KK soccer 2024

 This was KK's first year playing soccer and she rocked it! You wouldn't have guessed that she never played before. She didn't end up scoring but she came close a couple times. She definitely had some good moves!

Haha my mom came to this game! Can you hear her in the background?

So close!

She can't wait until next year!

September 2024 Blakely's 11th birthday

 We went rock climbing with the Rhodehouses on Labor day. On the way down we spotted two goats!

Blakely

KK

Nathan

Blakely's class (most of them). She only has 15 students in her class!

Green day!

Purple day!

Eden gymnastics:

They have a preschool morning session which is super nice. If we had to wait until the afternoon, Eden most likely wouldn't be able to participate with all the other after school activities we have going on.

Shopping for birthday party supplies! 

We may have got a little distracted with other things though!

Happy 11th Birthday Blakely!

Blakely wanted lava cake for her birthday. The only problem is it is too hot to put a candle in it!  Haha! We opted for a bigger candle to blow out!

She finally got a bike that fits her again!

lamp from Valerie

$$$ from either Gpa Whiting or Gpa Kelsey

Gift cards, diary and drawing book from Gma Linda

Blakely wanted a movie night for her birthday party. This was definitely one of the easiest parties I've done.

Eden helping me decorate and model so I know where to set up the camera! 

Eden gymnastics:

Shhh, don't tell Blair. She'll kill me if she knows I filmed her!

KK drew on Eden's balloons with a marker and it started coming off on Eden's hands.

Eden referring to KK: That girl does not know what she is doing!

We were listening to pop rocks on the way home one day and Barenaked Ladies were guest hosting.

Eden: I love watching bare naked ladies!

Me: huh?!?

Eden: The movie that has the ladies that turn into bears.

Me: Oh you mean "Brave"!

Dyer to Blakely: You're annoying 24/7

Blakely to Dyer: Well, you're annoying 24/8!

Dyer 8th grade football 2024

Dyer's number 80 (red helmet)! 

Aug. 27th:

vs. Wood River

Sept. 4:

vs. Burley

Sept. 10th:

vs. Jerome

I wasn't able to make it to that game because KK had a soccer game at the same time.

Sept. 17th:

vs. South Hills

Haha! Look at #15 on the other team

Dyer played mostly O-line but he did play D-line a couple times. I think he wanted to play D-line more but honestly I prefer him on O-line. I think he does better at "preventing a hug" aka blocking than "initiating a hug" aka tackling! Haha!

Nathan had a bishopric meeting soon after Dyer's game so we rushed back so that he could get there on time. The plan was for me to return to Dyer's school and pick him up after the bus dropped him off from South Hills. Well, it turns out that after the bus dropped the 7th graders off at the game it never returned to Dyer's school to pick up the 8th graders. Everyone was scrambling to find a ride to the game. Luckily there were enough parents that carpooled the 8th graders over. I never got the memo and didn't know that all the 8th graders needed to find their own way home and/or back to the school. Dyer assumed that we would wait for him after the game and that he would get a ride back to the school from us. Oops! Of course he didn't have his phone on him and was the only player left at South Hills! Luckily someone who has a grandkid on the team and works at Dyer's school saw him all alone and asked if he needed a phone to call his mom. I rushed back to South Hills as quick as I could! Poor guy!

The other middle school in town (Robert Stuart) forfeited the game against Dyer's team. We were told it was because they didn't have enough eligible players but I swear two days later I saw them playing a game against another team...(Dyer has Drum practice right next to that school). In any case it was a bummer Dyer's team didn't get to play another game.

Oct. 8th:

vs. Burley

This was Dyer's last game and it was annoying all around. We didn't get to play East Minico in the regular season again so we were both in 1st place again. They flipped a coin again and once again we lost so we got the 2nd seed. Well, we had to play Burley (3rd seed) again. Dyer's lineman coach has a son on the 7th grade team and wanted to watch his son play (I get it) but that left Dyer's team without a lineman coach. The head coach had no clue which lineman should be playing and where so it threw everything off. Dyer up to this point was playing almost every offensive play of every game (with the exception of Wood River where Dyer's team was killing them so bad they put their 2nd and 3rd string players in). The game against Burly (the 2nd time), Dyer played maybe half the game... It was so frustrating! On top of that the league decided the night before that if you lost the game, your season was over. No game to see if you placed 3rd or 4th. It was so disappointing! They got jipped two games that year.

