Sunday, May 28, 2017

Limping to the finish line

When you have kids that are involved in sports and/or music and/or anything at all May is a crazy, crazy month. This year I find myself limping to the finish line and the kids aren't even out of school yet.

Most kids lose their front teeth in the 1st or 2nd grade. Jameson has already lost his front tooth and he isn't even in Kindergarten yet.  Yep, he takes after his brother Britton. 😋


 On Tuesday the 16th Korinne and about 1,200 other 5th and 6th graders from the valley gathered for the Wellsville Mile.  It was pouring rain up until about 30 minutes before the buses started dropping students off.  Here is the crowd gathered for the opening ceremony.


Korinne and some friends before her race.


Being a high school XC runner Britton and the rest of the team were excused from school to come and pace the students during the race.  Britton was nice enough to keep an eye out for Korinne and ran by her during her race.


Korinne kicking to the finish line!


Britton ended up running 9 miles before the event was over (they run 12 heats) and was quite sore that night.  He is in soccer shape, but not quite XC shape this early in the season. Running a lot of heats turned out to be a good workout for the high school kids, too.

Our friends always give us free entries to The Color Vibe race held locally during a Saturday in May, but it seems we always have conflicts that keep us from taking them up on the offer. This year, however, Jenna and Korinne decided to do it anyway and arranged to ride to the event with a friend. Jameson had a soccer game but we were able to see their big finish. Britton was gone all day for a state orchestra competition.


Jameson and his soccer teammates after their game.

Coach Mark, Beckett, Ace, Walker, Owen, Nick, Johnny and Jameson
 The after party at the race provided the girls with more opportunities to be "color vibed" and they took advantage. I'm not sure you could find a more decorated participant.


On Saturday the 20th we used a certificate we had and went to Jack's Wood Fired Pizza Oven to celebrate Adam's 41st birthday.  After several tries we finally fit everyone in a selfie and then Jmo decided to pull a face. Silly boy.


On Sunday the 21st Adam had a pretty low key birthday.  He was at the church from 6 a.m. to about 3 p.m. and then we had dinner, opened presents, and played games.



The spring "OSPY" awards were held at the high school last Tuesday night and Britton and his soccer teammates were honored for taking State in soccer. Ridgeline had a huge opening year and managed to take State in 2 events, boys Basketball and boys Soccer.  The fact that there are 8 schools in the Region and Ridgeline took Region in almost 50% of all sports let's you know just how strong of an athletic program we have right now.  Next year some tough schools will be added to the Region so I doubt they will have a repeat like this year, but it sure has been fun.


After the OPSY's the boys soccer team had their own awards in the library.  The event in its entirety lasted for 3 hours which in my opinion was about 2 1/2 hours too long.  Adam definitely got the better assignment that night when he took Jameson to his last soccer game that ended with a pizza party.


Jenna had tryouts for ballroom dance on Wednesday night and then we set a new record on Thursday night for number of places we were supposed to be at the same time. Yes, we had 5 events at 7:00 p.m. and only 2 parents so we had no choice but to start cutting things.  When I saw the conflicting schedule I asked the kids which one of them would NOT be scarred for life if they didn't have a parent in the audience.  Britton raised his hand and said, "I really don't care if you don't come to the high school orchestra concert" so I dropped him off at the school and went to Jenna's orchestra concert and Adam went to Korinne's piano recital.  


Jenna's last orchestra concert at the middle school.


What were the 2 events we had to miss? Well, Britton missed soccer tryouts for one of the soccer clubs he was interested in joining and we had to pass on an opportunity to get Britton and Jenna's high school athletics physicals done for next year on a night when they will do them at the hospital for only $20. Ridgeline's assigned time was during both Jenna and Britton's orchestra recitals.  Now I'll have one more thing to worry about before school starts in the fall. Double Grrr.

Friday was the Civil War reenactment at the Elementary school and Korinne was one of the flag bearers for her company of union soldiers.



Here she is leading her company onto the field.

It was actually kind of a chilly day so the parents were all in jackets and coats while the kids threw water balloons at each other during each of the major battles of the war.  I really felt bad for the kids who were soaking wet in short sleeves shirts, but they didn't look like they minded one bit.


