Eighteen

Oy. My Asher turned EIGHTEEN yesterday. Eighteen, y'all. How the heck did that happen?! 

Here's what we'll call the birthday portrait for the year...

And here are the height comparison photos I've been doing for the last few years (the number is Asher's age in that photo)...

Yes, they're all huge! And here's Asher standing next to Nathan and then next to me...

Yup, he's definitely a young man now. Given the givens, he's not working this summer but is helping with Micah's second degree black belt testing and still going to limited demo team practices (the team's not been meeting altogether but in parts). He actually made the choice to stop going to parkour just before going to parkour became impossible anyhow. (He wanted more time for his schoolwork and also wasn't really able to attend the class/session that fit him best, as it conflicted with karate.) In his downtime he still enjoys computer games and YouTube videos and, when possible, hanging with friends from karate.

He finished his junior year strong, maintaining his 4.0 gpa despite distance learning, and is set to start his senior year at CEC this August--though we have no idea what that will look like, lol. He'll graduate next May with his high school diploma and his Associate of Science from the local community college. Thanks to the pandemic, we haven't been able to visit all the college campuses we were planning to so decisions about life after high school remain undecided for now. He's done some job shadows and had scheduled more, but most of those were cancelled/delayed by the pandemic. (He was able to get one rescheduled for next week via video chat, though! The others he'll try to reschedule later, as some of the other places are closed over the summer.) He's also scheduled to take the ACT later this month, which will be the only official test result he'll have going into college application season.

(He'd originally been scheduled to take both the ACT and SAT in April with intentions to re-test if desired over the summer; but, due to cancellations, this one in July will be his first one and the SAT won't be until the end of August...which doesn't leave as much time if any re-testing is desired. Oh well. We're obviously not the only ones in that boat, lol. Wishing schools could/would just do away with the standardized testing requirement altogether!)

In any case, yesterday we took these pictures. Then, at lunchtime, we picked up curbside service from The Waffle Lab and ate at a nearby park. We then enjoyed some time actually playing on the playground (there weren't many kids there, so we didn't feel like we were taking over or scaring them, lol) and walked to the river. On the way home we picked up the cookie cake Asher loves before enjoying a quiet afternoon. Asher's new iPhone came (it was all we could figure out for his birthday since the boy doesn't really need or want much), and we got that set up. Meanwhile, Noah baked a red velvet cake for Asher as his gift...we did dinner...and we finished the last season of The Big Bang Theory (which we'd started watching when the boys all finished school in May). Not a hugely exciting day, but I hope my Asher feels celebrated...

Sigh. My sweet, happy boy.