Spring Soccer

Amber and Les both finished their soccer seasons with their current teams on Saturday. They are good players. They both have a lot of speed and endurance. Amber has found that she really likes to play goalie, but she is awesome in any position. Her coach has access to a limo, so he finished the season with a ride in it. The girls loved it!

After the limo ride, they dropped her off at Les's game at another park. I could tell she loved everyone watching her get out of the limo!

Amber and Les's games overlapped this week, so I missed most of Les's game. That is the way soccer is. Next year, all 3 kids will be playing. Brian and are are really starting to feel outnumbered. We can't be at everything, and don't want anyone to feel bad that we missed them. That is going to be interesting.

Les is a good ball handler. He is also fast. In a few years, he will be really good. He needs to be more aggressive. But he's a boy, in the next few years that will come. He is just a nice kid who doesn't want to steal the ball. Brian has enjoyed coaching Les's team because they are now old enough that he can teach skills.

The boys love him, and do exactly what he says. He amazes me with kids.

It was a fun season. It is fun to see the kids finding activities that they love, and want to excel at. I never thought I'd say this, but I am actually looking forward to next year already.

How the West Was Really Won

At our school, the 4th grade has been practicing really hard to do a play called "How the West Was Really Won." Because of pre-school graduation tonight, Brian and I went to a dress rehearsal this morning, so we could be to both events. I was amazed. There are a lot of solo parts, and all of the kids did an amazing job. It is a lot bigger production than I ever imagined, and it was done so much better than I ever thought that it would be. Unfortunately, my nice camera is being serviced right now, so the pictures are not so good. I am pretty disappointed. The scenes that Amber was in were really dark and so the pictures are terrible. But I'll post them anyway.

Amber, McLayne & Megan
Started the story off by reading "a letter from out west."

Square Dancers
Told what life was like in the old west

Packing to go west Scene
All these girls had solos in this scene, and they all have awesome voices.

Indians
Some of these girls had solos too, and also did an awesome job.
They told how the Indians were run off of their land by the white man.

"Utah! What a Great Place to Be!"
They told the story of the old state song, and how the new one came to be.

Cast Finale

This year is the last year of teaching for two of our 4th grade teachers. They have taught together for years, and are both retiring this year. They have done this play a few times. This is kind of their grand finale, and it was. It was awesome. I don't think that I saw one kid rolling their eyes, or embarrassed for their part. The kids all sang at the top of their lungs. They loved every minute of it.

We watched the play with the 5th and 6th graders today, and for those of you who know our 5th and 6th grade classes, they can be very disrespectful. They weren't. They loved it too. I think that they were impressed by it all. Wynton started the play off with an amazing solo that caught their attention immediately, and as they say..."The rest is history!"

If anyone gets any better pictures tonight, especially with Amber in, would you PLEASE send me copies!! It would be so appreciated. Thanks.

I Am Growing Up

This week is Zak's preschool graduation. One of the songs he will be singing for it is so cute, and he sings it all the time. He let me record him singing it. It is hilarious the way that he exaggerates the words. He sang this song for Grammy on the phone, but I though you might enjoy the visual!

Oh, when I started preschool,
I was very, very small.
But now I'm so much bigger now,
Oh, can't you see how tall!
I've learned to write my name
And to say my ABC's,
Oh, I am growing up!
Off we go to Kindergarten.
Off we go to Kindergarten.
Off we go to Kindergarten.
Oh, I am growing up!

Isn't He Cute?

Well it is the time of year at our house when the kids are getting anxious and anticipating the end of the school year. On top of that this year, they are excited for a very fun summer vacation. Needless to say, they are starting to get a little out of control, and I am losing patience with them. Last night, I went in to close the window in the boys bedroom before I went to bed, and was reminded how cute they really are.....when they are asleep! I really am very proud of my kids, they are very well behaved when they have to be, but with our crazy schedules the last 2 weeks, they are tired, and need some down time.
I can't blame them though, last week, I think that we only got home before 9:00 once, and they have been getting to bed at nearly 10:00. They are exhausted. But they are still doing really good in school, and are good for others. What more can I ask for? I guess...Summer!

