This is my favorite view!  The Skinners gathering for dinner at night.  I love these people.

Savannah's mission date is drawing closer!  We reached the one month away mark this week.  Are we ready?  We're getting closer!  She's a great help to have around and I will sure miss that! But she will be an even greater help to the Toronto mission so I am excited for her.

Sarah had an easy tennis match Thursday.  She did great, and after she won, she got asked to the Homecoming dance!  It was pretty great since her mom and dad and grandma and grandpa were all there as well as Allyson's whole family and a group of friends.  Wow!  That guy has serious courage! We all loved it!  Sarah . . . was a bit embarrased but is super excited to be going to her senior Homecoming in the same group as Allyson.  It's next week! Hopefully we can get her a dress in time!

Megan's match on Thursday was a bit more of a challenge and she and her partner just barely lost in a tie breaker.  It was exciting!  On Friday Megan ran in a huge cross-country meet in Spanish Fork.  She ran in the JV race for Juniors and Seniors and . . . placed 2nd!  Out of well over 100 runners.  She did fantastic and even got a medal!  She's a rock star!

Mariah ran in the meet Friday as well.  She ran in the Varsity race and placed 18th overall and second for her team.  She's a rockstar, too!  On Tuesday for YM/YW, she was in my group for our pseudo "Chopped" activity which mimicked the popular cooking show.  She and her teammates made a lovely strawberry desert and fried-asparagus sandwiches.  It was tons of fun and our group totally won.  We beat Sarah and Megan, too.

Cheyenne and Calianne really, really wanted to be in the student council for the 6th grade and completed their 10 hours of service and their essays.  Unfortunately, they weren't chosen and they were very sad.  They've kept busy, this week, though, with Activity Days, piano lessons, friends, and homework.

Bethany's friend threw up in class last week and she became obsessed with the thought that she might throw-up, too.  When he showed up again to school in a couple of days healthy and whole, she felt better, too.  She lost her lunchbox Thursday at school and came home in tears and then in tears again Friday because they hadn't found it, yet!  Oh, the drama of second grade!

Benjamin seems to have adapted well to kindergarten!  He's always happy to go and is doing better on his homework.  This learning stuff might work out for him afterall!  His favorite time of day is still when he gets home and plays all afternoon in the backyard with neighborhood boys.  Such good times!  We had rainy weather this week, too, and all my second-half played together in the water!  Good, good times!

Kevin had a three-day class this weekend in Salt Lake City.  We still got to see him in the evenings but we missed him all day Saturday and again today!  Hopefully, his schedule will open up a little soon.  He's been so busy!

Monday was Labor Day and the kids had NO SCHOOL and dad had NO WORK!  Fun, right?  First, the twins had asked for a horseback ride for their birthday and when I found out that Sarah's friend, Tate, from EFY had horses, I asked Sarah to ask him if he'd take her sisters for a ride.  Labor Day was the day!  What a nice guy!  They all had so. much. fun!

Sarah got to ride, too!

Tate and Sarah

While they went horseback riding, Mariah and I went to go see the Avengers movie!  That night we all went over to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's for a backyard picnic, visiting, and games.  It was great fun!

Late, late Tuesday night Kevin and I left Savannah in charge and caught a plane for Orlando!  Kevin went to Orlando to attend the Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation Conference.  I got to go with him!  He didn't have any conference-related activities until Thursday, so Wednesday as soon as we landed, we drove out to Cocoa Beach, walked along the beach, collected shells, and even went swimming in the ocean!  So fun!  Afterward, we ate at the Lobster Shanty along the bay and were visited by a pair of playful dolphins.  Amazing!

This is where we saw the dolphins!

After checking in at our hotel and resting for a bit, we went out to eat at a local Indian Restaurant and watched our favorite show later in our room.

Thursday morning Kevin did an interview with a local Baptist church.  In the afternoon, we went to Downtown Disney and saw Inside Out and walked around the shops.  We had tons of fun.  That night Kevin needed to register for the conference and set up his booth, but afterward, we went to the hotel pool which was NICE!

We thought we could get this for Savannah to wear on her mission!

On Friday, Kevin attended his conference all day.  I didn't mind at all as I got a whole day to work on my novel!  Wow!  What progress I made!  That night, I had dinner at Kevin's conference with him.  He presented Saturday morning and I watched him.  He did fantastic, of course, talking about how the partners of pornography addicts develop PTSD symptoms and need help to heal as well as the addict himself..  Great message!  We left the hotel that afternoon and after some delays in the airport made it back to Salt Lake City around midnight.  We had a fantastic time!

Kevin's booth.

The lobby of our hotel.

