CYF in the AF Steel Days Parade!

By the skin of our teeth we were in the American Fork Steel Days Parade this year!  I keep trying to tell people that I shouldn't be in charge of things yet somehow I'm still in charge!

I was true to my license plate and once again I found myself L8ASUSL!  I got the okay for us to be in the parade and then I forgot to submit our application.  Organization has never been my forte!  When it dawned on me the week before the parade, the lady in charge asked, "Why so late?" 

I explained that it was my fault 100% and that I was really sorry for dropping the ball.  She told me that if we wanted in at that point we were going to have to be the very last float in the parade and that they wouldn't make any announcements in the microphone about us! 

I told her that that was perfectly fine with me!  So we were float #101 or something like that but believe it or not we were NOT LAST!  There was one float behind us!

Being so far back in the line up made for a really LONG WAIT!

While we waited the kids managed to drink all the water we had brought for them, eat a lot of the candy that was intended for the crowd, run around and act silly and have some fun!

We dropped Ethan and Grandma off on the parade route to sit under a shady tree to wait for the parade to start.  I think that Bradon wished that he could have gone with them because he seemed to make it a point to not be thrilled about any of it!

Carsten on the other hand is always ready for an excuse to party with some of his friends.  Especially when wearing his new Diamondback hat he got from his Grandma and Grandpa Haws during his trip to Arizona this summer!  Looking good kid!

Reagan loved it!

And Talan did too!

 And then finally it was our turn and we were off!

We used an old army truck that belonged to Hunt Electric! 

It's super big, super loud, and super cool looking!

We felt like it was a TOUGH way to show off our boys!  

The kids all loved it! 

 Here's a picture of our cousin, Davis Rasmussen.

At the tail end of the parade Talan started to get brave and strut his stuff!  He was dancing and showing his moves!  I thought it was hilarious!  He even had a little look on his face like, I'm so cool!

It was a fun thing for these kids to be in the parade!  I'm glad we did it even though it was a lot of work.  I think we will try to get into it again next year.  Just hoping I can delegate all the responsibility stuff out to someone a little more responsible!

Summer!

This summer has been going by so fast!

We had baseball baseball baseball, a few weeks off, and now football has already begun!  

Before school got out for summer vacation I remember thinking how excited I was for NOTHING!!!  A little time with nothing scheduled.  A little time of not feeling pressured that I have to be here or there, doing this or that!  A little time to relax!  Get some projects done or something.  Do something that I want to do!

Now we are nearing the end of July and I'm thinking I can hardly wait for school to start.  Get these kids out of the house so that I can actually get something done!  Like a project or something!  Or just do something I want to do!  

WAIT A SECOND!!!!

Seriously... school time or summer time it's all the same!  Since when did life become so busy and hectic that there NEVER seems to be down time?  Was it having 5 children that's caused it?  Or is it having the inability to say "NO!" when people ask me to do stuff?  Is it being too involved in too much!  Is it my inability to multitask?  Or maybe it's a little of all of it!

Well, I guess I had better enjoy it!

One of these days my kids will be grown, my house will be quiet, and I'll look back on today with the fondest of memories wishing I could be right back in the thick of it!

Happy Summer Everyone!

Stadium of Fire!

 Since living in Utah there have been a few things we have done as a family EVERY SUMMER that cost us money.  The Lehi Rodeo is one of them.  We love the rodeo and have made it one of our family summer traditions.  The Provo Freedom Run is another.  We have ran in the freedom run as a family for the past several years.  These are both things that we as a family always look forward to.

This year I got an email advertising tickets to the Stadium of Fire for half price on morning!  Without even thinking about it, I bought them!  After making my super spontaneous purchase it occurred to me that I had pretty much just spent our Lehi Rodeo
and Provo Freedom Run money!

OOOPS!

I felt a little guilt as the weekend of the rodeo rolled around.  The kids asked why we weren't going to the rodeo.  I told them that I bought them tickets to the Stadium of Fire instead!  And then the morning of the Freedom Run, we slept in!  When we woke up David said, "We missed the Freedom Run!"  I felt guilt once again!

Then it was time to go to the Stadium of Fire!

I had asked lots of my friends who had been to a Stadium of Fire in the past what they thought of it.  I got all sorts of answers!  Non that were raving though!  Most were like, "Yeah I went once!  Once was enough for me!"  Needless to say, I was a little worried!

 We got there a little early, parked a ways down the street and then made the trek to the stadium.  My mom and dad and David's mom all came along.  I got handicap seats for my dad and Jeannine so they wouldn't have to hike the stairs.  We all got settled in and then the show began.

We saw Scotty McCreery perform.

 And The Beach Boys!

