October

Do you think Stockton has enough baseball gloves?  I do!  He probably wants more...and his dad probably agrees although it doesn't look like it in this picture.  You'd think one glove would suffice but no...I am actually to the point now that I can tell where he's going on the field based on what glove he puts on.  He has an in-field glove, an out-field glove, a pitcher's glove, a catcher's glove (even though he never plays that position), and some others that I'm not sure about.  He's a happy boy with his "toys".

Cheering on our favorite #13 after a win against Springville.

Brynn's gym had a bake sale to earn money for National's next spring.  I made giant salted caramel rice krispies and there was enough extra for everyone to have one of their own.  This is everyone's favorite treat so no one complained.

Ivy got into the Halloween spirit when she saw the Halloween and fall bins come out of the crawl space.  She spent a lot of time cutting out pumpkins, bats, and ghosts for garlands to decorate her door.  It turned out really cute!

Senior Night for girls soccer!  This was a night the moms tried to make really special.  Thanks to some of the moms who did a lot of work which wasn't me.  I mostly just showed up.  They did senior recognition before the game and Justin and I were able to walk Molly out to the field where Molly was given flowers and a minky blanket.  After all the seniors were recognized and lots of pictures were taken, the game started.

so many seniors this year: Kylie Bishop, Sicily Clark, Molly, Regan Heywood, Aspen Ivie, Libbie Locke, Lucy Jibson, Allie Woollie, Maggie Lundquist, Coach Tara Lundberg, NaTalia Wagstaff, Sophia Locke, Finley Tolbert, Emmy Shakespeare, Emry Winegar, Georgia Rinquest

they had girls from a local club team walk the starters out-Molly is 4th in from the right

team cheer-Molly is on the left

We were playing our nemesis, Maple Mountain.  I don't think Molly has wanted to beat a team so bad, especially after how the last game against them ended with her PK being blocked.  Both teams battled.  Maple Mountain got a goal first and the first half ended 0-1.  Maggie scored in the second half off a beautiful header and we were hyped to tie the game.  We had lots of shots on goal, they had some chances and it ended up coming down to the literal last minute when we had a foul and they got a free kick that they scored on.  So we lost again.  Molly was devastated to lose but she felt really good about how she played-she played amazing defense.  This was our last game of region play-we ended up second in region and 7th in state for 5A.  So really pretty great and it gave us a bye through the first round of playoffs.  Molly had a good cheering squad in the crowd-the Walker's surprised her and drove up to watch which was so nice of them-also my mom and dad, Gene and April and Brett, and our YW's President, Jan. We all love Molly! Plus her friends and so many fans in the stand, we seriously have such a supportive student body that would come out and support these girls every home game.

celebration after Maggie's goal: Molly is on the left, one girl in

Brett, Gene, April, Lynn, Kay, Megan, Justin, Ivy, Stockton, Draven Logan, Jan Peart, Josie, Erin, Christopher, Chloe, Tessa

with Grandma and Grandpa Moyes

with Grandma and Grandpa Goodrich and Brett

Molly, Carolyn Ritchie, Regan Heywood

 

I got to go on Ivy's field trip to Heber Light and Power and learn all about electricity.  It's just a short one and maybe not super exciting but it's always fun to get away from the classroom for an afternoon.

Ivy's on the far right, holding hands with Raina Cottle

Brynn went to the football game with Shaylee Williams that night.  The theme was USA.

Brynn had a choir concert.  She was not excited.  We watched her the whole time to try to get her to laugh.  We were successful quite a lot. Have I mentioned that we are not choir people?

the only reason Brynn kept this class was so she could have a class with Taylee Baird, her friend from Kindergarten!

second one in from the right on the bottom

I finished reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (#3) to Ivy and now we are on the fourth book. Hooray!

Ivy was the last one to get her date (I think we did 3 dates in September - missed getting a photo of Stockton with Justin - but at least we were caught up for October!) and she wanted some spaghetti.  Justin took her to Cafe Galleria in Midway where she ate her entire plate of spaghetti and was pretty happy about it!

 

Fall Break-

Our district always has a super long Fall Break.  We had a full week, Monday-Friday, plus two extra days after that, another Monday and Tuesday.  I sometimes think it is way too long but then when it actually gets here, I love the long break and the chance to reset and relax, especially after our busy soccer and baseball season when we had multiple games each week.  I was a tired momma!  We couldn't really make plans since it was high school soccer playoffs (Molly still had practice or a game everyday) so we made some plans that were close to home.  I wrote down some ideas from our summer bucket list and Ivy had everyone from the family choose an activity.  Then we tried to do everyone's activity.  First up was Monday morning and we went out to do Molly's activity.  She wanted to go to Silver Lake up Guardsmans Pass.  We drove up, walked around the lake, had a picnic, and drove home.  No surprise that Molly picked to be in the mountains for her activity-we all benefited from some good ol' mountain therapy that day.

