Visitors, Football, Soccer & NASCAR

We had another big weekend this weekend.  In fact, we realized when studying the calendar recently that just about every weekend has something big happening over the next month or so.  On Friday we had visitors arrive around dinner time.  Grandpa Utah, Uncle Tyler, and Cousin Jack came for a quick visit.  We were super excited to have them.  We had kept Jack coming as a surprise so they were extra excited about having him here. 

On Friday night we stuck with tradition and went to Lucille's. As usual the food was tasty and the kids had fun introducing Jack to the play/ dancing area.

 

On Saturday we got up and Lance made crepes for breakfast. We took it easy for awhile and just let the kids play around the house. Mid morning we got all packed up and headed out for the rest of the days adventures.

 

First stop was Kai's Football game. All of his games from now on will be at a brand new athletic facility. It is a massive complex that was beautiful, clean, and had easy access bathrooms. The only bummer is it takes us about 20 minutes to drive out there. It was a hot day so we all found relief in the shade huddled under our umbrella and had lots of fun watching Kai's team have a fun game. They had another great win and played really well. Kai was super excited to score his 1st TOUCHDOWN in front of everyone (plus it also happened to be on Grandpa Whitney's birthday). YEAH!!!  He also pulled some flags which was also great.

 *This was the start of his touchdown run.  I only got the beginning as I was too busy cheering.

*Even exciting games can get a little long so phone games really come in handy.

Rori, Zuri, and I had to leave a few minutes early to head over to warm up's for Rori's first soccer game of the season.  Henderson is a huge place and as luck would have it Kai's football is on one end and Rori's soccer is on the opposite end- it was about a 30 minute drive.  So we will be spending a lot of time driving on Saturday's.  We're just hoping that we won't have many games that conflict.  Rori was SO excited about the game, her uniform, everyone watching her etc.  There are 4 other kids on her team from our Church which she is thrilled about.  She and her best red headed twinner buddy Kinzie have lots of fun together.  It is cute to see them laughing together as they play.  It is a 4 & 5 year old age group and most of the kids on her team seem to be 4.  So far they have mostly worked on not picking the ball up with their hands, stopping when the whistle blows, and kicking the ball the correct direction down the field.  The team they played against seemed to be full of 5 year old boys that had a lot more experience and were working on passing.  The poor little kids on Rori's team kept getting hurt when they would bounce off the bigger kids.  Rori did great though and avoided getting hurt.  She got right in there and didn't seem intimidated in the least.  She just had a blast being in the middle of it all.  Hopefully future games will be a little better balanced than this one, but either way she's having fun.

All the boys then headed out directly from the soccer parking lot for a quick lunch at In N Out Burger before heading out to the Las Vegas Speedway for a NASCAR truck racing event.  This was Lance and Kai's first NASCAR experience.  It sounds like they all had lots of fun and thought it was a pretty interesting cultural experience.  They got home late that night so it was a LONG day for all of them, but it was packed full of fun things. 

 

*Nails

 

*Fellow Spectators

They left early Sunday to go back as we were heading out the door to Church.  We had lots of fun getting to spend time with them and sharing with them a glimpse of our little world here.   

Dad Day Saturday

Last Saturday was a super fun one for Kai.  He had his football game in the morning which they won in DOUBLE overtime.  It was stressful for the parents but exciting. 

Then in the afternoon Lance took him to the CSN Planetarium.  Kai continues to love everything Space related.  We often find him watching NASA videos on the computer.  Recently he was overheard educating Grandpa Utah about Neil Armstrong's post flight decompression.  So needless to say he was thrilled. 

After than they went to the UNLV vs Air Force football game.  It was his Flag Football League game night so they got to go out of the field before the game and high five the players and band.  Lance said he enjoyed the game and a snow cone.  I think Lance and Kai loved getting to have some fun quality time together. 

Meanwhile Rori picked to get star chicken nuggets from Carl's Junior and explore the toy isle at Target. She and Zuri and I had our own fun little girls night while chatting over dinner and shopping. Good times for all!

Student of the Week

Kai was student of the week in his class this year.  They alternate boy girl and he was the 2nd boy of the year.  Part of his duties were to make this poster about himself to share with his class.  We are very proud of our sweet boy!

Packed Days

 

It feels like we've been going pretty non-stop the last few weeks.  Our normal weekly routine is packed full.  Days are spent busy with school, driving Rori back and forth to school, fighting battles for better services for Rori, homework, errands, football, soccer, Church, and Lance's work/ school/ homework.  We have at least 1 thing every night Monday-Thursday and now 2 games on Saturdays.
It is busy and sometimes exhausting, but it is also good.  Having kids and getting to do these things with them is such a gift. 

