Summer Fun

This sandbox made the summer so much better for Jake and Josh.

Caitlin, Courtney and Spencer have enjoyed swim team this summer, earning many ribbons.

 

Rachel also practiced every morning at 7 am with the Devil Rays, a USA swim team, doing long course swimming.  It was a great workout but it wasn't like our summer swim team in PA so she didn't love it.  

 Most mornings after I dropped off Rachel at swim practice, I explored the hiking trails in Corner Canyon.  

 

Sometimes I brought the kids with me.

Fun times with the Fam

We had another typically busy week and weekend.  

Life with twin boys is never dull.  They had a great time destroying my anniversary flowers.  Needless to say, the counter stools have been removed from the kitchen once again.  The bigger kids miss sitting at the counter but my sanity is restored.

I took a hike in Corner Canyon.  The leaves are starting to turn.  I had planned a long loop hike but got caught in a huge thunderstorm so I had to turn around early.  After a near collision with a mountain biker, enduring thunder, lightning and soaking rain, I was relieved to get home where the sun was actually shining!

      You can see the storm cloud here.

The weekend was busy. Friday night, Spencer had football, a pep rally and then a late night at his friend, J.'s house.  They had a great time playing a barefoot dart gun battle around the yard.  J's  mom shared these photos with me:

          Spencer and his friends, J & E

Rachel's friend, C, came over and hung out here.  They had me take some pics of them with sunflowers they picked while on a walk:

                  Silly, beautiful girls!

Paul took Caitlin and Courtney to see the new Disney movie, Planes.  They had a great Daddy-Daughter Date!

Saturday we had a lazy morning until Spencer's football game.  Our whole family went to the game, with the kids all wearing BYU gear (same colors as Corner Canyon.)

This is a different game but I got it from a football mom yesterday and Spencer's (#91) right in the middle so I thought I'd post it.

I didn't bring my good camera and I was taking care of the toddlers so I didn't get any pics of the game but here's a few I snapped at the end.  Unfortunately, Spencer wouldn't pose at the so I snuck a picture of him with Courtney in the foreground.

Saturday evening, we went to a birthday dinner for my Dad and brother Brian with delicious Korean pulkogi, a family tradition.  Rachel didn't join us because she was invited to go to a Real MLS soccer game.

On Sunday, we had a typical stressful morning and then attended church.  I snapped this picture of the view of the mountain behind the church because I thought it was pretty:

Rachel went to her friend, Stephen's farewell.  She has gone to so many farewells lately for her swim teammates.

That afternoon, the kids had a good time in the yard:

I love the little wreaths the girls made for their hair!  So cute!

23 Years Together and This is our Life!

Last week began with the girls starting piano lessons again after taking a month-long break.  Unfortunately,  I forgot to have them practice during the previous week so I was sitting with both girls trying to teach them their songs right before piano lessons. . . big mistake!  It was awful, stressful and I'm sure the teacher was not thrilled with their performance at lessons.  By the time Rachel and I got to the baby shower for my sweet nieces, Camille and Melissa, I was frazzled.  At the shower, we were enjoying dinner and watching the pregnant ladies open their presents when someone told me Rachel was hit by a lacrosse ball in the face and her nose was bleeding.  Her nose looked a little swollen so I had my sisters-in-law, Lynda and Laurel, look at it as they are both nurses.  Neither of them felt like the nose was broken but we left then so she could ice it.  Lexie (my niece who hit the ball) felt bad but happily, Rachel's face looks completely normal now.

On Tuesday, we had a typical school day, then Spencer had football practice and Rachel went to young women after swim practice.

Wednesday after school was football and swimming.  On Thursday, I went to visit my Grandpa in the hospital because he had a stroke.  he's doing pretty well and is now in the rehab part of the hospital.  I also met my friend, Tammy, for lunch in Provo.  That afternoon, we had swim practice for Rachel and gymnastics for Caitlin and Courtney.  I love watching the girls at gymnastics because they have so much fun in the class.

Spencer had football practice on Friday and afterward, had a really exciting pep rally with a flour bomb war.  He came home happy and covered in flour.  That evening was supposed to be a daddy-daughter camp out.  However, we had lots severe thunderstorms and downpours so they decided to have a movie night at the church.  Paul, Caitlin and Courtney had a great time watching Brave and eating popcorn.  

Spencer, the babes and I ended up driving Rachel and her friend, Anela all the way to the away high school football game in Orem and just driving around until it was over to take them home.  Thankfully, our team won so the girls were glad they went.  Rachel also went to a friend's house afterward to "hang out."  Driving all that time wasn't ideal because the boys slept in the car so when we got home, they were wide awake until 1:30 and 2:00 a.m.  Argh!#^*%

Caitlin and Courtney got these little Teddy Bear chairs from Grandma Black and the boys keep sitting in them.  We think it's pretty cute!

Saturday, Spencer had a football game all afternoon.  When they finally got home, Paul and I went on a date for our 23rd anniversary.  We did sealings in the temple, attended the adult session of stake conference (it was excellent), and then out to dinner.  

It seems like this was yesterday but it was 23 years ago!

September has arrived!

