A Late Hike and a Campout in the Backyard

So, late Saturday night - I'd say around 7:45 - Cole and Steve decided to hike back up to Bell Canyon Reservoir. I was surprised since we were just there a few days ago. But, if they wanted to go..... great! Reagan and I stayed home. 

When they returned, around 9pm, it was time for bed. However, Reagan and Cole had other plans. They started campaigning to have Steve sleep outside in tents with them. I was having none of it. It was Saturday night which means Sunday morning church. Just too many things to deal with. 

Well, either Steve is the biggest softie in the world (a definite possibility when it comes to these two) or Reagan and Cole are getting to be amazing negotiators because he said "Yes". 

They got the tents and pads and sleeping bags out, got ready for bed and hauled their pillows, blankets and stuffed animals out to their tents. After they were tucked in, I headed to bed myself.

They slept all night. Around 6am or so, Steve came into our room and crashed on the bed. He said he hadn't slept well at all. Yep - I'm sure!

So, I let him sleep for another three house while the kiddos and I got ready for church. Finally, he woke up and they all told of the "great" night they had outside. Yeah - alrighty then.

Cole needed to put a tent up and down to pass off a Cub Scout requirement. So, I made him be my helper and he took down and then set up and took down the tents. Yay me - for delegating.

Seriously though - Steve is such a good Daddy. He lets them make their case, give their arguments, promise their help or commit to cleaning up and he usually gives in. I think he is great for sleeping out in the heat with them. I also think he is great for letting me sleep in our comfortable bed with the comfortable air conditioning.

PS - I'm buying him a super nice pad for Father's Day. That way, he can sleep out - comfortably - whenever Reagan and Cole want to :)

Happy Birthday Jay!!!!!

Well, it was Steve's Dad's 83rd birthday. The siblings and their spouses (and kiddos that live at home) headed over to Mom and Dad's house to celebrate. Everyone brought their own takeout.

We sat outside and ate and talked while the kiddos played on the swings and threw a ball around. Then, the craziness started.....

Our friend, Maria Eckersley, posted about a new app called MSQRD which allows you to take pics and use effects and switch faces. Best of all - unlike Facebook or Snapchat - the pics just save to your phone ... there is no possibility of posting it to the internet. So, in our family, we've been playing with this app for a couple of weeks. Reagan and Cole have been using the app to take pics with all sorts of effects.

Steve decided to show his sibs the different effects they could use - crazy. It was fun and everyone was laughing. Then, they started doing the face swap part of the app. No one could stop laughing.

Maybe my favorites were the ones with Robyn. Above, clockwise, from top left: Robyn and Mark, Robyn and Jay, Robyn and Steve and Robyn and Brett.

Everyone got into it. Above, clockwise, from top left: Stacie and Annie, Doug and Steve, Nancy and Cole, Jay and Cole, Brett and Cole and Brett and Nancy. The ones with Brett were especially funny as he was the only one with a beard :)

Overall, the favorite of the night was the combination of Nancy and Brett - doesn't she look great with a beard? 

We had a great night visiting and celebrating Jay. We also LOVE that Mark and Robyn were able to come. Well, Happy Happy Birthday Jay - we hope your 84th year is the best yet!!

National Donut Day 2017

Who knew? There is actually a National Donut Day. Our friend Andrea texted me before pick up and asked if we had plans after school. We didn't so she suggested we take the kiddos to get a donut. She found a cool, new place called CrEATe where you design and make your own donut. You pick your base (cake donut, raised donut, brownie, cinnamon roll, etc.). Next, you pick your filling (cream, lemon, raspberry, etc.). Then, you pick your glaze (mint, lemon, cream cheese, chocolate, peanut butter, etc.). Next, you pick your drizzle (caramel, chocolate, lime, berry, etc.). Finally, you pick up to four toppings (cookie dough, gummy bears, sprinkles, nuts, etc.). CRAZY GOOD!!!!

We each designed our donut and had to take pics of the creations before we let everyone dig in. So cool!!!!

Plus, since it was National Donut Day, they gave us a small cup of gelato - YUM! Yep, I'm thinking this should be an annual celebration. Thanks for the great idea Andrea!!!!

Recital Day

It was soon time for our recital. Luckily it was held at the Summit Academy school auditorium. We've had several belt tests there, so, it was a familiar room to us.

Apparently, The Piano Place has a more formal recital later in the year. This one is more casual. Reagan and Cole were each given t-shirts and asked to wear them for the recital. Of course, Reagan dressed hers up with heels and nice shorts - love her. Plus, instead of having one recital, they have several. That way, you are only listening to about 20 other people, besides your student, and not 100. Love that too!

Each of their instructors were there to support them - Cole's actually played with him. We didn't play our songs perfectly, but we got through them. Reagan repeated a line from We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet and Cole got a bit off in his timing with Believer. Plus, they were running a bit behind and I think they cut Cole off in his song before they should have. No worries - it is a bit nerve racking to perform in front of a bunch of people. Plus, like I mentioned earlier, they have just started with this place about 9 weeks ago. It's all good - we are improving each day. 

