It’s Autumn Time

For most people, fall is football season. Around here, it is marching band season. Ok, so maybe it’s marching band season for Daniel, football season for Kevin, and a lively combination of the two for Matthew. But whichever comes first in each person’s mind, this year we have two sons marching. Daniel is glad to be back, and Matthew is super excited about his first marching season!

Home and Away

With both Daniel and Nathan attending USU and Kevin and Matthew attending most home BYU football games, when BYU played USU in Logan last Saturday night, it seemed like a good time for Kev and Matthew to take a little road trip. With my dad along for the ride and the game, they drove up in time for dinner with Nathan. The marching band played at halftime so not only did they get to see the game, they had the opportunity to see Daniel march. With friends and roommates joining him in the student section, even Nathan has been enjoying football season

  

As for Malia and I, we were the only two who had a decent night's sleep. All my boys are pretty tired today, but they had a good time so in their opinions, it was worth it.

 

Kick Off!

Matthew has been counting down. To what, you may ask? Football season, of course! In particular, BYU football season. He’s always excited, but this year he seemed even a bit more excited than usual. I suspect it had something to do with the fact that BYU’s first game of the season is a home game against the U of U. And the fact that Kevin pitched in with my dad for season tickets which means Matthew would be in the stadium for the game. For the past few weeks, he’s been giving us the countdown down to the minute. And as the clock counted down to kickoff, he was texting the seconds right along with them.

Daniel has learned how football works and as such, enjoys it more than he used to. When he had an opportunity to go with Kevin and Matthew, he decided he would join the party, although I suspect he was more excited to see the marching band than the actual game. Nevertheless, three of my guys are sitting in the stadium and Nathan is watching the game at a friend’s house surrounded by his new Madrigal friends.

As for me, I’m going to bed. Kickoff was at 8:15. They won’t be home until the wee hours. I hope they have fun, but I’m looking forward to a full night’s sleep. 😉

Fan-tastic!

Of my three sons, Matthew is the only one who is into sports. Whether playing or watching, he is a sports fan through and through. He has been cheering for the Seattle Seahawks for last couple of years, so when it was decided that Seattle was our vacation destination, taking a tour of Centurylink Field was a must. We arrived early again (this is actually pretty normal for us) and Matthew was so excited that he was pretty much glued to the glass outside the team store which was the designated meeting place for the tour. In spite of the fact that most of us have no caring for football, it was actually pretty cool. And our tour guide was a chatty old guy that kept us entertained. Get ready for a bunch of pictures. Matthew tried to take a video of the entire tour but I won't make you sit through that. ;-)

 Let me in! Let me in!

 

 The visiting team locker room. We didn't get to see the one the Seahawks use.

 

After lunch, we went to the Museum of Flight. Kev and all the boys are airplane fans (as evidenced by the fact that this is the third airplane related location they’ve visited this trip) so they were all excited. As for me, World War II era planes are interesting, mostly due to the fact that I actually have a frame of reference for many of them based on movies and books based on that time period, so there were intriguing things for me to see as well. I have to say, since I got married and birthed three sons, I’ve learned more about airplanes that I ever wanted or needed to know.

See how many airplanes? And this is just one of numerous galleries.

The kids all got to sit in the cockpit of an SR-71.

Always the drama kid...

Matthew and Malia also sat in an F-18.

The outside hanger had the big ones-Boeing 747, Boeing 787, the Concorde, etc.

My dad suggested a place called Ivar’s for dinner and I have to say, we were all fans of the amazing food. Honestly, I could eat there every single day. Seriously. It was that good. They had a delicious assortment of seafood chowders as well as fish, crab, fish, some more fish…if you aren’t a fan of seafood, this is definitely not the place for you. But we loved it. Daniel ordered a dish that included Clams, mussels, prawns, snow crab, salmon, halibut and cod. What he didn’t realize is that all the shellfish and crustaceans would still be in the shells. Being from an extremely landlocked state, he was also completely surprised when his dinner came with a bib. Those of us who had more experience with such things assured him he really did want to wear the bib and my mom coached him in how to actually get to the crab meat. He was a good sport and took everything in stride. After the fact, his response was, "The crab was really good...the bib was awkward, but the crab was really good!" Yes, it was in fact, very good. Over the course of this trip, our two oldest children have become unabashed seafood fans.

