Spring Break Day 8

Monday!
Today was a wonderful rainy day. We took the kids to go see Gnomeo and Juliette. It was a cute remake of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliette. I think it's good to do animated versions of plays that are extremely hard for kids to understand. When they get around to reading it in high school they will understand it better. Although, if they think they can just watch the movie and then do a report on it (like some people I know) they will likely get an F. Super cute idea and a good way to end Spring Break. Now on to planning summer vacation!

Spring Break Day 7

SUNDAY!
A well needed day of rest.

Spring Break Day 6

Saturday! Pecks are back!

Austin's team didn't win every game in Mesquite so they didn't continue into the finals but they were there to cheer Jaxon on. His first game started at 11am. So off we went. They were at the Little Valley baseball fields and when we got there we found Bob Lucero there cheering on Cinco (his son Phillip). So we had a great time going back and forth to watch both boys play amazing games that they both won. Jaxon is the catcher of his team and also a picture. Cinco is outfield and a picture of his team. They both did such a great job. But when it came to game 2 of the day they both came just short of winning. It was game #8 in 3 days. they should be very proud of themselves.

In this picture it goes Bob, Sam, Heather, Chase and Uncle Ken. Then in front is Sam's daughter Kennedy and Heather's daughter Jordyn. Bob's family was out running errands when we took this picture. Karen, Anna, Cinco and Sam were all heading to Disneyland right after the games so they were getting ready. What a fun week for them.


The good lookin kid with the silly grin is Austin.

It was really fun to spend time with family. This summer we have a family reunion up in American Fork Canyon with all the Pecks and Luceros. My side of the family only has a reunion every other year and it makes it possible for everyone to come. We are so excited to go. Everyone should be there. Even Chase our missionary will be there.

Spring Break Day 5

Friday! Today we went to the Rosenbrook Wildlife museum. It is a huge room full of stuffed animals. A guy that Joel went to school with, Jimmie Rosenbrook, and his Dad are the ones who own it. They have been all over the world and on many safaris to shoot the animals they had there. Some very weird ones and some common ones. Matty was loving it! She was making all sorts of noises and calling everything a doggy. It was cute. They had a childrens play room where our kids went nuts and also a bug room with some of the creepiest bugs you have ever seen. It also had a display of how taxidermy is done. Sick!

Spring Break Day 4

Thursday! Pecks were in town for a couple softball tournaments. Jared was coaching his son Jaxson's team and Sam and Shay were down for Austin's tournament. And of course Aunt Barb and Uncle Ken came too. So JoEllen's fam and my fam went to watch. They were at the baseball fields just 2 blocks south of my house. I'm so glad they came. We had nothing planned for the day and needed something cheap to do. Perfect! Plus getting to see cousins that you haven't seen in years is always a great thing to do. They are in mesquite today and will be back here tomorrow so we'll get to see them again.

Spring Break Day 3

Wednesday! Shayne and James got up early and went on a hike that James had wanted to do his entire life at Red Cliffs. I'm just glad they made it back alive. Then at 1:00 we took all the kids and met JoEllen and her kids at the dollar movie to see Yogi Bear. I'm glad we didn't pay full price. Oh well, definitely a Spring Break sort of thing.

Spring Break Day 2

Tuesday Shayne, Sophie, Kyson, Cameron Croft and I all went to the temple. Jennifer had some family names that needed to be done and we love to do them. Doing Baptisms for the Dead is a big deal for our family. We do not take it lightly and we make sure that we are worthy and ready to go at any time. We started out with doing them for Shayne's 12th birthday. It was a real eye opener to her when she was passing out invitations that not all of her friends could go. One friend asked her how she could go to the temple and she told her that she needed to get baptized first and her friend asked how. So, it has always been a special thing for us.

I take after my Mom when it comes to temple work. She says, "every person you help in the Temple will be there waiting for you when you die and will be on your side cheering you on and convincing the Lord how wonderful you are which is great because I'll need all the help I can get!" I feel the same way so I go as often as possible. After the Temple we went to lunch at Iceberg and then went to KMART to buy a Ping Pong table with our tax return. When we got home we found out that our neighbor kid had broken out window trying to get into our house. It was sad really because his family is not active and we have been trying to be super nice to them and I was nervous to have to go tattle on their son. They were great about it and a new window should be here soon. The ping pong table is a huge hit. Especially with the neighbors kids. That might have been a mistake.

Spring Break - Vegas Trip

Spring break started today. No school until the 22nd! So, JoEllen, Emily, Me, Shayne, Sophie and our friend Kellie and her daughter Katelyn all went to Vegas for a girls day out and to celebrate Emily's 8th birthday! First things first we went to eat at Circus Circus. Stuffed out selves silly and then went to Build-A-Bear (Emily and Sophie's favorite store) to stuff some animals. We looked ridiculous when we left the store. But we all had so much fun in there. The girls spent an hour trying on different outfits. Shayne wanted to buy a missionary outfit for her bear, Dimples, but they didn't have them in Vegas. Weird that they only have them in Provo?! We were quite a sight walking down the mall. Next we were going to go to the Sky Zone Trampoline Park. It's a huge building full of trampolines that are connected to each other so you can literately jump off the walls. But, JoEllen for got to see when they were open and for some strange reason they aren't open on Mondays. So we went to Mandalay Bay Shark Reef instead. It was awesome. We all got to pet the stingrays and see the sharks, turtles and they even had this thing like a sword fish but it was as big as the sharks and had a saw instead of a sword (sawfish). It was crazy. After, Emily wanted to go to the M&M factory and to watch the Bellagio Fountain but it was getting late and we didn't want JoEllen driving through the gorge while it was dark. So we headed home. It was an incredible day, 75 degrees and sunny. What a way to start off Spring Break!

