Back to School

It was back to school this week, but not before Britton got his learner's permit.  I'm excited for him to get his real license a year from now, it is really going to help me out in the driving dept!

On Tuesday only the freshman and sophomores went to the high school for an orientation day and then it was Back to School night for Jenna and Korinne.

Korinne's new teacher Mr. Reynolds

Wednesday morning was the official start of school for everyone.

Britton, 9th Grade

We are the furthest neighborhood from the school that doesn't have a bus so Britton will be riding his bike to school while the weather is good.  Getting there is super easy, it's riding uphill for 1 mile with a backpack after a cross country workout that might be a bit of a challenge.

Jenna, 8th Grade

Korinne, 5th Grade

Korinne and Cara decided to be matchy matchy the first day of school.  Surprisingly they have never been in the same class at school, but that didn't stop them from wanting to be twinners.  They even had the same shoes!

Jameson doesn't start his preschool for 2 more weeks.  Fortunately, all of his friends in the cul-de-sac are in the same boat so they haven't skipped a beat and continue to play all day.

He is kind of a "ask forgiveness and not permission" kind of guy so it isn't uncommon for me to check on him and find he has taken matters into his own hands.  On this day I found Jameson and his friends in their swimming suits with the hose on making their own waterslide in the backyard. 

Saturday morning dawned very early for us.  Britton had to be to the school by 4:40 a.m. to catch the bus to the cross country invitational.  Races started at 8 a.m. in a location 2 hours away.  Adam, Jameson and I left around 5:50 a.m. and made it in plenty of time for Britton's 8:25 a.m. race.

There were 30 schools at the invitational and well over 200 boys were in the boys freshman/sophomore race.  That's a lot of kids!

Britton was very happy to run his first PR.  He is in the blue and green uniform.

We had to take him home early with us because he had a soccer game here locally that afternoon and the bus wasn't going to get home in time.  His soccer coach was impressed that even after running a race that morning he ran hard for all 90 minutes the game in the heat and didn't slow down.  Running XC has certainly helped his fitness level, but he is still plenty tired afterwards when he has 2 events so close together.

Yes, it's back in the saddle for us.

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!

RHS

On Tuesday they opened up the new high school to the public for the first time.  In the morning Britton and I went for student registration and that evening they had an open house for anyone in the community who wanted to see the new building.  Pepperidge Farm even provided free cookies for the event. What's an open house without a free cookie, right?

We thought it was beautiful and Britton is excited to be a part of the first freshman class of RHS.  Class of 2020 is in the house!

On Thursday evening Britton participated in his first cross country race. It was an alumni meet which I guess is a tradition at Mountain Crest. The entire team runs the home Mountain Crest course and alumni runners are invited to participate. The very large Mountain Crest XC team has now split in two. The boys in orange stayed at Mountain Crest, the rest of the boys went to Ridgeline (uniforms haven't come in yet).

You can see how large the high school team was when they were all together. Not only are there a lot of guys, but I think there are even more girls! When I was in high school we were small in number so it is going to take me awhile to get used to having a big team.

On Saturday the kids went to the county fair with Grandma and Grandpa.

Korinne got stung by a few bees on her hand and shoulder.  Here she is receiving some first aid.

 We didn't think much more about the stings Korinne's got on last night, but when she woke up this morning her hand was very swollen. I guess she has a little bit of an allergy to whatever stung her.

We believe in the 2nd amendment around this house!

I have no idea where the boys got these costumes, but they came in one day with camo and nerf guns so I had to stop and take a picture.

For our SOS service project this week we went to a big cemetery in town that has a lot of pine trees and picked up pinecones.  Apparently they have a lot of trouble keeping the grounds pinecone free and it was a good project for about 30 kids to do.  Britton has the pictures on his camera so I need to get them from him. We took a break from our service projects in July, but were back at it in August.

Ready, Set, Rio!

While Adam, Britton and Jenna were at pioneer trek the last week of July, Korinne, Jameson and I tried to do a few fun things like go to the Jump Zone.

They now have these zorb things that you can rent for 30 min which makes it even more fun.

Our family pioneers arrived safe and sound on Friday afternoon. 

Adam with a rare 4 days of stubble.

Everything went as planned and they had a fabulous experience. The final day they were able to do Rocky Ridge and trek 14 miles so it was a challenging but great day.  It was kind of cool that Britton and Jenna got to have their Dad along for the ride.

