Fish for Sail

We are so excited to have Russ returning home today from a fly-fishing trip to Guatemala. He has been gone for over a week playing with the sailfish in Central America. Thank heaven for good technology which has allowed us to keep in contact with him while he has been away. We were able to communicate using instant messaging and e-mail almost every night. He had a great time and caught two fish that were 100+ pounds. We can't wait to see more pictures and video footage from the trip.

Steeerike Three!

Little league baseball has begun. Grant is playing Triple A ball. He was placed on the Indian's team with 10 other boys, none of which he knew prior to season. Last year he had very intense coaches and he learned so much. But, he wasn't into baseball as much as most of the boys on his team. He played mostly in right field and if he wasn't chewing on his mitt, he was making up imaginary baseball plays and acting them out. He is very entertaining to watch. Some changes have occurred in the league this year and it is a little less competitive. We are thrilled. Way more up Grant's alley. He just wants to have a good time and feel successful.

His new coach called and said we were having a parent/player meeting. We went to the meeting and they gave us Grant's uniform and then the coach introduced himself. He told us that he has never coached baseball, knows very little about the sport, however he can play basketball. But, he volunteered to be the coach where Russ and I didn't, so I can't say too much. He then started asking the boys what their names were and what position they would like to play. The first boy, Drew, wanted to play center field or second. The coach said he could play either one throughout the game. Then he looks to my son.

Coach: What is your name?

Grant: Grant

Coach: What position do you want to play?

Grant: Pitcher

Coach: Okay, you will be one of my pitchers. I will probably need two.

Me: (Laughing) He has never pitched before, ever.

Coach: That is okay.

I was sick. Grant was determined. We went out and practiced a few times. He threw somewhat accurate until I put Garrett in the batter's box. Then he started throwing way outside. We worked at it for about an hour. I kept telling him, "Don't worry about hitting the batter, just get the ball inside". Luckily, Garrett is very used to batting against me and has gotten quite good at ducking and jumping out of the way. Eventually, Grant stared to feel more confident and started throwing across the plate again.

Tonight Grant was the starting pitcher. He was so excited. I was a nervous wreck, but he wasn't. He was very confident. On the way over to his game I had told him not to be worried about hitting the batter, just get the ball to Mitchell (the catcher) and don't make him have to chase wild balls. Grant's first two pitches were high and then he beaned the batter. I was starting to have that really sick feeling. The next batter got a base hit. Then Grant STRUC OUT the next batter up. The next few boys got hits, a couple of boys scored, and then Grant had two more strike outs to finish the inning. He only walked one batter, the one he beaned. I was so impressed. His form looked good. He had a little attitude up on the mound. And best of all, he had a smile from ear to ear. He was in the game, contributing, and having the time of his life.

Dang, he is so cute! And he throws a mean strike! Good job Grant!
Grant had so much support from family tonight, how could he have not been successful. Nana, Papa, Uncle Brent, Aunt Kami, Gavin, Savanna, Garrett, Gracie, Brayden and his buddy Jamie, and of course Grant's mom, were all there to cheer him on. It meant the world to Grant to have his cousin, Brayden at the game. NOBODY loves Brayden more than Grant. Not even that cute little mama of Bray's can compete with Grant's adoration! Thanks Brayden (and Jamie) for being there.

as EGG-citing as ever

I don't know what the Easter Bunny does at your home, but in ours, that little fur ball hides about 200 eggs ALL over. My kids love hunting for eggs. Due to the fact that we would find eggs for months after the holiday was over, the Easter Bunny finally wised up. It now hides 21 eggs in each area/room of the house. Each of my kids find 7 eggs and we can't move on to a new room/area until every egg is found. It seemed to have worked very well. However, I will miss finding random pieces of chocolate in August this year!The kids really had a nice Easter this year. We were going to celebrate Easter on Saturday because Russ was going to be gone on Sunday. However, that just didn't happen. With the triathlon, two baseball games, family dinner, priesthood session of conference, and Russ flying out of Vegas that night- we just didn't have a minute to squeeze in an egg hunt. So, that darn bunny came about 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning. The kids started waking up around 4:30 a.m. asking if it was time to start hunting for eggs. They get way more excited about Easter than Christmas. Anyway, I finally gave in at 6:30 and the fun began.

