Softball and Judging

We had a crazy day once again.  Crazy summer days are great!  Just makes the summer fly by, which isn't always great.  I took Preston to diving, then went and got Stockton and Josh and took them to diving. It sounds like I could just take them together, but they're diving at different places and times. Convenient, I know.  I hurried back to pick up Preston from swimming.  His swimming class is right after his diving class.  Makes it nice for me, but long for him.  I brought him home and went to find Jorja.  She was in the backyard with Erica. Jorja won an auction to get a softball session with Erica.  Jorja has been really excited about this!  This morning was the best day for both of them.  They were so fun to watch.  Erica really knows her stuff and was so nice to Jorja.  We found out a few days ago that Erica will be at the same softball camp as Jorja.  Jorja is so excited about that!  Even though they will be in different talent levels, it will be nice for Jorja to see a friendly familiar face once in awhile.

Erica & Jorja

I love Jorja's smile

Erica was the starting catcher as a freshman for her high school.

 Erica showing Jorja the proper way to warm up before hitting

 Erica with her dad

Jorja LOVED this time with Erica.  Erica ended up being here for one hour and 45 minutes.  I hope Jorja can remember all the information Erica gave her!  Once Erica left we had 15 minutes to get Maysen and Jorja to the church.  They were meeting there for Girls' Camp.  I waited with the girls before they left.  One of the girls cut herself with a pocketknife before they even got in the cars.  Luckily her mom was there and rushed her to the hospital for stitches.  Off to a great start!

Preston had a dive/swim meet today.  It was at our neighborhood pool. The host pool is in charge of getting two judges for dive.  The visitors need to provide one.  Mike usually has his wife or one of his kids judge. They couldn't make it today.  Mike used Stockton as the other judge. Stockton was kind of nervous, but ended up loving it.  It was a great experience for him as well.  Pretty awesome!

Judge Stockton

I couldn't get a great picture because I was also working the scoring table.  I snuck up and took this one.  Stockton didn't expect me and I didn't ask him to smile because the meet was in progress.  Preston competed a front flip for the first time.  He made it around most of the way, so that was good. After the swim/dive meet the boys wanted to go out for dinner.  Preston REALLY wanted Jamba Juice.  We ended up getting that and Pizza Hut.  We were all exhausted at the end of the day.  I wonder how the girls are doing?  Hope they are having fun!

TREE'S ON FIRE!

After church we finished getting Maysen and Jorja packed for Girls' Camp.  We dropped their stuff off at 5:00.  When we got back we were in the kitchen doing dishes.  I laughed because I noticed a quiz Maysen had taken in her mission prep class she went to today.  The quiz was titled 'Manners Matter' and the question was:  True or False You can use your finger as a pusher to get food on your fork.  Maysen answered: Can, yes.  Should, no.  Ha!  That's my literal girl.  Anyway, I saw that answer and was turning around to read it to Mike when a random stranger comes running up to our back door screaming, "Your tree's on fire!"  What the what?  We run outside and sure enough he's right. Mike ran to get the hose.  I ran to find the camera.  The flames were out by the time I got there, but they were going pretty high.

Smoke from our tree with random stranger

In the picture below Mike is asking me to go look for the fire extinguisher.  I guess I should have looked for that before my camera. Whoops.

Random stranger & Mike

Here is a ball from the batting cage that Jorja found.  It had been under our tree.

 The aftermath

The fountain from Mike's mom was also on fire.  I wonder if we will be able to get it to run again.

 Our electrical outlet next to the tree

 The grass farther down the yard

 This grass also burned.  The tree is several shadows down.

 Poor tree

Apparently the backyard neighbors (Malone's owners) were lighting off fireworks.  They have a boy named Mason who is 24 I think.  Mason and his friend were lighting off the fireworks.  One fell and shot over the fence and burned in our backyard.  Another firework at the same time shot into Mason's garage.  I am thankful that they tried to fix the problem.  They could have easily denied anything and just let our yard burn.  This could have been so much worse.  My kids could have been playing out there.  It could have hit our pool, the batting cage or the motorhome.  It was near to all three.  If it went a little farther and hit the big tree by our back window that tree would have gone in flames . . . along with our house.  Yes, it could have been so much worse.  We were lucky we were home and that we were upstairs.  The fire spread so fast! I am furious though.  There is a ban on fireworks.  They aren't even allowed until 3 days before the holidays.  Plus, I'm pretty sure they are banned this close to the mountain.  It wasn't even dark.  What were they doing setting these things off when it is so freaking hot outside!  I have never been a huge fan of fireworks.  Now I'm even more paranoid.

