Circus

We got to go the Ringling Bros. Circus a couple of weeks ago. The kids had so much fun. It is very interesting to watch. Jeff ended up spending the last 45 minutes of the circus with the babies outside the show. They just couldn't last anymore. It was getting loud and they were done for sure. What a good dad. Here are some pictures of the hightlights.

The first picture is of the elephants dancing. The next is of all my boys anxiously waiting for the show to start. The next is Ryan and me taking a picture of ourselves. The next is a picture of the Ball of Death. At least that is what I called it. They had 7 motorcyclist in that thing driving around in circles. Doesn't give much room for error. I sat and wondered to myself, how do you practice for something like that. The last picture is of the acrobatics portion of the show. The whole thing was really good. As Jake said over and over, I couldn't take my eyes off the stage.

Utes Season Begins

Well the season is officially begun and we are having fun already. We began with Fanfest and the kids loved it. They got to get signatures and pictures of Utah teams. They also got to go on the field and do tons of fun activites. It was so hot that day but we had tons of fun.

After Fanfest we went and spent the night at the cabin in Strawberry. Jeff needed to mess with the television a bit so we met Ed and Beth up there and got all of that taken care of. We had a lot of fun while we were up there. The babies turned into little birds. Whenever Ed would have a plate of watermelon, the babies would turn up and eat most of his plate. They had watermelon radar. Also we had a cake for Beth's 80th birthday. I think the most fun part for the boys was setting up the chipmunk trap and using leftover pancakes to catch em a chipmunk. That thing went nuts in the trap and Jake was nervous about setting it loose. He thought for sure it was going to come and get him.

And then Jeff, Adrienne, and Jake got to go to the Michigan/Utah game at the BIG HOUSE in Ann Arbor Michigan. They had so much fun. The stadium was huge and there was gold and blue everywhere. There was a small strip of red at the top of the stadium. There was a tailgate party before the game and they got a chance to cheer and get all pumped up for the game. Like that would really be hard. Utah won and the weekend couldn't have been any better. Then they got to spend a day with my family in Indiana. Jake loved seeing his cousins and I think a bit too much information was shared during the visit. From what I understand since I wasn't there they felt more free to talk about me and also some pretty interesting topics from what I hear. The interesting topics weren't about me but lets just say my nephew Michael figured out a few things that he wished he never knew. It was a good visit and a great game.

More Excitement

Jake has had some exciting things happen lately. School started a week ago and he is already having good things happen at school. His teacher has a special award called the super bee. It is given to a student that is behaving, treating others kindly and doing his work. He gets to bring the super bee home for the night. He was so excited and of course we were too and so proud. We think he is one of our super bees.

Jake also had soccer start. This year he is in the U-8 league which means they are supposed to know mostly what they are doing and the field is 3 times bigger than last years field. Jeff's cousin Stacy is coaching them and doing a great job. She has some challenges ahead but they have only had time for one practice so I think the best is yet to come. He got tired fast, having to run so much but he got to play goalie in the second quarter and he did good. We hope he keeps having fun with it.

Also our other big news is we finally have some babies interested in walking a bit. They are getting better everyday. They tend to walk better and more often when I have the camera put away but we managed to get a few steps that Alex took on camera the other day. Usually when the camera comes out, the babies head right for it and forget everything else that is going on. Having a bit of footage is a rare treat. I am exciting about the walking but a bit nervous. They already get into everything, can you imagine how bad it can get.

Jeff and Jake are in Michigan this weekend for the big football game so we will post pictures of that when they get back.

