Life is busy...wouldn't have it any other way :)

Last Sunday was my dad's 66th birthday.  So I texted the family the week before to see if we could all get together...and the family delivered.  We had every single family member there...something we have not done in a long while.  The house was crowded, Raven was scared most of the time, Oaklee was napping, the older kids just wanted to go to the park while the adults were watching the Broncos game and prepping the lunch meal.   And what would a family gathering be without a little arm wrestling.  I think Paige beat more people than anyone.  All in all it was a good time.  I think my dad appreciated having every one there.  After those that couldn't stay left, we had a good old time playing Hand 'n Foot.  Mom and dad were partners, Darcee and Jay were partners and Aspen and I were partners.  She was really excited to be playing a game that the adults have always played...makes her feel grown up I guess.  In honor of dad's birthday, we let my parents win.  (In all truth they just kicked butt but we are telling them we let them win).  As I was getting everything together to leave, Jay got one of my dad's inspections cameras and was looking under the couch for something.  Next thing I hear is "I touched the lizard's head".  So I go investigate what is going on.  Sure enough they pulled a small lizards fully intact skull body out from under the couch.  It looked pretty cool.

Monday brought a happy day for me.  I met with my professor for my master's course one last time and submitted my second project.  It got scored after I went to bed so got a surprise the following morning...passed it with a 96%.  Now I get a break until the next course starts...happy day for me :)

Colten kept busy this week.  He did karate on Monday and Tuesday, football Tuesday and Wednesday and webelos on Thursday - for webelos they went out to Quail lake to learn how to water surf I guess.  He had a blast all week long.

Saturday was the Swiss Days 5k.  Darcee, Jeramiah, Colten and I all participated.  Colten and Jeramiah took off and completed the 5K in 31 mins and 32 minutes, respectively.  They had set a goal to get under 25 minutes but I think they did awesome.  Darcee and I ran for 11 minutes - at a pace much faster than I am used to and that proved itself later in the run.  I am so grateful that Darcee was there because about half way through my leg started to limp and not work.  I was catching myself multiple times.  So Darcee locked arms with me and was my anchor.  It is hard having my body not be able to do something my mind wants to do but I finished locked arms with Darcee and under an hour.  It will probably be my final 5K if my leg continues to act up.  After I sat and rested for awhile, Colten and I headed to Bishop's for a celebratory breakfast.  He had said his stomach was hurting but felt much better when he got a good breakfast in him.

Just a couple of hours later, we took off for Colten's football game.  Luckily, the weather was pretty perfect and we had mostly clouds so the sun was not beating down on us.  Snow Canyon was playing Dixie (which according to the rumor mill was comprised of 5th and 6th graders).  Dixie had a small team, only 3 subs.  Colten was excited to be starting on defense however the defense didn't see the field that often and Dixie (not sure if it was the coach or the kids were tired) forfeited after the 3rd quarter.  Snow Canyon was leading 46-0 at that point.  But our coach wasn't trying to run up the score and had started playing players in other positions.  It was a good game for us, not exciting for me to watch.  But I still love watching Colten play, although he did look tired.

After a little rest, we headed out to Hurricane.  We stopped by Hollee's to drop off her chocolates and to visit for a minute.  Raven has grown up in the past couple of months and is holding her head up so well.  Oaklee's speech is getting better every time I see her.  And she takes after her mom for sure.  When it was time for us to leave, Oaklee started to cry (well mainly because Aspen and Colten were leaving).  It was fun to visit with them for a little bit.

After Hollee's we headed over to the Hurricane City pool for Heston's birthday party (the other Holly's boy).  It has been awhile since we have seen them so it was good to catch up with her and Greg was also there to catch up with.  It was very windy in Hurricane but that didn't stop the kids from having fun in the pool and the diving boards.  It was a long day but filled with so much love and fun.  I am taking this Sunday to rest and hopefully be back to my regular routine tomorrow.

