September and October Shenanigans

I'm getting too far behind! In September the boys had flag football (Brian coached with Tate's Dad Jared), Bridget had volleyball, I made salsa, Brian went to BYU football games and got used to his new job at FamilySearch. It was good times.

Brian and I had to lay down the law after the first three or four games. Emil and Colin would constantly ask Brian if they could go to the bench, where they would play tag with the other players on the bench or Tate's brothers. Brian said most of the boys would ask, "Can I run the ball?" If he said no, they'd follow it up with, "Can I go out?" Bother! I finally told our boys that if they ASKED to go out, they'd sit in my lap like a baby instead of playing tag. They had fun when they were in it and both Emil and Colin had some really great plays during the season. We had one of the high school football coach's sons on our team this year - that kid knew what to do! I can see that the games will get more fun soon.

We didn't plan it, but Jett ended up on the team too. He was fearless and awesome - totally ready for that hand-off from Colin.

Emil just handed off to Josh, who knew what he was doing as well. That kid on the other team will just be standing right there for this play.

I was far away when I took this with my phone, but I love how big the smiles are trying to bring down Coach Dad.

Never buy the team photo. Colin is wearing Emil's shirt and, apparently, no pants. Sigh. It was a super rainy day when this photo was taken. 

Bridget was on a volleyball team with Clara and Kodi this season. Kodi's Dad coached them. They had some real servers on the team and Bridget even figured out her overhand serve after the first couple of games. It was so fun to watch tiny Bridget get up there and nail the serve over the net every time. They didn't get very far in the play-offs, but they were seeded highest for the tournament because they only lost one regular season game. Fun for all. :)

Clara, Kodi, and Bridget.

Team photo. We had to take this, like, six times because more teammates kept showing up. Ha!

One of our glorious tomatoes. Angelyn and I did a total of seven batches of salsa on two different days. We need salsa.

One of the stories I did during September was Lehi people in the Utah State Fair. I took the kids to the fair grounds on the last day of the state fair. It was disgusting and harrowing. Everywhere I looked I was seeing cleavage or crack. Why? And so many bad tattoos! I was trying to take pictures for the paper and every time I looked through my camera there was something in it I couldn't put in newsprint. I paid $25 for the kids to go on TWO carnival rides. Weee. For dinner Emil got a corndog the size of a baseball bat. And we had to park a mile and a half away. So, that's it for us! Last time I go to the state fair.

Good thing Bridget really loves carnival rides. See that kid standing there like she doesn't know she's in the shot? If you're going to photo bomb, at least do something funny.

The one redeeming feature of the fair was getting this close to the animals. This cow's tail is out of focus because it was swishing those pesky kids away.

Colin complained of being dizzy after this ride. That's why I don't ride roller coasters, but I'm surprised he already feels this way at age six. I wonder if having a concussion has ruined this kind of stuff for him. 

October

I had some fun weekend getaways in October. The first was my annual quilt retreat with Kristi and Raenell (I just now realized I don't know how to spell her name!). I always get so much done! This time I bound up Allyn's 40th birthday quilt, made a 38" lone star to hang during the patriotic summer months, and cut and sewed all the little triangles for a winter-y quilt. I went for walks ALONE, ate great food with my friends, and slept like the dead. I was recharged for the next several months.

Allyn's finished quilt! I made 25 north stars in bright fabrics and peppered cotton solids. I started last year with the middle fabric on the bottom of this photo. It's one of Tula Pink's fabrics where she kind of hides animals in the pattern. The colors are so rich and the pattern is eclectic - I tried to get fabrics that reminded me of Allyn. The background is the peppered cotton with gray and white - like a man's suit-type fabric. Something for Aron. :) 

Raenell has a fancy embroidery machine and she whipped up a label for me to put on the back.

Here's the lone star. I've had two of those fabrics for YEARS. The background is a red/not red peppered cotton. 

And here's the triangle/pinwheel one. Since putting the triangles together took the most time and I did all of that at the retreat, I'm counting it. And I had enough stamina to put it together when I got home. That border fabric is my favorite! Dena Designs.

