Back to school 2026-27

Here are the Lillywhite girls (Jay and Brynn's) all ready to head back to school!  Aren't they a cute lot!  Hoping they all have the best year ever and make wonderful friends to help them along the way!  Good luck!  We love you and we're proud of you! I didn't get any other back to school pics from the rest of the gang, so this is it!  

Jem starts school...and I don't...Snow Canyon

 Jem started school this week! (8/13/26) He's in kindergarten at Legacy Elementary!  Beacher sent pics and he's looking pretty excited about it!  I hope he has a great teacher and enjoys learning and growing this year! I may do some volunteering if they need any help.   

I did not start back to school this year.  I'm a little sad, but pretty glad too.  After last year I just felt like it was time to retire and let the younger folks have my job.  It was the toughest year of school of all the years I've had and my attitude by the end was pretty done.  Too much testing and pushing and not enough of the joy of learning is what it seemed to be anymore.  I still loved the kids, but not the curriculum.  

We've spent the summer getting Paul recovered from foot surgery and from two cataract surgeries. Glad that's all done!  

Our truck has been broken most of the summer, so camping and getting out in the mountains has been curtailed quite a bit.  We have still gone to the mountains a lot for picnics and drives on paved roads.  Hopefully it will be done soon and we will get to take the trailer out for some camping.  

The day school started I enjoyed sleeping in, taking a bike ride and then going out for a little hike at Snow Canyon to see the rain puddles and the moqui marbles.  Later in the day we went to lunch and then I spent the afternoon working on some genealogy.  It was a nice, relaxing not back to school day for me.  I think it's for the best even though I will miss it in many ways.  

Essie - Granduation from Elementary School

 We weren't there of course, but we are still excited to see Essie growing up (sort of) and going forward!  Now it's on to the next fun grades!  Congratulations Essie!  We are proud of you!  

Get out of school celebration! Grand Canyon/Jacob Lake

 We decided that for a get out of school celebration we could go over to Jacob Lake, stay in a cabin (still no camping for Paul with his foot in a boot), visit the reopening North Rim of the Grand Canyon and go over to Lee's Ferry/Lonely Dell Ranch and pick some fruit, visit Navajo Bridge.  We did all of those things and it was a great little get away.  We left Friday morning and drove over to the North Rim with a stop in at Jacob Lake for a cookie break along the way.  We first drove out to Cape Royal and walked just far enough in to see Angel's Window and the Colorado River below.  Paul can't go too far in his boot.  Then we stopped off at Vista Encantada on the way back for a picnic lunch.  Next we drove to the Lodge area.  Everywhere wherever we drove there were spots of burned trees.  It was very patchy.  But lots of forest is still left, thank goodness.  The lodge is pretty much a loss.  There is some stonework left and they may be able to include it in whatever the build to replace it.  Surprisingly quite a few of the cabins and administration buildings are still fine.  The water plant was a melted mess.  Overall, though, I was surprised that so much was still ok.  So glad. We still had some time before check-in, so we drove over to Lee's Ferry/Lonely Dell Ranch to see if any fruit was ripe.  Not yet.  We did find a few tree fall apricots that were nearly ripe and pretty tasty.  We drove to the dock area and saw people getting ready to raft the canyon.  We stopped off at Navajo Bridge and enjoyed the view and did see one condor on the bridge below us.  

After that we went and checked in and got unloaded in our little cabin.  There were so many people there when we went for dinner.  We had a long wait, but had fun visiting with a plumber from Prescott on one side and a 4th grade teacher from Orem on the other side.  The plumber was going to hike rim to rim the next morning and the school teacher was with 11 people heading over to the South Rim for a singles group trip. It's always fun to talk to people there while you eat at the bar.  Dinner and more cookies/ice cream were great when we finally got them!  We went out and sat on a log and enjoyed the beautiful sunset.  The weather was perfect.  It did get a little hot at Lonely Dell Ranch - 95 degrees, but up at Jacob Lake/Grand Canyon it was in the 60's/70's and got very cool at night.  

