What Happens Under the Water Stays Under the Water

Troy & Jason have almost finished their season of water polo. We have spent countless hours at pools over the last 2 months. Next week they play their last game. YAY! I'll welcome the rest! NO MORE SNACK BAR!!

Water polo is such a crazy sport. The players are really physical, hitting, kicking, and grabbing under water. (That really is how the sport is played) All while treading water for 45 minutes straight. If you can see at the top of the picture below, the players waiting to be put in just tread like it's nothing. I'd be holding on to the wall for sure!! Jason unfortunately didn't get to play very many games since he hurt his ankle, but he didn't lose his technique. He's not the best at scoring, but he is great at defense and steals the ball tons. He also gets several assists each game. He is player 2 above. He is wrestling with the opponent under water.
Jason's the player right in the middle on the right side of the ball. Troy's on the right side of the picture.

That arm coming out of the water is one of my boys. They're having a little wrestling match there!

This picture is my favorite. Of course, I didn't take it! Troy is blocking a shot here. They had tournaments last week. At this game one of the opponents grabbed Troy's speedo while they were wrestling. When Troy got out of the pool, he was telling his coach "that guy just pulled my speedo"! Then he was reaching back to feel it because something felt weird. He realized there was no back to the speedo anymore and he was giving everyone a show. His new nickname is "Hairy Half Moon". Too bad the dad with the camera didn't get that picture!

It's been a really fun season, and they are a much better team than last year.

GO MONARCHS!!

A little of this & a little of that....

This past weekend the Jakked Rabbits played at the Ramona Mainstage. It was BY FAR the best place that I had seen them perform. But then again, I didn't go on tour with them this last summer. It was an enjoyable show!
My first good picture of Simon - he's usually moving around too much for me to get a good picture. There was a smog machine - hence the smoke behind him....
This picture is of Noah on guitar & Nate playing the bass - if you look closely you can see Zak in the back on the drums. I think Simon (the singer) has his back to me....

Noah on guitar & Zak on drums in the fog....

I've noticed lately that a lot of different bloggers have posted pictures of their Halloween decor, so I thought I would join in & show you the few things I've put out for Halloween so far this year. For some reason every year I buy more Halloween decorations & every year when I get my decorations out, some seem to have disappeared! Maybe they are haunted? Ha ha ha....
The picture above is an idea I got from someone's blog - with the jars, sand & candles... I love it! I got the pumpkin from Kohls & it was FREE! It's made of wood & this picture just doesn't give it justice.

Mr Skeleton is sitting on my front porch, greeting all of my visitors

Our pumpkins sitting next to our front door (inside).

Of course you have to BEWARE at my house! You just never know what you will find!!

Knotts Berry Farm

Yesterday Eric and I went to Knott's Berry Farm. He's on break, and I've been wanting to hang out with him and do something special before he's too old to want to be with his mom. Thanks to Aileen for her mad phone skills, we got really cheap tix. We were all supposed to go Wednesday, her day off, but it rained up there, so Eric and I had to go by ourselves.

It was perfect weather, and since most kids are in school, there was no crowd. If you can see in the last picture, Eric is the only one on this ride (bottom middle). We went from ride to ride with less than a 5 minute wait on most rides. I did all the rides with him at least once. Needless to say, I took dramamine with me. We had a ton of fun. We laughed so hard and enjoyed one on one time together. It was such a blast!

Dune Buggy Fun

Many years ago David and the two older boys built a small, kid dune buggy. They bought a quad and took it apart, and came up with this...

This is Troy & Jason back in 2004. It gave us the funnest trips to the desert we've ever had. When they were building it, Troy & Jason would weld it while David was at work. I was super stressed, but they were taught well. They had the instructions right there on a clip board and they did a super job - until one of the sparks landed on the plans and caught them on fire. Keep in mind this was several years ago!! We should've known that was the start of hilarious times.

I am not sure, but there may have been one time to the desert that this baby didn't give us trouble. We lost the master link on a dune, the brake line broke and caught the engine on fire (I will never lose the image in my mind of Troy getting out and running faster than I've ever seen him run) and the final nail in the coffin...
The axel snapped and the wheel rolled across the desert. The buggy skidded about 50 feet before stopping. We couldn't figure out why the heck Jason was running across the desert until we looked before him. He was chasing the tire a very long way before it stopped. Hilarious!!

Now the varsity scouts (of which David is one of the master planners) are building a new dune buggy for a project. They will use some of the parts from the previous dune buggy, and Don's crashed 600 motorcycle engine. So far, this is what they have...

Here they are testing the size and seat placement. They are so excited to get this buggy done.
Of course, they are using new steel. Troy even asked me if they could get this one painted and not have it be rust. HA! Hopefully it won't take as long as the first one did.

1998

Conference fun with friends....

What's better than watching Conference? Watching conference with friends!! This weekend my family (all but Nate) were out of town, so on Sunday Nate & I headed over to the Mitchell's house to watch conference with them & Laura's family. We each made something yummy to eat for breakfast - so not only did we watch Conference together but we ate lots of delicious food too! We also played Conference Bingo... if you have small kids this is the way to go! For the first half of Conference the kids were so quiet listening to each word hoping to win. Of course some "thought" they heard words that weren't actually said - just so they could win. It was fun & I think we all got a lot more out of it with everyone listening so intently. I wish we had played this game when my kids were small!! I might have actually enjoyed Conference back then! Here are some pictures of us (taken by my camera phone, sorry it's blurry).... Don't we look comfy?

This is everyone listening with their "Bingo Cards". I wish you could have heard how quiet they were at this moment!

Elam was sitting close to the TV so he could be sure not to miss anything.

After Conference Angie made us all a yummy dinner.. then the little ones played Wii.

Angie - Thanks for having us over for the day! It was so nice to hang out with good friends while being enlightened by words from the Prophet! I hope you had a good birthday :o)

Drum Roll......

So as most of you might know Zak has been waiting for his mission call.... well he GOT IT TODAY!! If you want to know where he is going you will have to call him!!! The suspense is getting thicker by the minute.... Sorry I know it is mean to not post where he is going but I want to give him a chance to tell all of you himself. So as soon as he has I will post where he is going on this blog. Until then, forgive me!!!

We are so proud of him for making this choice, sacrifice, & example. I know he will be a fantastic missionary in the field, because he already is a great missionary here at home.