Week of September 21 - September 27

Brookside Elementary had its annual carnival this past Thursday afternoon. Doesn't it look fun?

I sent the kids while I made dinner. They even brought the camera! Can I tell you that having older kids to help with younger kids is THE BEST! Here are Cali and Cheyenne having fun on a bouncy/slide thingy:

Megan, Sarah, and Mariah had a great time, too. In fact, you could say, they had a ball!

Friday, there was no school. Yeah! So we went back to Payson Lake! Look! It's just like last year, isn't it?

It was a beautiful day and we caught five fish. Here is Megan doing her reenactment of George Washington:

Savannah, found a nice reading spot and Bethany did some exploring:

We did a lot of lake gazing . . .

And I had to make kids stop so I could take cute pictures on the path around the lake . . .

That Friday was also Sarah's birthday! She turned twelve years old! To which she exclaims, "Finally!!!!" She so wanted to start the Young Women program at church and be out of Primary. I guess her anticipation of it completely wiped me clean of any sadness I might have felt at having my daughter grow up so much. The truth is, she already grew up that much and her age has finally caught up with her. We went over to Grandma Gazdik's house that night and had a lovely birthday dinner, opened presents, and had cake and ice cream. Isn't she a lovely twelve year old?

Saturday was a pretty busy day for us, as well. Mariah had a soccer game in the morning. Then Kevin, Savannah, Mariah, and I, headed out to Provo Canyon for a 5K race. It was a really small one, and, consequently, I ran a very real danger of coming in last, last, last. My triumph for the day is that in the last mile I passed four people and saved myself from ignominy. Hurrah! Kevin and Savannah ran together and came in just under 25 minutes. Mariah ran it in 29 minutes. What a trooper! Can you believe she played in an hour long soccer game and then went and ran 3 miles? What kind of parents do that to a kid?? She had a hard time walking today. But guess what? She never gives up. She wouldn't have had it any other way.

I went to the Relief Society broadcast last night at the church. That was really nice. It was nice just to sit and watch something without interruptions! Although, I wouldn't trade my seven interruptions for anything.