St. George weekend

Tanya and Ana had the best weekend of their lives sleeping over at a friends home during the UEA weekend. Troy was out of the country, so I decided to pack up the rest of the kids and go to St. George. Grant wanted to go on some bike rides with a friend and stayed behind, so we ended up bringing along a friend for each of the kids. It was nice relaxing weekend. I had no plans other than what to cook for dinner and the kids entertained themselves for the most part. A little more DS playing than usual, but I was able to get a little movie watching, napping, temple going in! Couldn't have done it at home...

So here are the kids after they caught a few lizards. Every time we go down they love trying to catch lizards and chase the jack rabbits at night. My parents have a place in Washington, out side of St. George, so there is lots of room to explore and chase things. Very exciting. Victor does make me laugh. He's the most serious about catching creatures, but once he has them he wants nothing to do with them (except cook and eat them, which I haven't given into!). So the lizards were all over all of us and Victor kept his distance.

They were beautiful lizards. Brown with blue and white spots. Friday we took a tour of Brigham Young's home and went to a little festival in the park by the tabernacle. The kids were fascinated with this horn this man had carved out of some kind of gourd or tree in Australia.

Brigham Young's Winter Home

The kitchen and laundry and bathing room. Victor wanted to know if the Gingerbread men were real and if he could eat them. Stumped the poor tour guide for a moment.

The garden with cotton, grapes and a fig tree.

Pomegranate trees! They were almost ripe too, so anyone going down in a few weeks go see if you can get a pomegranate from the tree, yummy.

Week in Review

So this afternoon we had our Charter School State finals for Cross Country. Grant took 6th overall in the boys meet and Tanya took 4th over all in the girls meet. We didn't have enough girls on the team to qualify for state but the boys team came in 3rd place!
We loved having Grandma and Grandpa, some cousins and friends at the race to cheer the kids on! Thanks for the support!

Over the weekend Troy's brother Brady, was in town with his cute girls. This was a quick picture Sunday morning before they left. All the girls had a great time playing together.

Thursday night Morgan and Victor had their orchastra and band concerts. They were awesome. As per Morgan's life... she left her viola on the bus that morning and of course a different bus driver drove the kids home in a different bus. We called all around and couldn't find her instrument. With tears in her eyes she gave up, but smiled and said she'd just take the bad grade this semester and do better next time. I had to take Grant to the orthodontist and left her not sure if I should worry or not. I ran into a friend at the office and shared our drama, she of course had a daughter who was no longer playing viola and we were able to borrow her insturment. We stopped and picked it up and got the kids to the school with just enough time for her teacher to tune the borrowed viola. And of course hers was still on the bus where she left it. Its good she takes lifes bumps so well, because she seems to run over more than the rest of the family.

Cute Victor getting ready to play his trombone. He's picked it up really well and quickly and he's good about practicing during the week. We've been very proud of how well he has done.

Below is a clip of Ethan practicing before his first basket ball game. I was supposed to take pictures and instead met and visited with the other parents on the bleachers. He played well and scored 4 baskets (8 points, as he tells everyone). Good Job Buddy!

Last weeks meets

Pictures from last Tuesdays and Thursdays meets.

More Victor Football

Tuesday (above videos) and Thursday (I'll add pictures later) the kids had great races again. Victor got to run this week and came in 11th on Tuesday and 9th on Thursday at 13 min 34 seconds. The video clips are just of them finishing on Tuesdays race, Victor was so intent on beating the kids who tied with him that he grabs the 11th card out of the adults hand by reaching across the other kid. Crazy. Tanya took 7th Tuesday and 2nd thursday her time 13 min 54 seconds. Grant took 4th both days with Thursdays time 12:43. Thursday Tanya and Grant both qualified for state and will run again on Tuesday. The boys team also gets to go to state, thanks to Victor bumping them up a little in the last two races. So I'm going to be in trouble when I tell them he has football this Tuesday and can't run.... Or do we pull him from football this next week to run cross country. He would much rather run than play football. It's just with him and Tanya trying things once and then quiting last year we made a really big deal around playing football. If he signed up he had to commit to every game and practice.... what to do.

Just stuff...

I saw a link to this blog with some statistics about orphans in Ukraine and found it interesting so I thought I'd post it here.


Also, If anyone is interested in hosting a child from the Ukraine at the end of October, they are looking for a couple more host families. You can find out more about Save a Child here and thier silent auction and concert in November here.


Or if you or anyone you know would like to visit an orphanage in Nicaragua, there is a great group of people going in January! You can see the information here.

Last, but not least... I'll be sending out an email with more information, but in the next month Grant is cutting and tieing blankets for a couple orphanages in Kremenchuk (where we weren't able to adopt from) for his Eagle Project. He has material for 30 blankes! He will also be collecting small toys, socks and girl stuff like finger nail polish and lip gloss. Just a heads up for those who might like to help him out.

Tanya and Grant are running cross country and doing really well. Last week Grant came in third and ran his 2 miles in 11 min 22 sec!

Tanya came in first in the girls race last week. Running her 2 miles in 12 min 20 sec. Go Tanya!

A few weeks back we attended the stake fair and I just found the pictures on my phone.

One of our favorite Morgan's : ) is painting Ana's face so she will look like a lion!

Victor was turned into a killer shark.
Ethan has a lizard crawling on him.

Just the leaves changing when I drove home from Logan a few weekends ago... now the hills by us are full of color.

My sweet neighbor showed a few of us how to make this super yummy, and spicy, green enchilada sauce. Mmmmmm.