Big Changes at Our House

Life has just exploded and I haven't devoted anytime lately to blog. We have had some big changes at our house this fall. Our girls started attending a new school. They are enrolled at a charter school. It has been a big change. There are so many wonderful things about it. First, I am so excited that my girls all go to the same school. It has K-8th grade. This will be the one and only year that they will all be on the same schedule. I am fully enjoying it. The school has been wonderful. They believe in expeditionary learning. So the kids are constantly outside and doing fieldwork instead of sitting in a classroom all day. I cannot believe how many opportunities they have already had just over 2 months into the school year. I love it. I went on an fun overnighter with Riley and Mariah where we camped, hiked, and learned all about watersheds. It is a such a great idea to take the kids out to nature and instead of telling them about geology and water flow, showing it to them. We are excited to have our kids there and so far it has been a good thing for them. Also the Friday before school started I got a job. I wasn't really planning on working right then but an opportunity came along and I took it. Just the timing of it happening right before school started was crazy. I also started right away and had to make arrangements for Devin. So far it has been an amazing experience. I am a dental hygiene assistant. I really like what I do. I take x-rays, polish teeth, prepare trays and help with various things around the office. I have always wanted to work in a dentist office and I like being there. I really like the other people that work there. We have been blessed that Devin is so well taken care of on the days I work. Lucky for us we have parents who are retired. My dad comes up and stays with Devin one day and week and then one day he goes to play at Justin's mom's house. I also work a half day and Justin works from home on that day. So far it has been a pretty smooth transition. Justin and the girls have been great to help out around the house when I am not there. Justin enjoys being home and spending more time with the kids and being involved in what they do. And I think we all agree we like when it is his nights to cook dinner. There have been alot of changes but we are settling in and adjusting to the new normal for us. I just can't believe how busy we are with all the things the kids are involved in. Crazy life, but great!

Favorite Memories of Orlando

On a week long vacation of course there are going to be many wonderful memories. Here are a few I will remember. Riley and Dominic's laughter and farting noises (fake and real alike).

The cool Legos at Downtown Disney.

Ghiardelli's

Our hotel that looked like Bikini Bottom.

The Fanny Pack!!!! And it also reminds me of Riley and Dom on the walking escalators at the airports with their luggage.

Hogwarts!

The rafting ride at Universal. We got totally soaked and we loved it. We rode it twice.

This is Riley after the day at Universal. She was so exhausted.

The ride with Figment. It is something Justin remembered from when he was there 25 years ago. He loved it. Riley also loved it. We did the ride twice and bought a stuffed little Figment to take home.

No Mo. Dom saw this on the way to the Magic Kingdom. They thought it was hilarious that there was no Mo at the Magic Kingdom and they got a picture to prove it. Mariah probably doesn't think it is so funny.

I love this picture of Dominic. It was so fun that Missy and Dom got to come with us. I love my nephew and we enjoy the time we get to spend with him.

My favorite memory was Riley's face when we walked into Harry Potter World. It was such a great vacation.

Hollywood Studios

Our last day there we spent half of the day at Hollywood Studios. The kids wanted to ride the new Star Tours 3D ride. They rode a couple of rides and we saw a Muppets show and then they ran out of steam and they were ready to leave.

I took this picture for Devin.

We saw some props from movies. This the Davy Jones' organ from the Pirate movies. We also saw the axe from the Shining. I should have taken a picture of that.

We ate lunch at Pizza Planet. The food was probably the best we had in a park but sadly it was not as cool as in Toy Story.

Animal Kingdom

We spent a couple of hours at the Animal Kingdom on our last morning. Of course the tree was amazing to look at. The more you looked at it the more animals you would see. We went on a fun safari ride and walked a trail with more animals. Then we were off to Hollywood Studios.

Riley's Yeti hat.

Magic Kingdom

We were excited to take the ferry over to the Magic Kingdom. Riley and I were excited to see Cinderella's castle. Since that is something you can't see at Disneyland. It was really big and really pretty. We stood on the ferry and watch the castle get bigger and bigger. It was obviously one of my favorite things there. As I look back at the pictures we took they are almost all of the castle.

Riley really wanetd a smoked turkey leg until she tried it. Then she decided she didn't like it. This is more her kind of turkey leg.

