Fall Fun 2015

Tonight my mom cooked a delicious dinner with a Halloween theme.

Not pictured: "Mummy" French bread.

Back to the Future Day happened on 10-21-15. Everyone was disappointed that we don't have hoverboards but, other than that, the future is pretty much way cooler than we expected.

The kids celebrated by watching Back to the Future II. A few weeks ago, we also saw a funny parody at the Ziegfeld and Ian got to meet this famous time traveler (Link from Zelda).

A friend sent a box of clothes for Katie and there was this cool green shirt in it for me. 

Katie now has about 20 pairs of shoes (I am not exaggerating). She is in heaven about that.

For the second year in a row the Ram Run happened. This is a 5K fundraiser we started at Mount Ogden Junior High last year to raise money for the school. We raised almost twice as much money from last year and had more than twice as many runners. It is a lot of work, but so rewarding when it is over. 

Check out that great finish line Brian painted! Boston's got nothing on the Ram Run. This cute little Fiat was loaned to us by a dealership to use as the pacer car.

When the race was done, to my surprise, they gave me the keys and let me drive it for the weekend! 

If you look close at the figure inside the car, it is Ian getting ready to head to a soccer game. I let him sign up for two teams. One team had two games plus a practice every week and the other team had one game plus a practice. September and October were busy getting him to all the games and practices. He had a blast and his last game was yesterday. Whew--a break until spring.

I used the Lagoon passes to take the kids to Frightmares. 

Unfortunately, this was a perfect fit that day -- haha!

We had fun but only stayed a few hours because it was crazy crowded. I was able to ride Cannibal for the first time. It was awesome!!!

The next weekend, I got a ride for Ian to his afternoon soccer game so I could take Katie and Isaac to the Treehouse Museum. I thought we would stay for 2 hours or less. But, these two adorable cuties played and played and played using their most amazing imaginations. Watching them warmed my heart all over and I couldn't make myself pry them away for 3.5 hours (and only then because it was a mealtime and they were starving).

In September, Sophie was so disappointed that we didn't get tickets to see Taylor Swift -- Again. This is the second year we have tried to get tickets but they sell out immediately and then you have to buy them for $150/each resale. 

It turns out Owl City is her new favorite band and they came to SLC last Tuesday. I was able to get tickets ($25/each, oh yeah!) and we had a little adventure. 

Leading up to the concert, I was not sure how to feel. When I was young, I loved going to concerts and I went to quite a few. As I looked back at those memories from my (ahem) more mature point of view, I wasn't sure I was going to love all the loud, packed in crowded, sweaty revelry quite as much. Out of love for my daughter, I did it anyway.

What can I say? This girl was beyond thrilled to see this band perform. And, out of all the people in the world, the person she wanted to share that moment with most was me.

Terrible picture because it was so dark; wonderful memory. Turns out, I shouldn't have worried. We had the perfect spot right in the center of the front half of the room. The crowd was very respectful. There were lots of people my age there accompanying their teenagers. I guess that is a thing now. Here is how many concerts my parents attended with me: zero. I never really thought about them going to a concert with me. Times have changed. It was a great show! Lots of fun. Bonus: I could hear my own voice without yelling when it was done.

Brian has been in Oregon promoting the Ogden Marathon at running expos. Today he got to run the Columbia Gorge Marathon. It was his 31st. He is trying to run 50 by age 50 (that means he has four years to run 19 more).

He is not going to like it when he sees I lifted this picture off of his facebook page because, you know, he's a photographer and it violates his copyright or something. But, he looks kind of handsome, don't you think?

Our lives in a nutshell. 

This week looks like it will be crazy busy for me as I get ready to head to Denver for my new job next week. New since May. It still feels kind of new. We get to stay at the Four Seasons. Fun! But, based on my work trips from a few years ago, I'm pretty sure I'm only going to see the inside of a conference room for two days straight.

And, my hotel room for seven hours each night (most of those I will be sleeping).

But, I get to meet my boss who lives in Chicago for the first time and there is sure to be some spectacular food.

