2nd Place

We went to watch Stockton's award ceremony this morning. It started at 9:00 and didn't finish until after 12:00. It was long. Alta took 2nd in the middle size school division. That is absolutely amazing considering they were three people short! Park City was the school that beat them and they had a full team for sure. The two teams that were picked to go to Nationals were DaVinci and Bingham. DaVinci is Utah's representatives and Bingham is in a new D group category. I don't know what that means. Hopefully Alta can get more people to participate. Three of the members are juniors and I think all three of them are going to do it again.

Mrs. Heffner, Nate, Stockton, Nate, Riley, Weston, Chloe, Mr. Ochoa, Angry looking lady

 Stockton receiving his team award.

 Mrs. Heffner, Riley, Weston, Stockton, Nate, Chloe, Nate, Mr. Ochoa

 A picture with Mrs. Heffner smiling.

 Riley, Stockton, Weston, Nate, Nate, Chloe

Scoop and Cori were troopers to stay with us the entire weekend. It was really nice. They stayed through the entire awards ceremony too. Stockton decided to ride home with us instead of on the bus. That was nice because then we didn't have to race home to pick him up at the mall. That is where he would have been dropped off. Stockton got to see Scoop and Cori's house too. We decided to go to Iceburg for lunch. As we were leaving Sherry called saying she was in St. George and wanted to go to lunch with her dad and Cori. Ha! What timing! Sherry met us at Iceburg. It was great to see her. She makes me laugh. We drove separate cars and headed straight home after lunch. Scoop and Cori went with Sherry. Matt had a bike race in town and they were hurrying to the finish line.

Mike and Preston

 Stockton, Mike, Preston

 Stockton

 We drove past the Wienermobile. My kids didn't understand how cool that was.

 I didn't even know it still existed.

We were home for about thirty minutes when the missionaries came over. They came in and chatted with us for a bit and played ping pong. Sister Gregerson had us laughing as she told us stories about things her MTC teacher told her. I love the missionaries!

Sister Gregerson and Sister Kalliainen 

Dogs and Dinosaurs

I have been so frustrated lately. My computer won't turn on, so I am using a different one. That is fine, except for some reason it wouldn't realize my phone was unlocked. I would plug my phone in so I could get pictures off of it, but it kept saying, "Please unlock Stephanie's iPhone." I tried everything I could think of. It even took Mike awhile to figure out how to fix it. I hurried and got all the pictures off, but I'm worried that when I want more pictures it will happen again. Anyway, now I am quite behind on the blog.

We woke up this morning and Preston played with dogs. He might as well enjoy them while he is here! I have no plans on getting a dog any time soon, or ever.

Grizzly and Preston

 Grizzly, Princess and Preston

 Princess licking Preston's feet - GROSS!

Scoop and Cori took us to my favorite breakfast place. Bear Paw Cafe. It is so good! I got a peanut butter waffle and hot chocolate. Mike got stuffed french toast and Preston got crepes. Maysen got a chocolate waffle with ice-cream. We were stuffed when we left! Mike and Preston shared an orange smoothie. This picture reminded me of Mike sharing a root beer float with Maysen when she was one. If I was on top of things, I would put that picture next. But I'm not. Obviously.

Mike and Preston

 Mike

We went to the dinosaur museum next. I didn't have huge expectations for this. I really liked it though. It was cool, the museum was actually built around where the dinosaur tracks were found. I liked this 'gum ball' machine. Ha! Too bad I didn't have any spare change for the kids.

 Random pictures from the dinosaur museum.

 Maysen and I laughed and laughed at this sign.

 There was a giant mural with two time machines hidden. Dr. Who's police box and the car from Back to the Future.

 Took this for my Porge!

 Preston and Maysen

I'm not sure what the name of the place Scoop and Cori took us to next is. I do know that I HATED it! Cori said it reminded her of The Land Before Time. I was super paranoid the entire time that someone was going to fall. I don't know why I'm so nervous, but I was about to cry. Maybe because I hadn't emotionally prepared myself for the height, or maybe because Preston was running around jumping everywhere. Anyway, I was relieved when we were back in the car.

 Maysen

 Preston and Maysen

 Mike

 Mike and Scoop

 Cori and Preston

 Preston and Maysen

Next we headed to Dixie State University to watch Stockton in the quiz bowl competition. Stockton spent today taking many many tests. This was the finale. Stockton knew going into it that Alta didn't have a chance. They were three players short. They were missing one player in the varsity group (gpa below 3.0) They were missing two players in the scholastic group (gpa 3.7-3.0 or something like that). The only group that had all the players was Stockton's group. They are in the honors group (gpa above 3.7). I'm not sure where to put my periods. Sorry Maysen. I know that will annoy you. Anyway, Alta only had 13 or 15 points after the first two groups went. Obviously you can't get any points for an empty chair. Stockton's group was awesome! Alta finished with 24 points. That meant Stockton's group scored 19 or 21 points. (Another reason why I'm annoyed I'm behind. My memory is horrible!) There is only 24 points possible for each group. Stockton's group more than doubled Alta's score.

Mrs. Heffner, Nate B., Other Nate, Riley, Stockton, Weston, Mr. Ochoa, Only girl

 Alta came in 9th. Awesome with their huge handicap. Jordan also had an incomplete team.

 Scoop, Stockton, Mike

Stockton came with us to dinner. We ate at Chuck-a-rama. Man, we have eaten like kings on this trip! Thanks Scoop and Cori! We dropped Stockton back off at his hotel then headed home to play cards. (After watching the last few minutes of the Jazz game.) Scoop, Mike, Preston and I played Mormon Bridge. Preston does not enjoy card games. I think he will once he is more familiar with them, but right now it is definitely not his favorite.

