retirement, riding, etc.

A lot happened this past week...

On Monday, November 10, we were invited to go to Barry's (Daren's dad) retirement party in Salt Lake. He has been selling drugs, legally, for the past 38 years, most of the time with Proctor & Gamble, and will be retiring at the end of this year. Many of his colleagues were there, at The Roof, for dinner and a "roast," and his family, including Susan and their boys (and spouses) were invited to attend. It was neat to hear all about Barry in his working life as "the great provider," as he is affectionately called by his boys. He has been a hard worker and is well respected by all who know him. Congratulations on a successful career, Barry. You and Susan raised five wonderful, hard working boys, and you have been a great role model for them. And I have to include, because I said this in his "roast," what an amazing, loving grandpa he is to all his grandchildren. (He just got an awesome 2-seater four-wheeler, and the boys can't wait to spend more time with Grandpa on that!)

Later that night I played in a soccer game with my friends, and I had such a lousy game that I felt terrible in, that I decided then and there, and I did tell everyone, that I was quitting Diet Coke at least until after the half marathon I'm running in January. It's not like I drink a ton of it, but it can get a little out of control, like when I wake up in the morning and wonder where my Diet Coke is going to fit into my day! And I want to see if I feel any difference running since I'm going to run a half marathon in January...we'll see. 10 days so far!

I meant to get this picture last Wednesday, when regular gas finally fell under $2 a gallon. I think the most expensive we ever saw gas was this summer on our Route 66 trip for about $5.25 a gallon; maybe just a bit more. And by Monday of this week gas was at $1.77! It's crazy how quickly the prices fell, but I'm not complaining. Yes, I am always watching the price of gas everywhere I go--it's a curse I think! Jake, Will, and Ben are here with their friend, Nathan.

Speaking of four-wheeling...Daren took Jake on his first four-wheeling trip ever this past weekend. They went from Friday night to Saturday with Daren's brother, Brandon, his son Jack, and their dad, Barry. So then Susan took Jack's brother, Aydan, and Ben overnight on
Friday, which left Lori home (in Logan) with Ike, and me home with Will. Too bad Lori doesn't live closer so we could hang out together! Will and I had fun, though. We rented "The Legend of Sasquatch" (dumb!) from Redbox, which has become my new favorite thing. The best is reserving them online at redbox.com, so you know where your movie is and you just swipe your card when you get there and your movie appears, all for $1 a day. It's awesome!! Anyway, we had fun while the rest of the boys were gone--Will watched a few movies and played Santa a lot (in his sleigh with his toys behind him--see picture above), I got to organize my new room (Ben's old room upstairs) which has my computer and my new sewing machine (early Christmas present) in it, and Will and I went to a U of U basketball game--good times. I didn't get a whole lot of info about Daren and Jake's trip, except that the propane ran out about 3am, so it was a bit chilly in the trailer when they were camping. Ben had a blast at Grandmas with Aydan--they went to see Wall*E at the dollar show, ate out, did a bunch of crafts, etc. Everyone had fun while apart for the weekend, but it was good to be back together again Saturday night.

I have been meaning to get a picture of our bikers, and I finally remembered. I tried off and on this past summer to get Jake to try riding his bike without training wheels. He gave up easily on it every time...until just a few weeks ago when Will gave it a try. Will was an instant biker, and has gotten so good the few times he has ridden, which in turn has influenced Jake to try it more. I can't wait to go on some good bike rides next summer with all of us!

Ben loves to ride his bike.

Will picked this up in less than a day, and whenever he wants to go riding he says, "Mom, I want to learn how to ride bikes."

Jake was a little sad after he had a good little crash.

I love this picture! Before Jake got confident enough to ride the bigger bike, he would ride around on Will's little bike--he looked like a clown riding a teeny tiny bike.

My parents were very involved in the campaign in California. They spent numerous hours organizing, knocking doors, and holding flags for a honk and wave. I'm proud of them for their commitment and dedication to this cause.
Well, it's late and that's it for this week.

p.s. Less than 2 days until the big rivalry game between Utah and BYU. We've got our tickets, do you?! GO UTES!!

this is what happens...

...when you leave four boys to fend for themselves at Chuck E. Cheese's!!!! (I had to leave early to go to Young Women's)

Jakers
Benny

Daddy and Weeya

We FINALLY, to the relief of the boys, got to go to Chuck E. Cheese tonight because Jake stayed dry at night for a week now. That was the deal and he finally did it--here's crossing our fingers that he continues on his dry streak!! It might help that we also finally got the finished plumbing done in the downstairs bathroom today. Ya baby!! Perhaps now I can sleep through the night once again!

p.s. These short blogs rock! I'm working on another blog from last week and it took forever just to download the pictures and now I have to do the writing, so that will be coming soon (Mom).

priceless

Thursday night......#10 Utah Utes v. #11 TCU Horned Frogs.....national tv......40 degrees......2 corndogs, fries, a Diet Coke, and hot cinnamon-sugar donuts.........go ahead touchdown with 48 seconds to go.......10-0.........priceless!!

