Beginning of October, Cross X, basketball for Alice, visitors!

Conference weekend Alice had her first basketball game. She wasn't feeling her best the day before, but we went anyways. Poor kid was lacking energy most of the game and got hit in the noggin three times! She was distraught and had to be taken off the court whenever she got hit. By hit three her coach looked up at us with his hands raised in a "what do I do?" pose. We just had to laugh at the crazy situation, even when she refused our comfort. She perked up the final quarter, even with a team win, it wasn't her best game. Let's just say we spent some time during conference the next couple of days playing catch with our indoor soft ball. 

Conference was a treat. I love hearing the leaders speak, and can't wait to re-listen to my favorites to glean more. Pete had a cross country meet at Filer on the 9th. I had Alice ride the bus over to Casey and then shot out of work a bit early to make it to see Pete run. He had a stomach ache, but still ended up placing 13th that day. Not a PR, but really good nonetheless. (Kendal had a bye week that week and did not have a meet.)

I had contacted someone who posted mini photo sessions on Facebook to do our pictures last Friday. We ended up waiting at CSI for almost an hour and a half with a no show. We tried to contact the gal, and drove around in case we were in the wrong spot. Half an hour in we just started taking pictures of the kids and made do till it got dark. We gave up and took the kids to get Wendy's frosty's on the way home. The gal messaged with a couple of excuses, but I was upset and over it, so I decided not to reschedule. (so much for family pictures). 

Alice's second basketball game was last Saturday. She did a much better job in her game. She worked hard, but maybe stuck with her gal a bit too much since she was still by her side when her own team had the ball. It was a good game though with another win. We did yard work most of the rest of the day. Our new neighbors put sod in so we put a barrier between our rocks and their yard, as well as cutting away grass around the trees so Casey doesn't hit them with the mower or weed Wacker. Kendal joined her friend Alycin that night and went to a Stake Youth dance in Twin. She wore my shark sweatshirt for their Halloween theme. Sunday Alice had her primary program. We've been practicing hard for the past month and the kids did great. Alice sang her heart out and did well in her part. We celebrated after by making Halloween sugar cookies. 

This past week Kendal and Pete had a meet together in Gooding. Casey won a paid day off during our back to school teacher meetings and cashed it in so he could go and see them run. (A member of the school board had to be his sub as part of the winnings). Casey spent that morning catching up on work and training he's needed to finish. Since he wasn't working he got pulled in to doing the computer system for the meet. Since he was sitting at the system he couldn't follow their races, but he saw them begin and end the race. I stayed back with Alice since she had basketball and hates being dragged to her siblings meets. It's a course full of hills and so PR's aren't typical. Pete had a good race though. Kendal was hurting and didn't end her race as well as she hoped, but she's pumped and determined this week to do well at districts. Gooding was Pete's last race and he's bummed his season is over. He's grown and done so well this year! We're proud of him and can't wait to see how he does next year in the 8th grade bracket! 

David and Anica came up Thursday evening to spend their fall break with us. We also had Friday off of school for the end of the quarter and were able to spend more time with them. Kendal had to go to practice Friday morning so Casey took her and then went to finish his grading. The kids played the morning away around the house. After lunch we all went out to Tubb's berry farm. It's become our tradition and the kids have a fun time. We did all of the things: Slides, animals, maze, tractor ride, games, shooting apples, and even paintball. The maze was most of the boys against Casey and the girls. We got a bit turned around and had to use the map to navigate through, but we got all of the punches and were able to get out before the boys because they had to backtrack to the beginning to get a punch they missed. We spent the whole afternoon there having fun. We ended with going to Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner and playing around at the house. Saturday we went over to Alice's basketball game at Stricker. She played a great game and got into the game making shots and defending like a champ. She's growing week by week! Anica and David came with the boys to watch. Kendal stayed home to do homework, and Pete went off to a Saturday Young Men's activity to shoot guns. After basketball we spent the morning together and played around. Mid afternoon we went into twin to see the bridge and walk around. We got to see a base jumper and find a couple of geo caches before David, Anica, and the boys had to head out. Casey continued to find a few more geo caches while I ran an errand in the mall. We grabbed some dinner and ended the night watching Star Wars at home.

 

 

Bonus: Alice's cute mask made at school, I started my literacy class to continue with my Idaho teaching degree, Pete finished his tool box in AG (He's so proud of it and did a great job - he even got to help weld a lot of other student's boxes since his was done first.), snuggle bug, miss can't wait for Halloween and wears her costume A LOT!, Pete's here I am face, and miss Kendal having fun at Tubbs. 

September ran past!

 We were without internet for a whole month so this is a condensed version of our September. Long story short our internet provider went out of business. Took us two weeks and a lame amount of phone calls later to discover this. Then ordering new internet proved to be lengthy with waiting for them to come only to have them cancel one appointment because we couldn't be home in the middle of the day to waiting another week and Casey having to ditch out on a conference half way through the day so we could get internet installed on "their schedule". SIGH!

