Sweet 16!

Hard to believe that my oldest is now 16! I guess that means Paul and I have to grow up now too- Dang! We didn't plan it this way but he had a pretty cool day for his 16th b-day: 1-11-11. Tanner was ready and got his license on his birthday. Passed the test on the first try, no problem. He now has the privilege of driving the purple mazda. It really is blue, or started out that way at least, but now it is so old the paint color has changed a bit. But that thing runs great so he is ok with it. At least he has wheels and I don't have to be his taxi anymore! He is a good driver so I am trying not to worry too much. For his birthday party we celebrated with his friend Reid who's birthday is a few days before Tanner's. They took a bunch of their friends to a BYU basketball game, ate at Tanner's favorite- Costa Vida, and then came back here for cake and sting ping. If you don't know what that is, I guess you are not a 16 year old boy!

Holidays

The holidays are one of my favorite times of the year. We stayed home this year for all of it and enjoyed doing stuff around here with the fam. Nice and mellow! Thanksgiving was at our house and we had Rodney and Rona here to visit. Rona even joined us for the Black Friday shopping trip. Not the 5 am craziness- just 7. I've decided that's the best time to do it. All the super early birds are done but the regular shoppers aren't out in full force yet. We got plenty of good deals!

Christmas morning was exciting for we finally got a ping pong table! We love christmas day because we stay home and play all day! No one usually even gets out of their pjs, and there is plenty of candy to go around.

During the break from school we played with the cousins a lot. This is wally ball at the fitness center. We also went to Trafalga and had a day of skiing. Mostly we just enjoyed not having to get up early for school every day.

The girls favorite present was this CD. Taylor was our constant companion during the break and we are all well acquainted with her now. At least it's not Justin Bieber. Tanner never would have allowed that!

Spanish Dancer

Maddie is our third child to go through the Spanish Immersion program at our elementary school. I think it is actually quite amazing. She is only in third grade and when I go in her class the teacher is speaking Spanish to the kids almost exclusively. Even crazier is that the kids answer her back in Spanish also and they really do understand. One of the fun things that they do every year is a Dance Festival. Each class chooses a different cultural dance and they practice and perform for the parents and then the rest of the school. It is a lot of fun for the kids and Maddie was super excited this year. Her class did the Mexican Hat dance and the best part is the huge skirts that the girls get to flip around. Each of my kids has now done this dance so I could probably perform it, but somehow it is still fun to watch.

Halloween

Halloween is a changin' at our house. With two older kids who don't dress up or trick or treat I feel like our days are numbered to enjoy this fun holiday. We had one little lone girl to go around the neighborhood with, well along with her friends. Maddie was off by herself with other friends. Kenzie was still excited for all the candy. The best part of all was that the girls came home and shared their candy with everyone and it was all gone by the end of the weekend- YES! I really don't enjoy it when the candy sticks around for weeks. For one reason, I am then continually tempted to nibble on it, and also the wrappers that are left all over the house drive me insane. That pumpkin in the picture was grown in our garden. It was quite impressive and monstrous!

Paul's big adventure

Paul got the great opportunity to go to the Grand Canyon again- that's twice in one year, lucky guy! This trip was a run from rim to rim. They started on the North rim and ran/hiked down to the bottom and then back up to the South rim. The best part was was that a little 4 seater plane picked them up there and brought them home. He was back home by 8 that night! He loved every minute of it and took lots of gorgeous pictures. What an amazing area of our beautiful world!

Following in her daddy's footsteps

Maddie was up for a challenge this year so we were on the lookout for a kids triathlon. At the end of August there was a great little race right here locally and they had a short kids version. She was ready to go! It was a lot of fun for her. The swim was easy for her since she had done swim team in the summer and the bike and run were very short. The hardest part was the transitions since she had never done this before, but next year she has learned some tricks- like wearing no socks to get your shoes on faster. Maybe Paul will have a race partner in a few years.

Catching up with the end of summer

I have fallen behind in keeping this up to date. Time seems to fly these days. So here are some happenings from the end of summer...


Maddie decided she wanted to learn to play guitar so she bought herself one with some money she had earned. She took a class this summer and had a little recital. She now has a new skill!

My biggest girl is now officially a teenager. She had a family party this year so it was low key. She is such a great girl, and so pretty!


We also ended the summer with a family camping trip to Mirror Lake. It was pretty chilly the first night but we were prepared with some warmer clothes and everyone made it and the next day was beautiful. We had some nice hikes and caught some fish.
Kylie caught one too. Can you see the excitement? Next up-gutting it, and she actually did it. We found a good spot. I think we actually got just about everyone to try the fish and it was delicious!

Fun camping with the cousins!

The alpine slide in Park City at the Olympic Village. We had such a fun day- we also did the zipline and watched the skiers practice their jumps into a pool.

Here we are pretending to be olympic skiers waiting for our turn to go down the high jump. It is super high. I felt vertigo just standing there and looking down.



At the end of July we went up to Idaho for the Spudman triathlon. Paul and his brother Blaine and a bunch of our friends were in it and the rest of us cheered them on. Tanner ran to help his friend and decided next year he would do the whole thing. The highlight for the kids was jumping off the docks and swimming in the river. This year will be memorable, in a bad way, because our friend Marci fell off her bike and broke her pelvis and banged herself up good. Not fun for her.

