Good people

I think JB and I both had an uplifting week last week, full of good friends and good people and good times -- at good places.

 His mission companion came into town to visit. Here's what JB wrote to me when he sent this picture:

"Nearly 22 years ago I met Darrin Buttery at the MTC.  We were fast friends right away and ended up serving together for several months.  Today, as we attended a session together I couldn't help feeling a bit like Alma when he reunited with the sons of Mosiah.   He's still my brother in the Lord!"

They also went to some Jazz Summer League games together. They bonded over basketball in Brazil, as well.

And JB went with his dad to several Summer League games, too:

He was able to take Max and Ben on the last day and they loved it.

We also went to the temple together after he went with Buttery. The Salt Lake Temple is closed for a bit so we went to Bountiful and it was beautiful.

Finally, another great thing that happened this week was I saw my BYU freshmen year roommates again. We got together at a park with most of our children -- we were missing one roommate, but it was so great to see these girls (well, women! But I feel like a girl again when we are together).

I came to BYU somewhat awkward and shy and self-conscious and lacking much self-confidence. These girls embraced me and my quirkiness and brought me out of my shell and praised me and loved me. I will be forever grateful. They are now sweet and caring mothers and wives, and so uplifting and interesting! I wanted to talk all evening, but Andrew was laying down on the playground's pavement trying to go to sleep for the night.

Happy Fourth of July

We love our neighborhood on July 4. We decorate bikes the night before, eat a pancake breakfast in the morning, then line up with the crowds.

And then we head down the middle of the street, passing neighbors and friends, then getting passed by them.

Max and Ben are now old enough to meet us at the end, where the fire truck shoots up a spray, that this year came right. down. on. me. 

At the end, there's a block of carnival games and treats.

Ben purposely ran through the fire truck spray. It's a highlight of the summer for him. 

Also this weekend, we went to Lagoon and Lagoon-a-beach. Look at Jamesy, livin' the good life.

Ensign Peak

What did you do by 8:30 AM this morning? I had already been reporting for 4 1/2 hours, and was done with my part of morning drive radio. And JB and our four sons had reached the top of Ensign Peak.

This is JB's old stomping grounds. It's steep, but it's an incredible view at the top.

JB sent me pictures from his phone of their journey:

"He rode like this nearly the whole way.  Boy did he ever love the view of trains and the airport from up top."

 JB wrote: "Didn't want to hold still for the picture. Andrew was very worried about him falling off the top. Reminded me of Max in his concern."

And then, my favorite picture of all my boys, which is now my phone's home screen (replacing one from 2 years ago when the boys cuddled around a new baby James):

Afterward, they popped into Nona's house and got a second breakfast.  I think it was a great time for a hike. The littles are often up in the 6 AM hour, and the bigs rarely sleep past 7 AM, even in the summer (they are still going to bed at just about the same time as during the school year anyway because momma gotta sleep). And it is getting so hot now in the afternoons, a morning hike sounds perfect.

Andrew soccer

This was Andrew's first soccer season, yippee. And it went kind of like Max's first soccer season.  We kept telling Andrew to "Kick the ball! Kick it!" and he finally told me, "But dey won't wet me haf a turn." 

Here's some video of one of his first games. He's number 6, at the very back of the pack.

His last game he actually got a few kicks in, and I believe he got it to go into the (other team's) goal.  Max was encouraging him to go for it by yelling to him, "You can play with my Lego sets!"

Though most of the season his favorite spot was by his bestie Cory, talking about dinosaurs or alligators or boogers.

 

Here's our Gold Monarch (not sure who chose that) showing off his trophy from the end of the season. 

Andrew all week long would ask if it was time time for soccer that day. I think he liked having something of his own, after watching the older boys play various sports for a while. He still sometimes mentions that he misses soccer and preschool now that they are both well over.

Ben Baseball

Ben just finished a season of baseball with his friends for the past two months or so. This was his first time with machine pitch, and he started out the season hitting strong.

He hit a batting slump though a few weeks ago and kept striking out, game after game. We kept working with him, and I wonder if he just got too much advice (Hold the bat higher! Hold the bat lower! etc). But his second-to-last game he got a hit each time he was up (4 for 4), and therefore won a small Lego kit as a prize.

He is a hustler, though. I admire how much he always is trying hard. He pays attention, he follows the ball, he runs for the ball in the field and throws hard and does everything he can to catch others' throws when he plays first base. 

Daddy was a good fielding coach, too. He would be blogging this differently from his perspective out in the field game after game with all those 7 and 8-year-olds. Let us just say some of them did not pay sufficient attention to the game.

James spent a lot of time watching through the fence.

I'm pretty sure that is Andrew in the background picking his nose. He would run around with other players' siblings his age and really enjoyed himself. 

Max is the best big brother. He really helped me keep an eye on the littles. Especially because one field had a creek nearby, and another field was close to a fairly busy parking lot. 

Max Flag Football

This spring, Max did flag football for the first time on Tuesday nights. He really enjoyed it. I wish we would have thought of it before.

 

I thought he was pretty fast at getting right to the guy with the ball, and he made a lot of good tackles or grabs. For instance:

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It's always fun to play on the same team as a friend, in this case, Cooper J. (not to be confused with Cooper A, also in their same 4th grade class).

This is the same field we have played many soccer games, and a season of hot baseball games a few years ago. And I must say James is getting very good at not eating the black pellets in the artificial turf.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day marked our first trip to Lagoon this season.

"Whoa!"

And that meant while one parent rode roller coasters with the big boys, the other took the little boys plenty of times around on things like the boats.

James rode with brother Andrew, and then with cousin Phin.

After a case of mild whip lash on the Jet Star II (just for me, Ben and Max felt fine), we had some lunch with Papa, then rode more rides.

After Lagoon, James napped in the car while we drove to Provo to meet my Utah siblings at our brother Enoch's grave.

And we had a picnic dinner at Joe's house. Here are the Utah cousins on my side. We have other pictures of cousin Kaylee and James looking at the camera (and James doing a big cheesy grin like Andrew is below), but I picked this one because my brother Peter's baby David is sucking the nacho cheese Doritos flavor off of Maxwell David's fingers.

Kaylee is outnumbered by far. The only other girl cousin so far is a baby in Missouri. Another baby girl cousin is coming in the fall to join three older brothers.....in Seattle.

My brother Joe has dogs and cats and reptiles and tortoises and turtles, and Andrew was in heaven.

It was feeding time while we were there for Joe's monitor lizard. Bye bye, little mouse. I felt like singing "The circle of life" while we watched, but I refrained.