End of Summer FUN!

I haven't had a chance yet to post about our big summer vacation that was taken right before school started. We went to Lake Powell with our friends, the Bergs and the Danleys. We haven't been to Lake Powell since Bryson was 3 and Garrett was a baby. Paul has been begging me every year since to go and I've been too nervous with all of our little kids, but this year I decided it was time. I'm afraid that we will be going every summer now because the boys haven't stopped talking about it.
We went the last part of August and the weather was perfect! It was hot (of course) but not unbearable, it felt refreshing to hop in the water and cool off. We hiked up to Rainbow Bridge one day, and then went to the marina to get rootbeer floats.
This is the houseboat we stayed on... it was pretty nice! The dads and kids slept on the top under the stars while the Moms and babies slept inside on beds in the A/C rooms.
Mckay loved going on the tube. He couldn't wipe the smile off his face. He kept putting his thumb up saying "Go faster, go faster". Then he would make little waves with his hands. Mckay told me that meant to "go over more hills" (translation - waves).
Garrett knee boarding while bitting his tongue - just like his Dad!

The boys loved knee boarding and then they even tried wake boarding and did a great job at that too!
We had a great time just playing around in the water. We played watermelon football in a deep canyon one afternoon (see below). This is a really fun game! You try to pass the watermelon to your teammates by pushing it down in the water and then it pops up again.

I had fun chatting with the girls and reading the last Twilight book. And yes, I even did some knee boarding which was really fun!
Besides the tubing, knee boarding, and wake boarding, the kids had fun going off the slide on the back of the houseboat, fishing , and building sand castles.


As fun as the trip was, it was so nice to come home and take a real bath in clean water and not have fish swimming around me.

2009 Final Boating Hurrah and Various and Sundry Items

Joe Bond and I took the scouts out for a final boating excursion this past weekend. Bryson is naturally a very good wakeboarder. He has only attempted wakeboarding three times - the video below is Bryson's 3rd time ever - he does a great job. The crash at the end is pretty good too.

One of my favorite toys has become my iPhone. In addition to being extremely functional as a phone and e-mail utility the apps that you can install are very cool. The picture below is taken with an app called FaceMelter which allows you to easily modify any existing photo. Tanner has always been a big strong kid, but as with most of Hollywood and most of Ryan's ward he has had a few "enhancements". You know I figured heck, steroids at 8? If it gets him an offer to play TE at BYU in ten years, then yes, it was worth it. Oh, did I just say that out loud?...I mean write it...

This seemed to be a good place to insert some BYU Football artwork.

Moose Sighting in Heber - The boys have a job to mow a business partner's cabin lawn while he serves as Mission President in Florida. While we were there a couple of weeks ago we were greeted by a mama moose and her baby hanging out on our mowing job. This is a little video clip of that moose sighting.

The BYU-OU Game - Paul's Perspective

Angela did a fine job describing the game and ambiance. But, because I have a new toy (iPhone) and I took video of a bunch of cool stuff from the game, I thought it would be a crying shame to not share it with all of you. The video below is simply a look around the stadium that some of you might appreciate. We arrived to the game fully 2 hours before kick-off to check it out and were happy to have the chance to soak it all in.

First and foremost, Jerry has truly built a "great a spacious building", unquestionably worth visiting at some point in your life. I can see why some have called the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium the "8th Wonder of the World." The HD screen alone is 25 yards tall and 60 yards wide. Supposedly the tv cost more than $40 million, more than the original Dallas Cowboys Stadium cost to build -for the entire stadium - and that only for the tv. Unless you see it in person you truly can't even fathom what a HD TV looks like at that scale hanging over the game of play. In addition, the seats are plush leather seats. We were told that there are more than 3,000 flat screen HD TV's throughout the stadium. I thought attending a game at Notre Dame was the end all as it pertained to college football - there is now a new benchmark that won't be easily surpassed.

The video below is the game winning touchdown pass from Max Hall to Mckay Jacobson with 3:00+ left in the game filmed from my iPhone from our seats.

I have been a BYU fan all of my life - my brother Ryan and I have attended some great games together through the years. The only BYU game in my memory that I personally attended that I believe compares to this game is the Miami game from 1990. I missed my grandparents 50th Wedding Anniversary to attend that game. That game was so great that I don't and didn't have any remorse for missing the big anniversary event. I have joked with my children for years that I hoped their baptisms didn't fall on a Saturday that competed with a BYU home football game because I would sure hate to miss their baptism. Well - this was one of those rare and special games that would have been worth missing something else that was also "special" in order to attend - maybe not your kids baptism, but I sure as heck would have fought to move the baptism to another date so as not to miss this game. What a game!