The kids got a few toys from the Easter Bunny like new spiky balls (like we need any more balls in this house), swim goggles, bubble wands...

water balloon sling-shots for the boys, and a hula hoop for GracieThe boys each got a new tie and Gracie got a new Easter dress. I will have to take pictures of them this Sunday in their new attire.

The kids spent a good hour finding Easter eggs filled with candy or quarters. They were everywhere! After the egg hunt, I made the kids pancakes and we got ready for conference to begin. When the morning session of conference was over, we got ready for the day and went over to Nana and Papa's. Kaci, Raleigh, Brayden, Peyton, Kami, and Brent were there too. So, it was fun to get to be with them for the holiday. Nana and Papa had an Easter egg hunt for my kids also.

More candy and some golden dollars to add to the Easter stash. Nana made a really nice dinner and we watched the afternoon session of conference. It was a really nice and relaxing day and I enjoyed every minute of it (other than not having Russ there to share it with). Conference was really good this year. I have never known it to be bad, but I really enjoyed several of the talks this year. Particularly, Elder Holland's talk and the talk about mothers on Sunday afternoon.

It was fun to have Kaci and some of her family here. I just cannot get enough of her baby girl. Peyton is the sweetest little thing I have ever met. Just look at how cute she is...

My kids, of course, could not get enough of Brayden. He is so sweet to my children who follow him where ever he goes and absolutely hang on him every second they are with him. He is such a good guy and we are very lucky to have him as a cousin.

Anyway, I hope you had a wonderful holiday. We are so blessed to have a Savior that came to the earth, lived a perfect life, atoned for our sins, and died for us. I am grateful for His Atonement and His resurrection which allows us to make mistakes, repent, become a better and wiser people, and live with our loved ones for all eternity. I am also so grateful for my wonderful family who helps me stay the course and keep focused on what is really important.

Grant's got Talent

Our family read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series last year (very good, would highly recommend them). We were very excited when Grant got Mrs. Drummond as a teacher this year because she has created a course curriculum around these books. The books are centered around Greek Mythology.

On April Fool's day, Grant's class presented their Greek plays. Mrs. Drummond's and Mr. Broadhead's classes had created 6 short plays about Greek mythology. They were very clever and quite good.

Grant was amazing. He had to narrate each of the plays. He had all of his lines memorized, spoke very clearly and with great confidence. He also played the part of one the miseries from Pandora's Box. He was disease. He was very dramatic with his wicked laugh.

After the play, Grant's teacher came up to Russ and I to tell us how impressed she was with Grant. Apparently, one kid didn't show up for the plays and another kid broke down with stage fright. At the last minute, they threw Grant into these parts. Mrs. Drummond told us that Grant had every line of every play memorized and easily stepped in to "save the play"! We were so proud of him. He really did a great job. Look out Broadway!

Give it a TRI

I had the fun experience of watching my dad, brother-in-law (Brent), and his uncle (Dee) compete in a triathlon this past Saturday. We went over to the SHAC (Sand Hollow Aquatic Center) just before 7:00 a.m. for the start of the race. Dee was first. He did the swimming portion of the race, which consisted of 8 laps (or 16 lengths) in the pool. He was an amazing swimmer. He glides in the water, does the fancy turns, and really makes swimming look effortless. Since I am a drowner by nature, I can really appreciate his skills in the water. I only got one picture of Dee in the water... and it is of his butt as he is making a turn. I will save him any embarrassment since I just met him. However, I may save it for future use, just in case he and I get better acquainted and I need a little coaxing to get him to teach me how to swim. I am not above using blackmail. Hehehe! Here is a picture of Dee after his swim, running to exchange chips with my dad.It is not the best picture. It was still very dark outside and he ran by me VERY fast. Good Job Dee! He swam his part in under 7 minutes.

Dee handed his ankle bracelet to my dad who did the cycling portion of the race. My dad had not slept one wink the night before the race. He was so nervous. We were all nervous for him. He took off without crashing and headed out on the course. He had to complete two 5 mile loops. As he passed by us after one loop, he yelled out, "I lost my shifter on the first hill!". The poor guy had just had his bike worked on the day before the race. He had to ride in a low gear the entire time. Despite the malfunction, he did very well. He looked strong coming into the finish of the cycling portion.Dad handed off to Brent, who took off running. Brent had a 3 mile run, which he finished in 22 minutes. Good job Brent!