It was really a lot of fun!  The weather was perfect!  

Our seats were in the shade the whole time and there was a little breeze.

 We were up in the nose bleeds but it was perfect!

One thing great about The Beach Boys is that ALL generations know their music and know their songs.  All ages were singing along, dancing and having a good time!

After the concert they put on a firework show that was AWESOME!  We have seen The Stadium of Fire's firework show before from the outside of the stadium but being there in the stadium doesn't even compare!  It's all choreographed to music and the theme was James Bond!

We all had a wonderful time!

The kids all loved it, my mom and dad loved it,

and Jeannine loved it too!

I was relived!

It turned out to be a spontaneous purchase worth making!

Pre 4th of July family BBQ party!

Grandma and Grandpa Haws came to town for a visit.  They were here for all of the 4th of July celebrations!  Since we were going to the Stadium of Fire on the 4th we decided to have a pre 4th of July party on Monday July 2nd.  We invited all the family who lives in town and ended up with a great turn out!  Eric Schultz even made the trek down from Logan for the event!

We ate, played whiffle ball, set off fireworks, built a fire and had s'mores!  It was a lot of fun and I know that my kids had a blast!  They had so much fun hanging out with their cousins!  And as the night went on, the level of obnoxiousness only ramped up!

Good times!  

Good memories!

Sweet Marvene!

 The boys all star games were played in the west valley.  On our way to one of the games we passed the cemetery were Marvene was buried.  I told Jeannine that after one of the games we would go give Marvene a little visit! 

 

 I don't think Marvene's name has ever been mentioned when 

Jeannine hasn't said, 

"Sweet Marvene, Bless her heart!"

Marvene was such a wonderful lady!

I'm glad that we could pay her a little visit.

All Stars Baseball

This year Bradon and Carsten both played on the same city league team together.  We had Carsten try out for the Major leagues in an effort to simplify our lives a little bit.  He was picked which was wonderful for us and our hectic schedules, but it didn't turn out to be all that good for Carsten.  Since he was the youngest player on the team his coach would only allow him to play right field every other inning and bat every other time around the line up!  He told Carsten that he had to put in his time!  If we had ANY idea that this is what the coach was going to do we wouldn't have EVER had him try out.  Carsten hated it!  And it was so hard to watch him sit there.  Carsten is an amazing little athlete and had he been on ANY OTHER major league team or minor league team it would have been a whole different BALL GAME!

When the season was over Carsten was picked to play on the 10 year old major league all star team.  He was so EXCITED to play!  Finally he was going to be able to play HIS POSITIONS!!!!  Carsten LOVES to catch! And he's pretty dang good at it too!  And I'm not just saying that because I'm his mom!  You should have heard the parents from the other teams we played talk about him! They would say things like, "Man that catcher is good!"

 He made all sorts of amazing plays!  

One time the ball was hit foul and he dove sprawled out and caught the ball, but then when his body hit the ground the ball popped out of his glove.  Another time a ball was bunted up the first base line.  Carsten dove on the ground to get the ball, popped up onto his knees and then threw to runner out at first.  It was so smooth!  It looked as if he had been catching all season long!

 Carsten's all star team played really good together.

 Carsten did a good job hitting the ball 

and a great job running!

 I love this picture of him sliding into home.

SAFE!

 Our cousin Mason Rasmussen was on the team too.

Mason is a pitcher.  They had a good time playing catch!

 Carsten and Mason both think they are pretty awesome!

Carsten had fun giving Mason signs telling him what to pitch.  

The two of them crack me up!

 

 All stars was a great end to a frustrating season!

Bradon was picked for the 12 year old team.

 I took very few pictures of Bradon at the tournament.  Probably because Bradon plays in so many games.  With super league and city league we were watching Bradon play at least 4 games a week!

 Bradon had a blast playing all stars and played really well.  

He played a lot of 1st base which he really enjoys!

 I've decided that baseball season is kinda like a firework show.  And then the all star tournament is like the grande finale!  Well at least that's what it felt like having multiple kids playing in the tournament!  For awhile there all we seemed to do is eat, drink and breath baseball! And then it all came to an end!

Seriously though, I couldn't think of anything else I would rather be doing than watching my kids play a sport that they love!  The day to day may seem hectic and crazy but the memories are priceless.  And before I know it they will all be grown, and this season of my life will be over!

CYF in the Cedar Hills Parade!

 I'm not sure if I've mentioned that David is the Caveman Youth Football league president this year.  Anyways we were in the Cedar Hills parade.  It was sorta a last minute thrown together thing but a total blast for all the kids that participated!  (Mostly all the football players from our ward with a few straggling others!)

