Sixteen.

Micah turned sixteen today. Sixteen. He's been very ready to be 16 for quite awhile now, lol. I'm not sure we'll all survive it, but there you go. :) Here's his pick for his birthday photo:

Yup, a little intense, lol. But I guess that's part of who he is. :)

Let's get to the traditional height comparisons...

(He was a little grumpy. I woke him up to take pictures. It was noon, you know.)

And here are all three brothers. Yes. I woke them all up.

And these are some of the other shots I got when I tried to take a decent birthday photo...

I like the top right one, but they're all pretty good representations of my boy.

So. Let's see. The past year has been quite the transition. Micah's definitely moved into full on teenager mode and the pandemic hasn't made it any easier. Along the way, though...

• He spent fall semester online, transitioned to hybrid classes in January, and switched back to online after spring break. He was not a fan. Fortunately, the academic part was fine and he dealt with online classes without a hitch. Unfortunately, for an extroverted teen wanting to spread his wings, online classes apparently are not conducive to hanging out with friends. We made accommodations where we could and he actually did manage to spend time with a number of friends outdoors in small groups. 
• He's continued dealing with his juvenile idiopathic arthritis...had some significant flare ups last fall and winter but finally sorted out the right treatment plan this spring.
• He was able to continue climbing. The gym closed down from March to June (and we built a home climbing wall in the interim) but then reopened with restrictions. His climbing team was able to resume practices (though the team was split into small groups) and he even competed in a local competition last fall and ventured into outdoor bouldering. After spring break, though, he decided to take a break from competitive climbing and has been just enjoying climbing with friends.
• He stopped going to karate and demo team but took up weight lifting...assisted by our rearranging the basement and outfitting it with a power cage and weight bench and barbells and such over Christmas. (Fortunately, he still sees most of his karate friends with Asher.)
• He wrangled himself a job with a small group of friends refurbishing and packaging ankle monitors. It's not his dream job by any means but he's definitely enjoying spreading his financial wings.
• He's anxious to get his drivers license in a little over a week and is very much looking forward to that. 

And, so, the boy will start his junior year in a little over a week. Neither of us is ready for that. ;) 

In the meantime, we'll have some cake tonight...go out to lunch tomorrow...little stuff like that. He'll be getting a stereo for the Xterra for his birthday and has some plans with friends for the drive in. 

Happy sweet sixteen, my Micah!