Aggie Soccer

We went to show our support to Cousin Sara and the rest of the Utah State soccer team at their home opener of the season.  Big Blue came to share our shade and to celebrate the home opener as well.  (He also tried to steal my Diet Coke.)  Go Aggie Soccer!

6th Grade Renaissance Fair

I had the privilege of going with Josh and his school class to the local Renaissance Fair.  It was quite the adventure:

 Josh was Knighted.  You may now call him Sir Knight Josh of the White Household.
 

The newly knighted knights met up with a mermaid and made a wish in her pond.  She was also giving away treasure.
 

 We then stowed away on a pirate ship.

 We also sat on a buggy that was pulled with by a tiny horse.

And we did some sword fighting.

We did all of that between a jousting competition, lunch, making bookmarks, a magic show and playing some Renaissance games.  It was a busy field trip!

First Day of School 2016

And just like that summer is over.  The boys are back at school.  Here they are on their first day of school.  McKay is a junior this year, Jaxon a freshman, Josh is in sixth grade and Kayden is in third.

Quick Idaho Trip

Our cousin Bryan got home from his church mission to the Philippines so we took a quick trip up to Idaho to visit him and to listen to him speak in church.  We had a good time up there seeing family, boating, paddle boarding, getting ice cream at Reeds Dairy and relaxing.

I love that the kids love their cousins.  Jaxon and Alexa had a good time sitting together and staying warm while boating out on the river.

 We did some paddle boarding.  We even took Suki for a ride.

Jeremy learned to surf.  I was surprised how easily he picked it up and how well he did.  Quite adventuresome!

McKay is quite adventuresome as well.  He did quite a bit of water skiing and would cruise across the wakes and even tried to jump the wakes.  H didn't care if he crashed or not.  It was all well and good until he crashed and one of the skis came up and hit him in the lip and nose.  He had a small gash under his nose, a double bloody nose and a numb lip that lasted a few days.  It was a rough ending to the trip.

Other than McKay's injuries, it was a nice last little get away before school starting.

Happy 17th Birthday to McKay!

17 years ago I gave birth to a 9 lb 11 oz 23" long baby boy that we had begged Heavenly Father for.  It seemed like it took forever to get him here, yet the last 17 years have zipped by!  McKay had a nice relaxing birthday after working at his new job at Jiffy Lube all day.  (I can't believe I have to go to work on my birthday!)

 How do you celebrate a 17 year old's birthday?  You search all over Google for a pizza place that is as close to New York Pizza as possible and then go try it out.  Not bad!  The salad was pretty good too!

The trickiest thing about celebrating a 17 year old's birthday is figuring out what to get him.  All he asked for was a cake (more on that below).  We finally settled on getting him Prima Arta (some fancy metal that has a low melting point and is apparently fun to play with--go figure), the Harry Potter book that just came out and a motion sensor light for the toilet as a last minute joke item courtesy of his dad.

 McKay asked for a ridiculously complicated Star Wars AT-AT cake that would have cost a fortune to make never mind the time.  I have a good friend that makes super tasty cute cakes so I gave her a call.  We came up with the idea to put a Lego AT-AT on top of a white cake.  It turned out and McKay was surprisingly satisfied and pleased.

 Brotherly love.

 That's one way to blow out a candle.

The other way is to blow out the candles while blocking your brother from blowing them out.

17 Things We Love About McKay:

1. He continues to work hard in school.  He sets high goals and achieves them.
2. His brother is his best friend.  He had Jaxon have been very close.
3. He looked all summer for a job.  It was discouraging, but he found one and he takes pride in doing his very best at work.
4. He is starting to step out of his comfort zone.  He finally went on a date this summer
   
   and has asked a girl to the high school's Homecoming dance.  I hardly know who he is anymore!
5. He is determined.  We bought a manual car for him to drive.  He wasn't too happy about the manual part, but he has got it figured out!
6. He still writes in his journal every night.
7. He exercises every night.  He rarely misses.
8. He is careful with his money.  He still rides the bus to school to save on gas money.  He does, however, like to buy specialty sodas.  He collects the bottles.
9. Spanish is still his favorite class.  He enjoyed using his Spanish knowledge when he went to El Salvador this last spring with his dad to provide dental services.
10. He still enjoys playing sports.  He was on the Lone Peak sophomore basketball team last season.  He didn't get much playing time, but he still worked hard at practice and wanted to contribute to his team.
11. He is willing to help me out.  Whether it is running an errand for me or watching his younger brothers so his parents can go out for a night on the town, he is always willing to help.
12. He does a job well done.  He is great at mowing the lawn and cleaning bathrooms.
13. We don't have to worry about him getting into trouble.  He is one responsible kid!
14. He is still handy in the kitchen.  His brothers are always begging him to bake something.
15. Takes pride in his height even though he didn't grow much this past year.
16. He sings in the shower.
17. He is a saver.  He holds on to Easter candy for 6 months waiting for the perfect time to eat it.

Happy birthday McKay!  We are anxious to see who you will become and what you will accomplish during your 18th year.

