Fall Soccer

Jonah and Oliver both played on soccer teams this fall. They both had great teams and great coaches and had a good time playing. It was fun to watch their improvement throughout the season as they learned more about how the game is played.

The season started at the end of August and it was truly one of the hottest and most humid days all summer! But, as I knew would be the case, by the end of the season (late October), we were all bundled up.

The boys played at the same park and sometimes we had an hour to kill between games. Once, in an effort to keep warm (and because the playground equipment was too wet), we played our own game. Jonah was the official photographer and Georgia was the official cheerleader.

Mom Gets Away!

At the beginning of September, I took off by myself to see my sister's new baby. I had a great time spending some time with my nieces and nephew (something I don't really get to do when I'm tending to my own kids!), holding the newest one, making dinners for my sister, and imparting upon her all of my parenting wisdom. I also got to visit with some old Arizona friends and family. It was really strange to be without the kids though!

A Day at the Beach .... Volleyball Tournament

Jordan is really into beach volleyball, so I made sure we had tickets to a tournament that was going to be in town on Labor Day weekend. We had a great time. We got to see Jordan's favorite player - Kerri Walsh Jennings - play and we got her autograph, too! I bought a mini ball to get autographs (because that's what everyone else was doing!) and the boys had fun going up to players asking for their autograph. Kerri is kind of a big deal, so we had to wait in line for hers, but the rest, the boys just went up to them in between matches. Kerri thought Georgia was really cute, and even waved to her when we walked past her a bit later on. She was very nice and took awhile to talk with us and sign pictures for everyone. She actually didn't do one for Jonah at first, so I went back over after the group behind us was done and quickly asked her for another one. She was happy to do it, despite me totally cutting in line. Jordan realized later that his Arizona shirt was perhaps a poor choice, since Kerri went to a rival (then) Pac-10 school - Stanford.

This picture made it up on the jumbotron! I put it up on Instagram with the proper hashtag and then there it was. That was pretty cool!

Pictures of Summer and Back to School - August

The kids went back to school at the end of August. But before that, we tried to squeeze in as much summer as we could.

One day, we went out to fossil park to hunt for fossils and then over to a playground to play. We ended up at a water playground that I didn't realize was a water playground (we were there before in the fall, when the water was obviously turned off). We didn't have swimsuits or a change of clothes and at first the kids were sad and didn't want to get wet, but they quickly changed their minds and had a great time. We went later on in the month properly ready to play in the water. The kids thought they were so funny when they put Georgia in the back seat after I asked them to please get her in her carseat. 

One of the last things we did before school started was go to the park for their "touch a truck" event. The kids got to climb in lots of different kinds of trucks.

Fifth Grade

Second Grade - he wanted his hair spikey, it was a little too long for spikey, but we made it work!

All ready for kindergarten!

The kids thought they were so funny when they put Georgia in the back seat after I asked them to put her in her car seat.

This one was too big to take home, but lots of fossils!

Pictures from another park day. There are lots of fun spots to get wet around here.

From another park day. There are lots of fun spots to get wet around here!

From another park day. There are lots of fun spots to get wet around here!