Our Life

I'm not working much in October so I'm taking the opportunities I can to volunteer in the kids classrooms. Monday, October 5th I went in and we helped the students make Chinese Rabbit Buns. It was such a cute activity and a fun way to teach them lots of cooking words.

 

That evening we had family pictures. Let me tell you we have had a lot of Amazon packages coming and returns at the UPS store as we planned for Homecoming, Senior Night, a baby shower, and family pictures. Mind you I planned outfits for fall weather and it was 90 degrees. Oh well, we had fun and hopefully you will see an updated blogger header as soon as the pictures arrive. Afterwords we went to Crispy Cone for a treat to celebrate. 

 

Wednesday, October 7th Andrew had his first Shoreline Orchestra concert. He wore his Where's Waldo costume from last year which was a hit with the kids again. Unfortunately I was the only one that was able to attend as Steve had to be down in Lehi for work and Lila and Marcus had activities that night. It was fun but really we have been spoiled by his Kaysville Chamber Orchestra days but he is enjoying continuing playing with his friends.

We came home and I made him a mug cake because Mr Kemp insists the kids deserve ice cream after their performances. 

Then Thursday, October 8th I had the privilege of going on an Orchestra field trip with Andrew. After I finished with the elementary VEX kids I drove to Shoreline and checked in. We organized the kids and got them on the busses to head to Farmington High for a Utah Symphony performance. It was so fun! The conductor Kyle Dickson interacted with the kids and gave each of the sections a chance to be highlighted. It was a delightful field trip. 

Then we went to the Layton Hills Mall where the kids could eat the lunch they brought or buy lunch. Andrew and I bought Chinese food together then he went and got a DQ Blizzard. Somehow he spilled Chinese food well more like splattered it across his shirt and all his friends were laughing and saying it looked like he killed someone. I asked if he wanted me to bring him a new shirt. He didn't care. A group of girls asked if I would walk with them to Bath and Body Works to buy some stuff so I went with them while Andrew went with his friends and Levi's Mom to walk the mall. It really was an enjoyable field trip.

 

I came home and began getting ready for Bunco. I was originally planning on hosting it the third week of October but my Mom was scheduled to have surgery that week so I moved Bunco so I could be available to help her. Ellie dropped in with Porter and we had an impromptu family dinner which was fun. Everyone talking about the happenings of their life. And Bunco was a success. YAY! Here is our traditional picture afterwords with the prizes. Although I joked we should have taken our pictures with the bottles of butterbeer and caramel apple cider that looked like alcohol and we were laughing all night about how we didn't know what to do with bottles because they kept getting knocked etc. That would have been a fun picture. 😉😂

 

Steve took Marcus to flag football that evening and I feel like I always miss the exciting games. Marcus had an interception and a touchdown pass. The game before I missed he had the first touchdown pass catch of the game and then the last play of the game he got a pick6. His team has been cute this year and I'm grateful to the coach for giving all the kids a chance to run or catch the ball. Marcus's friend Dexter who plays QB is good about giving all the boys a chance and I told him that was a really great thing! His team had an end of season party at the coaches house. They provided pizza and I took Olipops and watermelon, I think those were the only healthy things there. Marcus came home and said they ate donuts, Halloween candy, chips but he didn't have any Mountain Dew because he knows his limits or rather he knows my limits for him. KIDS! Just as I was heading to pick Marcus and Dexter up from the party his coach sent this picture with the caption, "They have taken to the streets!" 😂

This is a good learning experience because we didn't end up on the team with his friends but he had more opportunities to grow and learn on this team. His friend's team the Packers are currently undefeated, we are scheduled to play them Tuesday at 8pm as a makeup game for a week the games got rained out but it is currently raining all weekend so we shall see what happens.

Andrew also had his last campout as a Deacon. They went out to Antelope Island. The weather was great on Friday but after dinner a big gust of wind almost took all the tents down. They realized there were some guide ropes that had been tucked up in pockets so they had never used them when setting up. The leaders then testified how guidelines help us buffet the winds of the adversary and life. They have great leaders and we are truly grateful for the things they do for his quorum (working on getting some pics from his leaders). 

