The Beginning of Logan's Soccer Season

Although today marked Logan's third soccer game of the season, it was the first one that I was able to take pictures of and document for a blog post.  I had to miss his first game due to being at a XC meet for Lia in Olympia.  Last week, Lia ran early enough in the morning in Tacoma that I was able to make it to Logan's second game in Gig Harbor right as it started at 11:30.  Unfortunately, I forgot my good camera and wasn't able to take any pictures of him.  So, after dropping Lia off at a birthday party and Ella off at play practice today, Emmett and I arrived at Logan's third game right before half time.  Luckily, this game was at our own elementary school, so it made it possible to get the two girls delivered to their activities before watching the second half of Logan's game.  Although Logan is playing on the same soccer team for a third year in a row, he lost his beloved Coach Ben and good friend, Bennett, after Bennett decided to try out football for the first time this fall.  As a result, the team gained a new coach who has asked Logan to play defense 100% of the games so far.  Since Logan's team has a really strong offense, he spends a lot of each game just standing on the field waiting for the ball to come his way.  In years past, Logan has always been able to bounce between offense and defense, so this was an unexpected and disappointing blow this year.  As a result, this might be Logan's last year playing rec soccer as I am thinking of having him transition to a running club in our town since our district does not offer boys XC at the junior high school level.  Regardless, it was good to sit on the sidelines and cheer Logan on.  Luckily, his team was ahead by 11 points and so his coach switched Logan to offense and so I was able to watch him play the remainder of the game in the Right Forward position.  Logan did a great job and handled the ball a bunch and even attempted to score a goal.  I am proud of Logan and the effort that he puts into this game, even when it's in a position that he isn't thrilled about.  We shall see how the rest of the season goes...

Logan chasing after the ball while playing defense.

Logan dribbling the ball down the field.

Kicking the ball back to the other side.

Running down the field after making the change to offense.

A great shot of Logan standing on the field.  I can't get over how tall and grown up his is looking these days.

Logan throwing the ball back into the game.

Chasing after the ball.

Kicking the ball against two opponents.

Logan posing for a picture after his game was over.

Emmett joining his brother for another photo after the game was over.

Coldplay Music of the Spheres Concert

When I found out one of my favorite bands was coming back into town, I immediately started looking for someone to go to the concert with me.  Luckily, my friend, Wendy, was able and willing to go and so we purchased tickets back in March for Coldplay's September 20th concert in Seattle.  I "received" my ticket as my big birthday gift in May and continued to count down the months until the day arrived.  After delivering Emmett to Ron at work before he picked up the two middles at school and headed off to Tacoma to cheer on Lia at a XC meet, I picked up Wendy at 4 pm and headed into the big city.  We then spent the best evening eating a delicious, burger dinner outside the venue during the first opening band before heading inside to kill some more time before Coldplay came on at 8:55 p.m.  Since my friend, Jeremie, was working the floor as firefighter, we were able to find him before the concert and see the inside of Lumen Stadium from the floor which was a sight to behold.  Since we had gotten amazing seats in the "club section," Wendy and I then went to a lounge area and enjoyed talking in peace and quiet while the ridiculously loud, second opening band performed.  After they finished, we then went and found our amazing seats down low on one of the sides of the stadium and watched Coldplay perform for 1 hour and 55 minutes.  Just like previous concerts, they blew lots of confetti, bounced colorful beach balls all over the crowd, and provided light-up, wrist bands that lit up the stadium in amazing displays of synchronized and changing colors throughout the night.  It was a total dance party from beginning to end and one of the happiest nights of this year.  Very few things in my life compare to singing and dancing along to Coldplay as they play my all-time, favorite song, "A Sky Full of Stars."  Until next time, Coldplay...

The message I found painted on the sidewalk outside Lumen Stadium before the concert.

Wendy and I inside the venue.

Down on the floor of Lumen Field between the two opening bands' performances.  It was amazing to look around at almost 70,000 seats from down below.

One of the round screens lit up with Coldplay symbols right before the band walked out on the stage.

Wendy and I in our seats, ready to go.

And here they are!  

Coldplay singing their opening song as the beach balls were released from the floor.

A close-up of Chris Martin on the round screen.

Our matching, light-up bands!

The stadium lit up with glowing bands and bouncing balls!

The band performing on the stage.

The purple and blue, flashing spectacle of lights towards the end of the concert.  It was so amazing to see!