Epcot

My favorite part of the trip besides Harry Potter World was Epcot. Most of the stuff at Disneyworld they have in Disneyland so we have seen it before. It was awesome going there and I enjoyed it, but I loved Epcot. It was a whole new experience for me. Justin had been there when he was Riley's age. It was fun for him to be there years later with his daughter. It brought back a lot of memories for him. As you can tell by the pictures I took there one of things I liked best about it was the gardens. They were having the spring garden festival while we were there. It was beautiful.

Cache Valley Cup

I know I haven't even finished blogging about our trip to Orlando but I have something that I wanted to write about while it was still fresh in my mind. Last week Mariah's soccer team played in the Cache Valley Cup. Some of the girls on their team were going to be at girls camp that week. So their coach invited 5 guest players to join their team for the tournament. Of course he picked girls who really had some talent. There is another comp team in Brigham called Ice. One of our players left our team to join theirs. Coach Scott got her and 3 other girls on their team to play with us. He also ask a girl that goes to school with his daughter to join us. We ended up having our strongest players and their strongest players. He brought in 2 really good forwards (which we really lack) and a goalie. Our goalie, Jazzy got hurt with a neck injury during the season and has not come back yet. The girls were excited to play and I was excited to watch them. I love Mariah's team but they have struggled this past year. They have gone up a level and the spring season we tied a couple of games and lost the rest. I was looking forward to seeing how they would do as a combined team. Our schedule was intimidating. We had played all the teams before and lost to them. Our first game was against the Sparks. Our girls played awesone and we won 3-1. We played Crush for our second game. They are a good team. We hung in there and beat them 3-2. Justin had a big project at work and couldn't make it to the games. He couldn't believe it when I let him know they won again. Their third game was against JOGA. We have played them before and thought they were one of the best teams in our division. We were ahead almost the whole game, but they tied it up right at the end of the game. I really didn't think we were going to be going to the championship game. Since we had tied our last game I thought another team would probably take first. We received word after our game that our chances of going to the championship game would be determined by JOGA vs. Crush the next morning. The outcome of that game would decide who would be going. I really didn't think we would make it. A couple of parents took our girls up Saturday morning to watch the JOGA/Crush game. We needed to be present if our total points tied up with one of the other teams we would need to make penalty kicks to decide who would move on. We got word that they tied the game neither team scoring enough points to beat us. We were going to the championship game! I was so happy. I got a little teary when I got the text. They had already exceded my expectations. I was just excited they had this opportunity and I was just hoping they would be competitive. We headed up to Skyview HS. We were going to be playing the North Ogden Thunder. They are a really, really good team. They had won all their games by huge leads and no team had scored on them the whole tournament. The game before ours went into overtime and penalty kicks to decide the winner. I made the comment that I hoped that didn't happen in our game. Our game started at least a half hour late because the previous game lasted so long. By the time our game started a summer thunderstorm was moving through and it was pouring. The game started and we were definetly at a disadvantage. We had one sub so most of our girls played the entire game. They had 6 subs on their bench and they were moving girls in and out letting them stay hydrated and get rest. It was such a great game. We stuck with them and at half time the score was 1-1. The second half brought on a whole different turn of events. Near the beginning of the secomd half our goalie, Marky, went down. While she was down one of the girls on the opposing team came down with her cleat on Marky's neck. She was hurt. Parents, coaches, refs all running on the field. They made the decision to call for an ambulance. The game stopped while we waited for the ambulance to come. Of course the girls were all upset. Our girls had the same thing happen to their own goalie a few weeks ago and to see it happen again was unbelievable. They got her off the field and the ambulance was pulling away. Now we have no subs and we are without a goalie. Our backup goalie, Kate, had hurt her hand in the first game and was wearing a brace. Our coach put in Kaylee who had never played goalie before. The game started again and before the ambulance had even left the parking lot Mariah went down. Mariah does not like to draw attention to herself. There have been times where she has been hurt before and she will jump right up and not let anyone know. She doesn't like to cause a scene. When she didn't get up I knew something was wrong. She got kicked and rolled forward at a bad angle and then she got kicked in the ribs while she was down. I was just thinking, "Don't let the amblulance pull away. Stay here!" They gave her a few mintues and it turned out the kick in the ribs had knocked the wind out of her. She couldn't catch her breath. Once she was able to calm down and catch her breathe she was able to get up. They got her off the field and she ran right back in. No way was she sitting out not when she could move and they had no subs. I could tell she was in pain and it was hard for her to breath. But