Hockey

Jon's proved that you're never too old to go for a dream. He's always wanted to play on a hockey league. A guy that he works with plays on this league and told Jon he should go for it. So....he did. He said it was tough and he was not that good, but he learned a lot and had a lot of fun. We went to one game (most of them are pretty late and they play about 30 minutes away from home) and the kids loved cheering for their dad!Unfortunately, I didn't even think that although it's 95 degrees outside, it's freezing inside an ice rink!! So...we were totally unprepared, showing up in our flip-flops, shorts, and t-shirts. I ended up buying the kids some hot chocolate and taking them outside for a few minutes to warm up.

Off-Track

Of course, I'm having camera issues--again! So stay tuned for a few more fun posts in the near future.

Meanwhile...Jon goes "off-track" from work after today. Jon's company gives their employees a month sabbatical (paid vacation) every 5 years as kind of an incentive to stay with the company. So...today is his last day of work until after Labor Day! When hearing this, Jarren said, "Dad! You're going off-track from work!" We thought that was pretty funny....

On another note, our elementary school has been on year-round school since well before we moved here (9 years ago). We just found out in May that we are being moved to a traditional schedule. The kids should have started school on July 26, but won't start until August 26 (Kendall is August 25). I have mixed feelings about it--on one hand, I've LOVED having breaks during the year. The kids start getting burned out (me too) and there's a break. Then they started getting bored and they go back. On the other hand, the middle and high schools don't do year-round, so it will be nice to have all the kids on one schedule, now that Kendall's moving up. It will also be nice not to have to fight bedtime in the summer and have to do homework then. We'll see how it goes.

Swimming Reunion

Three of my friends and I decided to get together to go swimming with our kids when one of us came back for a visit. Amanda lives way out of state now, while Codi just moved back and Shannon has been here all along. The kids all had a blast and it was great to catch up with these great friends again.

Watkins China Adventures

Jon's parents went to China in August '09 to teach English at a university in Jinan. They got home this month and had a reunion with all of us to share gifts, stories, music, pictures, videos, etc. The grandkids all had so much fun being together and seeing their grandparents again. They also loved the gifts. They had so much fun with everything, that they decided (last minute) to enter a float in the Mendon parade--dedicated to China. They dressed up and threw candy--it was a blast!

Jarren's Tooth!

Jarren finally lost his first tooth on July 15--the hard way. About 6 weeks ago, he told me that his tooth hurt and he thought he might have a cavity. I finally looked at it and found that instead of the new tooth growing up under the baby tooth, it was growing in behind it. It got to be bigger than the baby tooth and of course, the baby tooth wasn't even loose. We had to take him in to the dentist to have it pulled and the root was HUGE!! Jarren refused to put it under his pillow for the tooth fairy--he wants to keep that big rooted tooth. I wanted a picture of the gap in his mouth, but there really wasn't one. Lucky for him--NOT--the tooth next to it is coming up behind the baby tooth. Here we go again....

Happy 12th Birthday Kendall!!

Happy Birthday to Kendall! He is now officially one year away from being a teenager. Yikes! Last week, Kendall's main present (a drum monit0r) was coming by UPS and just happened to come in the 20 minutes that I was gone. He saw it and we didn't want to ruin his birthday, since that was about all he was getting, so we had to kind of scramble to get him some things. I left for Girls Camp that next day and the rest of the week was gone. Anyway....he ended up with some fun things and we decided to use his birthday to surprise all the kids with a fun gift. Kendall decided that he wanted a turkey (Thanksgiving style) dinner with all the trimmings and instead of a cake, he wanted a fruit pizza. It was all really good. And to top it all off, Grandma Watkins just happened to be down here and stopped by--we haven't seen her since she got back from China last week (she was gone for almost a year). Happy Birthday!!

Fun Family Weekend

We went up to visit my family (and to do our share to get Jon's parents' house ready for their return later this week) on Sunday and Monday. It was so much fun to spend some time with everyone. We had our city's firework show on Saturday night, so the kids were kind of tired on Sunday, but they did really well--not too grumpy. On Sunday night, my brother-in-law and I took a couple of the kids on a walk to see some animals. Wow--there were goats, a turkey, pigs, sheep, cows, and a horse! We don't see those kids of things very often in the city.That horse loved Kristen. She fed it and then walked away and it kept following her down the fence.

On Monday, a bunch of us went to another parade. The kids had fun, even though there was a dad and his two teenage kids who were practically shoving our group of little kids out of the way in order to get all the candy. This parade was pretty stingy, as far as candy goes. One piece here, one piece there. We then went to my parents for a big BBQ, while anxiously awaiting the surprise of the trip: a new niece was born!! I got to see her on our way home--just two hours old. It was such a fun weekend!!

Last Day of Elementary School..... :(

Last Friday was Kendall's last day ever of Elementary School. He will start Jr. High in the fall. Very bittersweet....

He's had an amazing year--an amazing teacher, a lot of new friends, and he's learned and grown a lot (as you can tell by the picture). I think he's ready to move on, yet he's a little reluctant to go and start at the bottom of the chain--he will go from being the oldest to the youngest. I'm sure he'll be just fine.

4th of July Parade

Kendall and Kristen getting ready to watch the city's parade. It was about 2 hours long and had TONS of candy, which was good, since there were TONS of people and kids. :)

Jenna was more interested in playing around this tree. She did run out and get some candy (with Kendall's help) and then run back to me and say, "I have enough candy now." She would then go play in the tree for a few minutes and then go back out for more candy.
Jarren LOVED trying to get as much candy as possible. He got quite a bit, so sometimes we'd have to tell him to make sure other kids got some and he was pretty good to share around. Overall, a very fun time!

Jon's Birthday Pics

Jon has a fun day to celebrate his birthday, since it's only 2 days before the 4th of July. This year was even better, since our city had a parade that night.
I asked Jenna what kind of cake we should make for Dad and since he's been buying, selling, trading, and collecting old LDS and history books for years, she said, "A book cake!!!" I did my best to make the sides look like pages and the top to look like a book cover. The cake was weird though--it was very sticky, even though I put it in the freezer for awhile--and the frosting just wouldn't spread well. Oh well--it tasted good.
I don't think Jon got to actually open many of his presents--the kids took care of that for him. :)

Happy 36th Jon!!

Today is Jon's 36th birthday. My favorite day of the week is Friday. So, obviously, my favorite day to celebrate a birthday is on a Friday. Lucky Jon--not only does he have a Friday birthday, but he (by that I mean, we) gets to celebrate the 4th of July as well. Our city has their big parade tonight and the fireworks tomorrow night. Such fun times!!! I'll post pictures later from today's activities... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!