Scoop's House

Stockton left for his Academic Decathlon competition this morning. He got to ride in a fancy bus. Alta is going down with only 2/3 of a team. They are three people short. Two people that said they were coming didn't show up this morning. Sad. They know they have no chance to win now.

Mike was on the Academic Decathlon team when we were in high school. Stockton has the same coach Mike did. How awesome is that!

Mike and Mr. Ochoa

 Nate and Stockton

Stockton got on the bus chanting, "Nerd camp! Nerd camp!"

Mike, Maysen, Preston and I left this morning to drive down to St. George. There was this bright pink hummer at a gas station with a gruff looking dude. Mike thought it was so funny he wanted a picture. Kind of hard to see the dude though.

We stayed at Mike's dad's house. I think they built it 10 years ago, but we have never been here. I took pictures, but I forgot to take pictures upstairs. Haha! Upstairs is nice too.

Downstairs main room

 Maysen and Preston

 Mike

 Hair cutting room

 Theater room

 One more bedroom

Scoop and Cori took us to Black Bear Diner. That was Preston's suggestion. Jorja hates that place now. Bad memories. Jorja wasn't here so Preston wanted to take advantage. Speaking of Jorja, she went to an Alta soccer game with Hailey. Here are some pictures that I found.

Jorja, Hailey, Allison

 Jorja and Jonah

We played Hearts tonight with Scoop. Maysen and Preston were on a team. We don't play many card games, so they were a bit confused but they did fine.

Fashionista

Jorja was slipped a note by the yearbook staff last week saying they wanted to take her picture during advisory for the 'Most Fashionable' page. She went to school looking pretty dang cute. I didn't take a picture. Mom fail. I guess I'll have to wait until the yearbook. I dropped Jorja off at Hailey's house today. She is going to stay there until Sunday. Mike and I are heading down to St. George with Maysen and Preston. Stockton is competing in the State Academic Decathlon competition. He will take many, many tests.

Best Friends

Stockton had another Academic Decathlon competition today. It lasted all day long. All day. He sent us a text saying most events were going okay, but he nailed his speech. He ended up getting a gold medal for his speech. Nicely done! Jorja spent several hours at school learning stage combat techniques. She loved that! Carter sent her a picture of his sweater with the Jorja face pin she gave him. That girl makes me laugh.

Carter's sweater, Jorja's face

Bubs texted me this morning and asked if they could have Brett's kids over today. Marie had talked about the main thing she wanted to do when she was here was to see Ella's house. I drove the four kids down and left them there. They were so happy when I left. Bubs and Ange have a great playroom with a ton of fun stuff to do. Mike and I went shopping for Stockton's birthday. We ended up deciding to get him more bowling stuff, but we needed him there to pick it out. Stockton didn't get home before the shop closed, so we will have to do that sometime next week. I went back and got the kids around 5:00. They were so happy. Ange wanted to get a picture before we left. We gathered all the kids but couldn't find Mina. She was asleep on Ella's bed. She wasn't feeling well. NO!!!!! Mina was the only one who didn't get sick. She came home and slept until bed time and then slept some more. She came up late at night saying her stomach hurt. I got her a bowl just in case. As soon as she had the bowl in her hands she threw up. It was so sad. Although then immediately she said, "I feel better now."

Lincoln, Amelia, Abby & Grace, Eve, Marie, Ella, Mina

Here is a picture of Eve. She is super funny. One thing to know about her is she is terrified of Stockton. She always has been. It is really weird because every other little kid loves him. I mean L-O-V-E-S him! He is so great with kids. The second Stockton comes in a room Eve will run away, or look down and pretend she doesn't see him. It is kind of funny.

Eve

Well, that all changed today. Out of the blue Eve decided Stockton was her best friend. She hung around him constantly. She played with him. Yay! On the last day before her mom comes home she finally decided Stockton was worth interacting with. It was a good decision because Stockton played with the little kids for over an hour. They were having so much fun. I got a few videos, but none of my pictures turned out. They were all blurry from someone always moving.

Eve and Stockton

 Stockton walked around for awhile like this.

Stockton playing with Eve, Grace and Anne

Eve & Stockton

 Mike wrapping Stockton's birthday present under a blanket. Preston helping.

Marie and Eve in the background. Stockton trying to make Mike's super sly attempts invalid.

 Eve and Jeff

Jorja went to see a movie with Hailey and Areesha. They saw The Death Cure. It is the second Maze Runner movie. Jorja has never seen the first movie or read the books, so she had no idea what was going on. She had a great time anyway though. I picked up the girls at the movie theater and dropped Areesha off at home. I then dropped Jorja and Hailey off at the mall. Jorja brought her gift card Papa had given her for her birthday.

Areesha, Hailey, Jorja

 Jorja bought this dress.

 Jorja, Hailey, Areesha and a super weird poster

 Jorja and Hailey ~ I love this picture!

Eve fell asleep on the way home from Bubs, so she had no desire to sleep tonight. Mike went and slept in the guest room and I slept with Eve in our room. I put a show on for her for awhile and the ended up going to sleep okay once it was over. She loves the LEGO Elves show for some reason.

I was kissing the boys on their cheek while they were sleeping before I went to bed. I thought, "This is the last time I'll see Stockton when he's 17." Then it dawned on me that this is the last time I'll see him while he is officially a child! That made me so sad! I hugged him for a long time while he was sleeping. It's hard to watch your babies grow up. Better than the alternative though.