I Love Looong Weekends!

There was no school last Thursday and Friday, so Friday morning we headed to Island Park, and we didn't come home until we absolutely had to (I wanted to leave earlier, but cross country and volleyball got in the way!) Friday afternoon after we unpacked at the cabin, we went to West Yellowstone, wandered through the souvenir shops, ate at one of the pizzerias, and then played cards and ate ice creams at the swirl ice cream shop. Then we headed back to the cabin and watched a DVD. Saturday morning we woke up when we were good and ready, and slowly made our way to Yellowstone. Once we finally made it into the park, we walked and walked and walked! It was a beautiful day, and after seeing some amazing sights (in the mostly empty park), we ended up at Inspiration Point, looking over the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone at sunset. Sunday morning we slept in, had a nice big breakfast, lazed around the cabin and just enjoyed the downtime. I think I can actually face the next month or so, just because the weekend was so restful and relaxing.

A Few School Pictures

Last Wednesday Kayden went to Twin Falls for another cross country meet. He topped his time again, and ran his race in 17:49. He's 4th on the team right now. The Twin Falls newspaper caught the Hillcrest boys shouting out a chant before the race. Kayden is on the left of the blond guy. After the meet, the team camps and comes home the next day. This is one of Kayden's favorite meets.

Kayden was asked to his first girl's choice dance Sunday night. A pumpkin was left on our doorstep, and Kayden excitedly took the whole pumpkin straight down to his room, because he was sure it was full of candy. Wrong! He came back upstairs a few minutes later, and told me that he had to dig through the pumpkin guts to find the one pumpkin seed that had a name written on it, so he would know who asked him! So cute!

Kayden and Malia brought home their school pictures last week:

It's About Time!

So I think you'd agree that it was time for new family pictures! This was the last time we had professional pictures taken:

And here are a few of my favorites that Leah took of our family right before school started:

I love them (the pictures and the family!)

Homecoming 2010

We have had such a nice weekend! The weather has been absolutely beautiful, and it was conference weekend!! It was also homecoming for the high school. A few weeks ago Kayden asked Sidney Acor to the dance using a pinata, and she answered back with a stuffed frog wearing a prince crown (can't quite remember the details of all that....) After some fine tuning, the boys worked out a plan for the date (it needed fine tuning because the group started out as 22 couples.... that may have been a tad too big!) After the morning session of general conference 9 of the couples went hiking at Cress Creek, then they came home and the boys went to the priesthood session of conference (looking especially sharp in their tuxedos.) Then they picked up their dates, had pictures, ate dinner, went to the dance, and came back to my house for games. Kayden arranged to pick his date up in a Hummer... he was THRILLED!


The morning of the dance, Kayden and his date Sidney were on the front page of the sports section of the newspaper together, because they both had great runs at their cross country meet. Kayden got 17:50.... a new personal record! It was nice of their coach to mention them.

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PS: I just thought I would mention that I made some more green plum jam, only this time I did 5 parts plums to 1 part raspberries, and it looks about a million times better... like edible and everything!

Do You Like Green Eggs and Jam??

Kayden started taking care of a farm a couple years ago. The owner passed away, and the kids are still trying to sell the house and the land. In the mean time, Kayden keeps the yard looking good. A couple of weeks ago, one of the daughters told him that there were plum trees in the back that produce every other year, and this was their year. She told Kayden we could pick the trees dry, since no one was there to eat them. So last Saturday we all headed over, and sure enough there were nice, ripe, sweet plums. I was so excited about turning them into jam.

Here's the thing though.... they were green plums, not purple. About 1/2 way through my first batch of jam, I found out that green plums make green jam. (Yes, I realize I should have thought of that before I started making the jam....) So here's what they ended up looking like:

(Here's the first 2 of 5 batches)

Yum.... slime covered boogers.... I'm guessing I won't be able to use them as school teacher and visiting teacher gifts this year.... unless they have a great sense of humor!

I still have more plums in the garage. I might try mixing them with some raspberries and food coloring, and maybe strain out the peels... I don't know. It does taste really good though!

Odds and Ends, and Oddities

We were on our way to Soda to watch Kayden run in the Cardinal Classic last Saturday, but it was such a beautiful day (one of the few....), so we only made it as far as Lava. Kayden's cross country team stopped at Lava on their way home, so we got to catch up with Kayden there. He placed 5th on his team. He loves going to Soda to run!

(Taisha and Malia jumping off the 1st platform.)

(McKay in by the rock climbing wall. He figured out how to do back flips off the diving board this trip.)
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Here's Malia's school volleyball picture from this year. Her team is still undefeated (they've played three schools so far), and she is LOVING playing.

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So we have this awesome little birds nest in our front yard:

This would be even more awesome if it wasn't in my wreath on my front door.... How lazy is that bird???

(The nest is on the back side of the wreath on the top left hand side.)

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So I'd like to introduce you to Taisha's pet wasp:

He lives in this box. I'd take a better picture, but duh... it's a wasp. I'm not opening the box. We think it's a "he" because he hasn't stung anyone yet, and according to the research Taisha and her friend have done, boy wasps don't sting. They feed it chicken nuggets and cheese... ya, I know.

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Things at work are still going pretty good, and I think I'm becoming more familiar with everything and everyone. I did try (unsuccessfully) to remove a photocopied staple from a piece of paper though and I think I sound like a dork over the intercom.....

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So my garden froze over the weekend. I hadn't even been watching for freeze warnings yet because it's only the first part of September for crying out loud. This summer has been short, cool, and wet. The peas, carrots, potatoes, corn, squash, onions and beans did great. The tomatoes (only got 2 big bowls full) and cucumbers (only 1 made it to full grown before the freeze) did not do so great this year. No critters ate anything though.

Who are you and what did you do with my old life?

Here's the kids first day of school. Notice how I remembered to take their pictures this year! Kayden kind of has a crazed look in his eye because he SO did not want me to take his picture....

This year I have two kids in high school (9th and 11th grades), and three in elementary school (1st, 2nd, and 6th grades). No one in the middle school this year.

With everyone in school, I decided to get a part time job working at one of the elementary schools in our district. I work as a part time office assistant from 9-1 everyday. I was a little worried about getting a job, but I'm feeling pretty good about it now that the first week is over.

High school volleyball has been even busier than jr. high volleyball and club ball combined! Malia has been exhausted from it all. They have played so well though, and won against both schools they have played so far.

(Malia is number 12)

It has been a weird week for me though. Everyone is wearing new clothes, and all those unfamiliar clothes are going through the laundry. The weather changed so suddenly, and it feels like winter is going to be here any day now. Because of my new job, my morning routine and night time routine are different. I get up and put on new "work clothes," and go to a different school, with some teachers that I know, but most that I don't. The kids at that school are all unfamiliar, and while I think I'm getting the hang of everything, I feel kind of lost. It will be nice when everything feels normal and routine again. But it has been a good week for us all. And I'm curious to see how fast this school year goes, because it seems like each year goes faster than the previous year!