Overall, they captured 3rd place in their division. Whoo-hoo! Glad I could be there. My parents are always so supportive of all of my family's various activities. It is nice that I had the opportunity to reverse the role and be there to support my dad and Brent. Plus, I got to hang out with my sisters and mom while the men toiled. It was fabulous.

In Stitches- No Foolin'

Every April Fool's Day, Russ gets me. I have been a sucker to his pranks for 15 years now. This year I was ready. I was just waiting for the call to come in. Then it did...

Garrett had a school field trip that day to our new ice skating rink here in St. George. I had been teasing him all morning because he was wearing shorts. I told him he was going to be laying on the ice more than skating and that he should consider wearing pants. He of course didn't pay any attention to me, because the boy refuses to wear pants (except to church on Sunday). I sent him off to school with his sack lunch for their picnic after skating, I took Grant and Gracie to school, then I was off to work.

It was about 10:30 in the morning when our phone rang. It was Russ. I was ready...

Russ: Hi Hon. I just got a call from Tonaquint Intermediate School. Garrett fell ice skating and needs a couple of stitches in his chin.
Me: (Not believing a word of this) Um, okay... sure.
Russ: We need to go and get him and take him to the hospital.
Me: Uh-huh. (acting bored by his game)
Russ: I can leave work right now and get him. Would it be better for me to take him to Insta Care or the emergency room?
Me: Uh-huh (still acting somewhat bored, but beginning to wonder).

Finally, I catch on that Russ is not joking. Garrett had really fallen, hit the ice with his chin, and split it open. We decided I should go and get him. I called our pediatrician to see if he could stitch him up. They said the P.A. was available and could get him right in. I picked Garrett up and could see the questioning look in his teacher's eyes- wondering how this parent was going to react. I started to laugh as he approached my car and said, "Of course it would be my child that has the accident". I was trying to let the teacher know we were okay with what had happened and that we weren't going to sue the school. Well, Garrett thought I was making fun of him and got pretty upset. He had been so embarrassed because all of his classmates were gathered around him as the management questioned him about the accident. He was mortified! I got him settled down and to the doctor's office.

The doctor took off the small butterfly bandage that they had put on him at the rink and put some numbing gel on the cut. After the gel had been on for about 15 minutes, Garrett still had quite a bit of feeling in his chin so the P.A. decided to shoot him up with some Lidocain. As he was injecting it into the cut, Garrett's chin split wide open. The P.A. said, "Oh, this is a lot worse than I thought". Garrett ended up with 9 stitches. Two deep stitches that will dissolve and 7 on the outside that he gets out on Tuesday.

As the P.A. finished (I watched the whole thing by the way... pretty cool) he told the nurse to put a bandaid over the stitches. She told Garrett that she only had glitter bandaids or crayon bandaids. Garrett shrugged and said he would take a crayon bandaid. He was very quiet as we finished up. As soon as we walked out of the door of the doctor's office, Garrett's eyes filled up with tears again. He looked at me and said, "SERIOUSLY, A CRAYON BANDAID?"!!! He was already so embarrassed and that just added insult to injury. Being the good mom that I am, I took him downstairs to my office and put a normal bandaid on him, took him to Honolulu Grill for lunch, and didn't make him go back to school. He said it turned out to be a good day.

Fun with the Forrest's

We were so lucky to have our dearest friends come and stay with us last weekend. We have been friends with them since BYU. Kellie and I were pregnant with our first babies at the same time. When Isabel and Garrett were about a year old, Kellie and I would put them in their jogging strollers and she and I would roller blade up Provo Canyon to Vivian Park. We would have a picnic lunch and the kids would throw rocks in the water. When Garrett was 18 months old, Gary had just graduated with his Master's degree and took a job in Colorado. It was a VERY sad time in my life. Fortunately, we have remained in contact and our families get together almost once a year. They are such good people and we consider them some of our very best friends.

I am sad because the only good picture I took was of the twins, Jack and John. I wish I had gotten a picture of their family. Maybe I will steal one off of Kellie's blog and pretend I took it! Anyway, thanks for a good time! We loved having you here and hope to see you in October (if not before) for the Marathon.