Finishing off September...

Finishing off the month on a high note with the rest of these events...

- Devil dog!

- Energy drinks get me by these days...

- Our last 8 year old date - Desh handled it like a champ!

- Shopping with mom and finding some hidden treasures

- Looking hot for church

- Snow!!!

- Weirdo Keen

Mowing without even being asked!

- Football games are our fav

And what's a month without a bunch of funny stuff to get us through?

 

Marching Band

We're in full Marching Band swing over here and loving it!  It's so fun to see this show and watch these kids together.  It's senior year for a lot of them so they're taking it all in!

 

Puerto Rico with Friends

Oh my we had such a fun trip with our friends to Puerto Rico this week!  All of our very favorites were there and it could not have been any better!  We were officially celebrating Melissa's 50th birthday so that was a fun excuse to be able to get together in our best spot.  Happy birthday to Melis and thanks for helping us get together!

Camie and Andy were the only ones that hadn't been to the house yet and for some it had been a long time, so it was fun to roll up and see the house and show everyone around.  It has changed quite a bit since some of them had been so it was like seeing the place for the first time.  It looked amazing and it was just the perfect temp to be able to enjoy it all.  I love this time of year on the island.

One day we drove to Orocovis and rode the zipline in the mountains.  It was gorgeous and SOOO fun!  We haven't done that for a long time and it was fun to do it again.  We got a good rainstorm right in the middle and we had to hang out for 15 minutes or so until it cleared up.  We didn't mind the view from where we were at!

Stops at the grocery store and our fav eating spots were on the list.  Josh cooked up the traditional poached eggs on pan de agua and it didn't disappoint...

We had lots of pool time, a little bit of cleaning and pressure washing and some hanging out at the house just taking it easy.  We went to the temple and took everyone to our fav Pa-Onde-Sea!

One day we rode the ferry out to Culebra and had an amazing day on Flamenco Beach!  It was so beautiful with lots of sun and boogie boarding.  We walked up and down the beach and lost (and then found) about 5 pairs of sunglasses :)  It was a little comical watching us get hit by big wave after big wave and sunglasses popping off our heads all over the place.  Then we'd spend time looking for them.  Ha!  We finally found 3 of the 5 pairs and declared the rest lost forever.

We ate pina coladas and empanadas at the tiendas and pretended that we weren't all sunburned...

The ferry ride back was so beautiful as the sun was going down and we got to watch a storm roll through over the main island.  A stop at Acai bowls and a late night swim at home rounded out an almost perfect day!

We also got to be at church on Sunday and see all our branch members!  That's always such a treat and something we miss so much from being there.  We played lots of games, caught up with old friends and ate delicious food together.  The times sitting out on the deck chatting and laughing will never be forgotten and just what Josh and I had imagined it would be like when we were working so hard on the house.  All we want is to fill this place with people we love and this week we did that!

We got a little yard work done and changed a couple of lights and fans before we packed up the house and left it for another spell.  What an amazing trip with some pretty amazing people!

Joseph

We had the pleasure of seeing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat this week at the Eccles Theater.  It was so amazing and always one of my favorite plays to see!  Chad was in town and we dragged him along with us which was a treat.  Mom and Dad hilariously couldn't find the middle balcony where Hayley was sitting and kept ending up either one balcony above or below her.  We just sat and watched from our seats across the way and laughed!  Such a fun night out together!

 

Updates from 3rd Grade

Mrs. Millett is so cute and posts lots of pictures from her 3rd grade classroom.  Here's a small update on what they've been doing in their class so far!

 

Mountain Biking

The boys had their last mountain bike race this weekend and we were lucky that it was right here in our neck of the woods at Butterfield Canyon.  They have had a really fun season and we've seen so much growth in both of them!  The team and community have been so fun to be a part of.

Liev did it again and took the podium with 5th place this time!  I'm not sure where that kick comes from, but he seems to have it just at the right times and can really push hard during the races!  So proud of both of them and what they've accomplished this season.

