Cat's Record-Breaking Freshman Soccer Season

Cat finished out the season strong!  During the regular season she tied the school record for most goals in a season with 23 goals.

When the regular season was over, there was a parent-vs-player game.  I don't play soccer, so I didn't participate, but there was a good turnout despite the very cold weather.  I brought the kids over to watch for a bit and they bundled up with one of Cat's friends.  We arrived just in time for Cat to sit out for a break, also bundling up with a friend.

The team had a bye for the first round of the playoffs, but in the next game, against Delta, at Delta, who beat them both times during the regular season, Cat scored twice, breaking the school scoring record, AND set a new record for quickest goal when she scored 13 seconds into the game.  We won 2-1!  It was awesome!

Ben traveled to the game - do you see him standing up and watching in the background?

The next game - the quarterfinals round - was against Manti, the dominant team in the league, and it was a disappointing defeat.  It was a cold and windy day but the girls played really hard, and the fact that Manti went on to win the state championship cushioned the blow a bit.

The other kids played football and took advantage of the wind when they weren't eating snacks or watching soccer.

When soccer was officially over for the year, the coach had a banquet for the JV and Varsity players combined (they'd practiced, traveled, watched, and played together since the summer) and talked about each individual player and her unique contributions.

Cat got a second shout-out, and a plaque for breaking the school scoring school record.  (I laughed to myself at the beginning of the season when Cat scored twice in the first game and the parent of an older player said, "My daughter broke the freshman scoring record two years ago with 6 goals, then another player broke it last year with 7 goals.  I wonder if Cat will continue the trend?"  I thought, "Of course she will."  She'd scored 10 goals by the end of the 5th game.)  The big record Cat ultimately broke was set by a senior whose name is still spoken with reverence by school soccer fans.

The banquet consisted of various away-game-bus-ride foods, including tons of sweets.  The speeches from coach and the team captains got to be so long and Luke got to be so bored that I eventually told him to count the number of chocolate chips in his oversized cookie.  It kept him occupied for a couple of minutes.

This year was really special for Cat.  It was different.  Cat's coach was great at teaching soccer skills, but also at teaching life lessons (ask Cat about Plank Day next time you see her) and creating a positive (fun) environment for physical, mental, and spiritual growth and development.  He also insisted that all the players on both teams ride on the buses to and from the games, and watch each other's games, which gave the girls lots of bonding time.  Cat got really close to several of the other players, especially upper classmen, and she's sad that her senior friends won't be playing next year.  She'll really miss her coach, too, who won't be coaching the girls' team in the future.  It helps that he invited her to practice with the boys' team in the Spring, and she's pretty excited about that.

Grumpy Santa?

Dear Beloved Readers,

You are a small but choice people and I want you to know how much I appreciate your loyalty.  Please know that keeping you informed of the moderately exciting happenings in our family is of utmost concern to me but current circumstances prevent me from putting forth the time and effort necessary to do so in a satisfactory manner.  I am hopeful that Things Will Happen in the forthcoming week.  You will soon be updated on such memorable events such as Cat's Soccer Coach Calling Her "Ridiculously Coordinated" and "Stupid Clumsy" in the Same Breath; A Hypothermia-Inducing Halloween Costume Parade; The Duet In Which Dorothy Gale and a Stormtrooper Performed "Carol of the Bells," and more.

In the meantime, please enjoy the following pictures from Ben's work Christmas party today, during which, in an ironic turn of events, all children were happily engaged in the photo session, but Santa was not.

Looking at these pictures made me think of Buddy the Elf encountering the department store Santa.  "You smell like beef and cheese, you don't smell like Santa.  You sit on a throne of lies!"

Whatever happened to, "Smiling's my favorite?"

I went back later and took a selfie with Santa and asked him to smile really big and he replied that you wouldn't be able to tell.  I assumed he meant because of the beard, but I realized later that I'd seen his hands shaking a bit and now I wonder if he has Parkinson's, and that was the reason he wasn't smiling, or that his smile wasn't showing?  And now I feel a little bad about making a point of asking him to smile.

Well, anyway, we took some pictures with a man dressed as Santa.


More updates from October until now coming.... some time.

Love,
Brett

Fall Break Adventures (with videos)

We had two big adventures during Fall Break.  For the first, I took my younger three and Keturah's older three and went on a short hike in the Provo Canyon to Upper Falls.  This is one of my favorite hikes, and I was so glad it worked for the kids.  The weather was cool but not too cold, and everyone had a great time.  We enjoyed our picnic lunches, explored for a little while, then hiked back down the mountain to the car.

The second adventure included the third family of cousins in the area.  We all met up at a pumpkin patch in Spanish Fork.  It was really crowded because of Fall Break, but the kids still had a blast in the corn pit, in the straw mazes, on the slides, on the straw pyramid, on the hayride, and of course eating popcorn and fresh doughnuts.  Success!

  

Cousins and Trucks

The weekend after General Conference, our household doubled!  Ben's brother Michael and his family stayed with us for several weeks while they were looking for a house to move into in the Salt Lake area.  Which means... more family (COUSINS!) in Utah - hooray!

Among the other preparations we made before they arrived, we had fun making and eating Halloween sugar cookies - something I really wanted to do before we began limiting the gluten-based items we baked because Michael's family eats GF.  It felt like an extra special treat to randomly cut and frost sugar cookies on a weekday afternoon and evening, too.

They arrived on a Friday night and the kids were so excited to have cousins here!  They had some play time before getting settled that night, then got right back to it on Saturday.  We decided to go on a little outing, to Orem City's "Touch a Truck" event, where kids (and adults) could get up close and personal with tons of different trucks, from waste management to first resonders to construction, and more.  The kids enjoyed seeing the trucks but mostly it was just fun to hang out together!

General Conference

Well, after taking a hiatus for several weeks, I'm going to try to get back on the blog train here.  I left off with General Conference, so here are a few snapshots and memories from that weekend.

I arrived at the Conference Center in SLC as Ben and the kids were getting ready to go
help clean our church Saturday morning...

then they were rewarded with enormous doughnuts.

When I got home after the morning session, Cat had a non-member friend over, and he
stayed for the afternoon session.

The girls really wanted to go to the church to watch the Women's Session that evening,
so we put on some church clothes and headed to the church.  I'm so glad we did - what an
amazing meeting!  I was overwhelmed that Pres. Nelson announced the new temples during
that session!  Pretty cool to have one coming to our neck of the woods, too.

We love the new YW Theme too.

I'm pretty sure when I arrived for an earlier call time at the Conference Center on Sunday
morning, everyone at the house was still asleep.  (Or they should have been!)

Evidence that the kids had fun hanging out on our neighbor's
trampoline between sessions.  Hooray for good weather!

I'm so thankful for the council we receive during General Conference.  Ben and I have tried to make it a priority for us to watch each session as a family, and I love seeing the kids pay more attention and learn more as they grow older and more mature.  We're so blessed to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.