Costa Rica will never be the same!

 Our amazing trip to Costa Rica!  Here are the cloud forests we drove through on narrow, wind-y roads.

Audrey becomes fast buddies with fellow team mate, Morgan.

 Body boarding on the beach at Jaco.  Teaching the girls, then not seeing the boards again until we left.

 Hiking rain forests most days of the week we were there.

Visiting downtown San Jose, Costa Rica.  What an experience.  Very fun to see the fusion of latin with modern, with colonial, with american culture.  What a unique place.

Helping out in an orphanage for 2 days, seeing the girls play together, love being together, then crying when it is time to say goodbye.  What a neat experience.

Playing soccer in the Heredia stadium.  One of the best teams in central america, and we were there, in their stadium for 4 days, being trained by expert coaches.  And the tournament was really neat.  It made every one long for an annual cultural exchange.

Catching soccer fever with the rest of  Costa Rica.  Audrey and Chad wearing the Heredia uniform.  World Cup began, and seeing the country celebrate after their first surprise win.  Very fun to experience.


 Ziplining near Arenal Volcano.  Here is Audrey, brave enough to volunteer to go first!

Canyoneering in Lost Canyon with Desafio adventures.  definitely a high-light of our adventure!

And finally, white water rafting with Desafio - on the Sarapaqui River.  Great times, fun to share with each other.  I am sure the start of more adventures like it.

Spring 2014

 Spring flew by, and in review, I chose a few pics that showed some of the things we were up to.

Over spring break, Kate flew to California and hung out with her cool cousins there.  Meanwhile, the rest of us did things close to home.  Here are Audrey and Carson at the new aquarium together.  It was fun to see the new space, however, we were surprised how many animals had not made the move yet.  We were looking forward to a return trip, and taking Kate there as well.

Carson's birthday party was during spring break.  We celebrated a mine craft party with "Steve" birthday cake, mine craft - craft projects, a Foosball tournament, and of course, a little mine craft.  Fun night, Carson!

 Now for Easter.  We had fun Easter egg hunting, celebrating at Grandma's Easter Party, and other such adventures.  On Easter morning, the girls wore the dresses I made for them this year, and we had a sweet day.  It was an especially poignant day for me as I remembered my dear mom, and the very real hope that Jesus' Resurrection brings for being together again.

 We celebrated Kate's birthday party in May.  We wanted to celebrate before school ended and life got really hectic.  She chose a Frozen theme, and it was really fun to plan the party.  We did "ice castles", snowmen, and marshmallow shooters.  later we had a fight with the shooters and "snowballs" of paper in the back yard.  We danced to Frozen music videos, and did a relay race.  It was a ton of fun.  Kate is EIGHT years old now, I can't believe it!

 May was recital month.  Kate had her dance from the movie Brave.  She is such a beautiful girl, it is a pleasure to be involved with her recital.  Grandma took very good care of her the night of the recital.  And we hear that she had a ton of fun.

Travels:  Chad and I went to Chicago in May, the weekend of the recital.  So, we actually missed the recital.  But, what a sweet experience Chicago was.  We connected with several of our friends from Chicago over dinner in Hyde Park.  Then the next day attended many reunion festivities for the Booth Graduate School of Business 10 year reunion.  My how time flies.  It seemed as though it was just yesterday that we lived there.  I found myself thinking about where I would take Audrey the next week.  Then freak out, because 10 years has passed!  We had a nice visit that included a trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Giordano's pizza, and the old Hyde Park ward.  Wonderful visit.  Glad to go.  Meanwhile, Julie and Josh treated our kids well with BYU pep rally visit with cheerleaders and football gear and s'mores in the canyon.  I don't think we were missed.

Also, Chad spent a week in India in May.  He has crazy stories about running with monkeys, and such.  We are glad he made it safely back to us.

 We did a little hiking as well.  Over Memorial Day weekend, we found a moment to hike Adams' Canyon.  The waterfall was amazing, the hike was great.  The kids enjoyed getting out, despite the incredibly hot temperatures that day.  We thought it was a short hike, but it was probably more like 2-3 miles each way.  Poor Graham got worn out, but he did the whole thing!

And we did soccer, soccer, soccer!  This was Graham's first go at it.  He had a ton of fun, but he was most excited that the coach was his mom.  I on the other had was surprisingly nervous and flustered about coaching.  We all hit our stride mid season, and had some fun.  We are a very young team, but we learned a ton of skills.

