August

Ivy went rock climbing with her friend, Gracen, and was hooked.  She wanted to go back and take Brynn with her.  Brynn loved it just as much as Ivy and it was only when they both had blisters that they finally agreed to be done.  This is a little treasure I didn't really know about just at our rec center and I have a feeling we will be back.

We had Brett and Ruby stay with us while Gene and April went to Atlanta for a long weekend (Avery's baby blessing).  We loved having both of them.  Ivy followed Ruby every where and spent a lot of time playing with her.  She begs for a dog often.  If I could have a Ruby, who is trained so well, then I would happily get a dog.

Molly had high school tryouts at the end of July and started practicing right away.  She's excited for her senior season-there are 15 seniors this year and they are pretty good friends.  They got a lot of swag donated to them this year...enough that they invited the senior moms to come watch them put on a fashion show with all their new gear.  It was fun and I'm excited and hopeful for her season.

Emry Winegar, Finley Tolbert, Molly, Regan Heywood, Emi Shakespeare, Kylie Bishop, Sophia Locke, Allie Woolley, Libbie Locke, Sicily Clarke, Aspen Ivie, Natalia Wagstaff, Maggie Lundquist, Lucy Jibson, Georgia Rinquest

Ivy wanted to have a read-a-thon so she invited Raina and Hannah to join her.  I loved elementary school read-a-thon days and wish they still did those still.  I have to compensate for the lack of them at school and do them at home. Anyway, they set up a fort in the loft, did 20 minutes or so of reading, made a summer craft that Ivy had picked out, did 20 more minutes of reading, had a treat (leftover butterbeer), and did 20 more minutes of reading.  Then they had some time for free play before I took them home.  I love this trio and hope they stay friends for a long, long time.

Hannah Reynolds, Raina Cottle, Ivy

Sometimes Molly will send me photos of her happenings.  She knows I love it.  One night she went up in the mountains with some friends for a photo shoot (mountains truly are her happy place) and ended up with some gorgeous photos.

Molly, Kylie, Sicily

Kylie and Molly

Heber Fair Days Parade...just like the last two years, both Brynn and Molly were in the parade.  Brynn for cheer and Wasatch Girls Soccer bringing up the rear so they can turn around, re-walk the parade route backwards, and pick up all the trash.  We stayed dry (and hot!) for the parade but the soccer girls got poured on when they were picking up their trash.  It probably felt good after the blazing heat.  I only got a video of Brynn doing her dance so no photo of her.

Jacie Lundberg and Molly

sophomore team in white, JV in black, varsity in pink-Molly is second in from right

Stockton got bored enough on a Sunday afternoon and decided to set up the double-decker hammocks.  I love when he is bored because it usually results in him entertaining his little sisters.

Lydia had a fun birthday party that Ivy got to go to.  They played games and had the most delicious brownies, according to Ivy (high praise coming from someone who doesn't love brownies).

Ivy, Kallie Gehring, Lydia Evans, Emery Pearson

Kallie, Lydia, Ivy, Emery

Here are some pictures of team camp for Molly.  They went down to Mt. Pleasant to a private high school for three days.  They played a lot of soccer and did a few other things as well.  Molly got to room with Regan who is literally the best friend of her whole life.  So she loved that.

Regan and Molly

Regan and Molly

with their "neighbors": Regan, Jacie, Maddy Anderson, Molly

Ben got home from his mission on the 7th.  We weren't all available to go down and welcome him home, but three of us were around and excited to go see him.  I can't believe it's been two years since he left.  He's been a great missionary, I have enjoyed his emails, and everyone was so happy to have him back.  He couldn't believe how much these three boys had grown!

