End of game tunnel for Jacob! He really blossomed this season in soccer. His position is mid-field, playing both a smart offense and passing, as well as getting back on defense to get the ball back to the other side. His coach was really good at giving every kid a chance to play and grow, and the whole team improved over the season with multiple players scoring that hadn't been able to at the start of the season.
I baked hundreds more cupcakes to raise money for a fund that goes straight to students and teachers affected by Hurricane Florence. A non-partisan group of current and former educators put the fund together to get help to the schools faster than the government could. When I saw this on the news and looked into it, I wanted to give. So cupcakes came along :)
We were able to raise $483 in the few hours we sold cupcakes. It was incredible to again see how much money we could raise thanks to the generosity of our friends, school and neighbors.
General Conference was so sweet. The girls snuggled and took notes with Jim.
Nicole didn't want the YW notebook, she'd rather take notes and color still :)
Playing in the backyard with branches from Jim's yardwork in between sessions.
Our attention was riveted on the music because Caleb sang in one of the sessions and I was able to zoom in and get a shot of him. So glad he got the opportunity!
I had to record evidence- yes, at one point (actually two times) our volleyball team was in the LEAD!!! We didn't win, but every step of improvement is a big one with a team in their first season ever for the school.
A beautiful morning! I love walking to and from school and taking the time to be outside. Fresh air!
Jake told me he knew this was Michael's because of the creepy eyes. Silly boys.
Almond Roca sprinkled on a vanilla cake with caramel buttercream frosting and caramel drizzle.
We had a day off school because the remnants of a hurricane (some gusts of wind) were coming that day. We spent time walking around Target to get wiggles out and play with toys lol.
Turtle cake- a total favorite!
We actually lost electricity from a storm for a few hours. This was the first time since living here that it's happened. A ward member had a tree fall in their yard onto the lines, and as soon as that was fixed the electricity was back. It was fun to eat in the dark. The kids were nervous so I brought them into the front room where it was still light and had them organize the playroom. We studied the scriptures and went to bed, and then the lights came on. This was good because letting the kids have flashlights in their room would have been a disaster for bedtimes.
John loved flashlights- he hasn't really seen one before I guess.
While watching Jake's game, Diana took off her stinky soccer socks from her game and tied Jim up. I have no idea why. Diana's ideas are always something else!
Nicole loves to go to the neighborhood pond and go "turtling"
Almond Roca cake with sunflower print
Fall into chocolate cake
Teacher appreciation cookies for the schoolteachers.
Katy got to have the fish from her preschool at home. The eye kept falling off! In the class diary, I mentioned that the fish might need to see an eye doctor haha
Jake has really become more aggressive. His coach would stick him on the best player of the other team and no matter how big the kid, Jake would go for it! He had many great stops and saves.
One Friday, I was in the middle of my crazy houseclean,mow the lawn, laundry routine and I felt like I should take the kids lunch. All of them. This would take like 2 hours. I kind of brushed the feeling aside, but after a few more nudges from the Holy Ghost, I decided to forget the lawn and go to the school. So John and Katy and I grabbed Chikfila and for hours we enjoyed seeing each of their siblings. I told them why I felt like I should come and how I felt it was important to follow promptings even if we don't understand them. Then we just enjoyed yummy food and a good lunch together.
Some of the kids overlapped times, but I got one-on-one time with them (while keeping the two littles in check) that was fun. I enjoyed seeing them in their school environment and talking about their day and their friends.
Katy liked eating the leftovers from what her siblings had packed for lunch.
John was a little mischievous. He did a little exploring and spilled a ton of little ice. But he's so cute it was just fun.
Nicole was surprised to see me- I'd made her wear pants to school and the sneaky girl changed into shorts once she got there! We had a good chat about the why of long pants in frigid weather and we both made concessions about when she'd need to wear them. The look on her face when she realized I'd seen her in shorts! :) It was great- maybe the reason I felt like I should come? Either way, it was a good discussion and just one of a million times that navigating parenting needs divine guidance to respect the feelings and independence of my children while still giving them direction and guidelines.
Jake is the speck that is driving the ball towards the goal! For the tournament, I told Jake if he scored he would get an hour of iPad game time. Since they get 25 minutes a week, this was like gold!
Mike with an awesome stop. His team had such poor defense this season, he got a lot of one-on-one defensive opportunities. He rocked it!