Kate had a great season.  She scored several goals, like this one here.  Since she plays mostly defense, that is pretty remarkable.  Her skills are really coming along.  We have really enjoyed watching Kate improve.  Chad is her assistant coach, and one of his favorite jobs.

Audrey is still playing competitive soccer.  Her team jumped from Division 4 to Division 2, and their record shows the challenge that was for them.  However, we think they are on the verge of emerging as a great team.  It will be fun to see the games this fall.

May also saw the return of my dad and Elaine for a visit.  They stayed with us for a week.  It was fun to hang out with them.  Here Bruce is on a field trip to Wheeler Farm with Graham and I.  It was a neat experience to share together.  Thanks for coming, Dad!  It was Elaine's daughter's wedding.  Their reception was my kids favorite one ever.  They threw a very fun party, and I am sure that will be hard to live up to!

That is about it - what fun it has been.

January and February Fly By . . .

 My dad came visiting from Texas in January.  What a neat visit.  We were so glad to have him come.  His visit brought with it so many new changes.  We loved having him here.  In this picture, we ventured out in the snow.  He and I walked, and Kate and Graham rode their bikes.  It was good to have him with us.

 Audrey started her first futsol season this winter.  It has been fun to see her be more involved with offense. Since futsol has so few on the court, everyone has to contribute offensively as well.  She has worked really hard to get better, and it has really made a big differences in her ball control and passing.  It is so fun to see.

By brother, Andrew and Katie, came to visit from Texas in February.  We are so lucky to have them come to see us, as well.  We had several days to hang out with them and get cousin time.  What fun to have family around.  They have three adorable kids, and we are glad to have them come to visit us Northern folks.


 Audrey had her first Presidents' Cup Tournament in St. George/Mesquite.  It was really fun to go watch her play, and really fun to have a gorgeous weekend to do it in!  She played the team that won her division in her first game.  They tied it 1 - 1.  They went on to play a few more games, all close ones, but they didn't win.    We played hard every game.  We just need to score a little more.

When we weren't watching soccer, we were playing hard with the kids.   We hiked the Dixie Rock and the slot canyon area around there.  We played at parks, at the Virgin River Recreation Area, went on a short bike ride on a trail and, on the way home, we stopped at Kolob Canyon.  We made some wonderful memories for our Presidents' Day Weekend.

I took Graham and his friend, Jason to the zoo on their free day.  It was so wonderful to be outside on this gorgeous day.  We saw lots of animals, and had a great time.  It was VERY crowded, and we had to park extremely far away, but I was very glad to share the zoo with Graham.  We hadn't taken him since he was barely 2 years old.  I was also excited to see the new polar bear exhibit.  I just wish that the bear liked to swim a little more!

Finally, we ended the month with Graham's birthday party!  He is 4 years old!  We had 4 friends over, played crazy games with light up balloons and stuffed animal puppies.  He loved his Paw Patrol theme.  It was very fun to anticipate and plan his party with him.  He talked about it a lot.  I think that he had a ton of fun, and the party was very exciting for the little guys.

Christmas is a special time

 These are our Christmas Eve snowmen.  They were fun to build and play with.  A couple weeks later they are still standing, just a little melted in places.  It was fun to play with the kids in the new snow.

 What is Christmas without Santa Claus?  Audrey and her friends are asking for special favors from him this year.

 The kids and I made it to temple square.  Chad was working a ton, and he had to miss.  However, it was really neat to share it with the kids.  We really felt the spirit there.  It was hard to get them to leave, even though we were really cold.

 Here is another Christmas Eve Tradition - gingerbread houses.  They all have fun decorating their own house.

 Kate is Mary again for our Nativity Reenactment.  What fun to have twists thrown in every year.  Joseph, the wise man and the angel all have shaving cream beards.  And somehow, a swimming pool toy made it into most of the pictures.  It makes me laugh!

 What a good day!  What more can I say than FUN!  The Iverson clan all goes sledding for a day - and we played for hours.  So many good memories.

Playing with our Christmas toys.  Here is the Empire State Building that took forever to build.  It is a 3-D puzzle.  Audrey had a great toy for her parents to play with her.

November Blessings

November Thank-full Hearts. 
We celebrated Thanksgiving with just our family this year.  It was a little quiet - but the sillies came out after our tummies were full.  We are so blessed to be together and enjoy the holiday season.

