Spring soccer

Maren did some of this and also a fair amount of time was spent as shown below.

This spring both Whitney and Maren decided to play soccer. I coached Whitney's team that was made up of friends from her Fall team and friends from the neighborhood. We worked out a deal with Maren's coach to practice at the same time and same field as there were a couple girls on Whitney's team that also had younger sisters on the other team. The girls both had a great season and improved a lot in their playing. Our season was extended a month since so many games were canceled due to the snow we had this spring. Unfortunately I didn't get any action shots of Whitney as I was too busy coaching.  Check out the nice hair do's courtesy of the wind on picture day.

Last days of school

School ended on a Wednesday for Whitney this year so the last few days of school were full of lots of fun activities. Monday the first grade put on a program singing songs and talking about things they learned each month throughout the year. Whitney's best friend Lanie had a solo in the final song "Ordinary Miracles" and then Whitney had the final speaking part which she said nice and clear. 

Tuesday the kids enjoyed participating in field day in the afternoon. We went over to watch and help out and Maren enjoyed being able to participate with Whitney in some of the activities.  The girls in her class beat the boys in the tug of war!

On Wednesday, the last day of school, they had a pizza party, got to meet their new teachers for the next year and got out early. We started a new tradition this year with having a neighborhood ice cream social out in the cul-de-sac after the last day and it was a huge hit. We had over 40 kids plus some parents show up. 

Maren and Jonas helping shop for the ice cream.  They love the kids carts at the nearby grocery store.

Lake Powell

This year we spent five days over the Memorial Day weekend enjoying time at Lake Powell. This time we headed upriver from Bullfrog marina to check out the canyons and sights up that direction. It was getting into the evening hours by the time we got the boat on the water the first day and diagnosed the problem we had with the boat not running right. (You should listen closely when they tell you what needs to be done when putting the boat back in the water after winterizing like remove the tape from around the air filter.) We started searching for a campsite before it got dark but with the holiday weekend there wasn't much to choose from. We finally found what we thought was going to be a nice sandy site in Forgotten Canyon with a perfect place for the kids to play in the water. We got camp set up and made a quick dinner before heading to bed. Unfortunately the wind picked up later that evening and was blowing the fine sand up under our full rain cover on the tent and through the mesh. We had sand raining down on us all night long. The next morning everything was covered with sand with a six inch sand dune in one corner of the tent. We decided we had enough and decided to brave the really choppy waters in the main channel that day to find a new campsite in a different canyon. We found a great site in Knowles Canyon that served us well the rest of our trip.



That day after setting up camp again we just hung around and relaxed as the high winds made being on the water not very enjoyable. Jim and Whitney did some exploring in the canyon and pulled out the fishing poles catching a large catfish just before dinner. We cooked the fish in the fire to have with the rest of our dinner. The next day we headed to explore Smith Fork. The kids had fun scrambling up and down the slickrock as we made our way up the stream. We checked out a cool grotto and a few narrows but the bushwacking was making it difficult to get higher up the canyon. We saw quite a few lizards and frogs along our hike. We headed down to Bullfrog to get more ice for the cooler and ice cream bars and then stopped in Forgotten Canyon on the way back to our campsite and hiked to the Defiance house ruins. The Defiance house ruins are some Anasazi ruins estimated to be from the 1200's that have been semi-restored and your allowed to enter. The kids enjoyed exploring all the cool little buildings. To get an idea of how big these petroglyphs are you can actually see them in the picture of Jim with the kids just left of the shade line on the wall.



We did a little bit of wakeboarding that evening before down since the water had calmed down. The next morning dawned bright and clear with glassy water beckoning us so we threw a few bites at the kids to keep them satisfied while we each took a few runs on the wakeboard. We had some breakfast then headed out to do some exploring. We explored many of the canyons nearby and stopped in Sevenmile canyon to do some hiking. We hike about 1.5 hours up the canyon traversing the stream most of the way. The first picture shows just how huge and sheer these walls are. You can barely make the family out in the bottom left corner. This one also had some cool subway-like formations.



The kids again enjoyed looking for frogs and lizards. Here is a picture one of the lizards we saw this day. We think it is a desert spiny lizard.



We also saw some river lobsters and lots of tadpoles so we had a lesson on how tadpoles grow into frogs. We had to have some learning experiences since they were skipping school that day :) After our hike we enjoyed lunch in the boat and the kids napped and we headed further up river to Good Hope Bay and Castle Butte.



We enjoyed more wakeboarding and riding of the double dog on the way back to camp in the glassy waters. There's something to being there in the middle of the week instead of over a holiday weekend.



We had dinner next to the campfire that night and Jim caught a large mouth bass that he cleaned up and we brought home to cook.



The next morning we got back out of the water to play for awhile before packing up camp and heading back to the marina with a side trip down Moqui canyon on the way.

Naptime

Maren thought pushing the recliner over and curling up in the back of it looked like a good place for a nap!

U2 360 concert

We found out U2 was coming to the Rice-Eccles stadium since the show last year had to be canceled so we decided to buy tickets. Jim and I were joined by his sister Michelle along with her friend. We showed up just as the opening band was finishing up and then unfortunately had to wait about an hour before U2 came on stage. It was worth the wait as the concert was spectacular. The music was amazing and it was an incredible multi-sensory experience with "The Claw" stage that was built for this concert series. Highly recommend going if your a U2 fan and they're coming to your area.

Spring break

This year for spring break we decided to head south to enjoy some warmer weather and allow Jim to sleep peacefully as he was working night shifts all week. We left after school on Thursday and drove as far as Las Vegas to spend the night with our friends the Fillmore's. The kids enjoyed some time playing the next morning before we hopped back in the car on our way to San Diego. We stopped at the Douangaphaivong's house to rest for a few minutes and then get ready to head to the beach. We met up in La Jolla with the Napoleon's to spend some time playing at the beach. The kids had a blast playing together and I enjoyed catching up with both families.

Thanks to my friends for some of the pictures as I was busy chasing a little guy!

We headed to Old Town for some authentic Mexican food for dinner. The next morning we headed with the D-15's to check out the Mormon Battalion Center that has been recently renovated. The girls especially enjoyed getting to ride in their yellow jeep to get there. The kids liked the interactive experience followed by the panning for gold afterwards.




We had lunch then got dressed to head to Kalei's baptism. Whitney and Kalei had been good buddies in Virginia so it was wonderful to be there for her baptism and enjoy the beautiful reception her family put on afterwards.


Soon as that was over we headed for Arizona arriving at Nana and Papa's house about midnight. We were lucky that Nana-san was also visiting that weekend. They put together a joint birthday party for Jonas and Whitney since it was a the week between their two birthdays.




The kids got thoroughly spoiled as always while we were there. I enjoyed getting to play a round of golf with Nana and the girls enjoyed multiple trips to the pool with their Papa. They also enjoyed the little pool we set up on the patio so Jonas could swim too as he's not allowed at the community pool yet. Also we were lucky to be there when some of their cactus were blooming. The blooms only last one day. We all enjoyed being able to wear shorts and sandals for a few days!