USG Basketball

The Utah Summer Games are afoot in Cedar City.


Every year Joel runs something, Shayne swims and Brian plays basketball. This year Joel and Shayne bowed out because of the Shelton Family reunion but we were back in time to go watch some of Brian's games. Brian's team was packed with collegiate talent and they made it to the finals where they played against another team from St. George that they play against all the time and are friends with. Brian's team lost by 1 point. Afterwards we got dinner and brought it up to this amazing park called Park Discovery. It's so cool. The kids played for at least an hour and played tag with the adults. It was great fun.








John also did the triathlon at the Summer games and came in 3rd in his age group and somewhere around 30th over all out of 250!

Officially a teenager!

Sophie turned 13 yesterday! Woo Hoo! She spent it in Lehi with her grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins.

It was also the start of the Lehi Round-Up and the Stock Parade goes past my parents house every year so they always have a BIG b-b-q and play loud music and have ALL of the friends and family over to watch the parade. This year was the same except they had a birthday sign and balloons for Sophie as well. Sophie said that since no one throws candy in the horse parade, Aunt Barb sat up on the porch and threw candy at all the kids from there. "It was so much fun!" was Sophie's quote. Then they all went to the Rodeo later that night. She had a way better birthday up there than she ever would have down here. I'm glad she had fun.

More Baseball!

The youth in our stake do not have enough boys or girls to have individual teams so we have combined to have co-ed softball teams. Since Shayne is still out of commission we have her pitch. When she hits she has to get to first base on her own and then we have someone run for her. Sophie is our first baseman and does a great job. We had a lot of girls that didn't want to play but after our first game they saw how much fun it was and now we have a whole team of girls and 1 boy.


Here are some better pictures of Joel in his awesome new stripped pants.



Joel is usually a first baseman but with this team they put him wherever they are lacking some talent. Last week he pitched and this week he was outfield. Obviously.

Safety Town

St. George City has held Safety Town for as long as I can remember. It is a 2 week day camp that teaches kids that are just going into or coming out of Kindergarten. They learn all about Ambulances, Bus Safety, Bike Safety, Fire Safety, Stranger Safety, When to call 911, What to do when you see a gun, Crossing the road, Dog safety and that police officers are your friend. Here are a couple pictures of David and Evan having fun at Safety Town.

Basketball Camp

This week Ben and David had basketball camp at our Rec Center.





I figure they are Beckstrands and will eventually learn to play so I'd better get them into it now so they can learn the basics before the the violence sets in.

Eskimo Blanket FHE

The first Monday of every month we have a combined FHE with Joel's family. We go in order of age as to who is in charge each month. This month it was us. Usually you invite everyone over to your house and have a nice sit down lesson. But, because we live the furthest away and have the smallest living room, we try to get creative. So we had in on the back lawn of Mike and Elaine's. It was a goregous day! Joel had borrowed the Eskimo blanket from work to use for his lesson. An Eskimo blanket is like a trampoline but the person on it doesn't jump. They get thrown. Everyone holds onto the side and pulls out launching them towards the sky. Joel had a great lesson on how we need others especially the Lord to as high as we can/were we need to be.

Doing the little kids was easy and fun but everyone got a little nervous as we moved into the adults. This is Jacob.

This is Pat flying through the air but without his plane. This other picture is of him and the nieces and Nephews. They LOVE to do thumb wars and play rock, paper, scissors with Pat.


Brian

Holly


Kristal

Shayne

We even got Joel up and proved that with help anything can happen.



This is Josh. He definitely went the highest. It was a lot of fun.

Click on any picture to see it up close and see the horror on their faces!

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day I took the kids to the park for dinner and a game of baseball.




We have this little Fisher Price pitching machine and played 3 on 3. We made the bases about 20 feet apart so Shayne didn't have to run far or fast.


It was a lot of fun until the very end when David was mad that his team got 3 outs and threw a fit. "I'm walking home!" He screamed 4 different times. I tried to explain that we have to take turns and he knows the three out rule because he just played city league baseball but he was just mad and kept yelling it so I said, "Good! Go!" Then he stopped and looked around and realized he had no idea where he was so he just walked back to the van.

After, we went to Wells house to celebrate George's 11th Birthday. We bought him this rocket shooter from the Cotton Days Carnival and he loved it. You put water in the bottom of a water bottle and hold it on a pipe. Then the other person uses a bike pump to pump air into it until it explodes into the air. Almost all of them went higher than the house. It was really cool.


One of the main reasons we bought it was because we knew Kyle would take one look at it and be able to make it for $2. That way he could make one for my kids. Kyle was excited because he didn't have an idea for scouts this month and know he does!

This was Matty's reaction to the rockets shooting. A side note - Matty is wearing an outfit that I sewed myself for SHAYNE! It also has a hat that matches.

This is another photo of Matty the next day in her own fancy outfit. This girl LOVES to accessorize!