Presidents Day in Zion

Today was GORGEOUS!  We all went up to the Zion lodge and had lunch on the lawn and played for an hour or so.  We were practically the only ones in the entire park.  It was the perfect day to go.  We had the entire lawn to ourselves for soccer, football, Frisbee and whiffleball and to just lay on the blankets and soak up the sun.

JoEllen was taking a picture of the 3 of us and Matty kept getting in the way.

Mandy had to finally help her out.

All that for this.  It was supposed to be more for the cool tree and mountainside.

Here are all the kids getting ready to hike.

  We had hoped to hike to the top of the Emerald pools but it was closed at the lower pools because of falling ice.  So, decided to hike up to the Canyon Overlook at the top of the Mt Carmel tunnel and these are the incredible pictures we took.

Not a cloud in the sky!

GROUP SHOT!

 The kids had fun climbing over everything and the parents all had anxiety because of the cliffs and sudden drop offs.  Probably not one we'll do again soon but fun still the same.  The weather was impeccable.  Definitely a great was to spend President's Day.

DIXIE STATE UNIVERSITY!

Yep that's right! UNIVERSITY!  Governor Gary Herbert signed it in front of my own eyes.  It was awesome.  Saturday the college had a free breakfast from 7-9am, which was amazing, then they had the signing of the bill into a law.  It was awesome!  They held it in the foyer of the Eccles Fine Arts Building so you could see the D on the mountain. I am so glad I was able to take my kids and have them witness this historic occasion.  Even though I didn't grow up here and never attended Dixie, JoEllen, and the all of the Wells kids did and Joel, Brian and John did and I feel like it is a part of me and not necessarily my heritage but everyone around me and my children's.  So I feel a great sense of pride going to anything that has to do with Dixie College and the wonderful historic background that it has.

Ben and his Breakfast.  His favorite food.

You don't want to get in his way when he's eating.

Casey Hobson getting ready to serve up a Ginormous red velvet celebration cake.

All of the students crowding in to see it happen.

Governor Herbert telling us how with the help of our local government leaders they were able to word the bill in such a way that it could be signed today instead of waiting until after the year was over.

THE OFFICIAL SIGNING!

President Stephen D. Nadauld and his wife Margaret.  How lucky we are to have him as the President of DSU!

Carter Baseball

   We love when the Peck's come down for baseball.  This weekend Melissa, Jason, Kolton, Chase and Laynee came down because Chase had a tournament. He's number 12.  I live vicariously through them.  I always wanted a son to be extremely into baseball.  Sadly I will never get that.  Josh is a golfer, Ben likes a little (very little) of every sport and David likes Football, Basketball and Soccer.  So I absolutely love it when the Carters, Clarks and Pecks come down to play.  When Joel and I were dating he was on 3 different softball teams and was an umpire for the city for whatever games they needed.  I was in LOVE!  Then we got married and basketball season started.  That's a whole different blog.

   Chase's team made it all the way to the finals against a Snow Canyon team that had about 5 kids on it that we knew.  So we were cheering super hard for Chase team, Clutch.  Right as the game was getting started JoEllen showed up and brought dinner!  She's the best.  Pizza, bread and drinks for everyone. 

 Since it was the final game it didn't have a time limit so it was cold and dark when it was over.  It was 7 innings and we ended up losing by 1 point.  It was sad but an amazing day.  Here is Chase getting his runner up trophy which is still pretty cool.

Brescia's wedding

This is Brescia Zachery.  She and Shayne work together at the pool.  They became best friends the middle of her Senior year.  For Shayne's grad gift we sent the 2 of them to Disneyland.  It was the first time she had ever been there.  Shayne thought is was awesome to see it through a first timers eyes.

  Brescia got married on Friday to JD Quinn.  They are 2 peas in a pod.  He is a local kid from the St. George East Stake.  Brescia is from Heber where her closest neighbor lived 5 miles away.  The first burrito she had was at our house.  She had a lot of firsts being here.  It was really good for her to move away from home.

 Since Shayne had already gone through the temple she was able to be there for her wedding.  It was very nice.  I know that Brescia is very glad it's over.  She was pretty stressed out.  I told that the only part of a wedding that matters is the ceremony itself.  The rest is just fluff. 

 

I'm so glad to see two good friends that both made great celestial decisions in life and were there to lift each other up and support one another.  That's what friends are for.

Number 9!

 Ben turned 9!  We always take the birthday kid out for dinner.  It's a tradition Mike and Elaine started that we love and carried on.  This year Sophie and Shayne were both gone so Ben asked if Josh and David could come too.  So it was us and the boys at Ben's favorite place, "Chuck-A-Rama."  He actually likes Golden Corral better but Joel talked him into "Up-Chuck" because he likes to make Rootbeer floats and you can't get your own drinks at Golden Corral.  Anyway, it was fun.

