St George Marathon Mayors Walk

The girls have had a few weeks off from their city duties.  They were ready to get back into action.  However, there were a few details of this assignment one was being there by 7:00, awake, and completing the walk with the mayor.

They look gorgeous
even in the early morning.
It was still dark.

Close Ups

Walking

No arrests were made

They all survived and even helped hand out the prizes.  Home before 10 and back in bed until 1.

I Thought I Had Graduated??

Here I am 30 something years later running around trying to help kids with their final projects, missing assignments, and final performances.  I thought it was supposed to slow down as your kids grow older.  I missed the instructions that it would be even crazier.  

Ready, Set, Goooooooo.........

Monday...
DHMS Treble Singers
This is the all girl choir that they were required to tryout.

Tuesday....
SRIS Parents in PE
We did warmups and played badminton
I got a good workout in.

Wednesday...
Rylee making Red Lobster Cheddar Biscuits
Teaching her the difference between
a tsp & tbsp.

Putting on the finishing touches.
This did require an outfit change.
They tasted great!!!!

It was an exhausting week but hopefully these things will improve their grades.  It was great to hang out with each one and help with their projects.  

There is still more to come next week.....

General Conference Weekend

What started out as a busy weekend slowed down enough to be able to watch all 4 sessions.  We started something last conference that we definitely loved and wanted to continue this time.  It's a big breakfast to eat while watching the first session on Sunday.  Dave & Ryder were up early prepping while it was still pretty chilly outside.  I woke up to the smell of bacon sizzling outside with dogs barking trying to steal a piece or 2.

Time to fill our plates, eat yummy food, and watch our leaders deliver meaningful messages.

Pancakes & eggs
cooked in bacon grease.
Thank goodness we only do this twice a year.

Bacon!!
with only a few pieces missing.

Surprise!!!
Birthday Scones for Reganne

This is one meal that will definitely become a tradition to be celebrated twice a year.  I love this weekend.  Celebrating birthdays and hanging out with family.  See you in 6 months.

Happy Birthday Reganne!!!

The big 15th birthday is here and she is ready to celebrate.  This year however, we have to fit in our celebrating with celebrating with her friends.  No birthday breakfast she doesn't like to get up in the mornings very early instead wait until the very last second to stumble out of bed.  This will have to wait until the weekend.  No birthday lunch today the school moved lunch to 10:30 instead of the normal 11:00 due to a fun fall carnival in the afternoon.   This will also be rescheduled next week.

Rylee took her after school to get a manicure so Ryder & I left for the swim meet before even getting to see her.  Instead she hung out with friends until 11:00 since it was Friday!!!

Time for presents
Saturday afternoon before leaving
with friends again to the corn maze.

This will keep her warm tonight.

Birthday dinner
@ Olive Garden w/ yummy brownie lasagna.

Can't eat another bite.

Must have candles

A big breathe
before they melt into the cake.

She decided on Strawberry Short Cake she just wasn't sure what that was exactly.  Once I finished adding the toppings she thought it was pretty great.  Next year I will cut up more strawberries if she decides to do it again.

This year is going to be exciting for her learning how to drive, going to youth conference, and hanging out with her group of friends.  We love her and are glad she is part of our family.   She is looking forward to another trip to BT21 Store to spend her birthday money.

CSC Pumpkin Invite 2019

It's been a month since the last swim meet.  We have been invited to travel to Cedar City for their Pumpkin Invite.  It's also Reganne's birthday, General Conference, and the St George Marathon.  Ryder decided one day was enough for him.  Friday afternoon we headed off to Cedar City with plenty of time to kill.  What we didn't count on was hitting the four way stop in Washington which was backed up.  We were now running late and Ryder started to stress.

We made it with 5 minutes to spare before warm ups.  The pool started churning and the kids started swimming.  The officials all gathered to get credentials checked and deck assignments.  The heat sheets were finally printed and handed out.  One minor problem Ryder's name was no where to be found.  Luckily I was still at the computer table and they quickly tried to resolve the issue and entered him into 3 out of the 4 events.  

However, there was a larger problem only 6 kids on our team were actually assigned to swim.  The other 15 were not listed.  Confusion & Craziness started as they tried to resolve the problems.  The head referee for the meet stepped into mix and declared that the meet would start on time.  All swimmers that were not listed on the heat sheet would not be allowed to compete tonight.  Here we are with 15 kids + parents that had traveled from St George and couldn't swim. 

Before the craziness!!!

200 Freestyle
coming in for a turn.

Flip turn for 200 IM

Keeping up his pacing.

2 pumpkins = 2 first place finishes
in his heats.

Ryder worked hard and finished strong.  He won 2 pumpkins for his 2 first place finishes in his heats.  This is the first time winning the pumpkins the 2 previous years he came in 3rd or 4th place.  I am proud of him for being so positive and kind to others during all the craziness going on around him.

We have been waiting for the official results but they still haven't been posted I believe due to the craziness.

Here is what we have from the results board.

