Love the Sunny Fall Days

I have a lot to catch up on.  We have been so busy with the campaigning, the blogging didn't get done.  However, important things still happened in our family's life, and it is fun to remember them and celebrate them. 

In September, Audrey turned 11 years old!  We can't believe how old she is getting.  We had a huge craft night/extravaganza at our house for 16 of her closest friends.  It was a blast, and they all were hyper and full of fun.  Audrey is so good at planning parties, it is fun to have a chance to plan her birthday party with her.  We are realizing that our little girl is growing up.  Her time with us seems more precious than ever now.

Here is Carson running hard.  I am always a big fan of this fundraiser for their school.  Each child runs/walks about 3/4 of a mile through the streets near their school.  There is a lead car with the school mascot and radio blaring.  But most of all, it is neat to see the kids work so hard to accomplish a hard feat.  Carson is running his heart out in this picture.  He is the first boy in the third grade to finish, and he is only a half a block behind the leaders.  The Audrey and Kate were focused on staying with their friends and helping them finish.  I was proud of their sweetness in being loyal to their friends.  And, the fundraiser was a success.  The kids all got unexpected free T-shirts with the extra money it generated.

With all the kids in school except Graham - this is what I have been up to.  I work hard most of the week on "mommy jobs", but on Thursdays (and sometimes Fridays), Graham and I play.  We have taken this bike trailer out a couple times.  We always try to include a friend for Graham, and we have been out enjoying the fall weather.  These are the good memories I will always cherish.  What a neat thing to be able to enjoy time with our youngest child.

A highlight of our fall was visiting the new Scheels store that opened up blocks from our house.  The kids have been watching it being built for so long, and now we got a chance to explore it.  Of course, the first thing to try was their Farris wheel, but we found enough to keep us busy there for 2 1/2 hours.  It was really fun!

 Of course, the witch festival at Gardner Village.  What fall is complete without the requisite pictures by witches?  And, of course a stop at the Christmas store and fudge as well.  We had a great time wandering around, and we got there before the rush, an hour before the village opened.  It made it really nice to not be stuck in traffic, like we usually are when we want to leave.

.The kids enjoyed Halloween.  We trick-or-treated at dad's work to start the holiday.  Employees had decorated the building and created a spook alley for the kids to come visit.  They are standing in front of a LED pumpkin at Chad's work in this picture.  Then, Saturday was the pumpkin party at Grandma's house.  Graham had croup, so just the older three got to go.  Next on Tuesday, the Primary had a Halloween party sponsored by the Young Women.  Super fun!  And, of course, the school had a parade and class parties Halloween morning.  Finally - it was Halloween night.  The warmest and best Halloween I have ever seen.  We trick-or-treated for a couple of hours, until Graham couldn't go on.  Everyone had a blast.  Audrey went with her friends, but we saw them a few times as our paths crossed.  Audrey was cookie monster, Carson was a werewolf, Kate was Cleopatra, and Graham was a dragon.

 

Both Kate and Audrey played soccer this fall.  Chad coached Audrey's team and I helped Kate's coach with her team.  It made for some pretty hectic Thursday nights, especially with the stake women's volleyball I help out with.  We had fun watching our girls improve.  Audrey's team had another undefeated season.  There have been so many rewards for Chad's (and his assistant coach's) consistent efforts with that team.  Somehow, despite the campaign and other conflicts, soccer was a real highlight of our fall.

And finally - Carson earned his purple belt in karate!  He has worked hard for this belt - and he did terrific earning it.  He had to show a little perseverance with this one.  He was ready for a break from karate about a month or two ago, but he already knew all the things for the purple belt, so we asked him to stay in until he tested for the belt.  He did it!  He is now very grateful for a break.  I think we will try rock climbing next . . .  It is fun to have a new adventure.

Election Crazy-ness

 Chad was a candidate for the school district this fall!  We have been working hard for a few months to campaign for him.  He spent 2 week nights and all day on Saturday going door-to-door trying to meet folks at all 6,500 homes in our precinct (Starting back in August!).  He would take anyone available with him and we literally placed about 1000 signs, mostly in people's yards.  We got involved because we didn't think the district was making wise choices for our children - and Chad became the voice for many district employees and parents who had been treated badly by the district.  He has been on several news shows, radio shows and attended many board meetings since we got involved.  Our entire neighborhood has been wonderful - they have really supported us and put in so many hours right along with us.  This was a grass roots movement of normal folks who saw the need for a change.