Devoted Sisters - Melissa, Allyn, Nicole (me), Jen, Makenzie, and Katy

The very next weekend I flew to Virginia on a red-eye Thursday night so I could be part of Aron's surprise 40th birthday party extravaganza for Allyn. I booked the same flight as my parents and we met in Salt Lake to drive to the airport together. We were plenty early, so Mom and I visited the temporary American Girl store at City Creek. Mom found a fantastic set for Bridget's dolls to take to Hawaii. I re-discovered that I hate red-eye flights. I can't sleep! And I also can't stay awake. It's a weird middle ground. We got to Norfolk Friday morning, Mom and Dad rented a car and drove us to our hotel. Melissa was already there and she and I went in on a room together, so I had a place to go crash immediately. Jen, Katy, and Makenzie all arrived at the same hotel during the day on Friday and all of us headed to The Spirit of Norfolk for Allyn's surprise birthday dinner cruise that night. Everyone at the party held a paper with a letter on it spelling out Happy Birthday Allyn and we put them in front of our faces while we sang to her as she was walking in. We all lowered the papers after the song was over and Allyn saw Mom and Makenzie in the row of people - she looked confused and then happy as she slowly realized that all her sisters and her parents had flown over just for her. Fun! 

One of my favorite parts of the night (besides surprising Allyn, sitting on a table with my sisters, eating great food) was when Allyn's brother-in-law Johnny mistook me for Allyn. I was standing with Katy and Makenzie and he introduced himself to them, but not me. I said something like, "You're Johnny, right?" and he laughed and elbowed me in a joke-y way. He thought Allyn was teasing him about gaining weight or something. Ha! 

The next morning the Sisters and Mom went to Colonial Williamsburg (after a tour of Allyn's house and giving Allyn birthday presents) because that's the kind of place that is awesome if you're not dealing with screaming children or bugged husbands. I made a dinner reservation for Christiana Campbell's Tavern, but other than that we had no firm plans. Colonial Williamsburg is not part of the National Park Service, so they charged money for any of the demonstrations like cooking or making clothes. Since we didn't know what time we'd get there or how much time we'd want to spend doing stuff, we didn't buy tickets to any of the stuff. Being in Williamsburg and seeing all the beautiful homes, people in colonial costumes, horse-drawn carriages - that was enough. Plus we got to hang out together! Always the best. 

See? We are all so funny and interesting! For real. 

 This group was on the green when we strolled into town. Adorable!

I loved this little tableau so much. It's a pomegranate tree! And an amazing beehive.

We always need a porch shot. (I bought a hat because, as usual, my hair is OVER in humidity.)

There's Melissa, using the camera she brought. I lugged mine all over the airports and then DIDN'T bring it to Colonial Williamsburg. High-five to my Galaxy 8 phone camera.

I sat by these two ladies because I thought they worked in Colonial Williamsburg and their dresses were cool. Nope, just a couple of history nerds who made their own dresses and showed up in Colonial Williamsburg to hang out on a Saturday in October.

Speaking of nerds - ha! The best kind! Here's Katy, Allyn, and Makenzie on the porch of Christiana Campbell's Tavern. This place was completely restored and rebuilt to match the original specifications as closely as possible. There really was a Christiana Campbell and she really did have a Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg. George Washington himself liked to eat there and talk politics with the other Founding Fathers.

Jen. :)

I did a Dutch braid in Katy's hair so she would look extra pretty. 

There's Melissa getting her tablecloth-sized napkin tied around her neck by our amazing waiter, Harold. He took such good care of us! He knew EVERYTHING about Christiana's and he kept bringing me Coke with lemon. (All the water in all of Virginia tasted bad to me.) When they were excavating this site, they found remnants of the china and recreated the pattern for all the plates and bowls at the restaurant. Right?! And we listened to some very talented musicians in the vestibule. Dinner was my favorite part of a pretty great day. :)

We went to church with Allyn's family on Sunday. More people thought I was Allyn. She told one of her kid's friends that she and I are twins. "I can tell." Ha! Denham and I bonded after I told him I could do a flip on the trampoline. "Try it!" he said. I had to try three times before I landed on my feet because their trampoline isn't very bouncy. I think my Dad was watching from the house with his phone in his hand ready to call 911. Please! I can always do a flip on the trampoline! 