St. George Triathlon Weekend

This weekend was Brian's annual St. George Triathlon. It is a very important race to him, and he does it each year in memory of his Dad. When he arrived at Sand Hollow resort on Saturday morning, the wind was pretty strong, and didn't let up. The race directors ended up calling off the swim because of the waves in the water (those of you who remember Ironman Utah will understand, although it wasn't that bad). They decided to go with a run, bike, run format to space out the racers for the bike.
When Brian registers for this race, he has to choose between two race options, Olympic distance, or Sprint distance. This year Brian chose to race the sprint distance. It contains a 1/2 mile swim, 12.5 mile bike, and a 5k (3.1miles--the Olympic distance is double these distances). Since the swim was canceled, they did a 5k, 12.5 mile bike, and another 5k.
Brian was more ready for his race this year than he has been since he trained for Ironman in 2002. This year, he had very specific goals, and was determined to meet them. And he did.

Finishing the 1st run.

Transition 1 (T1) was quick, he has upgraded some of his gear, which made for a quicker change.

On his bike, everything went smoothly. There were no flat tires or bike problems that he has had a lot of in the past. Thank heaven for the new bike.

He came in from his bike about 4 minutes sooner than I expected him to.

T2 also went very smooth and he was off for another 5k.
The boys made friends with a cute family from Phoenix, and were happy and had fun the whole time. It always makes being a spectator easier when the kids cooperate. It is much easier now they are getting older. No babies to feed or change, and no going to the potty every 10 minutes and having to worry about missing Daddy when he comes through transition
Starting run #2

His second 5k was only a minute longer than his first one. Not too bad considering that he only trained for one of them. I had video of him coming in to the finish line, but it is turned sideways, and I don't know how to fix that (Always a lesson to be learned when you get a new camera and don't play with it first!)

Final results:
8th out of 43 in the Male age 35-39 category
Run 1 24:25
T1 2:00
Bike 40:08
T2 1:17
Run 2 25:41
Final time 1:33:30

After the race, we drove up around Sand Hollow to see the bike course that I have never seen. Because of the wind, the sand was drifted over the road, so we stopped a minute to let the kids play in real sand. It was pretty cool, I wish we had more time to play. This is always a quick trip for us.


On the way home, we stopped in Cedar City to visit with my grandparents. My brother and his kids were there on their way to Disneyland. I also got a chance to visit with an aunt and cousin I haven't seen in years.

Overall the weekend was a lot of fun. Quick, but fun. I am always grateful when Brian races well. He hasn't for several years because it is hard to train on that level with kids and work, and on a budget. He has sacrificed his racing for us, but it is getting a little easier. I am always happy to see my grandparents are well. There have been a few scary times with their health recently. I am so grateful they still live at home and are able to take care of themselves and each other. I am fearful of the time when they can't do that any more. I am grateful for a cousin who lives close to them and checks in on them very regularly when the rest of us can't. I wish that I had pulled out the camera while we were at their house and got a picture of everyone there. Hopefully, we will get that opportunity again.

1st Grade Dinosaur Park Fieldtrip

Today Les and I went to the Dinosaur Park for the 1st grade field trip. It was a lot of fun. Les & his friend Hunter were the only 2 kids in our group, so it was easy to handle.

If you have been to the Dinosaur Park,
you are sure to have at least one of these pictures!
Hunter & Les

For some reason, the playground is always the most entertaining!

Les--The World's Most Dangerous Creature!!

Les & Ethan had fun excavating for fossils too!
Always a good time!

I think the kids had lots of fun, and even learned a few new things.
The favorite new word is coprolite!
Maybe next time, I'll remember to take my camera, and not have to use my cell phone.

The Good, The Bad, and the REALLY Ugly!

Our weekend was full of The Good, The Bad, and the REALLY Ugly! It really was a fun and relaxing weekend. After soccer games on Saturday, we headed to Lehi for a couple of reasons.

