Another week is in the books

Our week was your typical week.  Full of homework and activities from church and home and scouts and the like.  It was busy.  It was also full of strange weather.  Sunny and windy and cloudy and monsoons.  Made for interesting soccer.

 The kids took advantage of the monsoon type weather and played in the puddles.  They loved it!   Especially Haley who made herself comfortable and got good and wet.

 Because Caleb is now in middle school he has a late start on Fridays.  Haley loves this time with Caleb.  They usually read together and do a craft before he goes to school.  Here they are showing off their scarecrows they made.

 Caleb came home Friday afternoon sporting this awesome apron that he sewed himself in his class at school this week.  He did a great job for a beginner.

 As I said earlier, this week was full of soccer.  Caleb had 3 games, William had 2 and Peter had one.  Plus I made Caleb practice even though it was raining and his original team practice had been canceled.  I am mean like that.  Peter's game was again a blow out, with a win of 9-0.  Go, Rainbow Chickens!  Yes, that is their team name.

 William took a turn at keeper and then on the field as defense.  He prefers evening games because they are not so hot.   But he does great no matter what!  He had one win and one loss.

Caleb.  This is his team name/logo.  And as close to a photo as you will get from this week.  Wednesday's game was tough.  Caleb made some great saves and the whole team did incredible at the second half.  But unfortunately they ended with a loss of 3-4.  We had to rush from soccer that night to get to the court of honor for scouts where Caleb was awarded 2 rank advancements and many, many merit badges.  He was a busy little beaver that day.
Thursday we had another game and this one was much less rough.  We won 6-0, with Caleb earning his second shut out of the season!
Saturday and it was game day again.  This time we knew the team would be harder and the sun had come out again to toast things up.  But our team was ready to shine.  Caleb made some excellent saves, has a great defense to back him up and we won 3-2!  The last minutes of the game seemed crazy long, wondering when they would blow that whistle.  After we scored the winning goal the other team took their keeper out of the box to give them an extra man.  They had several goal kicks in Caleb's box and even with the extra man our Glory team was tough and took the win home!  It was a crazy, good week.

Moments of goodness

Today had some good moments to remember.  Most of it happened because of music.  There is music that inspires and music that connects you to something better and higher.  I am grateful for that time today.  In church we welcomed home a very good missionary and the family brought music into the meeting and sweet feelings into my heart.  Feelings of how awesome my kids are, that I cannot believe the age of missionary work will soon enter our home, and that my kids are good.
Then this evening at bedtime we turned on some music in the boys' room.  The lights were out, life was calm and peaceful, and the spirit came into their room.  Haley came and sat in my lap and we were together, with the love of Heavenly Father, and it was perfect.  It was goodness.  It was a moment of heaven on earth that was ours.  I am thankful for that moment.  I am thankful that I was there to be with my kids and let them feel that love.

A little bit of family fun

 A week ago we took a trip to Silver Lake.  It was stormy on the way up, but great for us while we were at the lake.  It was a beautiful venue for walking and enjoying time together, plus great places for little kids to explore and enjoy nature.  Added bonus......

 MOOSE SIGHTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Seriously, I could not have asked for anything better.  I, Diedre, was hoping to see a moose.  And it worked.  A little too well.  We were walking along the path, came around a corner and Caleb wide eyed and excited comes up to us saying there is a moose eating leaves not far away.  Sure enough, there was a bull and cow moose eating leaves not very far.  In fact, several people were mere feet away from this beautiful, powerful animal taking it's picture.  In fact, my boy was one of those (unknowingly) who got really close.  My boy, name will go unmentioned, was walking down a path and I stopped him a scant few feet from walking head long into a bull moose.  That got my heart racing!  But it was amazing to watch them, at such a close range, and to see them with my kids.  We watched them eat and then at the end of the night they crossed the path right by us and went on their way to a new patch of vegetation.  It was AWESOME!