The fire department came and the police came.  Neighbors called them. A few different neighbors stopped by to see what was going on.  They had seen the smoke.  Plus, it wasn't long ago that the Rich's house burned.  Glad ours wasn't as bad as that!  The police issued the neighbors a fine.  It had to be at least over $500 because that is what the signs say the minimum fine for firework violations is.

Bubs and Ange came shortly after this happened, but before the fire trucks arrived.  We watched their kids so they could go to a fireside. Lots of chaos at that moment!  The firemen told Mike he needed to check on the tree & grass at least every hour to make sure something didn't start to burn again.  I took Maysen and Stockton to a fireside, but I kind of wish I stayed home.  I was still so agitated that it was hard to concentrate.  I left a little early, but we stayed there for a good hour.

What a crazy day.  I did not like it.  It is really scary to see how fast things burn, and to know that in a few days a whole bunch of people are going to be lighting things on flames.  I'm pretty sure some of them don't have any common sense.  I hope those guys don't live near us!

Ella's Baptism

Ella was baptized today!  She looked so beautiful!  This is the only non-blurry picture I got of her.

Ella

 Blurry, but I love her smile

 Ella hugging her Uncle Dustin

Stockton was disappointed that he wasn't able to come.  Preston gave the opening prayer and Maysen led the music.  Jorja said the closing prayer.  Natalie and I both gave talks.  The baptism was really nice. Ella's hair was awesome.  I wish I knew how to do my girls' hair like that.  Nice to have it not all dripping wet during the conformation. During my talk I told a story James' mom had told me.  James is the boy who hurt his eye yesterday.  She told me of being on vacation and that her four kids were playing on a rail like thing.  They were walking on it and being silly.  Her youngest daughter, Annabelle, finally decided to give it a try.  She walked on it bended over.  Her hands clung really, really tight.  She was the only one who didn't fall off the rail.  This is like the Holy Ghost and the Iron Rod.  We need to cling tight, just like a child so we do not fall.  If we do fall, we pick ourselves up and hop back on again.  Anyway, that is kind of what I talked about.  I just had a general story in my mind, so I can't get it word for word down here. After the baptism we went to another room next to the kitchen and had cookies.  It was a great day.

Stockton made it home today.  We were playing Dominion with Matt and Sam.  Mike noticed Stockton was in our back yard.  He threw his stuff, bike and all, over the fence.  I was so glad to have him home!  I also won the Dominion game . . . by a lot!  That was an added bonus to an awesome day.

Tetons

Burke sent me these pictures of Stockton today.  I was glad to see him smiling!  I asked him how he was doing.  Burke said he was doing fine. It's been a challenge but he has toughed it out.

Stockton

Burke sent me this picture shortly after.  Yikes!  I'm glad this wasn't Stockton, but it isn't helping me to not worry about him.  This is James. Stockton said he was right behind him when he went down.  Stockton had been walking his bike down because he thought it was too steep. James was riding when he fell.  He fell off and hit a tree branch.  One of the YM leaders is an ER doctor, so he was able to stitch him up right on the path.  Oh boy!  Hope Stockton comes home in one piece!

James

Maysen was able to meet with another author today.  Sam asked Karen Tuft to come and talked to Maysen.  She came in just for that.  To meet with Maysen.  Maysen is pretty lucky and Sam is awesome.  Jazzie's mom called and invited Jorja over.  Jorja was thrilled obviously.  I dropped Jorja off and then headed down to Matt and Sam's to pick up Maysen.  I never look at my text messages while I'm driving.  If I'm stopped at a red light I will look.  Here are Maysen's messages to me. Cracks me up.