As for Andrew's basketball team. He is happy to be back playing with his friends. The first game several of the boys were out of town so they only had 5 kids there. Unfortunately one of the waivers hadn't been signed for one of the players so they played 4 against 5. Andrew was running the whole top half covering guys and at one point they even went down to 3 against 5 due to one of their players asthma kicking up. It was rough but I'm proud of Andrew and his efforts. The last game was rough too. They have several new players and they just haven't found their groove yet. Andrew is dribbling down court and taking more shots. He even made a couple in the first game and a three pointer in the second game. Go KNIGHTS!

I was also able to go in and facilitate book club for Marcus on Friday. It was a fun book to read and discuss with him and the group: Tree Table Book. I took in a little pack of oreos for everyone because the narrator, Sophie, tells her friend Ralphie how bad they are for him. And we played 2 truths and a lie at the end as it was a game Sophie played with her friends.

Steve and I were able to sneak out for date, Saturday, October 10th, to see a matinee of Our Town at Hale Center Theater. Our tickets had been bumped around a couple times due to a conflict and one of the shows getting cancelled. It wasn't our favorite but it was still nice to get out and pick up some yummy Spitz for a late lunch.

I know life is busy and full but I wouldn't have it any other way. Recently Brooke Romney posted on Instagram about how there is a lot of backlash about competitive sports and all the activities are kids are busy with but she said childhood has changed thanks to technology and no matter how hard we try to create electronic free space for our kids eventually a friend shows up with an unrestricted device and they soon are watching tik toks instead of the activity you've planned. At least sports provides an opportunity for kids to move their bodies and get natural dopamine. It's true. Life is crazy and we do the best we can.  

Senior Night

It feels like we've lived a whole school year during the month of September and all the senior things we've already had to do is mind blowing. They already had Senior Sunrise.

 

Also Lila's friend Easton invited her to the opening Mammoth Hockey game on Thursday, Oct 2nd. She had a blast and didn't even complain about how late it was (haha!).

 

 

This week we ordered her cap and gown and a class ring. And the whole week is leading up to Senior Night at the football game on Friday. They have been working really hard this week with extra extra practices because they went straight from homecoming to this performance and they are recording a fright night piece Saturday to a Michael Jackson song. Several dance companies are working on haunted film together and then they are going to gather on October 24th to watch it at the Kaysville Theater. Such a fun idea but the timing was rough. We dropped dinner off for Lila again because both Friday nights they have stayed after school to practice and get ready together. Then it was time for the big event. It happened to be pink out night at the football game, how fortunate I wore my pink pants because I had no idea! Don't mind my crying face with my eyebrow raised while trying to smile. Lila caught me tearing up earlier. . .I was holding it together until the Mom in front of us started crying.

 

Venessa and Ari came to take pictures for us and stayed to watch Lila dance at half time.

I had to get a picture of her by her senior poster on the football field.

 

They had a great performance. It was a long number and it looked good. We left at halftime. Lila stayed for a bit with friends and then came home to which she was excitedly greeted by Kodiak, whom we were dogsitting for the weekend.

 

We spent the rest of General Conference weekend sorting VEX pieces for the elementary program. The parts are all over and it is frustrating for the students and us when they cannot find the pieces they need. We hope once the sorting is done we can sit down with the teams and make sure they have a plan for their robots and are on track (the things we do for our kids).

 

Dog Pile

I feel like life keeps piling on. Steve has been slammed at work (they are down 3 employees; 2 due to cuts then right after that another employee got a better job yet they are still expecting the same output). Andrew wants to tryout for the high school pickleball team so he's been doing some clinic at The Picklr which means they haven't been attending mountain bike practice. Marcus had basketball tryouts for a little comp team. Andrew's comp basketball season is starting to gear up. We are also gearing up to start VEX at the elementary school and have been building the fields and organizing the desks in the portable.

 

 

After school VEX practices have also started at Jr High which means I'm there once a week for 1.5 supervising teams and I happened to get the busiest day of the week with 10 teams signed up but usually 12-15 come. They are actually really good kids.

