First Day of SCHOOL 2010

School actually started for Ryan and Zach on July 26th. Our 3 week summer went by extremely fast with a baseball tournament occupying the first week. But with year round school that's what you get. Ryan is in 5th grade this year and Zach in 6th; his last year in Elementary! School for Owen started a week later and he could not wait to go to Kindergarten.

Owen found his friend Gavin that lives down the street. They were excited to be in the same class, but maybe a little shy on the first day.

Christmas Meadows 2011

We were able to go on our annual camping trip this year, but only for one night. We tried to fill those 2 days with as many adventures as possible. The river was extremely high this year and very cold because of the large amount of snowfall over the winter and spring. Jason decided he would take the boys (1 at a time) down to the river to fish. As Jason and Zach were crossing the river to find a good fishing spot, Zach lost a sandal. In his attempt to retrieve the sandal he got swept down and under the river. Thankfully he hit a sand bar and was able to regain his footing. In Jason's attempt to help Zach he also lost his sandals. So we ended up with no fish and no sandals. After Zach's "near death experience" we decided it would be best not take the kids across the river to fish. Jason did take them fishing, but they weren't able to catch anything.

Owen spent a large amount of time swinging and playing in the hammocks.

The BB gun was a huge crowd pleaser for the boys. For some reason the person in charge of the gun range ended up being Ryan! Maybe because he's such a responsible mature 9 year old.:)

Carving is always a fun camping activity. Luckily no one had to get stitches this year.

A new activity this year was "See who can last at least 1 minute without moving while people tickle your nose and ears with grass, weeds, sticks etc." Not everyone participated in this activity.

As usual, we had a great time camping in the beautiful Utah mountains and listening to Jason's scary ghost stories about Jedediah around the campfire. The boys talked about him for days and days after we were home.

Braddah Hike

Jason had his 20 year High School Reunion this year! Many of his friends (braddahs) that live out of state were able to come to Utah for the big event. Those of us that could tried to spend more time with each other and took our families on a hike up Big Cottonwood Canyon just off the Guardsman's Pass dirt road. Because of time limitations we didn't get to venture as far as we would of liked, but we had a great time enjoying each other and the beautiful Utah mountains.

It was a steep scramble and everyone did just fine until we got to the... SNOW!
Our group at the top

Jason and his hiking buddy, Ellie. She loved him and whenever she couldn't find him she would ask everyone where her hiking buddy was. Then when she would see him she would walk up and grab his hand. It was so cute. The daughter he never had :)
Ryan made it down the fastest!

Real Preschool Graduation!

Owen officially graduated from preschool, meaning that he is now going to Kindergarten. Where as last year he had a graduation program, but still had another year of preschool left. He was beyond excited to be done with preschool and move on to Kindergarten. In fact he looked like he couldn't wait for the program to be over the whole time.

Owen with his preschool teacher, Miss Alicia.

Osie and me..he took a lot of coaxing to get him to smile.

Bombers Baseball

Zach played with the same superleague team again this year...the Utah Bombers. Some of the boys from last year decided not to play or play on other teams so some of the players changed this year. Even with those changes they had a fantastic season and really improved as a team. What a great group of boys!

Coaches Brandon, Kem, Brad

Peyton, Nick, Caden, Brayden, Easton, Zach, Camden, Parker, Parker, Stockton, Gerritt, Bryson

Bingham Competition Baseball

Bingham organized their rec teams a little bit different this year. In addition to their regular rec teams they made 2 competition teams that got to travel around and play different leagues instead of just playing other Bingham teams. Ryan was chosen to be on the Comp 1 team this year and had a great experience.

My favorite thing about Ryan being up to bat is his tongue sticking out....did it every time!

Spring Soccer

Owen played Spring soccer with his same team from the fall and they did awesome, ending the season undefeated. Although no official score or wins/losses is kept the kids know if they won or not; so do the parents :) Owen became aggressive this spring and really went after the ball. The team entered a tournament that didn't go as well as their regular season. They ended up playing 3 teams that were a year older than them, which really made a difference and ended up loosing all 3 games. But I was so proud of Owen and his determination to continue to give it 100%! For the first tournament game 2 of his teammates spent the whole game crying on the sidelines, which left Owen and 3 other kids that really didn't try. But Owen never gave up, he was strong to the end even though he was tired and had to stay in the whole game.

These are pictures from the regular season.

Christmas 2010

Oh wow, am I way behind! And I don't have a good excuse. But since this blog is to document our lives mainly for myself I will just try to catch up in the next few days.

We continued with our Christmas Eve tradition of going to temple square during the afternoon. Again we enjoyed the temple grounds without all the hustle and bustle and without all the crowds. Ralph and Edy joined us this year and I believe they enjoyed it also. Although we don't get to see the lights we do get to feel the Christmas Spirit, which is something I love. I'm sure this will continue to be a family tradition in the years to come.

This year the we didn't even need the reminder sign, although we still put it up. Jason and I ended up waking the kids up so we could get going.

Ry's favorite gift, an IPod nano, engraved with his name on the back.
Apparently we needed more Legos at our house! Zach's fav...an IPod dock.