Fall Fun

Fall is such a crazy time of year.  Throw on top of all the birthdays, holidays, and sports a huge house remodeling project and it seemed downright tumultuous.  Somehow we survived and everyone got where they needed to be most of the time.  Here are a few highlights.

Back to school time already!  Four kids in four different schools. Andrew's first day in high school, Jared's first day in junior high, Kailtyn's first day of 4th grade and Skyler's first day of preschool.  Yes, that means I actually get four whole hours to myself every week.  Sending my second child to junior high was a bit easier.  I mean, I knew Andrew had survived.  I still couldn't help feeling nervous all day for him.  Getting a locker open and finding his way around to all his classes for the first time is a big deal!  He came home happy though and loves the new change, well as much as a kid can love school.  Andrew handled switching to high school with ease.  The bigger building didn't scare him at all and I think it helped that he ran on the cross country and track team there last year and already felt a bit at home there.

Andrew had a terrific cross country season.  He ran on the varsity team in most of his races.  Bob Firman was one of the few races that he ran JV and he was able to finish in the top 20 of his race against dozens of schools from several states.  His team won the City County Meet and Region.  He was able to end his season with a huge PR at the Nike Regional meet in Phoenix running the 5k course in 16:22.

We enjoyed one last summer like day on Labor Day.  My parents came with us to Trial Lake.  We enjoyed a day of fishing, rafting on the lake, picnicing, and just sitting by the lake enjoying the scenery.

We were excited to find out that ECU where Jason did his fellowship training was playing football at BYU this year.  Jason lived ECU sports when he was at his fellowship on the sideline at every home sporting event.  The game happened to be on Jared's birthday.  I thought that was fitting because Jared absolutely adored the ECU football players when we lived in North Carolina.  He was only three years old at the time and he sure looked up to those players.  We had never been to BYU stadium since we aren't BYU fans.  We had fun sitting with the purple section in the corner and cheering on the Pirates.  We met a lot of other local Pirate fans that had lived in Greenville at sometime and were now living in Utah.  There weren't a ton of us but we made a lot of noise for how many of us were there.  In the end they lost the game but they gave us an exciting game to watch right to the end.  Jason enjoyed seeing a few of the doctors that he worked with that still travel with the team.

Southern Utah University was hosting the Big Sky Cross Country Championship this year and Coach Houle, our college coach who is still coaching there, put together an alumni weekend.  It was a fun reunion seeing old friends and cheering on the teams at the meet.  It was a tough weekend to travel since the meet was being held on Halloween but we were so glad we made the trip.  On Friday Jason and I drove to Cedar City.  We toured all the new facilities and went to the course to run with the team.  Friday night they held a dinner for all the alumni.  It was great to catch up with teammates we hadn't seen in years.  In the morning we met up with old teammates to run.  We ended up with two groups, one fast and long and the other not quite so fast.  I ended up in the fast and long group (all men except me).  It was not a leisurely pace and I was trying not to go too hard since I had a race the next week.  It was fun to run some old trails although I was disappointed to find that some of our old dirt trails had been paved.  The meet was a lot of fun to watch.  It is hard to believe it's been 16 years since we left.  I was joking with most of the girls on the team that they were babies when I ran there (and they really were!)  SUU's men's team won the meet and Weber State won the women's race.  It was fun cheering on our current coach, Paul Pilkington's team as well.  Some of my best memories from college were from my experiences running on the team.  It was so fun to relive some of those memories.  Coach Houle had made t-shirts for all of the alumni.  He recreated the shirt from the first year he coached at SUU (the year before Jason started) and we also received one of the current team shirts.  All the alumni seemed to really like the retro shirt.  That's what we all showed up wearing to cheer the team on that morning.

Skyler had a fun preschool fieldtrip to Black Island Farm.  We went for a hayride and he got to pick out his own pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.  I don't know if he was more excited about the tractor pulling the wagon or all the pumpkins.  He was so excited whenever we went to the store in the fall and saw pumpkins.  He would point to them and exclaim, "Halloween!!"  He was in heaven picking out his very own pumpkin from the patch.  He also had fun seeing all the farm animals.

Jared and Kaitlyn enjoyed playing in the ensemble festival with their friends, Maxwell and Ruth Larsen.  It took lots of practice learning how to play with another person but both pairs did a great job on their duets!  I love that my kids have such wonderful friends!

Here are a lot of random pictures.  I've gotten so far behind on blogging and when I look at these pictures I think no wonder!  We have been so busy!! Kaitlyn and I enjoyed our annual girls' morning at Breakfast with a Witch at Gardner Village with Nancy and Jana and her girls.  After hours (they now require 50+) of practicing driving with me all summer and drivers ed Andrew got his driver's licence!  I felt this was a bit of an achievement on my part for surviving teaching a teenager to drive!  Since most of his driving practice came before drivers ed that meant I did a lot of the teaching.  Jared had another fun football season with the Wildcats.  I went to find Skyler's blanket one night before tucking him in bed and came back to find him kneeling by his bed praying.  It is one of those moments where after a hard day you feel like maybe something you are trying to teach your kids is sinking in!  Oh, and if that isn't enough with the countdown on for the Olympic Trials I've been running miles after miles.  It's quite the juggling act fitting it all in!

