Senior Ball

 The next dance I was able to go to was Senior Ball.  It's fun to know a lot of boys on the cross country team because for dances we just rotate through different dates for dances and we are all in the same group.  For this dance I went with Isaac Morrison.  

Isaac was really fun to go with. I've known him since 7th grade Band.  Isaac asked me with a Tiki torch and said something like, "It would be FIRE to go to Senior Ball with you."  I replied with the same Tiki torch and said, "Yes Senior Ball will be LIT!"  The funny thing is that when we dropped off the reply, Mom and I sat in his yard for at least 5 minutes trying to light the torch.  Finally, we gave up and sadly left it unlit.

Our group was supposed to have 5 couples but 2 of the girls had a wrestling meet so the other 3 couples did the day date, pictures and dinner without them and just met them at the dance.

The day date was lots of fun.  We made gingerbread houses at Isaac's house. While we were waiting for the last couple to get there, we were able to have a tour of Isaac's remodeled house.  We found out that he has a homemade splash pad in his backyard!  (Definitely remembering that for the summer!) Finally, when the last couple arrived, we were able to make the gingerbread houses.  It was definitely an adventure.  Each couple had a gingerbread house kit to decorate and we were competing for the best house with Isaac's family as the judges.  Honestly, the house that Isaac and I made was probably the messiest.  Everyone else's were so nice and neat but we had the most fun making ours.  Our motto by the end of decorating was 'More Frosting!'  

After judging the houses, there was an earthquake.  Okay not really but all of our houses got wrecked because we smashed them all.  After making the houses we played a really fun game that involved a lot of funny actions.  All of us were laughing really hard by the end of the game.

The day of the dance was pretty busy.  That morning I went to get my nails done then straight to a youth council activity.  Then it was time to get ready for the dance.  Mom had too much fun doing my makeup but it surprisingly didn't take a lot of time to get ready. 

 Putting on the boutonniere was a lot easier to do this time.  The corsage was really pretty and Isaac made it himself.  He was disappointed that the flower that matched my dress broke when he was making it so he sadly had to get a different flower. I told him that it was alright and that it was still really pretty.

We took pictures a Merlin Olsen Park and it was cold, but the pictures turned out really good!  The funny thing was that the girls did not plan to wear blue dresses, but we all did so we were matching!

The pictures turned out really pretty!  It was supposed to snow while we were taking pictures but luckily it didn't. However, pictures in the snow would've been really cool.

 Our group consisted of Cameron and Josie, Isaac and me, and Ethan and Lily. This was such a fun group to go with and we had lots of fun together.

After pictures we went to Olive Garden and had some really good food.  When we were done we left with 2 bags of bread sticks....for some reason we couldn't say no.  After dinner we had a lot of time before the dance started so we went to see some Christmas lights in Nibley.  They were really cool.  We drove all around Nibley only got lost a couple times. We had fun hanging out.  Isaac and I had fun in the back of the car playing Jello around all of the turns. We were all teasing Ethan and Lily for holding hands but by the end of the ride Isaac and I may or may not have ended up holding hands as well... Shh! 

After the Christmas lights, we headed to Castle Manor for dance.  The dance was really fun.  We were able to meet up with the other two couples in our group at the dance.  I saw a lot of friends and their groups there as well.  At the dance there was a fun photo booth where we took some funny pictures.  

The crazy thing about the dance though, was how hot and stuffy it was.  It was so humid inside you could see the heat on the windows...  It was really gross.  Outside felt great but then, when we walked back inside, it was like a heat wave.  All in all the dance was a lot of fun despite the hot and humid dance floor.

 I'm really glad I got asked to Senior Ball even though I'm not a Senior.  But really the dance is more like a Winter Ball because everyone goes to it not just Seniors.  Isaac was a really fun date and it was really fun to go with him.

November

November has been fun for us.  This weather has been great and unseasonably warm.  We have spent a lot of time outside enjoying the extended fall.  Fall in Cache Valley is the best so it has been nice to have a longer one this year.

Early in the month, I decided to hike to the waterfall at Richard's Hollow.  The Saturday was an amazingly sunny and crisp day and I was tired of being in the house.  None of the kids wanted to go with me because they were being lazy so I was glad when Becca stopped by just as I was about to leave. 

She was nice enough to go on this impromptu hike with me even though she was not prepared with good shoes or water.  I grabbed her a water bottle and some snacks and we were off.  The trail was amazing though I had forgotten how much of an ascent the trail is to the waterfall.  This was rough for Becca because she was not prepared but she was a good sport.  I hiked up to the top of the waterfall but of course, this late in the year, the water was literally a trickle.  It was still a nice escape into the mountain to enjoy some peace and quiet.