 We had packed a picnic for the trip and, as I mentioned, I was hoping to see moose.  So, our dessert was moose brownies.  Brownies cut in the shape of a moose head with white frosting antlers!  Kids loved them.  Haley claimed at the end of dinner that she was full of moose (she did eat 4 of them).  Great times!

 So good that we came home and the next day Haley set out on  a little project during school time to make he own Silver lake.  Materials included felt, buttons, glue and sprigs of pine tree.  She is very a very cool girl.

 Fast forward a week to last night and our Gray Family Mini-Carnival.  The kids wanted to know why it was just our family, I told them I did not have enough supplies for a neighborhood carnival.  Small and simple but fun, that was our goal.

 We has the cup knock down game, which included water is some cups.  A fun one.

 We filled some water balloons up and had an "Egg" and spoon race with them.  Good fun times.  Other games included tossing beanbags at buckets to get points for getting them in.  Shooting balloons with darts (which was a nerf gun loaded with a toothpick taped on the end of each nerf dart).  They liked that "carnival" game.

 And their favorite was eating a donut off the string.  Slightly out of reach to make it fun.  Peter got a reeses peanut butter cup because he is anti-mini donut.

There was laughing and fun and running and lego carnival prizes afterward.  It was a success!

I Brag

Do I have photos for this post? NOPE! The only time you will catch me taking a picture at soccer is before play has begun.  This mom has mental photos of soccer.  So, permit me to brag about my awesome kids for a moment.....
Haley, she supports her brothers so well.  And when she tells me that she is bored of being in the sun I tell her to "hush it up" and cheer some more.  Yeah, I love that little girl.
William, another great game of soccer today.  He does not like the bigger field, but he will get used to it. He tied his game 1-1.
Peter, he is a awesome little guy.  Plays where ever the coach tells him to go.  He did some defense today and ran all over the place.  Then they put him in as keeper and he blocked those balls, worked on the drop kick and they won, 9-2!
Caleb, oh this boy!!!!  He has such a great heart and spirit.  Last night, he did not like me as mom.  Bad practice=railing by mom.  Oh, he was upset with me.  But then we both calmed down and "talked" it over again.  And today????  Scorching hot game and the score ended up 2-0.  Oh yeah!  You got it right, Caleb had a shut out!!!!!!!!!!  OH, my boy! Took 12 shots on goal, one block by him, 10 saves by him and one awesome defense to back him up.  And there was that call, that got him a penalty kick.  By the grace of everything the kid shot wide and Caleb is happy to say he is perfect in his blocks of penalty kicks.  The last 17 minutes of the game were so long.....just waiting for that final whistle to say, game over, your team won (with a shut out!!!)!!!!  The whole team did great, played well together and it was awesome!
On to the next week, more soccer and cheering and supporting and encouraging.  Love it!

Game On!

A new season has approached. Hello, schedules. Hello, school. Hello, soccer.

 Peter's team rocked it like no other.  They won 20-0!  Whoa.  And Peter scored the last goal of the game.  Good way to start a season.

 William's team also did good.  They won 3-0.  William did not appreciate the heat nor the bigger field, but he will get used to it.  It was fun to watch him play.

 Caleb, the kid in green.  Ahhh, the big goal.  Ahhh, those Saturday games played right in the heat of the day.  Ahhh, competition soccer - we say hello to a new era.  They did well.  Better than in their first tournament.  They were able to keep up with the bigger kids and play well.  We actually scored once.  Unfortunately, we lost 6-1.  Boo.  But Caleb performed well.  He made 6 saves, 3 blocks and they shot on goal like 17 times.  It was a good first in competition, with much more to come.

 And say hello to school.  This awesome one started 7th grade and he was happy to do it!  Hello, lockers and many classes a day and bell schedules and all the like.  He came home talking about new friends and the cookies that the lunch lady served that tasted like pickles.  Hilarious.

 Diedre's first day of school lunch, I am proud of my cleverness. 

 Off to new learning and adventures.

Our silly Peter.  He likes to be goofy.

Sweet little man.  2nd grade here he comes, and he has some of the best teachers that you could ever find.  So excited for this new year.

