A couple weeks ago we played football for family night. When we play as a family, there are usually a few extra rules you don't always see on tv, like automatic penalties for running over the toddler eating the popsicle, you know, things like that!
Jake trying to stop Michael while Luke runs additional interference
Jake scoring a touchdown,
while Trevor is busted with an
illegal block downfield
The best line of the night came when Jake, Don and I were on offense and Jake wanted to make a plan of attack, so he called for us to
"CUDDLE UP!".
It made all of us laugh as we cuddled up in our huddle.
Apparently cuddle up could also be a form of tackling here :)
Eventually the trees, bushes and ice pops won over Hayley, Jake and Luke.
It was a fun family night of football, although I think it pained Don to hear some of his youngest children calling huddles, "cuddles" and touchdowns, "goals". Something tells me this won't be our last football session!
Jake and his friend Colette in the Sack Race. Jake can really jump high!
March 25th was Field Day for Trevor, Hayley and Jake. It was Jake's first official Field Day and it was "totally awesome!!" It was a nice, slightly overcast day, not too warm or humid (much better than the May field days of years past). Luke and I went to check out some of the action.
There were lots of relay races and games going on. Jake's class has an official class parent photographer that sent a lot of good pictures to us.
Trevor spotting Luke
Jake in a ball relay
Jake on the scooter
Luke hopped on a scooter
when they were done
Trevor in a relay
Jumping Jake
Riding the bouncing ball
Hayley hanging out with her friends
Look at that coordination!
And of course everyone's favorite is the water balloon toss station. As per family tradition, we spent the evening before filling up 2 ice chests full of balloons for the event. Every year Hayley and Trevor bring home the balloons for their classes to be prepared. Luckily someone else did it for Jake's class this year (good thing too, we were out of ice chests!). The hardest part about filling up the water balloons this year was keeping Luke out of them. I don't know if he had ever seen them before, but he was fascinated with them. That was his favorite event to watch at field day.
Trevor
Hayley
That is one big water balloon!
Trevor and his balloon
Trevor in action
Jake getting wet
Yes! I caught it!
Another favorite station is the ice pop stand.
The crazy tongue kindergarten friends
Luke got a piece of this action too!
One of the sweetest things to see at field day was the way Trevor, Hayley and Jake each ran up to Luke when they saw him and included him in the fun. What a lucky kid!
Over Spring Break, Michael went on Trek with the youth group at church. Trek is a reinactment of the Mormon Pioneer Handcart Company. The theme for this trek is "Faith in Every Footstep".
The actual Trek began early. Michael had to report to the church at 4:45 am to load on the buses which would take them to an undisclosed location about 4 hours away. They had a specific list of sparse supplies to bring with them in a duffle bag and wore the pioneer type clothing of the 1800's.
Once they got there they had to assemble the handcarts.
For the next 3 1/2 days, Michael treked across deep east Texas, sleeping under the stars, pulling a handcart and living and eating like a pioneer.
Dawn rising at the campsite.
They slept under the stars on top of a tarp.
One of the snakes they encounterd on their Trek.
They were divided up into "families" of 10-14 people, including a "Ma and Pa" to lead their group.
Michael's Trek family, the "Bunkers"
The first day they didn't stop until after 10 at night, finally stopping for the night, gratefully eating a meager meal of broth and a hard roll.
They ate food like cornmeal mush, cracked wheat, stew and chili. During their "down time", they also did Pioneer themed activities like an evening hoe-down dance and doing things like a stick pull game, learned how to make candles, threw horseshoes and pulled taffy.
Cornmeal Mush for breakfast
Learning to dance
Tasting the taffy
A large portion of their time was spent pulling the handcarts over ravines, making bridges to cross creeks, etc. They learned a lot about teamwork and a lot about themselves during this time.
Don was able to go pick Michael up at the end of the trek and bring him home to us.
End of Trek, running towards their families
Michael & Don
Michael had a great time, learning a lot about himself and the pioneers. He made some great friends and was grateful to be home. (And of course, he was happy to hear that BYU had won their playoff game earlier in the week and was going to be playing that night!)
Brothers Mosies and Michael at the end of Trek
We were happy to have Michael back and his brothers and sister had made him a sign to welcome him home. I love how they put different things on the sign that they knew were significant to to Michael, especially the BYU basketball and Trevor's classic line, "Welcome to the 21st century!"
Below is a video of the theme song of Trek, "Faith in Every Footstep".
We are grateful for the legacy and sacrifices of the early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To learn more about the Mormon Pioneers, visit: http://lds.org/gospellibrary/pioneer/pioneerstory.htm.
