Memorial Day

Matt was first call on Memorial day but I felt like I needed to go to the Richins party in H.  So I packed up the kids and we drove to H for half the day.  We met at the cemetery before the party and looked at the graves.  I haven't been there in a really long time so it was nice to show the boys where my R relatives are buried.  

After the cemetery, we went back to Rulon and Cass's house for a big family reunion.  There were probably 150 people at their house!  It's so kind of them to open their house to all of us.  We ate a fabulous lunch and then the kids went swimming.  After a few hours, we headed back home so we could spend some time with Matt.

Chase's Latest Scouting Award

Breakfast of Champions

Chase was invited to attend the Breakfast of Champions at his school.  Chase was in the top 5% for all of his classes for at least one trimester!  Chase is a very good student and works very hard to get good grades.  He didn't want to go to the breakfast but we made him.  We told him that we wanted to celebrate his hard work.  We got to go with Chase and enjoy the schools delicious breakfast.  He would have earned the life skills which is all H's for citizenship but one trimester he earned a S in math because he talked a lot! (He sat by Reis). But I think he still did amazing!

Bridger's Spring Baseball

Back row:  Coach Jody, Coach Corey, and Coach Wes.  Middle row:  Kurt, Nick, Bronson, Bracken, Ethan and Bridger.  Front row:  Payson, Cache, Waylan, Jexton and Broxton.

Bridger has had a great baseball season.  This season hasn't been about winning.  He team is learning the fundamentals of baseball.  I'm so happy we found this team.  Coach Cory, Jody, and Wes have been amazing with these young boys.  They are so patient with them!  They're good to get after them when they need it but then they're great to build them up!  The families have been so kind to us and we've really enjoyed getting to know them.  We've seen so much improvement in this team and especially Bridger. They're a great group of boys!

Father's and Son's Campout

Luckily Matt was second call and was able to take the boys to the Fathers and Sons campout.  Matt also took one of Bridger's friend Bracken because his dad had to work.  They had a lot of fun playing together. They've become good friends.  Matt packed up the camping gear and headed to Downey Idaho.  It was about an hour away.  Matt made my white chili and won the chili cook off!! We've joked about it all week and then he actually won.  They have a really nice "chili trophy" that they were awarded and a medal but you have to turn the trophy over to the winner next year at the campout.  But it's still an honor to win it! Matt joked that he's going to display it on our piano.

Friday night after dinner, Chase, Bridger and Bracken went swimming at the Downata Hot Springs.  Even though it was a little chilly outside, the water was warm and they had a fun time swimming.  Unfortunately around 4:00 AM it started to rain and continued to rain all morning.  At 6:00 Matt rolled over and his hand went in a puddle of water INSIDE the tent.  So Matt decided he had had enough camping and woke up and helped cook breakfast.  He said our tent has had a little too much camping.  Bridger said "it's gotta go!"  I guess it's not waterproof anymore.  But other than the rain, everyone had a fun time.  Matt is such a great dad!  I'm so lucky he's willing to take our boys on these adventures and make wonderful memories!!

Silly Tanner

I came up from exercising and found Tanner asleep like this.  His head was just resting on the beanbag and he was laying in the sun.  

Poor Sophie!  Tanner is always climbing, sitting and laying on her.  She's such a good dog because she just lays there and looks at me with a face that says "Really Mom! I have to put up with this!!"  But Tanner loves Sophie and loves to lay on her.  He calls her "Soshee."  It cracks us up so we all call her that too.

For the most part, Tanner likes to go for rides in the bike trailer.  Sometimes we'll stop and look at the horses.  He loves all the animals that we see when we're on our bike rides.  The scenery is so beautiful with all of the farmland.  Sometimes we'll see tractors in the fields or driving on the road.  That's always exciting.  The other day, Tanner got tired and he put his blanket over his head.  He likes to do that when he falls asleep.  By the time I got home, he was lout cold, leaning over and was sweating under the blanket.