Thanks so much to Jessa and Blake for helping Reagan and Cole - we SO appreciate you guys!!!!!

Here's a video of Reagan and Cole's performances.

A Hike up Bell Canyon

On Memorial Day, we decided to hike up to Bell Canyon. This is one of our favorite hikes and so close to our house. It was SO crowded. People were everywhere. That took away from our experience a bit, but we just kept on hiking. After stopping to feed the ducks, we kept walking. We passed the reservoir and went around to the saddle of the mountain where we can look down and see our house.

It is so beautiful up there. I love to see the snow on the mountains and the green on the hillside. The reservoir is at the highest level we have seen in years.

We walked around the rest of the way around the reservoir and hiked back down. It was beautiful, even if it was a bit more crowded.

After our hike, we stopped for Slurpees (mandatory after a hike) and we picked up lunch and headed home. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying being together.

Reagan's Forgotten Talk

Reagan was assigned to give a talk in Primary over a month ago. We totally forgot. Seriously - I'm so fired. We just forgot. Well, this week, the child who was assigned to give the talk was hiking Machu Pichu with his family and thus.... unavailable. So, our Primary Secretary suggested that Reagan give her talk. Well, we were so busy that we sort of forgot again!!!! Ugh! So, Sunday morning, Reagan got to work finding her talk. You'll remember from her last talk that she doesn't allow me to help - she figures it out herself. She researched a conference address on the subject. It was time for church, I'm embarrassed to say, and so she printed out the conference address and grabbed a pad of paper and we headed to church. During the speakers, I saw her intermittently listening and then looking at her conference address and then writing. By the time Sacrament Meeting was over, her talk was written. She certainly didn't have time to memorize it, but she gave a great talk.

Steve was in a Family History Sunday School class (made up of only 8 people), so, he couldn't come to Primary to hear Reagan's talk, so, I videoed it for him. Here she is:



Reagan did a great job. She had put together a talk with quotes and suggestions. She even pulled out our Gospel Art Kit and used two pictures from it. She is amazing. Way to go Reagan - we are so proud of you!!!!!

A Concert with our Guitar Teacher

I"ve posted about Cole's guitar teacher before. Blake Crestani is his name. He won the Utah Voice competition and plays concerts around town.

Well, this weekend - Memorial Day Weekend - he was playing a concert at Daybreak. We played with the Shapiros today and they went home around 7. The concert started at 7, so, we headed across the valley and brought our blankets and chairs. We arrived in time to watch most of Blake's concert.

He played the piano and the guitar. During one song, he asked people to come up and dance. Reagan and Steve headed right up. Cole went up too - not to dance, but to see his teacher.

Blake gave Cole a big high five at the end of his concert and gave him a copy of his new CD that was just released this week. He even signed it .... so cool!!!! We love Blake and are so glad that he is Cole's teacher.

2017 Cubanopolis 500

Well, another month has gone by which means it is time for yet another Pack Meeting.

This one started out with awards being given. Cole received two. Then, it was time for the 2017 Cubanopolis 500!!!!! What is that you might ask? Well, let me tell you.....

Each scout has to take a box and cut out holes for the arms and for his head. Then, they needed to put on a windshield and tires. Basically, the scout is the car. We were going to paint - then we were going to use stickers - then we were going to draw. Finally, this mama hit Target (yes - like 2 hours before the meeting) and bought Lego gift wrap. Done, done and done. Cole decided to name his car "The Building Block" and he made a sign for the back of the car. Of course, he added "Driver: Cole Petersen".

Each "driver" needed a pit crew of 1. Steve was designated (by a vote) to be Cole's pit crew. The boys had to run one lap around the cultural hall and then come into the pit where the crew had to spray water on their goggles and wipe it away. Next, they ran another lap around the "track".

At their second pit stop, their crew had to comb their hair 10 times and take a pic of the driver. Then, they ran another lap around the "track".

At their third pit stop, their crew had to remove their shoes, remove their socks, turn their socks inside out and put them back on and then put their shoes back on. The rules said that the socks had to go above the ankle. Well, huge parent fail because Cole thought his ankle was his thigh. He seriously had on thigh high sports socks - UGH!!!!! Add to this the fact that his shoe laces are coming apart, so, he always has his shoe laces double knotted. Yep - Steve could do nothing. He couldn't get the double knots undone, then, these crazy long socks took forever to get off of Cole and turn inside out and they were nearly impossible to get back on. Finally, Steve threw them on, threw on the shoes (one didn't even go on all the way) and he sent Cole on to finish the race. Big parent fail - we totally should have checked his shoes. I never imagined he (knowing that it was a race and all and knowing that we would have to untie and re-tie his shoes) would actually double knot them ... making it harder on his pit crew. Oh well. We had fun nonetheless. Cole didn't finish first, but he was awarded "Most Colorful Car". Yay Cole!!!!

Kudos to Steve for keeping a sense of humor while his own team was trying to sabotage him. Plus, a big thanks to all the Scout leaders who put this together. The boys had a great time!!!!!

