd grade but her name is different because she got married. Mrs. Dechant. She is a great teacher and even though Emilee isn’t a huge fan of school I hope she will have a good year. I need to work on raising my expectations for her and helping her out of the “youngest child please do everything for me” funk.

Allison is in 6th grade and is ready to conquer it in a blaze of glory. There is a lot of cello players this year and they tried to persuade some kids to switch but she wouldn’t budge. She has been waiting a year to get to learn to play the cello and be an “Orch Dork”. She has a lot of classes with her friends and has organized and re-organized her locker multiple times a day since school started three days ago. Her friends and her make towel tents for each other to change in for PE and she can get seconds at lunch if she wants. Other than her mom making her ride the bus instead of personally delivering her to the front of the school each morning, she is loving life. If Allison is happy, the rest of us are even more happy. Doing the work won’t be a problem for her. Staying on top of things herself and being responsible will be her mountain to over come. She can do it!

Matthew started 9th grade this year, making it our first of many years to have a kid in each school. He got the classes he wanted but doesn’t have any close friends in any of them. He sees his besties in the hall and in a few weeks at lunch when they switch to the open hour lunch. He is a little bummed about that but his dad and I are encouraging him to meet new people. Good new people. So far he has a very good track record of picking friends that are good people and steering clear of the ones that aren’t as nice. He is starting to get some height going so that is exciting for him and he is hoping to bulk up a bit with weights as a class this year. His teenage laziness is effecting his motivation levels for school but he has always been good at staying up with assignments and managing it on his own. He told me he was looking forward to his retirement the other day. I rolled my eyes and told him to enjoy the phase he is at in life now. He takes drivers education soon and as soon as he is 15 he can drive by himself in a car to and from school if needed. He does have the slight problem of not having a car yet. They school had a gas leak 20 minutes after it started on the first day and everyone had to evacuate for an hour and a half but since then it has been pretty low key at the high school.