 

I'm also teaching again this week and managed to pick up a cold which I'm totally bummed about because I had a girls pickleball weekend in Bear Lake planned but I bowed out so as not to get anyone else sick and I was exhausted. So that gets us to Friday, September 18th. It was an A day so Lila was home early. It had started to rain but just as I went to pick up Marcus from school it started hailing lightly. I decided not to take the new car and took the model S since the windshield is already cracked on it. It started coming down harder and harder. It was really scary. I had Marcus video while we were driving but the video doesn't do it justice. As soon as we got home we got a severe weather alert for a tornado. CRAZY!! Google Layton Tornado on September 18, 2026 there is some wild footage.

 

 

When Andrew got home I asked if everyone cell phones went off during class with the severe weather alert. He said, "yeah, it was crazy!!" Our science teacher just kept saying ignore it and keep working. His friends said they were in band with a skylight and the hail was so loud they couldn't hear each other or keep tempo but the band teacher just kept leading. We obviously do not practice tornado drills here! 😂I told the kids if they ever experienced one again to move away from windows and go to a basement if they can.

Andrew had a couple of friends over for a D&D night so I took Lila homecoming dress shopping. We ordered a couple online but have not found anything quite right. Thank goodness for Ross we found the cutest dress for $17. Then we came home and convinced Steve to go to Farmington Station with us so Lila could get this faux leather jacket she wanted. After shopping a couple of neighborhood boys knocked on the door asking for Andrew so they joined the party.

 Lila headed over to a friends house for a bit since we were the tween boy hangout. 😂

 

Saturday, September 19th Andrew went to pickleball tryouts. They had a lot more people show up than they anticipated. I originally asked them about the developmental team and they said come to tryouts. Then at tryouts they were saying if you want to do the developmental team you don't need to tryout. Andrew wanted to stay and I'm proud of him for putting himself there. He didn't make it and one of his friend's older brothers who was on the team last year didn't make it either (heartbreaking). We hope to keep building skills so that eventually he can play on the team, we shall see. I was hoping to drive up to Idaho that afternoon. My brother Jake came down Thursday and took Steve to see a vehicle he wanted to buy and after the hailstorm I was worried about it sitting out in our driveway but after the few morning errands I was exhausted. I showered and cried and realized I was still really sick and my body needed rest so we took it easy.

 

Then Sunday, September 20th we went to Porter's homecoming. He did a good job. Andrew had started not feeling well so we left him home. We came and checked on him after the meeting then went to the park to enjoy lunch with his family. His Dad smoked some delicious pork for sandwiches. Porter was wearing this great wood bow tie, I took a picture of to show Andrew.

 

The following week we started meeting with the elementary kids in the VEX Portable.

 

Tuesday, September 22nd, Lila had her day date for homecoming and they had a blast at a golf place in Clearfield similar to Top Golf. It was raining but they still had a blast.

 

The boys had orthodontist appointments. I scheduled them on late start Wednesday for Andrew but it turns out it was early out for Marcus due to parent teacher conferences so he had an extra short day. Oh well. 

Then Thursday, September 24th, I met with Marcus's teachers who we just love. I took them their favorite Fiiz drinks as a thank you. I also dropped off some Diet Cokes at the front office as a thank you for helping us get going with VEX. I even helped with the PTA dinner. I was feeling really on top of things for a moment. That afternoon I was able to see Andrew's team bot in action while I was volunteering which was fun. Seriously that kid has an engineering mind.

Friday, September 25th was homecoming at Layton High. I knew senior night was the next Friday and I did not want to attend 2 high school football games in a row so I decided to go the homecoming assembly that morning. First I met up with Lila to attend a CCR appointment with her counselor. Then I picked up groceries and came home unloaded and took Steve back up to the assembly with me. It was fun to see a high school assembly, it has been a while for us. The girls did good for the assembly but they crushed it at half time their outfits were great with the hip hop.

It was a good thing we skipped the game because I was prepping big time for a baby shower I was throwing the next day for my cute 2nd cousin once removed (her family just moved from down the street from us so I wanted to show our love and support). It turned out to be a lovely afternoon. We socialized, plays some games, and Ema opened presents. I was wishing I had taken some pictures, we had cute decorations and a yummy yogurt parfait setup with sweet breads. Thankfully they shared these pics with me.