This little Miss.  She misses the deadline for Kindergarten, so she gets to hang with me, help me out and we will do our best at Mommy School again this year.  

GAME ON

Before Summer says goodbye, and schedules say hello

We packed a lot of adventure and fun in this last week!!!  Whew!  It was so much fun and I am even more bummed that school is starting.  But on with the fun and awesomeness.  Jonathan came with us to spend some time at the lake and we were so happy to have him along.

 Before picking Jonathan up we took a trip to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens.  It was beautiful, provided lots of hills to roll down and fun places to explore.

 After we arrived at Scofield and got settled in we took a trip to the Manti Temple.  Since both Jonathan and Caleb turned 12 this year and they have the opportunity to go to the temple I thought it would be a neat experience to have them go to this beautiful temple.  They loved it!  But our trip there was not without adventure.  I decided since we were already in Scofield, we would go through Fairview Canyon and shave an hour off our trip.  As we started off on our drive that morning we came to a sign that said, "Expect 5 hour delays, MP 5, SR 31."  WHAT?!?!?!?!  Not in the plan.  I called Rob, I called the temple and they both confirmed that there was construction in the canyon we were about to go through and that yes, there were major delays.  The only way to get to the Manti Temple was to go up through Thistle, which would be a 2 hour drive instead of 1.  Blech!  Well, we took a vote and everyone decided that yes, we wanted to go to the temple and yes we would brave the 4 hour round trip to get there.  We turned the truck in the other direction and as we drove I said a prayer that our journey would be swift and that it would not seem so long.  I then called the temple and asked them if we could bump our appointment time back because of our extra long journey, they said yes, and I also asked if because of our extra long journey if the boys could do extra names.  They told me they would see what they could do....  To our gratitude, we got there much earlier than expected and with no meltdowns by the kids.  It was so neat to show these sweet kids the Manti Temple as we approached it!  They loved seeing that beautiful white building from so far down the road, and as we approached the song, "I love to see the temple" came on the CD player - perfect!  Well, Jonathan and Caleb were able to go in the temple and they were allowed to do 10 names each, those sweet temple workers pulled some strings.  The boys loved the experience!  And the rest of us played outside, William and Peter loved running down the huge hill and Haley loved all the flowers.

 As a reward we went to The Malt Shop and all got yummy goodness!  Strawberry for Haley.  Oreo for Caleb, William and Peter.  Chunky Rocky Road for Jonathan.  A great Temple Trip Treat for them to enjoy on our drive back to the cabin.  They all wisely took a nap on the drive home (except Jonathan, he was sleepy but did not chose to sleep???) and we got back to the cabin to find rain and adventures to be had in the cabin.

 But after the rain some of us went outside to take a walk.  They found worms and decided to make little habitats for their pet worms. I am glad my kids find joy in each other.

 Well, after that rainy, but spiritual day, the weather was gorgeous the rest of the week.  In these two pictures the kids had a blast down at the lake!!!  They swam and played and splashed and in total spent 5 hours in the water!  Wow.  But they had so much fun.  I, Diedre, was in the water too, do not worry.  I had my share of fun.

 Caleb and Jonathan even took a trip across the lake on the tubes.  That is is how nice the weather was.  Zero wind, zero boats, perfect to play at the lake.

 In the evening they had even more fun together.  Haley and Peter were inseperable.

 Jonathan and William took shots on Caleb for a good hour and had so much fun.

And we jumped, a bunch of times, in the lake!!!

 The next day dawned bright, sunny and windless again and we (Diedre, Caleb, Peter, William, and Haley) all took another trip across the lake.  Jonathan stayed at the cabin because he got a sunburn the day before.  Lets just say 5 hours in the water and not reapplying sunscreen when parental figures tell you to can give you some sun exposure.  Oops.  Anyway, it was Haley's first time across the lake and she was so excited.  I helped push her along on her floater thing and the whole way across she was so happy she was doing it.  We played for awhile in the sand and water on the other side, then went back to join Jonathan.  That evening we played more in the lake, went on our last adventure drive of the year (sniff, sniff) and then went star gazing.  They loved seeing all those beautiful stars and even caught a glimpse of some shooting stars.  It was perfect!

