Soccer Boy

I heard Austin at the top of the stairs saying, "I play soccer. I play soccer." We were hanging out in the kitchen getting ready to start dinner and so we called everyone in. Austin came down the stairs completely decked out in Megan's soccer uniform, complete with shin guards and cleats. He was pretty pleased with himself.

Black Light Run

We did another 5K race. The two oldest kids wanted to do it with us. Actually Nathan and Megan kept talking about wanting to run in the race with us the week before, but we told them we'd wait for a little shorter race for them. It was a night run, so we let the kids pick a couple of glow-in-the-dark accessories that they were selling there. Caelan ran with Dad, and Ben ran with me. Ben ran the entire way, except as we walked through one of the powder throwing sections (the first one we ran through but we didn't get any powder on us, so we went slower through the next one). Caelan and Sean finished just about 6 minutes after us. Both kids did great. We told the kids that they had to practice before the race, so the two weeks before we had a handful of family night runs where we jogged up and down our street. After the race we hung out at the music stage for a little while, and then we were ready to head home. Well, we grabbed some food first (and some gelato at Frost...YUM) and then headed home. Good times! We're looking forward to doing the Dirty Dash again this summer.

Pinewood Derby

Our first official Pinewood Derby! Ben designed his car with Sean. Sean did the cutting and then had Ben do the sanding and painting, and he helped put the wheels on. Nathan got a car kit for Christmas, so Sean helped him make his own car too. Nathan decided on the style, but when I asked him if he was helping Dad with his car, he said, "No, I just want to play now." Nathan chose to do an army vehicle. Ben did a hot rod. Ben's car did well at the race. I think he was about 6th place overall.

Seeing Baby Kaia

The kids had a few days off school and Sean had a couple of days of vacation from last year that he either had to use or lose, so we headed up to Utah to see our new neice/cousin, Baby Kaia. Sean got in some much-needed snow boarding with Chad and Sid (a buddy from BYU) and Chad's brother in law. I got lots of baby time with little Kaia. The kids loved hanging out with cousins as well as second cousins (the Boles' kids that live just around the corner). We spent an afternoon at Gardener Village perusing the little shops, feeding the ducks and picking out candies at the Sweet Shop. We had Sunday dinner with the Boles, Brooks and some of the Armantrouts. Since we traveled there on Valentine's Day, Sean made me a Valentine's treat a couple days later: homemade German Chocolate Cake. Super tasty!! Overall a fun little trip to see family.

Family Hiking

The weather has been beautiful lately. Actually this winter has been so mild (too mild, in fact...we need some snow!). Well, we had nothing going on one Saturday, so we decided to go hiking up off South 14. There are all sorts of great trails for both hiking and bike riding. We did a little 2+ mile hike. We did some geocaching on the trail as well. The kids hiked like champions. They loved the breaks when we were looking for a treasure and they could hike up on the rocks on the side of the trail. The boys found their special walking sticks and wanted to bring them home with us. Afterwards we went down into town for some dinner (despite our sweaty, dirty appearance).

Life as of late...

We got the kids signed up for the 4-H club here in town. They meet at the church once a month. We've been learning all about how 4-H works (tons of stuff I don't get yet), and the kids have enjoyed going to the meetings. This month they learned how to plant corn (tips and tricks) and then they made corn husk dolls. Megan is even a part of the club - she is a Cloverbud (the younger group). She traced her body this week and colored it in.

Sis. Mateski is the new Cubmaster in our ward. She is awesome! She makes the Pack Meetings so fun for the boys. This month they had a little getting-to-know-you activity, "I Mustache You A Question..." Each boy had to go and answer a few questions about themselves and then they chose a mustache to wear for the remainder of the night. Ben also received two arrowpoints at this pack meeting.

We're trying to get the dog and cat used to each other so we don't have to keep such a close eye on them. It's really Ally (the cat) that seems freaked out by the dog. Bruno doesn't seem to mind her very much. Sometimes she gets too close and then Bruno gets a little concerned, but mostly he doesn't seem to care too much about her. We've been bringing them in the room together and just watching how they interact. They get a little closer each time they're together.

Geocaching

The weekend after New Years we had spent one too many days inside with all the sickness going through the house, so we wanted to go out and DO something. Sean though of going geocaching, so off we went. There are hundreds and hundreds of caches out in the East Mountains. We did one in a cave, we looked for one in an old abandoned ship right outside a ditch, we found a few up in trees, we found one under a rock, we found a few with treasures to take where we also left treasures behind (and several others with just a log to put our names in). Some were right off the road and others took a little hiking to get to. I think our total for the afternoon was 10. We had a blast "treasure hunting." We'll definitely have to do that more often.