It is that time of year again.....

when life gets a bit crazier and alot more interesting. With the beginning of school, life brings on another new set of challenges. Things are going good and our routine is beginning to get into full swing. My mother in law is still my saint and watches the babies and Zach(2days a week because of preschool) while I work for 3 hours in the morning. I still have the wonderful chance to teach part time and I enjoy every minute of it. It definitely doesn't get any easier but just more adventurous every year. Jake is now in 1st grade and loving it. I think he likes being at school a full day but Zach is definitely having brother withdraws. Jake has lots of new kids in this class but he is meeting new people and learning tons. His teacher seems really nice and she loves teaching, which helps. He is so smart and works hard at his reading. I can't believe how he improves everyday. Zach is in Pre-school for 3 days a week this year. He goes to Mrs. Julie's Take Flight school. She is wonderful and does tons of fun things with the kids but they also are learning so much it is crazy. He came home the first day and said my teacher is so,so,so, so, so, so nice. I hope I got the right amount of so's in there. I am happy that he is having fun. Here are pictures from right before leaving for the first day.

We also went to the Utah Utes Fan fest last Saturday. The kids loved it. Basically they open the stadium and have all the different sports teams come and set up booths. You can get autographs and pictures and then they have tons of things you can play with. For example the ski team had a snow pile made and the kids could take tobagon rides down the hill. The golf team had greens set up so you could hit the golf ball. They had those blow up things to jump on and much much more. It was so hot but it really was fun. My sister in law was my personal photographer but we didn't get the pictures downloaded before she went home so I will post some good pictures next time. Then we went to the cabin for the night and that was nice. The boys love the cabin. We haven't been able to go much this year but hopefully next year we can go more. It is always nice to relax and enjoy the cool weather. Also Zach had his first soccer game tonight. We are so proud. It is his first time being in organized city league sports and I was quite impressed. He is quite an aggressive little thing. I don't know if that is good or bad. I had to leave half way through the game to go to Jake's back to school night, (our first child activity conflict how scary) but Jeff got some great pictures and videos.

Jake has his first soccer game on Thursday. He is in the upper league now so we are anxious to see how he does. We will post pictures of him next time also. We are still loving life and can't wait to see what comes next.

Musicians and Much more

We have had a ton of fun activities since we got back from vacation but we definitely are ready for school to start. Shortly after coming back from our vacation we decided to go bowling as a family activity. We had a great time and the boys loved it. Jake got very excited and Zach couldn't believe it when he actually knocked down pins. We had a blast.

We also passed the time by having family over and playing guitar hero on the side of the house. We borrowed Jeff's dad's projector, inspired by my brothers parties in Indiana, and played until late in the night. We probably drove the neighborhood crazy but we had fun. Hopefully we will get to do this again before winter comes.

It has been a hot summer which makes it hard to convince the kids to go outside and play but there has been some nice days and the babies have finally decided that grass is alright. It took a while to convince them but now they love it.

We also have some new musicians in our home. The twins have discovered the recorder and love to listen to themselves play it. They giggle and get such a kick out of it. Of course we all sit around and listen to them so I am sure they love the attention they get from doing it. They are really starting to get their personalities. It is very exciting.

Zach also got our wonderful laughing machine(Alex) going the other night again. It was so funny how much he was giggling. Alex has been sick lately so it was nice to see him have a little life in him, even if it was only for a few minutes.

And lastly, we have been trying to get the older boys back on the schedule of going to bed earlier to prepare for the beginning of school. Well the attempt has been in vain but the best part about the struggle is seeing them in the morning and how tired they must be. They definitely can sleep through anything as witnessed in the following picture.

Trip to Indiana

Well we made our annual trip to Indiana to see my family. We had the best time. We did tons of things but stayed pretty close to home which was so nice. We drove out with my brother and his family. They had been out for Stephanie's family reunion and headed home the same time we were going. It was a nice drive, better than I thought it would be. We traded kids back and forth and I think they had a good time. We took 3 days, first day to Nebraska, second day to St. Louis, then the third day to Bedford. We stopped the second day in St. Louis to go to the zoo. The kids loved it. It is a very nice zoo. Then we tried to go to Pointers Pizza, home of the 8 lb. pizza but it didn't work out so we headed to Bedford. Pictures of the drive are below.The day after we got there was the 4th of July. We went to the parade, the kids really loaded up on treats. Then we spent the day at my cousin Kristi's house. Her and Dustin are so wonderful to have it at their house every year. We eat tons and tons and then have a huge wiffle ball tournament. We had enough people this year to have 5 teams and a double elimination tournament. What a blast. It was rainy which made it even crazier. The mud added an extra element to the party. Let's just say, it got really interesting. Jeff scored the first home run of the day. The tourney always gets a bit heated, as you can see in the following video.



