Merry Christmas!

December descends with surprises and fun

 Christmas got off to a quick start with the Ward Christmas Party!
We loved the fun time and great food. The kids were excited to see Santa, and of course, Graham had some special things he wanted delivered.

Christmas has been the month of musical performances for us. Carson had two concerts, the first was his band concert, where he played the trombone. The second concert was percussion, something new he has started this year.

The younger two had a school singing performance as well.

It was an added bonus that we were able to have my dad, Bruce, visiting with us from Texas for a couple of weeks. He joined us at the band concert, here he is sitting with Graham before it started.

My dad and I had a great tour of BYU, including the art museum's Minerva Teichert exhibit, a trip around his old stomping grounds on campus, and a quick stop into the Museum of Natural History to see President Packer's amazing carvings.

 We had a family dinner with my family this last Sunday. It was neat to get everyone together, but a highlight for all of us girls was the chance we had to hear dad sing "Oh, Holy Night", a holiday staple of the ward Christmas program in the ward we grew up in Pocatello. It brought tears to Jen's eyes, which then got us all tear-y. What a neat moment to reflect on Christmas past and share with the younger generation.

Here are Kate and I making some holiday treats. It is fun to wear these holiday aprons made for us with love by mom. We love you, Mom.

Here we are doing our usual Christmas Eve traditions:

Or usual swim at the J. L. Sorensen pool in Herriman.

Acting out the nativity.

 Writing a letter to Santa, leaving him cookies.

All the children tucked into their beds, waiting for Christmas to arrive.

Oh wait, only one child tucked into bed, the rest staying up late making last minute Christmas gifts. Oh well, I guess they are growing up!

November is Magical

Okay - after running two weeks of the Draper Region Young Women's Volleyball Tournament, and having so much fun doing it, ironically, our own ward won the championship!! They went undefeated, what a wonderful accomplishment. Audrey did great, they are a good group of girls.

The next day after the tournament concluded, Chad and I flew to Kauai, Hawaii. What a wonderful world we found there! We hiked and and explored by foot, helicopter, car and boat. We also snorkeled a ton as well. What a wonderful get-away!

This is the Hanakapi'ai Falls area, and magnificent. We swam in the water below the falls and tucked in behind the falls. What a rush. The water falling from hundreds of feet creates a huge wind and so much power below the falls. It was intense. Beautiful hike, wonderful place.

Here is the view from our helicopter. It was gorgeous to see these cliffs and valleys, so densely covered with lush green jungle. This trip put everything into perspective, and It was so great to see it all. By the way, there are waterfalls all over, you can see one in the center of this picture.

 Favorite date night of all time. We hung out at sunset next to this lighthouse (Ninini Point). The view was pretty, the sun set was amazing and the airplanes landing over head was a rush. But, my favorite part was watching the large water roll in from the ocean and smash with great power onto the rocks below our feet, creating huge water spray all around us. Incredible!

 Here we at the end of a hike to the top of the Napali coast. This is the view from the Awa-'awapuhi Trail. Below us is the ocean, and around us are the razer thin cliffs that make the Napali coast unique.

The view from the boat of the Napali coast. One of my favorite experiences on the island, though I must say just hiking around was pretty great as well!

 Love, love, love the dolphins. I also spotted a whale jump off in the distance.

 The day after gettting back from Hawaii, I got to do Biz Town with Kate. She was CEO of Computech, and she did a great job.

I helped in the Chick-Fil-A store. My kids did great, and we almost paid back our loan!!!

 And then it was Thanksgiving. Here we are gathering to start our Turkey dinner. It was Fun to all be together and the food was great.

 It was also Iverson Family Picture Day - and here are some:

Girl cousins: Ivy, Lauren, Maren, Romy, Kate McKell, Breanne and Audrey

 Boy cousins:
Brock, Bridger, Graham, Payne, Tate, Carson, Max, BJ, and Mason

 Here we are!


















 Then, about 4 pm, Audrey, Kate and Graham joined me on a trip to St. George for Audrey's soccer tournament.

The weather was incredible, we relaxed between games by hanging at a park and swimming in a swimming pool. It was a great week.

Audrey's team got 2nd place, Way to go! It was a bloody battle by the end, and they played their hearts out! We had 5 guest players, so it was  a little different team, but they came together.

 Here they are celebrating afterwards.

Finally, I got to go to Kate's NOVA graduation this week. She was quite successful with finishing her work for that, received 2 special awards and was selected to read her NOVA Constitution aloud.

WAY TO GO, KATE!

That's it for now!

October is Great

October finished cross country season, here is Audrey at Regions, getting a PR - 19:47 for 3 miles.

We visited Gardner Village with friends.

A zombie and Hermione

The NERDS.

Gross head in a jar . . .

September is Full, Amazing New Experiences!

Okay - it has been amazing to see Audrey part of the high school scene! She has had a ton of success on the Alta Cross Country team. Here she is with the Varsity girls, and she has consistently been the 2nd Alta runner in every race so far. We are so proud of her! One fun benefit of running cross country has been seeing her cousins at meets. Here she is with her cousin Mason.

