Four Months Worth

Oh, that's a scary title. Judging from how long my posts were when I was only reporting on a week, this could be book length! :)

Highlights of the last four months:

Jesse goes to Blanding, UT with her best friend Kalli.
Bruce & Trevor win the Horseshoe Tournament at our Ward Campout,
and the rest of us have a great time.

Josh, Joseph and Bruce go an a High Adventure trip in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness (yes, that's really what it's called), with the Teachers and Priests.

Summer fun for Libby and friends:Canyon County Fair:
Peter gets first place in the Market show for his class, and earns a blue ribbon in Showmanship.
Mary tells about her fair experience on her blog - mjblogger.blogspot.com.

Josh, Joseph and Jesse go on a roadtrip with soccer buddies to watch a Salt Lake REAL game. Josh gets to go down on the field at half time to participate in activities.

On the way home from our Trek in Wyoming, we went through Jackson Hole. This has to be one of the most beautiful spots on the earth.(A little tired Josh??)

Our friends Greg and Rachelle were kind enough to treat our WHOLE FAMILY to dinner at Bar J Chuckwagon. It was fabulous! We loved the dinner and the entertainment. Libby was completely taken with the cowboy music and had to buy a CD afterward with her own money. We listened to cowboys crooning all the way home.
We stayed overnight at Mom & Dad's after the long trip from the Trek. This is all of our shoes drying out,and visiting Dad at the Care Center.We were so surprised when Dad got up and walked us out to the front of the care center. He came home shortly after this. Thanks for your hospitality, Mom!

In August, Bruce's brother Gary, Heidi, Kaylee, Kaleb and cousin Daniel came to visit.
Daniel, Kaleb and Peter had a ton of fun together. Peter went back with them to Oregon, and spent a few days.Have to get in the picture of the cousins playing a serious game of Risk! Josh insisted that I remark on how he dominated everyone else, especially Joseph...Soon after this, Jesse, Joseph, and Josh had Two-a-day tryouts for the High School soccer team. Bruce was the Boys JV Coach, so he was involved as well. They were successful, because Jesse made the Girls Varsity team, and Joshua and Joseph made the Boys Varsity team! Holy cow!
We knew Josh would be on Varsity for sure, but Joseph making Varsity was awesome, and Jesse making Varsity as a freshman - WOW! Joseph did have a bit of a scare for about two weeks when they moved him and two other guys down to JV. But he handled it extremely well, and kept working hard. When Josh got sick for a few days, they asked Joseph to take his spot, and Joseph played well enough that they kept him on Varsity for the rest of the season, even when Josh came back.

And then the kids started back to school! Libby is in 2rd grade, Peter in 3rd (both at a local Charter School), Mary in 7th at the Middle School (all by her lonesome), and Jesse in 9th, Joseph in 10th and Josh in 12th at the High School. They are having fun being there together.

At the end of August, we had the great privilege of going down to Utah for our nephew Josh's wedding to Rachel in the Salt Lake Temple. That was wonderful! They were married in the same room that Bruce and I were, so there were wonderful memories. We had a great time being with Bruce's side of the family. A few weeks later, Josh and Rachel came up here for their Open House, and we had the honor of having them stay at our house. I got to talk to Josh and Rachel 'til one the morning. It was so fun! I was the DJ at their Open House and got a few people to get out and boogie. :)

Josh went to Homecoming with a friend named Genny. They look great together, don't you think? This is a great group of kids. I'm so thankful Josh has good friends.

The next few months were filled with soccer games! Monday through Thursday night we had Varsity games, and then on Saturday Mary, Peter and Libby had games. It was fun, but very, very busy.

Josh, then Bruce, then Joseph all had a bout with the swine flu. It was miserable for them, but they came out OK, without any complications. This was a miracle for Bruce especially, because he had influenza about five years ago and developed pneumonia as a complication. Once you get pneumonia, you are more susceptible the next time to get it, so we are so thankful that he was OK this time.

We enjoyed General Conference, as always. Pres. Holland's talk was a classic on the Book of Mormon, and there were many others I enjoyed thoroughly.

In the District Tournament for the Boys JV Soccer team, which Bruce coached, his team took first place, which our HS has never done before. Congratulations Bruce!

In the District Tournament for the girls, Jesse's team played hard and won their first game. Unfortunately, they lost their next two games to finish the season. Jesse really had a great season! She came out and started almost every game and the coaches played her on defense most of every game. Way to go Jesse!

In the District Tournament for the Varsity boys (Josh and Joseph), the boys came back and took 2nd in the District! This was a total surprise, because they were in 7th place out of 8 teams during the season. They were able to go to State, which is always so fun for the team. They lost both of their games in state, but they were SO CLOSE. In the first game, they lost only by a PK, and in the second game it went all the way through two ten-minute overtimes, and through a 5-on-5 shootout with the score still tied. Then it was down to a one-on-one shootout, and our guy missed and the other guy scored. Josh and Joseph were both in the line-up to shoot next if it came to it, but it didn't. It was a heartbreaker, but they came back from so far down, that there was nothing to feel bad about! Congratulations Josh and Joseph on a great season!

Mary's team struggled throughout the season because they didn't have a true goalie on their team, but she played well and worked hard. I got to ref a lot of her games, which was fun for me. Yesterday she got in a tangle and went down hard, and then got up and went at it again as fast as she could. It was one moment when I wanted to be Mom and cheer for her as hard as I could. On the other hand, if I hadn't been the ref, I wouldn't have been out there to see it up close like I did. Good job, Mary!Peter was really a star on his team. One time he even scored on the kick-off. He made a goal recently to be a really good keeper, so we'll see what comes of that!

Libby, well, let's just say that Libby has not QUITE caught on to what the soccer thing is all about. One game I told her I'd give her a quarter for every time she kicked the ball. This is about the first time that she actually went for the ball instead of running around on the edge of the crowd!

Oh well, none of our kids have gotten what soccer was all about until the second half of U8, so she still has another half of a season to get there. :) If she doesn't, hmm, I don't know quite what we'll do. A child not playing soccer?!? Now, don't get all worked up over this - we'll survive if she doesn't. Ha ha

To be continued next week with a report on the Cider Festival!