Sure enough, Jake scored a goal that put his team up by one and they advanced in the tournament. We were so proud of him- it was a beautiful goal that hit the upper back corner of the net, while he was being guarded.
Katy has a dental condition that means she has several teeth that grew in weak- not deteriorated from cavities, but came in that way. Unfortunately, she had to get 2 crowns (thankfully not the 3 they'd originally thought) and a bunch more teeth sealed. Because the work was so extensive, and the face that she really didn't want to even open her mouth for anyone ever, she needed general sedation. It was super expensive and scary for us as parents.
Everything went fine, and after it was done, they let us come help her get out of sedation. She was curled up, breathing funny because of the air she'd been given, and shivering (all normal symptoms). She looked so small and fragile and I was just so grateful she was okay after she slowly woke up and we got her back to normal. She recovered super well and was at preschool the next day.
The same day Katy had her sedation, we had fine arts night! Jake is next to two of his art pictures.
Diana performing a dance with one of her "squeezies". She also sang and played bells.
I LOVE the focus of these boys as they read drum rhythm and perform. It's the concentration you'd usually only expect from video games lol
Mike on recorder
Nicole playing ukulele- her new favorite instrument. She has a natural gift for this and has loved it!
Mike and Jake easily eat for 30 minutes after the rest of the family is done. They finish off every last scrap.
We have some realtor friends who help sponsor our race, and they invited us to come for free to a local pumpkin patch/corn maze/family fun place.
The older kids took turns taking John around. Of course Mike takes John to the corn box and then John lost a shoe somewhere in there!! After searching, we'd given up and were moving on when a dad came up with the shoe- it had been at the bottom of the corn box!
A music school was playing music and had some instruments for kid to play as a way to advertise their school. Jake and Mike went up and while Mike sang, Jake played a super hard drum beat to the song Believer. Jim and John enjoyed the performance :)
Lunch was included, we had a wonderful time as a family.
Our school had last Wed-Fri off, so we planned ahead and decided to take the week off. We drove 10 hours to Orlando. The next morning we went to Discovery Cove. This was one of the funnest and best family days our family has ever had! We got there early (all food was included) and ate breakfast, then went to the aviary where we could feed birds. We were the first ones there in three of the four rooms! The birds literally came right at us as soon as we lifted our hands with the food.
They perched everywhere and WOW they were incredibly beautiful!
Diana was excited and terrified at the same time- she actually loves that kind of excitement :)
I was holding John's hands tightly around the food because he wanted SO badly to grab the bird!! Instead, without any prompting, he leaned over and kissed it! It was so precious. Of course, then he yelled "Goooo!" And it did :)
Then we went to the Grand Reef, an enormous salt water, zero depth entry tank with thousands of beautiful fish and rays. There is a glass wall dividing you from sharks in one area, and from neon yellow eels in another! My camera only took a few pics from its waterproof case. But it was INCREDIBLE.
The best part of the reef was that I could leave Jim with the littles on shore in their life jackets and go explore by myself or with the older kids. The older kids snorkeled around by themselves- yes, even Diana much to my surprise! I loved that I didn't have to worry about them and could just enjoy the beautiful fish and rays with them.
The kids loved the unlimited meals and snacks included all day- that's just how this place works and we weren't complaining!
After lunch we had our dolphin swim- more on that later. But we had a blast in the lazy river that took us through caves, the aviary and waterfalls.
Johnny bobbing along with his fruit punch mustache from lunch.
The lush foliage made it feel like you were floating along the river in a tropical paradise. It was so relaxing.
John was my pal on the river.
Katy exploring
Nicole with some random statue :)
We got some incredible pictures from the dolphin encounter- we got to pet Aries, give her commands, and each of us got to feed her some fish. So awesome and incredible. We enjoyed this so much, and they even had a free sitter to watch Katy and John right behind us on shore so we could be together for the experience.
The trainer who led us was from Cary, NC! He chose Nicole to be first for everything and she was in heaven.
Mike REALLY didn't want to kiss the dolphin. It was hilarious. He also did not appreciate the comment that he now had a several hundred pound girlfriend.
His expression after that comment haha
Jacob was shivering from excitement and I was amazed watching the dolphin interact so easily with each kid.