she just kept going. We got a break away and scored a second goal. We were up 2-1. The girls were keeping it up and the game was going good and then another one of our girls went down. She was our best defender and she fell and got kicked in the head. She has a metal plate in her head from a previous injury. You don't mess around with that so they called for a second ambulance. Unbelievable! We were all stunned. AND the other team didn't even get any yellow cards for any of this! At this point our girls were starting to lose it emotionally. They had played so hard and they were ahead. But 2!!!! girls gone to the hosital, now we are down 1 man, and have an inexperienced goalie. We were told there was 6 minutes left in the game and we were just hoping the girls could hold on for that long and that know one else would get hurt. Then we received word that the ref was mistaken and there was 11 minutes left! Such a long time to hold on with what we had left to give. They played their hearts out. They went into a total defense mode and just kicked out anything that came towards the goal. We were hoping we could hold on and keep our lead. With little time left the opposing team got a corner kick for a hand ball. We lined up and blocked the kick. Kaylee was doing amazing at goal. She stopped several balls, catching them and diving for others. We never knew she had talent as goalie. You really had to be amazed at the job she was doing under so much pressure. While the ball was down there one of their girls kicked it in and scored. Not 30 seconds later, the ref blew the whistle and time ended with us tied 2-2. I was heartbroken. All we needed was another 30 seconds and we would have won. The girls had tried so hard and gave everything they had. I just didn't see how they could make it another 10 minutes of overtime. Somehow we made it through overtime with no one scoring and the game went to penalty kicks. We were exactly where I hoped we would not be at the end of this game. Our team was really worried about the goalie position. Kaylee had already given so much. So Kinsley stepped up to be goalie. She had never played either but she is an amazing athelete. She had joined us just for the tournament. She plays on a Crush team older than our girls and she is an amazing soccer player. So we went with it. The crowd was anxious and you could just feel the tension. The teams alternate kicks so each team takes one kick then the next team. After the coin flip they got to kick first. So first kick they score and then we score. Tied 3-3. Next kick we both score again. Tied 4-4. The third kick they miss but then we miss also. The fourth kick our goalie blocks and they miss again. So our fourth kicker goes up, Syd, and if she makes it we don't even need to take the 5th shot because there will be know way they can win. Everyone was just holding their breath. We deserved to win so bad, but in real life just because you deserve it doesn't mean it happens. I felt like it was David vs. Goliath. We were a puny little team matched up against a giant and we had held up and surprised them with our strength and abilities. Syd kicks the ball and makes it! And we win!!!!!!!! Our girls all just stood there for a minute. It was just not registering that they had finally won. And then cheers erupted! I will never forget their coach running out on the field and dancing and jumping with the girls. It was hard to find a dry eye on our side of the field. It was such a sweet victory. They overcame so much and played with every bit of their strenght. I have never been more proud. I think they could make a movie about it and it would be amazing. For me it was better than what you see in the movies because we lived every minute of it with those girls. I was so proud of Mariah playing so hard even when she was hurt. They left nothing on the field. Amazing, amazing, amazing! Even now 2 days later I am still shaking my head in disbelief. It was such a wonderful experience for our whole family. Riley and Emily were crying they were so happy. Justin got choked up. Justin's mom, dad, Tim and both Missy and Natalie's families all came to the game. I am so glad they got to see it. You almost wouldn't believe it if you hadn't been there. Here are some pictures.

Water break during the game. The girls can't come off the field even though we are waiting for an ambulance.

Harry Potter World

Riley's dream finally came true! She has wanted to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando since it opened. Justin's family had all talked about going but after realizing how much it would cost for our whole family to go, we decided we could not afford it. Justin has promised the girls each a trip with him anywhere they want to go if they save up money to help pay for the trip. Riley has been saving for a year and half to go to Orlando and she managed to earn all her money this spring. Justin surprised me and decided to take me with them. So the other kids stayed with each set of grandmas and grandpas for a few days while we went. We went with Justin's sister, Missy, and my newphew, Dominic. Here are some hightlights in no particular order. It was amazing to see. They did a great job with the atmosphere and rides.

Chocolate frog display at Honeydukes.

Us in front of the castle.

Ollivander's

Drinking butterbeer. It was really good!

Using their new wands.

Riley's pygmy puffs she adopted.

We had lunch at the Three Broomsticks.

The gates at Hogwarts.

Mandrakes

Hog's Head, which really moved and surprised me.

This was Riley when we walked in. I thought something was wrong with her because she was so quiet. I thought she would be talking non stop and pointing out things. She was totally speechless. It was a great moment (not because she was quiet), but that we got to see her while one of her dreams came true. Great moment as a parent!