Justin and Molly are always collecting old, abandoned signs and found this treasure

Brynn picked to have a campfire and play night games.  We did that Tuesday night.  Her and Stockton invited some of their mutual friends and Ivy had Hannah come over.  I had stuff for s'mores and hot chocolate and Stockton set up the projector and screen for an outdoor movie.  Regan came over and hung out with Molly-they did face masks and watched a movie on my computer in Molly's room.

Hannah Reynolds and Ivy

Regan and Molly

Ivy's choice was to go to a movie.  Her 3rd grade teacher had read Wild Robot to them in class so when she saw it was a movie, she knew she just had to go.  Lucky for her it was playing here at the Heber theater so I took her and Brynn on Wednesday night.  Justin was trying to catch up on some work and Molly and Stockton weren't too interested.  But the girls and I had fun and it was a cute movie.  I'm not huge on sitting down and watching an entire movie at home so a theater is really the only time I get through a movie with the kids.

We went off script and did an activity that no one picked (gasp!) but we had a free morning and Ivy really wanted to go to the pool.  She also had two free passes that she had collected and was anxious to use them.  She invited Gracen and Brynn invited Shaylee and the four of them had a great time swimming for a couple of hours.

Ivy and Gracen Nalette

Ivy and Gracen

Let's talk high school soccer play-offs.  Their last regular season game was Maple Mountain and then it was play-offs.  They got seeded as a seven seed which meant they got a bye through the first round.  It was pretty nice to have a full week off of games.  Their first game back was in the second round of playoffs and they were playing East at home.  It was a beautiful afternoon for a soccer game and we won the game easily 3-1 and they only scored at the very end when we started subbing in our JV players.

We were facing #2 seed, Brighton, in the quarterfinal round.  Since they were a higher seed than us, we were playing at their home field.  We knew this would be a tough game.  We fought hard but we ultimately lost 2-0 and that was the end of the season.  Molly was so sad but we were so proud of her.  Their defensive line all season, and especially that last game, was so strong and virtually impenetrable.  I think any goal that was scored on us came from the midfield area because our back line just couldn't be beat.  Molly, Regan, Lucy, and Andie had an incredible season!  The whole team exceeded anyone's expectations for them so they should all be very proud of the season they put together.  Love these girls so much and Molly will miss them a lot!  I'm so grateful for the people that soccer has put in her life.

last high school pre-game line-up...Molly is the one waving, fourth in from right

hugs from Tessa

misses playing with Carley Anderson so much

Grandpa Gene

Amberly Howe and Mirabelle

Allie Woolley

Kate Miller, Sicily, Molly, Andie Dummar, Libbie, Lucy, Emry, Sophia, Maggie, Tara, Allie, Kiley, Ellie Karl, Aspen, Natalia

Regan, Coach Tara, Molly

Brynn didn't have cheer during the break but she was able to do some work-outs at the gym during the week.  She was working on and improving her full on the tumble track.

back middle

Justin picked to do an escape room, after some urging from Ivy.  Some of our kids have done escape rooms but Justin and I never have and we have never done one all together.  I found a Harry Potter one in Provo and everyone wanted to do that.  It didn't have a high percentage rate of success but that didn't deter us...we worked hard and did our best and had so much fun.  We didn't get out in time but Molly did the same escape room a few weeks later and, thanks to already having been, she was able to help her friends make it out. It really was a blast and all the kids are still talking about it several weeks later.  We went to the mall food court because everyone wanted something different for dinner and then came home and worked on our 1,000-piece Harry Potter puzzle that we've had forever and never finished.  Justin was especially hyper-focused on getting that puzzle finished which we did about a week later.  It was my favorite activity of the break, no contest.

Brynn and Ivy and I were able to take a little boy for a walk on the last day of Fall Break.  It was a beautiful morning and I was reminded of how much I love a morning walk.  With my morning job, afternoon piano lessons, keeping the house organized and all the kids to where they need to be, I don't feel like I have a lot of time for leisurely walks.  But that's okay, I'll get back to those days again and I'll be that much more appreciative of them haha.

When we got home from our walk, Ivy arranged a little play date with some of her friends.  I had thought about taking the kids to Gardner's Village to see the witches but that sounded like too much work and this was better.  I quickly threw some sugar cookies together and they spent the first part of their play date happily decorating cookies.  I had a craft to do as well but they found their own fun for the next couple of hours.

Raina, Hannah, Sage, Ivy

Our last high school soccer banquet.  (Justin was maybe relieved as they tend to be long-winded. I thought it was great this year.)  We had dinner, awards were given, and seniors were spotlighted.  Last year Wasatch Girls Soccer was awarded the academic all-state award...they hadn't announced yet for this year but their combined GPA as a team was 3.985 so I'd like to see anyone get higher than that!  So awesome!  Individually, Molly got Academic All-Region and 2nd Team All-Region-and that is big because we had one of the hardest regions in the state.  Go Molly!  Brynna Russell, a junior on JV, highlighted Molly. They have become good friends this season.

Molly and Brynna

Regan and Molly