Performance Class

Our new piano/guitar studio has what is called Performance Class Week. Rather than have your usual lessons, the students sign up to be in a class of about 8 people or so. They introduce themselves and they play their piece for the recital. It is sort of a practice recital. I questioned whether or not we should play in the recital since we have only been taking lessons for about 8 weeks, but our instructors said it was great practice and even if Reagan and Cole could play 1/2 of their song or a part of their song, they should play.

Reagan's Performance Class was all piano players while Cole's was all guitar. It really did help them prepare for the recital next week.






Cole's teacher just started him on this song a week before Performance Week. At first, he wanted Cole to play the "down-down-up-up-down-up" in each measure, but Cole just couldn't go fast enough to play all of that and move his hands to the new key as fast as the song was going. So, we decided that Cole would just strum the note on the first beat of the measure and then use the 3 other beats to adjust his hands to the new key. This guitar thing is still new to Cole... and me! His teacher said he would accompany him during the song - yay!

A Little Shooting

You'll remember that Cole received a BBgun last summer. Well, he goes in spurts as to when he plays with it. When he is done using it, I tend to pack it into a safe place so that no one can get hurt inadvertently. However, my safe place might be so good that Cole forgets he has the gun.

When he thinks of it, he finds it and he and Steve head outside for some target practice. So fun!

A Beautiful Spring Day.... In Utah

Well, in Utah, you can never predict what the weather will do. One day it is sunny and almost hot.

The next day...... snow!!!! Seriously - I couldn't believe it when Reagan and Cole told me they needed warm clothes for school because it was snowing. (Of course, I had just washed all of their gloves, hats and coats to put away for the season. It just might be my fault it snowed. Like when I wash the car and then it rains. Ugh)

It's the middle of May!!!! Snow!!!! Seriously?!? Well, we love it here and we will take whatever Mother Nature is giving us. I'm sure we need the water, so, bring on the snow.

Another Beautiful Sunset

I had to post some of these pics that Steve took. We had a beautiful sunset this night and the colors were just gorgeous!

We often have beautiful sunsets, but this one combined so many colors - I loved it!

Steve took these with his phone - no filter, no edits. Just Mother Nature's own paintbrush :)

Flag Football

We had another season of flag football this year. It was a fast and furious season with 2 games a week for 4 weeks and practices before the games.... whew! Cole's friend Chase invited him to join their team. I guess these boys have played tackle together for quite some time (with the same coach). Plus, Chase and his team are 4th graders, so a full year older than Cole. We talked with Cole about how he is the new guy with this established team and how he would be younger and probably not as skilled as them. Although he thinks he should always play quarterback, we tried to caution him that it might not happen this year because of the circumstances with this already-formed team. 

Well, apparently we didn't need to worry (or lecture Cole so much). He fell right in with the other boys and Coach let him play quarterback the majority of the time. He LOVED it!

He is really good at reading what is going on. I saw his eyes scanning around for who was open. Unfortunately, often, his offensive line wouldn't block well enough for him and the other team would be coming fast and hard at him. He would get anxious and would throw it.... sometimes to a member of our team.... sometimes to a member of the other team :(     Steve worked with him and talked with him about it being better to be sacked than to throw an interception. After that, he seemed to settle in a bit better.

I had to laugh that Cole said "Coach told me to wait a heartbeat after I catch the ball before I throw it. How long is a heartbeat?" I assume Coach was seeing the same thing Steve was. He needed to pause, assess the situation and then throw.... or run. He was great at just deciding to run and he scored some touchdowns that way as well.

During one game, he threw an interception and he knew it was his fault. The player who caught it bolted away from the pack and was certain to score until Cole turned on the heat and flew down the field to pull his flag just before he hit the end zone. Whew - that was a close one.

Cole was really good defensively as well. He would watch where the player with the ball was looking and seemed to be able to head him off. I would see the pack of players all moving one way and Cole would be moving the other way. I would assume that he was wrong until the player with the ball would pivot and head right toward Cole. Also - those flags were SO hard to pull off. I have several pics of his hands on the flags of another player and then the player just moving on. By the end of the season, all of the parents were saying "Just grab the shorts." Not sure that complies with the rules, but why aren't those flags coming loose?

Cole was a great kicker too. He could get it up in the air while many of his teammates could only get it to go across the ground.

He also could catch really well. He seemed to be able to estimate where the ball was going when it was in the air. I saw him catch several when the other players just miscalculated where the ball would land.

Several of the other parents asked if we would be interested in playing tackle with them in the fall. We've been unsure of that in the past, not wanting to have him get hurt or damage his brain with a concussion. Steve and I watched that movie Concussion and it scared us to death. Of course, the other parents try to ease our worries by saying that if the players learn how to hit and learn how to fall, etc that they are less likely to get hurt. Cole really wants to play tackle - I guess Steve and I will have to take a good, hard look at it.

Most of all, Cole had a great time. He made some new friends, learned new football skills and had a fabulous season.

We are so proud of you Cole for your dedication to learning the plays, figuring out the rules, listening to your coach and having a great season.

I had to include a pic of our view from the Dimple Dell field. What gorgeous mountains we live by and when you go a bit further away from them (away from our house), you can see them even better.