What a WEEK!

Well, my goal has been to update this blog every Sunday. So far, so good! I am on a three week roll!

The week was the normal-type busy, although I started working again at the Elementary Schools as the Music Specialist for the 3rd, 4th & 5th grades. It was the first full week of school, and we still aren't really good at getting up early and being happy while doing it. Come to think of it, we are NEVER happy while doing it! But the major change this year is that the dog doesn't seem to want to get up either. He used to bet he first one awake. Now, McCade really has to coax him some mornings.

Granted, sometimes he uses it as an excuse to get that extra few minutes. . .

The biggest events of the week came at the end. Thursday night we went to the Shelley-Firth JV Football game. We mostly went to cheer on Jarrett, who plays on the Firth Team. But we did start out on the Shelley side. (I have to insert a comment here and say that Shelley & Firth are rivals - always have been. However, everyone says this will be the last year they play each other since Shelley has gotten big enough that they are moving up a division. I think a rivalry that has lasted 80+ years will FIND a way to play each other. I'm just sayin'. . . ) I ALSO have to say that the Firth Football field is VERY mean to the visiting team. The game started at 6:00pm, and we were directly in the sun. We might as well have been sitting on the surface of that oh-so-close-star, because it was NOT GOOD. Soon my nephew Wyatt invited us over to sit with them on the Firth side. I had been texting Shad throughout the game, and it was nice and shady there, so I tucked my SHS backpack under a very unnecessary Shelley Russet sweatshirt and defected for awhile. Dallin came with me, after much prodding. He was CONVINCED he was going to be beat up if he sat on the other side. McCade was at scouts so he wasn't there and Tacey refused to come. Granted, she was wearing her Shelley Football Jersey, red shorts and black leggings. I can't really blame her. Anyway, the game ended 50-6, Shelley won. Yep, ouch.

Friday night was the VARSITY game! Dallin's team had gotten their jerseys at practice earlier that day and agreed to wear them to the game that night to 'pump them up for the next day's game'. They are cool and even have their names on them!

Dallin was hanging out with his friend Byron,

McCade was hanging with Monte,

I was hanging out with their Mom: Melissa, and we had also picked up Forrest & McKenna. McKenna and Tacey were together off-and-on all night.

We also sat by Shane's parents Richard & Kathie, and were joined by Shad and Jammie.

Wyatt and Jarrett came too. Wyatt was off playing, and Jarrett - just like Tacey - refused to defect to the 'other side'. It was a long, good game. Shelley won 41-6. Again, ooh, ouch. We found out our friend Jake Dye actually got a concussion during the game. He didn't look hurt, and he's not hurt that badly - they were just told to watch him. Maybe we didn't notice anything wrong because he is a bit wacky already!!! (Just kidding Jake!) I am sure he thought it was worth it because if I remember right, he got conked in the head stopping a pass that would have resulted in a first down. Instead it forced them into a fourth down. Look at me! I am talking SPORTS!!!!

Saturday we got up VERY early because Dallin had a Football game in St. Anthony at 9:00am. That means that he needed to be there at 8:00am for pep-talks and warm-ups, and St. Anthony is a good hour away, so we had to LEAVE at 7:00am. Ugh, THAT'S WORSE THAN SCHOOL!

Warm ups include stretching. As a yoga instructor, I am a bit confused as to how you can really stretch with all that gear on. I hear it works, but as I will NEVER put on pads, I will never know for sure.

This is a running drill call a 'Karaoke'. Maybe its spelled 'Carry-o-kee'. Either way it sounds familiar to me, being as it's what you do for 'singing fun'. It also looks like a good 'ol grapevine in dance to me. That's Dallin there in the middle - number 38.

Catching drills. I can't catch without all that stuff on - but we all know I have NO eye-hand coordination. How anyone ever manages to accomplish catching anything in that gear is beyond me. I think it would be even harder when you are in the 5th grade, growing, and a bit awkward.

More catching drills.

