silver medal

Mark went to a meeting/retreat for work on Tuesday and got to listen to Derek Parra speak about his life and Olympic experiences.  It was really awesome.  He passed around his silver medal that he won in the men's 5000 meter speed skate from the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics for everyone to hold.  This is Mark's hand showing off the medal -- so very cool!

basketball

The boys are ALL in basketball right now -- recreation teams.  Jared plays with a team that is mostly kids from Davis High; Ryan plays with a good group of kids from Centerville; Jacob plays with kids that are from Bountiful, Centerville, & Farmington; and Matthew goes to an instructional league at the rec center on Saturday mornings where the kids are all first and second graders.  They are all enjoying playing because it is fun and good exercise.  Jared & Jacob especially are having to make some new friends and that's good too.  Jared and Ryan are also playing church ball for a few weeks and having fun doing that as well.  Between games and practices, we do basketball around here everyday (and sometimes twice) except Sunday and Monday. Enjoying the moment!!

braces

Jacob is officially immersed in phase I orthodontia.  Yesterday he got braces on his top teeth and an expander in the roof of his mouth.  We celebrated -- if you can call it that -- with a McDonald's lunch and a day off school.  By the time he finished at the orthodontist it was close to lunch time and knowing that his teeth were going to be sore for a couple days, decided to get some lunch into him before the soreness kicked in. He wolfed down a double quarter pounder with cheese and fries! By the time he finished eating, it wasn't worth taking him back to school because it was an early-out day and he would have gotten there only to go to lunch, recess, and have silent reading time.  So I let him stay home. We did have an SEP appointment last night with his teacher, and Jacob is an awesome student -- which we knew!  But, he picked up the work he missed during the day and completed it in less than 20 minutes while we went to SEP with Matthew.  That made me feel better about letting him skip school.  I'm not sure how long the expander and braces will be on, probably at least six months.

the joy of seeing

Ryan is trying out contacts.  About three months ago we got him glasses to wear during class so he could see the board at the front of the room and for seeing things long distance. Since then his eyes have changed a little and he wanted to be able to see all the time and not wear glasses, so we decided it was time to go for the contact lenses.  So far so good!  He went to the Jazz game the other night and liked being able to see the floor from the rafters!

pack meeting

 We had an awesome pack meeting last night!  First off, Jacob received a couple new Webelo pins and his religious knot!  Yay!

 Then, we had a guest speaker -- Cody Reese.  He's a Paralympic skier and bobsled driver.  He was born without a leg and has used a prosthetic all his life.  He talked with the boys about having a positive attitude and how to overcome discouragement.  They loved it! 

 He also showed them his leg, prosthesis, a video, and his bobsled helmet.  It was a very interesting and uplifting evening.  He has accomplished amazing things in his life despite his disability and definitely has a positive attitude about life!

ski day

 The kids had a day off of school on Tuesday (professional day/end of term) so we decided to take the kids skiing.  It hasn't snowed in the last couple weeks, so we were worried about the runs being icy and general yucky, but we were in luck -- it was pretty darn good for not having any powder and low snow pack.  We chose to try Wolf Mountain resort.  It's a little place in the hills above Ogden.  It has 3 or 4 lifts and most of the terrain is beginner to intermediate runs.  They also have some fun areas with obstacles and a half-pipe for the boarders. They offered some great learn-to-ski deals for locals and low cost Tuesday deals -- can't beat that!

 The worst part of skiing is getting all the equipment rented -- ugh!  Once we got past that, we got Jacob into a snow boarding class -- first time!  He absolutely loved it, and picked up on it really quickly.  He was dropping into the half-pipe by afternoon!  This was Matthew's first time ever, so we got him signed up for a ski class.  They have a great little conveyor belt lift for beginners (especially kids) with a very gentle slope.

 He got bored riding the conveyor belt after lessons, so Mark & I tried him on the lift for a beginner run.  It was pretty hard, so we convinced him to stick to the conveyor belt for a bit longer.  All-in-all, he had a fun time.

Jared and Ryan decided to ski.  Jared took off by himself while Mark & I helped Ryan get the jist of skiing again -- he's been boarding the last couple of times.  After a couple runs and a little frustration, his memory kicked in and he was off having a grand time.  As it turned out, a few families in the ward/neighborhood happened to have the same idea we did about a ski day and so Ryan and Jacob had a lot of fun with their friends in the afternoon.  When it was time to turn in all our equipment, we realized that someone had taken off with my skis and poles!  We looked around and couldn't find them and told the rental staff.  They helped us look around and finally located my skis in an area near the ski school (definitely not where I had taken them off!)  Thankfully, crisis was averted - Whew!  We had a fun day in the sunshine and clean mountain air!

blog updated - finally!

I have finally gotten the blog caught up!  Yay!  This was no small task -- believe me!  I got months behind and trying to get the pictures and remember the happenings of our lives was very time consuming and sometimes frustrating to say the least.  This has become my journal, so it was important to me to try to document our lives. I came across this picture today as I was putting final entries into the 2013 posts.  My handsome boys -- love them so much!