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.)

Back to School time!

 The kids were excited for their first day of school on the 20th! Alice was ready and rearing to go before anyone else. It's our first year with the kids at three different schools. Kendal keeps telling us her classes and school is "interesting", but she's liked it for the most part. Pete is our go with the flow kid and strode into school confident and ready to be back. Alice was nervous going in, but has done well and liked her teacher and class so far. I wish I could say my transition into school has been smooth, but it hasn't. Computers, paperwork, and to do's are keeping me busy and my to do list doesn't seem to be shrinking at all. Let's just say there's been more hiccups than I'm happy about, but I know I'll get things rolling smoother in time. Casey has his typical good classes and harder classes with some challenging students, but overall he's gone into this school year ready and happy to teach Pete and his fellow classmates. 

 

We went to the Dansie's annual back to school movie night on the 23rd. We had treats and watched the new Willy Wonka. Pete wore his giant turtle pillow, but treated his friends as pillows as well. Alice loved the late night with friends, and Kendal wanted to be with the adults chatting for the most part. 

Saturday we went out to Raft River to the Brown reunion at the water slide. Casey ate lunch with us then went over to his parents to patch up their roof. It was a brisk day with some wind so the water slide fun was shorter than usual, but the kids had fun with their cousins as long as they could. 

Kendal and Pete have been running with their cross country teams the past few weeks. The kids are ready and excited to start having meets! Kendal had her first meet this past week in Jerome. It started at 1 so I wasn't able to go cheer her on. Cheryl, Shaylah, and Vanessa cheered her on for us instead. Kendal was running with the JV girls, but since the Varsity only had 5 run she and Sophie were able to count their times for Varsity! If she keeps up running well she could potentially run for Varsity in the next race that has the teams run in sections. She had a good run and came in middle of the pick out of a hundred plus girls. Pete has his first meet this coming week at Valley.

We had Friday off of school this week so Casey and I got up early to go on a date to the Temple. It was a neat experience with the new video and we're so grateful to have gone. Andy invited us last minute to go to Salt Lake to join him at a Savannah Bananas' game. We halted some of our weekend plans (aka a lot of yard work) and went down after lunch to join David's crew, Andy, Kim, Campbell, and Lucy. We started outside at a "block party" event then got to go in the stadium. Andy went big and we got a box for us all to enjoy. The game was so fun and so entertaining. The kids had the best time!! (Even though I caught both my girls reading towards the end of the game ; ) It was such a fun experience and we're glad we got to go.

We made our way late to Logan and got to spend most of Saturday at my parents house. The kids went four wheeling in the morning. We had a birthday lunch for my Dad, and spent the afternoon together till we left for home and commitments. 

Kendal's gotten a couple of long drives in going to Raft River and Utah and likes to drive Casey's car to school in the mornings (which isn't so fun for him to have to readjust the whole front seat / area when he drives home each afternoon. Since Kendal and Pete are at cross country right after school I get some time with Alice every afternoon. She wants to play the piano so we started on the pre level piano book. She's still an avid reader though and prefers a book to doing her other homework.