End of August already

 While 2020 has brought a whole new life and challenges, it is flying by.  I celebrated by making another Reese's peanut butter cheesecake but with Reese's peanut butter chips as the ganache.  I also rewarded myself for being able to run again by getting AirPods and a armband for my phone.

 

We are loving our leopard geckos and getting them out each night to feed them.  I finally got the nerve to hold Waffles.  It is a weird feeling but fun to hold them.  The kids are still liking school.  Colten is not a fan of waking up early in the morning but getting better.  Aspen and Colten both tried at student council in their respective school but didn't make it.  They are going to try and meet more people and try again next year.  I have been busy at work this past week, technology has not been my friend lately.  Not sure if it is the school computer or the program but oh well, that's the life of a virtual teacher.

We got Zac's girls this weekend and spent Friday night setting up a new tank.  Saturday was a fun day as it was Colten's first football game of the season against Desert Hills.  Colten is pretty much playing the entire game since his alternate broke his collarbone in last week's scrimmage.  Lucky for him it was cloudy for most of the game and not as hot as it has been.  He made a couple good tackles on defensive, missed a few as well but made a stop that should have been a go ahead TD for DH.  He also made his first touchdown ever in regular season.  He caught the ball between two defenders.  His support system was so excited for him.  Hurricane fought hard to win the game 13-12, DH went for the win by kicking for 2 points when they did get that second touchdown.  Lucky for us, the kick wasn't far enough.  So exciting to see the team come together and overcome their mistakes and win their first game.  We had our entire family there plus Hollee and Oaklee, Grandma Chris and Angel (Colten's friend).  Love that we are able to have football this season since so many other things have been taken away due to COVID.

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After the game, I took the kids to the pool to cool off.  They had fun for a couple of hours and then came home to end the evening watching "Jumanji the Next Level".

Sunday was just a relaxing day with a short spiritual message from the older kids.  Then Tashlee and Aspen took a couple of bike rides and Colten and I went to the park to work on football stuff.  Yes, I helped him by throwing the ball and trying to strip the ball from him.

And we're back into a routine :)

 The kids had their first full week of school and no complaints of masks or homework.  They are each loving their school and classes.  Aspen comes home every other day and says some Spanish phrases to me.  When I reply back in Spanish she laughs and says she hasn't learned that much lol.  This week was also the first week with students for me.  Well I haven't officially had class with them yet but we did lots of testing.  Wednesday and Thursday I was in my chair testing for 3 hours straight (minus a 30 min break between sessions).  I resorted to sugar to help me get through it.

I have also been doing more stuff in the instant pot.  Last week I tried brownies from a box and man were they delicious.  Zac said he doesn't want them from an oven anymore lol.

Last weekend Zac got Tashlee a leopard gecko to keep at our house.  Aspen likes to hold Blaze.  Zac never sent me pictures of Tashlee holding him.

We also had a mysterious cinnamon roll show up on our doorstep without saying who it was for.  Aspen thought it was hers but I said it could very well be for me.  Well I was wrong, the Young Women leader had dropped it off for Aspen :(

We have been working on Colten's room and getting it organized especially after this happened lol.

Friday night we got to be entertained by Oaklee and Raven.  Man do those girls keep you on your toes.  Raven is walking now so we had to make sure we knew where she was lol.

Saturday brought more football for Colten :) These scrimmages were against the better teams from last year and Colten got to tackle some of his former teammates.  Hurricane did a pretty good job holding their own against the teams and the scrimmages were such learning experiences.  Unfortunately, one boy got injured (broke his collar bone) and he plays the same position so he played the rest of the time on offense.  He got one more touchdown and 1 reception on the offense.  He is ready for the season to start next week.  Hollee and Oaklee joined us for the Snow Canyon game as well.

So personally, I have been working hard to get 10,000 steps in every day.  I learned back in June that I could definitely do it if I do shorter walks.  Well this past week I have also discovered that I can run for a little of the walks.  And with as much sitting as I do, getting out is a must.  So yes, you can find me walking/running when its 104 degrees now.

On Saturday night, Zac and I headed to St. George for a date night.  We stopped by Sue's pet castle to pick up a tank for Tashlee's gecko and then to PetSmart to look at substrate.  Well while there, Zac noticed that they had leopard geckos too.  So we looked at them and they were awesome.  So after dinner we went back and got two.  One to give to Tashlee because she had really wanted a snow gecko and Zac will take over Blaze and one for me, which Zac will take care of lol. So meet Waffles :)

Um yeah I need to catch up

 Since it took me like 2 weeks to finish the Bear Lake post and it was already a month late, I am having to really play catch up.  I am not sure of the order of all of this but I'll do the best I can.

We gave Aspen her birthday presents.

Zac and the kids got to try Waffle Love for the first time.  They love it!

We got new beds for the bigger kids.  Annika and Channing inherited Aspen and Colten's former bunk beds, Tashlee got a day bed, Aspen got a bed with a desk under it and Colten got a captain's bed that he got to repaint to match his room.

Aspen finally got her braces that she has been waiting for.  She loved them at first, then they started hurting.  She is doing good right now but goes in for a check up.

Zac's girls have had a couple of sleepovers with us so I took Annika and Channing over to Hollee's to play with Oaklee.  They had a blast! and I got to chat with Hollee :) and learn how to do fun things on Instagram.

Aspen went to Audra's for a sleep over before school started so Zac, Colten and I spent the weekend having fun.  We went to St. George and got more green anoles and then went for a drive out to some dinosaur tracks.  Since it was all dirt road Zac asked Colten if he wanted to drive, of course he said yes.  We had a good time enjoying each others company.

Random other pictures worthy of the blog book

So on a weekend Zac decided to put up the fire alarms that we bought a few months ago.  The older kids helped him.  He got the bedrooms put up great and then came the living room one where I came out to this

Called him an idiot and went on my way lol.

Since the kids are both in braces we totally participated in the customer appreciate day.  While it is normally a big swim party and due to COVID they couldn't do that, so the Corn Dog and Zeppe's trucks it was.  First time all of us had The Corn Dog truck corn dogs and they were delicious.  Zeppe's was good as usual.

One night, after I thought he was in bed, Colten comes in to tell me he has pulled out his two loose teeth lol

First day of 2020 finally arrived.  The kids had been walking around the house saying that they wished school started the next day.  They had not been to school since before Spring Break.  Returning to school brought new protocols though.  Anyone inside the school building must wear a mask, governor's order.  I told the kids that and they said they didn't care.  The school is also requiring a lot more hand washing and sanitizing and early outs on Friday to do more deep cleaning.  Colten is starting 6th grade at the intermediate school and Aspen is in 8th grade at the middle school.  The first day report from both of them  was that school and wearing masks wasn't too bad.

Fall also brings another joy for Colten and I....football.  Colten is on the Hurricane team this year and started practice almost right after we returned from Bear Lake.  He has worked hard in very hot weather.  The normal scrimmage Saturday event, SUNJAM, was canceled due to COVID but the head coach put together some scrimmages for the team to practice.  It was so fun to watch some football.  Our first scrimmage was against Dixie.  The team struggled to find their groove for the most part but was able to squeeze out a few touchdowns.  Scrimmage 2 was against Canyon View and Colten lit up.  He had two touchdowns, one on a catch and one on the jet sweep.  Scrimmage 3 was against Cedar where he scored one more touchdown on a jet sweep.  He played most of the defense plays due to his back up not being there so he had a lot of time and made quite a few tackles.  He is really coming along.  Since it was almost 100 degrees and sunny, we had a mom/son date to Dairy Queen.  So excited for more football!