After they got home Adam and I had one day to figure out what we were going to do about a family car. We happened upon a 2012 Honda Odessey with 46,000 miles at the GMC dealership where Adam's friend from high school works. They had just received it on a trade-in and it had all of the bells and whistles our other van didn't have. I really loved my van so I was kind of dazzled by all of the upgrades. Since we are "buy a car once a decade" kind of people we decided to go ahead and get one that will see us through for many years to come.

 It has 8 seats, a DVD player, leather seats, a backup camera and many other features. We are all in love.

While we were car hunting Korinne and Jameson were having fun with the neighbors slip and sliding with a bubble machine. Best. combination. ever.

After a month with our cousin Abigail around it was time to say goodbye. She and Tiffany headed back to Texas on Tuesday morning.

Group hug!

This week it was back to normal with piano lessons, soccer, cello, YM/YW activities, ballroom dance. cross country and other summer activities. There is never a dull moment around here. We were most excited about the start of the 2016 summer Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  I love the Olympics and I love Brazil so I'm really excited about the next 2 weeks!

We watched the opening ceremonies together on Friday night. Not sure how I'm going to be able to watch as much Olympics as I would like, but having it all recorded so we can skip commercials and  parts that are going too long definitely helps!  Good thing it happens only once every 4 years.

One Adventure After Another

On Tuesday Jenna gathered a big group of friends to go and do baptisms at the temple before it closed for 3 weeks.  Afterwards they all headed to Herm's for a delicious breakfast.

On Wednesday Britton went on a piano performance tour.  He started by playing the piano and cello at the CV Assisted Living Center and then went to Sunshine Terrace to do the same program again for another group.

The residents really do love to hear music and Britton has quite a few beautiful hymn arrangements in his repertoire.

Our faithful home teacher Bro. Hale has had some major health setbacks in the last month or so. He went from being reasonably healthy and working in his garden every day to being completely immobile pretty much overnight. (He is on the far left in this picture)  He spent several weeks in the hospital after losing all feeling in his legs and is now a resident at Sunshine Terrace.  We love Brother Hale as he has done so much for our family since Adam became Bishop and he was assigned to be our home teacher.  He was very musical before all of his health problems and loves music so Britton went to play for him at the care center.  His wife Martha was thrilled to have us come and rounded up a few more residents to enjoy the music.

Just hearing the beautiful music attracted a few others and by the time Britton was done playing the audience had more than doubled.  We plan to go back often and add Jenna to the program.

We were scheduled to leave for the family reunion down south on Thursday night, but I came down with a doozy of a head cold the day before.  You know the cold where you are 100% miserable have aches all over and your throat is so raw it feels like hamburger meat? Yeah, that's the one I got. It was pretty bad so I decided on Thursday night to just sent everyone on without me since I was pretty miserable and didn't want to pass the germs along.  The new plan was to leave at 6 a.m. Friday morning but at 5:30 a.m. I realized that I had actually slept well (for the first time in 2 nights) and felt slightly better so I threw a bag together and went to the reunion after all.

The reunion for Adam's side of the family was held at The Holmstead Ranch.  It was literally the perfect location for the reunion and was made possible by Stephen who knows the owner and got us the cabins for half of their usual nightly rental price.

10 small cabins around a little lake.  There are 10 kids in Adam's family so each family had their own private space but everyone was able to gather in the large pavilion which usually costs $500 to rent, but the owner let us use it for free because it was Stephen's family.

The pavilion.

See what I mean about being the perfect venue?

Each cabin had a family room, kitchen, a bedroom loft and a sofa bed.

We were in charge of our own breakfast and lunches and then we all had dinner together at the Pavilion. The brown eyed kids were in charge of Friday night dinner and the blue eyed kids were in charge of dinner on Saturday. It worked out well.

The property had so many fun things to do and we had the place to ourselves.

Britton and Grampa playing horseshoes.  There was also a basketball court, a playground and some animals for the kids to see.

Korinne jumping from the dock.

The lake was fun for the teenagers and the little kids alike.  The young kids had a beach and shallow water and the older kids had kayaks, paddle boats and a dock to jump from.  Hours of entertainment for all!

Britton in the paddle boat, Jenna and Korinne in the shallow section.

Oh, and just in case all of this wasn't cool enough, each cabin got their own golf cart to get around the property.

Some of the older kids playing cards in front of a cabin.

I think there was the perfect mix of unstructured play time and scheduled activities.  On Saturday at 2 p.m. was the family carnival.  Uncle Ben was out in full force making his balloon creations and there were several activities and games for the kids.

Mario Kart anyone?

