Officially Licensed

McKay is an officially licensed driver.  He was issued a temporary license and the real deal will be arriving in the mail in a couple of short weeks.  I am glad to have another driver in the house, but I am not glad that my auto insurance rates went up!

Share a Smile Triathlon 2015

Jeremy challenged our family to participate in the Share a Smile Triathlon this year.  We all accepted the challenge!  Josh and Kayden did the whole children's triathlon and McKay, Jaxon and I teamed up to complete a full triathlon.  Jeremy teamed up with some of his staff from the dental office and swam in the triathlon.  It was an early morning, but we were ready!

 

 Jeremy even had team shirts made up for us.

Josh and Kayden started out our morning.  The both swam one lap in the pool and did a great job.

They then rode their bikes through the trail in the park.

Then they completed the raise by running a lap through the park.

By the time Josh and Kayden were done running their triathlon, the adult triathlon had begun and McKay and Jeremy were in the pool.

Jeremy and McKay trained at the pool a couple of times a week and had some friendly competition and smack talk between the two of them.  Jaxon trained on his bike--a couple of times--and did really well (other than the wrong turn he made).  I trained as well by running a few times a week.  I ran the whole race, but I was disappointed in my time.  Nonetheless, we had a great time participating in the race as a family.

Jeremy's office team did well also.  There were two teams from the office and his team won!  They really brought some team and office spirit to the race:

One of Jeremy's staff drew a picture on Jeremy's back of a shark eating Dr. Gardner's name.  Dr. Gardner is the other dentist that works at Jeremy's office and he did the swimming portion of the race for the other office team.

Jeremy's office team.  They were called the "Aloha Alohas" or in other words the "Hello Goodbyes".  They dressed in Hawaiian wear and had cool headbands.  They even had cow bells they rang throughout the race to cheer each other on.

Everyone from the office and some of the staff's family members that was at the race that morning.

It was a fun morning!

First Day of School 2015

And just like that, summer is over.
 

This year McKay is in 10th grade and started High School.  (His morning started extra early at 5:15.  He was completing the requirements to get his drivers license.)  Jaxon is in 8th grade and is glad that he won't be called a "sevvie" this year.  Joshua in 5th grade and was the most excited to go back to school. And Kayden is in 2nd grade this year and decided it wasn't cool to be excited to go back to school.

End of Summer Tradtion

It has become a family tradition to end the summer by going to the Utah County Demolition Derby.  The derby never disappoints!

Kayden was the only smart one and brought his own ear plugs this year.  Some of those old beater cars are pretty loud!  The top picture is of Josh enjoying the truck round of the derby and Jaxon is in the bottom left enjoying a roll over during one of the rounds.  Hopefully the boys were all taking notes on "how not to drive"!

16--Sweet!

Hard to believe it has been 16 years since first becoming a mom.  McKay has been a great first kid and we have learned a lot together.  We had a good time celebrated McKay's 16th birthday together as a family.  McKay decided he wanted to do some surfing so we all headed on down to Provo Beach Resort:

The boys all had a great time--including Jeremy.  McKay got to be quite the surfer, Kayden liked riding on his belly as did Josh.  Jaxon and Jeremy liked knee boarding best as they didn't like the way their head felt when they wiped out surfing.

After surfing McKay wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  We let the waitress know we were there to celebrate McKay's 16th birthday.  The saddled him up:

 "Let's give this birthday boy a "Yee-Haw!"  Do you think he looks sufficiently embarrassed?

Josh decided to spend some of his own money and buy McKay a few of his favorite things to give him for his birthday.

We went home after dinner and had some ice cream cake and sang Happy Birthday to him.  I think he is happy to be 16.

16 Things We Love About McKay

1. He is always making me laugh.  He knows my humor and is always cracking jokes or showing me things on social media he knows would make me laugh.
2. He is an awesome brother.  Jaxon and McKay have become best friends more and more.  I love hearing them laughing together down in the basement or listening to them have a sing-off when one of them is blasting music in the shower.  He always watching out for his younger brothers and has a lot of patience for them.
3. He is still an excellent student and works really hard in school.  He worked really hard through all of Jr. High and got straight A's all three years.  He also took and passed the AP Geography test with an above average score.
4. I loved watching him play basketball on his Jr High School team last year.  He has excellent sportsmanship and played hard.
5. He is a hard worker.  Over the course of the last 4 years we have put in our landscaping.  It has been a lot of hard work and he was always good to pitch in and help out--with payment of course.  He does a job well done.
6. He is a good friend.  I also appreciate that he has good friends.
7. His abilities in the kitchen.  He can whip up a mean batch of muffins with a crumble and drizzle on top as well as make a great batch of cookies.
8. He started writing in his journal every night at the beginning of the summer.  He has been very diligent.
9. He is self driven.  He gets himself up in the morning, does it homework without being asked and exercises every night before a shower.
10. He served as the Teachers Quorum secretary the last few months.  He was on the phone every Friday or Saturday to make sure sacrament meeting assignments were being fulfilled.
11. He is a good example to his brothers and friends.
12. His competitive nature.  He has to be the first of his friends to get his drivers license.
13. He is a cautious driver.  And since we are the ones that will be paying the insurance rates I really appreciate that!
14. His love for Spanish.  He has taken Spanish every year since 7th grade.  He is always coming up with Spanish phrases to call himself "El Jefe" (The Boss) and "El Gran Jugador de Baloncesto" (The Great Basketball Player).
15. He still thinks I am a great cook.
16. His desire to always be better and do his best in all areas of his life.

Happy birthday McKay.  We couldn't imagine the last 16 years without you!

Todd's Memorial

Jeremy's family held a memorial for Todd at their home. It was Todd's wishes to be cremated, so Jeremy's parents and Todd's kids decided to have Todd's ashes buried in the ground with a tree.  It was a nice service where everyone was able to share stories of Todd if they wished.  A lot of nice things were said and memories shared.

Spreading the ashes and planting the tree.  Cameron took care of this part of the memorial and his sister Kaitlynn helped.  Everyone who wanted to helped fill the hole with dirt.
 

They had a stone engraved with Todd's name and birth year and death date.  It is very nice looking and it will be a nice remembrance place for Todd.

I Wonder if Chuck Norris Has Wisdom Teeth

Both McKay and Jaxon had to get their wisdom teeth removed.  We had set up the appointment months ago for them to get it done at the same time.  The boys had forgotten about their appointment until we reminded them a day or two before their scheduled date.  Let's just say they weren't looking forward to it.  I took them both down to the Oral Surgeon by myself since Jeremy was busy at work.  It was quite the experience.  I was looking forward to seeing what kind of crazy things they would say or do after being under anesthesia .  When I finally walked to the back to see my boys shortly after their extractions, this is what I came upon:

Jaxon was completely out of it and McKay was sick as sick could be.  McKay received a shot of anti-nausea medication in his arm and then when finally returned to a normal color (he was quite green)--we were able to go home.  McKay had his state of mind, but Jaxon had no clue what he was saying or doing.  He went on and on about Chuck Norris and how he (Jaxon) was just like him.  Jaxon said he was brave like Chuck Norris, he has skills like Chuck Norris, he wanted Chuck Norris flavored ice cream and so on.  McKay and I were laughing pretty hard.  Jaxon told us story after story the whole way home.  When we got home, both boys crashed on the couch.  When they woke up later that afternoon Jaxon didn't remember a thing!  McKay and I had a good time telling him about all the things that he said and showed him the video that McKay had made of him rambling on.  Jaxon couldn't believe all that he said.  I think both boys are waiting for their younger brothers to reach the wisdom teeth age to see what they might say or do.