Shelby Starts High School!

On Monday, August 11th, our first baby started high school. It feels absolutely surreal being at this stage of parenting. I feel like we were just in high school! Shelby has adjusted beautifully to her new school & routines. 

Back in the spring when we were still in Alaska, Shelby sent videos to her new school to audition remotely for orchestra & jazz band. She ended up making it into the top groups for both orchestra & jazz band! Shelby was thrilled, but I was slightly apprehensive it might be too much for her to take on her first year of high school with all advanced classes & one AP course. Then, about a week before we arrived in Texas, we got an email from her jazz band director asking if Shelby would be interested in the lead synth position for the school's marching band. I was fully prepared to respond to the email with a firm no {her schedule was already maxed out!}, but Shelby thought this opportunity sounded amazing. {We never even knew until the moment we read the email that piano players can be in the marching band!} So we very hesitantly agreed to give it a whirl. Shelby missed the first two weeks of summer band camp, but she jumped into the third & final week of camp once we got into town. Shelby ended up loving it, and it helped her get a feel for her new campus and meet a few people before school officially got underway. 

Once school started, I was even more reluctant for her to be in marching band. The rehearsal schedule is like nothing I could have anticipated, but Shelby is enjoying the experience & we're taking it one day at a time! I felt a lot of anxiety & uneasiness about the daunting schedule {we really value a slower pace filled with margin in our lives for family time & downtime} at first, but we are trying to embrace this for a season knowing it won't be forever. This past Friday was Shelby's first football game performance, and it was everything she hoped it would be & more! Shelby has always loved football & music, so this is really a match made in heaven for her!

{This was Shelby right before the "Hotdog Howdy" event, which was the premiere performance of their halftime show for the school community}

Shelby was also asked this past week to play the piano for her school's upcoming musical later this school year, which absolutely thrilled her to no end! There isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss the slower pace of life in Alaska & the small town feel of Eagle River {words I never thought I'd be uttering three years ago!}, but we are beyond thankful that Shelby seems to be settling right in & has had such wonderful opportunities thus far.