Saturday Soccer

My parents where down this weekend to see Bill Cosby out at Tuacahn and while they were here they got to see 3 soccer games and be here for Emily's birthday. Sophie's team won 6-0 with Sophie scoring the second goal. Then she played goalie for the second half of the game. Ben's team lost. He was goalie for a little while. Here is a picture of him booting it. I was impressed how far it went. And Josh's team won 6-0 too. It was a lot of fun. Here is a picture of he and George warming up. After they were all over My Mom and Dad took us all out to eat to celebrate! We have 5 more games to go. Which means 5 more busy, but fun, Saturdays.

Volleyball Champs!

My Young Women took first in our stake volleyball this season and were moving on to region. So, Saturday morning we took our team out to Hurricane to compete. Sophie and I stayed through the first game and then had to leave because she had a soccer game at 11. Ben had his at noon and Josh's was at one. So, the whole time through Sophie's game we kept getting texts keeping us updated on volleyball. Half way through Ben's game I got a text saying we had won the entire tournament! Yes!!! It was awesome. I wish I could have seen it. I know they had a lot of fun doing it because this group of girls have fun doing everything.

Shayne's 1st Track Meet

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I have been waiting for this day for a long time. My sport in high school was track and field. I ran the 100, 200, 4x100 and threw the discus and shot put. I was never any good at the shot put but it was fun. As for the discus well, I rocked throwing the discus and last I checked our 4x100 relay team still holds the Lehi High School record. So, when Shayne said she was going to swim I was glad for her but sad for me. But things changed when we were looking at colleges and they asked her how high her vertical jump was and she was told that they would run her to death. Well, Shayne doesn't run and has never tried to do long jump or high jump so off to track she went. She started a week late because of swimming so she was behind but decided to try long jump, discus and sprinting. Her first track meet was the Desert Hills Invitational where there were all the schools from Delta on down. It was a big meet. Shayne started off with discus and since PV doesn't really have a throwing coach I have been teaching her. So, she got up and threw 67' the first time and 75' the second time and 71' the 3rd. I was really proud of how great she had done. It was her first meet after one week of training and her throws were just from the standing position not from a spin. So I was very impressed. Now if we can get that spin down she'll qualify for state (100'). Then Shayne ran over to run the 100 and a week or so ago she pulled a muscle in her thigh and 3/4 the way through her race she pulled it again. She wasn't very happy but she put ice on it and scratched out of the long jump and 200 and called it a day to go home and wrap it. She did a great job and should be very proud of herself. I love going to track meets! It's spring, the days are gorgeous and you get to relax and enjoy spending time with friends. They are much like swim meets - wait around until your turn, swim for 20 seconds and then wait for another hour to swim your next event, but track is outside where you can breathe fresh air. Much better.

Another busy Saturday!

Saturday started off with me teaching Shayne how to throw the discus. She is doing track this year and they do not have a coach for any of the throwing events so I am helping her out. We practiced for and hour and a half and then I dropped her off at home because she had Preference and their Day Date started at 9. I picked up the boys and Sophie and went to the Lake 2 Lake relay that Joel, Mike, John, Brian and James were doing. Kristal and Debra also ran on an all girls team and Kyle was on a mixed men and women's team. The Lake 2 Lake Relay goes from Gunlock Reservoir to Sand Hollow Reservoir. A little over 50 miles. There are 10 different legs averaging 5 miles each. Each teammate must do 2 legs. They can do them back to back or separate them. They started at 8am and 7 hours and 8 minutes later they finished. They placed 9th in the all men team category. It was amazing! I wish I could have followed them around all day to watch every leg but Sophie, Josh and Ben all had soccer games. So we went to Ivins park at 9:30 to see John hand off to Joel and Kyle hand off to his partner and then went down to the Santa Clara baseball fields to see Joel come in and hand off to Brian. Then I took the kids and hurried as fast as I could, without getting a ticket, down to soccer. Sophie and Ben's games where both at 11. I dropped them off and ran home to get them water bottles. Then we went to Sophie's game until half time and then ran down to see the last half of Ben's. Ben lost, Sophie won. Then we got back in the van and sped down to the race where Mike was running up to River Road to hand off to Joel. Shayne and her group where there eating lunch so they could see some of it and as Grandpa came running by Shayne started to run with him. He only had 100 feet left to go and looked like he could use some company. It was amazing to see all the support. Not only where there all of us Beckstrands wearing our Family t-shirts but all of the other teams were cheering everyone on. I drove up the road about a mile to cheer Joel as he passed us. Then went to the end of his leg to see him pass of to John. Then off to Josh's soccer game we went. He lost. But did a great job. I fixed it so that George could be on his team this year so it's really fun to see them practice and play together. By the time Josh's game was over the Beckstrand Men had finished. They were happy and exhausted.

Just when you thought I was done...an hour later I started doing Shayne's hair for the dance. I was just starting when Sophie asked me if I picked up the boutonniere. YIKES!!!! When was I supposed to do that? In between the soccer games!?! So I hurried and called my amazing sister Jan and she ran down to the store, bought everything she needed and came back to our house to make a gorgeous boutonniere. Thank goodness for family. I can always count on the help whenever I need it. A half an hour later Joel and I went to the Lake 2 Lake Banquet. It was a nice pasta dinner and slide show of the race with prizes for the top ten teams. Because of it and the fact that Preference was girls choice I wasn't able to get any pictures of Shayne and Jordan on there date. I know, crazy huh? I am hoping to get some from Jordan's Mom and I will post them as soon as I get them. Shayne had on a gorgeous long red dress that once again belongs to her aunt Ashley. Thanks, Ash! We love you! Overall, it was a great day and the weather was gorgeous! A perfect day to spend doing things you love with people you love.