All Stars

Evan was chosen to play in the All Stars Basketball game this season. Every season the coach gets to pick 2 of his best players to play in the All Star game. Evan hasn't been picked before so he was super excited he was chosen.

Well, he was super excited until about 30 seconds before warm ups started and then he had a moment of panic set in. I told him to just get on the court and start shooting baskets and it would work out. For the most part it did but he still wasn't 100% the whole game. He was a little intimidated with the fact that these were the best players in the league and he didn't have his friends with him.

He played hard though. It is a little crazy because the team has not ever met before so the coach has about 10 boys that just show up and he doesn't know their skills or positions they play and he has to just go for it. His coach was really nice but the boys just didn't seem to gel as a team. They definitely struggled with teamwork.

I think they were all struggling with not having friends there or something. None of them were on top of their game. As you can see on the score board below, they struggled bad . . .

but the other team didn't. They gelled just fine and played hard. The final score was 40 something to 20 something. It was a hard loss.

He had fun though and it was a good learning experience for him to have to play without friends. Next time I don't think he will be quite so intimidated.

We were sure proud of him for getting chosen ~ especially after the scare with his foot.

Way to go Evan!

Another great season!

We decided to sign him up for summer basketball too so be prepared for more basketball pictures in July! Then we will be on to soccer . . .

T's Preschool Graduation

In June we attended our last preschool graduation =-( 

How did our baby grow up so fast? I can't believe he is going to be in kindergarten this fall. Time sure flies!

All of our kids have attended Mrs. Judy's preschool. We just LOVE Mrs. Judy!

Congratulations Trevor!

And watch out Kindergarten!!!

Evan's End of School Fun

Evan had a lot of fun crammed into the last few weeks of school. 

On May 18th, I helped with a field trip to Old Sac and the train museum and old school house. It was a lot of fun. Since Evan just went back to school in March, he hasn't been with the class that long and I don't know very many kids. I was assigned a group of 4 boys and didn't know their personalities. We had a lot of fun though. They were very good kids. There was only one that I kept losing. He kept taking off to the next thing without waiting for the group. We always found him quickly so it didn't cause me too much stress.

After the train museum we had lunch and then went to the old school house. When you walk in the doors, it becomes 1800-something. Boys sit on one side of the class and girls on the other. Also, whenever you are called on, you have to stand up and bow before you can speak. It was pretty fun learning about the good ol' days.

Then on May 27th, Evan had a music concert. This year they learned to play the recorder so they had a recital for the kids to show off their talents.

I think he had a good time!

On the last day of school, Evan's teacher, Mr. Richmond, has a special award meeting in his classroom. He brings each child up and gives them an unique award. When he first started I thought "how many things is he going to repeat trying to get through the whole class" but he didn't repeat once! It was a very moving experience. He sang each child's praise and then gave each of them a little piece of advise or encouragement. It was amazing how well he knew each child! It was very special!

Good bye 4th grade - Hello 5th grade!

Memorial Weekend Camping Trip

For Memorial Day weekend, we decided to go camping at Dillon Beach, one of our favorite spots. We decided to let the girls each invite a friend. Since I would have to drive the Tahoe for extra seating, the Mickelsen's asked if I would tow the boat down so that we could have the boat there too. I said sure! The Smith family also joined us on this trip. 

This trip was full of little "challenges" or things that just didn't go quite right but we made the best of it and it all worked out.

The first little hiccup was the drive there. Usually it is a quick 2 hour drive but this time it took us over 5 hours!!!! I guess leaving on the Saturday morning of Memorial weekend wasn't the best plan. Oh well. My car had the 4 teenage girls and they did not disappoint in entertainment! They started playing MASH and the choices that were used were hilarious!! We were cracking up all the way there! Kayla got the best future with living in a mansion, marrying a HOT return missionary, working in a library and having 101 dogs. That is her dream life! Other girls were not so fortunate, some had: marrying Donald Trump, working as a pooper scooper, marrying Scar, having 500 hamsters, living in a castle (sounds fun!), etc. It was a very funny drive!

The second little hiccup was that when we got there, our sites were not next to each other. Marty had made the reservations and there was a mix up and somehow we ended up with a spot between us. Since the Smith's were going to put their tent between our trailers, this little mixup messed up those plans. Plus the people that were between us had their trailer all cockeyed in their spot and were right on the line forcing us to push our trailer over. We were able to work it out and fit everything but it was annoying. The people between us ended up with kids running back and forth and back and forth. We tried our best to get them to go behind their site but kids are kids and only remember things for 2 seconds. The people on the other side of Marty got a little freaked out when he backed his huge trailer back into his spot but they chilled when they realized he was a pro and knew what he was doing.

One day Kurt decided he was too tired to walk to the beach so he thought it would be nice to have the girls carry him. They tried their best but didn't make it much further than a few steps.

The view while hiking to the beach - beautiful!

Our crew while walking the beach.

On our walk we came across this fisherman who had accidentally hooked a sting ray. It was pretty cool to see and watch him throw it back into the ocean.

Remember out last trip where we found this huge dock thing that had washed up on the beach? Well it had moved and someone had cut it open. It was pretty cool to see the inside. It was all this black styrofoam stuff that was super light weight.

Here is Natalie holding up a big chunk of it.

This is Kurt's other beach position. It's either this or digging.

The boys coming back from checking the crab traps.

There was lots of playing in the sand.

Walking to the tide pools.

A few years ago we were camping at Dillon's and we had brought the boat then too. The 4-wheel drive was broken in Kurt's truck and he got stuck in the sand trying to pull the boat out of the ocean. Marty gave him a pretty hard time about the fact that his Dodge had to pull out our Chevy. Well . . . this year (another crazy thing that happened), the Dodge got stuck pulling out the boat and our Chevy had to return the favor of pulling it out. Kurt was happy to help!

Such a cute little puppy!

Kayla and Cooper fighting for space in the chair.

Another crazy thing was that one day, Lorraine and I took a few kids (and the 2 dogs) down the beach to walk. On our way back, another dog ran up to us. I hung back with Cooper because he is scared of other dogs since he was attacked a year or so ago. The other dog ran up to Bella, sniffed a few times and then attacked Bella. We freaked out! There is no way to get dogs apart when that is happening. Lorraine was trying to pull Bella away but the other dog wouldn't back off. Lorraine ended up getting knocked down to the ground and Bella got her head wiggled out of her collar and took off running down the beach. Cooper was so upset. He didn't know what to do. He was scared and knew that Bella was in trouble. He was whining and barking and didn't know how to help her. By the time all that happened, the owner of the other dog ran up and grabbed it.  He was so sorry and very upset that his dog had done that. I told Lorraine to run after Bella and I took care of trying to untangle Bella's leash from the other dog. We were so scared and shaking and upset. It was very traumatic. We got Bella back and all calmed down. Bella and Lorraine were both fine.

This trip was only 2 nights, 3 days but it had a lot of crazy things going on. We all did a good job of bouncing back and having a positive attitude with everything. It was a very fun trip overall.