High Adventure

Stockton left for his high adventure camp today.  They are mountain biking in the Tetons.  I'm pretty nervous about this!  Stockton doesn't really ride bikes.  The last/first time he rode a bike with a gear was in Georgia.  He was riding his friend Seth's bike.  He didn't understand how to work the breaks and crashed it.  I hope he is okay this weekend. Seth (not the Georgia Seth, but Stockton's Young Men's leader Seth) told me that he works with all levels of bike riders; from competitive mountain bikers to just path riders.  I laughed and told him that Stockton wasn't even up to the path riding level.  I am proud of Stockton for not complaining about this, for being willing to try something new.  I know things like this are not his favorite.  He has had a great attitude about everything lately.

1 1/2 Off 10!

Stockton learned how to do a 1 1/2 off the 10 meter today.  I was so excited that I made it back in time to see him try it for the first time. He was a bit nervous, but really wanted to conquer this dive today.

Stockton's getting ready

Here it is!  Gage did it with him.  First time!

Sorry about my annoying cheer at the end of the video.  I would edit it out, but I don't want to take the time to do it.....I'm already behind on the blog as it is!

I think it is so funny how Stockton and Gage sit on the 10.  It reminds me of the pictures of construction workers eating their lunch.  They just need their lunch boxes up there!

Gage & Stockton

Stockton took a print screen of my instagram.  I love watching him flip! So much fun!

Preston Flips

Mike worked with Preston on learning how to flip today.  It was so cute watching him throw Preston in the air.  I was on the other side of the pool, so you can barely see him . . . but Preston is all orange.

Mike & Preston

 Preston

 Trying it on the diving board

I picked the boys up from Cottonwood today.  They sure have been loving the platforms this year.  It has been so much fun to watch them.

Josh, Stockton, Gage

 Josh, Stockton, Mike, Gage

 Gage, Stockton, Josh

Swim Meet

Preston had a swim/dive meet today.  I asked the other three kids to come and watch.  Swim meets are LONG, so they weren't too excited. Once we got there we discovered the pool closed.  Someone had an accident in the pool.  Yuck!  I took the kids home and fed them dinner, so that worked out.  We made it back right as they were about to start the diving competition.  Preston did great!  He did his hurdle front dive.  Since he is so little, the degree of difficulty on that is 1.8.  When I showed him how much his score multiplied he was pretty excited.  He tried to explain the scoring system to another kid in line.  Preston ended up 5th out of 9.  A huge improvement from last year!

Preston

The kids set up their stuff in the pavilion.  I was surprised how well you could see up there.  It is shady, and there are tables so it worked great! Mike came straight from work and arrived before we did.  I had to time this meet.  They assigned me to be in the same lane as Julia, a friend from high school.  That was a lot of fun.  Preston swam the 25 free and back.  Mike took everyone home once Preston finished his back stroke.  Swim meets make for long days, at least the weather was perfect!

Happy Father's Day!

I managed to make it through today without any pictures of the kids with Mike.  Grrrrr.  Mike seemed to have a good Father's Day.  His big present was a fishing raft and an anchor.  He is really excited to try it out.  He is going to take the kids back to Bridger Lake when Maysen and I go to Alaska.  I hope they have as much fun as they did the last time!

We are so lucky to have Mike in our lives.  He is the best Dad around. The kids absolutely adore him.  I love listening to him teach our kids. He is so creative, he makes everything interesting.  There is nothing not to love about him, he is the best.  I'm going to annoy the kids and make them write something about their dad here.

Maysen: I think that the worst thing about living in a time of war and army drafts would be having to say good-bye to my dad, possibly even forever. I love my dad and all that he does for our family, from the huge projects he undertakes to the small things he does that he thinks no one notices. My dad is a hard worker who has always managed to provide for his family, and he has a fun and happy spirit that no one can dislike. My dad is the coolest dad I've ever known. Kudos to you, Dad! Love you forever!

Stockton: Dad is great at taking care of our family. He is always learning new things and teaching us new skills. Dad is a lot of fun and I love him as much as he loves his family. No matter how hard things are getting, he always stays strong. He is good at what he does and is always finding new ways to have fun with his family. Dad helps people every day and encourages his kids when they are struggling. He has always been a great father to us. We love you!