Meanwhile Lila was getting ready for homecoming and her date picked her up with a crowd of ladies onlooking. 😂

Ellie took their pictures you can see them here, they turned out cute. Oh yeah and there was the possibility of us hosting the after party because the boys were "tired of planning" and said they were just going to go to a park. Lila said it's the boys that need to plan and I told them they are always welcome at our house. I even offered to make a Family Feud Spiderman game and Lila said they could watch a Spiderman movie so I was getting ready to host that when her friend Easton said they could go to his house and they watched a Spiderman movie. I told Lila the story of my senior prom when the after party plan fell through and the boys all looked at me and said, "Can we go to your house?" and I said, "Yeah!" Remember this was before cell phones so as we pulled up to my house I told my date I was going to run into the house to warn my parents. I opened the door and my parents said, "You are back early." and I said, "We're all here! Their plans fell through and they asked if we could hangout here." My parents of course were happy to see everyone.

It was also once again my turn to teach in RS. Thankfully it was only a 25 minute lesson this round but I had not been able to observe a 25 minute lesson before teaching. Once again I was grateful for the tender mercies of the spirit as I prepared and taught.

Well there you have a couple of full weeks in September. See see how I could feel like I've been dog piled on. All good things! I don't know what I would cut and I'm truly grateful for the tender mercies I've felt through it all and Steve's help when I know his work load is crazy. We will survive!

Moab for Andrew's Final Race

We came back from Newport and got back into life. I was back teaching at a Jr High multiple classes multiple days even had to do a lock down drill with 60 Jr High kids, that was an adventure. 

I decided it was finally time to post the van on KSL. I thought it would take some time to get some traffic on it and maybe we'd sell it after we got back from Moab. Well within 30 minutes someone texted wanted to see it that night and they had cash. Right after we sold it I received a couple of more texts. So that went fast and was a crazy little rush to finish clearing it out.

Steve and I held the parent's meeting for the Heritage VEX program. I think it went well. Steve complimented me on my presentation skills, he says it shows I present to kids for my job. That night I sliced my finger while cutting up watermelon and it was a doozy! I bandaged it up good and went to football with Marcus while Steve and Andrew went to their mountain bike ride. It is kind of a bummer this year that we haven't been able to attend football together so far we've been alternating who takes him and we each sit and help the coach do sub/rotations (happy to do that, that is my level of football coaching).

My finger throbbed all night. The next morning I took off the bandage to have it still gushing blood. UGH! I didn't know what to do because I was supposed to teach 2 classes that mornign then we were heading out for Andrew's last mountain bike race in Moab. Instant cares weren't open so I decided to hit the ER hoping it would be quick. Which it was and of course as I was being seen the bleeding slowing (I think I had the bandage to tight, I was trying to keep pressure on it but I don't think it was clotting because it was so tight). Well I at least got my tetanus shot which I was due for this year (trying to look on the bright side). 

We wanted to leave at noon Friday. The girls had commitments and could not leave the early so Thursday night we got my Dad's Tesla from my sister and noticed that the registration has been expired for 18 months! I called my Mom and asked what they wanted us to do and she said they didn't want to register it so Steve took it to the DMV on Friday and registered it under our name. One more thing to do before heading out but grateful we could get it done quickly. We also named the car Stanl3y. Then we loaded up Q with the bikes and our bags and we were finally on the road about 12:30. Q traveled like a champ. About an hour into the drive we realized we had forgot their pre-ride tags. We called a friend to see if they had left and they were nice and said they would just let them use their pre-ride tags when they were done. So Marcus and I unloaded at the condo and they took off for the race track.

The pre-ride went well and then the boys and I went hot tubbing in our private hot tub which was nice. The girls were still on their way down with Porter in tow since he had an interview and could not leave the same time his family was leaving. They stopped and had brownies and ice cream with us then Ellie took Porter over to his family. 

Well early early morning there was rain and thunder. The plan was for Steve to take the girls early so they could watch the high schoolers race. When they got there everything was on lightning hold. 

 

 

 

So I chilled with the boys for a bit longer before heading up for my volunteer time prepping lunch. Unfortunately due to the delays the ladies in charge of lunch were out watching their riders so I was winging it for about 45 minutes until they arrived and we started getting lunch out on the tables. After lunch Andrew was hanging with his friends and getting annoyed by Marcus.

 

 

 

Andrew's race had also been delayed by an hour so I took Lila, Marcus and his friend Thatcher back to our condo to rest for a bit. It was lovely.