On November 11, the conditions were perfect for us to see the Northern Lights from our house!  

The Lights were amazing!  The pictures make the Lights even more bright but you could see them very well with just the naked eye too.  I don't know the science behind the Northern Lights and why we were able to see them here but I am really glad we got to see them.  They were so pretty!

The kids are really funny sometimes.  Charlotte and Brooklyn taped these pieces of black yarn to their lip and pretended they were mustaches.

We looked so cool with our mustaches and smolders on our faces.

Brooklyn makes friends wherever she goes even PTA meetings:

Abby and Colson are her new best friends now.  They can't wait to see each other at all of the PTA meetings.

On Thanksgiving, we ran a Family Turkey Trot.

Charlotte ran a mile with us while Brooklyn rode in the stroller.  The boys were bums and didn't join in.  Finally after the mile, Charlotte, Colby, and Logan joined us on their bikes for a while. Then Emily and I finished the 5K while pushing Brooklyn.  Brooklyn is getting too big and heavy for the stroller so this might have been her last time riding in it.  Emily was killing me so I made her push the stroller and then we were about even.  

That afternoon, we all headed to the Fire Station to have Thanksgiving with Russell and his crew.  The dinner was really good with smoked turkey and ham and lots of very rich pies.  It was nice to get together and enjoy the evening and holiday.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Nike XC Nationals

What a crazy and unforgettable trip.

A car ride and trip with cross country hooligans makes you want to join the fun.  Though it sometimes may lead you to question where your hearing and voice went by the end of the trip.  Oh well.  When I first heard about the trip to Arizona for another cross country race, I wasn't sure if I was able to go or not or if I wanted to.  I'm super happy I was able to go.

Nike Cross Country Regionals or NXR is a professional cross country race that our team had the opportunity to go to.  This year the race was in Arizona so a group of us on the cross country team, along with our coaches, loaded up for a long 12+ hour drive to go race.  We had the girls and coaches in a Sprinter van and the boys split up with the chaperones in 2 cars.  To pass the time we sang a lot of songs.  One of our favorites from the trip, that we sang at least a 100 times a day, was the song from the movie Titanic, 'My Heart Will Go On.'  I think that song was the reason why we didn't have a voice by the end of the trip.  Along with lots of laughing there was also a bit of screaming a few times when Maddie our coach ran a red light and Ty our other couch got close to breaking 100 mph.  The drive was definitely an adventure, but we all lived to tell the tale.  

One of the many stops on our way to Arizona was at Southern Utah University for a tour of the campus.  It was really cool to see the campus and learn about it.  The college track coach gave us the tour and took us all over.  It was kind of long and toward then end we were all ready to just get to the Airbnb in St. George.  It was still a neat experience especially since I'll soon have to think about what college I want to go to later.

Finally we made it to the Airbnb. The house we stayed at for the first night was awesome!  We all wanted to just stay there for the weekend and not worry about the race.  There was a pool and a TV room!  The rooms we stayed in for the night had triple bunk beds.  Before dinner we went on a shake out run.  We ran in the dark and tried not to get lost.  It was fun!  After the run, we went to go find where the boys ran to go scare them.  We ended up hiding behind a car and when the boys ran past we jumped out and scared them.  We scared them so good, even though they wouldn't admit it.  After dinner we played in the pool and then watched a movie.  We ended up watching the movie Desendents.

After going to bed past midnight, we woke up really early the next morning and drove the rest of the way to Arizona.  It was a really long drive.  That was when Ty almost broke 100 mph on the long stretch of road. When we finally made it to Arizona, surprisingly in one piece, we went to the race course to get the race packets and check out the course.  

For the shake out run that day we ran part of the course which was really nice.  After the run we all found out that we got cool hot pink beanies!  After checking out the course, we piled back into the cars to go to the houses we were staying at.  The houses we stayed at were Ty's sister's neighbors' houses.  They were all really nice to let us stay with them.  Ty's sister's house was the main house we hung out at.  

That night we played badminton, had really good food and just had fun, trying not to think of the race the next morning.  After playing around we all split up to go to the different houses we were staying at.  Lily, Celeste, Morgan, and I, with Lily's Mom, stayed together.  We didn't see the family we were staying with very often.

The next morning we got up really early and met at Ty's sister's house for a quick breakfast before we headed for the race course.  When we got to the course we were all really nervous and there was so many people.  Finally it was time to race.  The race course and the weather was really nice and we were at lower elevation so I was hoping for a PR.  During the race I ran with Josie the whole time.  I'm glad I did, because she pushed me to go faster.  