Ben, Grant, Stockton, Gavin

Stockton, Ben, Ivy, me

the whole welcoming party

Brynn had her big cheer week: 9 hours of boot camp over three days followed by 14 hours of choreography in two days.  At the end of boot camp, the parents could go in and watch a little routine they had put together.  Brynn has been more frustrated with cheer this summer because of some of the stunt groups but she was really happy at the end of choreography with where she got put in which stunts and she is excited about the entire routine.  Now comes the real work of practice, practice, practicing their routine and get it as perfect as they can before competition season starts.

flyer on the right

fourth in from left

a few of the teams combined, Brynn's fifth in from right on the front standing row

Our Primary held a summer party one Wednesday afternoon.  I told them I could be there and help out with whatever they needed-then they put me on big, blow-up, water slide duty.  With the junior primary first.  The kids were so scared to go down the slide I ended up going in the pool part at the bottom and catching them.  I got really wet really quick.  Finally I just gave in and started going up and sliding down with little ones on my lap.  Trying to stay somewhat dry was a losing battle.

Molly was so happy to be able to reconnect with her old friend, Sadie, who moved right before sophomore year.  Molly took Sicily with her and they met Sadie and her sister halfway.  They had dinner and hung out.

Sicily, Sadie Job, Molly

While I was at the Primary activity, a couple of friends mentioned that they were hiking Timp the following morning and asked if I wanted to join.  I hesitated for a minute but then agreed to it-I've always wanted to hike Timp, I just needed someone to motivate me to actually do it.  So I found myself up at 4:00 am the next morning and driving up to the trailhead with some friends.  We started in the dark but we didn't have to go too far before the sun started lighting our way.  We hiked 5 miles to the meadow.  It was a hard hike, practically uphill the entire way.  I admit that I was very tired at this point and that last mile was a struggle.  But the meadow was our goal and we made it.  One of my friends had an appointment she had to make it back to and I had to get back to get Brynn to cheer so the two of us turned around at that point and went back while the rest of our group hiked the last two miles to the summit.  I was a little relieved I had a reason to turn around!  I was pretty much gassed at that point.  I'm sure I could have finished but it would have had to have been at my own pace and it would have taken awhile.  But I would like to make it back sometime and make it all the way to the summit.  With some prior planning and working up to it (like actually hiking in the weeks and months leading up to hiking Timp to prep my legs).  I was super tired that day but, surprisingly, not as sore as I had expected to be the next day.  And it was totally worth it!

Melissa Phelps, me

High school soccer was back!  I was super excited, as was Molly.  Their first preseason game was against Park City.  They didn't come away with a win but Molly started and played the entire game.  She had a really great first game.  I'm sure this season will have its fair share of ups and downs but hopefully Molly can just enjoy her senior year playing for Wasatch and with this group of girls.

Grandma and Grandpa so excited to be able to watch this season!

Avalanche teammates: Molly, Piper Hastings, Aspen

I promised Ivy donuts at the park one morning-and then went on my massive hike.  So we went the next day.  It was just her so I attempted to be a fun playmate and she also made me take a picture of her on all the "toys".

When she got home from the park, she decided to set up a fort in the living room.  Stockton got in on the action and helped her out.  She tried to sleep in there that night but didn't make it and ended up in her room.

Molly played the very next day against Olympus.  Still preseason, thankfully, because Olympus is good with a few of their girls already signed to D1 colleges.  We are not the same team as last year and we lost.  Molly was more than frustrated with this game because the coach tried her at a position she is not familiar with and she didn't feel like she contributed as much as she could have had she been in her normal position.  But she did start and got plenty of minutes.  The varsity moms hired a photographer to be at all the home games so it will be fun to see the photos that he gets of the girls, like the action shot here.

Molly is #13

Lucy Miller, Natalia, Maggie, Molly, Sicily, Andie Dummar, Ellie, Regan, Aspen, Kylie, Lucy J

Stockton got Brynn and Ivy and the three of them put together their own Olympics.  We had spent two weeks watching the real Olympics in Paris almost constantly.  They did gymnastics, soccer, long jump, archery, volleyball, and track/racing, among other things.

We had one of the craziest rain/hail storms that I have ever seen.  Stockton and I were out driving in it (thankfully I was driving).  The hail was so loud we couldn't even talk to each other-I couldn't hear him even when he was yelling from the seat right next to me.  I had to pull over.  And then the shoulders of Main Street were literal rivers of water.  It was insane.  We went to Walmart later that night and had to park in the back half of the parking lot because the front was a mini lake.  I dared Ivy to wade out into the middle of it.

