Months of Memories...

It seems we have been in a tsunami for the past few months. I feel as though we are just coming up for air before we get pounded again. I have had such a surge of emotions... anger and elation, frustration and peace, sadness and happiness, disappointment and joy, etc. Where to begin?

Football, football, football, and more football. This is what has been consuming our lives for the past three months. This has been the greatest cause of most of the above mentioned emotions. I love sports. I love that my children participate in sports. I love the growth that comes from competition. But what I do not love is the POLITICS involved in sports, and here in St. George those politics begin in the 3rd grade. We have been dealing with it for 5 years now, since Garrett was in 3rd grade, but it doesn't seem to get any easier. That is all I am going to say about that...
Anyway, we have had football practices and games 5-6 days/week for the past three months. Garrett practiced T,W, and F with games on Saturday. Grant practiced T,W, and Th with games on Saturday. We went to the Hurricane High School games on Friday nights, and some Dixie State College games on Saturdays as well.

Garrett's team only lost one game during the football season this year. Garrett played corner this year and did a great job. His highlights of the season were 1. an interception against Virgin Valley in Mesquite 2. stripping the ball from Desert Hills in the semi-finals which we recovered and 3. some great solo tackles all season (see photo below)
They made it to the championship game where they led most of the game. Then the darn Pine View Panthers, who we have lost to for the past three years, beat us in the end by one point. Garrett's face in this picture says it all.Grant's team struggled this year. Three-fourths of the boys on his team had never played football before. Although they never won a game, they were very close on most. The last three games they played went into over-time in fact. They somehow still went to the play-offs... we haven't quite figured that one out yet. Grant had a blast. He was able to play both offense and defense. His highlights this year were 1. receiving 3 kick-offs 2. actually running the ball on offense in a couple of games and 3. having his dad as an assistant coach.

This year Russ was on the field at all of the Hurricane High football games, snapping pictures. He loves to be right in the middle of all the action. He got to know some of the players, talked strategy with all of the other side-line fans, got the inside scoop from the coaches themselves, and loved feeling a part of the team. Our Tiger's season was a carbon copy of Garrett's season. The tigers lost one game in the regular season, then lost to Juan Diego in the state championship for the 3rd season in a row. It was very disappointing after such a great season.This is the newest addition to our family... Meet Maurice (or Reese)Reese is Russ' oldest sister's son. He was offered a scholarship to play football for Dixie State College here in St. George. He is #82 and plays tight end. He lived with us for a few weeks before he could get into his dorm room. Now, he comes over for dinner, games, and to do his laundry every Sunday. Russ and I have also enjoyed taking him out to lunch on Tuesdays. If there is food involved, Reese is there. I thought Garrett ate a lot. Let me just say, we no longer have left overs. This kid can eat! We love him and are so grateful to have him as part of our family. We miss him on the days he is not with us. We were able to go to a few of Reese's home football games this year. He actually played quite a bit as a TRUE FRESHMAN. Anyway, there will probably more posts with Reese. This is a picture of Grant in Reese's jersey. Reese is 6'4" and about 225 lbs. I think Grant hit 60 lbs this year...

Somehow in the football mix, Garrett, Grant, and Russ are able to be involved in scouts. Garrett will be eligible for his Life scout advancement the first week of December. He works so hard on his scouting merit badges in his free time. He and Russ go on a campout once each month with the rest of the troop. It is very time consuming, but Garrett is very self motivated and gets his assignments accomplished with little encouragement from us. Grant is working hard on his Weblos rank. He will finish up by April and then become a Boy Scout and start working on his merit badges... thank heaven we only have 2 boys!
Grant is participating in the school choir, Sunset Express, again this year. He is so darling to watch. He loves to perform and puts on quite a show. You should see him "Turkey Talk". I am trying to learn how to compress my video files so I can post a video of him shaking his feathers. He is positioned front and center on stage and is not one bit frightened of the audience... in fact I think the bigger the crowd, the bigger ham he is.

We had one weekend off of football and so we headed out of town, up to the Lund's. We had a great time visiting and not having a schedule. Russ was able to go fishing on the Provo, and the kids and I were able to play with Kaci and her kids. On Saturday night we went to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. It was over-priced, but we got some cute and some really funny pictures.

Here are just a few of the hundred pictures I took that night...

Going to Cornbelly's did get us in the spirit of Halloween. Halloween became a last minute ordeal. The night before the Halloween parade at school, Grant decided he wanted to be something scary, and Gracie changed her mind (for the 40th time) and decided she wanted to be a witch. I said we would go look at Walgreens for costumes. If we could find something, great... if not, too bad. Well we found a scary costume and a witch costume, just my luck. Grant's was $19.99 and Gracie's was $14.99. It was more than I wanted to pay, but what can I say for last minute (honestly 1 minute before Grant had to be to football practice). Well when I got up to the register, they rang up at 50% off... FANTASTIC! Then the cashier scanned a $5 off coupon for each costume. I ended up only paying $10 for two costumes and a bag of candy. It was the best Halloween EVER! I took Garrett back later and let him get one too.

On the day of the school parade, I helped with Gracie's class Halloween party. It was very fun. The kids decorated cookies, made an art project, and played several games. It made for a long day, but we had a good time.

Needless to say, we have had a crazy few months. To show you just how exhausted everyone has been, I have snapped a few pictures in the last couple of weeks of my family members at the end of the day. I don't think they even know where their beds are anymore. If they stop moving for just one minute, this is the result...

Well, sweet dreams. Here's to the upcoming holidays, the start of basketball and baseball, and beginning gymnastics!