Sadly I didn't end the race with a PR but I did finish strong with a time of 22:17.  A few of the girls and boys on the team finished with huge PRs which was awesome!  The race was a good race and a good end to the cross country season.  It was cool to race with a lot of people from many different high schools.

When the race was finally over we were able to explore the race venue and cheer for the boys racing.  Lily, Josie, and I went to stand in line to get sweaters.  I didn't end up getting one because they were really expensive. Now I regret not getting one though.  Oh well.  As part of my exploring I noticed that a lot of the racers were ripping off the flags on the course markers and taking them has souvenirs.  They had to do it so they didn't get caught.  I wanted to get one because I thought I would be a cool souvenir to have since I didn't get a sweater.  Lily already took one of the cones to add to her collection of track and cross country cones that she's been given.  I didn't want to get I trouble though so I didn't get a flag at that moment.  Over at the finish line we met up with Lily's mom and another chaperone and watched the boys finish.  We told them about the flags and they told me to get one.  I still was nervous about it because there were officials watching the flags.  They tried to stop the people from taking the flags but it was no use, there were too many people.  Finally there was one flag left, and two of the race officials were guarding it determined to not let go of it until the champion races were finished in a couple hours.

Lily's mom was determined to get the flag. She agreed with the officials and told them she would also wait until the end of the races to get the flag for me.  It was a funny story.  While waiting, Lily's mom had the flag signed by a lot of people including the race officials.  While waiting, I was able to find a way to get another flag over where the finish line was by making friends with 2 random girls from a different high school and the race officials' coach.  The coach said that at the end of the race to come find him and he would get the flags for us.  At the end of the races, Lily's mom got her flag and we were able to get front row seats to the girls champion race finish because that is where we were waiting to get the flags by the finish line.  It was cool to see some of the fastest girls at the race finish so fast, it was crazy.  Finally, I was able to get my long awaited flag from the race officials handing them out at the finish line while they were cleaning up.  After meeting up with the rest of the team we took a picture and left talking about all the things we did at the race.  We were already talking about next year's plans to race here again.

After the race we went back to the house, had lunch, and played Uno No Mercy.  When we were bored of that we decided to go to a mall in town and explore.  It was raining when we got there so everything was wet but, luckily, it stopped since the mall was an outdoor one and we didn't want to get wet.  At the mall we split up and went browsing.  We basically were window shopping because no one in our group bought anything except for Maddie.  When we were done exploring all the stores we met back up with everyone and went back to the house.  

At the house we had dinner and then all of the girls hung out for a minute.  The boys wanted to swim but we decided it was too cold and didn't swim.  I did go outside to play around and ended up getting a little wet because of the squirt guns the boys had. They tried to get the girls outside to get them wet but it didn't work.  It was a lot of fun.  Finally, I went inside and chatted with the girls some more, then we went downstairs and convinced some of the boys to play some games with us.  One of the games was spinning around with a piece of paper, dropping the paper on the ground, and trying to land on it while being super dizzy.  It was super funny to watch.  We thought the other boys were boring for not joining us. Instead, they were too into the F1 race they were watching with Maddie.  After the games and laughing a lot, we sat a round and I plunked around on the piano that was there.  We were all really tired from a long day so we decided to call it a night and get packed for the long drive home the next day.

Sadly we still had to wake up extra early the next morning so we could get on the road and not get home really late because it was a 12 hour drive.  After signing each others cones and flags we got the day before at the race, we said goodbye to our host family's and thanked them for letting us stay with them.  

The car ride was really long.  One of the stops that day was a gas station where some of us stocked up on left over food and snacks from the trip and others went sight seeing.  After that we went down a road with 15 plus church houses that were all different.  Then we stopped at an overlook of the Colorado river.  It was a cool view but a really steep drop off.  I was able to get some homework done on the drive and then we all just hung out and talked.  Toward the end of the drive Lily and I were making some funny memes of the pictures we took.  Finally, we made it to the school and sang the Titanic song one last time as we pulled in.  Mom said we were so loud that she heard us clear from the light at the corner, it was funny.

It was a really, really fun trip and a super cool experience.  I hope we are able to do it again next year.  It took a few days after the trip for my voice to completely come back because it was so dead from all of the fun we had.  There was a lot of fun memories made.

The Little Mermaid

This year at South Cache Middle School the Choir and Theater Department put on The Little Mermaid Jr. for the school play.  Logan had the exciting opportunity to be in the school play. Here he is to tell you about it:

"I got the opportunity to be in the school play.  The play this year was the Little Mermaid Jr. we had fun learning to act and dance around. 

