Soccer coaches

I received a phone call this week that stopped my heart. Andrew's soccer team did not have a coach and if we could not do it the team would cease to exist. I am not a sporty person and Ryan is not a soccer man. But what else do you do? I agreed to coach the team and then persuaded Ryan to help. I have no idea what we have gotten ourselves into but I figure we can endure anything for 9 weeks (I hope!). Anyone know anything about soccer? Any tips would be accepted at this point, and I mean any tips!

A birthday story in two pictures

Olivia takes a moment to consider how to use her birthday wish...

Two seconds later, note the bewildered look on Olivia's face, the red glow of the candlewick, and the drifting smoke. Anyone want to guess who is sitting to Olivia's left?

first day of school

Here are pictures of the first day of school. I wanted to get Simon getting on the bus for the first time but he was way too excited. He didn't even turn around to say bye to his poor mom!

Serving

While up in Salt Lake we took the kids over to Great Grandpa's to help him out around the yard. We thought this would be a good way to help the kids learn service. We weeded and swept his front yard and pruned a few bushes, too. Olivia helped out by trimming the grass and Grandpa even taught the kids how to kill snails with salt. They killed all of them except one, which they kept as a pet for the rest of the day!

Olivia turns 7

Olivia was really lucky this year and got 2 birthday parties. The first one was a combined party for her and her good friend Megan (who shares her birthday). The kids enjoyed a swimming Luau at Megan's house. When we went up to Salt Lake we did another party with the cousins. Since Olivia is the only girl cousin we had to pick something the boys would equally enjoy. We decided to take the kids rock climbing. They all had a great time and were all great climbers! Uncle Matt and Uncle Andrew would have been proud!

The Dog Days of Summer

I can't believe that summer is over and we have already finished the first week of school. This was the fastest summer on record. We kept our days full with swimming, day camp, Wii, reading (we managed to read 3 novels over the summer), playing with friends, we had visits from Grandma, and Papou, Papat, Kyle, and Liam, went to Vegas, and up to Salt Lake twice. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures...

4th of July

Las Vegas

We spent some time every day at the pool.

You would think Ryan would get enough pinball at his brothers!

Holy Matrimony, Batman!

What did that cake ever do to you?

Aunt Arlene, Uncle Steve, and (cousin) Jim surprised everyone by flying in from Southern California for the party.


Cousins Olivia, Rachel, and Ally

Brent provided the muscle...

... and did his best impression of a Disneyland ride

Holiday light show