Briggs, Jaxon, Chase and Jacob

Before the parade started we had a little visit from BYU's Cosmo the cougar!

 Talan loved it!  

And I love that he has no fear of people dressed up in costumes!

Oh wait!  Maybe I shouldn't love that!  Let me think that over!

 On the parade route!

 The kids all brought candy to throw out to the people watching the parade but about half way down the parade route the candy was gone!  We are going to be in the American Fork Steel Days Parade this weekend.  Hopefully we can do a better job of conserving candy!

We had a few entertainers in the group going over and above the expectations of a football player!  Unless of course that was their touchdown dance they were rehearsing!

Utah State University Football Camp

 This Summer Ethan had the opportunity to attend the Utah State Football camp with his cousin Justin Schultz.

 Ethan is wearing his red caveman gear and Justin is in the bright orange practice jersey.

Justin's brother Eric is the one who plays football for Utah State.

I thought it would be fun for Ethan and Justin to go to the camp together.  They are both going into their freshmen year and they both play on the line.  So the Schultz drove down from Washington and we drove up. 

 When we got to the check in we stood their waiting for it to be our turn.  I looked at my Aunt Nancy and she looked at me and we decided that we needed to get Eric involved!  We had the boys pick up their stuff and head back outside while we called Eric on the phone and told him that he needed to head down to the dorms for check in!  It's not everyday that you get to use the 'ERIC CARD'!  I mean when you're related to one of the starting linemen at the university of the camp your attending don't you think you should play that card?

So we did a take two!

Now remember the first time we walked in?  We walked in, nobody said anything to us and we waited in line.

Now for take two...

We walk in with Eric and immediately about five people say, "Hey Eric!"  Some being players and some being coaches.  They wave us up to the front of the line and want to get to know us.  They shake our hands and chit chit with us, the boys get checked in and everybody NOW knows who they are!  It was a success!  The 'ERIC CARD' worked!

 I think the boys had a blast at camp together.  Such a great bonding experience!  Because they went to the camp as individuals and not part of a team they were on the Renegades.  The Renegades were a team made up of all the individual campers.  I don't think there were very many freshmen boys at the camp if any at all.  Ethan and Justin were definitely some of the smallest ones out there.

 They were taking a Renegade team picture but by the time 
I got on the scene it looked like this!

 David and I stayed in Logan to celebrate our anniversary while we were there so we went to the fields every now and then to check in on the boys.  It was a lot of fun watching them.  Eric watched them a few times too!  When they played in the stadium he could see them from the field house.

I think it was a good experience for the boys!

Hopefully we can do it again next summer!

Just another cake!

I decorated this graduation cake for my good friend Shari.  

Her daughter Sydnee graduated from High School!

Run The RIDGE 2012

At the end of every school year Mountain Ridge Jr. High puts on a 5K race that all the students are welcome to run in.  If you pay $5.00, then you get a race shirt to boot!

Last year Ethan didn't talk a lot about the race itself, but he did talk about the race shirt!  Anybody in the school can submit their own race shirt design and then it's voted upon by I'm guessing the office staff.  Ethan loves graphic design and spends most of his spare time fiddling around on the computer coming up with his own logo's and such.  He fiddled with a shirt design last year but didn't submit it.  This year he continued coming up with new ideas and designs.  When it came time to submit his design this year it wasn't a question as to weather or not he was going to submit one, the question was which one?  He finally narrowed it to two different ones and I told him to submit them both!

A few days later he came home to report that his design had won!

However his name wasn't on the design itself.  They told him to go home, put his name on his design and then email it to them.  Ethan did NOT want his name on it!  I thought it was kinda funny that he wouldn't want EVERYBODY knowing that it was his design!  Reluctantly, he put his name on it really small and emailed it off.

The day before the race he came home with 'THE SHIRT' and the first thing he said with a twinge of disgust was, "They made my name bigger!"

The next day I drove down to watch Ethan's shirt in action!

I have to admit my heart was bursting with pride!  I wanted to shout out to everyone, "MY SON DESIGNED THAT SHIRT!"

 You have to admit, putting on a 5K race at a Jr. High is a pretty cool thing!

 The Little Caesar dude ran the race too!  I'm pretty sure that Talan was the only child standing along the street watching the race and so therefore the Little Caesar dude took time out of his special race for a Little Caesar's picture moment!

 

 We headed to the finish line to watch Ethan finish the race.

 And can I just say, this kid has come SO FAR!

2 years ago I would have never guessed that Ethan would be running a race.  And not only running a race, but running it willingly!!!

I want to say that this makes Ethan's 4th 5K and his best time yet!

Way to go Ethan!  And the shirt... It looks AWESOME!