Let the sports begin!

This season Avery and Devin are in soccer and Justin is back in baseball.

Avery's first game was last weekend and I got a few good shots of her. She never fails to give it her all. So much fun to watch! It was something like 98 degrees, but at least there was a nice breeze. She played center forward for 3 quarters and does a great job! They played against a very good team, named The Royal Pains (kind of funny name, but also a little annoying since they are very proud of themselves) and unfortunately, Avery's team (The Green Machine) lost. But that's ok. They gave it a good try and it was very hot. We're looking forward to some good games ahead!

Goodbye Cub Scouts

Justin's last day of Cub Scouts was last week. He is now officially in Boy Scouts. We are proud to say that he earned his Weblos and Arrow of Light (that ceremony won't be until October). Great job, Justin! So, on this night in particular he received his Weblos badge, did the traditional crossing over (the bridge) and was welcomed into Boy Scouts and the always fun, Raingutter Regatta (which he won). Fun night!

Here is Justin being presented with his Weblos badge.

The is Brother Draeger (Justin's Cub Scout leader) saying a few words about Justin's accomplishments.

Justin "crossing over" into Boy Scouts.

Brother Henderson (his new Boy Scout leader) welcoming him into Boy Scouts.

Justin in one of his many races.

Another race...

Another win!

Justin receiving his 1st place prize. FUN!

Back to school

The kids have been back in school for a week now. Boy, did Avery and Devin need it! This was the summer of fights for sure. Justin started middle school (yikes!), Avery's in 3rd grade and Devin is repeating kindergarten. Yay for school! The above picture was taken on the first day back.

The last of summer

The last full week of summer we did a couple fun things. First we went to the beach with some friends from our ward. That was a lot of fun! I'm not the one that took the pictures and people kept arriving at different times, so I didn't get many pictures of those we were with, but trust me. It was fun!

Lacey and Lauren with our kiddos

This just enthralled the younger kids. They felt like they were surfing!

Trent

Then over the weekend we went to Huntington Beach to my parents. The first evening my mom and I took Avery and Devin and our dogs to the butterfly park to play around while Kirk and Justin went to look at 5th wheels for fun.

This is how we spent most of our time - playing on our electronics.




And on Saturday we went to the dog beach to introduce Haley to the beach. She wasn't too sure what to think of the waves and would only get her paws wet until she finally just decided to lay down next to Kirk for the rest of the time. It was fun up until we saw some dog poop get washed back into the water. YUCK! Time to leave!



Goodbye summer vacation. Hello school!

Utah Trip Day 7

On our final day we were all feeling fine and actually played around with the idea of staying in Vegas another night. But the reason for leaving Utah was to get home so I could deal with my stone, so we left the hotel, went to breakfast, stopped at the lion exhibit at MGM and went to the M&M Factory (always a must) to see the 3D movie. Then it was homeward bound. Looking back it was a great trip. We did some fun stuff. While there it was a little harder to see that. But I know the kids had fun and that's what's most important!

UPDATE: We've been home a week and 3 days and I still haven't passed the stone. Our terrible insurance wanted a lot of money for the procedure the doctor wanted to do, so now I am just hoping to pass it on my own. Good thing for strong meds! Wish me luck. :)

Utah Trip Day 6

Love this picture of Tamara's youngest boy, Thatcher. He was quite taken with Kirk. So cute!

Had grand plans of going to Heritage Park where "This is the Place" monument is and going to see The Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island today, but when we got up Avery wasn't feeling well. After much debate Avery decided she felt good enough and didn't want to miss seeing it, so we got into the car and stopped at McDonald's for breakfast where it hit Avery hard and she started crying and not feeling good. We had had it by now and decided to throw in the towel and just head home. Wasn't looking good for my procedure and it was too dangerous for me to drive that distance not knowing when that pain would hit again, so it was go home with Kirk or risk it and he especially wasn't willing to risk it. At that point it just felt like we weren't meant to stay. So, we headed back to Tamara's, packed up pretty quickly, called Sara (my friend from Boston that was there with her kids staying at her moms and had been on vacation up until that day, so we hadn't seen each other yet) and she, her kids and her mom stopped over for a quick hello/goodbye before heading to Las Vegas to spend the night. So sad. So many months of planning and looking forward to this trip and a week early it was ending...just like that. To say the least I was SAD! Avery slept in the back a lot of the way. Luckily, she never threw up - was just nauseous. We called The Orlean's on our way to get reservations for the night and we were there by about 7:00. Grabbed dinner in the lobby and ate in our room (minus Avery) and then went to bed.

Utah Trip Day 5

We did a lot on this day, but still didn't fit everything in that I had planned. It didn't help that in between doing these fun things Kirk was talking to or on hold with the insurance company. I have a friend in Salt Lake that is a Urologist. Convenient, right? Seriously, love her and am so grateful for her help through all this. She wanted to do a procedure to actually take out my kidney stone so that I didn't have to worry about it driving home alone with the kids, but the insurance company was saying no, I had to come back to CA. Kirk was pretending to be in CA and not in SLC with me and able to bring me home so they could see the importance of me getting this done while there. No such luck. They wouldn't budge. So, this was all going on while doing these fun things...

The movie at the Joseph Smith Building was on the Prophet Joseph Smith's life. It was very interesting and the kids were really good through the 68 minute movie! So grateful for these wonderful depictions of the history of our church. And even more grateful for Joseph Smith. He was truly an amazing person!

We then went over to see Brigham Young's house. In all the times I've been to Salt Lake I've never done this tour! Beautiful home!

In the grounds around the home.

Right after taking this picture we ran into a former past singles warder of mine, Don Love. He sings in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and invited us to a concert of theirs on Friday night. Said he would leave tickets at will call. So nice and we were excited to go! Too bad things went South and we weren't able to use them.

View from on top of the Church Office Building (another first for me)

View of the top of the Conference Center

The Capitol Building

We toured the Conference Center, which was very good!

Went over to temple square and found this new model in one of the visitors center. So neat that the kids (and everyone else) can see what the inside looks like.

Temple Square

Inside the Tabernacle

Still wanted to do the Church History Museum, but not enough time. We had tickets to the Angels minor league, The Bees. So, we went to dinner and made it just in time for the first batter.

Reggie Willits. Kirk's "favorite" player (said very sarcastically). He finally got sent back down and we were able to see him.

It rained a little towards the end of the blow-out game (12-3). Bee's lost, but we had fun!

Tamara called while we were doing Temple Square to tell us that her youngest, Thatcher had the stomach flu. Lovely. My first thought was Avery or Devin will get it and most likely it will be Avery. She's very susceptible to sickness. So, we were sure to stay away for as long as possible. Gone the entire day and not back until almost 11:00...I think we accomplished that. Great day!