Happy Birthday, Andrew!

Andrew (I mean AND...well, I don't mean And but he means And...that's what he's asked to be called, so that's what his buddies call him...so we wrote it on his cake...and Zach doesn't go by Bob any more..."he hates it:)")celebrated his 6th birthday today with 11 of his best buddies. He's always been forced into being alone because there so few kids his age in our ward or neighborhood and I didn't venture out into play groups while he was young. So, he's a friend magnet right now. He loves playing with his buddies! His favorite part of today was the capture the flag game. Eli carried around one boy who didn't like the feeling of grass on his feet. What an awesome big brother! Savanah took on the treasure hunt all by herself! She made all the clues and filled the treasure box. She's so capable! Thanks Savanah!

Besides the party we had a solar tour at our home in the morning, a cinnamon roll bake sale, a Halloween party in the evening hosted by some of our friends , and our adult Stake Conference session. It felt like a whirlwind day. Now I'm doing the laundry that I was supposed to have finished earlier today. Better late than on Sunday. It was a great birthday for Andrew, and that's all that really mattered. Next week is packed Monday through Friday...I'm excited for Dec. 5th...even though there's a lot to be accomplished before the Regional Lego League competition.

October Break

I always look forward to school vacations!!! Is it possible to be more excited about no school at 34 than at 14? I think it might be! Thanks to Jen and Todd's visit (I know it seems like a long time ago like 2007), but we were able to find 13 tickets to the train park laying around! That was good for 3 carousel rides and 5 train rides:)...plus some football catch and swinging. The kids enjoyed the time out of the house after finishing the chores for the morning.

On Tuesday, Shadow (the kitten in the pictures) ended up in our courtyard. Who knows how, but Savanah and Zach were ready for a new baby. And Shadow fits the bill. He/she (how can you tell if it's a boy or girl cat...they all look like girls to me?) stays outside, eats Garfield's food and is already potty trained. No extra work for mom, except I did de-worm him already, that's no big deal this time around.

The kids have camped in the tent for 4 nights...but they are all getting sick, I didn't think being cold made a person sick? Maybe it's the allergies or flu on the wind? Anyway, I think tonight will be an inside night. But camping has been fun for the kids for October Break, especially since we didn't have an exciting get away this October Break.

Saturday Morning Hiking!

This time we got our 5 camel backs filled and our 16 shoes tied faster than ever before. We were out the door around 8:30am and Savanah came with us and enjoyed the hike. She mentioned we should do it over and over again and just jog the whole thing in the future. What a great idea... (can you hear the sarcasm in my voice?-some of us aren't 13 any more.) The weather was perfect, slightly over cast and not too hot, not too cold.

Notice Savanah's expression...She loved the hike, but NOT the pictures, she said she didn't want to repeat those, just the hike.

Notice the crows feet around my eyes? I love them...why? I don't really know, maybe I think they are cute. My kids are the same way, we think it's cute when people get old, white hair, wrinkly faces, it's like they get nicer, and smarter, and funnier in a deep way, like grandma shaving her face with a disposable razor in the bathroom without shutting the door. It seems so liberating to get older. Not caring what people think any more. I know I'm weird, my friends remind me every day. But I still like wrinkly faces, and white hair. Ryon is getting white hair...I really like that, except maybe the ones coming out of his ears...that's weird! (Is that a secret Ryon? Maybe he wants the door shut on that one?) I keep waiting for my first white hair, but either it's camouflaged amongst the blonde or I haven't gotten it yet. But I'm sure it's coming and I'm ready for it.

Tempe

When we met his was a road and mine was a mountain but our passion was the same...biking. Then after a few years, he bought a mountain and I got a road...and now finally we're all on the road together. Although, I think our hearts are in the mountains. But with little children and trail-a-bikes, trailers and other accessories the road is the easier place to ride. So, we had another fun bike ride this weekend. (Although, without Savanah...she couldn't be coaxed to join us:() Ryon has promised us at least one ride a week, whooo hooo! I love to ride.

Am I Crazy?

I am officially a First Lego League coach for a MAAS team. Exciting? Yes! Overwhelming? Yes!! Time consuming? Yes! Yes! Yes! I read some teams spend 12 hours a week on it, I don't know where I could find 12 hours a week. I don't watch any t.v., I don't exercise (except yoga, I can't give that up), I only blog once a week, except this week when I was making a blog for my team http://robotknights.blogspot.com/ . At least I was able to make the blog quickly because I've done it before. But reading ALL the rules is mind bending, and trying to figure out what comes first, is it fund raising (so we can buy our robot), research project, robot design, learning to program. A lot of coaches are engineers...I know how to clean up legos (been doing that for a long time), but I don't build with them often, and I don't program, yet. So, if you see a lot fewer posts until Dec. 5, don't be surprised. We're shooting for 3 meetings a week, 2 at my house, I guess I could get the team going in the right direction and then make dinner... And one at school. Please wish me luck and pray for me, I'll need it! Or even if I wasn't crazy to volunteer, I'll be crazy when this is over?! People keep saying I'm organized, why don't I feel that way?