"Worth Every Nickel"

These are the words spoken by Paul about our Dallas, Texas getaway last weekend to go watch the first BYU football game of the season against Oklahoma in the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. We stayed in the Gaylord Hotel (pictured in the first 3 pictures). This place was amazing, it was built and decorated in true Texan style!

Here are all of the studs (hee, hee)...Paul and 2 of my brother-in-laws, Rob and Ryan.

And here are the wives of the above men, Jessica and Wendy. I am holding Hallie. She was as nervous as I was about the man sitting next to me. Yes, he is real and it is his job to sit there all day on this bench at the resort and look like a statue. Then, of course scare you to pieces when you take a seat next to him on the bench. Well, it worked!

Here we all are at Risky's BBQ at the stockyards before the game eating lunch. Yum! I think I put on 5 lbs last weekend just eating all the tasty food and treats. Its amazing how good food taste when you aren't wrestling with a 2 year old on your lap the whole time.

Paul is totally stoked for the game! The stadium was incredible! It holds over 85,000 people and has a huge flat screen TV that is 60 yds wide. The flat screen cost more alone then the entire last Dallas Cowboy stadium.
We were in awe when we found our seats. Just 10 rows up from the field on the 30 yd line. I am still laughing about what one BYU fan sitting next to us said. Jerry Jones (the man who built the stadium) walked out onto the field in front of us. Everyone stood up and started clapping. This BYU fan yells out,"Hey Jerry, we love your great and spacious building!" Pretty funny!
This is me with Jessica and Allison Newitt. We had a good hour to kill before the game started, so we got all of our kids BYU or Dallas Cowboy stuff.

The game was awesome! I know my boys are still upset that I got to go and they didn't but I had a blast. As you all know (or should at least) we won! If Paul was writing this he would tell you all about it, but I just know the score was 14-13.

This is after the game, everyone is going crazy. The football team is doing their little jig and the police are trying to keep everyone off the field.

Here we are celebrating! The football season is in full swing and Paul has already watched the game twice again. Yes, he is obsessed and he knows it. This is going to be a fun season. Our house is full of anxious fans that are very excited for the upcoming games. GO COUGARS!

School Starts!

School actually started Sept 1st, but Mckay didn't start Kindergarten until today (1o days later!) All our boys are on 4 different bus schedules now. Here is Tanner at the front of the line waiting for the bus on the first day of school, Garrett is in the back with the 5th and 6th graders waiting for their bus.

Garrett started going to the Intermediate School this year with all the 5th and 6th graders in the valley. I wasn't very happy about this, I wished he could have stayed in Elementary school for at least 1 more year. I feel like he is growing up so fast. Garrett is getting very busy this year with just starting a comp soccer team, scouts, and piano. He really seems to like his teacher (she is a huge BYU fan, which helps).
Tanner is in 3rd grade this year and has the same teacher Garrett had a couple of years ago. He is really excited about his class because he has some good friends in it. Tanner has been riding his bike to school a lot this year, he comes home beet red! Tanner is just starting flag football, doing scouts, and piano as well.
Bryson is at the middle school with the 7th and 8th graders. He is in 7th grade and has 7 different periods a day. He has become a pro at the locker thing, but hates having his locker on the bottom. Bryson is trying to convince us that he needs a phone this year, what do you think? Bryson is playing on a comp. soccer team, in scouts, and piano. He is also in a couple of Honor classes this year that will keep us busy. I couldn't even help him with his Algebra homework last night.

Mckay just started Kindergarten 1 hour and 55 minutes ago. He has been waiting a long time

for this day. I got a little choked up taking him down to the bus stop, he is still my baby. Mckay was up bright and early today ready for school, and then had to wait until this afternoon. I think he has asked me,"Mom, how much longer?" at least 12 times!

Here are some of the friends that ride the bus with Mckay. Logan was so sad that he wasn't able to get on the bus today. He even wanted to wear his backpack when we went to the school (okay, so Paul and I followed the bus to school and walked behind the kids to their class along with lots of other parents too). I was so happy that Paul was able to work it in his schedule to see Mckay off today.

This is kind of weird for me to have the house so quiet, everyone is at school and Logan is taking a nap...I will enjoy it for a moment and then, everyone will be home and I will become a taxi driver, teacher, counselor, short order waitress, maid, and a cheerleader. Its nice to have a routine again, at least for the moment.