When I asked the girls what they wanted to do the last week of summer, they both quickly said rock climbing.  That was an easy enough request to grant! We picked Gracen up on our way and they did an hour of climbing and were both very happy with that activity.

Brynn, Ivy, Gracen Nalette

Here are all the soccer pictures this year.  They turned out great!  Molly is so beautiful.

Molly and Regan

Avalanche girls: Molly, Natalia, Aspen

seniors: Finley, Emry, Lucy, Molly, Regan, Emi, Allie, Maggie, Kylie, Georgia, Libbie, Natalia, Sophia, Aspen

Molly's on the bottom, second in from right

Varsity

sophomore, JV, Varsity + coaches

During the last months of my mom and dad's mission, during a temple closure, they were able to go on a cruise around some islands and they met a little 9-year-old girl from New Zealand.  My mom gave her Ivy's name and our address and now Ivy has a cute pen pal all the way from New Zealand.  Her name is Lara and it's an exciting day in our house when Ivy gets a letter from her.

Stockton got to go the the Payson Temple with a group of friends for Payton's birthday week.  This is a great group of boys.

Payton Western, Draven Logan, Stockton, Tim Evans, Ethan Pearson

We started school on a Monday so our night-before-school dinner was Sunday.  We had been in Plain City that morning for Ben's homecoming and I knew I would not be in the mood to spend a lot of time in the kitchen making a big, fancy meal.  So we did pizzas in the pizza oven...everyone loves the pizza oven and it was very little prep for me.  A huge win-win all around!

We also did Father's blessings that night.  A tradition, to be sure, but as I sat there listening to all the blessings and how they were so tailored to each person, I prayed that the kids would realize the blessing and privilege it is for them to be led by their Heavenly Father and to have their dad be a spokesman for Him on occassions like this.  And then we took a Dad picture since we were one kid short on Father's Day.

I set my alarm that night to wake me up at 5:40 the next morning (insert sad face, sleepy face, and anything else that would be appropriate here) since I like to be showered and ready before the kids are up.

 

First Day of School- 

Summer flew by, as it always does.  Ivy was the only one who was truly excited to go back although Brynn grudgingly admitted to getting bored that last week of summer and that maybe she was ready to go back.  Brynn was the first one off that first Monday morning.

Brynn, 8th grade, Timpanogos Middle School.  She is the "big man" on campus and that is not meant literally...but she is in her final grade at middle school.  She has all the required classes-math, history, English, science, along with stem, digital literacy, choir, and film.  She was going to switch out of choir but decided to stay in since she got in that class with Taylee Baird and they have never had a class together.  But she told me she was going to fake it and only mouth the words at the concerts.  (Apart from Justin and Molly, the rest of us are not big singers.)  So we'll see how the year goes for her-I'm sure it will fly by and she'll be in high school before we know it!

Ivy was off next.  4th grade, Daniels Canyon Elementary, Mrs. Hall

Ivy was so excited for school this year.  I love her zest and excitement for life.  Recently I was at a baseball game when she got home from school so I called to check on her and see how her day was.  She was so enthusiastic in her response: "Mom, it was the best day, we learned about land formations!" and then proceeded to tell me all about the different land formations.  She also got one of the best teachers ever, Mrs. Hall, who both Stockton and Brynn had and she has lots and lots of friends in her class.  I know that she is going to have a great year.

That night was our America First Lagoon night-and everyone was available to go!  Justin was able to get a few extra tickets from his employees who signed up and then decided not to go, so Stockton got to take Kelton and Molly drove down with Regan and Carol after soccer practice.  It was a great night for everyone but maybe the most for Ivy who tried lots of new rides this year: Cannibal, The Rocket, Colossus were all new for her.  We all rode the new ride, Primordial, which was fun but maybe not worth the hour wait.  Ivy was so nervous to ride Cannibal and closed her eyes the entire first half of the ride.  Then she loved it and we ran around and did it again so she could open her eyes the whole time.  We also went back when it got dark because it's fun in the dark.  I hope I can always ride roller coasters because I love them so, so much.