After dinner we took a few minutes to wander through the nearby “Ye Olde Curiosity Shop.” I’m a fan of such random locations. It’s probably something I learned to enjoy as a kid. My parents took us on jaunts to a variety of locations around the country (and occasionally out of it) and we frequently stopped at random little spots like this one. Malia was fascinated by the vast and completely random assortment of things to buy. She even tried out a crazy pair of glasses. Creepy, right?

We were definitely all worn out by the end of the day. Malia had a couple of blisters and was one sleepy girl by the time we returned to the house. We’ll sleep and be back at it tomorrow.

Eclectic

As we finish off the year, I just wanted to mention a few things that have not made it to the blogosphere.

Daniel auditioned for our district’s youth symphony playing clarinet (which he had only been playing for about 9 months) and got in. It has been a great experience for him, exposing him to a lot of different music. He has really enjoyed it so far. In the school band he is dividing his time between saxophone and clarinet. He has been teaching himself to play the flute as well and is confident enough that he played one song with the ward choir at Christmas.

Matthew played flag football again this fall. He really loves to play but he has a hard time keeping up with the other kids just because his legs are half the length of theirs. He always seems to have a ball in his hand and a number of his balls have been grounded because he is determined to throw them in the house. Throwing footballs indoors is definitely a no-no, so we have had a number of clashes on that point…

Matthew and Malia played “Adobe” for about a week while Matthew was off-track. They have played this way periodically since Kev started working for Adobe, but this time Matthew (with some guidance from me) made laptops out of file folders. Malia looks just like Kev does when he is scrutinizing something on his computer.

Nathan has had art this past semester and he has loved it. He is sad it is almost over, but he is super excited to be in choir next semester. He is also excited to audition for the school musical. Auditions aren’t until February, but he is already prepping. I have to say that I’m kind of excited to have a kid that enjoys the same things I did when I was in school.

I was released from my calling as primary chorister in November so instead of having three callings (choir director, primary chorister and nursery music leader) I am back down to one. When I was released, they told me they didn’t have another calling in mind for me yet. I just laughed and told them I was really, really fine with having just one calling for a while. I did, however, feel like the bishopric member I was talking to was understanding about how wearing it can be on a person to be called to the same callings over, and over, and over again. He told me the primary president had already asked for me to be officially called as the nursery music leader (previously I was filling in for a sister in the ward who was diagnosed with cancer and passed away earlier this year) and that the request had been denied. I’m really thankful for him. Honestly. A chance to do something besides primary or music (and usually both) would be great.

And so another year passes much too quickly, leaving in its wake a few bigger kids, a bit older mom, and a plethora of memories.

Touchdown!

For his experience gift last Christmas, we gave Matthew a trip to a BYU basketball game and another to a BYU football game. His basketball game was earlier this year, but football had to wait until the fall. Over the summer we came across a flyer for the Cosmo Club which gives kids a t-shirt, 4 football tickets and 8 basketball tickets (meant to be used for multiple games for the child and a guardian), free entrance to other BYU sports games when they wear their t-shirt and other special events all for $50. It was a great deal so we opted to do that rather than just a single football game.

Yesterday was Matthew’s first ever BYU football game. The Cosmo Club kids were invited to be on the field a couple of hours before the game where they met Cosmo, tossed a football around and basically had a great time.

He didn’t even care that their seats probably should have included an oxygen mask or that the Cougars won by so much that it wasn’t actually a terribly exciting game. He was just thrilled to be there!

After the game the kids got to ring the victory bell and rub shoulders with several of the players.

Matthew has been excited all week and yesterday was definitely a winner! (So here's a little confession: I may not be all that into sports, but it is nice to have a kid who cheers for my alma mater!)

Rise and Shout, the Cougars Are Out!

As I’ve mentioned before, Matthew is our little sports nut and one of his favorites to cheer for is BYU. Although I really don’t care about the sports, I do have a decent amount of school spirit for my alma mater, so I think it is fun that he’s a fan of the Y. My dad is also a BYU alum and he has always held season tickets to basketball and football. Of all my siblings, the only one who really enjoys cheering the athletes of BYU is my sister, Esther. And she didn’t really get to that point until college. So I think having a youngster to enjoy sporting events with is kind of fun for my dad as well as for Kevin.