Saturday morning we had a great breakfast and visited with a lady going to pick up her fiancé from his rim to rim hike after she ate.  He had started at 1:30 at night.  I think that's a sad way to do such a beautiful hike.  He missed so much scenery in the dark.  After breakfast and packing up we got on our way home going via the Kanab/Coral Pine Sand Dunes route.  We got home early afternoon.  It was a great little trip.  Just right for Paul's foot and still a great way to get out and celebrate!  

Zade High School Graduation - Desert Hills High School 2025-26

Sunday night, after Gaige's mission  homecoming, Zade graduated from seminary!  Lots of big endings going on  for him right now.  Getting ready to enter the world after high school!  Big happenings!  Proud of you Zade.  You're on a good path forward!  

May 20th - we got a great seat in the bleachers without the sun in our eyes for Zade's graduation!  Grandpa Smith and Kelly got there early and saved a row.  Derek, Tasia, Kaebri and Trigg were also in Zade's cheering section!  We've had a recent cool snap, so at 8 am it was still really nice weather for the event.  Zade got to play in the Jazz Band number at the graduation.  One final gig with his friends.  He was pretty glad that got to happen!  They did a great job!  I didn't really take any pics because it was too far away to get a good one with my phone, but I'm hoping to get some great ones from Derek.  The only thing that could have made it better would be to have Weed and Grandma Smith (Marie) there to cheer him on.  Is that a thing they get to do from heaven?  I  hope so!  

The day after his graduation we took Zade out for a celebration dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse.  You could also say it was a celebration for my retirement dinner too.  We had a fun evening visiting with him and then with the Tasia and Trigg at the house when we took  him home.  We met their new bearded lizard, Lady, then too.  She's quite the pet!  Tasia is home from BYU for the summer.  She's making good progress on her degree up there, but is happy to spend some time at home for a while.  

Eliza and Trigg - Choir and Karate!

Thursday night we got to attend Eliza's final Advanced Choir concert.  I'm not sure she was thrilled to have us there, but her folks were out of town for the state soccer championships, so we were her fans for the concert.  They sang a varied array of songs and did a great job.  There were many more girls in the choir than boys.  Eliza sang a solo that she did a good job of, but the acoustics in the gym made it very difficult to hear any of the soloists very well unfortunately.  She wouldn't let us take her out for any treats so it was a short but sweet evening.  Great job Eliza!  (She's the one on middle far left.)

Saturday afternoon I got to attend Trigg's Black Belt Level 1 presentation!  He has worked hard for several years to get here.  Now with so many other things, including football, competing for time and money, he's leaving Karate behind.  It was a great learning experience for him with great teachers teaching great values along with the physical side of it.  We are proud of Trigg for working hard for this!  Congratulations Trigg!

My last year of Kindergarten comes to an end

 9/9/2004 was the beginning of my kindergarten Title 1 Aide job.  I was really scared to take the test to qualify, but actually did very well...and then it was a go!  I had been volunteering in a kindergarten class before that and they decided they could use me.  I needed to go through the testing and application process to make it official.  My beginning wage was around $8.51 per hour and ended (with a wage freeze for a period of time) at $19.61.  The money wasn't great, but it was better than nothing, and I really came to love the work, the teachers and the kids.  I worked at West Elementary to begin with and the principal was Melanie Olsen.  She had been Moss's kindergarten teacher years before.  West Elementary had opened in 1955 at 12 North 300 West. It was closed just before Christmas vacation in 2007.  Students and faculty were moved to the new Heritage Elementary School starting at the beginning of 2008.  The West Elementary School building was demolished early in 2008 to make room for the new Fifth District Courthouse.  Some of the old mulberry trees that were on the playground survived the demolition and are still there.  I did not go to work the first year at Heritage Elementary.  It was a time when my mom and Bean were both needing lots of help.  Mom was moving out of her home and Bean was struggling mightily with his mental health problems.  I took off a year of work.  Thankfully the principal, Melanie Olsen, and the teacher, Lynne Godfrey, were both glad to hire me back and I started at working again at my prior wage.  My last day will be May 21st 2026.  That's 21 years with the one year off.  I've seen kids I helped teach go on missions, get married and have children!  It's been a joy for me to work with these littles and teachers most of the time.  This last year has been the worst year actually, with one child so messed up and unable to adhere to any school standards of behavior that he was finally moved to a special school for behavior challenged students.  I worked with Lynne Godfrey for most of my years, but she retired and then I worked with Hillery Hunt for the last few years.  They were both amazing ladies and great and good teachers.  Now I will have to start a new chapter of my life.  I have felt the need to do it, even though I don't know what it is I will do yet.  We had a stake conference with much encouragement for seniors to serve some kind of mission a year or so ago and I have felt that after we are released from our Single Adult calling probably in January, we should find some way to serve locally.  We can't really leave Bean to go anywhere else, or afford to go anywhere else, so we will have to find out what that's going to be.  So, onward to the next adventure is how I'm trying to look at it.  I'm sure when August comes around I'll be feeling a little sad that I'm not going back to school.  I will miss having present and past students give me a hug.  I will miss the daily adventures of a school days with our tiny humans!  