We got to host a dinner for Audrey's soccer team this month. It was fun having 14 soccer girls hanging out and having fun together. They are a cute group of girls and it was nice for me to get to know all their names so I could cheer for them at the games. They were playing Alta rival, Corner Canyon, the next day, and they WON! Well done!

Carson is running cross country for Indian Hills as well. Here is his race, he is in blue in the middle of the pic. He ran hard and we are so proud of him keeping his lead on some boys and passing others. He was so strong.



We had the chance to visit the state capital building this month, trying to help Carson complete his Citizenship in the Nation. It was very cool to learn about Utah. We took a couple extra kids, and they were all engaged during our tour. We were impressed with the gold room, it was cool to see the congress chambers and Governor's office, but we loved hearing about history as well, including seeing the statue of Philo Farnsworth, inventor of television and hearing about him. The closed circuit TV showing movies filmed in Utah was a little surprising as well.

Here is Carson in the beautiful middle hall, and Kate holding a press conference.

We celebrated Audrey's 15th birthday in September. We rented bubble balls and her friends had a blast playing around with them. The next day, we were the most popular people on the block! We had tons of kids out playing in our balls. It was so fun!!! What a fun day.

Audrey, running at the Nebo Invitational, got a PR - 3 miles in 20:24!!!


Audrey got invited to play with the Soccer JV team, which is an honor. She did great! We are so proud of how hard she is working this year.

Carson received his 1st class scout this month, and 7 merit badges. He has worked so hard on scouts this summer, and it is fun to see him get recognized for all the work he has done!

Wow - and Kate and Graham have been playing a ton of soccer, both kids are growing and learning. Chad and I coach Graham, and I am team manager for Kate. So, our afternoons and evenings are INSANE! We are almost done with the crazies, though. all the seasons are wrapping up right now. Kate is done, Carson and Audrey only have one more week. It has been intense, but so rewarding.

That is it!

Whirlwind August - Back to School Relief . . .

 We had a very exciting August! Audrey tried out for high school soccer at Alta. And, we are so proud of our new high school athlete. After every tryout session, the coaches would post the number of the girls that were still in. Luckily for us, there is a freshman/sophomore team that needed to be filled as well. Here is the list after the first cut. It was so stressful! There 55 girls left after the first cut, out of 72 who showed up. Then every session afterwards, more were cut in the same way. When the dust settled, Audrey was on the freshman/sophomore team, and we are super happy for her.

Ironically, she ran all summer with the cross country team to train for soccer, and discovered that she loved that as well. Somehow, the schedules have worked out to allow her to do both teams, and she is having a great season running Varsity Cross Country at Alta as well. Here she is in her first Varsity event, finishing 19th, 2nd Alta Woman finisher, and Alta Varsity Women finished 3 place, so she made a difference. :) Now, coach told her she needs to finish closer to the 1st place Alta girl to help the team move up in standings.

 The Annual Bair Gutsman Race. Look how much of the Iverson's joined in this year! It was fun to have Audrey join us. We women stuck together, and it was great. What good memories "Conquoring Yourself".

Every August we enjoy watching the balloon festival at Storm Mountain Park. This year, the boys went with me we had our usual donuts and chocolate milk. Kate and her friends were busy doing run club on Friday mornings, so they took a detour to the park and watched the balloons as well. The funny thing was that we didn't even see them at the park, even though those are the same balloons in the background!

In August, we did several trips to seven peaks, and other such things. I finally got a little rhythm going with the kids getting out and doing stuff. Thanks, Julie for always meeting us there so that we have friends to hang with! Carson also took a couple of computer camp classes. Here are the kids plus a ton of friends at the Planetarium. We had a great time watching the dome movie, however, the exhibits are all taken down right now for renovation. The website let me down, not a mention of that fact ahead of time . . .

 I took Kate's soccer team to Boondocks for their team building event in August. Here is Kate racing against most of her soccer team. They had a blast, and I realized how old they are getting. I am glad everyone had fun, but they didn't need much help from the parents :)

One huge adventure we took in August was renting a water skiing boat at Deer Creek reservoir. We waited until after the soccer games in the morning, then drove up for an afternoon of fun. Chad did great being our captain, and we all had fun trying out the equipment.

Here is Kate riding the knee board. The day was beautiful, but a little windy, which brought some challenges, but in all, a good experience.

 And then, suddenly, it happened. The first day of school. I don't know how it happened so soon. I was not prepared to leave Graham all day! I am so grateful he is in good hands with his new teacher. It took a little trust to let it happen. But, now, I am a little more free all day long. Mostly I don't miss the little kid phase of life. I am sure when I discover more about this phase, I will love it as well.

Here is Kate and her friends on the first day. She is so pretty! She seems to be confident and enjoying her 5th grade year. My, she is growing up . . .

 Other fun things:

We rode the rollercoaster at Lehi Trafalga! I have never even seen it running, and we were lucky to be there one day when it was working! Here are Emily and Kate about to take a ride.

 Kate's team played in the Forza "Mayor's Cup" this last weekend. They played so hard and are making progress. They had their hair spray painted, hard to see in this picture, but tons of fun.

We did frisbee golf at Solitude Ski Resort. That involved a chair lift ride up to the top where the first hole was. Since we skied Solitude
so much this last winter, it was especially cool to see it in the summer. We had fun, and it was a good Labor Day.