Bingham Ball

Michael is a senior class officer this year at Bingham High. The Senior class officers were in charge of Bingham Ball on November 16.

In the weeks leading up to the dance, our family helped to make hundreds of tissue paper flowers to decorate for their 'enchanted garden' theme.

After their last football game for the season on November 8, many of the Student body officers and Senior class council came over to our house to make more flowers.

 It was a party for Michael and Ben's younger siblings. They love hanging out with the big kids way past bedtime.

 The dance hall all decorated...

 Our handsome Michael all ready for his date.

 He had a great time with Kaitlyn.

 Ben was at home with us that evening watching the Jazz game (not old enough to have a date yet).

He went to the dance during the last few minutes to help clean up.

Sock puppets, YW in excellence and such

I've mentioned before that I am a leader over 8-9 year old girls in our congregation.

We meet together twice a month for an hour to do activities.

For one of our activities this month, I planned to have the girls make sock puppets with button eyes so they could learn to sew buttons.

It sounded great except that I should have tried it first with Sara.

An hour with only one other adult was tough!

A few girls managed to finish.

Poor Sara is still waiting for me to help her.

 We recently had Young Women in Excellence in our ward. Mary displayed the Women of Faith book that we made. She also spoke at the event about the value Knowledge.

 My friend Ann recently had surgery so our family took dinner and dessert to her family while she was recovering.

 I took Luke and Sara to the Gale center when they had a day off of school.

I was amazed at how much fun they had playing pioneer games and school.

 Mary designed and created a shoebox bedroom for her design unit in FACS.

I thought it was brilliant.

Funny story- see that desk and chair on the right?

Mary made it at home and then forgot to take it to school.

When I gave the small glued pieces of cardboard to the secretary at school and asked that it be delivered to Mary she looked at me strangely :)

Mountain biking dinner and awards ceremony

On November 2nd our boys were recognized for their achievements this year in mountain biking

Ben with his fellow JV B riders.

 Michael with his fellow JV A riders.

 Michael with his head coach and fellow team captains.

 Nice work guys!

November 1

Remember how our plane arrived at 9:00am on October 30th after a red-eye flight from Hawaii and then we jumped right back into life? School, carpools, homework, Halloween, etc...

Well, our exhaustion finally hit on the morning of November 1.

I woke up at 8:33am to the sound of the kids scrambling to get ready for school.

WE ALL SLEPT IN!

I hate that feeling!

The older boys were supposed to be at school already and the younger kids were leaving for school in 5 minutes. I got dressed faster than ever before and remarkably I was able to get our two youngest kids and Mary to school on time. On my way home from taking the kids to school, I called to excuse our older boys for being late. The secretary asked me the reason for their tardy and I started to laugh.

"Personal reasons?" she said.

"Yes. Personal reasons." I responded.

However, my rushing wasn't over.

I scrambled to get myself showered and ready for the day because I was teaching Sara's art class that morning.

It was a challenge to keep third graders focused for 2 hours the day after Halloween but I managed.

Here are our Seurat masterpieces;

 Later that day our boys and Nana played in the leaves raked leaves in our yard.

 Michael and Ben bundled up for their high school football game.

 That night Todd and I attended the Salt Lake Temple with our friends the Dinsdales.

The Salt Lake Temple is closing for 4 years at the end of December. We wanted to visit before it closes.

We came out of the temple at 10:00pm. We hadn't eaten dinner yet so we decided to live like we were young again and go to dinner- the only place that was still open- the Cheesecake Factory.

Besides, my body was obviously still on Hawaii time right?! It was only 6:00pm there.

October wrap-up

Halloween 2019

Halloween was a little different this year. We had just returned from our Hawaii trip the day before and Dad was still in Canada.

Luke looked awesome in his Squints costume (from the Sandlot movie).

Sara was going to wear her pink cake costume but changed her mind at the last minute and decided to be a bumble bee. The cutest bumblebee I've ever seen!

We didn't try to convince Nana to wear her french fry hat this year. She had already been away from home while we were in Hawaii and we didn't want to traumatize her further.

I went to the elementary school Halloween parade.

It was Luke's last parade which makes me sad!

Then I helped in Luke and Sara's classes for their Halloween parties.

Luke's class solved a mystery and had snacks.

Sara's class did crafts and games.

I love being in our kids classes.

We had our traditional stew in bread bowls for Halloween dinner.

Nana was a good sport for a few seconds to wear Luke's Squints glasses.

Halloween was cold this year.

I bundled up the kids for trick-or-treating.

Mary took Sara trick-or-treating.