And I couldn't resist to write that today (Friday) Bella came home with Ben from school to play. They are still "just friends," and had a great time playing together. So, tonight when I was tucking Ben into Will's bed (this has become a weekend tradition for them), he said to me, "Mom, I miss Bella so much already. I just need to forget about her because I'm losing my focus." (He knows that ain't gonna happen though!) Ben went on to say he was kind of bugged because there are kids at school telling him that he won't even know Bella when he is 16 (supposedly that is when they decided they can be boyfriend/girlfriend again), but I'm pretty sure that won't be the case. Priceless!

odds-n-ends

Just a few things I want to remember:

On Monday when I dropped Will off at preschool, I was talking to his teacher while the class was playing outside. Suddenly Will came up to us so excited because he had found this worm! We had been digging up roots out of the garden all weekend and the boys were so excited to find worms, but this one Will found at school topped them all!! He asked me to take it home with me, so I did and put it in some dirt in a dump truck so it would survive for at least a little while. Will and Jake nicknamed it "Squirmy Wormy," but it didn't even last until the end of the day--to much playing!! Love the dirty feet!

I'm here to tell you, I am the WORST cookie maker in the world--no matter what they always turn out flat, so I don't make them often. Well, for some strange reason this batch I made actually turned out soooo good. I amazed even myself, so I had to document it. (Truth be told, though, I'd rather just eat the cookie dough anyway, rather than the cookie:)

Now this was a snowstorm!! Wednesday morning this is what we woke up to. One of the first things Ben said to me was, "Mom, this snow storm is magnificient!" It snowed off and on almost all day here (lake effect), so we got quite a bit.

Still snowing at lunch time when the boys got home from preschool. Will was more than happy to help Daren plow on the four-wheeler.

I caught the twins playing in the backyard, trying to catch the snow on their tongues. They LOVE the snow (can't wait to see how they do on skis this winter!). It was so pretty outside with all the beautiful fall leaves on the trees still, and the white snow on the ground.

And last, but not least, when I was getting dressed to go running this morning (at 5:20am), I realized that last night was the first night in over a month that I haven't been woken up by 1, 2, or all 3 boys. With the only working bathrooms being upstairs, they have to come up here during the night if they need to do their business, and for some reason they feel that they (at least the twins) have to come get me to be able to go, and then I have to walk them back downstairs. Daren has had terrible luck sleeping at the fire station recently too, the most recent being that he didn't get to bed until 4:30am! Gracious!!

i voted

Well, I finally got to vote today. We had early voting available last week, and the two times I tried to go, the lines were forever long and would have been over an hour wait. I held out hope that because of the rush to vote, the lines would be a bit shorter today, and thankfully they were. I have voted in every election since I was 18, and the older I get the more I learn about politics. Perhaps that's why the let down is so hard when your guy (and gal) appear to not be doing so well in the final tally. It won't be the end of the world, but it could make it a lot more tough. Still, we live in the greatest nation ever in the history of the world, and I'm grateful for that.

It's been cute to see that Ben has taken such an interest in the election. He knows the names of the candidates running, but it doesn't go much further than that--he has just heard many people talking about it at school. He wanted to sit up with me for a few minutes tonight before he went to bed to see what the election results were. When I told him that apparently it looks like Obama would win, he said, "Well, it's too bad they can't both win." Ahh, the innocence of a child.

halloween

Halloween.........................finally...............................arrived! It was about time!!

If you have been reading this blog before, you have known for months what Ben was going to be for Halloween--Indiana Jones. (Which reminds me, have you ever seen the Veggie Tales episode, "Minnesota Cuke?" It's too cute!) The boys have all been planning their costumes for months, and Jake's turned out well as Indy's father, Henry Jones Sr., but Will's costume as Marcus Brody (or Marcus' Brody as Will calls him), another character from the first 3 Indy films, never came to fruition, so he settled for a scarecrow.

So, Jake and I (Will was with Daren for the afternoon at Gma Cox's house climbing on the roof to blow out her rain gutters, and planting a tree) picked up Ben from the bus stop and headed home to get into costume. Unfortunately, we spent the next hour looking at every nook and cranny in the house to find Ben's brown Indy hat, and could not find it. In fact, it's still lost, never to be found I'm afraid. So what's Indiana Jones without his signature fedora hat?! Ben just used the black hat Will had been using all day as his scarecrow hat and called it good. It was still a cute outfit, but darn his hyde!!

Our first stop of the day was up at Gma and Gpa Trains house, and we ran into cousin Sydney there too, dressed up as a witch. We ate our traditional Wendy's chili, donuts, and plenty of candy!

We were a little late getting back to our neighborhood to trick-or-treat, but there was still plenty of time--thank goodness it was a Friday night. These are some of the best costumes we saw that night. (l to r) Danielle as a corpse bride, Charlie as I Love Lucy, and Zera as Jack Skellington, definitely a favorite of our boys!!

Daren took the boys around our neighborhood (it was in the 60's with light sprinkles--Jake made the comment that it was a good thing they all had hats to cover their heads!) until Ben decided he'd rather come home to help me pass out candy. We were dumping hand-fulls of candy into everyone's bags and we still have way too much left over. Ben was so cute: he came home, dumped out his candy and commented on what a haul he had gotten--it's pretty great when he only gets 22 pieces of candy and thinks that's a great haul!! Daren was gone with Will and Jake for a while longer, and when they got home Jake put all his candy in a circle on the floor. He must have said at least 22 times that night that it was the best Halloween ever! So glad it lived up to their expectations.

Not long after everyone was home, Jake decided he wanted out of his costume, and as soon as it was on the floor, Will was all over it! He put on the entire costume, and wanted to sleep in it even, but that didn't work out. However, first thing Saturday morning Will put on the entire outfit again and stayed in it the entire day. He even made dirt angels in the garden where I have been digging out raspberry roots all week long. He asked again this morning to wear it to church, but it was a little too dirty for that! What a cutie!