Bear Lake With the Whites

We haven't ever had the opportunity to vacation with Jeremy's family so we decided that this was the year to do it.  Jeremy and I planned a long weekend vacation to Bear Lake to spend time with his family.  We rented a cabin that fit and everyone and had a great time.  The kids especially loved being with their cousins.

We arrived on a Thursday afternoon and met up with Jason, Melodie and their family.  We ate some lunch together at a place called Zipz that was delicious.  We of course had tasty Bear Lake shakes.

 Photobomb courtesy of Jaxon.

 After lunch, we met up with Brady, Kellie and their boys and hiked through Minnetonka Cave.

 

The boys had fun with their cousins (despite Jaxon's face) exploring the inside of the cave.  There were lots of stalactites and stalagmites and other formations.  The cave was quite chilly though!

 

At the very end of the cave they turned out the lights.  Brady's little boy Taylor didn't like that much and asked if we could go home.  Once the lights were back on we got a group picture.

 

 Josh and Kayden taking a rest after exploring the cave with their cousins.

 

Once we got to the cabin and got settled in, the kids all decided to have a hot tub party.  There were a lot of kids in one hot tub and it overflowed!

 

The kids didn't last too long in the hot tub seeing how it was so hot outside already.  But they had fun and made memories.

 

Jason and Melodie were able to borrow a boat from one of Melodie's family members.  We spent two days boating and hanging out on the beach.  We also rented Sea-dos and we all loved riding on those as well.

 

Since the water was quite shallow, they had to park the boat a ways out and wade through the water to get to the beach.  That Bear Lake water is chilly!  On our first day boating, first run out, Melodie broke her arm while riding on the tube.  It was a crazy accident and sadly Jason and Melodie spent the whole first beach day in Logan in the ER.  She was a trooper and tried her very best to enjoy the rest of the vacation.

 

On Saturday night we went into town to the Pickleville Playhouse and saw Jaunito Bandito whom is pictured with Kayden above.  We all loved the show and laughed and laughed. 

We had to make one last stop at Zipz for another Bear Lake Shake (and some of the best fries ever).  The boys and their cousins had a good time eating their shakes in the comfort of a ski boat table.
 

On Sunday morning we cleaned and packed up to head home.  It was a memorable vacation.  We took some pictures before we headed out.  Above Jeremy is pictured with his siblings and parents.

This is the whole crew--minus two that had to head back home a little early.  It was so fun to be with everyone and to make memories.

Even if we are all a little crazy!

Josh and Clear Creek

In between fifth and sixth grade kids in our school district have the opportunity to go to Clear Creek Camp.  Both McKay and Jaxon got to go and this year was Josh's turn.  He had a great time and loved everything at camp (except for maybe some of the food).  I will let Josh tell you about his camp experience:

Every time we had an activity we would meet at the flag pole.  We had a flag ceremony on Thursday and Friday, but the teachers forgot all the other days.  I got to go to Clear Creek with one of my best friends, Eli.  This is when we got off the bus at the end of the week.

We did relay races on the first day.  We also played getting to know you games.  I got to know some of the kids in my group.

We got to eat snacks at night.  They told us not to be hyper after eating the candy bar.  Most kids got hyper anyway.  In the bottom picture, we were learning about the wild.  We also got to visit Skyline Mine (right).

We got to listen to an actual miner and learn about his job.  The bus ride there and back was fun too.  We did learning activities every day (right).

We had fun out in the wilderness and even played in a stream (bottom).  I got to trap pot guts so I took a selfie right by my trap (top).  On this day we got to make corn dolls out of corn husks (right).

We made and played with boon-dogles (top left).  We went to Schofield and learned about the mine disaster at Winter Quarters Mine (top right).  We went to an old jail.  It was called Cooler Jail--because it was cool in there but it was a prison.  Then we went to the Scholfield school.  It was old, but it was actually in pretty good shape.

The top left picture was part of the Skyline Mine.  Part of the mine even went under Clear Creek!  I found a Sego Lilly--it is our state flower.  We did wood cuts.  We polished the wood and then wrote on them.  I decided to take a picture of my wood cut.  The bones are a skeleton of a dead deer.  I thought it was disgusting.

We collected bugs from the stream that we played in (top left).  There are six cabins.  Four were for students.  The top right was when the bus driver ran into a ditch and hit a sewer lid.  It put a big dent in the bus--luckily we weren't on the bus!  The bottom right picture was the outside of the Cooler Jail that we visited.

This a bunch of animals and insects that we saw in a museum.  I liked the grizzly bear and it's wide open mouth the best (bottom left).

 This is the inside of the Scholfield school.  Why is there a ping pong table in there?

This is a picture of all the cabins.  The one on the farthest left was my cabin.  It was Buck Horn Inn.  I got to sleep on a top bunk right next to my friend Eli's top bunk.

This is my trap.  We decorated it with bacon duct tape.  The pot guts must like bacon because I caught six pot guts!  I was a master trapper.

I had fun and camp and I am glad that I got to go this year!