Done!

And just like that, Micah's graduated! 

Yup, last Saturday, we had our third high school graduation from Colorado Early Colleges Fort Collins. The week's rain stopped long enough to enjoy the day. We prepped for a small gathering to celebrate our boy...

Those are pictures from birth to now (and helped prevent anyone climbing our wall during the party, lol).

After getting things ready, we headed to the same ballroom where both brothers graduated and the ceremony went off as planned. All in all, his class had 231 graduates. 144 of those graduated with Summa Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude or Cum Laude honors. 184 graduated with honors or high honors. 12,763 college credits were earned. 159 Associate Degrees were earned, and 470 Certifications were earned. We enjoyed the student speakers and particularly appreciated the commencement address by one of the school's professors. 

Also, we took some group pictures both before and after...

Clockwise from top left: with his brothers, with his Nana (my mom), with his grandparents (Nathan's parents), with his friend Andrew at the party, with friends Adam and Kael after the ceremony, with Nana and his cousin Alexis (Nana and Alexis flew out from Washington to join us), and with us.

I didn't get as many pictures during the party, itself, but we truly enjoyed the time visiting with friends and family. 

And here are the graduation announcements we mailed out beforehand...

And now we're done with high school! Micah will be enjoying his summer and working on his personal enterprises (he has a couple projects he's working on) while preparing for college in the fall. Whew. :)

Decisions & updates

End of March. Whew.

So, updates...

After much waiting and then deliberation and math and more conversation aplenty, Micah has decided to attend the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) this fall. He's been admitted to the Leeds School of Business and is looking forward to the many opportunities and programs offered. It won't be as warm as California but feels like a better fit, will be considerably easier on our travel budget, lol, and means that he'll be able to stick with his current medical team a bit longer. 

Also, I've mentioned it before but after our campus tour last week Asher made it "official"...he plans to transfer to the University of Northern Colorado this fall and has been accepted as a transfer student to their Sport & Exercise Science: Physical Education K-12 Teaching program. 

Sooooo...we've thus spent the past week(ish) navigating college website systems: paying enrollment deposits for both Micah and Asher...and setting up student accounts...and submit housing applications...and all that. Annoying (because of the websites, lol) but mostly it's just lovely to have a plan and be moving forward. :)

And here's a photo from 13 years ago, just for fun...back when Asher and Micah held my hands. :)

(This was at Oceanside, CA during our trip out to Legoland in March 2010.)

College visits

Whew.

Home from possibly the last round of college visits. Micah, Nathan and I were in southern California over the weekend. 

SHORT VERSION: We did official tours at UC Irvine, USC and SDSU. We also drove and walked the campuses at UCLA, CSU Fullerton, CSU Long Beach and UC San Diego. (For whatever reason, most colleges don't offer official campus tours on weekend days, which makes it difficult to get tours in during the school year.) Having been able to see the campuses in person was very helpful, and Micah has now narrowed his college list from 12 to 7 schools. Along the way, we also managed to have a little fun.

LONG VERSION (don't say I didn't warn you): On Thursday, we said our goodbyes to Noah and Asher as they headed off to work early. Micah went to classes. (He only has classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which helped make this trip possible.) Once Micah got home, we managed to submit one of his college applications (taking advantage of the last free CO application day) and then headed for the airport. We flew to Burbank...rented a car...grabbed some quick dinner...and drove a bit less than 2 hours to our lodging in Oceanside (about halfway between LA and San Diego). 

Friday, we were up early and drove to UC Irvine and had our official tour...

We did a lot of walking and saw their newest dorms (called Middle Earth)...enjoyed their "Zot bots" that drove themselves around campus delivering food to students...found the business building on our own...and learned more of the history of the school and their anteater mascot. 

After that, we got back in the car and found our way to USC. Traffic cooperated and left us with enough extra time to grab some yummy lunch just north of campus in University Village before wandering to campus. We had a short admissions presentation then a great tour around campus...

We learned so many interesting stories, were impressed by the varied opportunities, and had to smile at the cupcake ATM (where you could actually order a cupcake that would be dispensed right there) just outside the bookstore. 

From there, we drove to Manhattan Beach and met a former co-worker/friend of Nathan's along with his girlfriend. We had a lovely (though loud) dinner and Nathan and Andrew were able to catch up some. We parted ways then and got some gelato and tea before driving back to Oceanside (with a quick stop for a few groceries for breakfasts). Once back, we had some downtime before crashing for the night.

On Saturday, we allowed ourselves a slower morning. I used the fitness room, Nathan walked down to the pier for his morning coffee, and Micah opted to sleep. :) We then survived the long drive back up to UCLA (just past USC), parked and enjoyed some delicious lunch and boba just south of campus before walking our way around campus... 

We saw more food delivery bots, appreciated the architecture and realized that having a tour guide to share stories really does make a difference. 

From there, we drove to CSU Fullerton where we did a speedy walk-around before driving to CSU Long Beach and doing just a drive around campus, as it had started to rain and we were wiped...

Micah appreciated the additional oxygen at sea level and kept challenging us to races...making a "T" for Titans...Nathan trying to figure out the David sculpture in pieces...more of the buildings around campus...the Go Beach sign in Long Beach...the business building...and the pyramid shaped arena. 

From Long Beach, we drove a bit further south to Huntington Beach pier for dinner (with a really good live musician) and dessert and walking the pier (where we stopped to listen to another really good live musician). We also saw a marriage proposal set up...we were too far away to make out details but the sign was large and lit up (spelling out "MARRY ME")...until they had to shut everything down as the tide came in, lol. 

After that, we headed back to our lodging and watched a show and settled in for the night.

