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.

July Fun and Water Games

 Here is what we have been up to this July. We all ran a 4th of July 5K, getting tons of PR's. Very cool to see.

We watched a ton of soccer scrimmages, and spent the day at Lagoon! Our annual trip to lagoon was a ton of fun, especially now that Graham can ride almost everything! We rode the Cannibal 4 times!

We redecorated Kate's pink room, and now it is a mint room. This was really fun. Kate worked hard with me to get this all done in a couple days.

Graham did swimming lessons, Kate and Graham did soccer camp, Audrey went to girls camp, and Carson went to scout camp.

Here is Carson with a fish he caught at scout camp. He earned his Fishing Merit Badge!

Chad ran a half iron man triathlon at Utah Lake. The swim was officially cancelled because of poisonous algae in the lake, but Chad got up early and swam at 24 hour fitness the 1.2 miles, then showed up at the race to run the rest. He finished and got a PR!

 It is Chad's birthday in July, Happy Birthday, Chad!


Our most amazing event was our week in Lake Powell. We had some friends invite us to Lake Powell, and we had never been, so it was AMAZING! Tons of boating and skiing, and beautiful scenery, and swimming. What an amazing trip.

 We did a little playing at 7 peaks and Lindon Aquatic Center in July as well. Here is Kate doing a lily pad crossing.


To end to the month, we did a mall scavenger hunt, and a little foot golf at Mulligans. What a fun month.

June Brings Summer with Full Force . . .

The last couple weeks of May were so fun. The girls had tons of soccer games to finish their seasons. There were some sad goodbyes as well as the teams had tryouts and the teams changed.

For Audrey's team especially, it was moving when they did their CHAOS cheer one last time. "Chaos on three . . . one, two, three, CHAOS!" not a dry eye among their loyal fans.



We had end of year awards assemblies, field days, and a fun school carnival.

Carson had a band concert. It is so fun to see him play the trombone. He has done really well with it.

We also hiked in Capitol Reef during Memorial Day weekend. It was a ton of fun.

The last day of school party, what a blast!

A memorial for Mom King. We miss you!

Kate's birthday party, fun night.

Our first tournament as a newly formed team. We got 2nd place, not a bad start!Graham playing Tball.

Carson running the mile in a track meet.

April Showers Bring Flowers and Fun!

We spent spring break in Texas, and that was such a fun trip. We stayed at Grandpa and Grandma King's house which they call the Glen Rose Farm. It seems the perfect location for a family reunion. All of my siblings and their families made it there. The farm had so much for the kids to do, and, Elaine was great at coming up with fun activities as well. We also took some day trips and explored some dinosaur fossil sites in the area as well. Happy Times.

Here is Audrey driving around in a sports car - we found she is a crazy driver. She also drove the golf cart around and got it stuck in the river bank at one point. She LOVED driving.

Carson and Graham wrapping rubber bands around watermelons to make them explode. We caught the action of one watermelon exploding on camera and that made us us laugh to watch again and again.


They also exploded coke with mentos, launched water balloons, and played tons of volleyball together. One night, Grandpa took us all on a hay ride with his tractor. What a fun trip!

We had tremendous weather until Saturday, our day at 6 Flags when it poured rain several times during the day. We got pretty lucky, however, because by evening, the park was pretty empty and we could walk onto all the big coasters. It was really fun. Graham especially was loving the trip because it was his first time doing so many big rides.

 The week after spring break was Carson's 12th birthday party. He had 15 friends join us on a space mission at Discovery Space Center. It was REALLY fun. Since Carson loves board games, we made him a Monopoly cake. We have also played several games with him this month, including Monopoly twice.

Carson also got the priesthood this month as well, and has already done baptisms for the dead with his youth group. He is growing up!

Talented Audrey was in the Canyons/Jordan School District Art Show. Here she is with her art that was on display at the South Towne Mall. It was really cool to see her project on display. She has loved art, and has done quite well with it as well.