England Trip 20 Year Anniversary

We flew out of SLC and had a layover in NYC. Alan's (my step dad) brothers and sister in laws were on the same flight to JFK.  They were headed to England, on a different connecting flight, for a cruise. When we landed at JFK we found out our flight was delayed.  Within 45 minutes we then found out our flight was cancelled until the following night. This was about 10 pm. We stood in line for almost 3 hours and was almost to the front of the line when someone said that our line was shutting down and that we would need to go and stand in a different line. REALLY?!? I like how they rolled out complimentary snacks and water about 5 minutes before they gave us the bad news. Way to butter us up right before you sucker punch us! Since it was almost 1am we decided to leave the airport and try and find a hotel to stay in. We also left all our luggage because the line for that was probably at least an hour long wait. Nathan called a third party to book us a room while we stood in line for a cab that eventually took us to the hotel. When we got there to check in the guy at the front desk said that they were booked and that our reservation was for that afternoon/evening. REALLY?!? Nathan told the guy on the phone that we needed the hotel now. Our cab already left but luckily there was another hotel just across the street. We ran over there and we got the last room available! I felt kind of bad for the guy right behind us.

Once we woke up we had almost a whole day to kill. Originally we thought we were going to go to the MET but once we got off the train we decided to go to the American Museum of Natural History since we hadn't been there before.

Monday, August 5th:

We also got pizza by the slice and Junior's Cheesecake!

We decided to fly first class! It was definitely nice! Nathan was actually able to sleep on the flight. I tired but failed miserably and because of that, it was a bit rough that first day in London for me. I was fine for the most part if we just kept moving but as soon as I stood still or sat down, I felt like I was swaying. So strange! I had a bit of brain fog and I couldn't stop yawning!

Because we were a day late we missed our Oxford/Downton Abbey tour. Nathan called and tried to explain why we weren't going to make it and if we could just reschedule for another day. It was a third party of course and they said they couldn't help us but to try and email some lady. We did but didn't hear back in time (we only had Wednesday available) so we booked new tickets.

Tuesday, August 6th:

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

We got on a double decker tour bus and rode around until it was time for our Buckingham palace tour. We didn't know it at the time but we were lucky to have a tour guide on our bus. Of course he pointed out main attractions but he also gave history/ background information and told many stories. He was pretty funny too! I just assumed that all the buses were like that but the next day, it was just a boring recording that just pointed things out and most of the time it was way too early or too late. Definitely not as fun or entertaining.

London Eye

Just need a crown and a fancy dress and I'm basically royalty!

Of course we had to get Buckingham palace ice cream.

Wednesday, Aug 7th:

Oxford University Tour

The Sheldonian Theatre-Oxford University

The man who designed this building was actually a professor of Astronomy. He wasn't an architect.

J.K. Rowling got inspiration for Harry Potter's scar from this mark in the stone.

Bridge of Sighs-many movies have been filmed using that bridge.

Memorial for the three men who were burned at the stake for their religious beliefs.

Meeting place for famous authors J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis

Downton Abbey Tour:

The Dog and Duck pub

Hospital

Crawley house

Haha! This is where they had the fair. This was so small. I have no idea how they filmed the fair here!

Church

Cemetery

Highclere Castle

We couldn't take any pictures inside the castle.

Harrods:

Queen made of Legos

The King is blurry for some reason.

Thursday, Aug 8:

Windsor Castle

I wish we would have been able to stay longer but we were on a tour, so we only had a couple hours to look around (unless we wanted to be left behind). I think if we went back to England I wouldn't bundle the tours (if I could help it). I felt rushed all the time and I felt like we really only got a taste of what there was at most places. It would have been nice to take our time and see everything we wanted to see.

Stonehenge:

I would have been fine to skip this one. The weather was horrible (pouring down rain and wind blowing said rain sideways). There was no way to escape the rain! We were soaking wet!

Bath:

I would have liked to stay longer here. Again we were rushed and weren't even able to finish the audio tour because we ran our of time. We were told that some people opt to stay over night and just catch a train back into the city. We weren't prepared for that but something to think about if there is ever a next time.

Forms of currency found in the Roman baths from all over the world. Crazy how some of them ever ended up in Bath way back then.

Friday, Aug. 9th:

Harry Potter tour

This was a fun tour and I wish the kids would have been with us because they would have loved it!

 

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Tower of London:

Saturday, Aug. 10th:

Tower of London

We got to see the brown jewels

Other Monarchs would give the King animals as gifts. They had lions, bears, zebras, elephants, camels, monkeys, alligators, snakes. Eventually the animals were taken away as many accidents kept happening.

Tower Bridge:

Churchill war rooms:

This tour was a lot more interesting than I originally thought it was going to be.

I totally forgot to take a picture of the telephone booth until the very last night we were there. It came out a bit blurry unfortunately.