Just add H20

Our newest addition...

Finally, after a monsoon of rain we had a beautiful sunny day and we took that opportunity to take our new boat out for a spin! Oh the relaxation of sun, the lake, the gentle rocking of boat... Except today we had to break in the engine! For the first hour we had to keep the rpms below 2000, the second hour below 3000 then for the next 5 hours we have to keep the rpms below 4000 (which is actually pretty high). But they recommend you run the engine almost to the 4000 for the 5 hrs to break the engine in. So the girls got in some great tubing! And that is the extent of our activities that we did today! Although, I must say - tubing is their favorite activity!

Brad bought some plastic totes to organize our storage space so we spent some of our time getting everything organized, this boat has quite the storage! We really like the seating arrangement and we love the color! It has everything we need, and we are so excited - it is going to be so much fun!

Just Brad, Abby, her friend, Rachel, and I went out today. Tanton was still on his adventure in California so he missed out on the first big DUNK! But we knew that he wouldn't be too disappointed since we were breaking in the engine and he wouldn't be wakeboarding anyway.

Abby and Rachel - waiting to go.

Hanging on...

Until our next adventure...

Jammin'

Last night I made jam (with my sister, Kathy). Tanton is out of town this week and we ran out of jam just before he left. It was pretty funny to watch him ration the last little bit of jam before he left. I try to make jam every year, so usually we have an abundance and so there is no rationing going on... but as Tanton got down to that last little bit in the last tub of jam he was pretty sad to know that there were not any more tubs of home-made freezer jam to fall back on. So I told him that I would try to get some made while he was on his road trip with his friends this week. I think he will be pretty happy when he comes home and sees that he has a fresh supply to fall back on! Everyone in the family likes my jam, but Tanton is the only one that really seems to "love" my jam and eats it faithfully on his peanut butter sandwiches and especially his waffles. Here you go Tant. I kept my word. And thanks Kathy for coming over and helping me, we do pretty good work as a team! :)

On another note, I got a new pair of running/jogging shoes this last week:

They are Asics - gel cumulus, I have super duper high arches and I really needed to get a new pair of shoes that were made for someone with high arches. I have worn them a few times to work out on my elliptical and to go walking, but I have not actually gone jogging in them yet, so I look forward to seeing how they work out for me. Hurray! I hope they are a cure for an aching knee!

Randoms...

Wow, it sure has been a long time since I have posted anything! So, the kids are out of school now and that sure is going to be fun! Abby already can't adequately express how bored she is on a daily basis. But she is still going to be in tumbling 2 or 3 times a week and we have found someone that is going to come up to our house and give her tennis lessons. So that should help take away some of that boredom! To think of all the crazy things I used to do during the summertime to keep from being bored, my how times have changed.

Abby's eye has healed up very well, in fact, you can hardly even tell that she has such a nasty scar, her eyebrow is starting to grow back and everything. We were wondering if her eyebrow would grow back over her scar.

Tanton and a few of his friends are taking off on a road trip tomorrow for San Diego. He sure is growing up... I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. He sure is a good kid though, I am a lucky mom. I hope they have a great time. It's hard when they start to get older and become independent, but it is also fun to see him enjoying life and having such a great time with his friends. Oh the bitter sweetness of motherhood.

We sold our boat. It was more of a family inboard /outboard boat. The kids have really been wanting a "wakeboarding" boat for the last few years. It was kind of sad to see our red/white family boat go, but the family that bought it will have a great time. It is a super boat and in excellent condition. So, last Saturday Brad and I spent the day in Salt Lake looking at "wakeboarding" boats for our family and we got one! We are excited. We got a new 2008, so the price was pretty good, since it was last years model. They had to add a few things and make covers for it, so we are picking it up next week. I will for sure post pics when we get it.... I will probably be posting pics of the kids (and parents :) ) tearing it up on the lake! It will be a great new addition to our family!

Well, I think that is about it for now!