Our kids did a great job taking care of each other while we were gone.  Sarah and Megan had a tennis tournament in St. George and were gone themselves Friday and Saturday!  Megan played singles in the JV tournament and won 3 of her 4 matches.  Go Megan!  Sarah and Allyson played first varsity doubles as the two girls above them couldn't make it to the tournament.  Even in that challenging spot, they won three of their five matches and helped their team take 2nd overall in the tourney!  They got a big trophy to bring home and display in the tennis cabinet at school.  Go Sarah!

Meg with the JV players.

The varsity team.

Mariah ran in a big meet Friday while we were gone.  She did fabulous running a 20:38 on a tough course with HILLS!  Go Mariah!

Savannah took care of everybody while we were gone, making sure they all got where they needed to go, shooing kids off the top of the van, cutting Ben off of the tire swing when he got tangled, keeping the house in order, and making dinners.  She was a rock star!  Go Savannah!  The house was spotless when we got home and I know they all worked together on that.  What a great group of kids we have!  They're the best and in the end, Brookside Drive is my favorite place to be!

Savannah found out that she can't work more than 910 hours before she's considered a full-time employee.  Since she's getting close to that cut-off, she has cut her hours down to six a day and we've seen her a little bit more!  She got her influenza shot and has been doing stuff with friends.  She says it feels weird to have her friends starting school and not be going herself!  I don't think she thought she'd miss it as much as she does.

Sarah had two tennis matches this week.  Tuesday's match was against Springville's arch-rival Maple Mountain.   Sarah and Allyson duked it out with them, split sets and had to play a third, and finally pulled it our for the win!  They emerged from the match to find out that Maple Mountain had defeated every other Springville team.   Way to be the victors Sarah and Allyson!  Thursday they took their turn to lose and they did not like it!  Sarah worked Friday and Saturday and went to the football game after work Friday and out to see a movie after work Saturday.  She also started her during-school-hours internship this week in a special needs kindergarten.  She LOVES it!

Megan also had two tennis matches this week.  She and her partner, Elizabeth, lost on Tuesday, but won Thursday in a ten-point tie-breaker.  It was pretty exciting!  She is getting better and better!  On Saturday morning, Megan ran at the BYU Cross-country Invitational in the Junior-Senior JV race.  She set a personal record for herself, running 3 miles in 22:14!  The top 30 finishers were awarded a t-shirt.  Megan blasted past three runners in the last 50 meters to claim a t-shirt for herself landing in 30th place!

Mariah also ran in the BYU Cross-country Invitational on Saturday.  She ran in the Varsity race and also set a personal record for herself coming in at 19:52 for three miles and claiming her own t-shirt in 30th place!  Mariah is running as the second runner on her Varsity team as a freshman!  She is super fast!  On Saturday afternoon she went over to her grandparent's house to watch the Nebraska/BYU football game and may have been just as excited as her dad when BYU won!

Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik came to watch the races Saturday, too!

Cheyenne and Calianne are working on their applications for student council and as such, they have to complete ten hours of community service.  They worked on that this week, going to Sister Holm's house on Tuesday to sort thousands of beads and to their grandparents house on Saturday to wash windows.  I also took them to Barnes and Noble to use the giftcards they got from Grandma and Grandpa Elton for their birthday.  They loved picking out their own books and then BONUS, because it was their birthday, they got free cookies in the B&N Café!  Fun times.  Friday night they had their friend Elizabella over for a late-night and they baked a cake and frosted it themselves.  Cali put frosting all over her face!

Bethany had a special treat at her school when students from Taiwan came for a day of school and a special performance that evening.  Beth loved it and her dad enjoyed it very much, too!  She started piano lessons with her own teacher this week and is super excited about that, too.

Benjamin continued going to kindergarten all this week and he still really likes it!  Yay!  He especially loves coming home and having his friends come over and play.  We've had boys living it up in our backyard everyday after school this week.  I think it's pretty great to have him come in dirty and exhausted from a great afternoon of playing hard.  Friday morning, Grandma Gazdik invited Ben over for a morning together before she took him to school.  He loves that too!

Kevin left Wednesday for Lincoln, Nebraska.  A Father in the Catholic church in Lincoln asked Kevin to come do some training for Catholic clergy and counselors in his city.  Kevin saw it as a great opportunity and scheduled it with the Father to coincide with the weekend that BYU would be playing in Husker Stadium.  It was definitely a win-win.  Kevin returned today and had a great trip.  He learned a lot about the Catholic church and his training was very well received.  He also had a great time watching football especially when the Cougars pulled out the win in the last seconds of the game.  What a great time for Kevin B!

The church Kevin taught at.

Kevin attended the game with his friend, John, from our ward.