Anyway - after working so hard throughout Draper, the political establishment started to get a little worried they might loose the  race to a formerly little known parent.  After a automated telephone poll of the citizens of Draper, they found they were behind.  And then the race got really quite ugly.  There were three anonymous robo calls accusing Chad of things.  The next week, 10 anonymous signs showed up around Draper accusing him of not signing an ethics pledge (what ethics pledge????).  Anyway, we frantically responded to the accusations and did damage control.  Then the mailing campaign started.  We had noticed that our state house representative was paying for and helping the incumbent, but when our state senator sent out an attack postcard through his PAC, we realized the stakes were high to the good ole' boys club around here.  Our supporters were wonderful.  Luckily most people know when outrageous accusations are made - they are usually not true.   

It all came down to election night - and what a crazy night.  We were so worried.  The early voting results were posted "early", but it took a few hours to get the rest of the results all in.  And the verdict - Chad Won!!!!  And, every incumbent up for re-election lost, and there will be three new members on the board in January!!!  We are so pleased to see the voters are ready for a change.  We are also grateful that in America - at least at the local level, average people can make a difference.  We were out-spent, and attacked viciously, but the people still got to make the choice!

Our August in a Nutshell

Thank goodness school is back this week.  I am exhausted from all of the events we have been doing this summer.  We really hit it hard, doing an adventure almost daily.  Our most common event was going to 7 Peaks and using our passes there about 1/week.  We went to both the Salt Lake and Provo locations pretty evenly, and we definitely had our fill of water slides this summer. 

 

We had two major races in August.  The first Saturday is the annual Bair Gutsman and Chad celebrated doing his 26th Gutsman with being able to take his daughter on the journey.  She was a tough 10 year old hiker.  She finished the whole thing, despite being VERY tired.  She got a medal for finishing as the fastest 10 and under female in the race (also the only one!).  She showed so much determination, and if you ask her about it, she says that she knows she can do hard things now because of it.  It is a grueling 10 mile course that climbs 4500 feet at over 1000 ft/mi.  Impressive, girl!

 

I did my second ever triathlon this summer.  It was a sprint (I am nervous to go any farther!).  It was the Blackridge Triathlon in Herriman, UT, and I got to do it with my sister-in-law, Marianne.  That was a very fun thing for me.  Chad and the kids and Marianne's family all came as spectators. Anyway, I had a great race.  The swim was pretty congested, but the bike went great and I passed a lot of folks on the run (2nd fastest run time of the women).  My age group was the very last to start, so there were so many people ahead of me, and it was hard to gage where I was versus the other women.  But, when it all shook out, I had the 4th fastest time for the women and was the 1st in my age group!   What a cool thing.  I think that racing could be pretty addicting for me, but now that I am back in my real world, I am happy with my one podium walk a year!

Okay, now for the summer activity catch up.  The kids went to the last radio Disney party this month, and had a blast, of course.  We always stay the whole time and they don't tire out even in the near 100 degree weather.  This time we won 4 prescreen tickets to the "Odd life of Timothy Green", which was a fun adventure to attend a prescreening event.  It was all very exciting.



We went to the Sandy Balloon Festival, ate doughnuts and read books.  It is always a cool thing to watch those huge balloons fill, and lift off.  The kids love picking their favorites.  This year, we got to get in one of the balloons and do a short lift off and return.  What a fun experience for the kids.

 





We did $2 Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point.  One week we did the flower gardens, the next was the Dinosaur Museum.  We love both locations, and it was really fun to go see the dinosaurs.  We haven't been in a couple of years.  Good summer times.


 During the last couple days of summer vacation, I started to get sad, realizing that summer was winding down.  I am really going to miss having Kate around all the time.  She is a big 1st grader now.  But, I am also going to love having more time with just Graham.  I decided to do something big - become Aquarium members again and go together.  We never have seen the otters, so it was a good time to go, and then I will be able to use the pass for just Graham and I this winter. 

  Graham, as suspected, LOVED the aquarium, and we had a great time showing it to him.  The whole family LOVED the otters.  They are so adorable, and later, we caught them wrestling and playing and that was very exciting. 

Anyway, what a good summer.  Now we are back to the homework, carpools and sports practices of the school year.  It is a bitter sweet transition, but we are chock full of memories.

July is fun with a bang!

 Well, I am just going to write about a few things, because the month was so busy.  On July 4th, we ran the Sandy City 5K with the kids.  Chad and I each ran with one child and Audrey ran with her friend (Graham got a cushy ride in the stroller).  We had such a wonderful time.  We are proud of those kids doing hard things, and finishing them.

