Monday, September 28, 2015

Josh's Sweet 16th!

Josh turned 16!! He's all grown up.  Well...not ALL grown up but a lot more than last year.  
He got some fun things for his birthday like suspenders and a belt, new bow ties, R2D2 Bop It game and a regular and JUMBO PILL!
 Is that it?  Nope one more thing...but it's at Eric's shop so we just showed him this video.

He was stoked!  The next day he got his license and the next week we got the scooter licensed and he was legal in every way.  When I was getting the scooter licensed the guy asked me what kind of plate I wanted, Ski Utah or Centennial?  I said Ski Utah because I figured white and red would look better than orange and he took the top one off and handed it to me.  BOOYAH!!  This is what we ended up with.  So lucky.  We will use it as our reminder to live life like it's our last on Earth and to treat others like it's theirs. 


Sunday, September 27, 2015

PVHS & DSU Homecoming & Midnight 5K

This is HOMECOMING WEEK!  It's a busy one too because DSU is having theirs the same time as PVHS for some reason.  So our entire week is PACKED!
To start with Josh asked Megan Paddock to the Homecoming Dance.  It is 2 days before his 16th birthday but in our city we've noticed that kids are no longer dating.  They are just "Hanging Out."  Well, hanging out will get you in trouble and will also make it so you don't know how to really socialize with the opposite sex.  A huge problem that the world is having right now.  So, many of the mom's at our school are getting together to make our sons go out to every boy choice dance whether they want to or not.  It is their duty as worthy young men to help the young women stay worthy and to treat them right and it is my duty as a mom to make sure I teach him how.  And yes I just said duty twice. So we, the moms, are getting the boys together and making sure that they ask a different girl each time and that they have a big group of people going together so that they can talk to and get to know a lot of different people.  The girls at PVHS have no problems asking boys to the girl choice dances.  The problem is that there are 3 girls to every 1 boy at that school so girls ask quick and if you aren't on the ball then you are not going to get a date or you will go by yourself.  So, we are remedying that too.  We now know so many boys from other schools that we can get any girl a date to any dance we want.  It's awesome.  One of the catches to all of this is that you have to make each date as cheap but as fun as possible.  Hence the Tupperware below.  So to ask Megan we got a pizza and wrote, "I know this is Cheesy, But will you go to Homecoming with me?" on in with his name on the bottom of the box.  Then Josh doorbell ditched her and left it on the porch.  It was awesome!  And she answered him with a poster that said, "Josh it would take an ARMY of men to keep me from going to Homecoming with you! So YES!  Megan"  With little green army men scattered all around.  It was super cute.
Dixie State had their Homecoming Carninval on Monday night.  We love the carnivals!  There is so much for the kids to do.  We put out JoEllens blanket in the exact same spot every time and let them go crazy.  That way they always know where to come back and drop off their treasures so they can go play some more.  These two were having the time of their lives.
 All of the boys tried to see how high they could get on the Velcro wall but the Velcro was so worn out on the bottom half that once you jumped and stuck you only stayed there for about 3 seconds if you were lucky.  But Josh and George asked the guy in charge if they could trow Ben to see how high they could get him.  It was a lot harder than it looked because when all three of them were standing on it, it sunk down about 3 feet.  So really they threw him up pretty high.  And he stuck really well.  He was there for about 3 minutes until he started to get worried and struggled to get off.  Josh and George just walked away laughing their heads off.  They thought it was super funny that Ben was camouflaged.  
 
 PVHS had their Homecoming parade on Wednesday Sept 23rd.  It was the regular blink and you'll miss it p-raid.  Here is Kyler Scott representing the FFA.
Our amazing Principal Mr. Mike Mees and V.P. Mr. Gary Higgins on Segways cruising up and down the parade route.
Here is Ray and the HOSA club that Sophie is in but doesn't walk with because usually she is with the band.  This year she didn't even do that.  Josh ran with the cross country team and EVERY year the team runs up and down and up and down and up and down the route.  But this year they just walked by once and I didn't even get a picture of them.  I was ticked.  I was expecting them to run back by and they didn't.  What kind of RUNNING team walks?  Stinkers.
Awesome Riley and Darby with the Concert Choir!!!

