Fun At Scheels

The kids playing at Scheels.

The kids went off track the end of February and we were trying to find some things to do to fill their time. On March 1st we needed to take a trip down to Scheels for part of Sarah and Hannah's birthday presents. Scheels is a huge sporting goods store that opened south of us back in September. I has not only sporting goods, but a Ferris Wheel, bowling, a place to practice golf and kicking a football. It also has multiple places to take pictures as well as a play land and a huge fish tank, that's just to name some of the things in it. Scheels has always been cool for the kids because when we first moved down here, Kenny was working on the building laying the steel beams.  The kids have been waiting for months to go inside. We'd been in a few times, but it was always packed with people so we never let the kids do anything fun. This day was a Friday, when most kids are in school and the place was empty. We got tickets to go on the Ferris Wheel first and the kids were so excited to go on it. The oldest 4 went together and then Kenny and I took the little boys. They all had a blast and thought it was pretty neat to ride a Ferris Wheel inside a building.

Ben and Hannah ready to head up on the Ferris Wheel.

This is the best picture I got of Gracie and Sarah. I guess I should have brought my good camera instead of just using the one on my phone.

Adam and Daddy on the farris wheel.

I got to ride with Dan on the Ferris Wheel. I loved it.

After the Ferris Wheel we headed upstairs to get the girls fishing poles. I stopped at all the picture spots with the kids and they enjoyed posing for pictures and just plain being silly. 

First came the skunks. Adam was terrified of the skunks so he went with dad. I stayed with the other 5 and took pictures of their funny adventures.

Next up was the 4-wheeler. They loved taking turns driving it.

This is my Ben. What a crazy kid.

Over by the fishing poles they had this fun picture spot that allowed you to hold up a sign with the name of a fish on it and then it actually projected that fish onto the screen. If you entered your email it would email the picture to you, so, of course, all the kids had to take turns having their picture taken with a fish. It was pretty fun.

Ben went first and did a great job carrying his large fish.

Dan with his shark.

Sarah did a good job helping Adam hold up his big fish.

The little girls decided to take their picture together.

Posing by the big grizzly bear. They thought he was really neat.

Last but not least was the cougar.  We all had so much fun at Scheels.

Grandpa Helping With The Trailer

We needed some help from a welder for our trailer project. Kenny made a great design, but we needed to have some metal welded together in order to make it work. Luckily we know a great welder who was willing to do some work for us for some yummy food and a roof over his head for a few nights. My father in law has been working down in Salt Lake finishing up a school down here and he has needed a place to stay. He's been rotating between our house and 2 of Kenny's sister's houses. He was happy to help us for a few nights after work and we were so grateful for his help. It saved us a lot of money and time. He did a great job and we enjoyed having him with us, like always.

Squibilly Hands

Daniel showing off his squibilly hands.

Daniel loves to take baths. He'll sit in there forever with his little brother or with Gracie and play and play and play. He even likes to take showers. However  when he gets out he has a really problem that he calls squibilly hands. For awhile it would freak him out that his hands got all wrinkly but I managed to convince him that they would be okay that they would go back to normal. Still every time he gets out of the bath tub he runs to me and whines that he has squibilly hands. I think it's so cute and I love his name for it. Maybe one day he'll be okay with the squibilies.

An up close picture of his squibilly hand.

Sarah Enjoys Power Tools

Using the grinder by herself.

Kenny spent a lot of February and some of March working on our trailer. We decided we wanted to use our bikes a lot more this summer and being that Gracie is getting on 2 wheels it's about time we find a way to carry all those bikes. So he built a bike rack on the lid of our trailer that holds 8 bikes. It's awesome and it works great. He bought a bunch of steel and used his grinder to cut and shape it. The kids thought it was cool and Sarah was even allowed to help. She thought this was really neat. I guess she's like me. I loved power tools (still do). She did a great job and I'm so grateful to Kenny for letting the kids help him even though it takes so much more time.

She got pretty good at it, but dad was always right there to help.

The biggest sparks came when dad was helping her.