The kids that never stop...

would be mine lol.  Can't blame them...I allow the activities so I must support them right?  Normal activities this week.  Aspen did have cookie bake off at young women's and brought home samples and they were oh so good.  Colten's karate time changed so it ends right when football practice starts so that has been fun.  On Thursday he got off the bus, rushed to the church for webelos, went to karate and then to football.  It was a crazy couple of hours but we made it for all of it.  Friday brought another paint nite for Aspen so Colten and I took in the first half of the Snow Canyon High vs Pine View High game.  It was packed due to the Jr. Cheer clinic.  I wish that we could have stay for the whole game as half of the crowd left after their girls perform but a las we had to go get Aspen.  The game was a good game until Pine View took the lead lol.  Old high school habits die hard.  Aspen enjoyed her paint nite as she got some pizza, painted and watched a movie.  Oh and Aspen also attended her art class with Caroll so she got double the dose of lessons :)

Saturday started bright and early with a football game for Colten.  Warriors were playing Desert Hills and it was a fight to the end game.  I mean Warriors still shut them out but Desert Hills was able to gain yards, something that the Warriors are not used to.  I had the pleasure of providing fruit at half time so I listened as the coach (after collaboration with the other coaches) say "We're going to make some switches.  Colten you're going to switch and play defense".  My mom heart was thrilled as Colten loves defense and had played mainly offense the whole first half.  And man did he play great...he almost had two interceptions and quite a few tackles.  And who knew that an 8:30am game on a Saturday would be the perfect time for the family to come support.  Grandma, Grandpa, Hollee and her girls, Darcee and Jeramiah were all in attendance.  And of course, Aspen came to help with Hollee's girls.  Although there were a couple of times that I had to remind her of her job of watching Oaklee lol.

After football, Colten and I cam home and straightened up the house and watched a movie.  Aspen went to help Grandma with Hollee's girls.  Saturday night we headed over to the high school once again for the VoiceMale concert.  I had been selected as a winner of 4 tickets to the show.  Aspen and I were listening to their live broadcast (ok we watched the replay) and were so shocked when they read my name lol.  Regardless we were going to the show, just saved a little bit of money :) . The show was awesome and funny.  The choir from Lava Ridge and Snow Canyon madrigals sang beautifully.  VoiceMail was, as usual, hilarious.  Despite some of their comments are the same over the years, they somehow still had me in tears with new things.  The kids wanted to buy rubber ducks for the rubber duckie song.  Well the dollar store didn't have any so Colten got their pack with a star, octopus and crab.  He threw the star and octopus and John commented on it saying "This is a duck and this is a star".  Afterwards we went and chatted with him and John thanked Colten for throwing it cause then he had something to say.  All in all our Saturday was a great day spent with family.  Couldn't ask for more.

Fall may make an appearance :)

Our weather sure has been weird this year.  Didn't get into the triple digits until July and this past week it cooled off a little.  But I am not complaining...love me some fall weather.  This past week was a pretty typical week.  Monday was an early out day for the kids which meant an extra couple of hours with them while I finished up working. I let them watch a couple of episodes of "Stranger Things" so they pretty much left me alone lol. 

Colten still keeps me busy with karate and football but I love seeing his enthusiasm for each of these different activities.  I hear him practicing his karate in the morning when he is all ready for school.  He helped pay for a pair of gloves for football and takes them to school (and promptly forgets to take them to his actual practice and game lol).  This kid has such a love of life, I love being his mom.  Friday night he had a birthday party for his friend Brody and then Saturday he had a football game up in Cedar against Canyon View.  This was his best game yet.  He blocked his opponent when he played wide receiver.  He blocked a guy twice his size when he played guard on punt returns.  He got in on tackles when he played defense.  It was a great game to watch.  The Canyon View players started to play dirty when they could tell that they weren't going to win/score by throwing a couple of punches.  Colten was on the receiving end of a few but he didn't let that upset him.  The parents rallied and cheered louder and the boys played their game winning 26-0.  After the game, Zac, Colten and I stopped at the Main Street park to eat lunch before heading home. Oh and we made a stop at Dairy Queen too cause Colten played so well.

Aspen stayed home because Grandma was giving her a ride to a paint nite at the Santa Clara library that afternoon.  She really loves attending anything paint that she can.  The library brought in an artist who taught the kids how to blend colors together and how to make dark colors without using black.

I am leaving today for a quick trip up to Provo to go to the Better Than Happy live event with Jody Moore.  I am so excited to actually attend one of her live events since hiring her as my life coach over a year ago.  She has truly helped me change the way I think in life and can't wait for this event.