You can't see her in this picture, but Korinne was holding one of the flags on the far side when they reenacted the scene where the south surrenders to the north ending the war.



They usually do the civil war reenactment on the last day of school, but this year they bumped it up to the Friday before.

On Friday night Jenna went with all of the middle school orchestra students down to Abravenel Hall to watch the Utah Symphony perform.She loved it and she especially loved getting to go with her friends.  The buses returned to the school parking lot at 11:30 p.m. so it's a good thing Adam was willing to stay up and go and pick her up.


We are still waiting to hear news from Ethiopia  An official letter was sent to the government of Ethiopia this week by the US Congress and was signed by 46 Senators and 72 Representatives. It requested immediate action on behalf of the hundreds of US families and their children stuck in the middle of Ethiopia's sudden suspension of all inter-country adoptions, and let them know the failure to reunite these families may have a negative impact on our relationship with Ethiopia. I'm thankful our elected officials have taken this matter very seriously and took immediate action after learning of the situation. It does a heart good to see bipartisan cooperation in an effort to bring our kids home. Hoping for some good news this week. . .




Sunday, May 14, 2017

Life Moves On

Life continues to move at an astonishing speed around here so I'll attempt to write about all of the other stuff that has gone on in the last month or so.

This is Jameson's first year of rec soccer.  We've had some really cold games and a few warm ones. It's all starting to click for him and he has scored at least 2 goals in the last few games.



We were going to all go to St. George for spring break, but then we received word that Britton had 2 soccer games and regular practices every day during the break so I stayed home with Britton and Adam took the rest of the kids down for some fun in the sun with Gramma and Grampa.







About 30 minutes before Adam and the kids left town on April 5th we received the unexpected phone call from West Sands telling us that we had a court date in Ethiopia on April 20th!  The next 3 days were busy as I ran around town trying to get ready to travel and bring AJ home.

My dear friends from high school Emily and Christy came to visit me a few days before we left for Ethiopia.  It has been way too long since we have seen each other so it was great to visit with them for a few hours.


Korinne also played in the orchestra during a school assembly the Friday before we left.


Saying goodbye the night of April 15th was hard because we were planning to be gone for about 3 weeks and I have never been away from the kids that long.


On Easter Adam and I were on an airplane, and Grandma was dying eggs with the kids at home after church.


And we were able to skype with the kids when we met AJ our first day in Ethiopia.




 Britton and Jenna played a beautiful duet of "Heavenly Father Loves Me" during Sacrament meeting on April 23rd. Grandma reported that it was so beautiful it brought some people to tears.


Britton had a few soccer games while we were gone.





And Jameson loved his new stuffed animal from Grandma.

We ended up returning from Ethiopia in time to see Jenna's ballroom dance end of year show at the Ellen Eccles theater.




 I watched Britton be inducted into the National Honor Society this week at the high school while Adam attended one of Jameson's soccer games.  In May we always seem to have a lot of "divide and conquer" nights.
Britton is in the middle of the back row

On Thursday we first went to Korinne's orchestra concert. . .

Korinne is 2nd to left in back row

. . .and then ran to the middle school to see Jenna perform in the drama club play they wrote and worked on all school year long.


Jenna was very convincing as the "evil queen." She stayed after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the school year for drama club. She liked it so much she has decided she wants to be in the drama club at the high school next year.


On Friday night we headed to Rexburg to witness the baptism of my sister Heather's youngest child, Quinn, on Saturday morning.


Then we toured the Idaho Falls Temple before it is rededicated next month.



Britton was thrilled that Ridgeline won the 3A State Soccer Championship this weekend.  Go Riverhawks!! Britton didn't play Varsity this year, but he worked out with these guys day in and day out and was a part of the JV team.



 Our next door neighbor, T.J. is #13 in this picture and has made my life SO much easier this soccer season.  He is a senior and brought Britton home from soccer practice every day and also drove him to all things soccer related.  He and his brother Quinn drive Britton to school every morning so we don't have to. What great neighbors. 😊