Sunday morning I managed to use the treadmill before we got a slightly earlier start. We drove south this time...to SDSU (San Diego State University). We knew we'd be doing a tour there the next day but also knew we'd be pressed for time so wanted to do some poking around in a more relaxed fashion...

...and we were delighted to spend some time at the koi and turtle pond in addition to walking around. The pond had so many turtles and was just fun to watch. :) There were at least two dozen turtles of varying ages, and we loved watching them scramble over rocks and try to reach the food someone else had left for them. (As it turned out, the pond was not part of the tour the next day so we were thankful that we'd gotten to see it.)

From SDSU, we headed west to the Pacific Beach area...  

...where we ate at World Famous (I had a fabulous cioppino)...enjoyed the beach (Micah challenged Nathan to a race and gave him a head start and I had to tie my pants up to keep them dry)...and found a yummy cookie monster cookie for dessert...

From there, we drove to UC San Diego and walked that campus a bit (and were disappointed in the lack of descriptive signage...everything being labeled "Seventh College" isn't very helpful, for example)...

...before stopping at Torrey Pines gliderport for a few minutes...

We watched the amazing paragliders, I checked us in for our flight the next day, and Micah enjoyed traversing the dunes areas.

Then we stopped just down the road at La Jolla beach and just appreciated the ocean...

Nathan found CARiN de RiA in Encinita for a delicious family style Filipino dinner and then we made our way back to Oceanside. 

Monday morning we were up early and packed and checked out. We drove down to SDSU for our scheduled admissions presentation and tour...

Seeing the campus on a weekday made a world of difference over the weekend, and we learned much more about the college and opportunities (though we did miss seeing the turtles again, lol). We also found it interesting that this was the first college tour we'd been on (including the ones Micah and I have done previously) that included the rec center/gym. :) Micah appreciated that (and silently critiqued many of the students' form, lol). 

After that, the traffic gods were with us in our two hour drive to the Burbank airport. We had time to grab some food before returning the rental car and getting through security and eventually home. Whew.

Well, this got to be an incredibly long post so I'll be back later with other thoughts. 

Thankful Thursday

So far October's been all about appointments and applications. Plenty of both. Oy. 

Let's see. So far this month, we've had Nathan volunteering with the EAA Young Eagles event, Asher's performance at the Lincoln Center, Micah's quarterly bloodwork, and our sprinkler blowout appointment in addition to the normal work, flight lessons, classes and such. Still to go: Micah's check up down at Children's, dentist appointments for Noah and Asher, Asher's aviation medical exam, covid booster shots, flu shots, and more college visits.

As far as applications, Micah's working on college applications (11 at current count, though he's planning to narrow that down by the end of the month), Asher's got a few applications in various stages (for his student pilot certificate, his aviation medical exam and the Aims Professional Pilot program to start next fall), Micah needs to register for spring classes, and...woohoo...I finished the FAFSA for both Micah and Asher yesterday (for the 2023-24 academic year)! 

Amid all the appointments and applications, here are things I'm thankful for today:

1) Lasts. Just before October (last Friday), Micah had his last academic advising appointment. Because the class schedule for spring for FRCC isn't out yet, there wasn't too much to do...just catch up with his advisor, finish some paperwork in advance for graduation, and discuss his college application process. After all three boys, I think this was advising appointment number 20-something for me at CEC. Thankful for all the help we've received along the way through these appointments...and thankful to be done.

2) Technology. In finishing what I think were FAFSAs number 14 and 15 for me (between my own college years, Noah's and Asher's...and now Micah and Asher for next year), I just must be thankful for technology. So happy to be able to submit all that information electronically and not have to fill it all out by hand again and mail it in. (This goes for all the applications, not just the FAFSAs. Submitting things electronically rocks.)

3) Sunrises. Lynne and I enjoyed a beautiful sunrise last Saturday. It's hard to see in the picture, but there was also a layer of fog that was pretty cool...

Even though I don't always love getting up to run intervals, lol, I'm always thankful for the time with Lynne and feel better when I head home. Sights like this are a nice bonus. 

4) Reading glasses. Yes. I need/use reading glasses. It's totally not unexpected. My optometrist has been tracking it for years, and I finally reached the point of having an actual recommended prescription. As I was mending some of Asher's clothing yesterday, I was very thankful for my reading glasses...which made it possible to thread the needle, lol.

Okay. That's it for now. Not overly exciting...just a full to do list and finding things to be thankful for along the way. Hope your October is off to a productive start also!

A last first

Micah started his senior year today! It's his last first day of high school...the start of a number of lasts for us as my baby finishes up his secondary education journey. He headed off early this morning to Front Range Community College, where he takes three classes. (His remaining class is online. See my curriculum link on the left for a list of his classes.) 

Before leaving to drive to his 8am class, he cooperated for my traditional first day picture...

...which is crazy because it feels like this is how he looked just yesterday...

This was his very first, first day picture when he started kindergarten back in 2010. He was so excited to finally get to go to Options (the one day a week homeschool enrichment program we participated in) with his big brothers. :) 

It feels odd that Micah's my only son starting school today. This is a first. With Noah having graduated college in May and Asher taking the year off from UNO to earn his private pilot's license, it's just Micah today. (More on what the other two are up to later this week...)

In any case, Micah's feeling pretty good about being a senior. He's just finishing up a few random requirements for his Associates degree. (Really, he could have finished last year easily, but we all agreed that finishing high school in three years wasn't necessarily the best thing for him so we spread things out a bit.) Also, he has a good start on his college applications process already and somehow managed to arrange his classes so that he only has classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays this semester...yay!

So...we're off! Happy back to school, everyone!