It's a Hard Knock Life!

This summer Austin and Erin participated in a local production of Annie Jr. directed and produced by our good friend Dana Francis. She does an amazing job every year. I'm always blown away by the incredible performance by the kids considering they only rehearsed for about a month, three hours a week. The most important part is the kids have a really good time and it's a great way for them to spend those long summer days.

Austin played an orphan and President Franklin D. Roosevelt (which by the way, was a perfect part for him!) and Erin was cast as an orphan. She had a couple little solos which she just loved. I think she will continue doing theater while Austin may or may not, depending on what his friends do. I had to do a little convincing to get him to be in this one and I know he didn't regret it. So, enjoy a few pictures from Erin and Austin's play!

Baseball, The Lake, and More Baseball

This summer was nice but it was not a relaxing one. It was a summer full of Girl's/Scout/basketball Camps, baseball, Youth Conference, trips to Bear Lake and Heber City, my 20th High School Reunion, and even a production of Annie (my next post). As I just look at our July, I can't believe we fit so many things in. Here are a few pictures of how we spent some of our July:

Ben was on a competitive baseball team that played in two leagues. The Rocky Mountain Super League and the Layton City comp league. They were a young team but managed to win the Layton City league and tournament.

Alex turned 14 this July. We celebrated at the cabin in Bear Lake. He's one of the only 14 year old's I know that would request fruit as his "birthday cake". He really is one great kid!

We spent time on the lake (very cold, I might add)!After years of saying we needed to, we rented Surries. Although the men pretended to be embarrassed, it was a blast. Check out the fun-ness below:

The weather was nice and hot and so treats were a must. Some opted for Raspberry shakes, others for sno- cones, and still others frozen yogurt. Although I didn't get a picture, my $7.00 frozen yogurt will forever be part of Bear Lake History.

Pickleville Playhouse is always fun for a night out at Bear Lake. We had a good time watching "Crazy for You".

There's nothing like a baseball game on a hot summer's eve. We caught a couple of Salt Lake Bee's games with friends and family.

A little blurry but you get the idea..

The ballpark is definitely one of our family's "happy places".

Back to School

Today I have a kid in 9th grade.... (he can never take a serious picture)

...I have a kid who thinks he's too old for sixth grade and should be in junior high...(can you spot that kid?)

...and then a happy fourth and first grader.

Erin is very happy to be in school all day and have lunch there. My biggest fear this year is that we could have daily meltdowns over clothes and hair at 8 in the morning. I haven't had to get a girl ready in the morning. She is very particular.

But, for the most part, I'm thinking it's gonna be a great year!

January 2010

I just returned home from a field trip with Austin's class to the Living Planet Aquarium in Salt Lake. It wasn't too bad for an aquarium 1200 miles inland from the ocean. I really should be working on some PTA stuff but because I am determined to catch up to the present on my blog, I am going to take 30 minutes (and 30 minutes only) to share some of the highlights from January.

From October to just last week our Saturdays and a few week nights were full of basketball games. Alex played on a comp(etition) team as well as Jr. Jazz while Ben played in two comp leagues, one being in Ogden 30 minutes away. They had a great time. Ben's Layton comp team took first place and received trophies. It was a great season for both of them.

I was not responsible for taking these pictures (maybe Ben?) but they showed up on my camera. This is Austin in a wrestling mask diving into the Love Sack. I am only posting them because they crack me up. Please disregard the messy toy room.

Here Austin is passing off his final requirement to earn his Cub Scout Wolf badge. He needed to cook an outdoor meal. It's not dutch oven cookin' but I think it was good enough.

The Pinewood Derby was the Pack Meeting for January. Austin wanted to make his a big pink eraser. Of course Bill didn't mind as very little woodworking was required for this "car".

Much to Austin's chagrin, he made it to the school-wide spelling Bee. We didn't really study a lot but he did make it through to the second round. You might be thinking why I posted a picture of some dark haired kid. Well, it also happened to be crazy hair day and Austin wanted his hair black. Here he is spelling the word "diamond" - correctly, I might add.

We had to be extremely quiet for the spellers but Erin managed to hold up this sign to "cheer" Austin on.

Erin and her best friend Lyndi participated in the Layton High Cheerleading Clinic for future Lancer Cheerleaders. They had a great time learning a dance to music and then performed at halftime in a varsity basketball game. (Don't tell them their LL's are backwards!)

Stay tuned for February...

December 2009

Well, here it is March and I am just now getting to our December photos. I really need to be like those bloggers that post once a week so I don't have to spend a whole afternoon uploading a gazillion photos. Maybe someday...

Here we went to see the lights in Layton Commons Park. They do an amazing job. Apparently only Ben and Erin were impressed.
Every year we have a special time-honored tradition where I go to Sam's Club and buy the gingerbread kit. It takes a lot of thought and preparation to do this. Then all the kids decorate it. Well, this year only Erin and Austin had any interest in participating in this special tradition.

Ben received his Arrow of Light Award in Cub Scouts the week before Pack meeting. A scout is always prepared, right? Yeah, well, we are but just at the last possible minute.
Ben turned 11 on Christmas Eve. We had a great time bowling and playing laser tag at Boondocks.

Here are their game faces:

(I didn't hear the game faces part.)

Erin mad that she lost. This girl is competitive times 10.


The kids won a ton of tickets to cash in for prizes. Just what we need, more sticky hands and bouncy balls.

Erin and her American Girl Doll, Hailey, got matching dresses for Christmas. Hailey also apparently broke her arm and leg. Poor Hailey.


We rang in the New Year banging pots and pans at midnight.
OK, so there's our December in a nutshell. Stay tuned for some Jan/Feb pictures...