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.