Several of our kids have not returned to finish school after they did their Kindergarten program.  Miss Hunt was nice enough to take pics of me with the ones still hanging in there to the end of it!  Left to right and down - Beckytt, Harli, Arianna, Evander and Dominic.

Left to right below - Riley, Haizlynn, Jayden, Aristelle, Beau, and Ed.  

Left to right - Hazel, Indy, Sofia and Gianna.  

We missed getting a picture of Noe.  He didn't come back to school after our water party day.   Today at Zade's graduation I heard the name of one of my early students - Porter Shelly.  His mom was such great parent helper.  Just loved their family.  I messaged his mom and found out that he's heading on a mission to Uruguay in August!  So fun to hear that they are going on to do good things with their lives.  

Below - Last day in the class!

Zade awards night and Jazz Band's last concert

High school is winding down for Zade...that bittersweet time.  This week I was able to attend an awards night and his last Jazz Band concert.  He got several scholarship  $ awards along with a sterling scholar award from the school district.  He was also recognized with an award for Computer Science and for Gaming Development.  Zade has done well with other activities too.  He was involved for all of his high school years on the Quiz Bowl team and has also participated in the ROTC program.  He hopes to attend BYU this fall and continue in the Computer Science field as well as ROTC and Jazz Band.  We hope that will all work out for him for the next year and then hope he will take time off for a mission.  Go Zade!  We are so proud of you for all of the hard work you've done in your school career!  

Class of 2024-25 - Kindergarten

Another school year is coming to an end.  Today was crazy!  Our schedule has been rearranged to accommodate the older classes testing needs.  We are practicing for our end of year Kindergarten program, and most things are just a bit out of whack and the kids are feeling it and are very end of the year crazy!  And I ask myself, do I want to come back next year?  Our school, along with many others in town, have lost their Title One status.  The high cost of living in St. George has driven up the rents so much that many people of lower income have had to leave the area and that makes us lose the extra funding you get when you have low income/at risk kids attending your school.  So my job will take a hit.  It will either go away altogether, or next year I will be a shared para between two classes.  

A teacher takes a hand, opens a mind, touches a heart, and shapes a future!  

I have enjoyed being a partner in that process over the years.  It's so fun to see kids from past years and feel that connection with them. Then to see them completely grown up is also a real joy!  

Back to School 2024-25

 We got started on Monday, August 12th, and are going for half days all of this week.  We have 18 kids to begin the year and they look pretty cute.  Evelyn is full of ideas for fun.  At the end of the first day she did not want to leave.  She thought she would be eating lunch at school and was not happy to leave without having eaten the lunch her mom had packed for her.  Finally her mom got her headed out the door, but she still didn't have a happy face about it.  (Her mom was late picking her up too.)  On day two Lyla didn't like the fact that she had to share blocks with other people even though she wanted to use them all to build a high tower.  She finally ended up sulking under a table.  Evelyn went over and kindly said that she sometimes went under a table when she was sad too.  She invited Lyla to come and sit by her and that did the trick and brought her out from under the table and back to the rug.  Way to be nice, Evelyn!  So we are back at it for another year.  We are going to have some extra help for a while on Tuesdays and Thursdays with some college students coming in to help for several weeks I think.  That will be nice.  Happy back to school!

Here's my school picture for the 2024-25 school year.   And below is a picture of our Staheli Farm field trip and our Kindergarten Alphabet Fashion Show program.

Another Halloween!