Riding through puddles....

While we were at Pack Meeting tonight the rain started to come down. Some may have been disappointed or annoyed to have to ride bikes home in the rain....but not our family!!

 

We rode around until dark finding the biggest and best puddles to ride through!!

I only had my phone on me so I had to capture our fun with the camera on my phone.  The pics weren't the best, but the fun we had was spectacular!!

Carter wouldn't stop long enough for me to take

 pictures of how wet he was. When we got home, I

 rang out a puddle of water just from his shorts!!



 Kolby was trying to help his brother wipe the mud off his face...what a nice brother!

Kolby and Jacob were dripping water from their faces and their clothes were soaked!!

and then there is Aubree....what a girl. As the boys were riding through as many puddles as quickly as they could, Aubree just parked her bike and sat in the puddles!! It was a chilly 55 degrees and the girl wasn't even cold!

Spring Soccer 2011- Carter

Soccer for Carter is always fun. This is his 4th year of playing and he really enjoys playing.

This yellow team that he played on was a U-8 team. This is the age group that Carter should be in. It has been a couple seasons since he has actually played his own division. His team normally plays up a division.  Aubree did play up a division and played on Carter's team. This made it a little easier for me because all of the kids decided to play soccer this year.  Having the two of them on the same team helped me manage all of the games and practices.

Carter also ended up playing most of the season on Jacob's team as well.  Jacob's team was a U-10 team. They were short players and because we were at the games anyway Carter gladly stepped in and helped out the team.

He competed so good with these boys that were 2 years older than him. He is such a great kid!

 

Carter was great at helping Aubree out and showing her what to do and where to go.

and of course Aubree has to have all of the hugs....even on the field.

Carter had a great season of soccer. He had some great coaches and learned alot of new skills!

Spring Soccer 2011- Aubree

Aubree decided when the boys were signing up for soccer that she was going to give it a try too!

 Living in Idaho, it's pretty chilly when it comes to Spring Soccer. Most

 of the games it was either raining or snowing. Aubree was a

 pretty tough girl most of the time.

 Since all four of the kids wanted to play soccer, we decided to have Aubree play up an age level and play on Carter's team. This helped me out with one less team to try and make it to. Carter helped Aubree out with learning the positions and seemed to keep her in the right spots on the field.

The challenging part was keeping Aubree's attention. Most of the time Aubree would daydream or pretend to be some sort of an animal on the field(usually a dog since they like to chase balls).

 Hugging also seemed to be a little of a problem for her. When it was Carter she was

 hugging, that was OK, but she did start randomly hugging the other players. 

 We did have a fabulous coach, who was thankfully very patient with

Aubree and helped her to learn quite a bit.

She ended up having a great season and would love to play again next year, which really did surprise me.

Memorial Day 2011

Normally our Memorial Day consists of camping, BBQs, and other family events, but this year I wanted to help the kids understand a little more of what Memorial Day really is.  We decided to visit the Field of Heroes in Pocatello and I am so glad we did.

The first thing that the kids found was a huge banner welcoming

 home the 116th, which Tony is currently deployed with.

The kids were so excited when they found out that they could actually sign it themselves!

We took along my niece-Tayler and my nephew-Blake. Their dad is also deployed with the 116th.

The Field of Heroes takes place at Century High School.  A cross was

 placed in this field for every casualty Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

There were more than 5,000 crosses placed in this field.

The kids wanted to read as many crosses as they could.

One area of the field was dedicated to our Idaho soldiers who had lost their lives fighting.

These crosses made the most impact on the kids. They wanted to read each and every cross in full. The crosses gave information about where and how they were killed and where they were from.

There was also a POW/MIA area.

There were two soldiers from Idaho there.

I don't think we could have made a better choice for Memorial Day this year.

 This was a great learning experience for the kids and a great reminder to myself of all the sacrifices these brave men and women have made for our country.