October 2023 Part 1: Our Crazy October Saturdays

For the Fall 2023, we tried this crazy thing: Let's let Gabe do two sports! So, he gave tackle football a shot (we thought it would be a good outlet for his aggression), and he continued with soccer. So, with Michael and Gabe both in tackle football, and Gabe in soccer, our Saturdays in October were pretty nuts--just like I probably mentioned in our September posts. The saddest part of this is that my nephew, Elijah, was baptized on one of those Saturdays, and we couldn't make it to be there in person, though we did get to watch on a video call. Thank goodness for technology!

At one of the games, Gabe got to be a captain. He's #15. 

I'm amazed by how well some of these kids can play football. My science teacher brother told me that kids are incapable of tracking a football and catching it at this age, but I saw so much evidence to the contrary. It's always funny to see these kids whose helmets are almost bigger than they are trying to play this complicated sport. 

He did so great this season. He was super busy trying to get to two practices and Let's Play Music on Thursdays. 

Here he is with his coaches. 

And with me. 

During one of the Saturdays, there was a solar eclipse. We were outside the zone where you could really see it, but we were able to see part of it. So, during Gabe's soccer game, we pulled out our glasses to check out what was happening. 

Eclipses are so cool, but nothing compares to being in the path of totality. We're so glad that we got a chance to experience the one in Idaho several years ago. 

Gabe got to play goalie one game, and his team did such a good job keeping the ball on the other end of the field that Gabe must have gotten a little bored down there. 

Rachel got dragged to a lot of games. She mostly read books or played in the grass, but hey, she was there! 

Here's Gabe's team. 

 One of those Saturdays in October, Rachel's dance studio complicated things a little bit by having pictures. Here's our sweet girl in her costume from last year. 

And here's her tiny team: Rachel, Lindsey, (not sure because she quit not long after this picture), Zelda, and Bliss. 

Michael did great this season in Football, but apparently we didn't take any pictures of him during October. He was a lot of fun to watch. 

We're so proud of all our kids and the hard work they put into their sports. 

September 2023 Part 7: All the Other Stuff

September flew on by with all the things we had going on. Here's the rest of the stuff we did. 

Gracie enjoyed surveying her domain and soaking up the sun. 

I took two classes at UVU, an intro to AutoCad and an architecture studio class. Here's my first architecture project. 

Taryn sent us a crock-pot meal planning book that has a shopping list and recipes planned out weekly for 12 weeks. It was an answer to a prayer with how busy things got with school. I blindly followed what the person told me to buy and make. We liked most of them. Here's a chicken parm one. 

Brian played Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza with Gabe. 

We switched church times in September, so we had 9 am church, which meant we had more time for things like baking after church. We really enjoyed it for the 3 weeks we had it. 

We enjoyed the fall weather and hugs were given, whether the recipient wanted them or not. 

Gracie continued to be our family celebrity. 

Brian and I made it to the temple. 

We saw a few beautiful sunrises, thanks to the days getting shorter. 

We all read a lot, except for maybe Michael who hasn't been into reading much the last year or two. 

I felt a cold coming on, so Airborne became my drink of choice for a few days. 

Our neighbor brought us this amazing bread. It was so good! 

My macintosh tree produced its first apples! They were so good!

Michael and I enjoyed a slice of Brian's birthday cake after school one day when Brian was at work, and we sent this picture to him to rub it in. 

Brian and I continued having date nights most, of not all, Fridays. Our kids are super supportive of this special, weekly ritual and are constantly trying to get us out the door. If I didn't know better (thank you, home security cameras), I would think they were throwing raves at our house while we were gone. 

Then we turned around, and September was over. 

September 2023 Part 6: Football and Soccer

Football and Soccer took over every single Saturday in September. It was really fun watching them play, but having three different team schedules meant a lot of running around, and a lot of dividing and conquering. Michael had games out in Saratoga Springs sometimes. Here's one that I missed. 

I had to laugh at Gabe on the way to practice. He just loves reading. 

We had one Saturday where all the grandparents made it to the game. Unfortunately, Michael didn't play at his game because they marked him as injured (he'd sprained his finger at practice). We still enjoyed lunch together after baking in the hot September sun together. 

Gabe's soccer team is pretty good this year, and it's getting so fun watching him play. He loves playing defense, but he did get the chance to play offense and score a goal or two. 

We volunteered Michael to help with chains at one of Gabe's games. We thought he'd have more fun doing it, but he thought it was kind of boring. 

Nana and Papa made it to quite a few games, which is always fun. 

Our favorite games were the ones in the stadiums because we could see better. Michael's team was really fun to watch and played at least half of their games in the stadiums. 

I took my nice camera and zoom lens to the games one Saturday. I caught some pictures of Michael playing in the Stadium at West Lake. He's #19. 

He's in top left player below. 

He ran past the line of scrimmage to try to be open to receive the ball. 

Blocking. 

Halftime banner run. 

After watching part of Michael's game against West Lake, I headed back to Alpine for Gabe's game. Gabe's games were also fun to watch, but mostly because of these tiny little bodies running around with pads that drown some of them. I'm surprised by how good some of those 1st and 2nd graders are! 

They love running through the banner at half time and the parent tunnel at the end of the game. 

 Gabe's football team lost every game, and I was really proud of Gabe for sticking with it. There's a lot of standing around at football games, which is tough for those little guys. 

After Gabe's football game, we headed over to his soccer game.Gabe's soccer team dominated most of the other teams, so that helped with the football losing situation.  

They are starting to figure out how to spread out and play positions, which is really fun. 

 It's fun as a parent to see their growth each year. I'm so proud of my boys and how hard they work.