Jorja: My dad is the best person in the entire world because he is so awesome and loves us so much. He is really fun and I love it how he does time with dad so much. He is funny and really good at his job and is probably awesome with a nerf gun by now.  He helps me not give up on the things I want to do and I know he always wants the best for me. YOU ARE AWESOMELY AWESOME AND DON'T GET A HAIR CUT, IT LOOKS GOOD THE LENGTH IT IS. Love you to infinity and beyond! 

Preston:  I love my dad, he is the best daddy in all the daddies in DaddyVille. I love him so much!  Here should be a random picture of Shiver

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Jorja & Padz, Preston & Shiver

The rest of the blog post is brought to you by Jorja.  I guess this is what she types while she is thinking of what to type.....

Mr. Waffle:

Elephants yeah!:

Paper jam Dipper:

Preston again:

Dad:

I don't know what to wriiiite:

COME TO ME INSPIRATION:

I'm being annoying, yay!:

I've written two words so far!:

Have fun erasing this, Mom:

efcjdbvjv:

What happened

Inside Out

We took the kids to see Inside Out today.  Jorja also took two of her friends, Hailey and Kate.  I loved the movie.  I usually love anything Pixar does.  Brave was an exception.  I didn't like that one at all.  I loved how Inside Out shows that sadness is okay and needed.  I loved the shorts at the end.....seeing into the control centers of others.  The dog, the cat, the bus driver, the boy who sees a girl.  Haha!

Mike and I walked up to the pool tonight to go to Jonathan Tanner's birthday party.  They had a taco truck which was delicious!  We just hung out in the pavilion, ate tacos and cupcakes and talked.  My kids would have been extremely bored, but it was great.  Stephanie Waddoups was there.  She has one more dose of the horrible chemo, then she gets to do Taxol.  I told her not to get her hopes up on Taxol. (I meant that it was still going to real havoc on her body.)  I don't envy her one bit.  She is only one year older than I am.  So glad I had a mastectomy years ago!

Mike and I walked home with Bryce and Becky.  They just got back from an Alaskan cruise today.  It was fun hearing about their adventures.  Bryce's family took everyone.  Lots of cousins!  Mike's parents did that when Maysen was a baby.  It was a lot of fun.  It would be awesome if our kids had been able to experience something like that when they were older.  We had a great time with just Maysen though. We have had a wonderful life so far!  Bryce was saying that he isn't the biggest cruise fan.  Too much food.  Mike told him he was still waiting to hear the downside.

We are so blessed to live in such an awesome area with amazing kids.  I feel completely lucky.

Traci Abramson

Mike had a work party here that he was pretty excited about.  Becky came over early to help with the food.  She also brought eclairs she had made at home.  Becky and Mike learned to make stuffed hamburgers. They loved them!  I ended up stuffing mine with pineapple and bacon bits.  Pretty good, but messy.  Mine would fall apart.

Mike's friends and their families seemed to have a great time.  They ate, swam, did the batting cage and played Mike Tyson's Punch-Out.  What more could you want?  Especially on a work day.

I left while Mike and Becky were cooking and took Maysen to American Fork.  She came in the afternoon today.  She was able to sit in on a meeting with Traci Abramson.  Afterwords, she was able to have some one-on-one time with her.  My neighbors were so jealous!  They are huge Traci Abramson fans.  Pretty great that Sam set this up.

Traci Abramson & Maysen

Nose

Stockton's nose has been horrible.  It doesn't look bad at all in this picture.  His nose got extremely sunburned from Youth Conference. Not too happy about that.

Stockton

Stockton's diving was cancelled today.  The pool was closed for a party. I wish we would have known, then we would have sent him on Tuesday. Oh well.  Jorja and I went shopping at Old Navy today.  It burned me out.  She has a lot of cute clothes though.  I can't believe how much she has grown.  She seems very happy about that fact though.