Tanner is trying to figure out how to ride this tricycle.  His legs are barely long enough to reach the pedals but he hasn't figured out that they need to stay on the pedals all the time.  I put new batteries in it so now it makes some fun noises when he pushes the buttons.  He likes to ride down our driveway with his feet up.  But sometimes he gets going too fast and falls off.  Tanner loves to be outside.

Chase's Spring Soccer Season

Chase played spring soccer with the Blaze soccer team.  It's the same team that he played with in the fall but they added a few football players.  Chase's friend from the ward Porter played on the team which made it really fun for Chase and nice for me to have someone to carpool with.  

Chase played midfield for most of the season.  A few times he was able to play striker.  He scored a few goals during the season.  He's decided that he wants to play football in the fall so we're taking a little break from soccer for awhile.  I'm going to miss watching Chase play soccer.  He's a great soccer player!

Chase has really enjoyed the boys on the team.  It's a mix of 7th and 8th graders so the 8th graders are moving on to the high school JV soccer team.  That means we're losing half of our team which will really change the dynamics of the team.  Coach Gene coached last fall fall but was unable to coach this spring.  The other coaches did a good job but Chase really missed Coach Gene (Cael's dad).

Back row:  Coach Shaw, Scottie, Chase, Josh Adams, Enoch, Andre, Keyjun, Tucker, Hunter, Daniel, Derek, and Josh Shaw.  Front row:  Tanner, Coach Williams, Porter, Cael, Colt, and Nick.  

The BLAZE Soccer Team

Fun Times at the Baseball Tournament

Bridger's baseball team went to a tournament in P.  Matt was first call and Chase had a soccer game on Saturday so they weren't able to come.  We left Friday morning at 8:30 and arrived in P at 10:30.  (Mom was appalled that he missed school for sports!)  He played two games on Friday and then two more on Saturday.

After the first game of lugging all of my stuff to the field, I discovered there was a Costco 5 minutes away so in between games and I ran over to Costco and luckily they had an awesome wagon to put all of my stuff in.  It's been worth every penny!!!! I was worried about how to keep Tanner entertained during all of the games so I brought up the new bubble lawn mower that Mares gave him. He pushed the lawn mover all over the parks.  A few of my friends were so sweet to help me with Tanner.  Jenny Jo's daughters took him over to the park and played with him.  Cami was a life saver too.

A couple of weeks before the tournament, Tiff called me and said that they had an extra room at their hotel so I switched hotels.  Wayland (Jenny Jo) was also staying there.   After their last game on Friday, Wayland, Bridger, Thomas and Bracken went swimming.  They said that they didn't want to go to dinner but just wanted to swim.  Luckily when Thomas showed up, Layne had left over pizza that the boys ate.  I even got in the pool for a little bit so Tanner could go swimming.  I was the only adult in the pool.  The boys were so tired and worn out from a long day of playing.  I love the picture of Tanner and Bridger snuggled together in bed.  Bridger was pretending to be asleep.

We had to be at our game by 8:00 so sweet Cami came over to the hotel and picked up Wayland, Coach Wes (Wayland's dad) and Bridger to give me extra time with Tanner.  Bridger's team didn't win any of their games but they played really well.  The teams we played are really good!!!  It's so fun to see our boys improving.  Bridger and Bracken have been taking private lessons with Coach Josh and we've noticed a huge improvement.  He's making contact with the ball almost every time he's up.  I don't think he struck out all at during the tournament.  Coach played him as pitcher, first baseman, third baseman and then in the outfield.  (I don't know the official names of the positions).  I like that coach rotates them through the different positions.

Tanner loves his new Mickey Mouse camping chair!!  It's the perfect size for him.  I brought my new Tommy Bahama's chair.  I set up our little umbrella and then hid in the shade.  Someone had a puppy up there and Tanner got to hold it.  He was so happy!!! He loved that little puppy.  I love his smile as he's holding the puppy.

Sweet Grandpa and Grandma A came up to P to watch one of Bridger's games.  They wanted to put some flowers on Grandma L's grave so they worked it out to be able to do both.  Tanner wouldn't be in the picture for some reason.  (He was beyond tired!)  So he went over and pouted by the tent.