 

Cross Country

Cross Country continues to roll on as the season goes and Rhen is still doing awesome!  She loves to practice with all her besties and has grown used to running 30-40 miles a week.  She is having a blast and continues to improve every week! We love watching her do her thing!

 

Creed concert

Rease and Rhen got me tickets to the Creed concert for Christmas.  All these months later, we finally got to go see them and it was AMAZING! Our girls have grown up with 90s music as a staple in their lives so they knew every song and were just as excited to go as we were.  It was a beautiful night to sit out and enjoy the concert and people watch like crazy - it's so good at places like this!  What a fun night we had together listening to one of my favorite bands of all time!

 

Scones and Pickleball

Chalks won our annual Labor Day pickleball tournament!  They took the pickle platter from Tayson and Burkeley and now reign as champions until next year!

 

August in the rearview

Just finishing up August on a good note!

- Trail running is the best in August - warm mornings and beautiful views

- A broken dishwasher is always the pits

- When you ask your 8 year old to clean out the cupboard...

- Yard care at Aunt Hayley's house

- Feeding 90 band kids looks like this whole roaster full of chicken!

What a month!

 

US Open

Josh and I have always wanted to go to the US Open in New York but have never been able to make it happen.  It always falls right around the time that school starts and is tucked right in between that and Labor Day.  So we've always been busy or had something else going on that we couldn't make it out.  But this year we decided to do it and make it work!  I'm so glad we did!  We had THE BEST week in New York and loved being at the tournament for a couple days of it.  It was so fun to be there in the place we've seen on tv all these years and be able to be a part of it.  We loved just wandering around to different matches, watching the practice courts, eating good food and just being together.  The weather was perfect (warm and overcast) and we couldn't have asked for two better days to be there!  

Chad and Graham joined us one of the days and it was fun to spend the day with them.  We watched an epic 5 hour match at Arthur Ashe between two Americans - Tiafoe vs. Fritz.  It was awesome and such a thrilling match to be there for!  We also met up with our friend Mike McCarlie just as we were leaving the park one night and he was headed in for the night session.  What a fun time we had watching tennis at this amazing campus!

We spent one day in New York City and did all the touristy stuff.  Josh has never been, so we walked around seeing and eating everything in our path!  The cro-nuts were to die for, the bagels were delicious and we almost died when we ate the banana cream custard.  After we were full enough, we continued on our journey through the city.  We stopped at St. Anthony's church where Hamilton was buried, saw the One trade center and the memory pools, Rockefeller plaza and radio city music hall and all the way up to Central Park.  Such a fun walk through the city and seeing lots of new things!

That night we had tickets to see MJ the musical on Broadway and it was INCREDIBLE! So much talent on that stage and we didn't want it to end. We enjoyed every single minute of the show and felt so lucky to be able to see it!

We had such a fun trip together and packed so many things into just a few days.  Hopefully we'll be back again soon!

 

Family Pictures

 

1st day of school

The first day of school is here and the kids were excited to get back to it!  Summertime is ALWAYS great, but nothing beats a good routine and more sleep!  This year is going to be a good one I just know it.  

Rease is starting her senior year :( 

(I have no idea how we got here!)

Rhen 10th grade.  Both of them are at Mountain Ridge High School and so excited to be there together!

Liev is an 8th grader and Keen is starting 7th grade.  Two middle school boys for us at Fort Herriman Middle School this year.  Help them! Middle school is not always the easiest.

Beck and Desh are holding down the fort at Butterfield Canyon Elementary.  We not done with elementary kids yet and I'm so happy about that!  

Beck is in 5th grade and Desh is in 3rd.  

What a year we have to look forward to!