They won their game 7-6, but not without a few casualties. Their QB, who is the coach's son, was screaming that he broke his arm third play of the game, and another boy was also complaining about his arm. We found out today that the QB did, in fact, break his arm - right on the growth plate. He had surgery today (we are praying for him, hoping he heals fast and properly, and that the team can make it to the playoffs so he might have a chance of playing there is he can do all that! ). The other boy just had a 'stinger'. For the life of me, I have no idea what that means. I only know he has no real injuries and will be at practice on Monday ready to go.

Then we ran (drove) to the Mud Run to watch Tacey. I love watching this. It is SOOOO FUNNY! She did well, barfed a little and had a good time. (That's the sign of a good Cross-Country runner - barf!)

The Mud!

It's so gooey. It's deceptive. It looks like it would be better to run through the puddles, but the gooey stuff is actually easier!

That's Tacey in the red with her friend Anna. Tacey and Anna have been close since Kindergarten.

Under the barriers. Can't you tell they are having fun?

See how far the mud goes up Tacey's leg? That is deep stuff!

This is Ruben. He is our buddy and TOTALLY WON THE MEET! He was so far ahead they weren't ready for him so we aren't really sure what his time was. He barfed too!

Tacey bringing it in!

Last few yards. . .

AND. . . time to sit in the mud. Truth be told, she didn't sit down because of exhaustion, but because her coach told her too so he could have a photo-op.

Tacey & Ruben.

This year they loosened up after the race more and had fun in the mud.
Tacey & Anna in the mud. They were the first to play in it.
Hannah, Tacey & Anna (with Ruben in the back).

Tacey & Hannah. Hannah is currently a 6th grader, and was one of my students last year. I have always thought she was SOOOO fun. Now she and Tacey are enjoying being crazy together.

The Cross Country Team.

This is Sharon (Sissy), one of the many distant cousins on Shane's side. She runs for Firth. (Yep, the rivals). She had already showered off at this point in time, but had to shower again after Tacey got near her.
After they all finished the run, and had posed for pictures, they hiked (they said it wasn't too far, but it was!) and jumped in the canal to wash off. It was definitely more fun than the showers.

Tacey & Anna jumping in backwards attempting a 'High School Musical' jump.
Koda went with us all day, and by the time we got to the canal he was thirsty. He went to get a drink and slipped and fell in. It was SO funny.

By the time we got home, everyone was exhausted.

Later that evening I went to a Wedding Reception for one of my beautiful students. She looked really happy, and I am excited for her.

Now, you are asking, where is Shane in all this? Well, Shane is in Washington D.C., doing something I will talk about later - when it is all done. I am hoping he got pictures!

Happy Week to you all!

Danielle

A Week of Firsts

Monday was the first staff meetings for me and the first football practice for Dallin.

I haven't taken pictures of him in full gear - yet. I don't want to embarrass him, I don't think it is very 'manly' to have your Mom taking pictures. I'll sneak them in at games.


Tuesday was Tacey's first dance team practice. Thursday was the first day of school,

Tacey rockin' her pink shoes - pink is her signature color. He she comes 8th grade!

Her Dad was thinking she was looking a little too grown up. He wanted THIS picture taken to show that he was RIGHT THERE to all boys who may think she is cute, pretty, or whatever. He will always be RIGHT THERE!

McCade starting 4th grade. When he got home he proclaimed that his teacher was 'MAGNIFICENT!"

Dallin starting 5th grade. Wow, the oldest ones in the school! He really likes his teacher too - she does a ton of science experiments and lets them do their papers on the computer. Very cool.

Thursday was also the first time Shane really danced with me. He went with me to go learn a swing dance I have to teach to a bunch of kids. It was fun. He's a pretty good swing dancer!Saturday was a ward party I was in charge of; I threw a Luau. We had a REAL PIG! Can you see that he is smiling? He liked being the center of attention at the party. Well, he used to be a real pig. By the time he got to the party, he was just yummy.

This is Ken. Ken spent the whole party playing with the pig. I think he liked it. We even had kids volunteer to eat the non-normal parts like the eyes and the heart! It was a good time. The whole thing ended with a big water balloon fight to beat the heat.

Of course then there were buckets and other large water receptacles involved. But would it truly be a water balloon fight if it only had water balloons?

Heh heh heh.

There is more news, I can't say just yet, but do look forward to next week's post. And no, I am not now, nor do I intend on being pregnant any time soon. So get that OUT of your mind! This news is of a totally different kind.