First Day of School 2023

Well, it's hard to believe it, but another school year has officially started!  Last Wednesday, September 6th, the three older kids headed off to school.  Although Lia was officially a freshman in high school last year, she still attended her junior high school.  So, today was the first day of her life, walking in the halls of an actual high school.  Although she was nervous about making it to all of her classes on time and finding someone to eat with at lunch, she wasn't as nervous as she could have been thanks to the handful of friends she already knows at this school from running and church.  Lia was anxious to get out the door early this morning to meet up with her good friend and running buddy, Hope, before school started.  She survived her first day as well as could be expected and even found a friend in four of her six classes.  And, although her closest running friends all have 1st lunch together, she found three girls from her team to eat lunch with in the cafeteria.  

Although Logan was not excited about moving into the Quest class for highly capable students that he tested into last winter, he managed to make it through his first day okay and actually came home excited about several things that his teacher discussed.  As always, Ella was super excited to go to school today and was really happy with her teacher and the fact that she found her two closest friends from last year to play with during recess.  So, overall, I would call it a success for all three older children which is always such a relief to me after their first day back to school!

After waiting five days, Emmett was able to return back to his beloved preschool today as a second-year student in the PreK class which meets three times a week in the morning for 2.5 hours.  He was assigned to be in Miss Kelly's class and found two boys from last year who he knew to play with during class.  In addition, he has three friends (Auggie, Evie, and Isaac) who are in the other two classes and who he found at recess to play with today.  Emmett was super excited when I picked him up and couldn't wait to show me the worksheets that he had completed about the letter A.  I was blown away by his perfect upper and lower case letter As that he traced multiple times on one of his worksheets.  He sure seems to be very advanced in the classroom environment both with his behavior and his academic performance.  I can't wait to watch him grow and learn this year!  

Lia

My grown-up sophomore heading into 10th grade.

She got up two hours early today to curl her hair and looked so pretty as she headed out the door.

Logan, Emmett, and Ella posing on the porch before heading off to elementary school.

Logan:

6th grade and his last year at our beloved elementary school.

Ella:

4th grade and as excited as can be to get back to the social scene that she finds at school each day!

Since the new principal is no longer allowing parents to walk their children onto the school grounds the first day of school, this was the best picture I was able to take as I said goodbye to Logan and Ella at the side gate before they ran across the field to enter the school.

After their bus arrived 35 MINUTES LATE on the first day of school, Logan and Ella hopped off the bus and ran towards me.

A cute Ella sauntering towards me after Logan ran past.

Emmett's first day of PreK at Celebration Friends Preschool.

Emmett giving me one last smile before heading into his new classroom.

He was as calm and collected as could be returning back to his old preschool this morning.

Ella as Annie in The Knight at Dawn!

After Ella performed in Matilda this past month with Lia, it was pretty obvious that she wanted to continue acting by participating in more productions at NWTL this coming school year.  Luckily, after consulting the calendar, I learned that she could participate in both Knight at Dawn this fall and Annie this winter as the rehearsal schedule worked perfectly around her gymnastics schedule.  Although Ella was immediately on board to do Annie, it took some convincing from Lia and some bribing from me (slippers and a ticket to the Barbie movie) to get Ella to agree to audition for this fall play.  Since this play is just for 7 to 12 year old girls, Lia pointed out that Ella had a decent shot at getting one of the lead roles.  So, with only five days to practice, Ella and I chose a monologue (from the Pixar movie, Brave) and a song ("Naughty" from Matilda) for her to memorize.  We spent about 30 to 60 minutes every day getting Ella ready for her audition on August 26th.  Ella worked really hard and went in and "nailed" her audition (which I learned later on from the director, Jen).  In fact, Jen said that Ella's growth from before and after Matilda was incredible.  As a result, when Ella showed up for her first rehearsal today, she found out that she was assigned the female, lead role in the play!  Since the directors didn't email out a cast list during the first rehearsal which they have done in the past, I had to wait until I picked her up to find out the exciting news.  In fact, I actually found out from her friend, Elise, who came out of the theater before Ella did.  I was so amazed and excited for her!  Way to go, Ella!  I can't wait to watch you shine on the stage in 2.5 months.

The darling poster that NWTL made of the Knight at Dawn cast, complete with pictures and autographs of all of the children.