We rushed home from our trip to Cedar City just in time to carve some pumpkins, eat some dinner and take the kids trick-or-treating.  Halloween is one of those things you just can't miss with your kids.  Jared and Andrew both took off to hang out with their friends but Jason still had Skyler and Kaitlyn to take around the neighborhood begging for treats.  They came home after an hour or so with bags too heavy to carry.

Jason had the opportunity to do an interview with channel 2 news on skiing safety.  He thought it was being recorded and shown later but he arrived at the studio just a few minutes before his interview and found out it was live!  He called to let me know that it was live but I was stuck in line at Costco and missed it.  Luckily we could catch it later on the internet.  Here's the link.  He did a great job!

With all the fun things going on we've had our share of challenges too.  IHC switched computer systems and it meant a lot more time and stress for Jason at work this fall.  Some days it felt a lot like residency for me with the long days at the hospital.  A few months later we are glad that things are starting to improve.  Jason also ended up in an ICU bed one weekend.  We had some scary moments with a lot of worry but he had a wonderful team of doctors and nurses caring for him and we were blessed that they were able to find a bleeding bronchial artery and were able to stop the bleeding and we are hopeful that he won't have any more problems with it.  Andrew ended up needing surgery as well and we are hoping that our  family can avoid the hospital a lot more in the coming months.

Piano Recital, Skyler turned 18 Months, and a Wrecked Car

I'm finally getting around to writing about December and it's almost the end of January.  Kaitlyn performed in her first piano recital.  She was really nervous but did a great job.  The Christmas recital is always so fun in spite of the busy time of year.

Just before we were walking out the door for the recital it was the typical craziness of getting ready.  Everyone is asking where their pants, shoes, ect. are.  I told the boys their pants were in the dryer.  When they came back downstairs Andrew said, "Mom, I think you shrunk my pants in the dryer."

Then Grandpa said, "I think you and Jared have on the wrong pants!"

In December Skyler was 18 months old. He's really changing from a baby into a little boy right before our eyes.  He was 21 1/2 pounds and finally back on the growth chart at 3rd percentile.  

Do these two look like brothers or what?

Nap time with his blankets.

Skyler loves to smile for the camera now.

One day Kaitlyn wanted to help me with some Christmas baking.

I would love to say it was all picture perfect but she decided Skyler needed to wear her apron.  He didn't appreciate that so much.

A few days before Christmas, I thought I was almost ready.  The kids had just finished their last day of school and we hurried out to pick up a few last minute things so we could enjoy the holiday break.  Our outing turned out not so good when a driver in a  parking lot wasn't looking where he was going and ran into us.  It certainly wasn't the way I wanted to start the holiday break. But aside from being annoying and time consuming no one was hurt and after a few weeks in the shop my car looked as good as new.

Piano Recital

Andrew and Jared had their Christmas Piano Recital at the Eccles Art Center again this year.  It's my favorite place to watch them play.  The building is beautiful at Christmas time and I love the full size Steinway they get to play on!  Both of them were a little disappointed that they made a few mistakes but it takes a lot of courage to get up and play in front of a room full of people.  Watching them play in their recitals is pay off for all the days it is so hard to get them to practice!  They have come so far in a year and a half and I have to remind myself on the days when practicing ends in tears that it is all worth it!

Here they are with their teacher Sharyl Tucker.

Spring

Spring is a busy time of year when it seems there is barely time to catch our breath between activities.  Add to that, being in my last trimester of pregnancy and there hasn't been any time or energy to keep up on things like blogging.  So here's an attempt to cover a few highlights of the last couple months.

The kids always love the school 5K fundraiser.  Andrew was determined to beat all his classmates in his age group this year.  He trained hard and even though he moved up to a harder age group this year he still placed 3rd only getting beaten by a couple of older Jr. High kids.  Jared decided to give the 5K a try for the first time this year.  Jason ran with him and he loved out sprinting dad at the end!  Kaitlyn was supposed to walk/jog the mile with me but as soon as she got to the downhill in the second half she took off.  I couldn't catch up to her until the end!

Kaitlyn had her spring dance recital.  Here's a picture of her with her teacher Brynn, who she adores!  She was super cute and wasn't a bit shy about being on stage in front of everyone!

Jason ran the Ogden Marathon this year.  He spent all winter training hard with our coach and was in great shape.  We went up to Ogden Valley to watch him on the first half of the course.

We got stuck in traffic on the way back from Huntsville and just missed him at the finish.  The kids were really disappointed not to see him finish.  He was 17th place and ran 2:54:02!  The kids were amazed though when we got to the point we had to turn around in Huntsville and they saw the thousands of runners that stretched for miles behind him.  It really put it into perspective how fast that really is!

The boys had their spring piano recital.  It was fun to see how far they have both come in almost a year since they started!  They both received awards from their piano teacher for their performances at federation and gold medals for the Olympics program she has been doing.

Kaitlyn finished up her year of kindergarten.  It is such a fun age that I am always sad to see it end.  They had a cute graduation party for her class.

 Here she is with her teacher Mr. Miehlke.

Spring is super busy with sports...soccer, baseball, and track.  Unfortunately I've been terrible at bringing the camera but here's a picture of Kaitlyn in one of her t-ball games.