Rae & Becky

Super, super busy day.  I got up early and went trail running with my friends.  The weather was perfect and it was so beautiful!  I had to turn back early because I was anxious to get back to Maysen.  We needed to leave for her Internship at 7:20.  If I leave then, I can usually get back by 8:45.  That is right when Preston's diving starts.  I have Stockton get Preston ready for me.  Once he finishes his diving, I race home and pick up Stockton and Josh.  I drive them to their diving at a different pool with platforms.  Then back to Preston to pick him up from swim practice.  Drop him off at home and head to Cottonwood to pick up Stockton and Josh.  Gage needed a ride to the scuba store after, so we made a quick stop there.  (Gage's family either works at or owns the store where Mike, Maysen and I got certified last summer.)  I dropped the boys off and then headed up to American Fork to pick up Maysen.  I was a little worried that I wouldn't get back home in time.  My friend was going to meet me.  Anyway, right before I leave I notice Maysen sent me a message that said she couldn't take the statistics class at the community college because she hadn't sent them her ACT scores. AHHHHH!  Maysen and I raced to her high school.  Luckily the same lady that helped us before was there.  She had us feel out a sheet requesting her ACT scores be sent to the college.  She said she would mail them out tomorrow.  I hope she does.  What a pain it has been to figure out this cancelled class!  Anyways, we ran out of the school and headed home lickety split.  Right as we turned on our street Stockton called to say my friends had arrived.  So glad we made it!

Rae and Becky came to visit me!  I was so excited!  I was really good friends with Rae back in Georgia.  Maysen and Ephraim are the same age, so are Stockton and Moses.  Becky is Rae's sister.  I didn't know her as well.  I met her a few times when she came to things with Rae, and I heard a lot about her.  She moved to Arizona a little before I moved to Utah.  Anyway, Rae's oldest boy, Noah, went into the MTC today.  He got his mission call to Washington.  Rae stopped at my house after the MTC.  How fun is that?  We talked and talked and talked.  So fun to see her again.  We didn't realize how late it was and then had to scatter!  Rae & Becky were heading to Idaho Falls and hoping to make it before it got dark.  Preston had his swim meet down in Salt Lake.  We ended up missing warm-ups, but it was worth it!

Becky, Rae & Stephanie  

Preston is SO funny!  I love watching him swim.  I love his outlook on life!  If you look closely at this picture, you can see that his goggles flipped.  Kind of hard to swim like that!

Preston

Preston finished his back stroke in about 57 seconds.  It was a 25 meter back stroke, and Preston's best time.  Of course, all of the other kids had been out of the pool for awhile.  When I told Preston he swam it in 57 seconds he said in disbelief, "I didn't know I was swimming so fast!" I love that kid!  Such a positive outlook on life.  What a joy!

Pack Meeting

I didn't get any pictures from today, but it was hectic and fun.  After the crazy morning, I managed to get some laundry done and get ready for pack meeting.  We had an Arrow of Light ceremony at the church. Then the scouts came over to our house to swim.  I had fun watching the boys and talking to my friends.  Alycia, Camee, Ashley . . . just to name a few.  It was an easy pack meeting to be in charge of and the boys had a lot of fun.  That's what I call a win/win.

The Internship Begins

Maysen started her Internship with Sam today.  It makes for some crazy mornings, but she loves it!  Sam is awesome.  Maysen has the office next to Sam.  The lady who works there only works in the afternoons.  Pretty cozy.  I dropped Maysen off today and Sam brought her home.  I couldn't get her right away because my visiting teachers were over.  All the kids came with me to pick Maysen up.  They wanted to play with Anne.  Matt was upset when we got there because they changed the time of Sesame Street to 3:00 in the morning.  Matt thought that was an inconvenient time.  Stockton, Jorja and Preston played with Anne for awhile on the trampoline.

Preston had his first dive meet of the season.  He did a falling front dive, a front jump and a back jump.  He is not scared of diving anymore, but he hasn't wanted to put a hurdle in front of his dive yet.

Preston ~ falling front dive

 Preston ~ back jump

Preston likes the above picture because it looks like he is hanging from the roof.  Preston had a swim meet today, but thunder came and it was cancelled.  We waited and waited and finally they called it.  They are going to reschedule it for Wednesday.  Too bad we have to drive all the way up here then.  Oh well.

Mike took the other kids to his family reunion.  Preston and I were able to make it before it ended . . . thanks to the rain delay.  They had a great time playing at the park.  Maysen spent a lot of time in a tree, lots of baseball was played and some great fun was had on playground equipment that would make me dizzy to even look at.

Maysen

 Stockton

 Jorja

We got home pretty late, but the kids had a wonderful time.