Then we headed back to the race. Where I made sure he was drinking more fluids (I had been pushing them all weekend). Then we soaked that cooling towel and hung it under his helmet.

He did well! He held his spot at 20. He was bummed because he was hoping to go up a couple of spots but it was a long day and the heat and we are proud of him and the effort he put in.

 

We went home, had dinner, hot tubbed and then Lila and Ellie went shopping and came back with friends. 😂 I'm glad they came over to hangout for a bit. We had learned that if they cancelled Jr Devos again they would invite them to the Vernal race. I'm really glad they just delayed things and let them all race because we had traveled for that day and Andrew has never ridden Vernal since it was not on his race schedule. We got up Sunday ate breakfast, packed and headed home. Ellie left earlier trying to make it back in time to do church with Porter and his family. Glad we could track her in the Tesla app. It was a fast and furious weekend.

Newport, Kyle & Chloe Wedding

Our family loves the other Moore boys. They are so good to my boys. It has been fun having Kyle at BYU-I as we get to interact with him a bit more. We were excited to be invited to their special day and were looking forward to a little getaway. I managed to book our flights using Delta points there and Southwest points coming back. Then we got a ripping good deal on the hotel with a rewards program so we felt like things were falling into place for a get away.

 

I checked Marcus out of school early Friday because I didn't want him walking home to an empty house. I felt better about knowing he was home and the older two would get there later in the afternoon. I picked up pizza for them to enjoy that day. Our flight was pretty chill there. We didn't sit by each other, I was literally the last seat in the back. Then we were almost landing, like yards above the ground, the plane abruptly pulled up and started accelerating. There was another plane on the runway so we circled back around to try again. We were able to get our rental quickly and had decided to drive the 1 down to Newport (we flew in and out of Long Beach such a cute little airport). We stopped in Huntington Beach for dinner and it was yummy! We even ordered dessert which was this delicious apple donut with caramel sauce and pistachios so good!

 

Steve took me to the church where they were having a shower for Chloe. It was so fun to hangout with her and her family and play games. Sydney sat by me and we chatted. It really was a lovely evening. Steve checked into the hotel then drove out to Doug & Joddy's rental to hangout with the guys. Joddy's nice friends dropped me back off at my hotel and I had a blast visiting with them in the car. 

 

Saturday, September 5th was the day of the wedding. Steve went and grabbed us breakfast while I started getting ready. The service was lovely and the weather was perfect that day. 

There was a couple of hours after we were done with pictures before the luncheon/reception. The ladies from the night before invited us to go to lunch with them so we joined them. It was a lot of fun. Then we enjoyed visiting more with Doug, Joddy, and Carole at the luncheon/reception. We stayed until the end and helped clean up for a bit. Then we headed out. We decided to walk the cute little path by our hotel just as the sun was setting.

 

The next morning we had a reservation for breakfast at The Beachcomber. The location was magical. Right on this beautiful beach area. 

 

The weather was just starting to turn thanks to Hurricane Marie which also meant that some of our outdoor adventures we had planned didn't happen. We did enjoy the hot tub. We were also working on getting my parents to Utah to pickup her Tesla. Thankfully Ellie had Monday off and was willing to go get them and bring them down. There was a beautiful sunset from our window.

I was really antsy Monday. I just wanted to get home. Our flight got delayed and they had contacted us earlier in the week asking if we would be willing to leave Sunday. I kind of wished we would have because of the weather and then our flight being delayed. It's a ironic that Steve doesn't like to sit around when we are having beach days as a family but when it is the two of us he doesn't mind "relaxing more" and it stresses me out because I'm away from the kids and I'm worrying about them. . . something we are going to have to work on. We enjoyed a yummy breakfast then went back to the hotel and gather our stuff and checked out at noon to head to Long Beach there is this cute shopping center really close to the airport so we walked around there for a bit. Then we turned in our car and walked to the airport, we watched a movie while we waited for our flight. It was nice to get home to the kids although I wasn't the most pleasant when I walked in because they hadn't started the dishwasher at all and things were completely in disarray. I immediately regretted my short patience and wish I had just sat with the kids and asked them about their weekend for a bit. The things we learn. We did bring them back Kyle and Chloe chocolate which they enjoyed (they were disappointed we didn't take them with us to the wedding).