This was the week of Mariah's Hershey Track Meet!  It was also the first year since Savannah was a fourth grader that I have only had one Hershey Track Meet to attend.  I calculated that this was my 15th Hershey Track Meet.  Wow!  I am a seasoned veteran.  Does this mean that I no longer miss events because I am late?  Unfortunately, no.  :)  I did pretty good this year, though.  Mariah did fabulous.  The kids can only compete in two events.  Mariah chose the 800m and the 400m -- the two longest events -- and she placed in both!  She came in third in the 800m, and she won her heat of the 400m with an incredible dash past the leader in the last stretch to place second overall.

The girl is fast!  It was fun to see her have such fun with those races.  We love that speedy girl!

Otherwise we had a pretty uneventful week.  Savannah did have choir festival on Wednesday and she had fun wearing her lovely choir dress and singing.  She has also joined Springville's Youth City Council (YCC).  That is a group of about 40 teens who work with the city council to accomplish projects, learn about government, and do volunteer work.  This Saturday they had a breakfast with the city council and then mulched trees in one of our city parks.  She had to be sworn in at a city council meeting with the other teens earlier this month.  It was pretty cool! 

On Saturday, we did some chores.  The younger girls wanted to earn some money so I had some hard workers!

Ben washed the cars with just his hands -- no rag.  I didn't even offer him money and he so wanted to work!  Beth also worked for free.  She sang while she worked:

The most exciting thing of the day (or of their very lives if you ask Megan her opinion) was when Dad took our three older girls to the T-Mobile store and got them their very own phones!

Can you believe I wanted to interrupt to take a picture???

Savannah, of course, is hesitant to embrace anything that could be considered pop culture.  Fortunately, I convinced her to get one for my own convenience.  So, she now carries a phone to humor her mother.  Yay, me!  She might decide she likes it, but she may never admit it!

Savannah will be paying for her own phone, and Megan and Sarah earning theirs, but their lines were actually only $5/month after the expensive lines Kevin needs for work.  So . . . for the added convenience (and the happiness it would bring) we decided, why not?

The other really fun thing on Saturday was that we got to see Grandma Mary!  She stopped on her way back from a visit to St. George.  She stayed for a few hours and it was so fun to visit with her and get caught up on her life.  We were glad she came!

Ben has been learning a lot more words.  He can say all his sister's names.  The cutest mispronunication is "Gagen."  He sure loves her and calls her name frequently!  He also says "Sor-ry!" really sweetly -- but don't be taken in because he doesn't stop whatever misdemenor in which he is engaged even when he charms you with that sweet apology!  Lol!  He says, "outside," and "porch," and "ride," and "cars,"  (he loves cars!), and "dog," and "cat," and "horse," he also says "fowie" for "flower."  Isn't that funny?  That's because he decimated my tulips this week, which wasn't bad considering how long they lasted before he took an interest in them.  My little girls never let them last that long at that age!  He says "owie," and "hurts," and "bottle," and "blankie," and "baby," and "ball."  His cutest phrases are, "Whatcha doin'?" and "Where going?"  Which reminds me that he also says, "bye!" "see you!" and "love you!" and often yells them until one of us is pretty significantly far down the street.  He does not like being left behind.  But then, none of us really do, do we?