And Todd Feltner pulling them.
Friday night was the DSU Midnight 5K. This year Ben and David where all excited to race.  They were mad last year when they found out that the rest of the Wells' kids ran and we didn't let them.  So we told them they could this time.  But...a half an hour before the race we couldn't wake them up.  So we just left them home.  Ben was mad the next day but David didn't seem to care.  JoEllen and I ran the one and only aid station (we just had water).  It was pretty funny because we ran out of cups half way through and then at one point we ran out of water and opened it up to see that it was full of ice.  So us being so incredibly smart ran the cooler over to the sprinkler that was on and got it sprayed just enough to melt the ice and get us through to the end.


As Josh came by us one of his shoes needed to be tied and he knew that if he stopped to tie it he'd lose precious time.  So he just hurried and took them off and gave them to JoEllen then took off.
Here's George and someone.

And Drew.
SHAYNE!
Joel and Jack!
Here's Josh going by for the 2nd time.
And Shayne's last time.  See the golf cart?  That is her cheering section.  Sam Matthis and her friends that helped organize the race waited around until Shayne came by the water station again to cheer for her and then they went to the finish line.  It made her day. 
After Josh finished he came back, put on his shoes and ran the rest of the way in with her.  His coach followed them.  Ryan and Shayne went to High School together and he's engaged to one of her best friends.  This picture was taken through the sprinklers.
Post race pic.
It was a good close race.  George beat Josh by a couple seconds but Josh beat his Cross Country coach, Ryan Nielsen.   Josh (barefoot) also beat Austin Manuele who won the entire thing 2 years ago and he's beaten Josh every year until now!  Good job boys!  Well done to all of you, especially Shayne.  She never stopped.  Not even once to take a drink of water.  She just grabbed a cup and kept running!  She's always been an inspiration to me now more than ever.  Good Job! 
Josh got a blood blister on his big toe from the concrete.  It was ugly.
We went home after that and a couple hours later we were up watching DSU's Homecoming Parade!
Last year every single person except Matty, JoEllen and I were in it.  George, Emily, Evan, David and Ben were all in the Narwhales float.  Kyle was with the Alumni Assoc. like he is in this picture below.  Joel was in the motorcycle club.  Sophie was in the PVHS band and Josh was in the PVMS band.  It was fun and boring at the same time.  This year we only had Kyle.  It was fun and boring at the same time.
JoEllen fought for her own candy.

The Sullivan kids represented the PHVS band since mine all vowed out this year.  Josh is no longer playing at all and Sophie is more into the orchestra part than the marching band. 

Then the basketball team came by and if you could shoot a basket while they moved then you won a shirt.  David actually won one.  Here's George and Matty trying.  David and Evan went on the other side of the street to get a shot.  Ben tried and tried but just couldn't make it.  He wasn't happy that David did.  Evan and David decided to see if they could both fit into it.  They stretched it out pretty good.  They hurried and took it off when someone started throwing candy again.

Then we went home for another couple hours until the DSU tailgate started.  Then we gathered again to party it up with Hamburgers, Hot dogs and a lot of fun.  BrAshley and Henry showed up this time.  He was having a great time just watching everything that was going on.  He did go down a slide or two with Sophie.
Shayne and Sloan had fun hanging out.  Shayne was really watching our friend Colton Gust play sting pong with 3 other guys Shayne knew.  It was hilarious because he was loosing, bad.
 
Here's Colton in the gray shirt actually trying to hit the other guy but missing and Colton getting pelted.  He had big welts on his back.  it was so dang funny.

Right after that I got a call from Josh saying that he was back and that we needed to go get his tux.  So off I went.  He looked studly.  It was awesome.  Their day date was up at his friends cabin in Kolob.  He said they had a great time jut skipping rocks on the huge pond and playing around.  Cheap and fun!
Here he is leaving.  It was heartbreaking only having this picture to take.  I no longer get to take pictures of him giving the corsage or any group pictures on the front lawn.  I am now the mother of the BOY!  That is not fun.  The Tupperware is mashed potatoes and gravy that he had to take for dinner.  Fancy huh?  This is a picture of his boutineer the next day.  It matched hers perfectly.  Hers is in the middle bottom of the collage.
 They should have switched Megan and Brianna around in this picture below because the boys are switched.  But look at the three other boys trying to be all GQ.  Josh, by far, looks the best!  Not only is he wearing a jacket and vest but, even with braces a big toothy smile will win over any girl any time.
What matters most is that they had fun.  FIRST DATE!  Woo Hoo!
It was a super fun and exhausting week.  I don't think we could have packed one more thing into it but we will remember it forever.  Fun times!