Later in July, Chad went to scout camp, and the kids and I took a trip to Idaho to visit Great-Grandpa King.  It was nice to be in a slower pace and sit and visit with them.  The kids did marvelous using their imaginations and playing peacefully.  It seemed just like what old time summer vacations should be about.  We took a day trip over to Craters of the Moon as well.  The kids loved the caves, we spent almost all of our time in the caves there.  Good times exploring with the kids.

Audrey, Chad and I joined with Chad's brothers and others on a trip to the top of the world.  We hiked Mt Nebo - and wow!  I could really get hooked on getting to the top of mountains.  This wasn't too strenuous, and it was an amazing feeling being at the top.  The kids loved signing in at the log book.  Makes me wonder what mountain peak will be next.

What 24th of July would be complete without a trip to the float preview?  We had a blast looking at all the floats and voting for our favorite one.  This year there was a ton of candy handed out and games to play at the floats.  We also got to request exotic balloon twisting from our favorite clown.  Good times!

The girls attended the Real Salt Lake Soccer camp, and they had such a blast.  We drove several of their friends over, so we had playgroups, fun and friends every day for a week.  The girls are begging to do it again next year, which is awesome.  I don't even think they realized how hot it was, and that it was hard work.

Well, the best part of the month (and summer) was the Iverson Family vacation!  What a pleasure to have so many friends and role models to spend time with.  I am so grateful everyone took time out of their schedule to get together (and travel from CA!).  Good times and good memories.  I loved every minute.  Thanks guys!

Summer is off to a quick start!

Here are the major events since my last blog.  It is a little crazy remembering all the new things we are doing.  First, Carson is a new cub scout and earned his Bobcat Award. 

Second, Carson passed his test to become a Orange Belt and broke his first real board.  We are so proud of him and how hard he works to learn the karate moves.

Third, Carson was baptized by Chad.  We are so grateful he made this choice in his life.  He is really growing up!

Fourth, Kate had her dance recital - Oh my goodness, she was so excited for WEEKS.  She did so wonderful.  It was really fun sharing the recital with her.

We took a Memorial Day Weekend trip to Bryce National Park.  We camped in near freezing weather and all survived.  We had two days of marvelous weather - and we were surprised with how far the kids hiked on those days.  We did a hike of 6 miles the first day, and 5.6 miles on the last day.  And the crazy part was that they were the ones insisted that we go back down into the canyon for more!

Chad competed in the coldest, rainiest 1/2 Ironman ever in Boise, Idaho.  It seriously was so cold, rainy and windy that they shortened the bike ride to only 15 miles (from 56 miles).  So, he was strong and with many setbacks, partcipated in all the events and we are so proud of him.  Now the question is, will he do another one because this one got cut so short?

Kate had her birthday party!!!  What a fun day of "surfing", dancing, swimming, and crafting.  Kate and her friends loved rocking out to Barbie's "Queen of the Waves".  We planned the party when her cute little legs got sore on the long Bryce Canyon hikes.  She said her party was better than she imagined.  Thanks to all the girls that came!

Chad and I competed in the Wasatch Back Relay - and our team rocked it.  We are the "Gym Class Heroes", and we finished 27th place overall (of over 1000 teams) and had a fun time doing crazy running stuff, cracking jokes and hanging out.

This week is the official first week of summer vacation for me because I didn't have time to plan it until late last week.  Now, my goal is to do something with the kids everyday - and have some fun.  My tendency is to do "to do lists" all day, so I have scheduled things to keep me from wasting the time I have with our kids this summer.  Here we are in down town SLC rocking out with the Radio Disney DJ's at their party.  Each kid took a friend and everyone had a blast.  This should be a fun summer!

Enjoying April Activities

April has been great.  Even though it is spring, the good days have been plentiful, and we have really enjoyed getting out doing things.  Spring break was the entire first week of April.  We enjoyed parks, visiting Grandma at the hospital, the Draper Library, going on the roof of the downtown library, and creating awesome games for Carson's birthday party.  We had a creative and fun spring break. 

Easter was a lot of fun.  We had Grandma's Easter party, an Easter egg hunt in Draper, and fun festivities on Easter Day.  One of my favorite parts was our family home evening when the kids taught the lesson using the Easter egg lesson grandma made for us about the death and Resurrection of the Savior.  What a neat season.  Here are the kids on Easter morning before Church.  Once again, I made the girls dresses.  We did ruffle skirts with the ruffle going horizontal.  It was a fun idea, and they were so excited to wear them.