 

Mountain Biking

Keen and Liev joined the junior high mountain bike team this year and have been practicing as a team most of the summer.  This is really new to them but they have learned to really love it!  There are quite a few boys in the neighborhood that ride so they have a great group to practice with.  They had their first couple of races this month and both did great.  Keen has come a long way and has gotten over some of his fears of mountain biking.  He loves to go fast and does a great job on the hills which are not always easy!  So proud of him and trying and learning something new!

Liev has also gotten to really love being on the team.  And without us even knowing it, he has a natural talent for mountain biking.  He likes going to practice and I know he works hard at is, but I didn't know the competitive drive that fueled this boy until we saw him race for the first time.  We were on the course watching and waiting for the first riders to come by and before we knew it, there he was in fifth place!  He rode hard and finished strong and got to be on the podium as a 5th place finisher in his division!  The coaches were as surprised as we were to see him finish like he did!  What a day for this boy and so fun to see some hard work pay off.  

 

Keen's Birthday

Keen turned 12 and officially seems like a grown up kid now.  What happened this year that most of my kids outgrew me?  Love this boy and his energy!

12 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:

Height: 5'7" - 99%

Weight: 113 lbs - 85%

My favorite things about Keen at 12 years old:

1 - Keen has a lot of energy in that tall skinny body of his!  He's constantly moving, jumping, hitting, teasing, laughing, playing or has his eyes on anything with a screen.  He can't sit still long enough to finish a movie before he's off to the next thing.  He's busy, busy, busy and then crashes when bedtime comes.  That boy needs to sleep when he can and he sleeps hard and deep.  Lots of energy running through his blood and he keeps us all on his toes!

2 - Keen loves football.  He loves playing it with friends, flies up is a favorite with his brothers and his newest obsession is fantasy football with a group of boys from school.  He knows almost every player in the NFL and can spout off stats from most teams at the drop of a hat.  If he had his wish he would play football everyday!  Love him and his passion!

3 - Keen is sweet as can be when the time is right - usually that's in quiet moments at home or when he's talking with a stranger in the grocery store.  He's polite and kind and, when he really wants to be, he's helpful at home and one of my sweetest kids.  Sometimes the sweetness gets lost in the craziness, but I always know it's in there!

Happy Birthday Keen Gregory!  Love you to death!

 

Cross country

Rhen is starting something new to her and is super excited about it!  She joined the cross country team with a bunch of her track friends she made last year and they have been practicing and working hard all summer.  They've had 7:00 am practices going every day since June but now the official season and the meets have started.  She has really loved this which is a little bit of a surprise to me.  She has never wanted to run much, despite my best efforts to get her to run a short race or two with me.  But this year it got into her blood and she loves it!  She has a great group of friends, fun coaches and she was the athlete of the month for August!  She has improved her time at each meet and feels a lot of good momentum heading into the season which is so awesome.  So proud of her and all her hard work!

 

Marching Band

Rease's senior year of marching band is officially starting!  They had band camp the first 2 weeks of the month and are in full swing with their show and getting it ready.  She has loved marching band for a lot of years and it has been such a big and important part of her life.  We feel really lucky to be a part of this group that brings out so much good in these kids!  So excited to see how this season goes!

 

Raspberry Jam

We had a raspberry picking day out at my Aunt Leanne's house in Tooele this week.  She has a pretty amazing raspberry patch and we are lucky to be able to reap what she has sown! I took some of the boys with me and we got a lot done in a short amount of time on a beautiful August morning.  When we got home, I grabbed the other boys to help me make the raspberries into jam with me.  It was so fun and we LOVE raspberry jam the very most.  We're so happy to have our shelf full of jam again.  

 

It's a wrap July!

Another month in the books and what a month it was! Wow how we love summer around here! The weather has been fantastic, the friends, the late nights, smores, movies, no schedules, all of it...We love it all! Here's what the rest of our month brought:

7-11 slurpee day!

Buzz and bleach for Liev

A new niece - Baby Tess is so darling

Running wound

A trip to the chiropractor

And weird selfies