Soccer

Soccer has come to an end. The night before their last game we told them it would be their last soccer game of the season and Annie immediately piped up, "Then I can quit?!!!!!" She was rather excited to be done with soccer. 

Ryan loved it even though we called it a good game when he touched the ball 3 times. :)

 Annie enjoyed soccer, but not all the running. Which is mostly what soccer is...

 They had a great coach that was really good with the kids. And with his daughter being a star soccer player, scoring tons of goals every game, plus a few other kids who were decent, we didn't lose a game all season.

 Annie's favorite spot was goalie. And with our team being so good usually the goalie did nothing for most of the game, so they regularly rotated the goalie.

 Annie and Ryan's other favorite place was on the sidelines cheering on their team and drinking gatorade.

 Ryan also loved being goalie.

 He actually saved the ball in his last game once and was really proud of himself.

 We're number 1!

 Undefeated, baby! Of course no one officially kept score, but when the score was 10 or 15 to 2 it wasn't hard to know who won the game. :)

We were happy to have our umbrellas that attach to our camp chairs. That's the last time we do summer soccer in Tucson for a good long time!

Back to school

We got back from our vacation and realized that we had school starting in exactly one week. So after we quickly recovered from vacation we got to work on school shopping and going to meet the teacher night and other preparations.

To celebrate the end of summer vacation we went to Baskin Robbins.

 Playing Headbands Sunday morning before church:

 And Monday everyone woke up bright and early and excited to start school.

 Megan saw the girls with their backpacks and had to get hers on, too.

Rachel started in 3rd grade with Mrs. Chamberlain and Annie is in morning kindergarten with Mrs. Beck.

 They are both happy with their classes. Rachel didn't think she would like advanced math, but her best friend from last year is in advanced math with her, so she gets to be with her every day even though they aren't in the same regular class. She also really likes her advanced math teacher, so it's a win all around. We just got back the results from the testing for ELP (Extended Learning Program) for gifted kids. You have to score at least 97th percentile on at least 1 of 3 sections to qualify as gifted and be invited to participate in ELP. Rachel scored 98 on verbal, 97 on quantitative, and 98 on non-verbal. We're glad she finally gets to participate in ELP. I just wish the school district didn't wait until 3rd grade to start ELP. She starts this week and is looking forward to it.

Annie likes riding the bus, recess, and her teacher, but hates how she gets all sweaty at recess because it's hot and humid these days. She hates homework, but when I remind her how much less homework she has this year than she did last year she remembers and stops complaining. She is happy to have just one easy page each day.

The kids were getting on each others' nerves quite a bit that last week of summer break. It was like a miracle when they went back to school and within 2 days they loved each other again and would play nicely together for extended periods of time all of a sudden. They just needed to be apart from each other a little so they could love each other again.

The day after school started for Rachel and Annie, Ryan started preschool with Ms. Heather, where Annie had attended last year. He was very excited to be at Annie's old preschool.

We've mostly adjusted to the new school year now and are back to our regular routine. Rachel started a Spanish class after school once a week, and we are all learning Spanish at dinner most days now. The kids all know "leche" at least... we'll see how much progress we make. Maybe by the end of the year we can have dinner time be Spanish hour. :)

Vacation-Heading home

We made pretty good time on our drive back to Utah and got there in time to see Mark and his family Saturday afternoon before they left to head back to Texas about an hour after we got back.

Megan still talks about "Baby Shih-shih" (Christian).

We played for a little while, then headed over to Jacob's Aunt Helga's birthday open house to say hi. On our way back to Grandma and Grandpa's house we stopped at the Provo City Center Temple to give the kids a chance to walk the temple grounds.

Rachel was in a bit of a bad mood for the first part. Not that you can tell in the picture:

The kids touched the temple and enjoyed looking at the flowers.

Cari and Sharon caught up to us and got some pictures with us and of us:

This looks like a sweet mother/daughter picture, but really it's just me convincing Rachel to take another family picture. She was so done with picture taking.

We did a couple pictures recreating the statue behind. I thought they turned out pretty spot on. :)

Sunday we went to sacrament meeting then headed out to start our drive home. We had reserved a place to stay that night through airbnb.com and it turned out to be awesome.

 We payed way less than we would have for a hotel and got an entire basement, plus two bedrooms to spread out in. And the family whose house it was made dinner for us, showed our kids their frog and toad, and was just really nice and helpful. If anyone wants a place to stay in Kanab, I can give you their info. It's totally worth checking out.

Monday we made it the rest of the way home and we were so happy to finally be back in our own beds. It was a great to be able to take two full weeks for a fun vacation and see so much of our family.

Vacation-William's Lake

For our last full day in Idaho we got to go enjoy some time at William's Lake. This is where I have so many childhood memories of whole days at the lake snacking, hanging out, trying (and usually failing) at water skiing, floating on tubes and riding in the boat. I'm glad we got to take the kids up to enjoy some of the magic of this beautiful place.

We invited Mike and Julie, my dad's nephew, to join us since we hadn't seen them for a while, and I don't think I'd seen their daughter, Stacy, who was visiting, since before I got married. Mike couldn't come, but Julie and Stacy and her kids came and we had a good time together. They met us at the ranch and we explored a little before heading up to the lake.

Rachel took the opportunity of touring the ranch to climb the hay bales.

Up at the lake we rode on the boat, which the kids loved.

 Nothing like a little wind in your face.

Mostly the kids spent time hanging out near the dock on inner tubes. Rachel and Hannah were still inseparable.

They kept drifting away, so eventually Hannah came up with the brilliant idea to tie a rope to it so we could just pull them back instead of swimming after them. It worked great.

 Megan enjoyed herself, though she wasn't all that interested in playing in the water. She liked chilling on shore mostly.

 Jacob liked chilling on shore, too. :)

  It had been years since I had been water skiing. I think every time I've been up to the lake since I've been married I was pregnant, which is not conducive to water skiing. So it had been probably at least 10 years since I'd last water skied. It took me a few tries and faces full of water, but eventually I got up and made it all the way around the lake.

 My shoulders sure felt it after I was done. I'd forgotten how much skiing uses your arms, at least as much as your legs.

Jared tried a boogie board. He didn't make it too far, but kudos to him for trying.

 Most of the day was just a lot of this:

 The kids hit it off right away with Stacy's kids and they all had a fun time together. The discovery of a bird skeleton was a highlight as well.

We were glad to spend the day with the Jolleys and Knights. It was a perfect way to top off our trip to Idaho.

Before we left the next morning to head back to Utah, we stopped in to say good-bye to Grandpa Jolley.

I'm glad we got to see him again. It's hard seeing him grow old and not be able to do what he once could, but we're glad to see him when we can.