 April is Carson's birthday month, and here he is blowing out his 8 candles.  I can't believe that he is already 8 YEARS OLD!  It is fun to look back at his baby pics and remember the little Carson, and then marvel at how he turned out.  Carson doesn't choose easy party themes, this year's theme was "time travel".  We built a time machine, and 4 different times to visit (Future, Egyptian, Roman/Greek and Viking).  It was like planning 5 different parties!  I spent hours assembling the party (with lots of help from the kids, especially Audrey), but it turned out really neat, especially the robot future.  We covered boxes with black paper, and chalked them to look like buildings.  We built a city skyline and backdrop and the boys fought other boys dressed up like robots to save the city.  They fought with balloon swords and the robots were trying to carry seed pods (cotton balls) in spoons to take over the city.  It looked really cool in the dark with flashlights spotlighting the city and space ship portal.  My one regret, we had Audrey's friend take the pictures that night, and she never took even one of the Future, so we only have our memories of how it looked.

Poor Kate, she broke her arm again!!!  Just in time for the spring soccer season.  It totally felt like DeJaVu.  We just did this 6  months ago!  She fell down while riding her scooter (on the night of Carson's bday party!)  Luckily, this fracture was easy, no surgery and very easy and much cheaper.  She gets her cast off this next week, but we are keeping that bubble wrap this time.  You never know - we might be needing it for soccer in the fall.

We went on a hike in Big Cottonwood Canyon - and oh boy, the 80+ degree weather in April made it really hot.  We were glad to find shade, including this cool cave we found at the top of a rock scramble.  The kids are good hikers and sports.  Chad itches to get outside so much in the winter - we get very busy when the sun comes out.

This is Graham's first trip to the zoo (except as a baby).  It was actually Kate's class field trip.  We had a wonderful time - hot weather, so we had water and shade breaks and an ice cream at the end.  Graham wasn't so sure about this tiger.  It was walking the fence right next to us, and it made Graham very nervous.  We had a beautiful day.  Now, we just need to decide if we are going along with Audrey on her zoo field trip in two weeks!

What a wonderful month.  It is fun to look back at it!

February/March Mayhem

It has been a crazy month! We have had fun in the snow, but the spring days have been glorious. We went sledding in snow the last weekend in February. We had fun, but the kids complained about being too hot in their winter gear. I guess we are more used to the mountain cold of skiing.

Grahams birthday was February 27th, so he is now 2 years old! He still loves dogs, so we had a dog party for him. He was so happy to open presents, have new toys and eat his own birthday cake. He has also decided to start talking and his use of language is improving so quickly it is hard to imagine how quiet he used to be. He is still very "helpful" around the house and imitates all the jobs the people in in life do. And, he loves being outside. He is always looking for someone to take him outside. The nice weather will be so good for him.

We spent the first weekend in March at the Regional Spelling Bee with Audrey. She got a tough word and got out on the first round. Too bad. It was really sad for her. To celebrate her awesome achievement to make it to the regional bee as only a 4th grader (vs people as old as 8th grade), we spent the afternoon at Airborne Trampoline Arena. So much fun - just what everyone needed to release some extra energy!

We spent our last ski day up at Beaver Mountain. We did an entire day of skiing with the Neiderhausers. Here are the girls and Chad and I as we get ready to hit the slopes. It was so warm that after lunch Kate and I skied without our coats.

Yesterday was the first day of soccer and Grandma's Easter Party. The kids have been SOOO excited. It was a wonderful day, good soccer, fun party, and lots of yummy food and candy. It was a super celebration.

Southern California, how we love you!

We spent the first third of February in California - and we loved it! Shorts, sun, fun loved ones and beach. What could be better.
We spent 4 days at Disneyland, riding the best rides over and over. Kate got to meet princesses and Graham somehow survived the experience. We told him he was going to do "Wees"

The kids are such coaster fans that we rode those the most, but we did our share of Indiana Jones, Pirates, Tower of Terror, and all the rest. We even saw the Aladdin show. It was warm enough that the Splash Mountain ride was refreshing - beautiful days!

Then, we went to Knott's Berry Farm. And, there were literally no people there! It was crazy to just walk on to any ride we wanted and have it sitting there waiting for passengers. It was so fun. It was also fun to experience it all with Nicole, Andy and the girls. They were good sports, and even helped Graham get a nap he much needed.

We had two beach days - and it was so beautiful. We loved the waves, the sand, and exploring Santa Monica Pier.

We enjoyed our time with the Halls and the Kanes while we were in California. It was so neat to feel like we had a home away from home. We were well cared for and great conversations.

What a fun vacation. Now we are back to cold, snow and school. As we were driving through snow storms on the way back, it was tempting to return. But, we have returned and the we are back into the swing of things. Never a dull moment!