Moab

For Fall Break, we went to Moab with the Knudsens. The weather was perfect while we were there and the cousins had so much fun together. I guess the adults had fun together, too. Here are some of the things we did while we were there. We did a hike together.

We even got to see some people repelling down from the top of the cliff and arch. That was cool.

Ashley and Tamma did not make it more than a 1/2 mile into the hike before they decided to turn around and hang out on the side of the trail. My boys were entertained by the numerous river crossings on this hike, so they made it to the end. I think it was about 2 miles round trip.

Ashley and Tamma enjoyed sleeping in, hanging out, and not combing their hair. We had to laugh one day when all of us were ready to leave and we went in their room to get them and they both had crazy hair.

Jake, Danny, and different combinations of kids went jeeping a couple of different times. Becky and I took the other kids on this waterfall hike one of the times. It was so pretty with the red rocks around it.

Connor and Alyssa even went in for a dip, Connor all of the way and Alyssa just to her knees.

We took a trip to Hole in the Rock. It was a fun place to see.

The kids did a lot of swimming. We rented a condo with a really fun pool.  They were in and out multiple times each day we were there.

On the last day, we walked around town a bit and then some of us headed to the park. We came up with an obstacle course and timed the kids running through it. This picture makes me a little sad because if you look at Tyler, he is holding his wrist. While we were at the park, he was practicing his Ninja Warrior skills and he fell off of the zip line structure and landed on his hand. After we got home and got through the weekend, we got it x-rayed and it was broken.

Some other things we did that are not pictured here: the adults went out to dinner a couple of times, Becky and I took a walk along the river one morning, and we played a lot of 1 high. It was a fun week and we are so glad it worked out for our families to meet up there.

Some Random Pictures From September

I took these 3 to "Clue The Musical" at the Hale Center Theater in Orem. They really like playing Clue and when they saw an ad for the play they asked me if we could go. They thought it was funny and a lot of fun. They especially liked the candy and soda that I let each of them have.

We didn't make it to Lagoon during the summer because we kept waiting for the new ride to open. We had a free admission to Lagoon on our Get Out Pass so we didn't want it to go to waste. The new ride finally opened in September, but we had heard rumors that it was only open for season pass holders, so we went anyways, knowing that we wouldn't be able to ride the new ride. We didn't actually go up to the ride while we were there to see if we could ride, but we were happy to let our kids believe the rumors to avoid the 1-2 hour wait. We did get to experience the haunted houses and halloween decorations for frightmares, though, so that was fun.

Tyler finished off his football season with an end of season party at the coach's house. They had a foam machine, pizza, and these cute, personalized cookies. Tyler wanted a picture of it before eating it. He had a fun football season. His coach gave him a little more variety in his playing time this year, even letting him be quarterback for 1 or 2 plays. 

Camden also played football this fall and had fun learning a new sport. His coach had a beginning of season party with pizza and a bounce house which he thought was fun. He was on the same team as our neighbor, so it was nice for him to have a friend on the team.

Alyssa and Camden like to mess around on my phone sometimes. Here is one of the many treasures I have found after they are done.

We had a campfire one night and enjoyed some s'mores . I'm not sure what the occasion was.

I did some beautiful fall hikes any time I had a day off of work. I love being up in the mountains that time of year.

 

Alyssa's Tennis Season

Despite playing her season with a stress fracture in her foot, Alyssa had a good tennis season. She started the season off in the first doubles position playing with Annemarie. about 3 matches into the regular season, Alyssa's coach switched her over to 2nd singles. Alyssa was actually pretty happy with the move, even though it wasn't the top position. Lehi was in a much harder region this year, so they were going up against multiple schools that were state champions the previous year. Alyssa was able to pull off more games and more wins than most of the other positions on the team. It was also fun for us to be able to see her play singles again. She had fun with it. She had her senior night after the last home match of the season. Here are all of the seniors with the coaches. (this was the largest senior group we have seen since Alyssa started tennis)

Alyssa with her coaches. Coach Karen, to the left of Alyssa had fought to keep Alyssa playing doubles since sophomore year. She has been such a great mentor to Alyssa. She has also really enjoyed having coach Christina, to the right of Alyssa, as head coach these last 2 years. The other coach was new this year, so Alyssa did not know her that well.

We are so proud of her for her improvement in tennis over the years. She really has loved playing and will miss it so much.

Alyss made it to state. She actually was seeded higher than her opponent, so we had hopes that she would make it past the first match to the round of 8. But you never know with these seedings how evenly matched they will be. On top of Alyssa's stress fracture, she also had shoulder pain through the last half of her season. This made serving really difficult for her. We tried taping up her shoulder for this match and the tape ended up distracting her more than helping her, so her coach ripped it off as soon as she was able to get on the court to do it. Alyssa played well, but she did not end up winning. She did, however, get one really satisfying overhead that bounced the ball over the back fence, so that was fun.