Lia's First XC Meet of the Season

Just like last year, Lia's high school hosted their first XC meet of the season the day before school started.  Although I had to drop Ella off at our gymnastics carpool friend's house on the way out of town, the boys and I were then able to drive to Tacoma where we met Ron to cheer Lia on.  Lia ran in the first race with all of the 9th and 10th grade girls and did a great job.  She ran the 2-mile course in 14 minutes and 55 seconds and came in 15th place out of 42 runners.  Since it was a really warm day in the 80s, we were proud of her for pushing hard on this hot, dusty course.  In addition, we were super excited to find Riley after Lia's race was over since his high school was one of the visiting schools at the meet.  Since Riley broke his ankle right before the XC season started last year, he was unable to run the entire season which was such a bummer for us as Lia's high school competes against his high school several times each fall.  It was fun to find Riley and talk to him for several minutes and to get a long-awaited picture of the two of them together!

Lia and the rest of the 9th and 10th grade girls taking off from the starting line.

Lia running past us the first of two times on this course.

Pushing hard.

Lia running past us a second time on the course.

Lia heading back into the woods after passing us a second time.

Lia racing against a runner from Riley's school as they approached the finish line.

Almost there!

Lia crossing over the finish line.

Lia, Riley, and Emmett posing together for a picture after Lia's race was over.  Riley wasn't wearing his uniform since his family was out of town the first week of fall sports training this summer and, as a result, hadn't met the required number of practices needed to run in the first meet.  However, it was still fun to get a picture of these two cousins and good friends together!

Blake Island Camping 2023

After a busy last week of summer, the kids and I headed out on Saturday after Ella's 4- hour gymnastics practice to go camping at Blake Island with Chris' and Eric's families.  This is one of our favorite summer traditions and we look forward to camping on this island every summer.  We were blessed with beautiful weather all of Saturday, but unfortunately, the winds came in while we were sleeping in our tent around 2 in the morning on Sunday.  The winds kept up all day long until late Sunday evening right before we went to bed.  We managed to make it work and hiked to the beach on the other side of the island where the wind wasn't as bad to spend a few hours over there.  We sadly decided that it wasn't safe to boat over to Bainbridge Island on Sunday evening for dinner due to the waves in the Puget Sound, and ended up taking the boat back to Chris' boat launch to eat at a Mexican restaurant walking distance from there.  We then returned back to the island in the evening to play one of the wildest and funniest rounds of Capture the Flag that I have ever played in my life.  Ella was an amazing assistant to me while I guarded the flag and chased after almost every person who dared to come our way.  She really is one of the fastest, little sprinters that I have ever seen and I started calling her my "guard dog" by the end of the game.  After going to bed on Sunday, the rains came that night and so we woke up to a very wet campsite our last morning there.  Luckily, it wasn't raining in the morning when we ate breakfast and packed up, but it sure made for a wet mess that had to be unpacked and dried out when we returned home Monday afternoon.  Even with the windy and wet weather, we managed to have a fabulous time on Blake and thoroughly enjoyed being with family and playing on this beautiful island that has become one of our favorite places in the world!

Enjoying dinner together on Saturday evening, September 2nd.

Although Chris' three oldest were driving to BYU Provo the same weekend we were camping, we were grateful that Vivi and Bryce weren't leaving for BYU Idaho for a few more days.  Here is a picture of the cousins after dinner was over.

Ella absolutely loves Riley and jumps at any opportunity to play with him.  Here she is getting a piggyback ride from her favorite boy cousin.

Our annual, family photo that we take on the beach each year as the sun sets.

The amazing photo I got of Ella doing a cartwheel over a log.  Look at that girl's flexibility!

The kids found a set of wooden stairs that had washed up onto the beach and decided to recreate the Titanic moment together.

The cousin line-up on the log that we have been using for years to take this picture.

Playing on the beach on the other side of the island on Sunday, September 3rd.

Another mommy and kiddo picture next to a driftwood fort the kids found.

Logan and Trenton.  Best friends since birth.

Eric resurrected Chris' hilarious game of trying to trip up the kids while whipping a giant kelp strand around on the beach.  Although it hurts to get tripped by these massive pieces of kelp, the kids still love playing this game.

Ella found a unique piece of driftwood and turned it into the cutest, beach kitchen that I have ever seen.  I helped her collect a variety of items from the beach (including two jellyfishes) to use as food and supplies for her restaurant.

Chris and Eric drew lines in the sand and recruited all of the big kids to play a rousing game of Ultimate Frisbee with the Seattle skyline in the background.

The four younger kids playing on the giant, fallen tree near our campground.

Lia, Logan, Emmett, Ella, and Trenton sitting in the front of the boat as we returned back to the marina after dinner on Sunday evening.