First Days of School

 School started last week for Corbin, Maggie, and Kent. Corbin is in 8th grade at North Ogden Junior High. Maggie is in 6th grade with Mrs. Bedwell and Kent is in 4th grade with Mrs. Beecher at Green Acres. 

Claire started kindergarten this week with Mrs. Warner. She was so excited on her first day! I walked her back to get in line with her class. She was so excited to play and then to line up. She had a great day and was excited to go back again for day two. She is so ready for kindergarten. She is already reading like a pro and can knock out chapter books. I hope she doesn't get bored, but I think she will just thrive.

 It's crazy it is just me and Van all day now.

x

Wasatch Classic Tournament

 Corbin had the Wasatch Classic Soccer Tournament this week. They won their games on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. The first three wins in at least a year. It was a very needed moral boost. Today they had the championship game and ended up losing, but it was a great tournament. It was the first time Corbin ever played in a championship game. His team has only had one other and Corbin was out of town. Corbin got his first ever soccer medal for more than participation!

It was the perfect weather all week for his games too. A great way to end summer and kick off the regular season!

Doug Moyes, James, Hudson, Lincoln, Caleb, Corbin B, Jarin, Chris

Hayden, Brayson, Matteo, Jaxon, Corbin J, Max, Trev, Jett, Justin Booth

Fish Farm

Tonight we went to the fish farm with Malcolm and Michelle. I have been to the fish farm multiple times, but never actually fished. Claire and Kent both caught a fish tonight. Maggie and Corbin I talked out of it because I didn't want to pay for it. After Kent caught the fish he got sad and the more he thought about it the sadder he got. By the end of the night he was in the car crying because he killed a fish. I tried to talk him down, but that kid is just so sensitive.

The best part was actually feeding the animals and just running around playing. Van really loved the animals. He could have stayed there for much longer than we let him. Claire loves that Jack lives so much closer now and we get to see him so much.

Boating

 The past few weeks we have been boating with my dad on Mondays. Claire and Van usually just stay with my mom, unless we do beach, they loved playing at the beach. Corbin and Maggie have improved a ton on the knee board and can both go in and out of the wake. This past week they were both able to get up on the wakeboard too. Corbin was able to stay up and ride for a bit, but just stayed in the middle. It has been so fun to watch them learn to do it and enjoy it! Kent is always just along for the swim breaks. He can get up on his knees on the kneeboard too. 

A couple randoms from this summer.

Corbin

Maggie

King's Peak

 The annual dad backpacking trip this year was to King's Peak. It was a bigger hike than he really wanted to take the kids on, but it will be memorable for sure! I really love that Matt does this. 

Matt, Corbin, Maggie, and Kent went with Meredith's family and one of her friend's family. They drove to the trail in the Uintas and hiked 7.7 miles to Dollar Lake where they set up camp. The next day they ended up splitting up. Kent, Maggie, Matt, and Maybree got to Anderson pass. The boulders that lead to Anderson pass were pretty scary so they turned and went back the longer route. Corbin went with Meredith and Kenna and made it right underneath the false peak. Corbin got super sick and had to stop there. The last group (without any of my family) went to the peak. Meredith's friend Weston gave Corbin a blessing as they were coming back down. They all met back up and went back to the base camp. It had mixed reviews as they told me about it when they got home, but I think it gets better and better as time goes by. 

Dinosaur Park

A couple months ago I planned an outing with my family to the dinosaur park. We got there and it was closed for a private event so they gave us free passes to come back another day. We finally went the other day and it was so fun! Maggie was gone dancing all day, but I had Quentin that afternoon so he came with us. Obviously it is mostly for the littles, but watching Van was so worth it. He loved it all! The inside dinosaurs were closed so I am not sure if he would have been scared or not, but he loved everything outside. Kent and Spencer had so much fun inside they stayed for quite a while longer than everyone else. Van didn't really even care about the sand or the slides, he just liked to see the dinos. The playground was too hot to play on anyway. When everyone else left my family and Q stayed and walked around for over an hour longer. 

Newsies

 Girls Night! For mother's day we all bought tickets for Newsies at the Hale Center Theater. We went the other day to lunch at Archibald's in Gardner's Village and then to the play. I love girls days and I love the Hale Center Theater, and I love Newsies, so it was a great time!

Marmot in my van

One afternoon Cougar got let out of his run and instantly he started smelling all around my van. Then something started chirping. I thought it was a bird stuck somewhere. Cougar started clawing at my car and scratching it. We had to put him away. I looked all over and couldn't see anything. I opened my hood and there was a big critter sitting on my battery. It scared me so bad! I screamed and slammed the hood. I must have scared it because then it hid down lower. I left the hood open all day and hoped it would leave on its own, but it never did. It started pulling out all the insulation at the back of the engine. When Matt got home from Young Men's he tried to lure it out. He poked it with an old curtain rod, he stabbed it with his hiking poles, he soaked it with the hose, and he tried to lure it out with food. That dang marmot would not leave! Finally after almost an hour Matt had the idea to make a noose. He tried it first with a jump rope and almost had it, but it was too stretchy. He made another one with paracord and got it! He dropped it into Cougar's kennel. At this point it was after 11 pm. Matt and I took the marmot over to the Nature Center North to let him free. It wouldn't get out at first so Matt had to dump the kennel. It was quite the crazy night.