 WE LOVE SCOFIELD!!!  On our last day at the cabin all 6 of us took yet another trip across the lake.  We played for a while, Peter wanted to go back before everyone else.  So, I Diedre, ended up swimming across the lake 4 times that day to escort Peter back and then go get Haley and bring her back.  My arms were tired.  But it was awesome!!!!  These kids are awesome!  We had so much fun together at the lake.  It is the best place in the summer.

 We packed everything in the truck and started back home.  No sooner did we get to the Red Narrows than did we encounter one long, snaky line of cars winding through the canyon!!!!! UGH.  I called my dad and he said there had been an accident about 12 miles up the canyon (at the Thistle junction) and that is why we were stuck.  Stuck as in, the kids could get out of the truck and I could have enough time to get out of the truck and take this photo.  We broke out the emergency bag of Tootsie Rolls and Peach Jelly candies, found all available books to read in the truck and hunkered down for our S  L  O  W trip through the canyon.  2 HOURS LATER we got to the scene of the accident and as soon as we passed it traffic sped right up and we were traveling smoothly home.  We said a prayer for the people we had to watch the police helping and were thankful we were all safe.  And we were also thankful for those Tootsie Rolls and the fact that our radio worked in the canyon to listen to some tunes while we waited.

 Back home in West Jordan and the boys took one more trip to the temple, this time Jordan River.  Our drive there was not nearly so adventurous but their experience at the temple was just as great.

 Monday evening Caleb had keeper training and so we all went with him.  There happened to be a family reunion at the same park and they had all these fun blow up toys for the family that was celebrating there.  Well, it being Wacky Week at the Gray house we decided to bust in on the fun (asking first if we could play, of course) and for the next 2 hours they played and bounced and got wet and had so much fun!  Caleb even joined them after keeper training, what a great summer!

 This blow up was a huge slide that got you wet all the way down.  A definite hit with the boys.  Haley of course LOVED the princess bounce house castle that you see above!  Her dream come true for the night.

 Tuesday and our last day with Jonathan.  We titled it crazy hair day and it was awesome!

We took a trip to the ferris wheel at Scheels.  We also went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point and had a bunch of fun there too.  And that was that.  So much fun in one week.  We were so glad that Jonathan came with us for the fun.  And we are so glad that we had this time together.

Campout

The ward campout was this weekend and fun was had by all.  Haley was the only one that got some decent sleep and she woke up in the morning saying that she loved camping.  It was a perfect venue for the boys!  The campground was surrounded by trees, small hills and mountains to climb and friends galore.

 Haley had her friends to roam around with and laugh and play.

 The boys built a fort up on the mountain and enjoyed it immensely!  Until the girls found their hideout and then they had to adjust and let the girls play.  Caleb was in his element, exploring all around the mountain and having fun.

 Haley discovered the worms and snails the next morning.  Upon going to sleep, or trying to, that night it began to rain for quite awhile.  The next morning there were slugs to be discovered and worms and snails galore.  Haley got a cup, some dirt and started picking up the worms and snails for her pets.  No problems with her.  However, there was problem when her other little friends would not play with her because they did not like worms and snails.  She was bummed.

 Everyone playing up on the mountain. Caleb also took this shot.  I actually have no idea where all of their hideouts were.  They were all over that hill/mountain-side.

 Caleb and Peter took a hike together.  They had fun up there.

And apparently they went really high.  I asked Caleb to take the camera and capture some shots, Haley did not want to participate in the hike.  See what I mean?  This is what Caleb loves, hiking and climbing and exploring.  And Peter was happy too.  One of the ward members asked me where Caleb was at one part of the campout, they had not seen him the entire time there.  No wonder, the boy only came off the mountain long enough to eat, try to sleep, and get some water.  It was great.