Princess starts school

Today was the first day of Pre-K for our princess McKinley. She was so excited she could hardly sleep and was up, dressed, hair fixed, and ready with no trouble at all. It was great. She walked proudly into her new classroom, sat down at her desk and told me that "I could go now!". Well I guess that was that. She had a great day and is already asking about tomorrow. I hope the enthusiasm continues!!

Soccer Season Begins!!

Ok, so it's officially soccer season. 50% of our lives (fall and springs) are soccer seasons. Luckily I do really enjoy the season. I love seeing the boys progress and work together with their teammates. It's really exciting to watch them improve and to share in their joys. What I find not so enjoying is watching them lose. Austin's team participated in a pre-season tournament yesterday and lost both their games. The first game they deserved to lose...the just didn't bring their game, but the second game was dirty. Every time we had a fast break there would be a foul, usually a push from behind, that would stop the play and we'd lose the momentum. The referee was fed up with it too, and finally gave a red card to a player that shoved Austin to the ground, but the he couldn't do much else. The whole team took turns fouling. Now I hope they were just sloppy and a little too aggressive, but I wonder if they are coached in this behavior. We will see when we have to play them again. Sadly we lost 0-1 from a penalty kick foul of our own. Bummer. But as you can see from the picture, Austin does have a smile for the sport of soccer!!

First Day of School

Here's the happy crew on their first day back this past Monday. Can't you just sense the enthusiasm for Ethan and Austin?? ...all is well.

Goodbye

I thought this photo was too cute not to post. It was the afternoon we were leaving and it was a great goodbye. We love you Nana/Mom!!

Got my camera back!! Catching up.

Ok, so I got my camera back from leaving it behind in Utah (thanks Mischele for sending it). Now I can visually catch you up on our glorious vacationing this summer in Utah with our families. I'll go in chronological order:

After getting in late the night before David met up with Mischele to run a 5K race in Bluffdale. It was a beautiful morning and both runners did awesome. Somehow in all the excitement of the moment I agreed to join them next year??!!?! Must have been my runner's (spectator) high that brought that one out.

Austin and Ethan jetted off to be with Grandma Libby and Grandpa Irv in Montana. They were there to offer moral support and strong arms to help them pack for their new move!! They also played Yuccor (sp?) and visited the "awesome" city pool in Missoula.

Then, as requested, Allison had her baby a few weeks early so that we would be able to see him (Good job Alli!). We drove out to Neola, Utah (3 hours) to meet Camden Jeremy Davenport and to see Jeremy and Allisons gorgeous house. It was a great visit, complete with a viewing of "I Am Legend" and a sleep-over for the little kids.

Next, it was off to my sister's Vicky and Jim's and my three cute neices house in Park City for some boating fun. This year their little Marlee (not even 3!!) got out on the ski and tore it up!! She still hasn't stopped asking about going waterskiing. Evan braved the tube at a respectable speed as did Ethan and Austin. Austin got up on two big skis this year following in his MOTHER's example of skiing this year. Thanks to corrective eye surgery I was able to enjoy water sports for the first time in 15 years!! It was fabulous and we had a great long day on the boat (about 5 hours with 7 children!!) It was so fun.

We were able to play tourist up in Park City this year when we visited the Olympic Park. They have turned it into a summer playground including ziplines and alpine slides. We were all able to ride the various attractions and took advantage of the "bounce back" feature to do them again. Everyone had a fun time with it. Austin says he wants to sign up for the ski jumping classes into the big pool next year. Who knows??!!

Our annual family reunion at Bear Lake came near the end of our vacation this year. We had our large family up there (25 kids/18 adults) camping and hanging out on the beach and camp. We had a huge scare when we lost Evan for 30 minutes or so, but found him asleep under an air matress in the tent. Not so fun, but we'll remember that part forever. We'll also remember the fun at the beach (a few sunburns--crappy sunscreen!!) and oh, we'll remember the food--lots and lots of guilt-free food (no calories at family reunions!) McKinley absolutely LOVED the waverunner and was on any time I was. I was actually ticketed for having too many people on the waverunner and for not having an orange flag when towing people. So I've been targeted by the Utah Boat and Safety Patrol as a menace!! I've sent my money in, so maybe they'll remove my name from the list. We'll see next year if there are wanted posters posted around the lake!!

Well, the battery on my camera died, so no more pictures today. I was going to end with Austin on the beach at Bear Lake and then a cute picture of David huggin his mom goodbye on the day we left. I'll put them up as soon as I get the batteries charged. I'll also post about the first day of school that was today!! See ya later.

Mama Mia!!

So David took me to see Mama Mia last night. Now there is some history here. David and I went to see Mama Mia on a whim a few years ago. We had no idea what the story was about...we just knew it was Abba music and that's all we needed to know. After getting past the premise of the musical (not such a great example) we LOVED the musical production. So when the movie came out we just had to go. David decided we should go on opening night and off we went. Now, we can't remember if we've ever been to a movie before alone. We've been to plenty of family movies, but a movie date just isn't our thing. Coupled with the fact that I get dizzy near the big screen, David insists that sitting next to each other in complete silence just isn't a way to connect. Back to the movie...off we went to watch this movie. Remember it's opening night, but it's also the opening night for Dark Knight, so we figured there would be no problem getting tickets. We were wrong. After the first theater was sold out we rushed to another theater only to find out that they were sold out to. At least the 7 o'clock showing was. Showing our true age and abilities we decided that the 9:40 start time of the next show was just too late and we went and got an ice-cream and called it a night. That was 4 weeks ago. Well, last night we tried again. Seems the charm has worn off and we were able to get right in. It was a cute show....cheesy, but you should expect that. The characters are as delightful as ever and the musical is predictable when they break out into song.. again...cheesy. There are a few sexual references thrown in for no apparant reason (why do they do that?) and some G-O-D's that are not references to diety, but for the most part...great, cheesy fun!! It left you with a good feeling and who doesn't love the feeling you get when you go to a wedding? Makes me fall in love with my man all over again...especially when he's watching Mama Mia in public, and it was his idea. Where is that ABBA gold album we have? I'll find it this week!!

We're Back...*sob*!!

So, we're back in the big land of Texas and I just can't get in to it. I guess having your house on the market and knowing that you really want to live somewhere else can be a downer. It's always hard to come back from visiting family and realize you're all alone (figuratively) in your area. Yes, I have some friends here and I do love them dearly, but there's nothing like family. I'm so jealous of those of you who live near your family. Don't take it for granted. Don't complain about meddling family or the umpteenth baby/wedding shower you HAVE to go to this week. I miss those things. I want my kids to have grandma and grandpa come to school on grandparents day. I want Sunday dinners with my sister and her kids. I want aunts and uncles to wrap their arms around my boys and give them advice that they won't take from me. But my little pity party has to end soon because the fact is that we're here and we're here until our house sells. And it looks like that will be a while. So my pity party will end tonight. Tomorrow morning I will be loving Texas again and living with the enthusiasm and energy that makes life fun wherever you are. I know I can do it...it's what I usually can do just fine. It's definitely the better way to live anyways...pity party's aren't fun when they go on too long.