Oh and she got her state hoody and a chance to play at Liberty Park, so it was a good end to her season and to high school tennis. Hopefully she continues to play in the future, even without the pressure of getting better to compete with the other girls on the team for position.

Tyler's Field Trip to Timpanogas Cave

I got to go with Tyler on his first field trip of the year (he gets to go on about 1 field trip per month this school year). The field trip was a hike up to Timpanogas Cave with a tour of the cave included. We had a group of about 10 kids with 4 adults to watch over them. I guess they were concerned about the kids safety. The kids did really well hiking. Tyler is a pretty good hiker, so he was at the front of the group most of the time.

When we got to the top, we had a quick snack while we waited for our tour to begin.

The cave was pretty cool. I took a lot of pictures inside, but a lot of them turned out blurry. We learned a lot about cave formation and how the rangers are able to tell certain things, just by looking at the designs in the rock of the cave. 

We had a quick lunch break after we got done with the tour. And then we hiked back down the mountain. The hike down was a lot easer for the kids than the hike up.

I was glad that I got to go on this field trip with him.

Labor Day Weekend Camping Trip

For Labor Day weekend, we went on a camping trip to Palisades State Park. We have wanted to camp here for a long time and finally made it happen. Alyssa didn't want to come with us and we missed having her with us on our adventures. We arrived on Friday night and barely had time to explore the campground before it got dark. On Saturday, we rented an ATV for the day. It was pretty muddy, so the trail splattered us with mud from the sides and through the open front window. We were still scraping mud off of us that night. We went on a shorter ride in the morning and then came back to the campsite for lunch.

Later in the day, we went over towards Manti and up Manti canyon for a longer ride. There were some fun sites along the way.

We made the mistake of trying out a smaller trail for the drive back down to Manti called "sheep's trail." The kids all know this name well because we were cursing sheep's trail all the way down the mountain. Danny had to drive most of it because we got to the first crazy, steep, rock covered trail and I was too scared to try to drive it. There were multiple times where we thought we were going to tip or not be able to make it up a steep incline/decline. It took a lot longer than anticipated to get back down to Manti and we were so glad to finally leave "sheep's trail." Now that it is over, we can laugh about it, but we sure weren't happy about it as we drove it. After returning the ATV, we went out for some much deserved ice cream.

On Sunday, we had church in our trailer in the morning, and then spent the afternoon out on the water. We had a paddle board and a pedal boat between the 5 of us(and the dog). Amazingly enough, Lula got on the paddle board with Ashley and the 2 of them rowed all around the lake. Lula does not like water, so I was surprised that she went on the paddle board at all.

The pedal boat was fun too, and much more stable so I think Lula liked riding in it more than the paddle board. The kids quickly tired of the pedaling, so Danny and I had to do it for most of the time.

After the water, we went over to Manti again to walk around the temple grounds. Unfortunately it was closed for renovations still, so we couldn't actually get on the grounds, but we found this pioneer garden across the street and walked around that instead.

 

On Monday, we had a lazy morning and then packed up and headed home. It was a fun weekend and the kids loved having Lula along for the trip. Sadly, Danny's parents are selling their trailer, so we won't be trailer camping again in the near future. We have had some good memories camping over the past 7 years, so it is sad to see that end. We will just have to find other ways to explore our beautiful world.

St. George Trip for Alyssa's Final Tennis Tournament Trip

Shortly after school started, Alyssa went with her tennis team down to St. George for a tennis tournament. We took the other kids with us and stayed at the Las Palmas resort again since they enjoyed it so much the last time we stayed there. They got to swim a lot in the pools and play together in our condo. Danny and I watched a lot of tennis. Alyssa played in the first doubles position for the tournament with another senior named AnneMarie. They did well together and ended up taking first place in the silver bracket in the end (which is 5th place overall). Here is a picture of all of the seniors taken after the tournament was over.

One of the nights that we were down there, we took the kids to Grip Ninja. It was on our get out pass and when we looked up the location, we discovered that it was the next building over from Las Palmas and within walking distance. The boys claimed that it was the best Ninja gym they have ever been to. Ashley did some things, but got bored pretty quickly with it.

Here is Alyssa and Annemarie together with their medals.

It was a fun trip and we were kind of sad heading home afterwards knowing that we would not be coming down to St. George again for a girls tennis tournament. We shall see if either of the boys becomes interested in tennis. They are not showing any interest yet. We love St. George and will miss having an excuse to travel down there.