Catch Up Time

 Last week was Fall Break and I did not feel like updating the blog.  So here I am trying to remember everything.  Good thing I have pictures to try to help me.  One Sunday night, the family invaded Hollee's yard looking for rollie pollies.  Hollee knew the trick to finding them and was so kind to let us take a ton.  Zac is wanting to help our tanks get a little cleaner.  And I am getting really good at holding Waffles.

Because Colten has done well with helping Zac with the Toyota he was painting, Zac decided to pay him a bonus and get him a leopard gecko.  So now Tashlee has Blaze, I have Waffles, Zac has Steel, Aspen has Bubbles and Colten has Smokey.  Annika and Channing are now the owners of the green anoles.  I am not sure who is the owner of Godzilla, our bearded dragon, or the Tokay (who is nameless).  In short, our house is reptile house.

Aspen worked hard this week on earning money for Spain.  We are trying to do a treat of the month, with this months treats being pumpkin rice crispy treats and Oreo spiders.

Colten had a big day by completing his first phase of orthodontics and getting his top braces removed.  He got a quite a few treats that he hasn't been able to eat this past year.

Yesterday the Hurricane Tigers played in the playoff game.  Unfortunately, the head coach wasn't in attendance due to getting COVID and it showed.  The team only had two practices in the past 2 weeks and it showed.  The boys played hard but couldn't find their groove.  Colten ended up playing most of the game because Hurricane was on defense for a majority of the game.  He played his heart out and never gave up trying.  There were multiple times that he ran the whole field and almost caught the guy.  They lost 22-0 to Canyon View and ended their season.  It is Colten's first time experiencing a loss in the SUNYFL league.  He was really hoping to be able to play Snow Canyon but he'll have to wait until next year.  He is sad he won't be seeing his teammates any more as some of them attend the charter school.

We had a good support team there, masks and all, cheering him on.  But Jeramiah's team won yesterday and will play in the championship game next week.  So the Chris family is 3-3 for playing in the championship game.

Fall is kind of here

 The temperatures are out of triple digits while not the typical fall weather, it is definitely better.  This week took forever to get through.  For me at work, it has just been rough with all the students and all the different things I am supposed to do for each student, it is just rough.  So much that I sent Zac a text on Monday saying I want to quit...he empathized and said let's go on a date.  Exactly what I needed to hear.

As far as other news in the household, we have just kind of been low key.  Aspen's art class was canceled due to a sick instructor.  Colten has the same schedule with football practice.  Having Zac's girls on Wednesday night is always a fun treat.

But the biggest news from the week is that yesterday, Colten played in his final season game and the Hurricane Tigers went 7-0!!!  Colten loves that he still hasn't lost a game.  Oh and Colten got his first interception :). Annika and Grandma joined me at the game to root for him.  He didn't play as much as normal.  Well let me explain that.  Moapa hasn't won a game this season so the coach was starting the 2nd string boys, I think to see if they will step up to the plate of playing hard.  Well on the second play of Moapa's opening drive, they got like a 50+ yard touchdown drive :( Coach put in the starting defensive after that.   At least until the offense got a big enough lead to try 2nd string again.  So Colten played most of the first half (after the opening drive) and probably 10 plays the second half.  It truly has been so fun to watch him grow this season.  Moving to La Verkin and joining the Hurricane team has been the best thing for him.  He has gained so much confidence in his football abilities.  At the beginning of the season, he wanted to be on the defense side of the football but now that he has tasted the offensive side, he likes them both sides of the ball.  

Aspen and Tashlee had a fun time at the Young Women's camp out on Friday night.  The leaders decided since they weren't able to go to Girl's Camp this year, the would do their own.  The girls were able to do a foil dinner in the fire, crafts and play at the lake.  Oh and they learned how to play night games.  They were able to get some kids together on Saturday night to play some games.

Last quarter of 2020 is underway

 Well we are almost done with 2020 and what a year it has been.  We are somewhat back to normalcy with the kids still attending school and Colten playing football but we are still missing some things.  But hopefully we will be able to get through the heated political year and the COVID virus and have a better year in 2021.

Not much happened this week out of the usual.  Colten kept busy with football practice, Aspen with art class and young womens.  Although on Friday, she kept herself busy by baking 11 dozen cookies to help fund her trip to Spain.  It was definitely a learning experience for both her and I but we did it.  Grandma Chris gave some suggestions that we will try to implement in the coming weeks.

On Saturday morning we got to watch a little bit of conference.  The kids have grown so much that they didn't argue at all when I turned it on.  Aspen was working away on her Young Women's packet while Colten had a notebook but that didn't keep him entertained long.  The morning session was very nice and we will work on getting caught up on the sessions we missed due to football games.

Colten was playing Pine View this week and if Hurricane won, they would secure a spot in the playoffs.  It wasn't the prettiest game but they did pull off a win, 19-6.  Colten got another touchdown and a diving catch.  He has grown so much this year, it has been fun to watch his confidence grow.  He had a lot of support there, Grandma and Grandpa Chris, Hollee, Oaklee, Raven and Aspen.  Jay, Alijah and Jeramiah joined a little later due to Jeramiah having a game right after Colten's.  All in all Colten had a great game.  We stay to cheer on Dixie and Jeramiah in his game.  Definitely helped that it was at the same field lol.  But we didn't love that we switched sides and the sun was now in our eyes.  But Dixie played hard and came out with a win as well.  Love getting to watch football this year, it was scary there for a little bit.

After we came home and cooled off, we headed to St. George to pick up some end tables Zac envisions as cool terrariums.  The sellers just happened to be some high school friends so it was fun to see them again.  Til next week!