Fathers Day, Moving, Summer Fun, Family, Birthdays and Other Misc Adventures, Part 1

After nearly two months of being without internet, we are finally back online and way behind.


Fathers Day was a big event in our house, I only hope that Brandan enjoyed it as much as the kids!

 

Brandan has decided his body is the kids' personal jungle gym.  I didn't sympathize much at first since I feel that he really brought much of this on himself by encouraging the boys to wrestle and rough house, but after I started paying closer attention, I realized that he does take quite a beating.  Oh well, that's the trade-off for never experiencing pregnancy. 
Here are a couple of shots of an All-Star Dad!


No couch is too small for all the boys to share.

 

Early morning wrestling workout.

 

Sport tore a hole in Brand's sock during this bout.

 

It started with Brand holding Sis and then everybody wanted a ride.

 

That's a lot of little bums.

 

The kids and I made candy lawn mowers for Fathers Day.  They got a little droopy in our hot house.

The candy mowers.

 

While I packed and cleaned in preparation for our move and Brandan holed up in the office working on his Masters class, the kids found ways to entertain themselves.  This primarily consisted of getting wet, changing clothes and then getting wet again.

The boys sunning themselves on the back deck after playing in the water.  The little boys don't have a spot on their body where the sun don't shine.

 

These are a couple of shots of our favorite spots in Upton.

These woods were only a five minute jog from our house.  There were enough trails through the trees to get good and lost.  I loved running in the "pastures" (as it's known to the locals), but I was always scared of mountain lions so every few minutes I would clap my hands and yell a little to frighten them off.  One time a few high school boys on motorbikes caught me.  

 

This road was another family favorite.  It branched off the main highway and headed off into forever as far as I can tell.  Not far off the main turn off was a big down hill every one would sled down and then we have driven out a few miles and cut down a Christmas tree and gathered wood for Brandan to carve.  I never came out on this road without seeing at least a dozen deer and some old turkey vultures that are almost scarier than mountain lions.

 

Just a quick word about Upton.  When we first moved all the way across Wyoming to the tiny little town of Upton, I felt sure that Heavenly Father was leading us there so that we could change peoples lives and do some great work.  I was completely unprepared for the fact that it would be our lives that were changed and us that learned the lessons.  But in truth, we learned more from the people of Upton about what it means to be good, kind, accepting and generous people than ever before.  That little town and those people will always hold a special place in our hearts and we are grateful to our Heavenly Father for giving us that opportunity.

Shortly after we knew we would be moving to Mountain View, Dash wrote this sentence in his Kindergarten class.  Translation - This is how long it takes until we get to my new house. 
You'll notice it looks like an involved trip, well, it sorta felt that far too.

We enrolled in swimming lessons again this year, but with one major difference...all the boys got to take a class.  The catch - I was required to help with the younger boys which means everyday for two weeks, I squeezed into my bathing suit and spent 30 minutes in some very cold pool water.

Yep, pink and purple goggles.

 

Dash has turned into a fantastic swimmer.  He is more confident in the water than I am and he can tread water for over a minute.  On the last day of swimming lessons, the teacher tossed coins into the pool and told the kids they could keep whatever they brought up, Dash made a $1.25 in nickels and dimes!

 

Colt's class was pretty casual so the kids had an opportunity to work at their own skill level.  Colt spent the entire two weeks under water.  At one point, he told one of the instructors not to try and pull him up out of the water unless she saw his hand waving around.  I only saw his hand come up once, but he kept us all pretty nervous waiting for his distress signal.

 

Sport loved swimming lessons as well, but his favorite thing was jumping off the side.

 

Sport and I chasing the ball.  I had to try and hold Sport over my head several times in order for him to shoot the ball into the basket.

 

On June 28th, we loaded into the van and U-Haul truck and made the 7 hour trip to our new home.  The kids were excited to be in the new house and especially excited to meet Grandma, Aunt Cam and the cousins in Mountain View.

We used a tarp to wrap up some of the furniture for the move.  The boys decided to try it out as a slip n' slide.

 

One morning Colt woke up early and then disappeared.  We found him 30 minutes later when we tried to sit on the couch.

 

A Good Start to Summer

Brandan had a couple of weeks off between teaching school and starting his next Masters class, so we decided we better really live up our summer while we could.

Colt learned to ride his bike!  And it only took about a box of bandaides.

 

Sport was suppose to be helping stain the fence, but he pooped out and took a nap in the sunshine.  He paid for it though.  See that patch of skin showing on his back?  Yep, he has some seriously funny tan lines.

 

So comfy!

 

It seems Sissy has a real grudge against her mobile animals.  She loves to scream at them and whack them with cooking utensils.

 

On Brandan's last Friday before his class started, we decided to take the boys on a hike.  It was sort of a bucket list item of ours to hike Harney Peak, which is the highest peak in SD.  Granted, we're talking about a state known for its praries and the hike is only 7 miles, but it is the Black Hills and it took some work.  I couldn't believe how awesome the boys did.  There was never a prouder Mama than I was when they finished hiking 7 miles!

 

At the top of Harney Peak is an old fire look-out shaped sort of like a castle.  The last half mile or more is natural rock stairs and then the actual stairs surrounding the building.  Both Brandan and I get a little vertigo so we had to really force a happy face and let the boys climb around a bit before we forced everyone out of the building and down to a flatter spot.