The Good: One of my good friends from High school, Wade, has been in medical school, and just finished, so he and his wife and his 3 adorable kids are here for a few months before he starts his residency. So some my good friends from back home got together for a BBQ, and to catch up a little. It was a lot of fun to just do nothing but catch up while we watched the Jazz game and ate. I also got to see another good friend, Melissa, that I haven't seen for years. It is good to see everyone is happy and doing well.

The Bad: We were also going home to help my parents with some painting they just found out they had to do to close on the sale of their old house. But the weather was not so cooperative. It rained pretty heavy, and there was even a little snow. There was definitely no way we were painting outside.

The Ugly: Recently, my Dad was put into a Branch Presidency at the MTC. So they invited us to come with them to lunch and church there yesterday. The food was simple but good, but the highlight of lunch was the ice cream bar after we ate. We loaded up with ice cream, hot fudge, strawberry and caramel sauce, oreos, brownies, toffee chips...all the extras. As we started to eat, I looked over at Les and he was starting to cry. I asked what was wrong as he was telling Brian he wasn't feeling well. Just then, he lost it...all of it. Right on the tables, chairs, floor, and all over his Sunday clothes, and Brian. And almost on the Branch President that Dad serves with and his wife. Fortunately, at that point, my job was just to clear all of the trays from the table so it could be cleaned up. I didn't have to touch any of it. I don't do well with throw-up. Anyway, Brian and Les spent the next hour in the van while we went to the meeting.

All of my kids have a problem with anxiety. Les was so nervous about what was expected and what he might (or might not) have to do, that he made himself sick. Amber does the same thing with the excitement of Christmas every year. She always manages to barf on Christmas. Once they finally release it all, they feel better, and don't have any more problems. They can eat again and everything.

Fortunately, Les isn't sick. He ate dinner last night, dessert, and breakfast before school this morning. I was so worried that we could have passed a bug to all my friends and their kids that we were with Saturday night. But I don't think we did!

F-16 Crash

Yesterday, an F-16 crashed at the Ogden Airport.

Apparently, the plane overshot the runway because of a brake problem. It landed fine, but as it went off the end of the runway, it somehow smashed up the nose of the plane. Something was going on at the base, and so the jets were diverted to the nearby Ogden Hinckley Airport. As we went out to run an errand, we drove by. The other 7 jets appear to be grounded for the time because even today, they are still lined up close to the road.

We see these jets flying overhead on almost a daily basis, but we rarely see them up close, because you can't get near the runway for the base (at least not that I know of). It really is an impressive and rare sight.

Laundry

OK, I admit, housework is not my favorite thing to do. There always seems to be a lot more fun activity calling me, and if not, I find one. One of my least favorite things to do is laundry. As of right this minute, I have been doing laundry for 4 days straight. UGH! Let me see, what could there possibly be that takes 4 days to get it all done?

1-part of last week's laundry that I never finished
2-this week's laundry
3-extra clothes from the Easter hunting trip
4-swim suit, bike clothes, and running clothes from the triathlon that Brian did over the weekend to train for his big race in a few weeks, as well as his swimsuit and running clothes from every day before and after school
5-a pile-up of extra towels from our trip to the pool last week
6-and bedding that, unfortunately is long overdue for washing, and since Les's and Zak's bed together take 5 loads, it takes FOREVER (I do the bedding when I finish the laundry for the week....that hasn't happened since we returned from Arizona, maybe even longer...hhmmmm)

And then, as I finally get it all finished, everyone takes off their clothes for the day to put on pajamas, and it all starts again. No wonder I hate it. It never ends. At least with dishes, or vacuuming, it lasts until the kids get home from school.

But, looking on the bright side, now I'll be done until Friday, and then, maybe, I can stay caught up again! (Oh, I just realized...Friday is TOMORROW!)