 

His birthday was on Sunday so we waited until Joel got done with all of his meetings until he opened his presents.  He got a lot of fun things but loved the Cheese Balls from Sophie the most.

Joel and Josh Cooking Machine's

For the Superbowl Joel decided to make rice crispie treats.  He did an awesome job.  It's the only time I've ever seen him make anything besides cereal so I had to take a picture.

Josh on the other hand made bread today.  All by himself.  He is taking a cooking class in school and they had a lady come and show them how to make bread and she gave them 2 little things of flour and a package of yeast to go home and try to make it at home and this is what he came out with.  He was told that the recipe would make 2 loaves and that he had to keep one and give the other away.  So he took it to a little old couple in our ward.  He has his dad's soft, kind heart.

 Josh loves to cook.  He always has.  I remember when he was 6 making his own sandwiches that consisted of whatever he could find in the fridge and he would actually eat them.  When I'm coming home late from work I will call him and ask him to start making dinner.  He loves it.  Today we made tacos and I asked Sophie to line the taco shells up in the pan so we could put the meat in them and put cheese on them to put in the oven and it took her 15 minutes and she yelled and complained the whole time and then threw a fit and gave up.  Oh dear, she's got a ways to go.   I fear for Shayne's missionary companions because she is like her dad and can only make cereal.  But she's better than Sophie in that she'll at least give it a try without complaining.  But Josh's will all gain weight and love having him as a companion.

Davi'd Deans List

 David made the Dean's List at school for "Studying Hard and Getting Perfect Spelling Scores".  Every month each teacher gets to pick 1 student from their class to be on the Dean's List and they get to pick what for.  It is a super big deal and only 7 kids in each class get chosen. They also get to walk through the W.  If you get to walk through the W then you are AWESOME!  So he was stoked when his teacher told him and gave him a note to bring home for us.  He made sure that we both got off of work and came to it. We wouldn't have missed it for the world.

PVHS Swim Team 2012-2013

This year has been awesome in the fact that I haven't been in charge.  Of anything!  It's been so nice not to have to stress out about who is in charge of decorating lockers and putting up posters at the Middle and High School and which parents are going to bring treats and which are going to be timers.  I was the Head Timer at the home meets but I didn't have to get the timers for them and we only had 3 meets instead of 6.  It was really nice.
 

Sophie getting ready to dive in for her relay.

Sophie's Dive

Sophie's Backstroke

Sophie and Shayne are totally different when it comes to swimming too.  Shayne, at Sophie's age, had already been swimming competitively for 4 years and was breaking all the records.  She was EXTREMELY competitive and Sophie is there for the social aspect.  I love it!  There is no anxiety for me.  It is just a laid back, try to beat my own time, kind of swim.  With Shayne there were always tears.  They usually came from me but they were always there.  The seriousness of it all.  She had her routine and she never veered from it.  You didn't interrupt her before a race.  She got in her zone and you never talked to her.  You could see the focus and determination in her eyes.  She was there for 1 purpose.  To win.  Many times it wasn't about beating her own time. Just about beating the girls in the pool with her.  In fact we had to start paying her $5 for every time she beat her best time to get her more focused on moving forward by herself because the competition in Southern Utah wasn't strong enough to move her forward.  Getting 1st place wasn't getting her anywhere.  It took awhile for her to see that.  But after she learned that lesson I lost $35 in the next meet.  It was worth it.

    Sophie is friends with everyone and reminds me of me in high school.  Not the smartest, most talented or most popular but the nicest, kindest and funnest kids to be around.  She will always have a lot of friends.  She made sure to cheer on every single kid on the Pine View, Hurricane and Desert Hills Team.  She didn't win any medals or even qualify to make it to State up at BYU (Shayne was on the Varsity team her freshman year and her relay teams consisted of 3 Sr's and her and she qualified in 6 individual events) but Sophie  didn't mind at all.  She and Shayne took 4 other freshman girls up to stay at my parents house so they could all go to BYU and cheer on their team.  Our little Pine View state team consisted of 7 kids.  4 boys that were actually swimming the relays and 2 substitutes just in case and 1 girl that qualified in 2 events.  Of those boys Mitchell Hutchings and Zack Paddock both had 2 individual events that they swam.  Mitchell took 1st in both of his and Zack took 4th and 8th.  The boys relay took 4th.  And out of 27 teams they took 9th overall!  It was amazing! 

Shayne's traditional kissing of the caps that backfired on her at State when one of them tried to steal a real kiss.

SHAYNE COACHING EVERYONE FROM THE SIDELINES

 I love the kids that do swim team.  They all cheer each other on and there is hardly ever any drama.  They love and support each other and I hope that all my kids do it just for the experience of it.  I know I have 3 more years with Sophie at least.  I can't wait to see how it goes.