The boys had a great time. Zach got adventurous with Adam and had a mud bath. It is crazy to think people pay for that stuff. Below are a few pictures and videos from the day. We love going. At the end of the day we had fireworks and I wish I would have taken pictures of all the kids doing the sparklers. You would have thought it was world war 3 with all the smoke. You couldn't even see 5 feet in front of you. It was nuts. The babies hated the fireworks so I moved to the garage so they would stop crying. Maybe next year. Another fun activity we did was Dustin and Kristi reserved a pontoon boat and we spent the day on the lake. The babies were too little so my mom stayed with them. I wish they could have gone but it was just too much. Our other boys had an absolute blast. We were initially told not to go under the road cosway because the water level was too high but us being rebels, yea right, decided we would try it anyway. We inched our way up to the overpass. My brother Hein stood on the top deck of the boat to make sure it cleared. We made it but lets just say we made it by the skin of our teeth. When we docked on the other side, we had tons of stuff to do. There was a slide off the back of the boat, jet skis and the water tube off the back of the Matlocks boat. We barbequed on the boat and really didn't want the day to end. I felt bad, Jeff left about half way through the day because my mom wasn't feeling good so he left to watch the babies. Next year, hopefully we can do it again and the babies can come. Below are some great videos and pictures of the day.

Here is a video that I love. There was this group of geese swimming around trying to get scraps of food so Jake thought it would be a good idea to go swim with them. Just watch.

The next video is of Jake on the tube behind the boat with his cousin Katelynn and Ali's friend Merideth. He had so much fun. I couldn't believe how brave he was. He went much faster than I did and kept yelling for Dustin to go faster. I was so proud of him. He has gotten so daring all of the sudden. I am not sure I like it yet.

This next video is of me, my sister in law Stephanie and my nephew Sam. Stephanie and I wanted to go about the same pace but come to find out, going slower actually made it bouncer than if we would have gone faster. We had fun while it lasted but we were ready to be done. Maybe I will get braver another time.
We had a few other videos of my brothers. They did some crazy rides. The biggest crash of the day was my brother Terry and my niece Katelynn. They got going pretty good and Katelynn slid sideways and flipped and then because Terry was side heavy he caused the tube to flip and he went right over the top of Katelynn. She got slammed but managed to survive with only bitting a chunck out of inside her mouth. You could see teeth marks and all. It was quite gross. She was a real trooper. I wish I would have got that ride on video but I missed it. My brothers got going pretty good too. They had some wild rides usually resulting in Hein flying off and Terry hanging on to save himself. It really was a blast. This last video is of Zach finally getting brave and going in the water by himself. He would only go in if someone took him. He also finally took a jet ski ride with me, I was so proud. Jake also took a jet ski ride with me. It was great.

The last few days we went to the Lawrence county 4-H fair and went to a park in Bloomington. At the fair Jeff, Hein, and Katelynn tried to get hypnotized and that was funny. They all tried so hard but couldn't do it. Katelynn had a kid laying all over her and he was out. I am not sure how much Hein liked that but what do ya do. The boys also rode a ride that I couldn't believe they got on. I think they wondered the same thing once it started. Then at the park in Bloomington, the kids had a blast. They had this slide type set up next to a creek and the kids could slide down it into the water. They had a ball. We put the babies on the swings and as you can see in the pictures, Alex had a blast but Ryan's stomach didn't handle it so well. Here are some pictures.