Last week began the second week of school.  The kids got a little busier but so far so good.  Rachel started swim conditioning. The only problem is that her swim coach is now coaching Alta and Corner Canyon so all the practices are either at Alta or Dimple Dell (which is right next to Alta) so we are picking her up at school and driving her.  Ugh! Spencer continues with football which keeps him extremely busy with practices 3-5 times a week.  Caitlin and Courtney are taking gymnastics as well.  Add to that piano lessons, activity days, cub scouts and young women and you can see we're always on the go. 

I took this gorgeous shot while the boys were running around the trampoline and having a great time.  They have been busy getting into all kinds of trouble. The most amusing thing they did was climb on the kitchen counter and chuck apples around the kitchen like they were baseballs.  They are so adorable right now despite their busyness.

Little monkeys climbing on top of the patio table and proud of it!

Yes, he's inside the piano.  At the same time, Jake was climbing on the outside of the stairs.  Danger lurks in the most unexpected places.

Thursday, one of my best friends, Tammy Vallem came and spent the day with me.  She has now moved to Provo.  It was so wonderful to catch up.  I am so glad to have her near me again.  

Friday night, Paul and I drove up to Snowbird Ski Resort for dinner.  It was a great date even though we had a dust storm and rain so we couldn't see much of the beautiful views.

This weekend, my family organized a garage sale for Grandma Black.  She has moved into an assisted living facility and we needed to clear out her house so I spent Friday afternoon and much of Saturday helping with that.  Even though we sold TONS of stuff, there's still more but we're donating it to DI.  During the garage sale, three of my dear friends from Pennsylvania appeared unexpectedly! BJ (the mom) has moved to Utah and only lives a couple blocks away from Grandma's house.

Arianne, her baby, BJ, me and Aubree Weeks

Spencer had a football game but they got creamed so Paul took him and two of his football buddies to Classic for laser tagging.  They had a great time and they soon forgot their frustrations about the game.

On Saturday evening, Paul's brother, Greg, his wife, Laurel and their son, Aadien, came over to watch BYU stomp #15 Texas 40-21.  It was an awesome game!

Rachel went to her friend, Brayden's sweet sixteen party.  I can't believe Rachel is almost sixteen.  When she got asked to homecoming (she isn't going because she's not 16), it made me realize she really will be dating soon.  It kind of freaked me out a bit.  Oh well, children have to grow up even though we'd love to keep them small.  

Sunday, we went to my cousin, Karen Gottfredson Cox's son, Calvin's mission farewell and open house.  It was great to visit with their family.

1, 2, 3. . . whee!  Just missing Caitlin who was already in the car when I snapped this pic.  

Sunday night, we ate a delicious dinner at my parents' home. All in all, it was a busy but fun-filled week.

Lovin' Labor Day

On Labor Day, I decided to take the four oldest kids on a fun hike so after a little research, I discovered a really easy hike to Donut Falls.  It was absolutely gorgeous in the canyon.  One frustration was that the trailhead parking lot was full when we got there so we had to drive all the way back to the road and walk from there but it just added another 15 minutes to a quick hike and it was a pretty walk to the trailhead which we would have missed otherwise.  The only treacherous part of the hike was following the kids as they climbed up and down the rocks in the waterfall.  Descending the falls on wet, slippery, steep rocks was a little dicey.  Let's just say I got a little wet.  We all enjoyed it.  Even Spencer said it was a lot if fun!

When we returned home, Rachel went to a pool party at one of her friend's homes, Caitlin and Courtney went to Build-a-Bear with activity days & Spencer and Paul went to football practice.  Jake and Josh and I spent much of the afternoon driving kids around.  All in all, it was a great Labor Day!

Football Fun

Spencer began football this season.  He has really enjoyed the sport thus far despite having never played before.  Spencer plays center on defense and left guard on offense.  His head coach is in our ward.  One of his coaches is Luke Staley, who was a famous BYU runningback.  Staley also played for the Detroit Lions until an injury ended his pro career.  His son is on Spencer's team.  Spencer has made a bunch of friends through football and is learning a lot this season.  Yesterday was his first pre-season game and we all went to support him.  It was a lot of fun.  The teams tied.  We're proud of Spence and appreciate all his hard work practicing Monday through Friday for two plus hours.

The first week of school

We started school this week.  Caitlin and Courtney are in 3rd grade, Spencer's in 5th grade and Rachel is in 10th grade at the brand new high school.  Just like last year, early morning seminary's a killer.  The nice thing is that Rachel's new school is a lot closer.  I'll be glad when Rachel can drive herself to school.  

Spencer's very busy with football and absolutely loves it so far.  They have their first pre-season game on Saturday.  He has two boys from the neighborhood on the team so hopefully, they are becoming friends since they have practice everyday this week.  Both of them were over at our house last night.  

Joshua has been sick for a couple weeks but Monday night, his fever with Tylenol spiked to 104.4 degrees so I ran him to the ER.  After getting his fever down, they did a chest x-ray and saw the beginnings of pneumonia.  He's been on antibiotics since then and is definitely improving but his fever came back today so we'll see what the future holds.  I haven't been getting any sleep so I'm really exhausted.

The boys broke the baby gate completely a few days ago and since then my life has been more stressful because they are roaming the house, causing trouble wherever they are.  Last night, they climbed onto the kitchen counter and got into Rachel's makeup.  Fun stuff!  I thought they were awfully cute even with mascara on their faces.