Seahawks End Their Season

The crazy fall is starting to wrap up...thank goodness! Oy. Some how I have managed to get everyone where they have needed to go and everything seems to have worked out okay. Eli finished flag football this past week.  The kid was absolutely ecstatic to add another trophy to his shelf. He lives for the meaningless trophy. Don't get me wrong, I am glad he is happy and that he got one, but they only won two games this season. They didn't really earn anything. Some day he will understand.

But I can't take away from that happy face, right?

I think he was able to pull a couple of flags this year and he ran the ball for a total of about maybe +1 yards, but I might be generous in that estimation. However, he was definitely the cutest one out there. It has sparked a love of sport in him. Every day he goes into the yard and practices punting with Harry and Raef. I can see his coordination greatly improving. He is still a pretty slow runner but maybe if I got him some really good shoes, that would improve too.

Way to go, Eli!

My Blessings

The Primary Program was today and it was wonderful. The theme for the year was “Families Are Forever” and I was touched by the spirit as I listened to those precious children sing and speak their little lines to the congregation. There is power in the voices of the innocent.

I am fortunate that three of my children participated. They did a wonderful job. Eli had to say what his favorite Article of Faith was. He has a musical mind and since he learned them through music he decided to sing his part. It was precious. When he finished singing A Capella the first Article of Faith, you could hear the congregation murmur their admiration.

Julia was able to speak her part very clearly. She also sang well, except for the times she would make faces at Sophie Daynes, her little buddy. It was pretty cute though, considering they were right in front for everyone to see.

Harry was also in the very front and I watched him sing his heart out and just be a littlecutie. He got to say why he was glad he could watch General Conference, because he could see the prophet on TV.

It is the little things that make my life so incredibly wonderful. As the sacrament prayer was being said, I looked at three blonde heads lined up next to each other with their eyes closed and I thought to myself, wow, Heavenly Father has richly blessed my life.

Dynamite Divas Rock the Relay

 I had an enjoyable weekend doing my first relay with ladies from my ward. It was the Red Rock Relay in Park City. Lindsey was kind enough to invite me to the party and I am so grateful for her thoughtfulness. It was just what I needed, to be able to hit the reset button on my life.

We left on Friday night and ate dinner at an Italian place in Midway. Dinner was lovely and it was fun to catch up with everyone. Katie C. sort of took on the role of hostess by asking questions to get the conversation going. We spent all night telling our "How We Met Our Husbands" stories, with a great deal of tangents thrown in.

Katie's family has a cabin in Midway and we slept there and were up super early to get to the starting line.

Katie was runner number one. She looks good, right?

She had to run in the dark and by the time she made it to the first exchange, the sun was breaking over the horizon. The sight was breathtaking; an idyllic, pastoral setting kissed by fluffy pockets of fog. Yep, it was going to be a great day for a run, or two.

Since our team was called the Dynamite Divas, we had a special hand-off, fist bump explosion thing going on. We were so cool, right?

Everyone is watching for Haley to come in on this leg. We were actually going faster than we expected and were catching teams all the time with the staggered start. You just can't stop pure awesomeness, I guess.

Until Lisanne's leg, most of the course was pretty mild. But she was getting ready to make a significant upward climb towards the Jordanelle Reservoir, 2.9 miles straight uphill. And she demolished it.

Here we are at the summit with Jordanelle in the background. Everyone has run a leg except for me, since Lindsey and I split leg #2. Katie was on her way down the hill to the reservoir, so she didn't make this picture.

I am ready to get going. My leg said 9.97 miles and my mind was ready for anything. I am not sure my body was, though.

Holy moley, holy hills. It was crazy what I was up against. The elevation gain was 1599 feet and the loss was 1477 feet. It was a net total gain of about 200 feet. It was intense. There were significant uphills and then immediate, significant downhills. The entire leg was a rudimentary gravel path. There were tons of turns and switchbacks and I have never done anything like that before in my entire life. I decided to just walk up the hills and then really try to gain time back on the downhills. It seemed to work as I did pass about 8 people. I only got passed 4 times. I was happy about that. And I was also happy about the fact that I was able to complete the course in 1 hour 55 minutes. It was not for the faint of heart. And my GPS watch said that the course was actually 10.3 miles long. Woosh! I was really happy to see that finish line and pass it on to Darcy.

Darcy went straight uphill for 7 miles to bring us into Park City, where she passed off to Haley again, who also went straight up for over 4 miles. And then Cassie and Lindsey ran together straight up 5 miles to get us over the summit and on the way to Midway again for the last leg.

That little red dot is Cassie, who had about a mile or so left from that point.

Lisanne brought us home by running eight miles down a steep, windy mountain road. It was great to have everyone at the finish line.  The team even competed in a push-up contest to win a dumb prize and I decided that since I really suck at push-ups I would just take pictures. Somebody had to, right?

Lisanne, me, Haley, Cassie, Lindsey, Darcy, and Katie.

 It was time to eat dinner and we were all starving. We went to Don Pedro's in Heber City and then hit the road for home. I think we were all pretty beat, but we sure had a fun time. I can't wait to do it again next year.

Party Time - 5 Year-old Style

It is just birthdays, birthdays, birthdays around here.  Julia and Harry turned the big 5 this past week. Since this is a milestone in life, at least I think so, I decided they each needed their own birthday party. Yes, I knew it was going to be painful for me to pull it off, but it just had to be done. You only turn 5 once in your life and I still remember my 5 year-old birthday party. It seems this is the age when you really start to remember stuff.

Julia's party was first. I held it on Tuesday at lunch and it was a princess tea party. Julia decided that she wanted it to be a Belle party. I think this can be attributed to the fact that she has a Belle dress. We invited over all of her friends from the ward, her soccer team, and a few homeschool friends we have met this past little while. I hung lights and chinese lanterns (from Catye's wedding), got out all of my fine china (from the thrift store, of course), and had everyone wear their fanciest party dress. It was perfection.  Eighteen little girls descended on my house and it was a lot of fun. 

I had a few surprises for them. They colored crowns, ate a fancy lunch, twirled, and painted fingernails by the wonderful Heather E. They also ate cupcakes and ice cream and Julia opened presents. Then, with 30 minutes to spare, the girls saw the princess make her grand entrance! Belle came to the party...the REAL Belle, according to Julia. 18 little girls were mesmerized. They sat down as she talked to them. Belle had a coronation ceremony for Julia and crowned her the official princess of Draper, Utah. She read them a story and sang them a bunch of songs. And then we took pictures. All of the girls were asking her if she could come to their party. It was most definitely a special day for my special girl.

That party was a ton of work. And then it was time for Harry's party on Thursday. Boy, what a difference boys make. Soooooo easy! I invited all of the boys from his Primary class. They are all adorable and they play well together.

I also did this party at lunch time. It was a LEGO party. I fed them pizza, sang a few songs to them, put LEGOS together, of course, and did an obstacle course in the backyard. They just loved the obstacle course. There was a balance beam, soccer kick, up the ramp to the trampoline, swerving through the stools, and then a crawl through the 'tunnel of death'. This occupied them for about 30 minutes or so.

Then they just played together and continued to make LEGO creations. I gave them all a little LEGO set, a few lollipops, and sent them on their way. It was fun and laid back.

And hallelujah, party season is over...until next year.