Ben's Basketball Team

Ben wasn't as lucky when it came to basketball teams this year. That's one of the bad things about Junior Jazz. It's luck which coach you'll get and being that they're just parents of the kids, sometimes they're not the best at coaching. Ben's coach fell into not the best at coaching category. In fact, it was so bad that we allowed Ben to miss his last 3 games. When you don't get to play more than 1/4 of the game, never touch the ball, and when the coach doesn't even know your name, it's hard to make your kid go back. Ben's coach was very interested in winning and he had his 4 star players. They played most of the games and never passed the ball. During practice Ben was told to stand in one place and let the good playing boys run drills around him. He was told not to move or go for the ball. When Kenny asked the coach about this he was told that the boys are learning by watching. It was really a joke. My favorite was the game where the entire last half he had his 4 star players playing and the one remaining spot was left for the other 6 players to rotate to. Needless to say, they lost most of their games, which actually made me pretty happy. Finally with a few games left, Kenny took Ben to a practice and after being there for more than half the time and never getting to even touch the ball once, Ben finally walked off the court. That's when Kenny talked to the coach and we never went back. It really was to bad, but I didn't see the point in making him go through that. He still wants to try next year, but this time we'll sign up early to make sure Kenny can be his coach.

We got a team picture, but because we never went back to the games I haven't gotten it. I'm trying to find it and when I get it I'll post it. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures while he was playing. I meant to, but never got around to it and then he stopped going. Next year!

Sarah's Basketball Team

Sarah's basketball team showing their silly side.

Sarah had another successful year of basketball. We were a little concerned the first few times went to practice because she had been put on an established team that lived on the hill nowhere near us. There were 2 other girls from our school on her team (both 6th graders, gasp) and we were a little worried that this new team, who most of them played together would play favorites to the girls they were used to. I saw it happen a little, but overall I was very pleased with her new team. The coaches worked the girls really hard. Most often they had a 2 hour practice on Saturdays and then an hour or hour and a half practice during the week, along with their game. They worked with the girls and taught them the fundamentals of basketball and really spent time with those who weren't getting it. It was nice to see. They had some issues too. The team wasn't very good at passing and it showed in the games. Even though the coaches taught passing the guards didn't pass, but instead drove in to the corner and lost the ball almost every time. They won a little less than half their games, but Sarah still enjoyed playing and she enjoyed her teammates  It was a good year and I think she'll play again next year.

Sarah using some of her defense skills. (On the left in the blue shorts.)

Going for the pass.

Watching Kira make a shot.

Sitting on the bench with the girls and their 2 coaches. Coach Tyler and Coach Anna.

Just Chilling

I caught Adam chilling on the couch one morning watching Backyardigains. We love Backyardigains and I love watching my little guy just chill. I thought I'd grab the camera and snap a few pictures of him. He's one of my kids who doesn't like to spend too much time in front of the TV, unlike his just older than him brother, so images like this are rare. He sure is getting big quickly.

Creeper Cake

The Creeper Cake!

As I said before, Ben wanted a Minecraft birthday party. The party didn't really have a Minecraft theme to it, but I did manage to make the birthday cake Minecraft-like. The Creeper is a green monster thing in Minecraft that I guess tries to eat you or something (I'm not too familiar with the game.) Anyway, I saw this cake online and thought I could replicate it. It turned out not too bad. The boys sure enjoyed it.

Blowing out the candles, all 9 of them.

When you get a group of 8 and 9 year old boys together for a birthday party there's bound to be cake in the face.

Colby got in of the cake fun.

Zack and Austin enjoyed some cake to the face.

Gracie and the little boys enjoyed just eating the cake.

Birthday Party Time

Over the year's I've learned that even though Ben's birthday always falls close to Presidents Day weekend, that is not a good weekend to have a birthday party. The past two years we had his friend birthday the Saturday of Presidents Day weekend and only 2 or 3 kids showed up. I guess it's the perfect 3 day weekend to get out of town and head to somewhere warmer for a few days. This year, having learned my lesson, we decided to hold Ben's friend party the weekend after Presidents Day. It was much more of a success and he was so excited to finally have a birthday party where most of the kids he invited came.

It was a great party. We started out with a treasure hunt, played some games in the basement with balloons, ate pizza, opened presents, played pin the tail and just had a great time. He wanted to go with a Minecraft theme. For those of you who don't know what Minecraft is, it's computer tablet game that is all the rage this year. I told him he could have that as a theme and then quickly dreaded my decision  It was so hard to create or find games along that theme or to decorate with that theme. We ended up just kind of having a normal party and throwing a few Minecraft things in there. He didn't mind so much and next year I'll do better. (Don't I say that every year.)

The treasure hunt.

Trying to pop each others balloons.

Ben and Austin

Ben with Charley and Alex, our neighbors next door who Ben is always with.

Ben and Connor

Ben with twins Ian and Colby our neighbors in the back.

Ben and Tenoch

Ben and Zack

Pin the tail on the Minecraft dragon.