Kelton Webb, Stockton, Brynn

Justin, me, Ivy, Brynn, Kelton, Stockton

Carolyn Ritchie, Regan, Molly

Back to first days of school...Molly and Stockton got an extra day off because of Freshman First at the high school.  And Stockton is no longer a freshie, ahh!

Stockton, 10th grade, Wasatch High School

Stockton has physics, math, English, and history as his required courses and then he has weights, film, pottery, and seminary as his electives.  Stockton is probably my biggest school-hater but he doesn't complain too much each day.  I do have to really keep track of his homework which is not my favorite.  I should make him to do it himself but I haven't gotten to that point yet.

Molly, 12th grade, Wasatch High School

Molly's last first day of school picture...at least from home.  It's weird to think that we have arrived at this season of life with her where everything feels like a last thing.  It's an emotional time for me and I have moments of sadness and moments of excitement and everything in between.  I do know that it will be a good year for her.  She is determined to make it great, be involved, and go out having as much fun as she can.  Her schedule it lighter than last year minus her two college classes, English 2010 and Math 1050.  She works hard at both, English being not too difficult for her and Math being an area that she has to put in a lot of time.  So it will be good to get that one out of the way now where she might have more support.  She also has US Government, Seminary, and Young Adult Literature which she loves because it is basically just reading books and no assignments.  Besides those classes, she is home-she goes late one day and comes home early every day (they are on a black day/gold day schedule).  And the second semester is even easier.  She has a lot of big decisions to make this year!  She is a good kid with clear direction on what is most important so I have confidence that whatever decision she makes for herself, it will be good and right for her and I am truly excited to support her in anything she chooses to do.

Soccer has been going strong.  Any high school sport is a big commitment with daily practices and games a couple times each week.  After a rough pre-season start, we started our region play in Spanish Fork with an exciting game.  We had two full halves with no score which put us into overtime-two "golden goal" 10 minute halves (meaning if a team scores, the game is over and they win).  After that 20 minutes we still had a tied game so we moved into penalty kicks.  Each team starts with 5 kickers and we go from there.  After those 10 kickers, we were still tied (it was 4-4) so we continued the PK's with one kicker from each team until someone missed.  That went on until we had had 11 kickers total and our goalie blocked a shot from one of their teammates.  It was crazy, in all my years of soccer playing and watching I have never seen penalty kicks go so deep.  So it was an exciting win for us (and Molly did made her PK).

wins from JV and Varsity that night!

scoreboard = 9-10 for us! Molly is #13, fourth in from upper left

Molly and Kylie

Molly and Andie

The game against Spanish Fork started our winning streak.  We played Timpview next and beat them 5-4 at home.  Ben and Chloe came up to cheer Molly on and that was fun to have them in the stands with us.  We also got the senior banners hung up for this game so that's pretty fun to see Molly hanging there for all the home games.

post-goal celebration (Molly is #13)

Chloe, Molly, Ben

Sophia, Molly, Libbie

Rachelle came to Utah to drop Andrew off at Utah State-go Aggies! We were able to get together with her at Gene and April's one night...and then Camille surprised us by being there and bringing baby Avery as well.  So that was a fun night!  Someday the entire family will be able to be all together but we will take what we get when we get it.

Justin and Avery

Brynn, Ivy, Rachelle

Molly and Avery

Camille, Rachelle, Molly

Molly, Tiana, Avery

Justin, Brett, Gene, April, Camille, Rachelle, Eric

Oh, look at this! Is Stockton taller than Grandpa?!?

Brynn and Avery

Stockton and Avery

Ivy and Avery

Rachelle, Molly, Camille, Brett, Justin

Justin got tickets for a Bee's game and that is something we haven't done in a while.  Stockton was absolutely on board, Molly opted out, Brynn was happy to go if she took a friend, and Ivy came because there was nothing else for her to do, haha. 

Brynn, Shaylee Williams, Ivy

Justin, Stockton, me, Brynn, Ivy, Shaylee

Senior Sunrise photos from Molly.  Soccer girls had to wear dresses because it was a home game that day.  I thought it was funny that they call it "senior sunrise" because it didn't start until after the sun had risen.  They just went a little earlier to school and had donuts and took pictures.  They'll do a senior sunset at the end of the year.

soccer gals: Emry, Sicily, Sophia, Libbie, Kylie, Regan, Molly

soccer gals, part 2: Molly, Kylie, Lucy, Maggie, Sophia, Emry, Georgia, Aspen, Libbie

Regan and Molly

Jackie Bingham and Molly

The girls played Cedar Valley that night and came out with a 4-1 win.