Artichoke

Yummy...Artichoke. We don't do artichoke very often, but it was on sale this week, so I decided to buy some. The kids never can remember if they like it or not. And then there comes the lesson each time on how to get the edible part off the rest that is just waste. As the Simmons family so eloquently puts it.....it's a "pack of damn foolishness."
This is the waste. The part you throw away....I'm not sure that it is even worth the dollar that I paid for it, but it's worth the fun and entertainment. But I found a positive flip to the whole event.....It definitely slows down those who eat too fast and keeps you from eating too much!

Artichoke...a good way to eat butter!
Soon to come...my very favorite....Asparagus with hollandaise sauce!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!!

Zak in Stake Conference

Today we had Stake Conference, as we do quite often on Easter Sunday. About half way through the 2 hour meeting Zak was getting a little restless, and bored out of his mind like any 4 year old would be at a 2 hour church meeting with no special things for kids. He asked if he could go get a drink. I told him"No, we are listening right now." He then looked at me very seriously, and said, "Well I'm not listening, I don't even care!" How do you not laugh at that? And how do you teach a child that the meeting is actually very interesting, and that if he only understood all that was being said, he just might find himself caring about what is being said. I guess the only way to teach that is to keep going, and keep expecting reverence, and some day, the caring will come.

Where Did Our Easter Go

At our house, we ask the Easter Bunny to come on Saturday instead of Sunday so that the kids aren't quite so wound up for church (Especially because stake conference is usually on Easter, and it is hard enough to sit reverently for 2 hours without a sugar high.) That way we can focus on Christ on Sunday, and not on the Easter Bunny and candy.

So Friday night after we got home from hunting, we colored the Easter eggs. The kids had so much fun being creative and making their own special eggs.

Here are some of their creations a little closer up!

The kids went to bed, and I got out their Easter baskets, grass, plastic eggs, etc. in preparation for the Easter Bunny to come in the night. When the kids woke up on Saturday morning, they waited for each other to all be awake and then asked permission to look for their baskets and eggs as usual. Much to their dismay and almost horror, there was nothing. No eggs, no baskets, nothing. Even the real eggs that were in the fridge were gone. The kids were in complete shock. And SO disappointed. Not only had the Easter Bunny not hidden all of the fun for them to find, he had completely taken it away....it was just plain gone.

We had several places that we needed to be on this morning, one of which was the city Easter Egg hunt, so off we went, hoping there had been some terrible mistake, and that it would all be back when we got home.

The city egg hunt here is usually AWESOME. There is always plenty of toys and eggs for each kid to be totally thrilled with the stash that they are returning home with. This year was a disaster, much to the dismay of the poor girl in charge. She got on the loud speaker to let everyone know that there would be 3 minutes until the egg hunt began. Well, some of the kids thought she had said you have 3 minutes to find the eggs, and they all took off running. The poor girl then started to yell NO, NO, NO, and the kids who weren't already running thought she said Go, Go, Go. So off went most of the rest of the kids. Those of you who know my kids know that they are usually very good at obeying when it comes to these kind of things. All my kids held back and didn't run. When they each finally decided that they better go or they wouldn't get anything, it was nearly too late.

Zak was among the older kids in his group, so he did pretty well, but Les and Amber got almost nothing. I felt awful. Not because they needed any of that stuff, but because Easter had now been a complete bomb, twice, for them.

After the egg hunt, we went over to the University. Greg's wife, Marsha is starting to train and compete with the possibility of competing in the 2012 Olympics in London. Since she competed in Sydney, Australia, and Athens, Greece, she has had 2 kids. In those Olympics, she did the Heptathlon. Right now, she is just working for the long jump and javelin. She wants to see how well she can come back in her best and favorite sports before she decides to go for all 7 events again (we tease her that she is like a grandma to those other girls that she is competing against!)
It was fun to watch her, she is an amazing athlete. She didn't have a very good day, but she is just starting out again after 4 years. Thanks for inviting us Auntie Marsha.

Me and Ty! He kept trying to get on the long jump track when Mama was going!

Mark doing his funny dance...2 year olds can be so cute!

