Memorial Day

I love Memorial Day.  I always have.  I love going to visit the gravesites of loved ones gone one to better places.  But down here we have no one to visit except Scott.  Joel's family is buried all over from Long Beach to Malad and all of mine is in Utah county.  So it has now turned into a day to reflect on memories of those who are gone and B-B-Q's that are needed to go to.

We first headed up to Pine Valley to play with the Wells'.  We got to play Phase 10 without the kids around because Jillyn and Randy took the kids Geocaching!  Kyle was mad that he was loosing and refused to look at the camera.  Mason was kickin' our trash.  James is in the background holding cute little Molly.  Look at Sophie trying to totally cheat and look at JoEllen's cards.  Hahaha!

 When they got back we decided to go up Mark and Marian's and let the kids do the Zipline and play some Pickle Ball.   JoEllen and Sophie thought they were pretty good.

 Evan and David WERE pretty good.

Then the Zipline!  Josh or George helped the kids get on the seats and then off they went.  At the bottom were old tires to stop you but if you were going really fast (the heavier you were the faster you went) then you hit them pretty hard and flew up pretty high.   The older kids had to duck their heads too so they didn't hit them on the posts.

 David and Emily

Sophie and Maycee

 Sophie and Josh

 Here is Sophie giving Josh and George High 5's.  It didn't work out very well.

Then to get the seats back up the hill Joel would help the little kids off the seats and then throw the rope hanging from the seat.  This time Joel and Sophie hauled Josh and George back up the hill and let them go.

We had a great time like we always do in Pine Valley with the Wells' but we had to leave early get get to a farewell B-B-Q for Vince.  Vince is now the head football coach for Westlake High School out at Saratoga Springs.  We are super excited for him but are going to miss him terribly.  We are going to have one more person to visit the next time we go up north.

 

 Kai and David were using "The Force" to control the water fountain.

 Alex and Ben knew exactly were to stand so they didn't ever get wet.

After we said our goodbyes to Vince and his family we came home to the neighborhood get-together were Joel and Daniel played basketball with 9 little kids and 2 little girls attached to Joel's legs.

 

 Then it got dark so we sat down and Ray got out his firepit and we let the kids roast some marshmallows.

 Ben is and always has been the KING of the roasted mallow.  He does a fantastic job!

We are so blessed to have such great family and friends.  I don't know where we'd be without them.

My birthday / Mother's Day

So I received these gorgeous roses for Mother's Day.  The bouquet from Joel and this single rose from Dr. Wayne Christian our Orthodontist.  They give them out every year.

 Then as a combined gift for Mother's Day and my Birthday I picked these beauties out!

 Then I also got this amazing clock to help me keep track of what time it is where Shayne is.  Cool huh?

 Then at work I got these 2 HUGE doughnuts that we - JoEllen, Sophie, Emily, Matty and I- ate at midnight.

And Madi and Julie Howells, Whom I love, gave me a huge bottle of strawberry margarita mix and and this glass.  So the next day we made a huge drink and had a fun time.

After work JoEllen came and picked me up since Joel had taken the van to Father's and Son's and 5 of us girls went to Emily's piano recital and then to eat at Olive Garden.  It was Awesome!

 This is Matty showing me her breadstick...on her fork.

After that we went back to JoEllen's and played a little Just Dance 4 before we went to see the late showing of  OZ the Great and Powerful.  It was pretty good.  Then we went back to JoEllen's and had Doughnuts and Birthday Cake.  It was a great day.  Thanks to everyone who made it special.

         

SOCCER!

 Soccer this year was so much fun.  Everyone did such an amazing job.  We had 4 different Saturdays where all 4 kids scored points for their teams.  Sophie usually scored at least once a game.  In her Semi-final game they won 4-1 and she scored twice and in her final game, where they won 2-0 she scored both of those points!  She actually scored 3 points but she was off-sides on one of them so they called it back.  It is usually Brianna Esplin and Sophie who score.  We love Brianna.  Here is a picture of the two of them together.  They would always go to practice once during the week with the team and then have their own practice at least one other time and they would stay there for 3+ hours if we'd let them.  I thought it was just to hang out with the boys but practicing with the boys made them really good soccer players.     They are Goof Balls!

    

Ok, what can I say about Josh?  He scored in half of his games.  But his team NEVER won.  Not a single game.  Here's the awesome part.  There were more people at his games watching than any other game.  If someone had a game before him they'd stay and watch his or if they had a game after, they'd come early to watch his first.  He had a team of wonderful misfits that were there to have fun and enjoy themselves. They made the games fun for the other team too and everyone loved to play against them because they knew it was going to played like it should be, without yelling, without pushing, without bad talking or bad sportsmanship in any kind.  I think this team made the entire season fun for everyone.  We actually tied twice and ended up having to have 2 kickoffs which of course we lost, however, we felt like it was a win to get that far and we counted them.  It was so much fun to see these young men smiling and enjoying life.  That is how everyday should be.  It makes me sad to see kids that don't smile.  I'm glad mine do.

                                                                                         

    

     

 Ben's Coach loved and hated to put him as goalie.  Hated to because he and Danielson were the only ones who consistently scored each game as forwards, but loved that Ben could drop kick a ball from one goal clear down to the other. Once he almost made a goal as goalie!  Here is the highlight of the whole season for Ben:
I'll set it up for you...tied game at the end of regulation time.  Kick off ensues.  Our 5 kickers go first and Ben is chosen to be one of them.  Then Ben steps in to be our goalie.  He only needs to block 2 to win.

That made his #1 best moment in life.  No Christmas, Birthday or even Disneyland can compare with that moment when he, himself, did it all by himself with EVERYONE watching.  I was so impressed with him.  If you know him at all you know that usually he wouldn't even put himself in this kind of situation to fail or to let others down.  So I was very proud of him. 

David had an incredible soccer year.  He scored at in every game except one and he has the best footwork of all 4 of my kids.  David's team tied in 2 games this season.  Both to our old Coral Canyon Ward.  So each time they had a kick off to determine the winner.  The first time during the season the other team won by one.  Our only loss of the season.  Then in the finals we played them again and we tied 1 to 1.  Our friends, Clay and Julie AhQuin's little boy Keave' was their goalie and David kicked it right past him.  Then David was chosen to be our goalie and he blocked 2 out of the 4 and Keave' was their last kicker.  If David blocked it they won.  If he missed then we started over again.  He had the block of the Century!  His team not only won but took 1st place in the league!  It was awesome!

Soccer is the longest season and seems like it goes on forever because all 4 of my kids do it.  Every Saturday we either missed something going on or had to run to something in between games. The IronMan was one of those things.  The Scout Expo was another.  Ben's car made it in the most unique category from our ward and so we hurried down to the Dixie Center and entered his car, walked around and looked at all the cool exhibits and made bird houses.  JoEllen is over the Scouts for our REGION!  So she was there all day long.  She will be blessed in heaven for the awful job.  So, we took her kids back to the soccer games with us so they didn't have to stay there all day.  But we had fun.  I am grateful when soccer comes around because my kids love it and have fun.  But, I am grateful when it ends so we can relax and get our lives back and do one thing at a time instead of everything all at once.  Great job everyone!