Our month was full of cross country for Kendal and Peter! 

Pete ran in Valley on the 5th (ran 11:33 and was 29th out of 118), Magic Mountain on the 12th ( ran 13:55 and was 16th out of 80), Danny Bates /Twin Falls soccer complex on the 20th (ran 11:07 and was 23rd out of 129), Buhl on the 26th (ran 10:58 and was 13th out of 76), and at the middle school this past week on the 3rd (ran 10:31 and was 11th or of 65). Pete's meets varied in length so it's hard to make a line of improvement or comparison, however he has steadily improved each week and has made great strides this year getting a new PR almost every week - with his best PR so far yesterday at our home meet!

Kendal had a bye week the first week of September, she was at Magic Mountain with Pete on 12th (ran 32:32 33 out of 63), and again with him on the 20th in Twin (ran 28:21 and was 45th out of 151). She ran up in Boise on the 28th at the Bob Firman race (officially ran Varsity at a time of 27:50 and was 236 out of 288), and this past week on the 3rd in Pocatello at the Bob Connelly race (ran 26:00 and was 147 out of 333). Kendal has improved her time each week in her meets getting a new PR every race. Her time's have put her in Varsity on all but the Pocatello race where they had a full Varsity team. She got to officially run with the Varsity team up in Boise, and while it petrified her she crushed it! Her new PR this week at 26 min. even and was just short of two minutes faster that the previous time (she said she ignored her watch and had to go to the bathroom - motivation at it's finest). 

Both Kendal and Pete are reaching new heights in running this year and are growing so much! We haven't been able to make it to all of their meets, but the couple that we haven't, they always have family, friends, and teammates cheering them on. 

Alice has been doing well in school! She got her first reading award this past week and was so proud of her hard work. She's still our creative little lady and has taken her fall decorating very seriously putting together paper witches, bats, etc. to put around the house and she moves our other decorations regularly to where she wants them for the day. Alice doesn't love going and watching her siblings run in the heat (we've had such a mild and beautiful September this year), but she's a trooper either takes things to do, finds Naomi and James to pal around with, or finds my phone. Alice got her Halloween costume early and wears it as often as she can. Hello cozy unicorn! Alice got to go to her friend Sophie's birthday party on the 20th and the following week we got to go see her be baptized. It was neat to see her first buddy get baptized, and it made her excited for her own in February. 

We finished our labor day weekend spreading fresh dirt around the yard to even out our low areas and to help those spots grow better. The weekend of the 12th we went down to Utah to celebrate Campbell's birthday and spend time with my whole family at Boondocks. We had such a fun time going around to all of the different activities (race cars, boats, mini golf, and lazer tag.) The kids each have their favorites, but since we did each activity more than once they were happy. We ended the evening at Andy's house having dinner and dessert together. After a late night visit to the Lego store in Farmington we went to Logan for the night. We joined my parents for Sacrament meeting, and had a lesson back at the house with the kids afterwards. We all had lunch together and then had a quick trip over to Nana's to see her before we had to make it home for Casey's youth meetings. 

My parents were sweet and came up the next weekend to see Kendal and Pete run in Twin. They were able to see both the kids run (while I was running late and missed it all. : (. We had dinner at Idaho Joe's and watched Big Fish that night. Saturday we were in project mode for Kendal. She had to do a project for her AG class and because I gave a big NO to animals she had to do something else and chose to make a green house over one of our planters. Grandpa Loosle and Casey helped Kendal figure it all out and they spent the day building our new little green house. Her new project is to grow something in it. Right now she has two plants (to catalog the difference) one in the house vs one in her greenhouse to monitor and grow. My parents stayed with us into Sunday and got to watch Pete be set apart as the new Deacon's President. He's pumped about his calling and I'm grateful for his goodness and light that he shares with all around him. He got to go to the Temple last night and always loves doing that. 

Casey and I had a date night last Friday (27th). We picked up take out from a new taco truck and ate next to the canyon then went for a walk along the canyon rim. we ended with a trip to the bookstore so I could get prizes for the Middle School. Saturday while Kendal was up in Boise, Casey helped new neighbors move in and other neighbors in Ballards move out. Alice and I went to the baptism and then I spent the afternoon canning apple sauce. Alice started her basketball practice this past week. She only has 4 weeks worth of games starting tomorrow, but she's excited for her season and time to play this year. It's been homecoming week this past week. Alice was the only one really into the dress up and planned out her outfits for the whole week and took her dress up very seriously. I think today was the only day Pete really put "effort" in by putting on a shirt with the school mascot for spirit day. Kendal was mostly casual with her dress up all week, and even Casey got two days off of dress up because he was in Twin at a conference for two days. The parade was this afternoon and Kendal got to ride with her fellow cross country kids. Kendal and Pete joined Casey at the football game, and I snuggled with a show at home with Alice. 

Pics (The many quirks of Pete, Casey takes Kendal and Pete to home football games - this was community night! He helps up in the box and they hang out with buddies, Kendal walking with the Cross x team in a homecoming activity this week.)