Davis Cup Invitational

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

I went up to Kaysville to help with Luke's band for the Davis Cup Invitational. I met the band up there so that I could stay and watch M&M's performance later in the evening. Blondie went on a field trip for her orchestra class to shadow the marching band during the competition. They rode up on school buses and followed the band around and were able to go up into the stands to watch them perform. Afterwards they stayed and watched some of the other groups before they left. I was able to get permission to have Blondie stay with me instead of returning with the rest of the students. Unfortunately Blondie's nose started bleeding for some reason while we were in the stands and it just kept bleeding and bleeding... At one point I had to go back to our car to get a tissue box for her! Poor girl!

Luke's band got 2nd place and took the visual caption. M&M's band got 2nd place again too - which they were really excited about! They also took the percussion caption.

The props for Luke's band that we had to wheel around to the field and off again. They were very big and took several people to push/pull them. They looked really cool on the field.

Bean Museum

Friday, October 2, 2015

The Monte L Bean Life Sciences Museum at BYU has been closed for the last year or so for some remodeling. We decided to go and check out the changes. I think a lot of it is still under construction because we couldn't find some of the exhibits that were supposed to be there and it had a couple of sections that were blocked off. It was POURING rain when we got to the museum! Afterwards we went and ate lunch with DH at his work - the girls love doing that. Blondie came with us because she was also off of school - I think Luke came too but I don't have any pictures of him.

M&M's Family Night Show

Monday, September 21, 2015

M&M at her last marching band family preview show. :( She is loving playing baritone this year! Oh, and she is also the student band council president for this school year. She applied for it at the end of last school year and the band director and outgoing band council picked her from several other applicants. We're not quite sure what she has to do for that other than collect attendance rolls for all of the sections as well as attend band council meetings every other week. I think she is also the one in charge of putting together a slideshow at the end of the year for the annual end of the year party.

Blondie went out to the field to shadow M&M this year.

First Day of School - Blondie and M&M

Monday, August 24, 2015

Blondie and M&M started school today. Blondie is in the 7th grade and is at the same school as Luke. M&M is a senior in high school!! AHHHH!!

Ha, Ha - I didn't even notice but apparently it was green and white striped shirt day!

Visit to Vancouver

July 29-August 2

DH, M&M, Luke and Blondie stayed one more night at Bear Lake and then the next day headed off to visit DH's mom in Vancouver. They were able to have some fun visiting her as well as DH's grandma who lives in Portland. The younger kids were bummed that they couldn't go to visit them as well but this was the only time that we could make anything work out this summer with our crazy school schedule. They drove up on Wednesday and came back home late Sunday night. They were also there for M&M's 17th birthday. They went out to dinner with her and saw the movie Ant Man which they all enjoyed.

Off to YW Camp!

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Because our stake did a Pioneer Trek this year, they only did a short, 2-night camp for YW camp (apparently there have been some years where they don't do a camp at all - which I think is a bummer for the 12 & 13 year olds that aren't allowed on trek). Blondie was super excited/nervous to go and M&M was excited to have her younger sister there with her. They met up on Thursday morning and then returned Saturday afternoon.

Blondie turns 12!

July 14 & 15, 2015

Wait, what?!? We had cake for Blondie's birthday a day early because DH was going to be leaving on her birthday to go up to scout camp with the Deacons. And Blondie's birthday was a day before the YW camp for our stake! So her birthday was pretty low key this year but she was super excited to move up to Young Women's and to be able to go to camp! Blondie opened a few presents on the 14th and then most of them she opened on her birthday before DH left for camp.

Girls Camping Adventure!

July 8 & 9, 2015

So while DH and Luke were on the High Adventure Camp, I had the crazy idea to take the girls camping! They ask about it all the time and once Kay asked if girls could go camping - since she has really only seen her dad and brother go!

So Wednesday afternoon we packed up all of our camping gear and food and headed to Mirror Lake. I have never camped here before but from what I could tell online it was a nice campsite and I was a little familiar with the area since we have hiked here several times.