Kai loves football.  He's learning tons and having a lot of fun with the nice kids on his team.  He is so excited about going every time.

Rori loves soccer.  She is thrilled to have her own practice and team like she has seen with her big brother for so long.  She also loves running "super fast"!

Zuri is cute as can be, has lots of hair (so different than Rori at this age or even still) and is starting to repeat a bunch of things.  She thinks she is so big.  Maybe even big enough to be in the terrible 2's (even though she is only 16 months) and throw a few good tantrums when she doesn't get her way.  Geez!

The Start of Flag Football

Kai has been begging us to play flag football since last Fall when he saw some kids practicing at a local field during his soccer practices.  So last Spring when his best buddy Evan's parents asked if Kai would be interested in playing with Evan on a team this Fall we decided to give it a try.  Football probably isn't my 1st choice sport for my son as a Mom, but flag seems like a pretty good way to ease in to it. 

So far we seem to have great coaches, super involved and enthusiastic families, and a well run league.  Most importantly Kai is having a lot of fun and really looks forward to going.  He has played quite a bit of soccer and baseball by this point, but this is probably our first experience with really getting in to more seriously run athletics.  Kai seems to be really thriving on that which makes sense as he is one for detail, structure, and discipline.  I hope I'm ready for it.  He also thinks it is pretty cool that he is the center as he gets to touch the ball each play. :) 

Today was the first official game. It was easily in the upper 90's if not more in the midday sun so these kids really are troopers. We got a shade tent umbrella a few weeks back and I declared it the "best purchase ever" after putting it to use at todays game. The shade tent and lots of cold drinks and snacks kept little sisters happily under control. Kai's team was down 18-0 at half time but came back to win 21-18. His group was on defense for the last few plays and had to hold the other team on the line to seal the victory. They were thrilled to come off with the win. It looks like it is going to be a fun season. 

 

Going Forward

Miss Rori wore this cute outfit to school the other day.  She picked out her "grandma necklace" (the one Grandma Utah gave her for her birthday) to wear with it.  When she got to school she ran up to her teacher and showed her the necklace.  She said "I got this for my birthday from my grandma.  She went to Heaven".  Then she skipped over to the playground and began to play.  Both her teacher and I got a little teary eyed. 

I didn't know how our kids would handle losing grandma so suddenly.  They were very close to her and loved her so much.  We had just spent almost 3 weeks with her back in June (which is such a blessing) so they were feeling very connected to her.  I was worried that Rori might not understand even on a very basic level, but she has probably been the one to talk and ask thoughtful questions the most.  We were sitting in the car one day right before school started wasting a few minutes in a parking lot.  I was doing something and suddenly looked over to see Rori picking up a sunglasses case that was in the console.  She smelled the case and then looked at me and said "Smells like grandma- she went to Heaven".  Sure enough Brice had given Kirsten, Kimberley and I each a pair of Colleen's sunglasses and those were the ones Rori was holding.  Sometimes I wonder if some of Rori's other senses are stronger in compensation of her hearing.  Lance and I have commented that Grandma seemed to have a special understanding of Rori.  She was good at doing that with people.  She was able to focus deeper than the surface with many people and maybe better see their motivation and potential. 

Kai has been very logical about it all which is very Kai.  He knows that she has gone to heaven and that he will see her again some day.  He doesn't seem scared or concerned about death just very faithful.  His whole life he has gone to Church and learned about Heaven being a wonderful place and so he knows that Grandma has gone to a good place.  He commented that he feels like she is getting Heaven all set up for the rest of us and now she can be watching him lots easier at all the exciting things he is doing.  His faith is so pure and clean. 

Lance and I have our ups and downs.  Going forward can be extra hard some days.  Sometimes you wonder how life can keep moving on and you feel bad about it.  Little silly things bring sweet memories and tears.  I was cleaning out some clothes for Zuri the other day and found myself in tears a few times.  Sad that Zuri is starting to grow out of some of the last clothes that grandma saw her in.  Sad that Zuri is growing in to clothes that Rori used to wear that are associated with memories of grandma.  Silly things.  One of the very hardest things is knowing that she isn't getting to be here with the kids as they grow. 

But there are so many happy memories.  And we know that now more than ever she would tell us to seize every moment of the time we have and keep going forward. 

Making some of her famous treats helps sometimes too: