Flashback Friday: Middle School and Junior High

I was tempted to skip over these years in my Falshback Friday series but a 4-year gaping hole is hard to miss. Does anyone look back fondly on these years?

Here are a bunch of pictures from 1996-1999. I tried to explain some of them but it was a struggle.

It's about to get awkward up in here.

I don't really know how to explain this picture. I put my nephew's tube on my head and we all laughed and then I made a snack and sat down.

 This little hood trick was a akin to parlor trick for me. I'd show off this skill to anyone who came over.

Ah, the cheesy smile--here to stay for the foreseeable future.

This is a built-in booster seat in a rental car.

We took a family trip to Seattle. It was my first time on an airplane and a commuter train. I was really excited.

Aww, another picture of my Thomas and I. That same trip we drove and ferried to Victoria, BC.

This is at the zoo. Notice the socks with the sandals. I am not going nearly as fast as my face indicates.

My kids smile like this.

The thing is, these pictures are only awkward looking back. Life was great. These years weren't awkward for me. In fact, I had great friends and we had tons of fun.

 I'm not sure what I'm doing here and I know I didn't know then either.

 Ah man, I'm loving all the details in the background of these pictures. Check out the sweet computer.

Every year for the 4th of July we would gather on the lawn of the Marriott Center on BYU campus and wait for the fireworks. We would head over at lunch time and spend the whole day there which included walking down the hill to Wendy's to use the bathroom. It was so much fun. People wondered what the heck we were doing there 8 hours before the fireworks were to start. Making wreaths out of weeds, of course.

This is another year, same spot, same waiting. Please note that I am wearing pants that I made. And an apron. I also made that apron. I still have and use and love that backpack.

I don't have any pictures of middle school. I don't know why. I hated HATED sixth grade. I had a really hard time adjusting to the 7 class periods and meeting all these new people from other elementary schools. Friend groups changed and I lost some of my friends. I had major anxiety and missed class a lot. I also made new friends and got used to things over time. I remember being really proud of myself when I went a whole week without missing a class period. 

Seventh grade came and it was like night and day compared to sixth grade even though it was the same school. Well it kind of wasn't the same school. The new addition was finally completed and we seventh graders got it all to ourselves. New lockers, new classrooms, new computer lab, new girl's gym. I had so much fun and besides the jars in biology filled with dead animals, anxiety free.

Onto Junior High for 8th and 9th. This is during lunchtime in the hallway across from the lunch room. We were too cool to sit in the lunchroom.

Waiting for my sister outside the temple. Summer, 1998. Being a younger kid of a big family meant that it grew a lot during my teen years. I had like a dozen and nieces and nephews by the time I graduated high school.

 Those nieces and nephews are the reason behind this picture. I was always trying to make them laugh and earn the title of favorite aunt.

I'm on the phone. You can totally tell I'm on the phone even though you can't see the phone.

I turned a corner in 9th grade. I learned how to take a normal picture.

 This is up at my grandma's cabin for my birthday when I turned 15. I miss that place. The cabin was sold a few years later when she died.

 Here again, posing for a nephew who's taking the picture. I really was the favorite aunt. Being an aunt was a defining role for me.

Pretty sure these are all taken on the last days of junior high. Here are a few random memories about those years. 

The Columbine shooting happened. It was the first school shooting. Our school created a "no backpacks in the classroom" rule. We were so mad and it made no sense to us how that would keep us safer. I still don't understand that one.

 I learned I loved the home-ec classes, and social studies. Math and science, not so much.

I was the office TA and I loved it. I delivered notes from the office to kids in class and had a front row seat to all the happenings in the office. Plus I got to see the list of kids who had detention after school.

 The picture below is at a dance. I had a love/hate relationship with dances. I loved dancing and being funny with my friends but hated slow dancing. I usually snuck off to the bathroom with a few friends during the slow dances.

 This is my 9th grade English class with my teacher Mrs. Jensen, or Mrs. J as we called her. She was a great teacher.

Last day of junior high with my best friends. Fun fact: the kid photo-bombing is one of Justin's best friends.

I wish I could say that those awkward years were over for me but I'm pretty sure they continued for me through high school. I hope you laughed right along with me down this memory lane. And I hope I made you feel better about any awkward phase you may find yourself in.

Pioneer Day, Pandemic Style

If there's any holiday that is steeped in tradition, it is Pioneer Day. Every year it's the same thing. Pancake breakfast. Parade. Kiddie games at the park. Stake out spots for the fireworks. Home for lunch and make treats. To the other park for dinner and fireworks. It's like clockwork and like all things that operate on schedule and predictability, it's the best.

And then there's this year. Mapleton cancelled all of their events except for the fireworks (and they closed the park so you'd watch them from home). So we had to make our own fun. And it was fine but not the same and there's still a void. "Not the same" and "still a void" kind of seem to be the feeling after every event the last few months.

Justin started out the day right by making pancakes and eggs. They pancakes were big and delicious but not as big as my face and there were no little frozen boxes of orange juice. Our table was only slightly less sticky as the ones at the park.

 Then we made our own ice cream. James had never seen this ice cream maker before and he was so intrigued as we got the ice cream going. I came back down 10 minutes later and he was just like this watching it spin.

 We had to do something special for lunch and what's more special than Chick-fil-a at a park?

 Then we loaded up the car and headed to my mom's house.  Pretty hot days call for sprinkler kickball.


It quickly turned into a waterfight.

And James quickly got cold and hung out with me for a little while.

I don't remember what he was talking about. I just like his face as he talks.



And then Henry came over to complain that Sarah was violating the "can't dump water on someone while they're filling up their bucket" rule.

Meanwhile, Justin started some Dutch oven red beans and rice. Sure it's Cajun, not pioneerish but something about beans and sausage just felt right for the occasion.

And then Erica and Maddie performed an impromptu puppet show.

Plus we played cornhole. I even played cornhole.


 
While the cool kids played ladderball.

And then we ate. Well first James got stung 3 times by a wasp. He sat down on the little kiddie table and there was a wasp nest right under the seat. Poor kid. After I got him taken care of and he was feeling better, then we ate. And then I took awkward pictures of everyone to send to my sisters that didn't come to the party.

Christian was hiding inside but I found him.

Then I made the kids play "drop a clothespin in a mason jar" because that's what the pioneer children did right?

Allison won the kettle corn prize!

 And then things got caraaazy when we busted out Dr Quaquenbusch's Indian Sagwa Tonic. 

 

Just kidding. The bottle was empty. It's from the Festival of American West in Logan from like 1990.

For dessert we had 3 kinds of homemade ice cream: vanilla, peach and frostee and then we cleaned up the yard before it got too dark and then busted out the games and glowsticks.

 Covid can never take away glowsticks.

And then we moved to the grass to await the fireworks. Watching the kids run around with glowsticks around all their extremities was pretty fun to watch, especially when they'd run by in a line. We had a pretty good view of the fireworks but it's just not the same when you can't feel them in your chest or when there's no ash falling down. There will be a bit of a void until next year.

Sunday we gathered again! This time because my brother and his family came down from Logan. We played board games, ate smoked meat and in true Syme style, we did another taste test. This time it was microwave popcorn. We tasted 5 brands of microwave popcorn plus a movie theater's and Clint's at-home movie theater style popper.

I liked Clint's the best which I expected. My favorite of the microwave brands was Jolly Time which even then I didn't really like. I'm spoiled from Justin's homemade popcorn with real butter and salt.

And that is how you celebrate your pioneer heritage when there's a pandemic going on.