Fifteen

Britton's soccer team usually plays in the Strikers Cup the week before school starts. He had games on Tuesday and Thursday. 

A double header on Thursday which made for a long day.  Playing in this tournament meant he had to miss his first Cross Country Invitational on Thursday in SLC.  Fortunately this is the only direct conflict he will have between the two sports this season which is a miracle, really, since they are both so involved and time consuming.

Tuesday night was one of the nights they open up the refugee garden for service volunteers to help with weeding.  Adam, Britton and Jenna went to mutual, but Korinne, Jameson and I participated in the SOS service project with the rest of our neighborhood group.

Jameson pulling some weeds.

We were able to see a few refugees working in the garden as well.  They do a lot of work and then benefit from the produce when it's harvested.

It think this was our last SOS project for the summer.  It's been a great summer of service for the kids.

Wednesday night was the Ridgeline Cross Country opening social which is a dinner at a park for all runners and their parents.

Here is a picture of the boys team.  The girls team is slightly larger, but I didn't get a picture since we had to leave  a big early.  The coaches gave us the race schedule and the kids were able to vote for their team captains.  They also did the awards for the kids who made the 300 mile club and the 500 mile club with their summer running.

Our neighbors borrowed 2 Segways from an Uncle for the week. The kids sure had a lot of fun cruising around the neighborhood with them.  They even doubled up when someone was already on the other one.

Korinne and Cara

Adam and I even got to try them out.

I didn't realize they are controlled exclusively by the way you lean.  If you want to go you lean forward, if you want to stop you lean back.  Turning is also done by leaning. It took me a bit to get used to it, but it was really cool.  Too bad they are so expensive, it would be perfect for the kids to get home from school since we live at the top of a long, steep hill.

On Saturday Britton turned 15 years old.  To celebrate we decided to do something we haven't even done before and we went and floated down the Oneida Narrows in tubes.  Our friends even let us borrow all of their gear to do it!

The Birthday Boy.

It was the last Saturday before school starts so it was kind of our last summer hurrah.

We had two 2-person tubes and a single tube.  Adam, Jameson and I started out on one, Jenna and Korinne were in the other and Britton went solo in the single. We tried to stay together as much as we could, but it wasn't easy because the weight difference made it so we floated at different speeds.

I didn't take my phone on the river because I didn't want it to get wet, but here is a picture of the river once we got out.  Jameson was a little nervous at first and there were a few moments he wasn't sure he liked it, but at other times he really seemed to enjoy it. 

To float the narrows you have to take 2 cars, one to get you to the start, and another to leave at the finish.  It takes about 2 hours to float and since it was a beautiful Saturday we had quite a bit of company on the river.  The first hour or so is pretty calm and then you hit some mild rapids during the last 30 minutes.  When Adam, Jameson and I hit the rapids (or the "rabbits" as Jameson called them) we were quite a bit ahead of the girls and Britton.  I started to get nervous after awhile because we couldn't see them and there wasn't a place for us to stop and wait and see how they were faring with the rough water.  Finally we found a place to "pull over" and did so.  A few minutes later we saw Korinne floating by herself in the double tube without a paddle. "Korinne, where is Jenna?!"  We could see she was scared and didn't know what to do. "She fell out!" She yelled back.  WHAT?!?  Adam got out of the river and started running along the bank to see if he could see any sign of Jenna.  I stayed with Jameson and helped Korinne get to where we were.  I was trying to decide how much I should be panicking when I finally got a glimpse of both Britton and Jenna coming down the river in the single tube with 2 paddles laughing and having a great time.  Apparently Jenna fell out of the tube and onto a big rock when she was trying to paddle around it.  Britton saw the whole thing happen and had to make a decision, save the paddle that was floating away or go to Jenna.  Seeing that Jenna was safe on a big rock he went after the paddle for which I was VERY grateful because it was a borrowed paddle and it would not have been good for us to lose it!  Once Britton had the paddle he moved to a calm and shallow place in the river and then Jenna got in the water and floating down to where he was. Boy was I glad Britton was there to save the day!  Korinne decided that she wanted to be with an adult after this little adventure so we all swapped tubes.  Adam went with Jameson and Korinne, Britton and Jenna stayed together and I went solo in the single.  Once we finished and were in our car Jameson kept saying, "When are we going to float the river again?" only to respond a minute later with, "I never want to do that again."  Even when it was all said and done he couldn't decide if he loved it or hated it.

We stopped in Preston for dinner and Britton selected Big J's of Napoleon Dynamite fame.  It is a Mom and Pop fast food restaurant that offers a variety of foods like tator tots and baked potatoes along with the usual hamburgers and fries.

I got such a kick out of the décor.  You could tell it was locally owned and operated. "We're so glad you're here!"

Check out all of the county fair decorations in between the 2 doors.

Oh yeah, and the fresh raspberry shakes were DELICIOUS.

Back at the house it was time for Britton to open his presents.

He got tickets to see a Real Salt Lake game, scripture marking pencils, some school sweats and 5 lbs of sugar candy pumpkins.

He loves these stupid pumpkins and was more than pleased with his haul.

We aren't really cake people, but Britton decided he might be an ice cream cake kind of person. It was delish.

Early Sunday morning we got up and left for Tanner's "missionary opportunity to speak".  We were on the road by 7:50 a.m. to make it to the 11:00 a.m. meeting.

Tanner is the first missionary to leave from my side of the family.  He will be serving in Pennsylvania.  We stayed for the block meetings and then had a lovely lunch at Heather's house. It was Grandpa's birthday so Grandma made a super yummy coconut/pineapple cake to celebrate Britton, Grandpa and Heather's Mother-in-law's special day. 

We hung around for awhile and then left to go home around 6 p.m.  It was fun to share this special day with family. Good luck Tanner!