August Fun!

August has been HOT and BUSY!  

Tackle football has started!  Parker is assistant coaching, mostly with offense and helping Josh at quarterback.  It is all time consuming, I feel like everything in our house and life right now revolve around football which, for the most part, I don't mind because I LOVE football and I love even MORE watching my BOYS play football!  But sometimes I just feel overwhelmed by it all.  Regardless, I think it will be a fun season!

Parker was pretty proud he could fit into Jack's pads and jersey...

I feel like I spend my life in this van, with these stinky football players, driving on Mountain View Corridor...

After MUCH thought and fact gathering we decided to put Tyce into the ALPS program at Riverton Elementary.  ALPS is the advanced placement program through the school district.  He is very bright, with a total IQ of 135 and a verbal comprehension IQ of 139 which is considered "superior intelligence" and is about 1% of the population.  He scored as high as 10th grade level on many of his tests when he was in 3rd grade.  He scored in the 99th% in all subjects.  Needless to say, we felt overwhelmed with this information and had to think a lot about what path to take with him.  We considered  having him skip a grade but a) he is already young for his grade with an end of July birthday and b) he really wouldn't be challenged one grade up anyway!  So we decided to try this.  Tyce was super super super bummed to leave his MANY many many friends at Bluffdale but I am so proud of him for being mature enough to understand he needs to be challenged.  The biggest bummer for us is there's no bus service for him so we have to drive him which is such a pain.  Parker takes him every morning on his way to work which I think will be good for them to spend some one on one time together.  Luckily I found someone in my neighborhood (thank you Sheryl!!!) who is able to  help with driving home since sometimes it conflicts with my work schedule.  All the stars have aligned and now we hope it's a good year for my smarty pants!  Tyce wanted to see his new school before his first day so we headed over and, turns out, it is the EXACT same building layout as his old school!  That made him feel better.

Gosh we miss Brody so much.  I really feel like I will never be whole again.  This sweet Luna girl makes it better, she's so fun.  But sometimes she makes me miss Brody more because she will only cuddle when SHE feels like it whereas Brody was ALWAYS willing to snuggle me.  He was an amazing cat and will forever be missed...

Kesti and I took the boys to Cowabunga Bay for one last hoorah before school started....

Dinner at Black Bear Diner was yummy and fun despite the fact that our waitress was NOT all the way right in the head which made for an interesting/frustrating experience...

I volunteered to take tickets for our city's monster truck rally which was actually REALLY cool!  One tipped over, I could not believe the driver was ok...

Kesti and her family came too...

Tyce had his summer championship swim meet where he placed FIRST in the 25 breaststroke!!!

Super proud of this kiddo!!!

Sweet Luna, she sleeps like this every night (but only with Parker, not me)...

Things I never thought I'd say as a mom..."why are there dirty socks in the freezer???"  Well because Jackson took them off to throw them away because they had holes, then decided he wanted taquitos, and so he stuck them in there while he dug the box of taquitos out, then left them in there!  I GUESS that makes sense?!?!

So I had a business licensing conference for work in Bryce Canyon so my parents took the kids to Oregon (I'll do a separate post on all their fun!) and Parker came with me!  He worked in the hotel while I was at the conference but we had evenings free to go check out the BEAUTY of Bryce Canyon!

Cute tunnel on our way to the hotel...

The conference was really good, I learned a TON, met lots of new people, and ATE a TON!  They seriously fed us like every two hours...

I was not prepared for how amazing Bryce Canyon would be!  Pictures don't even come close to doing it justice, but I still took a million haha...

Our hotel room wasn't the nicest place we've stayed (think crazy squeaky shower floor and uber loud annoying toilet) but it was fine!

The stupid hotel gym didn't open until SEVEN which was crazy late so sweet Parker got up early with me and we went running in the PITCH dark on a trail we had never run before.  It was kinda unsettling at first but then our eyes adjusted and it was actually really cool!

It was breathtaking and Parker and I thoroughly enjoyed our time together sans kiddos.  There were places we hiked that for some reason were DEAD silent when we stopped walking and it was both eerie and amazing. Little trips like this with Parker always remind me how much I love him, being married to him, and just being with him.

Next post...OREGON PICS!!!  Spoiler alert...they were entertained and spoiled 24/7...