Since Todd was still traveling, it was nice to have Mary take Sara so I could pass out candy.

Each time I opened the door to pass out candy, I was full of gratitude.

Grateful for an amazing neighborhood full of excited kids running from house to house.

Grateful for a beautiful sunset.

Grateful for the beautiful fall leaves.

And grateful that our kids have good friends.

Some of them came over after trick-or-treating to trade candy.

And most of all I was grateful when my husband arrived home that night to tell me all about his experience flying on a private plane.

Hawaii 2019

It was the last day of our trip. Our bags were packed for our trip home and we had checked out of our hotel.

The kids and I were waiting for our pizza at a cafe near the beach. I was checking my phone for the latest updates on our flight. Warnings had been issued that day that because of fires in California, our flight could possibly be delayed or canceled. Ben was checking the time. We only had 30 minutes to eat our food and get on the road to return our rental car. We wanted to stay on schedule.

When our pizza was taking longer than expected, Ben looked at me and said, "Now I see why Dad sometimes gets stressed when we travel."

He was right. I understood it too. Todd had left the day before for a company trip to Canada. Travel arrangements and schedules have been handled beautifully by Todd since the beginning of our marriage.

When we moved our young family to England, our fourth baby was only 6 weeks old. Todd had made arrangements for our passports, visas, flight plans, shuttle, etc.... 

I'll never forget waiting to board an airplane in Australia with 5 young children. An older gentleman walked up to Todd and said, "It's a brave man who will be responsible for that many passports."

That's right! My Todd is a brave man.

I'm so grateful for his love and care for me and our children over the past 20+ years. He makes not only our vacations, but our daily lives run more smoothly because of his attention to details.

When it was up to us to get ourselves home, Michael, Ben and I realized some of the details that go into traveling with a big family that we hadn't thought of before.

Thankfully our flight was not delayed or canceled. We returned our rental car without problems. We made our connecting flight in L.A. None of the kids were nauseated on the flights. It all went well. We came away from the experience with a greater appreciation for Todd.

We love you Dad!

Highlights from our trip to the Big Island;

kayaking, snorkeling, Akaka falls, Hawaiian style cafe, the volcano national park, shave ice, Hapuna beach, zip lining, hiking to a black sand beach near Pololu valley, and our visit to the Kona temple.

Highlights from our trip to Aulani on Oahu;

luau, lazy river, refillable soda, art class, our visit to the temple, and sunset on the beach.

State mountain biking race

We checked everyone out of school a little early on October 18 and drove to Cedar City so Michael and Ben could pre-ride their race course before dark.

Cedar City was full that night. We were lucky to get 2 hotel rooms but we still had to have 2 boys sleep on the floor. Grandpa and Grandma Stepan were traveling back to California. They stayed in the other hotel room with our girls.

Ben's race was first. We were up way before the sun so he could get ready for his race.

I helped make breakfast burritos for the racers and their families.

It was so COLD outside!

My fingers were frozen under those latex gloves.

Ben's group getting a talk from the coach before their race as the sun started to rise.

The girls eating their breakfast burritos and watching the race.

Ben had a great race. He had me worried though. He came in a little later than expected.

As soon as I saw him I noticed his torn pants and bloody knee.

He had a crash but thankfully it wasn't too bad.

We went straight to the medical tent where they cut off his pants and bandaged his knee.

After Ben's race we hung out in the team tent for a few hours before Michael's race at 1:30pm.

It's always a party in the team tent. Plenty of food and good friends.

And finally it was time for Michael's very last race.

I've got to admit I was a little emotional. This was the beginning of Michael's high school lasts.

I'm sorry to say, I have done my fair share of grumbling about mountain biking over the past 5 years.

It has taken a lot of time to drive him to practices in Park City (and all over the state really) sometimes 3 times a week.

I have come to realize that mountain biking has been an incredible part of Michael's high school experience.

Not only did he develop love for a life long sport, but he made great friends, gained confidence, became a team captain and pushed himself to excel.

That's why I was a little emotional as I watched him take off for his very last race.

Last words from the coach for the Seniors.

Michael did 3 laps. We went out on the race course to cheer for him during his first lap.

Some of Michael's cheering section.

The Cedar City race is a great venue.

The little kids loved climbing the rocks to watch the race.

Michael had a great race.

Ben was there for support after finishing his last race.

Here's Michael with grandpas and grandmas and his family after his last race.

Ben said he will be on the mountain biking team next year.

Who knows? Maybe Luke will give it a try too.

We will be there to cheer them on with whatever they do.

And Michael will be cheering for them from his mission somewhere in the world!