The friends in my friend group are Bennett, Lucille, Damon, Lucy, Colson, and Alera.  We all talked each other in to trying out for the play so we could all do it together.  We were all in the play and they were all great at performing their parts.

 Bennett was lucky enough to be a main part in it the play as the butler, Grimsby, while the rest of us were in ensembles.  Damon, Lucille, and Colson were in the sailor/chef ensemble and Lucy and Alera were in the gull ensemble. I was in the sea creature ensemble and played the Fluke.  In the "Under the Sea" song, I had  a solo.

 I also played an escort in another scene. 

This was a great play and we all had fun doing it.  At first it was boring with lots of singing and choreography dances and videos. Once we started actually doing the rehearsal practices, though, that is when it started getting fun. One time I accidentally missed my cue because I was in the bathroom. When I came back they were already circling around Ariel. From then on I learned to hold it if I needed to go until my big break. The dances were easy to memorize and fun to do as well."

Logan did a great job as the Fluke especially on his solo during the Under the Sea song.  His line was "The Fluke is the duke of sole! Yeah!"  It was so funny.  All of the actors were really talented and the show was really well done for a middle school performance.  They did 4 performances and they were all great.

I think Logan did have a good time being in the play especially because all of his friends were there with him.  He told me he would do another play again sometime.  Who knew we would be theater people?  Good job Logan!

Sadies 2025: Dynamic Duos

The Sadies Dance theme this year was Dynamic Duos.  This dance was my first girls choice dance and it was a lot of fun to ask a guy and plan what we were going to do.  I asked Spencer Datwyler, a boy on the cross country team. (And yes the one we saw on our 50-miler.)  He was a super fun date. 

 The way I asked Spencer was with a pumpkin.  The poster said, "Hey 'pumpkin,' could you carve out some time to go to Sadies with me?"  I then put my name inside a small pumpkin and said "Find my name in the pumpkin."  He responded yes with a watermelon.

 The longest part to planing for Sadies was deciding on costumes.  The theme for the dance was Dynamic Duo.  Finally after many different ideas I went with the Anna and Kristoff costume from the movie Frozen.   Our group was a big group and we each had different costumes that were awesome and unique.

We had The Savanna Bananas (a baseball team), Nick Wild and Judy Hops from Zootopia, Skittles, M&M's, Squints and the Life Guard from Sandlot, and Spencer and I as Anna and Kristoff from Frozen.

For the day date we decided to keep it pretty simple and fun.  We decided to go to the Haunted Hollow at American West Heritage Center.  After a hour of picking everyone in the van up we finally met up with the rest of our group and stood in line for a while. 

While we stood in line we talked and just hung out.  When we were able to go through the Hollow, Spencer and I were more entertained with my friend Kambri's reactions than the people trying to scare us in the Hollow.  Kambri was terrified the whole time! It was so funny.  After having a fun time at the Haunted Hollow getting scared, we all piled back into the van a went to Kambri's house for a fire.  When we got to her house we got a text that Kambri had lost her keys in the Hollow and the rest of the group was still at American West Heritage Center waiting for Kambri's keys to be found...  Luckily her keys were finally found along with Spencer's pocket knife! When they finally got to her house we had a fire, cobbler, and played games.  It was an adventure.

On the day of the dance we, did pictures, had dinner at Kambri's, played a game, then went and partied at the dance.  We took pictures up at a Church Farm in Wellsville.  They lady who did the picture did a really good job and the turned out really good especially in the fall colors. The group was really cold but Spencer and I were grateful for our costumes because they kept us warm.  After pictures and Spencer and Thomas playing around we headed to dinner.

For dinner at Kambri's, her mom prepared a Roadkill Cafe for us.  We were able to order our dinner but we didn't know what we were ordering. All the food had weird names like, Thumper Bumper.  When we received our food we were relieved to find actual food and not roadkill.  

The food was delicious.  We had pulled pork sandwiches and an assortment of salads.  Dessert was pumpkin pie cheese cake and a chocolate mousse of sorts.  The best part of the meal, I think, was the pumpkin pie cheese cake, it was so good!  The Roadkill Cafe was such a fun idea.

After we were all full of a delicious dinner we played a game called Jack-box.  Each of the the couples were on a team.  Spencer and I didn't understand the game very much but we still had fun.

After the game we went to the dance and had fun dancing.   It was very hot and I felt bad for Spencer in his costume made of wool.  Oh well he said he was fine.  The dance was super fun!  

Sadies was such a fun dance and Spencer was a really nice and funny date.  A girl's choice dance was definitely different than boy's choices but it was lots of fun to plan the date.

