Get Away

It has been stressful around her the last few weeks.  So we decided that we needed to escape and just relax for a couple of days.  We loaded up the car and drove down to St. George for conference weekend.  We lounged, went swimming, ate good food, played games, watched movies, watched conference, went to a show at Tuacahn and just found our chi.  It was a great weekend!

Just as we will pulling up to Tuacahn to watch The Little Mermaid, all the boys let me know they didn't even know what the show was about.  Oops...I guess that's what happens when you grow up in a house full of boys!  Maybe next time we should see a less girly show.

Senior Jaxon

Jaxon has been doing great his senior year.  Sadly he came down with a nasty cold and has had to miss a couple of half days of school.

Being a (sick) senior must be hard work because he never sleeps during the day.

Belt Rank Advancement

It has come time once again for Kayden to advance karate belts. It is always fun to see what he has been working on in class.
 

Presentation of the new brown/purple belt.

Proud parents.

Proud karate kids.

Happy Birthday Jax...at Homecoming

Jaxon had a busy day on his birthday.  His birthday landed on a Saturday this year and he had to work first thing in the morning and had the Homecoming dance at night.  So we got up early and made breakfast for him to celebrate his birthday as a family.

 This the best early morning birthday smile we could get out of him.  At least he liked the French Toast!

It's never too early to received a proper bonk on the head with a birthday gift!

 All Jaxon wanted for his birthday this year was the ability to watch his Spurs during the NBA season.  So he was gifted a 3 month NBA league pass.

 Kayden  knows the love Jaxon has for the Spurs so he made him a picture of Tim Duncan and gave it to him.  (Funny side note, Kayden drew him as a white guy.  He had to do a quick makeover once he learned Time Duncan is black!)

 Later that evening Jaxon got all decked out and went to Homecoming.  Man he cleans up nice!

 

Picking up his lovely date Brinlee.

 

 Jaxon's group: Mia, Jake, Brinley, Josh, Brinlee, Jaxon, Mikayla, Skyler

Josh, Jake, Skyler, Jaxon.  Handsome dudes!

They went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and Jaxon's friends tipped off the waiter that it was Jaxon's birthday.  So Jaxon got to celebrate his birthday Texas Roadhouse style:

We finished celebrating Jaxon's birthday the next day at Grandma Haacke's house:

 Another bonk on the head.

 Jaxon received a Spurs sweatshirt from Grandma and Grandpa.

 

Happy 18th birthday Jaxon.  We sure love you!

18 Things We Love About Jaxon:

1. His love for memes.  He emails McKay the best of the best each week.
2. His talent for playing the piano.
3. He is learning to play the guitar and I love listening to him play that as well.
4. His love for good music.
5. He is a hard worker.
6. He is doing really well in school and I haven't had to nag him about homework this year.  He is enjoying his pharmacy class down at MTECH.
7. He plowed through his landscaping job with the city this summer.  It was hard work and it was hot, but he did it!
8. His love for family.
9. He still knows how to clean a bathroom really well.
10. He still makes his bed every day.  (Now if he would just add the decorative pillows!)
11. He has good friends and is a good friend as well.
12. His laugh, which is heard often because of #1.
13. He talks to me and tells me about his day.
14. He is confident, especially when it comes to talking to people.
15. He never complains about my cooking and is always willing to try new things.
16. Jaxon still loves to grow out his hair.  I think he does it to try and bug me.  However, most days he wears a hat.
    
    
17. His love for sports.  He still especially loves the Spurs.  The highlight of his year was when we went down to San Antonio and went to the retirement ceremony for Manu Ginobili.
18. He is just a fun guy to be around.  He makes you laugh and somehow he makes you tolerate his teasing with a little joy.

Go Cougars

We were given some extra tickets to the BYU v USC game and so we all went (minus Jaxon).  It proved to be a great game!

 We had enough extra tickets for Josh to take a couple of friends.

 Kayden and I sat with Grandma and Grandpa.  It was a hot day and we were thankful for ice cream!
 

 BYU won in overtime.  It was a great game that we weren't expecting BYU to win!

 

 Kayden after the big win.  We were pretty excited!

Poor Little Dude

Boston was getting too frisky with his stuffed toy dog, so it was time to get him fixed.  Poor guy was supposed to wear the cone of shame for 3 days.  I didn't last 3 hours making him wear it.  He was so miserable with it on!  Before long he was back to his tricks:

 

I woke up to a trail of foam with this football at the end.  Boston had dragged the football in through the dog door from outside.

 He still likes to chew. 

 Boston also learned to jump up on my bed.  He is headed to puppy training school for two months.  We'll see what tricks he has when he gets home.

 

At least Suki is tolerating him more.

Labor Day Weekend

Another mark to the end of summer.  Labor Day.  We really lived it up this year and made a lot of plans.  It turned out to be a great weekend!  It started with my annual trip to Swiss Days up in Midway.

 This year I was lucky enough to have my mom and nieces Samantha and Rebecca come along.

My dear friend Jill and I always go together.  This year we saw Elder Uchtdorf and Jill really wanted a picture with him.  So she just kept creeping closer and closer to him and I snapped a picture.  See him there in the background?  He's the one with the fantastic silver hair.  Jill cracks me up!

We had such a good time hiking up to Wall Lake last year for our anniversary that we really wanted to do it again this year.  The hike kept getting pushed back on the calendar until we made Labor Day weekend work for us.  We grabbed everyone that was visiting, Boston and Sam and Lance's dog Piper and drove up to the Uintas.  After our hike we ate dinner at Hi Mountain Drug in Kamas.  It was a great day and the dogs loved it as well!

 (Missing Becca and the puppies)

 

 Jaxon, Josh, Kayden, Lance, Sam, Becca with Boston and Piper.  A little more chaotic than the last picture.
 

 Sam and I

 Becca and Jaxon

 Piper and Boston enjoying the water and each other.

 Grandma

 

Jaxon watching Lance, Jeremy, Josh and Kayden do some cliff jumping.  Jaxon said the water was too cold for him to join in.

 

 The whole gang

 Upper Provo River Falls.  Grandpa, Grandma, Becca, Jaxon, Kayden, Sam, Lance and Piper.

Kayden practicing his karate moves while the rest of us were sitting by the falls.

On actual Labor Day we got together at the White House and had a BBQ and swam in the pool.  It was another great day spent with family.

We put Boston in the pool to see what he would do.  He didn't like it and got out of there as fast as he could!

Belly flop contest:

Kayden

Nick

Tre

Josh

Josh on the slide.

It was a great weekend and our time was well spent making lots of memories!