And then there was the golf cart parade.  Everyone decorated their golf carts and half of the kids were in the parade throwing out candy to the other half of the kids watching the parade.  Each of the carts went around about 3 or 4 times just for good measure.

Adam was clever and filled up one of our coolers with water and then he and Korinne squirted everyone with water like they do during hot July parades.  It was a hit.

The blue eyed kids, Kirsti and Kim, preparing dinner in the pavilion kitchen. 

Adam and Stephen were also helping but don't appear in the picture.

They had a large screen in the pavilion so that night we were able to stream a movie from Vidangel for all the little kids.

It was the most perfect, low stress family reunion.  We all hope that the owner will let us do it again in the future, but of course, there is no guarantee.  

Sunday morning we all checked out by 11:00 and headed in various directions.  We decided to go to church in St. George before heading home.  I wish I could say that this was the end of the adventures, but it was really only the start of the next one.  About 40 miles past Cedar City our car lost power. Adam was able to pull off the road onto an exit that was in the middle of nowhere and didn't have services, but at least we were off the busy highway.

By the time we stopped there was smoke coming out of both the exhaust and the front hood of the car.

 Fortunately we have roadside assistance on our car insurance so they dispatched a tow truck from Beaver 10 miles away.

We wondered how we were all going to fit in the cab of the tow truck, but the driver told us that we were perfectly fine to stay in our car while it was being towed.

Wheeeeeeee!

The kids decided that being pulled up the tow truck felt like the beginning of a ride at Lagoon.

Adam traveling on the freeway without hands on the wheel or keys in the ignition.  It felt weird to travel on top of the tow truck down the freeway.

You know that Chevron Station in Beaver with the big rocking chair?  Yeah, that's the final resting place of our van. The transmission went out and they gave us an estimate of $3800 and a few days to fix it.  Since the car is only worth about $1,500 and there are other things that need to be fixed as well, it doesn't make a lot of sense to put that much money in an old car with 171,000 miles on it.

So it was a Sunday night at 5 p.m. and we were stranded in Beaver without a car or the possibility of a rental car to get us home.  Once again Uncle Stephen came through for us.  He called a friend who has a cabin in Beaver and got permission for us to stay there that  night.  Then he drove up from St. George and took us from the Chevron to the cabin, stayed there with us overnight and then took  Adam to Cedar City in the morning to try and find a rental car to get us home.  What could have been a very miserable situation turned into quite a family adventure.

The cabin was nice and had a lot of stuff for the kids to do.

So I'm guessing the cabin belongs to Uncle Buck?? Just a thought.  How many cabins have a neon sign like this hanging around?

The kids loved this chess board and Britton, Stephen and Adam played some pool.

There were 2 TV's so everyone got to watch what they wanted while we waited for Adam to come back with a car on Monday morning.

As an added bonus the kids got to experience the joys of teeter-tottering.  These things have long since been taken out of public playgrounds because they are considered too dangerous, but back in the day we spent a lot of time on teeter-totters like this one.

Adam had a heck of a time trying to find a rental car that would fit all 6 of us and our luggage.  In the end there wasn't anything available in Cedar that was big enough so he opted for one that had enough cargo space for all of our stuff and then the kids had to squish in the back. It wasn't ideal, but at least we were on the road again.

Stephen saves the day!

Before leaving town we went back to say goodbye to our van.  We got this van 11 years ago before Korinne was even born and it has been such a great car for all of these years.

What are we going to do with it? We don't know yet. We may just have to scrap it, but it will have to sit in this parking lot until we figure it out.

The final goodbye.  

This was supposed to be the kids car in a year, but now Britton will never know the joys of driving the van.

Somehow the kids all managed to get a little shut-eye on the way home. Looks comfy, doesn't it?

We finally made it home a day late at 4:30 p.m.  Adam, Britton and Jenna were scheduled to leave on Pioneer Trek at 4:45 the next morning.  In fact we were going home from the reunion a bit early just so we would have a full day to get ready for Trek, so losing most of the day made Monday night a bit stressful.  We had a LOT to do and not a lot of time to do it.  The house looked like a bomb had exploded as we unloaded the car and got 3 people ready for Trek simultaneously.  We still had things to get at the store and items to locate so it was a crazy night, but somehow they were all ready to go at 4:45 the next morning.

It hadn't even started getting light when they drove off for their next adventure.  They get back on Friday afternoon and then we will have 1 1/2 days to figure out what to do about a car.  See, the adventures never end around here! :-)