Event #1 Mixed Open 200 Y Freestyle  2:43.10

Event #5 Mixed Open 200 Y IM 3:09.95

Event #10 Mixed 12 and Under 100 Y IM 1:32.06

The next meet is at the end of the month.  I am excited to see his progress.

Last Call September

Not really sure where the time is going but it keeps marching forward.  September has ended and along with it the summer temps.

Starting the month
with a trip to Quail.
Due to the craziness this was also our last trip.

Check out the lizard
on the tree.
Julie spotted it while taking homecoming pictures.

Homecoming 2019

Friends

Going crazy at the car show.
Swiss Days Show

The best part of September was the smiles that everyone shared.  We are now marching onto October and the holiday season.  Does anyone have a pause button I can borrow to slow this year down??

Parade Saturday....Swiss Days

The last parade of the season we are headed to Santa Clara this weekend.  They are celebrating with Swiss Days a 5k, pancake breakfast, and parade.  All starting or finishing on their one main street.  There are people & cars every where.  The parade starts on the opposite end of town which means we have to drive right down the middle of their party.  Then we have to drive back to find a spot to watch.

Waiting not so patiently.
Everyone passes the time on their devices.
Me I take pictures.

Here we go....
Love the the JROTC Group
was carrying the flags and marching.

Screaming for our girls.

The kids love the royalties

Not as much candy as last week but a whole lot more kids this week.  The floats, marching bands, and royalties made it fun to watch.  I was told there are two more parades one in October and one in November.  It will definitely be cooler for those.

Dixie Round Up Parade

This is my favorite parade of the whole year in Washington County.  There have been many changes of the years but the one thing remains the same it draws a large crowd, a lot of candy, and a lot of entries of all varieties.  One change they made a couple of years ago was moving it to the morning instead of the late afternoon.  It was a whole lot cooler.

Time to start...
It still took 10 minutes to make it 2 blocks to us.

Rodeo Clown...Randy Munns
He still dresses up his horse and
has more energy than the crowd.

Marching Bands!!
They make the parade
All the high schools were represented.
We counted how many baritones were in each.

Our Royalty!!

I love their craziness
I guess they are really reacting to me
and all my cheering.

Once again they didn't disappoint or scrimp on the candy.  We came home with a large bag full.  Ryder's highlight was Yogartland's free cups.  He didn't share of course but secretly slurped it down.  This parade lasted an hour.  It took us a little while to connect with the royalty.  We got to watch the entries once again at the end.

We had just enough time to get home, change our clothes, and head next door to Andrea DeMacedo's wedding.  She looked beautiful and the ceremony was great due the stand up comedy / minister.  

There was even more that need to be done.  Ryder's birthday needed to be celebrated.  I definitely need a weekend to recover from this weekend.  All I want to do is sleep.

The Big 12!!!

It's Ryder's birthday!!! He is 12 years old and is ready to conquer the world.  It is getting harder each year to find enough time in one day to celebrate with everyone.  This is his celebration week.  We started the day off with a quick snuggle and happy birthday song before getting ready for school.  He rode off on his bike hoping for a great day.  He had a great day with a lot of birthday wishes from friends & teachers.  He did request that he skip swim and we hang out together.

Costa Vida for dinner.
He makes a great dinner date.

Time for presents.
Amazon does a great gift wrapping job.

Got just what he wanted.
A FitBit Acer 2 w/ extra bands.
Of course he added them to my cart.

Saturday, was time for more celebrating with lunch at Pancho & Lefty's not so much for the yummy food but for the even yummier fried ice cream.

Everyone together!!!
We are missing Julie & Jacy.

Love the hat
and yummy fried ice cream with lot's of
whip cream.

Another present...
He was sure he knew what it was.
Then he started second guessing himself.
Yes, it's an external hard drive for your games.

He begged for more family time.  It was off to Fiesta Fun for some miniature golf.  There were 8 of us playing which could have been really long.  Instead we kept it interesting by not waiting for everyone before moving in.  Soon we were separated into 2 groups and yelling back and for our scores.

One group...Sort of

Dave & Reganne
goofing around and laughing at each other.
Trying to keep the other one from completing.

The final hole.
The last group needing cheering on
or snickering at us.  I am not sure.

Surprise!!!! Saturday was so busy there wasn't enough time to cake & ice cream.  However, Dave & Ryder went for a drive to check out a car show in Mesquite.  I decided to make him a big cookie instead and have it ready for him when they got back.

Looks pretty good.
A lot of chocolate w/ 12 candles.

Stop laughing and blow
Please don't spit!!!

One more try
It took 3 more tries before getting all
12 out.
No birthday wish this year.

It was a good change to have a cookie.  However, he informed me that my recipe doesn't match up to his friend's mom's recipe.  Please text her and try again.  

We hope that he had a fun week with all the different ways of celebrating separately or together.  The one thing for sure is he is growing up way to fast.  Next year he will be a teenager.  My hair will definitely be white.