Lacrosse...mania

So the lacrosse season has come and gone...and it seems like it was a blink of my eye. What an awesome season Sky View lacrosse had! They went all the way to the State final game! It was so exciting and so much joy for me, as a mom, to watch Tanton play and suceed so much.
I totally don't want to sound too PROUD... but I am so proud I just can't help it! Tanton broke the Sky View Lacrosse school record for goals this year! He had 42 goals in 12 games, he missed 2 games with an injured shoulder. When I watch him in all that he does, I continue to be in awe of the talent that this boy possesses and how humble he remains...

This whole group of lacrosse players just seem to be such great kids. I love to see my kids be so involved in activities at school and really have fun and enjoy these years, what better way to make memories that will last a lifetime?

Tanton on the go at the Sky View vs. Orem State Championship game.

Getting totally slashed! Lucky his trachea is okay!

Tanton poking a shot in during the American Fork game,

......and everyone

cele-

brating

afterwards!

Tanton making

a couple of

shots during the

West Jordan game.

What a FUN, fun season this has been. Too bad Orem came with all of their guns loaded to the championship game on Saturday because our guys really had a shot of going all the way this year. But, all the way or not, I can only speak for myself and I am so proud, I am almost ready to burst. What a super season. Our Sky View team played with spirit, sportsmanship, skill, and pride. There was never a moment that we could have been embarrassed about any kind of action that any of our players did nor did they posess any kind of unsportmanship throughout the entire season... now that is a winning team in my opinion, regardless of the championship game.

Make a Smilebox postcard

Last but not least, I have to give credit for all of my pictures to Marnie, Tanton's other mom, she takes a million pictures at all of the lacrosse games and does an awesome job! Thanks Marnie! :)

No Bathroom Breaks Allowed...

Last Friday Abby was at school playing softball, a girl asked her if she could cover first base so she could go to the bathroom. Abby said she would. Well... while she was covering first base for the girl that went in for her bathroom break she got a ball thrown to her and she did not even see the ball coming. She said that she was talking to another friend (now I cannot even imagine that! :) ) ....Unfortunately, those softballs don't seem to be too soft!
Brad and I were actually in Salt Lake and fortunately a very nice neighbor of ours was at the school at the time. She called us and totally took care Abby for us (Thanks Colleen!). She took Abby over to her sister, Krista's house... Thanks Krista! Where Abby stayed for about 2 hours until we could get home.

Once we got Abby home and could clean her up and look at everything, Brad could see that it definitely needed stitches. It was pretty deep as you can see from the picture above. She ended up getting 3 stitches inside and 7 stitches outside. Abby was so brave, she did not cry one time from the time that she got hit with the softball through getting the stitches!

Dad at work...

All put together beautifully. We are actually very lucky that the ball did not hit her in the eye, or hit her temple or do any worse damage. It could have broken her orbital bone that surrounds her eye... but nonetheless it is a pretty bad injury, we are just grateful that it wasn't any worse.

After she got all fixed up Abby got in the shower and went to a birthday party for a couple of hours.

That night Colleen called me to tell me how impressed she was with how well Abby handled herself after the injury at school. Facial injuries bleed A LOT and Abby fell to the ground after she was hit. With all of the blood etc. and not being able to really see what was going on, all of the kids at school were surrounding her wondering what was going on, it was pretty dramatic and Colleen said Abby was very brave and very mature about the whole thing.

Unfortunately, the next morning her eye had swollen shut and it took half way through the day for the swelling to go down. Throughout the weekend the swelling kept going down and her eye is starting to heal up. But what a brave little sport my girl has been through all of this. She even said that when she went to school on Monday some of the kids made fun of her. Kids can be so mean! Her eye is looking much better and should heal up to be just fine. Thank heavens!

Greg's Engaged!

Greg is engaged! He asked Kristina Fancher to marry him on Easter... he put the ring in her Easter basket, what a fun surprise. Greg and Kristina have been either very good friends or dating for a few years now, so this did not come as a big surprise to our family.


The date they have set for their wedding is October 10, 2009 and they will be married in the Logan Temple.

Sounds like they will be busy the next few months making all of those fun "wedding plans".