Kylie had a lucky day on the 24th of July. In her swim meet she set a new record for the city swim team in her age division- it was so exciting! Then we went to a city festival where Kylie won a brand new bike! There were about 800 ping pong balls dropped out of a helicopter and Kylie got the lucky number on hers. She picked out a cute retro cruiser- lucky girl!

July, not so adventureous

Kylie and Maddie decided to be on the city swim team again this summer so they swim for an hour every weekday in June and July. They also have a few swim meets and they are getting good with those strokes.



We started off July with lots of family visiting. We had a great time with all the cousins! We took everyone to Lagoon for more roller coasters and water slides. What a fun, but exhausting day! The power went out and most of the rides didn't work for a few hours so we actually got the chance to go back for free later in the month. My kids were not sad about that. Paul on the other hand was ok to miss the return trip.



4th of July around here is big time celebration. We are patriotic for sure! And this year with the 4th on a Sunday we had 3 days of celebrating. First up was the balloon festival. This morning looked really nice but they actually couldn't take off because of winds up high. That was too bad but they still looked pretty!

Then there were the fireworks. Another great show as usual! We were watching from a park and the kids were playing with sparklers. I was playing with the new camera.

Then there is the freedom run and the big parade. Always a fun early morning! Maddie ran the 1 mile. Tanner, Grandpa, and Aunt Shelly ran the 5K, and Paul ran the 10K. The rest of us cheered. Other fun events with the family were Toy Story 3 with all the kids (great show), picnic up the canyon, big girls movie to see Eclipse (cute werewolves), and lots of fun cousin time!

We also have gone to plenty of baseball and softball games this summer. Kylie and her friend Mikayla were on the Lookouts softball and Tanner played on the high school summer league JV team.

My baby girl is 6! Kenzie's favorite day in July is the 23rd because she gets to party! This year was a family party year so we had family over for some cupcakes and ice cream. Her favorite present was gymnastics lessons that she will start in August but she got lots of other fun things too.

Adventures in summer-land

Our first month of summer has been pretty full. Here is what has been going on since the kids brought home their backpacks for the last time with shouts of joy.

We took a trip to California to visit my family. We have to go to the beach while we are there- it is a requirement! I guess this wave was bigger then the rest and surprised everyone while I was taking the picture. We got home from this trip and I realized I was not in a single picture. I was there, really.

Instead of Mickey's house (which we have visited plenty), we decided to go to Magic Mountain for a change of pace. This was more fun for us older kids who like something a little spicier then the teacups. Kenzie would have been happier at the Happiest Place on Earth, but she was a good sport and got to have her fill of all the kiddie rides, and see super heroes! Tanner and Kylie got their fill of big coasters. Wow, they have a lot at this park. We didn't even get to all of them because our stomachs just couldn't take it.

After the CA trip Paul ran his big 50 mile race. This was the second year he has done this and I am still questioning his sanity, but he made it and this picture proves he was still walking after 12 hours on the trails!

Our next adventure was the Grand Canyon. We hiked down to the area called Havasupai, which is an Indian reservation inside the Canyon with natural springs and beautiful waterfalls. It was so amazing. We went with Paul's dad and brother Kendal and his wife Shannon. Our little girls stayed home with Grandma. The ten mile hike in and out was too much for them! We hiked down in and camped 2 nights before making the trek back out. This is our group ready to hike down early in the morning after spending the night in the parking lot at the top- not my favorite part of the trip!

This is Mooney falls- just one of the gorgeous falls to see down there. The hike from our camp to get to this point was straight down a cliff in parts- freaky. I was praying the chains would hold. So worth it though.

Tanner jumping from one of the falls by our camp. We figured this was about 35 feet- he loved it. I endured the watching of it. But no bones were broken. This was an amazing trip. We are so grateful to our friend David for planning it and letting us join his group!


After a fast day turn around from the Grand Canyon (in which many loads of laundry were washed), Kylie and I were off to our church Young Women's girls camp. Kylie had been last year but this was my first time to go as a leader. We had tons of fun and it was actually quite luxurious after our backpacking adventure, to have a cabin and cots to sleep in and flushing potties. Though there was no hot water and this is on one of the last days with no showers. So I think we look pretty good taking that into consideration. Our camp color was pink and yes I am wearing pearls- it went with our theme! I don't usually camp with jewelry but at girls camp it's a little more feminine.

Paul's last big adventure for June was the Wasatch Back Relay Race. It is a team of 12 (this is the 6 people in his van) and they take turns running on a 190 mile course. It takes them about 24 hours. Last year I drove the van which was a lot of fun, but this year I was still at camp so I missed out on the all night party! Their calves say COD for Crack O' Dawners (team name) and 3 peat because they are serious! Their team had won their division (co-ed submasters, meaning everyone on the team is at least 30 years old) for the last 2 years and they were going for a 3peat. And they won it again. They are crazy good. 1st in their division and 3rd out of 600+ co-ed teams! There were something like 1000 teams this year in the race, it has gotten huge. And yes they are already signed up for next year.
So you can see our June was pretty jam packed and this is a long post! I will report on the rest of our summer later. It will be shorter because there is a lot less happening from here on out!

Global Warming, say what?!

This is why I really question the validity of global warming. This picture is from today. Yes, that would be May 24th. And that is actual snow falling steadily for hours. Kenzie is excited to wear her snow boots to school. Sigh...