Diana was so precious and tender. This is my favorite picture of all, as she looks right at the dolphin with such excitement and love.
So awesome!
A dolphin feels kind of like rubber. Their tail is unique to them, like a fingerprint.
Best part of all, was swimming out into the deep part of the tank and having the dolphin come to the trainer treading water next to us, then we held on to the top and side fins and got a ride back to shore and fed Aries some fish. Unforgettably incredible.
The day at Discovery Cove was so amazing.
Our ticket to Discovery Cove gave us free tickets to Sea World and Aquatica Waterpark for the next 14 days. We spent one day at each before coming home. At Sea World, we fed shrimp to the sting rays- they have the funniest looking faces! And they are so slimy!
Watching manatees eat iceburg lettuce was hilarious! They use their flippers like hands and just slowly sink to the bottom while shoving and chewing.
This turtle was checking us out before swimming along.
Beautiful and huge!
The highlights were the dolphin show and the killer whale show. The dolphins were so friendly and fast. They could leap so high! One woman would have two dolphins push her by the feet around the tank like some kind of superhero. It was nuts.
Standing on the dolphins and going in a circle. So fun to watch their skills and close relationship they have with the dolphins. We sat in the soak zone and John freaked out when he got wet.
Katy decided to go on Journey To Atlantis- which was a little scary of a drop! She insisted, but by the end was not as happy. The first part of the ride was nice and interesting, but it drops you into a big splash and all you can see is Jim, but Katy is undoubtedly wishing at that moment she had not insisted on going! Diana was mad that she got wet. Yes, mad. Not sure at what or who, but it was funny.
The killer whales were huge. And powerful!
They absolutely soaked anyone in the entire bottom of the stadium with ease. Thankfully we had learned from the dolphin show and sat high.
Diana decided she didn't care if she got wet, the rides were so fun. :)
Nicole and Mike opted to take a crazy roller coaster, so we chilled while waiting for them. The park was 10 min lines or less everywhere so they came by soon.
They LOVED this ride- Mako- and it went all over like crazy.
Shark tunnel!
Wednesday night was Halloween. We grabbed big candy bars at CVS and watched Chicken Little while crowded on our bed. It was a "sweet" and relaxed family time. Jim said this was a favorite part of the trip for him, just hanging out eating takeout and watching a movie together with no distractions.
From our hotel we could see the Mako ride these crazies took!
Our last day we went to Aquatica! This was not crowded either and that is our favorite way to do water parks. The older kids went with Jim and did every ride a ton of times. I was SO glad they could go do that! I got to hang with Katy and John- they were funny. Once the big bucket spilled and dumped water, John didn't want to go near anything in the place. It was like the funnest playground ever but he was totally content to watch everyone face what he perceived to be imminent doom by water bucket. Katy was sorta brave and would only climb up right after the bucket went because then she knew she had at least a few minutes.
She went all the way up to a big slide, then looked at me while I encouraged her. Then she shook her head no and came all the way back down, avoiding water sprays like it was an obstacle course. So funny, but she definitely knew her mind!
Seeing how I wasn't making progress with their enjoyment of that, we went to the beach/wave pool area.
The older kids came around right before lunch and rode some waves with us!
At the end of this day we were all exhausted! Mike was practically sick from not drinking enough water- he is a play until you drop kind of kid and Jim had to practically force feed him and put him to bed. The other kids were so tired too! Katy's face had puffed up as a reaction to the sunscreen. We decided to come home a day early, especially to make our church meetings on Saturday for Stake Conference (Jim was called to be in YM so we both had leadership meetings too). At the end of this trip we were the best kind of tired- from having so much fun together!
We accidentally left our DVD player at the hotel, so while the other kids were happily entertained with the iPads, John prettymuch did this the entire way home- I kid you not! "Mom? Mom! Mom?" Me: "Yes, John?" John, wailing: "I don't WANT to!!" - meaning: all of this. The ride home, the boredom, being buckled, your attempts to entertain me. I just don't want to! That was his phrase of the 10 hours that he said probably a hundred times. I don't want to. Whew were we glad to be home!
Overall, I loved driving so much more than flying. We could change plans easily, take detours or stops whenever, and didn't feel like we were crawling in germs by the end of the day. We felt so blessed to take this time as a family together. These are precious years together and I love these memories we can treasure.
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