The next night was the soccer banquet, a fundraising effort to earn some money for the team.  I went, of course, but I'm too cheap to spend any extra money above and beyond the fees I already pay (which seems like a lot to begin with, ha).  But it was a nice dinner down by Deer Creek and the girls were cute in their formal dresses.

Kylie and Molly

Andie Dummar and Molly

Maggie Lundquist and Molly

Molly and Regan

Libbie and Molly

Okay, talk about entering stages of life that I'm don't seem prepared for...Stockton dating is one of those stages and one that we are creeping into.  Since the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet no longer states 16 as the age to start dating, we told him he could go to Homecoming if he wanted to as long as he was in a group and as long as he was okay with a parent driving him around.  So he decided that he did want to go and the following pictures are some of him and his buddies getting his poster ready.  It was actually pretty cute to watch the excitement and his poster turned out great!  He was answered the next night and so ensued the job of helping him plan a date and work out some kinks in regards to that.  More about HOCO later but it ended up being a super positive experience for him.

Ethan Pearson, Stockton, Kelton

I knew that when I got called to the Stake Young Women's Presidency it would be a short stint since the president had been in for several years and just needed new counselors.  So a release was not too surprising but I had mixed emotions.  On one hand, I loved these sisters that I served with and it was such a blessing and privilege to get to serve with them.  I will miss them the most but so grateful to have four new friends!  I also loved the actual calling, being with the young women, training their leaders, and branching out of the ward and meeting more people in the stake.  So I will miss all of that.  On the other hand, there were some busy days for our family.  With Justin gone for his calling so often already, it was a stretch sometimes for me to be gone as well.  So I am okay with the release as well and know that all things are done on the Lord's timetable.  I now get to serve as the RS Compassionate Service Coordinator-something I have never done before so we will see how it goes!

Shauna Goates, Rachel Rowe, Carla Bedingfield, Sarah Mair, me (I had come straight from a soccer game which is why I was not dressed up)

Stockton had a baseball tournament the last weekend of August.  He had games in Orem on Friday and Saturday.  I took the Friday games and Justin took the Saturday games.  My parents had been in Heber for Molly's game on Thursday night and decided to stay over and get to Stockton's first game Friday morning.

Grandma Kay, Stockton, Grandpa Moyes

Molly got asked to Homecoming a couple days after Stockton did his asking.  I thought this one was pretty funny!

Brynn went to a birthday party for Brook Moore, a friend from cheer.  Brook made the high school team this year, along with a few other girls from her team last year and Brynn has really missed them.  They went to the pool and Costa Vida.

Brynn, Clair Winsor, Brook, Abby Hansen, ?

Finally, finally Ivy got to get back to clogging.  After an entire summer watching her older sibling's get to do their things, I was so happy for her.  Her clogging team got to be in the Swiss Days parade so it wasn't a class but it was something.  And then she got to start classes for good the following week and she has been so happy doing that each week!  Me and Brynn went to watch her in the parade.  When she came through, she was on the opposite side of us so I had to run around to get a picture of her.  They made younger kids stand behind the big kids for safety reasons so I got one picture of her peeking through the window.  Then the three of us were brave and walked through the chaos that is Swiss Days.

Molly went to watch some friends from the soccer team ride in a mountain bike race that morning.  But she also wanted to walk around Swiss Days so I went back later in the afternoon.  It was way less crowded which was nice.

Brynna Russell, Regan, Maggie, Lucy, Molly

We went all summer without a cat/cats and the mice were becoming a problem.  It's pretty necessary with all the fields around us to keep at least one cat around to catch the mice.  We prefer two cats.  We finally heard through the grapevine a lady on the street over who had some kittens she needed to give away.  We jumped all over that!  After a couple days of deliberation, we named them Ginger and Cinnamon.  They are very loved...and are doing their job nicely!