Saturday, August 20, 2016

Our Summer in Utah

Summer has officially come to an end for the Browns--that deserves a blog post. This summer has been nothing short of a whirlwind. It seems like our time in Utah went by in a snap, yet we have been away from Ithaca forever. 

Living with Lindsey and Brian was delightful. I think we were both a bit apprehensive because we heard stories all the time about people who lived with their siblings for a summer or a year or whatever and haven't talked to them since because it was so terrible. Yikes. Okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it really did seem like every time we told someone we would be living with my sister they would say something like: "And you think that is a good idea?" Well, turns out, it was a great idea! We loved our time with Lin, Brian and the kids. Granted, at times it was completely crazy town. Four adults and four children on one level of a house is bound to be a little "COME BACK AND FLUSH THE TOILET"-y. (Speaking to the children, not the adults of course haha) But, the crazy was part of the fun. I loved spending my days with Lindsey, the kids, and Phineas and Ferb. I will miss them so very much. 

Kyle killed it in his internship with Coldwell Banker. He was above and beyond what they were expecting and it paid off. He had so many fun opportunities because of it. He went to LA one weekend to set up a new office for them, golfed in a tournament receiving a bunch of free swag, and met other companies that he was able to help/work with. His work was enough that they have asked him to stay on as a consult throughout the school year. What a blessing. It was hard though! Bless Kyle's heart, trying to balance work, family and basketball was difficult this summer. There didn't seem to be enough time in the day. But, he handled it like a champ. I am so proud of him. 

I interned with Smarter Parenting, helping to adapt parenting skills to special needs situations. Initially they were just going to publish my activities in print form, but liked some of them enough that they are making them into instructional videos for the website. I was pretty excited about that! The internship really pushed me because I was working to adapt my knowledge base from school (general family psychology) to something that I knew very little about: parenting children with special needs. I love what they do, check them out: www.smarterparenting.com.  I was also able to attend CES (Church Educational System) training courses. They were fabulous and a wonderful experience. 

We hit Seattle together once, two family reunions, Kyle went to Spain, and I came back to Seattle for round two. I'd say the summer was a success. Goodbye summer 2016. We will miss you.









P.S. Ill make Kyle write a blog post about Spain soon. He has all those pictures. 

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