Halloween

Happy Halloween!  Halloween keeps changing every year for us and the numbers keep get smaller and smaller as the kids head out with friends to Trick-or-Treat instead of going with us. The outfits too are getting more and more different for the older ones. But it is always a fun time for all.

This year Emily decided to be Anna from Frozen and also used the costume for her Sadie's dance the next day.  She and her friend, Spencer, went as Anna and Kristoff. Colby found this light up face mask online and decided to buy it for his costume.  The mask lit up with different face emojis and designs.  Logan came up with his own superhero dude as a costume.  This superhero is one he designed and made up with Annalynn and James while hiking in Glacier. Charlotte originally wanted to be Jessie from Toy Story but finally decided to be a cute cowgirl in general. Brooklyn had a great idea to be a chicken for Halloween.  Don't ask me where she came up with that but I sewed up a chicken costume for her to wear and it turned out great.  And Russell and I were Mexico tourists with our ponchos and sombrero.

Brooklyn's chicken costume was actually quite easy to make even though I made up the pattern as I went along. Don't ask me to recreate it because I don't know if I can.  I basically made a simple hooded poncho out of fleece and then added the red comb, yellow beak, and button eyes.  The feathers are a feather boa just hot glued on the arms to make it look like wings.  The finishing touch was the yellow dish-washing gloves for feet.  She just wore the gloves for feet for the picture because they were quite tight and not really practical for walking around outside.  Brooklyn loved it!

Our little cowgirl/farmer and her chicken had a great time dressing up and attending all of the Trunk-or-Treat events in town.

The first Trunk or Treat we attended was the Griffin's Auto.  The Youth Council helped out with this so after helping them get all set up, I took the girls around to all of the trunks/booths.

They loved collecting candy and prizes from all of the booths.  Everyone commented on the cute chicken.  The chicken costume was molting a little bit though so we could follow the trail of feathers to find Brooklyn. 

A few days later, we had our annual Ward Chili Cook Off party.  Each year a winner is crowned for the best chili, corn bread, and dessert.  I always bring something for each category, just so Colby knows there will be something he can eat, but I never win anything.

Well this year was a little different!  This year I won First Place for my corn bread!  I was so surprised because, like I said before, I never win anything.  The usual winners must not have entered anything because this was not even my best corn bread.  In fact, I wasn't even going to bring it because it didn't turn out as good as other times.  But here I am with the trophy!  Miracles do happen.  Ha Ha!

Carving pumpkins was pretty fun this year.  Each kid picked out their own pumpkin and designed their own face to carve.  They all turned out awesome. 

I remember when we spent the whole night carving everyone's pumpkins and now everyone but Brooklyn carves their own pumpkin. They all have their own personality and ideas. 

We were glad Becca came over to help us and be part of this fall tradition for our family.

While the other kids were in school, Brooklyn and I went to the Hyrum Museum and participated in the Trick-or-Treat around the Museum.

Once again we gathered many molting feathers from the chicken costume but she was the favorite of the crowd.  Brooklyn was able to learn about a printing press and press her own Halloween card using the press.  She also made this funny witch mask that she wore all day so then she was a chicken witch.

Logan had a Halloween band concert which was his first ever band concert.  

Unfortunately, he did not play with the band but he did perform a number with all of the percussion kids.  They did a great job and have been learning a lot in percussion class.

Brooklyn had Let's Play Music class on the day before Halloween so all of the kids in her class got to dress up for class.

The kids were so cute in their costumes and everyone loved the chicken.

At school, Russell and I helped with Charlotte's class Halloween party.  We played musical chairs and "Don't Eat Frank!"  All of the kids loved it and were really good sports during both games.  Afterward, all of the parents met outside to watch the Halloween parade.

The Halloween parade and Thriller dance are a yearly tradition for the school and all of the kids love it. It was a fun day for us all. 

Finally, Halloween night came and the three oldest took off with their friends while the two youngest stayed with us to go Trick-or Treat.  Emily and her friends headed to Wellsville to hit up those neighborhoods while Colby and Logan and their friends ran through our neighborhood.

While we were out we also gained some more friends of Charlotte's so they went around with us. The night was actually pretty warm so we were able to stay out longer than usual and get to more houses.  Brooklyn ran the whole way knocking on every door she could.  Charlotte wanted to keep going too but her cowboy boots were not the best choice for walking long distances.  At the end of the night, all the kids had a great time with their friends. 

Like always, they came out on top with a whole lot of candy.  There was way too much to eat so we saved most of it for our gingerbread houses in December.  Happy Halloween!