Saturday, July 28, 2012

Football Tryouts

When we decided to sign Cameron up for Alta Football, we had NO idea what we were getting ourselves into.  (I say "ourselves" because this really ended up being something the entire family was dedicated to.) It started off with a week of football tryouts.  Spencer took Cam to the first day and they immediately divided the boys into groups, according to their size.  Cameron was over the weight limit of 95 pounds so he was grouped with other "X-men".  There were 10 or 12.  The first two days of tryouts were without pads.  The coaches evaluated the boys in running drills, throwing/catching drills, lineman drills, etc.  Cam knew nothing!  He gave his all but the coaches didn't give any encouragement or coaching during tryouts.  Except two coaches...the Jefferson brothers. 

On the third day of tryouts, the boys showed up in all their pads, helmets, and gear.  I was amazed that they let them start hitting each other without even showing them any techniques.  Not very safe, in my opinion.  After the last day of tryouts, the coaches met to have a draft.  They had enough boys to fill 8 teams of 10-year-old boys!  Just before the announcement of teams, Spencer asked Cameron which coaches he hoped for.  He said, "I really want those brothers.  They are cool."  How happy we were when his name was called to be on the Jefferson team...Alta White!





Friday, July 27, 2012

SBL #17 & 18 - Swimming Lessons/Swim at Draper Pool

Gavin & Owen took swimming lessons this summer at Draper Pool.  They are like little fish and improved a lot this season.  On the first day of lessons, the instructors gathered all the kids together to explain the rules and divide into classes.  One of the teachers stood up to announce her class and said "Owen Styer".  He was the ONLY one in his class so he got complete undivided attention!  Gavin had 5 in his class but still had a lot of fun and did very well. 



Cameron chose to NOT do swimming lessons this year but went to the pool a few times with friends (so, no pics of Cam in the water.)

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

SBL #16 - Hollywood Connection

We bought a Groupon for Hollywood Connection which included 5 wristbands for unlimited rides, miniature golf, and roller skating.  Since the babies are free, it was perfect.  We chose to use the Groupon one weekend when Granny & Grandpa Tew were visiting.  It worked out well to have them with us because the babies weren't tall enough to ride certain rides so they got to hang out with G & G while the rest of us did.  Madi & Han loved the merry-go-round and went on it numerous times.  The entire family attempted a round of miniature golf but ended up kicking the ball into the hole more often than not.  We decided to save Roller Skating for next time. 


Tuesday, July 24, 2012

MoTab Concert

Our home teacher sings in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and has gotten us tickets to most of their concerts in the last 2 years.  Such was the case for the Pioneer Concert.  Spencer and I enjoyed time together...see how happy Spence is???

Friday, July 20, 2012

SBL #15 - Play at Splash Pads

One of the neat things that we discovered recently is a Splash Pad.  A lot of the cities in Utah have them, kind of hidden.  The best ones that we have found have the rubber playground floor, lots of big sprinklers, showers, water guns, etc...and the fewer people that are there, the better.  I took these pictures at our first Splash Pad of the season.  We didn't get to as many as we wanted to this summer but there's always next year...





Monday, July 16, 2012

SBL #14 - Wyoming

We had the opportunity to go to Wyoming to visit our friends, Kami, Grace, and Scarlett over a long weekend.  The drive to their house was around 5 hours, but, due to our DVD player, went pretty smoothly. 

We arrived in Riverton Friday evening and went to Kami's gym.  It is bittersweet being in the gym as many of the sayings, artwork, etc remind us of Kami's late husband, Nate.  But it was so good to see the gym and the girls.  We went to their house and had dinner and caught up. 

 
 
The next day we went to an event in their city park that featured a dunking machine, lots of handmade crafts, and tasty food.  It was fun to walk around and see the variety.  We let the kids each buy something...the babies chose wands with long streamers and the boys chose polished rocks to add to their collections. 
  



That evening we went to see the "Sinks and the Rise". This included feeding trout, a fun nature walk/hike, and lots of photo ops. The babies insisted on walking most of the nature walk...which gave the rest of us time to smell the flowers and really enjoy the scenery.










The next day was Sunday and our last day in Wyoming.  After Sacrament meeting, we went to see some of the Church History sites, including the site of the Second Rescue.  We were the only tourists and the missionaries were so great to show us around and let us go on the walking tour where we learned about the pioneers.  We were so grateful to spend time with the Jordan Family and always look forward to next time.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

SBL #12 & 13- ReAL Game & Snow Cones

We went to a ReAL game as a family on July 7th. It was so hot so we crossed off another item from our bucket list and got a snow cone!

Friday, July 6, 2012

Cute twins

I have a lot of random pictures of the twins. They are just so dang cute. We sure love them! I realize that there are five pics in this post and four of them are Madi. It's not intentional.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

SBL #11 - Wiener Roast & Fireworks

The 4th of July was an easy day to cross off two items from our Summer Bucket List. We hosted the Lindseth family for a good old fashioned wiener roast. The kids were super excited. We also roasted doughnuts and s'mores.

We wanted to take the kids to watch fireworks where they could feel them explode. We decided to go to the Riverton City firework show. We were surprised at the amount of people who had the same idea. We weren't able to find parking very close to the park but we found a church parking lot with a few people beginning to set up chairs. We decided that would be good enough for us too. The neighborhood around the church had a lot of pre-firework shows. In fact, by the time the real show started, our kids had mostly lost interest.

Monday, July 2, 2012

SBL #10 - Bear Lake

We love Bear lake and look forward to our annual weekend there with my side of the family. This year, like last year, we borrowed our friend's tent trailer. We also set up a tent for the boys. My parents were lucky enough to borrow Ryan & No'el's nice trailer. It's sorta like a mansion compared to a mobile home! Callie & Mike camped in their new tent. We had a lot of fun at the beach, ate great food, and enjoyed each other. It was a little tricky getting the twins to fall asleep, however, and we spent quite a bit of time just driving, hoping they'd fall asleep in the car and that we'd be able to transfer them to their sleeping quarters. Spencer and Harrison slept on one side of the trailer and Madi & I slept on the other side.

The first couple of nights I would sleep with Madi in my arms. I wanted to make sure she was kept warm and if she started to cry, I wanted to be close to comfort her quickly before she woke up Han. On the last night, I was exhausted. She was sleeping well and I let her out of my arms. Early that morning, I heard a soft thud and woke up in a panic! Madi was gone. She slipped through the fabric wall of the trailer and fell to the ground. She landed on some soft grass and didn't even realize what had happened! It sure shook me up though.

The boys did great in their tent. They were a little nervous the first night but they each had a flashlight and, to my kids, a flashlight = comfort. They helped granny do a few funny skits as our entertainment one evening. They also learned how to play Skip-Bo with grandpa.

We look forward to next year!