Kaleb's First Day of 2nd Grade

I don't know who was more excited for Kaleb's first day of school, me or him. It's such a comforting feeling to have a child that loves school because you know he's thrilled to be there and learn. The only thing that freaks me out is that he's already in 2nd grade. Where has the time gone?

College Roomies Reunion

It has been 10 years since the "Gates of Hell" existed. For all of those in the dark, we lived in Gates Hall at BYU and this just happened to be our nickname. It's a little deceiving because we were such a great, fun group of girls. Anyway, we had a great time seeing each other after such a long time. Everyone was married and had a anywhere from 1-4 kids. We're planning another get together in five years and then, New York 2018!!! Thanks girls for such a memorable weekend.

Kaleb Gets His Purple/White Belt

Kaleb has now earned his purple/white belt in Karate. He's got such wonderful discipline that he just whizzes through all of his skills. He's especially thrilled this time because he can now start sparring. Congrats Kaleb!

Our Fun Family Trip to Florida

We took our family vacation this summer to sunny Orlando, Florida. Despite it being a little warm, we had such a great time. The best part was that Grandma and Grandpa Evans joined us so their were 4 adults and 3 kids. The odds were definitely in our favor. Unfortunately, even with those odds, we still lost Carter at Disney Hollywood Studios. If any of you parents out there have lost a child, you can vouch that it is the most frightening experience anyone can have. Thank you to the employee that took Carter aside to wait for his parents to find him! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Evans for joining us. We are grateful to have such quality and quantity time with you. Here are the highlights from our trip:

Disney Animal Kingdom

The awesome pools and fountains at our hotel

Disney Hollywood Studios- The boys got to meet the Power Rangers, watch a live stunt show, see an Indiana Jones show, train to be young Jedi Masters and then we went on a ride called the tower of terror. Well, Carter was barely big enough to go on this ride and I was getting funny looks taking this little kid on it. He loved it, which is funny because I heard a few older kids crying after they got off of it.

GATORLAND- let me explain. This is a place where you get to look at and touch real live alligators and crocodiles. Grandpa Evans even has a picture of the boys and I sitting on a live alligator. I'll try to post it when he emails me his pictures. All I can say is that for little boys, this place is just as great as Disney World

Disney Magic Kingdom- I'm not going to lie, the best part about this day is that we left little Landan (a.k.a.- Mr. Mischievous and that's putting it nicely) at the hotel with Grandma Evans. We were able to go on every ride we wanted and the other two boys had such a great time.

Kaleb's "Harry Potter" 7th Birthday Party

Kaleb decided he wanted a "Harry Potter" birthday party this year. I thought it would be fun to hold our own tri-wizard tournament. I split them up in two teams and gave them disposable cameras. For the scavenger hunt, every new clue had a different picture to go along with it. The first picture of Tanner is the only one from that group to even have a person in it. I guess that's what you get when 7 year olds are taking the pictures. I actually took the pictures for the other team, so theirs turned out a little better. They also won the scavenger hunt but the other team ended up winning the overall tournament. They had such a great time. My favorite is the last picture because it has most of the kids in it and Carter is throwing a fit. This he did the entire first half of the party because he couldn't "keep up" with the big kids and it really frustrated him.

After our tri-wizard tournament, we had the kids make their own potions to drink. They mixed different flavors of kool-aid together with names like sleeping potion, and dragons blood and then they added pop rocks to make it fiz and pop. This was a big hit. We sang happy birthday, Kaleb blew out the candles on his cupcakes and they enjoyed the treats. Opening presents was next and last at Kaleb's fun-filled birthday party. Before he could open a present he had to give that person a wish. It was really cute to hear some of the wishes he gave them. My favorite was his wish to Trevor. He said, "I wish we can be best buddies forever." Trevor responded, "We are best buddies and we always will be, so the wish came true." This year he invited Tanner Ritchie, Trevor Bond, Logan Kennard, Evan Hyde, Jake Lively, Caitlin McNaughton and Faith Fitzgerald. He truly has the cutest friends.

My First Triathalon

I did my first triathalon this weekend, and it was so fun! This first picture is of Keri (my little sister) and I before this race. It was about 6:30 in my morning so I think our faces were still trying to wake up.



This next photo is of the transition area.


Here I am at the finish line holding my darling signs the boys made for me. They said things like, "Mom, you rock" and "You're hot!" They were all so supportive of me. It took a lot of time training for this so I'm giving Jake a personal thanks for the many Saturdays he spent with the boys so I could train.
The last photo is of Keri and I right after I finished. She, of course, finished before me so she probably looks a little more rested than I do. I'm very proud of her because she took first in her age division. I guess everyone that knows her doesn't take that as a surprise. She's amazing. This is just the beginning of me and triathalons!

Kaleb's 1st Grade Program

The 1st grade at Kaleb's school put on a darling program last week. The theme was "I'm free to be me." They had the kids show different things they could be when they grow-up. Kaleb had a long speaking part and as soon as I figure out my new video camera, I'll upload it. He was also a cowboy in one of the songs. He did a great job!