I Feel a List Coming On

Today swept me up and tossed me around like I was riding a giant ocean wave. I admit it was a thrill ride at the time. But, it has left me tired and my head hurting. I am giving myself a little treat for all I have accomplished called -- finally taking the time to sit down and update my blog!

1--Big news at our house. HUGE news. Brian started a full time job with the G.O.A.L. Foundation on October 1. If I made a list of all the things Brian loves and turned that list into a full time job -- this would be that job! G.O.A.L. stands for Get Out And Live. They are a non-profit organization created after the 2002 Olympics to continue that spirit in the Ogden community of, well, getting out and living. They do cool things like organize the Ogden Marathon and Xterra events. Brian gets to be their marketer which means he will use his photography and design skills to promote his favorite passions -- running, biking and otherwise testing the limits of the human body. He will travel around from time to time promoting G.O.A.L. at expos (this man has an inexplicable love of running expos) and while he is there I am sure he will run whatever marathon is associated with said expo. Did I mention he is trying to complete 50 marathons by age 50? Perfect.

2--Sophie absolutely loves her new school. Her creative writing class is just the right fit. For language arts, she gets to travel by FrontRunner once a month to Salt Lake to see a matinee by professionals at Pioneer Theater Company. Her drama class recently returned from the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. The other night we stayed up late and she told me about the cool science experiments she gets to do in biology. I can't say enough about how great this school is for her. She is so happy. It makes me so happy!

3--Ian has seamlessly made the transition to junior high. I got to go to his (and Sophie's) parent teacher conferences two weeks ago and it was an absolute pleasure (both times) to get to go from teacher to teacher hearing about how awesome and smart my kids are. I don't usually like to brag but here I am saying it -- straight A students! The news that Brian got his new job, the delightful parent teacher conferences and the news that Ian earned first chair in band all came in the same week. It was a good week. Here is a story about Ian -- he has always been such a good kid about practicing the piano. This year, he decided he would like to play the drums in band so he signed up for 7th grade, or beginning band. Right before school started, I realized he would be bored. Even though he has never played the drums, he is very good at music and I knew he would do what he had to to get caught up. The school messed up his schedule so while they were fixing it I asked them to put him in advanced, or 8th grade band. They really didn't want to, but then they did it anyway and, BAM! First chair on his first test and all the other drummers have had at least one more year on the drums than him.

4--More good news. About 8 months ago I asked a performer in Ogden who is super talented if Sophie could take voice lessons from him. He put her on a wait list. Last month he had an opening and Sophie got the spot. I am so happy for her to get this opportunity. She is glowing when I pick her up after her lessons. She also worked up the courage to audition for a part in a Christmas show at the Ziegfeld, a local community theater. She got up and sang with so much confidence and beauty. She even got a call back. We haven't heard for sure, but I don't think she made the final cut. I am still so proud of her for going for it. There is so much talent in our community. The competition is stiff. It's difficult even to get a call back. Way to go!

5--Life is so busy. Ian plays on two soccer teams. The games are usually about 30-minutes away. My mom thinks my life is crazy busy. But, everyone I know is busier than me and -- I don't know how that is possible!? Last night, when Ian's soccer game in Brigham City ended at 7:30 p.m., it was all I could do to think of getting home, feeding the family and putting everyone to bed while the parents all around me were talking about how they were headed next to take their boys to basketball practice at 8 o'clock at night after we had all devoted three hours to a soccer game. On a school night! I digress. Life is busy and I suppose that is how it is for everyone. Shuttling four kids to three schools is busy enough before adding in all of the extras. I don't know how many times I drive right by a park and Katie and Isaac beg me to stop so they can play and I can't because we have to keep going to the next thing and the next thing after that and the next thing after that. Today, after I picked up Sophie from school, we drove past this really awesome park we call the spider web park. Katie and Isaac asked if we could play and I said "yes." We dropped off Sophie at home, took Ian to his piano lesson and headed back to the park to enjoy the most perfect park weather and the playground for 45-minutes. It was superb. It was just what I needed.