Danielle

Wrapping it all up!

Well, vacation ended exciting as always. We had a new thing to do this year. After several years of disrepair, my Dad got JoAnne's pool up and running! Well, the only thing running was the kids as they ran up the diving board! But the pool was full, and felt super-good on hot days.

Dallin!Tacey & Andrea! McCade!

Even Koda came along! JoAnne has a lot of bushes in her backyard so he had a lot of things to explore and spiders to chase! My Dad was surprised at how well all the kids swim. I say after all the money we've spent in swimming lessons they better be FISH! We went swimming a lot. . . as you can see Andrea went with us several times. Shannon came once too, but she didn't get in the pool. That day Andrea and Shannon also went with us to Ultrazone - where we got our hineys TOTALLY kicked at Laser Tag. It was fun, but we were getting beaten so badly the employees felt bad for us and started playing on our team. Hooray for the losers! (That would be us. . . ) I don't have any pictures of Laser tag; blue light doesn't help much, sorry! We also went and played Miniature Golf with 'Big Grandpa'.

McCade lining up a shot. Dallin putting. . . the smiles and screams when he made it below par. Posing with their 'golf equipment'. They didn't realize there was someone else in the picture!

Tacey putting. . .

Shane was in Oklahoma at the time, so he didn't go golfing, but something tells me he had been there before. . .

None of us are going to be ANY competition for Tiger Woods anytime soon! We also took advantage of Andrea's current employment situation; meaning as she is a Sea World Employee, we scored free passes. We made the most of them! And because she is an employee, she was able to bring me home the show schedule and I planned the entire day ahead of time. We saw EVERY SINGLE SHOW!

Of course we saw Cirque De La Mer because Andrea was the smoke behind the magic of this show this year. It has cool acrobatic sea creatures. . . (maybe McCade some day!!!)

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Amazing acrobats. . . And Andrea! See her there in the hole?

They have her strapped in for safety. I guess they though she would dive off or something. . .

We also stayed for summer nights there. I have never done that before (shocker! I know!), it was a ton of fun! I always wanted to perform at Sea World and work as a Dolphin trainer, but someone told me I wasn't emotionally stable enough. I was like 14 or 15 at the time. I ask you, WHO IS EMOTIONALLY STABLE at 14? the answer NO ONE! Anyway, this is one dream that won't be realized in THIS lifetime, but I love every bit of Sea World anyway! Tide pools! (I let the kids wear their bathing suits to Sea World this year - it is standard wardrobe there. My parents never let me do that; I thought it was totally stupid. SOOOO, now that I am 'THE MOM' I let my kids wear their suits!)
Sea Turtle. He wouldn't tell me how old he was.
This is a happy California Cow, because happy cows come from California! As all cows are girls, I am not sure how they got away with cow being topless. . .

And petted the bat rays. I fuzzed out all the non-important people and just left the good looking ones!

One new show we had never seen before, but is also a place where Andrea is the smoke behind the magic is the 'Pets Rule' show. This is McCade with one of it's stars!
I got to show Shane something new this trip. We left Sea World to eat lunch as we had no desire to pay $4.00 for a simple Hot Dog. We went down the street to Rubio's Mexican Grill and took advantage of FISH TACO TUESDAY! YUMMMMMMM!!!!!

Dallin munching on his fish taco. . .

Shane enjoying his, (McCade pouting because 'we always eat stuff he doesn't like'. I am sorry, but you can only have pizza and hot dogs so often before you go insane. . .)

Tacey lookin' like the rock star she thinks she is!
Everyone, (except McCade who is the pickiest eater on the planet, if it looks weird to him he won't try it) thought they were great! In fact, I need one right now. . . Then it was back to Sea World for Summer Nights.

All-in-all a good day. We made more trips to the Zoo and all our other favorite places. We really could have used another week, but as we had already missed 2 weeks of football, and the kids started school in less than a week, not to mention that is when I have to go back to work, we thought we should probably came back to Idaho. Tacey was really sad to leave, a special note to EVERYONE who made her time and our time in San Diego so wonderful - THANK YOU!

Danielle