Are you ready for some FOOTBALL!

Well, we'd better be!

Jimmy, Sonny, and Sam are all playing tackle football this fall. Our high school started a new youth football program and the boys are playing. They are the Mighty, Mighty Panthers. They've been practicing since the end of July and the first games are this Saturday. Practice is easy because all age groups practice at the same time, but Saturdays will be a different story. Since they are all different ages they are on three different teams, so we get to watch three different games. I'm gearing up for 6 hours of football this Saturday, and that doesn't include the BYU game (and whatever other teams are playing on Saturday).

Anyway, the boys are really excited. They are loving it. They're all doing great and Sam has really surprised us. Behind that sweet little face is a tackling monster. He is one of the smallest on the team, but he isn't afraid to go after the big guys.

I'm excited too, it is so fun to watch them be excited and have a good time.

AHHHH! I need to catch up!

Well, I haven't been doing a great job of posting. But, better late than never.

Since my last post we've moved. So I've been a little busy. We leased our house and were planning to move to Arizona, but decided to stay here instead. So, we've moved up the road. We are actually only three houses down from where our house is, but since there is a lot of acreage in between we can't even see our house, but I drive by it almost everyday. 

The house we've moved into is an older house, but it is very nice and we are comfortable. It sits on a wooded 20 acre lot and has stables (It's on the market, so if anyone is interested, let me know). Anyway, the boys are having a great time running around and exploring. I like it here a lot myself.

AUGUST 2008

ZACH TURNS FIVE

Zach had a birthday on the 3rd, and had his first "real" birthday party. He informed his preschool teacher last year that he hadn't ever had a birthday party, and she let me know just much he wanted one. Well, for the record we have celebrated his birthday with family and I thought that counted, but I guess not. Anyway, we had his birthday party at one of those places with giant blow-up bouncy toys. It was great they took care of almost everything. They take pictures, they provide the paper plates, drinks, they clean up. But, they don't do the birthday cake. WHAT?? The party was planned and had right in the middle of our move, and somehow I missed it when they said you need to bring your own cake. Thank goodness Wal-mart is only a short drive away. Zach never even knew I was gone. Shhh, don't tell him.

SCHOOL STARTS

Our lives are back on a structured schedule. Jimmy, Sonny, and Sam started the new school year on August 11th. I can't believe this is Jimmy's last year of Elementary school. Yikes! So we have a 5th grader, a 3rd grader, a 1st grader and one in Kindergarten. Zach just started school last week. He goes to a little private half-day school. They are all loving school, not so much the homework, but they love going to school. The bus picks them up at the end of our driveway at 7:10 am and drops them off at 2:45. I take Zach to school at 8:30 (well, I try) and pick him up at 1:00. 

What am I doing with all that time? 

Well, I'll probably get some laundry done, and clean the house a little, run some errands.

I've also joined a tennis team. I've been taking lessons for about a year and it's time to move on to the next level. Technically, our first match is next week, but I won't be in town for it(sorry to my team). So, my first match is in two weeks, we'll see how it goes. Anyway, the tennis will take up two of my mornings and then I'm volunteering at our elementary school once a week. I think that should keep me from missing my kids too much while they're away.

Happy Fourth of July!!

Happy birthday to our wonderful country! We had fun celebrating with family and friends.

Our town has an annual parade. We've never been before because traffic is usually a pain, but since we have a golf cart this year we decided we'd check it out. Unfortunately, we slept in so we missed it. 

Later on family came over to grill out and swim. The kids had a great time swimming and hanging out with cousins and we had fun sitting on the back deck chatting.

Sadly, this year we ended our 6 year tradition of "Jared's Redneck Fireworks Display". Since Jared has been so busy traveling he didn't have time to drive across the state line to buy  a truckload of illegal fireworks (I'm sure our neighbors aren't so sad). Instead of watching fireworks in our yard we drove the golf cart into town and joined our neighbors in front Partners Pizza and enjoyed the fireworks over the lake. It was a lot of fun, and the golf cart traffic was not as bad as we had expected.

4th of July is one of our favorite holidays, can't wait for next year! 

We got stuck in a little traffic on our way home.

Pura Vida! part II

The boys had fun surfing.

Zach's first ride, standing up!

The "big" boys got in on the fun too.

I tried it, and actually got up a couple of times! (Sorry, no pictures at this time)

 More fun in the sand.

We all enjoyed relaxing on the hammocks. Here's Zach taking a nap like his Mama used to when she was little.

And of course, the highlight of the trip . . . . the zip lines . . .

The trip was great! I think everyone had fun.

Pura Vida! part I

We just got back from our trip to Coast Rica. We had a great time! We stayed in Playa Grande with Carlos, Heather, Abby, Charlie and Mamita.

 

Here we are waiting in line for the potty at the car rental. We flew in on June 20th. We left our house at 4a.m. and arrived in Liberia at noon (Coasta Rica time)

This is our trusty van. Not the most comfortable ride, but it did the job. We took turns sitting up front. Those were the only seats that got any of the A/C.

The boys had a great time playing in the sand, and getting pounded by the waves in the "washing machine"as they called it.

I think Charlie really enjoyed his first "taste" of C.R., don't you?

 

I spent most of my time sitting out on these chairs reading Gone With the Wind. It was so nice. Somehow, Heather managed to get some reading in too. Abby took these pictures, I think she did a really good job.

When we weren't outside enjoying the beach we were inside eating. We went out for breakfast a couple of mornings, but mostly we ate breakfast and lunch at the house. We had cereal, pb&js, and lots of fruit. We went out for dinner every night and had some typical Coasta Rican food. Thier typical dish is called a Casado. It consisted of gallopinto (rice and beans) a meat (usually mahi mahi, chicken, or steak) and fried plantains. The boys wouldn't eat it though, they ate the usual (chicken and fries, hamburgers, and spaghetti). We also ate at a couple of really good pizza places, yum!

This huge rock was just down the beach from our house.  Jared and Carlos took the boys up there to explore it. This picture was taken at low tide, at high tide the water covered half of the rock.

Two wheelers, triathlons, and back dives

It's been a big couple of weeks for us around here. Full of action.

Zach is riding a two wheeler! Meranda and I took the kids on a bike ride a little while ago and Zach was not happy that he had to ride in a stroller. So, as soon as Jared got home he asked him to take the training wheels off of his bike. He has definitely been the fastest to pick it up. Jared took the training wheels off and off he went. He loves it! Sam was easy to teach too. Jared's theory is that they learned how to balance and steer from the razor scooters. Maybe?

Last weekend Jimmy, Sonny, and Rollin participated in a mini-triathlon. It was for kids 7 to 15. This was their first year to participate (Jimmy says it's his last). They had to swim 50 yds., bike 3 miles, and run half a mile. Sonny was nervous about not winning. I told him it wasn't about winning, just finishing. They finished! The swimming was a little harder than we had expected and they could have used more training there, but they did great! Sonny had fun and said he would do it again and Sam says he's going to try it next year.

And, since summer means spending lots of time in the pool the boys have been working on perfecting their dives. Sam has even learned how to back dive. We like to play "diving contest".

The boys dive and Jared and I rate them on a scale from 1-10. The smaller the splash the higher the score, just like the Olympics.

Sam's Dive

Happy Birthday Jared!!

Happy 35th Birthday!!

We love you!