Jorja left early this morning to say goodbye to Dawson. He was a student body officer with her. He is entering the military on Sunday, which is also his birthday. Crazy way to spend a birthday!
Dawson & Jorja
Jorja and her friends met at Alta to caravan down to Lake Powell. Jorja forgot a few things so I swung by and snapped this picture of her and her friends.
Lily, Jorja, Sami, Layla
Stockton had a meeting with his academic advisor over zoom. It went well. She cleared him to go into calculus. She told him he could go into calculus 2 if he wanted. Stockton hasn't done calculus in about five years so he is going to stick with calculus 1. Too bad the classes are all full. I helped him get on the waiting list of every class. Hopefully one will open up. He is registered for an online class, but some things are better in person. Stockton was surprised to see him zoom name was still the same thing it was set to for Preston's Among Us activity. So, when Stockton met with his advisor he had the name "Amongus Sussus" Hahaha
Bear
When Jorja got to Lake Powell she asked me to order her some more graduation announcements. She hadn't ordered enough. Well, she didn't save them either so I had to recreate them. I did this while watching the Jazz win game 5 against the Memphis Grizzlies. Jazz are moving on to round 2!
Kate's wish was granted yesterday. Her backyard makeover. Jorja was able to be there for the reveal. She was so excited. She has loved this family. I am so proud of her. I am thrilled she was able to have this experience. I sure hope those two girls get healthy. Twins with leukemia. That family has had a rough few years.
Lisa is in town for a few days and we were able to get together. Mike doesn't get to be together with all of his siblings at the same time. I'm glad Steve and Shannon were able to have everyone over. We just had pizza and played games. It was a blast. I made s'mores, that was our contribution. The college kids were busy dealing with finals and end of semester projects, so we didn't see any of them. It still was so fun. I'm glad this happened.
Jorja took all the kids home in her bug. Mike and I stayed later to hang out with his siblings. It was a nice, relaxing evening. I wish we could do this more often.
Jorja slept at Brenton's house and then all the old and new SBOs went bowling with Shay. Shay is the new SBO advisor. Jorja came home and slept for several hours before she made her way to work. After work she went out with Stockton and Dani and I got this cool picture I stole from Stockton's blog.
Stockton, Jorja, Dani
Dani had dinner with us and played Dominion. It was a good time.
Jorja's inauguration was tonight. So sad she didn't get to experience this. I remember her telling me that every night before she went to bed she would imagine different SBO's saying her name, to see if she could decide what position 'felt right'. She did that every night. Bode told me that he went to bed every night imagining Jack announcing his name for attorney general. Sad that they didn't get that opportunity. They did have the current SBOs come early and do a mini-swearing in ceremony. We weren't allowed to come and watch though. The night was great! Jorja looked beautiful. (Kelsee did her hair.) It was stress free for us. We were "sitting" next to the Okerlund's and David was running. I was so happy to hear his name called! Cool to be sitting next to his family and see their reaction too.
Current SBOs
Dallen Jepson, Brenton Valentine, Marshall Young, Joe Butler, Sadler Jones, Dawson Lewis
Bode Rockwood, Jorja Smith, Layla Mackey
Side note: Super weird that the school rents tuxedos for the boys, but the girls have to buy their own dresses. I know girls are harder, but really???
Mike and I took the rest of the kids to Shake Shack before heading down to Alta. Maysen and Stockton hadn't seen the renovations. The cafeteria looks so different. The mountains out of the window are just beautiful. Preston is going to be lucky. Preston got the renovated Indian Hills and will get the renovated Alta. The construction at Alta started Jorja's freshman year. It's been a long process...
Layla and Jorja
Mr. Packer announced the SBOs and their escorts. Their escorts were assigned. Riley was assigned to escort Jorja, and she was thrilled about that. It was so sweet. Mr. Packer's voice broke as he was listing Jorja's positions. That happened twice. Jorja and Bode. He loved those two.
Riley & Jorja
They each had a handshake they did when they got on stage.
Lighting the candle
Nick & Kelsee, Sadler & Janelle, Jorja & Riley (we did not realize how much the slit on her dress would show. Whoops.)
The stage. 9 SBOs, 3 cheerleaders and their escorts
Dallin & Giselle, Joe & Aysha, Bode & Ella, Marshall & Kate, Dawson & Grace, Emma & JordyRobs
It was kind of cool. There weren't enough senior class girls officers to escort all they boy SBOs. They were three short. Well, there were three girl SBOs last year that didn't get the opportunity to participate in their goodbye inauguration, so Packer had Ella, Aysha and Kate come back. Kelsee, a cheerleader from last year, came back to escort Nate.
Brenton and Jorja were having a little conversation up there, but I missed getting a good picture. I love their friendship.
Nate, Jorja, Alex (new SBO historian), Layla, Brenton
Each of the SBOs created a goodbye video based on the ending of a movie. Jorja's turned out so well. She did a parody of La La Land. It was perfect.
Packer introduced Jorja and talked about how amazing she was. He said he didn't think there was another person more capable of pulling off the fundraiser during a pandemic than Jorja Smith. She was amazing. Here is a long video where Packer introduces her, she gives a short speech, she announces Rebecca Russell as the new SBO financial chair and she swears Rebecca in.
Rebecca, Jake, Jorja, Lucas
Taylor & Ryan, Nate & Kelsee, ??? (new chief of activities) Sadler & Janelle, Rebecca (new financial chair) Jorja & Riley,
Alex (new historian) Layla & Carson, Luke (new Vice President) Brenton & Ellie
Just the right side.....
Autumn (new president) Dallin & Giselle, Justice (new secretary) Joe & Aysha,
??? (new attorney general) Bode & Ella, David (new public relations) Marshall & Kate, ??? (new AVO) Dawson & Grace, Emma & JordyRobs
Jorja (Can you find the hawk pin on her dress?)
I know there's a lot of similar pictures, but this was such an important night for her
Love that smile!
Jorja & Mike
Stephanie, Jorja & Mike
Jizella ~ Giselle, Ella, Jorja
Giselle, Ella, Jorja, Grace
Riley & Jorja
Jorja & Paige a.k.a Mini Jorja
Rebecca & Jorja ~ SBO Financial Chairs
Jorja & Layla
Closing a chapter
She sure loved this experience
Bode & Jorja
She's gonna miss this...
Good thing Jorja has exciting adventures ahead of her! We left Jorja at Alta. Stockton and I came back and brought Jorja the Alta flag she forgot. Tradition is the old SBOs spend the night with the new SBOs doing all sorts of shenanigans. (The school even excuses them on a regular school year.) They go to The Belgian Waffle at midnight. The old SBOs pay for the new ones. So Jorja bought Rebecca's food. Things like that. They ended the night at Brenton's house. All 18 of them. It was a perfect night for Jorja. Except when she was scared silly at The Belgian Waffle by someone threatening to beat her up. All part of the experience...
Even though Jorja didn't get the full experience of being a student body officer because of the pandemic, I'm glad she was able to have what she had. I wish she could have had more. I agree with Packer that there was no one better to do the fundraiser during a pandemic than Jorja Smith. There was a lot of frustrations. A lot of things that were planned that would get taken away from her. But boy did she work on this. I think most people would have just given up, but she made it happen. Kate (and Ellie) will always hold a special place in her heart. I'm so proud of her.