Finally, we arrived back home, and guess what we found....
The Easter Bunny had come, and he had a hole in his pocket. He left a trail of jelly beans everywhere!! and not only did he bring everything back.....

but he filled all our eggs with spending money for our trip!

Thank You Easter Bunny!

Harassing the Easter Bunny

On Friday, Brian thought it would be fun to take the whole family coyote and rabbit hunting. He usually just takes Amber, because he says that the kids have to be 8 years old to go, so the boys were really excited. I have never been able to go, because I always have kids to stay at home with.

Brian doesn't really have enough camouflage clothes for everyone, so here's Brian and the kids in the mish-mash of camo that we have. None of it fits very well, always better to buy big and have it last longer in my opinion!
After a couple of stands of coyote hunting, Brian realized that the "Bad News Bears" were never going to be able to be quiet and still enough to bring in any coyotes. (Not to mention, he has never brought any in on his own either!) So we decided to wander out through the sagebrush and scare up some rabbits. Since I don't do well when I get up early, I was ready for a nap while they went out after the Easter Bunny the first time. After a good half hour nap, I was ready to go. So, we headed out for a second loop all together, and I saw the only bunny of the day. The only problem...I forgot I had the rifle in my hands and that I could take a shot at it. Brian got ready, but never could spot it before it was gone. I guess that is because I've never hunted before and my mind is on the kids staying safe.

We finally gave up on the bunny, and figured that we better let him live for Easter, so we stopped for lunch. I think that was my favorite part of the day.

The boys ran up and down the big hill that we were stopped by, which wore them out very well for the drive home!

Posing for silly pictures....this never happens on a serious hunting trip...right Grammy!

There was at least one arrowhead right outside the door of the truck where we stopped, I don't think that the second piece is an arrowhead though. Amber was thrilled!

We just happened to have Chocolate milk bottles left over from breakfast to shoot at while we were stopped for lunch, so Brian pulled out the BB gun to let the kids do a little target practice. While Amber has had a lot of experience shooting, Les and Zak haven't. Les has gone out to shoot the BB gun a few times with Brian, but I think that this might have been Zak's first time.

Les hit the bottles a couple of times!

Amber has it all figured out by now.

When Brian goes hunting with his buddies, they have a road that they have named "Trailer Trash Road" because it literally looks like someone has taken a few trailers out and blown them up. This is some of what remains of that trash...Brian couldn't resist stopping for a picture.
After we finished hunting, we took the old rail bed road back in to Golden Spike National Monument. On the drive, there is at least one ghost town, Kelton. All there is left is the cemetery, some rail siding bridges, and some foundations of old buildings left. The kids were amazed that an old city didn't exist any more. It was kind of sad to see the old cemetery so run down. But it is fenced in, and so a little protected at least from vehicles. Some of the headstones were out of wood, and obviously very old, some were stone, but falling apart and very weathered and unreadable, and some had been replaced by more recent generations who recognize the significance that their ancestors played in the states history.

We had to stop for one last place to play before we were done. Zak was pretty proud of himself that he could climb through this "huge" arch.

Daddy's kids after playing all day. Thanks for taking us Dad!

A Frustrating Week

A warning to all who think they might be tempted to read this post. It is not very exciting and it is definitely full of complaining. If you choose to continue reading, don't say I didn't warn you.

I am SO ready for this week to end, and can only pray that next week is better.

The week, of course, started out with Monday. As I started pulling things together for Passports, I realized that Les's birth certificate was incorrect. Brian's birthday was listed incorrectly. This was only made more frustrating by the fact that Amber's birth certificate doesn't even have our birthdays listed. If I had realized this within 90 days of when I first got it, they would have just corrected it for free. Not now...of course, it cost me $ 20. But I had to do it so it didn't hold up our passports.

Getting a change on a birth certificate is NOT an easy process. On the back of the bad birth certificate, was an affidavit that had to be changed and signed in front of a notary. So Brian took a few minutes from his prep hour at school, and we ran down to the bank. We were then told by the notary that she can't even touch birth certificates. That has to be done with the state. We then called back to the Davis County Vital Records department to be told that the notary was wrong, and they would have someone call her to explain. We then ran back to the bank and got that taken care of. It used Brian's entire prep hour on Tuesday.

