Noah's 12th birthday!

Noah is 12! His birthday fell on Labor Day this year so woohoo, no school! Dave made him breakfast in the morning, then his friend Leland stopped by (not knowing it was his birthday) and they played Fortnite like ALL day, seriously. I made yakisoba for dinner and chocolate cake and ice cream after. He opened presents and got a hoverboard! He was so excited. Not something we'd normally buy but man it's fun to watch him on it, he was so good, like RIGHT away. 

Noah has had an obsession with Jurassic Park for years, ever since watching the movies at Grandma and Grandpa Foley's house a few years ago. He saw Jurassic World 2 with Dave but has been dying for me to see it too. Gallup theaters don't have movies for very long so I knew it would be gone by his birthday, but on the off chance I checked El Morro, our cheap theater that gets older movies, and by some miracle Jurassic World was playing ON HIS BIRTHDAY. What are the chances? So Zoe and I went with Noah to see Jurassic World. It was so fun.

The Saturday after his birthday was a ward temple trip. I really wanted Noah to be able to go so we worked it out with the Bishop to have his interview the Wednesday before he turned 12, then they sustained his calling to the Priesthood that Sunday (the day before his birthday) and then ordained him the Wednesday after his birthday. When Isaac was ordained we had a bunch of family here--my parents, Dave's parents, my sisters Sara and Alice and their families, but for Noah it was just our little family of 7 plus Bishop Tanner and Brother Connell. Dave gave him a terrific, powerful blessing and I was so grateful to be there.

Saturday I drove Isaac and Noah to Albuquerque and we all went to the temple together. I knew Noah would struggle with the shirt and tie and white jumpsuit inside for the baptisms so I wanted to be with him his first time. The line for the boys lined up right away and Noah was going to have to wait a really long time to do his baptisms. I stopped a temple worker and asked if he could please be put at the front of the line, and they did, thankfully. They let 2 or 3 boys go in front of him anyway, but at least he didn't have to wait 2 hours for his turn torturing himself in the jumpsuit. As soon as he was done I gave him the keys and sent him out to the car to change and wait for Isaac and me. I didn't do anything that day in the temple, no ordinances or anything, but I was glad to be there for Noahs's sake. He passes the Sacrament each Sunday in a white shirt and tie, then immediately goes out to the car to change into a polo shirt. He's doing his best but still struggles so much with clothes. I wish so badly it wasn't this way for him.

Noah is smart. He's doing so well in school, his first year in all GATE classes. He's doing 6th grade math in one semester and he'll do 7th grade math next semester. His favorite class is his STEM class, and he has the same teacher for Math and STEM so I think that might be part of it. He doesn't want to go to school most mornings but that's due more to the uniform than anything else. He loves riding on his hoverboard, jumping on the trampoline, and hanging out at home. He gets obsessed with things and spends a ton of time on them, then moves on after a few weeks. His current obsession is Star Wars Battlefront and General Grievous. He has been reading voraciously the past few weeks. I've been listening to the Hunger Games on audiobook in the car so he started re-reading the series a few weekends ago and ended up reading the whole series all the way through, TWICE. In one weekend. Then on Friday he asked me to download the Percy Jackson series from the library so I did that and then got the next few at the library Saturday morning. He read the entire series (5 books) on Friday and Saturday and then we downloaded the next companion series from the library on Sunday and he's read the first two. In one day. I didn't believe him at first that he was actually reading but he can tell you everything that happens, so joke's on me. He's just that amazing. He has a crazy infectious laugh and is just a great kid. I'm so glad he was born.