June at the Cabin

Each year our ward does a Fathers & Sons camp out.  Super fun for dads and boys, but little girls sometimes feel a little left out.  This year, we decided we would have our own "Moms and Daughters" cabin weekend on the night the boys were camping.  We decided to bring some friends along.  Having a friend in the car makes the drive so much more fun!

Unfortunately for us, even though it was June, the weather did not cooperate the way we wanted it to.  It was pretty cold and cloudy the whole time.  We got up to the cabin Friday afternoon and managed to have a fun dinner the first night at Cafe Sabor.  Once the rest of our friends showed up later that night, the five little girls all had a great time "sleeping" in the same room.  Me and the other two moms stayed up way too late talking too.  

The next day was pretty cloudy, so we hung around the cabin all morning and ate a leisurely breakfast.  The girls didn't care that temps were in the 60s and that the skies were cloudy, they wanted to go to the pool!  Surprisingly, the pool was pretty warm, and the girls played for quite a while, while the wussy moms lounged poolside.  Once in a while they got cold and had to go to the hot tub. Aren't they cute?  

(I'm not sure why, but no one took any pictures of any of the grown ups on this trip!  The only picture with any of the moms in it is the above picture, which features all of me but my head and shoulders.  The other moms escaped picture free).

After it started drizzling, we gave up and headed back to the cabin for some movies and games.  Cora loves to play Headbandz, and found a couple of willing players.  

We headed home Saturday night, so it was a quick but fun weekend.

Last weekend was MUCH sunnier, but still on the cool side.  We came up LATE on Thursday night, after Cora's soccer practice.  Grandma and Grandpa were there too, which always makes it funner.

(Sidenote:  Have I mentioned that Cora REALLY wanted to be on the Forza Academy team, and so we let her try out?  She made the "Premier" Academy team!  She gets to have practice twice a week all summer in the hot hot heat, but she is having fun so far.)

Preston had to telecommute on Friday, while Grandma and I took the kids to the pool.  I took this picture with my phone off the pool deck, I'm not sure why those pine trees are glowing.

 I didn't take any other pictures that day, but it was beautiful and sunny and we had the pool to ourselves for the first hour or two.  We stayed through the late morning and through the early afternoon and had a super fun time.  That night we cooked hot dogs at our fire pit and made the first smores of the season.  Have I ever mentioned that I like smores?

The next day was BEACH day!  We brought out of the waverunners for the first time all season, and Arden practiced her handstands:

Preston wanted to get in on that action...his form is not as good, but we were impressed that he got his feet so far over his head:

Between waverunner rides and handstands, we dug some big holes, made some sandcastles, ate some food, and got a little sunburned.

Later in the trip we headed back to the pool and kids talked Preston into coming along.  The pool is always funner with dad.  preston thought that maybe he could do this the whole time:

But mostly the kids had him working hard.  Arden did some of flips into the pool.  She likes to be upside down:

 Then there was a cannonball contest.  My favorites were the group cannonballs:

 Geronimo!

Hooray for summer!

Arden the Decathalete

Arden was selected to be one of the four kids from the 4th grade to represent her school at the district-wide decathlon!  

Wait, what?  

There is a district-wide decathlon?  Apparently there is, and each school sends a 4th grade team of two boys and two girls, a 5th grade team, and a 6th grade team. Arden made the 4th grade team based on her performance as they practiced the events during P.E. class.  The other girl was her friend, B, so she was excited.  Go team!

The events included:  (1) How many sit-ups can you do in a minute (Arden got maximum points...she does hundreds of V-snaps at gymnastics, so one minute of sit-ups is a walk in the park for Arden.):

There was also (2) how many push-ups in a minute (Arden got maximum again!).  There was (3) a timed shuttle run, (4) how many jump ropes in a minute, (5) an accuracy throw, (6) 100-meter dash and (7) a long jump (Arden looks like she is flying in this blurry picture):

Arden did pretty great at all of these!  There was also (8) a basketball dribbling course, which Arden was not so familiar with...let's just say she tried her best.

Then there was the event that was really stressing her out: (9) cup stacking.

Wait, what?

Cup stacking?  Yes, it is a thing.  A thing Arden had never tried until they were trying all of these events in P.E. class.  They had to make a pyramid of 3 cups, a pyramid of 6 cups, and other pyramid of 3 cups and then unstack them again as fast as they could.  Arden stacked cups about as fast as someone who had never stacked cups before would be expected to stack them.  Arden's P.E. teacher even let her bring some cups home to practice with the week before the big day.  Unfortunately, the practicing only seemed to stress her out more!  Arden was worried that hundreds of people would be watching her stack cups and she might knock them all over and (her worst fear), she would look stupid in front of everyone!  I explained that only moms and dads would be there, and that all the events would be going on at the same time so the only ones watching her would be me and the judge. This made her very happy. Actually, luckily for her, she was the last on her team to stack cups, and the boys on her team stood RIGHT in front of the stacking table, effectively blocking everyone's view (including my camera's).  Arden did okay from what I could see.  But wow, there were some expert cup stackers out there!  Some of those schools have been practicing!

Arden's best event was probably (10) sit and reach.  Here she is starting her reach.  How far past your feet can you go?   Probably not as far as Arden.

 At the end of the day, her team won 5th place in the district, which they were pretty excited about!  They even got medals, and were the only team from their school to place.

Congrats decathlon team!  

More of Dax's 8th Birthday Celebrations

So, wow, somehow a month went by there, huh?  Anyway, prepare for (hopefully) a flurry of catch-up posts as I try to get back on this here blog bandwagon.

Up first, obligatory birthday cake pictures.  Isn't he handsome?

 Make a wish, kid.

Shockingly, Dax wanted to follow his sisters and build a bear this year.  Only, of course, being manly manly men, Dax and his buddy E built manly things like dragons and Pokemons.  Here they are, getting their manly stuffing:

 They boys then proceeded to take their manly new buddies and dress them up in manly costumes.  Dax's dragon was dressed as a manly Utah Jazz basketball player, while E's Pokemon guy was dressed as a manly Jedi Knight.  And what do we do with our manly friends in their manly outfits?  We snuggle them!

 After the friends were purchased, we headed to Fizz for celebratory birthday drinks and cookies.

 Dax loved his new dragon so much, he brought him along on a little hike we took the next morning.  Look at all of the flowers!

 Before, long, it was time for Dax's big day.  Dax's baptism day was June 4, and here he is with his dad, who baptized him:

Dax's grandmas both spoke, did a great job.  They both used baseball analogies since Dax had just finished up his baseball season.  Everything went so smoothly and we are all so proud of our boy!  Dax was super excited to wear his first brand new suit:

It's great to be EIGHT!