BYU’s fall athletic season has just gotten underway and last night they had the annual Cougar Kickoff to give fans a chance to mingle with the players and pick up last season’s gear at a discounted price. My dad invited Matthew to go with him and he was soooooo excited! He did two days’ worth of homework and reading on Monday so he wouldn’t have to do any yesterday and when I picked him up from school he made it to the car in record time. As a member of the Cougar Club, my dad was able to get in earlier than the general public (although the lines were enormously long anyway) and Matthew had a great time. He got a poster signed by the BYU football team’s head coach, played some soccer, and came home with an armload of BYU gear.

Pretty much the only bad thing that happened was Matthew getting hit in the face with a soccer ball. But even that wasn’t too bad. Matthew just decided that he would be Scott Sterling for Halloween.

(looking a little red in the face after getting smacked by a soccer ball)

While Matthew was getting a dose of Cougar Spirit, Daniel was off to a ham radio meeting with Kev’s dad. That left us with just Nathan and Malia so we decided to go out to dinner. We ate at Red Robin and just happened to be seated next to a cousin of mine of that I haven’t seen in years. When we were finished eating, our server informed us that my cousin had covered our bill. How cool is that?!

My family is great. Two grandfathers took two grandsons to two events that they all enjoyed. And the rest of us had a fine meal paid for by another relative. It was a good evening for us all.:-)

Sometimes random things happen that don't warrant an entire blog post but are still entertaining...

Kev likes to tease Malia when he brushes her teeth and takes her hair out at bedtime. He’ll tell her that she needs to brush her hair and take her teeth out. She has informed him that teeth don't come out because they are glued in with teeth glue. And when asked what color teeth glue is, she’ll tell him it’s red.

Instead of a stuffed animal, Matthew sleeps with a football. I’ve even discovered him sleeping in his football gloves.

According to Malia, a dog days, “Barf! Barf!”

Malia has been learning about dinosaurs: the dinosaur rex and big-ceratops.

Nathan has discovered that he is fond of several songs from the opera “Carmen,” especially “The Turd-eodor Song.”

When Malia grows up, she wants to be Ironman…or Thor. It says so right on the poster she took to school to celebrate her half birthday.

According to Malia, this is a Star Wars elephant:

Daniel doesn’t sound like me on the phone anymore….but Nathan does. They have both been really good natured about being mistaken for their mother when they answer the phone.

A few days ago Malia was riding a light saber like a stick horse. She told Kev that she was the Wicked Witch of the Light Saber.

Daniel's mad origami skills are getting better all the time. In the last little while, he has been know to say, "It only has 159 steps..." Of course, the first of those 159 steps is to fold the paper into 256ths! 

A bit of visual randomness:

 

Eight is Great!

In case you didn’t know, Matthew is totally into football right now. So deciding on a theme for his birthday party was pretty much a no brainer. And because the Super Bowl just happened, Pinterest was filled with football related party ideas. So Matthew and I went through a bunch and decided on some of our favorites. We had an assortment of party favors as well as some rockin’ football cupcakes and even (dairy free) ice cream sandwiches made to look like footballs. I think all the kids had a great time. 

The down side to the whole even is that fact that we gave the kids whistles as a party favor and gave them one rule, a rule that they all knew without being told: no whistles in the house. Which was all good and fine until one of our neighbors called the cops on us. Really. I might laugh about it someday, but I’m not there yet. I just think it’s ridiculous to call the cops for a bunch of eight year olds blowing whistles outside and 4 0’clock in the afternoon. And couldn’t they just walk across the street and talk to us in person?! Of course not. Better just call the police. But I digress. It was a fun party.

We did the whole birthday thing with my family yesterday and Matthew had another great Pinterest inspired football cake. It was honestly one of the easiest cakes I’ve ever decorated and Matthew loved it. And as per usual, he cheesed it up while we were singing the birthday song to him. (Don’t ask me what Nathan’s doing. I have no idea.)

Today was Matthew’s actual birthday and he got his presents from us. He got some Seattle Seahawks sheets and a kendama. Kev took the kids to the park in the afternoon (no school today) and Matthew chose stove top lasagna, which is his favorite food right now, for dinner. I think one of Matthew's favorite "presents" is that he no longer has to sit in the booster seat in the car. For him, that is a huge deal! So happy birthday kid! We love you!