Greg has been living here in Logan going to USU majoring in Computer Science and Kristina has been living in SLC this past year working on her Masters Degree. She got her Bachelor Degree from USU. Greg plans to move down in May and work this summer then start up at the University of Utah this fall. They will live in Salt Lake while both of them continue to work on their educations.

And so their lives and journey together will begin....

Congratulations Greg & Kristina! You make a cute couple!

**STATE CHAMP**

Abby totally rocked her tumbling meet last weekend! She is state Champ in TWO events -- Trampoline and Tumbling (floor). She was simply amazing in these two events and she deserved 1st place for sure. Although, the older she gets, the stiffer the competition gets and we are just never sure if it will be 1st, 2nd, or 3rd... but we can usually tell if she would be lower than 3rd -- for some odd reason (ha, ha!).

Her meet was in Heber, UT and she actually had 2 events on Friday evening and one on Saturday morning. Her first event was double mini tramp. Abby had been working for the past two weeks to get her double back flip off the tramp for her 2nd pass on double mini... but when she went to do her first pass, she had a really weird bad bounce that kind of kicked her off the trampoline. She wasn't even able to do her skills for her first pass. Sitting in the stands Brad and I could tell that she was devastated and extremely upset. Her second pass went fairly well, but with only skills on one pass it just doesn't work and she ended up getting 8th place on double mini. She came up in the stands to talk to us and was verrrrry bummed. She understands that you make mistakes and sometimes you get bad bounces..... but she had worked so dang hard to get her double back flip!!

Abby on top the podium after placing 1st in Tumbling

Well, she had to perform trampoline in about an hour so she had to shake it off -- and she did that very well. Her trampoline routines were BEAUTIFUL!! Unless you are a parent, or hang around the gym watching these girls and guys practice you don't really notice the details, but at the end I have posted video; notice what good form Abby has, her legs and toes are together, her legs are straight, she kicks out beautifully... she just looks so good when she performs. Plus there is a rectangle on the tramp that they are suppose to stay within during their routine. Well, Abby got FIRST PLACE!! There were 12 girls competing in trampoline.


The next morning she competed for tumbling. There were 13 girls she was competing against in tumbling. Now all of these girls are in Abby's same age group, and they have all registered to compete at the same level... it starts at level 5 and goes up to level 10 then jr elite etc. So, they are all very competitive with each other, and their skills and abilities are similar. Once again she was right on. Her passes down the floor looked great! Abby has such great form on floor also. Now at the end of the blue floor there is a red line then a yellow mat.... the athletes score higher if the they start their last skill on the blue and land on the yellow mat. Kinda tricky to measure this all out when you are flipping down the floor, like they do!! Abby landed perfectly on both of her passes, which was really super for her score and her routine! Great Job Abby! (Once again, I have posted all of the videos at the end.) We were nervous waiting for the awards, there are a few really good girls competing against Abby... where would she place?? We figured she would be in the top 3, but would she? YES she would! Abby Larson got 1st Place in Tumbling! Hooray!

Abby on top the podium after taking 1st place for trampoline... she competed against 12 girls, but it was late at night and most of the girls had left for the night. Happy girl! :)

Lots and lots of trophies to be given out. Trophies are only given out at the state, regional, and national meets. The rest of the meets the girls receive medals.

Hanging out, waiting for the awards....

The two above videos are Abby doing her Tumbling passes. Watch her form, her legs are together, her back handsprings and whips are long... she just looks grand!

The above videos are Abby doing her Trampoline routines. She is so amazing, you might want to watch them 2 or 3 times to appreciate how great she really looks! :) In the top video she does her double back flip and lands perfectly, then her very last skill is a rudi (a front flip with 2 twists) she lands this like a true champ also!!

This video is a practice pass that Abby did on double mini.... it has her doing her double back flip off, so you can kind of see what she had been working on, but she would have been a little more on target if she were being judged.....

Once again, here I am brag, brag, brag... but I guess I have got something pretty good to brag about! Just a proud momma!

p.s. This is Abby's 3rd year in a row taking state (1st place) on trampoline.