I then made the trip to Salt Lake to the Utah State Department of Health so that I could get the change made, and a new copy immediately. Note to self: the state health department is not easy to find by the address. I got right to the address from the north side, and I could see the building, (it looks like every other state agency building, so I knew it was the right place) but all of the roads took me away from it, not into it. It turns out you have to enter the property from North Temple, and as far as I could tell, that is the only way in. As I got inside, and explained what I needed, the girl told me that the affidavit on the back of the birth certificate was too old, but she would check to see if they could accept it. Needless to say, I was so frustrated at this point, I was sure that they weren't going to take it. But to my relief, they did. Five minutes later, I had a correct birth certificate for Les, and we could proceed with the process to get our passports.

I missed my chance to get to the gym on that day because I spent about 2 hours longer than I had planned to do all of this, so I felt like a slug the rest of the day, and I think that the stress of it all exhausted me too. So I was thrilled when things were going to work out to go to the Step class that night. I now realize that I missed Relief Society Board meeting that I was supposed to present at, and I am sure the RS presidency is not happy with me right now.

OK, now for Wednesday. Things actually went pretty well on Wednesday, just BUSY. I had everything together to go get our passports if Brian could leave school early and miss Track practice. Fortunately, he was able to work that out. When I picked up the kids from school, Les was covered with something gross. He had spilled his applesauce at lunch. When he tried to clean it up, it smeared everywhere (we all know how kids clean things like that up), and his teacher didn't call me to bring him a new pair of pants, so by this point, it was all dry and crusty and looked awful. So I dropped him at home to change while I went to get the kids from pre-school. I dropped off the other kid we carpool with, and then picked Les up, ran to Costco to get pictures done for passports, waited for the pics to be ready, and then met Brian at the County building. All of this in 45 minutes.

We had 1 hour to get passport applications done, and get home to drop Amber off at home for a friend to take her to soccer practice and make it to Layton to close on the refinance for our house. We made it just in time....One more crazy day down.

On Thursday, I had a pretty calm day, or so I thought. I was only supposed to have one busy hour after I picked up the kids from school. So I went to the x-biking class at the gym, where I burned about 800 calories in an hour and a half (I love my heart rate monitor!). After I picked up the kids, I took Amber home to stay with Zak while Les and I ran to Layton to pick up something I had to pick up between 3:00-4:00. But I had to be back and have Amber to Piano by 4:00 and I also had a meeting with the 4th grade teachers at the school at 4:00. Well, now for the chaos of Thursday...I wasn't supposed to be in Layton to pick up that item today, not until Monday. But I got caught in some pretty good traffic getting back that made Amber late for piano lessons, and me late for my meeting. As I walked into the school, I realized that I had now missed Zak's kindergarten round-up...Aaagghhhh. Last children really do get forgotten, don't they? Fortunately, our school does small group appointments, so we were able to jump in somewhere else. I was only 5 minutes late to get back to pick Amber up from piano...not too bad I guess.

Later Thursday night, Amber and I went back to the gym to do a Step class. I was pretty tired from the x-biking, but got another good workout in, and burned another 560 calories. (That was about 1350 calories burnt for the day!! It felt so good.)

Now for today...It's not over yet. At the school, I am in charge of school pride day. The kids are supposed to wear their school colors or school t-shirts on Fridays, and the classes with the highest percentage get rewarded, one in each grade. I gathered up all the awards from last week to re-disperse this week, and left them sitting in the faculty room while I counted each class. When I returned 4 of the 7 awards were missing. Long story short, they all turned up after I had improvised a much less exciting award.

I just want this week to end. I don't want to be responsible for remembering anything else. I want everything to go back to being simple and my schedule to not be so chaotic.
I apologize now for the venting , but it feels so good to get the frustration out.