Chad and I were invited to a Jazz Game - about 3rd row.  It was pretty cool to see all the action so close up.  Amazing night, and fun to be out on the town together!


We had our first skiing venture of the year.  It was Graham's first trip.  We all had fun, and thankfully - the weather was pretty warm.  It is fun to be able to all ski together as a family.

Happy Holidays to all.

Fall is upon us - Enjoying October

 Through an unexplained accident with my camera, I deleted the month of September pictures.  That is very sad for me.  So, I feel very happy to have October pictures to remember the fall with.

The first Monday in October there was no school.  We partied the whole day!  Audrey went to a birthday party, then we took friends to Gardner Village Witch festival, then we stopped by Scheels.  It was a fun start to the Halloween season.


I had lots of opportunities to run with my kids this fall.  There was a school jog-a-thon and both Carson and Kate did so well running in that.  Carson never even walked for 20 minutes straight!  Then with soccer, Audrey and I have run her 3 mile running assignments weekly.  She is getting so good at running!  She did a 5K fun run at her middle school one afternoon, and got 3rd place of the 6th grade girls.  It has been fun to see her interests start to include running.  I felt very fortunate to get the opportunity to run with the kids.
Carson and Kate both did reflections this year.  They used model magic and sculpted a project.  The theme was about dreaming and becoming.  Here is Carson holding up his model of "when pigs fly" - and they are!  It was fun to see their creativity explode with the model magic.  We have a lot of little sculptures they have created around the house now.

Graham and I like to spend a little time together doing fun things when the other kids are not around, especially on Fridays.  We really enjoyed watching the construction workers knock down the old Mount Jordan school.  It was very cool to see them knock down the large chimney.  This last Friday we went to Scheels together and played around.  It was fun, but the coolest thing for Graham happened after.  We drove over to where the big excavators were working in the Scheels back lot.  We sat and watched them work for quite a while from the car.  After a while, the worker of the biggest excavator motioned for us to come over.  We got out of the car and walked over.  He invited Graham to come sit in the excavator with him while he did some digging.  Graham was so excited!  After we were done with the digging, we stopped at Draper Park.  What a perfect day for Graham!

I am helping this year with the PTA for the first time ever.  I had so much going on in August, that I had to wait until September to even think about helping.  They promptly gave me a very large job to do.  Most of the students in the school are new, so it was complicated for the PTA to fill leadership this year.  I was excited to help be part of the new neighborhood school.  We have never had one, and it is so exciting to know the other parents in the school with us!  It gives me a ton of energy to help build it up! Anyway, here is one of the two projects I did in October - Red Ribbon Week.  It is an example of the 8 projects I am over this year.  I produced a movie, coordinated with a team to do a Drug Free project with the kids, sent home a talking points paper for the parents, and created this cup sign.  The movies are turning out to be really fun to produce.  I guess we continue learning our whole life!

Well - our soccer girls did amazing this year.  Both teams were undefeated.  Kate's team did have one tie.  Audrey's comp soccer team is hoping to move up a couple of divisions because of their dominance.  It has been a pleasure to watch these girls play, VERY FUN.  They are both improving so much.  Audrey is growing into her new goalie role well.  The most important thing - they are both just loving to play soccer.

Carson did Lego Stop Motion Animation this fall with his friend.  They had a blast.  He is in his element there, for sure.  We are looking forward to when he starts piano lessons next week.

Now for class programs and Trick-or-Treating on Halloween.  A few big surprises with the boys - Graham (the red and purple dragaon) actually does sing in class, he knows all the words and actions and sang along with his class in the performance.  It was adorable.  He has definitely been holding out with his mom!  Second surprise - Carson is one of the blondes in the middle of the all boys, turned girls. They sang the Lollipop song in his class show.  I just laughed and laughed.  The boys hammed it up and did a great job.  What an adorable program the Mrs. Stockman's 4th grade class did.

 On Halloween, Kate and Graham went trick-or-treating with us.  We joined up with Kate's friend Emily, and had a great time.

Carson went with a large pack of boys.  He is in the middle holding a green pillow case in this picture.  We see the stash they collected - they seemed to have a great time.

Audrey joined with her friends and raided a ton of houses as well.  She is the Zombie soccer player with a half soccer ball on her head.  She hung out with friends after the trick-or-treating and didn't get back until late.  It was fun to see her enjoying the night.

And that was our October.  Very fun, we will miss the nice weather.