All of us sang together around the old piano that we grew up with, since that's Allyn's piano now. It was magical. Such a great trip! I left the hotel at 4 in the morning and caught my plane back to Utah and went back to work. :)

Nothing stops Colin from reading - especially not other people working.

We spent Fall Break at home getting ready to refinish our wood floor and add wood floor to the upstairs hallway. Fourteen years ago my wise father-in-law told us we should put wood in the hall, but we were weary of spending so much money on our house, so we didn't. Of course Harold was right! Now we just need to put the baseboards back on...

The refinishing and putting new wood down took five days. Three of those we couldn't walk on the floor until after 9PM and before 8AM. We slept downstairs and came in and out of the window well in the guest room for three of the days. Bridget thinks we should do that all the time. Ha! We had all the food downstairs, most of the furniture was downstairs (if it didn't fit into the front room). Our basement is pretty nice - it just needs a fridge. 

Beautiful! And it matches perfectly. And the door to the garage closes now. Ahhh.

I'm going to post this and do Halloween in a different post. Whimper. Too bad the kids looked AWESOME for Halloween, or I could just put that stuff right here.

Beating August

Nine days ago we came home from our church meetings, changed clothes, and started dinner. I came downstairs to get potatoes - I'd left them in the basement guest room because our cold storage room isn't properly sealed and it was too hot in there. When I opened the guest room door, I could hear water splashing. Then I could see water splashing behind my Grandma Carol's sewing machine near the window. I rushed back upstairs, passed Brian and Bridget, ran out the back door to turn off the hose that Emil had set on top of the window well cover and turned on about an hour before we left for church. Four hours of water pouring into the window well. From the inside of the window it looked like an aquarium. Full of leaves and dirt and grass. There went our perfect day.

The rest of our Sunday was a frantic attempt to clean up, children weeping in their Sunday clothes, borrowing wet/dry vacs and fans from neighbors, moving furniture, and Brian vacuuming and pulling up carpet. That whole situation ruled the rest of the week for me. We had Servepro come in and finish what we started, as well as cut holes in our drywall and take baseboards off. Sad. They put in a de-humidifier and more fans and came to check on the room every day. While that was happening, we did some other stuff.

The boys played Itty Bitty Soccer at the Rec Center! The huddle was the best part.

"Gooooo GERMANY!" That's right, they played for the Germans. Winners.

The gym was set up in six stations for the six teams of 3-4 year old kids. Emil loved this part.

You won't see what happened next because taking pictures was really hard.

Hahahahaha! Mo.

Colin loved every single thing about soccer. He could do the little drills for days and he was always in the pack of boys chasing the ball all over the gym during the "games."

While Colin was running and having fun during the games, Emil was at my side. Always so different. Emil didn't like the chaos of the games, but he did like the structure of the drills.

Doesn't this photo make you wish you had twin boys?! Sometimes they are so cute it makes me cry with happiness.

They did it!

Twin boys also come with this action. The carpet was too heavy for us, so we put chairs under it to try to get it dry. All the stuff from the room is in the hallway in this photo. (I've since moved it into the family room and the storage room so we could accommodate Grandma and Grandpa. We use that room every three months and it was flooded the weekend we needed it. Of course.)

Bridget finished up her sewing camp last week, too. (She does have a make-up lesson today.) It was raining hard, but I still took her picture.

Her class was near a splash pad, so I took the boys there during one of her classes. Not the day I brought the camera. Don't make me laugh. A camera with me while I'm keeping track of two 3 year-olds at a crowded place with water?! What is wrong with you?!

Bridget made everything she's wearing. Colin is making that face because he is tough.

This makes me laugh.

We passed this yard four times a week taking Bridget to and from her sewing class. I love that someone made that awesome scarecrow and put it next to a sunflower patch. We watched the sunflowers get taller every week and I knew it would be awesome when they were blooming.

And it was awesome.

I also finished this little quilt last week. I haven't done a Grandmother's Flower Garden in YEARS.

I found that back fabric and could not resist.

So, August is trying to break me. Our insurance is covering the rebuilding of our guest room. Everything could always be worse. That's what August didn't count on - I'm an optimist.