 

Brandan carried a child on his back for the entire 7 miles.  On the way up it was Sissy and then Sport on the way down.  We took turns carrying the child not in the backpack.  It was worth it, but we were both pretty shot by the time the hike was done.

 

It doesn't look it, but this is high.  Brandan just held it together long enough for me to snap a picture and then he insisted all the children come away from the wall.

 

I'm holding onto Sport for both our sakes.

 

The family outside Harney Peak.

 

The trail head starts at Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park.  When we finished our hike we all headed over to the bank to soak our feet and scare the minnows.

 

Colt and Sport got a little over-zealous trying to catch the fish and ended up pretty wet.

 

Sis turned 7 months this last week.  She is such a fun girl and we love having her as part of the family.  Its probably not fair to accuse someone who can't defend herself, but the truth is Breeze is a major contributing factor to the excessive noise level in our house.  She loves to talk and primarily does so at the very top of her voice.  In turn, the boys have to talk louder or turn up the volume and that leaves Brandan and I shouting our conversations.  It seems hard to believe, but while we really rarely yell in anger, in our house, we yell all the time.

 

One day the boys decided everyone needed to wear a hat.

 

Just adorable!

 

A new family photo that is spookily alike the previous family portrait. Almost like we photoshopped Sis in.  I really need to update my style.

 

The kiddies!

 Well, party is over.  Brandan is back in class and working (no joke) 10-12 hours a day on math.  Yuck.

The Last Days {of school}

Dash loved Kindergarten and I have been amazed to see how much he has learned and grown.  He is a math wiz and reads everything, including picture books and the scriptures.  In a special awards assembly on the last day of school, Dash was given the Kindergarten "Overall Academic Achievement" award!

Dash and some of his school art projects.  He is holding a porcelain turtle.  Dash is a fantastic colorer.  He took 2nd place in a coloring contest at school and won two movie tickets.

The Kindergarten class won an ice cream party for collecting the most Box Tops.

The last day of school!

 

Elementary Track Meet

On the last day of school, the K-3rd graders participated in a track meet.  Words cannot describe how excited Dash was for this meet.  His PE class practiced for the track meet for a couple of weeks, but Dash insisted that we also take him over to the track several times a week so he could "work out".  He also got a little frustrated with his PE teacher, Mrs. Knapp, whom he normal loves because she "wasn't giving them any real information", such as how to start out of blocks and count their steps for the long jump.  Can you tell how seriously he was taking this?  Fortunately, another Kindergarten friend, Hyrum, shared with Dash the super secret method for winning all races.  Take note now...you just need to hold your hands straight when you run, fingers flexed, thumbs up.  Problem solved.  If only I had known this earlier....

The first event was the long jump.  This was pretty comical to watch as many of the Kindergartners seemed to forget to jump at the end of what was way too long of a running start.  They ended up just sprinting across the sand pit and jogging back to the end of the line.

Dash long jumped 8 ft 2 in and took second to his "best friend Rhett".

 

Next up was the softball throw.

The second event was the softball throw.  This wasn't Dash's strong point, but he did well.  At least I think he did okay, no one bothered to measure the throws because several of the Kindergartners lost control and threw the ball behind them.

 

The first running event was the 50 meter dash.  The Kindergartners were only allowed to participate in the 50 meter and 75 meter dashes.  In fact, the longest running event at the meet was the 200 and that was reserved for the 3rd graders.  Try as he might (and he did try), Dash couldn't convince Mrs. Knapp to allow the Kindergartners to run his favorite race, the 400 meter dash.  Wise woman. I think we might still be there waiting for some of them to finish.

The 50 meter dash.  1st place!

 

The start of the 75 meter dash. 

 



Another 1st place!

 

Right before the meet started, Mrs. Knapp came over to us to invite Colt to run in a Pre-school race.  Colt was pretty excited and a little nervous.  When the time came, several kids wanted to be in the race and so instead of giving them all lanes, Mrs. Knapp just bunched them all together and sort of just let them take off.  Colt was behind several kids at the starting line, left late and then weaved in and out of lanes and in the end he took second to last.  He ran as well as any of the little guys, but it just didn't look it.  I repeatedly told Colt how great he did, but he was pretty disappointed.  He said maybe he hadn't "pushed enough" and he was surprised that my cheering didn't help him do better.  I tried to make him feel better, but he finally broke down and wailed, "I didn't do good! I took second to last and that's because one kid fell down!"  This is true.  One kid did fall down.  Repeatedly.

Colt's race.  He is sharing lane 3.

 

Fortunately, Colt's natural self-confidence took over and within an hour of his race he can to me with the following explanation.  "Maybe Tristan (the boy who fell) fell down because of all my wind.  You know, because I was running so fast I made a lot of wind behind me."  Probably true.

Colt and the kid who kept him from getting last.

 

Sport was a little feverish the morning of the track meet so he spent most of his time in the stroller, but he did get out long enough to cheer on his brothers (and to throw a little sand out of the jump pits).

Dash and Sport

Sissy spent her time at this track meet the same way she spent her days at the high school track meets, in the back pack. 

Breeze peeking over the back pack.

Even though Brandan had to give finals that morning, he was still able to see the boys compete by watching out the classroom windows. 
After the meet, Dash's school had an awards assembly.  Colt must have been pretty spent from his race because, even thought the assembly was short, he fell asleep half-way through. 

Colt stretch our across two seats in the auditorium and took a little nap during the awards assembly.