I think the camp hosts were a little impressed to see a mom out there with a bunch of girls, setting up a tent and making a campfire! We got there and found a campsite that looked decent and not too far from the bathrooms and then we set up our tent. After that we went for a hike around the lake and then bought some firewood from the camp hosts and then ate some dinner and attempted to start a fire. Unfortunately it had been raining some when we first got there so a lot of the wood was wet and hard to burn. We got a small fire started but had a hard time keeping it going. We were able to roast some marshmallows and make some s'mores which the girls enjoyed. We then went to bed in the tent and proceeded to freeze most of the night! I had brought all of the sleeping bags and pads that we had and had even brought all of the extra blankets that we could, but it got super cold that night! Plus it rained most of the night and by the time we got up in the morning we were starting to get some puddles in the tent!

I didn't sleep very well because I was so concerned about the girls being warm enough - especially MJ who was sleeping right next to me and kept moving around and rolling out of her blankets!

We originally had the plan to stay two nights if the girls wanted to but with how cold and wet everything got that first night we decided to pack everything up and head home in the morning. Once we made it home we had to hang everything out to dry on our deck. The sun felt so warm at our house though!!

It was a fun experience and I'm glad that we did it. And I know I surprised DH when he found out!

Some cows alongside the road on Mirror Lake Hwy.

Kay walking back to the campsite.

Hiking around the lake - the poses that the younger two make crack me up!

And of course we have to stop along the way to throw rocks into the water!

Our campfire

Last Day of Elementary School

Thursday, July 2, 2015

M&M and Luke got out of school around the first week of June, but the younger kids with the year-round schooling had to go until July 2nd this year! We were so ready to be done by the time July hit! Kay's class is the only one that really had an awards program for the parents to come to. The other classes just had a little ceremony for the students. DH was able to come to the school with me for Kay's program and then we got pictures of the girls with their teachers.

Slip-N-Slide

Friday, June 26, 2015

The girls had some fun playing with the slip-n-slide in our backyard. We set it on the hill on the north side of our house.

Pile of girls

Friday, June 19, 2015

The youngest 4 being goofy!

Piano Recital 2015

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Blondie and Kitty are the only two in the family that were taking lessons this year. Kitty played Linus and Lucy and Blondie played Fur Elise. In the fall I think I will add Kay on for lessons.

Shakespeare Play - Blondie

Thursday, June 11, 2015

All of the 6th grade classes perform a condensed version of a Shakespeare play in the spring. Blondie's class put on the play the Comedy of Errors. This is one that I was not too familiar with but I think I was able to get the gist of it from watching her class. They also added some popular songs with new lyrics to go along with the play. I thought that they did a good job - especially since the class is mostly boys! There are about 7 girls and 22 boys in the class!

Blondie asked M&M to help her with her hair.

Blondie - field trip

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Blondie's class had the opportunity to take a field trip to a Space Camp that a group runs in Pleasant Grove. A day or two before the field trip I got a call from Blondie while she was at school asking if I could go on the field trip as a chaperone. After making some phone calls and arrangements for MJ, I was able to make it work so I could go along with them. As luck would have it, our bus broke down on the way there so we had to wait on the side of the road for some mechanics to come with another bus - but first we had to be pushed by another bus to get us to a place where we could safely transfer everyone from the broken bus to the replacement bus. Unfortunately this made us more than an hour late for the field trip which meant they had to shorten the activities to try and fit everything in. The group I was in started out by eating lunch and then they broke into groups of 2-3 people and created a rocket out of some supplies that they were given. They each gave a name to their rockets and then they competed against each other to see which group's rocket would fly the farthest. After that they participated in a "Star Trek" like simulation where everyone was given a specific job on the space craft and they were given some brief instructions on their mission and then they went through a simulation with lights and aliens and a mission to complete. As parents we sat and observed. I think the whole activity would have been more fun if they had had more time, but I think they enjoyed themselves nonetheless.

This is "Heart Attack"

Blondie at her duty station

They turned the lights down once the simulation started.