Halloween

Holidays are always so fun especially when your kids get older and love every minute of it. This year the kids had big goals of what they wanted to be. I have to admit I bit off way more than I could chew with their costumes.

Asher wanted to be the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. We watched a you tube video many times to help us learn how to make it. Asher in fact watched it too many times he had the whole thing memorized of what we needed. His costume took way to long to make, but it was fun. Everywhere we took him we got comments. We had strangers taking pictures of him. It was a little weird all the attention he was getting over his costume. He had a great time.














Max wanted to be a lego skeleton. Life gets a little busy and I did not have all the time to get this costume done. I actually was feeling really quilty about not being able to balance everything. Good thing that Max is such a good, patient and easy going kid. He actually got to be two things. He was his dad 20 years ago- way funny and then his dad went and bought him his own Bronco uniform with helmet, pants and all. He thought that was awesome.

A lot of people have asked if Nelson really looked like that- here is the proof.












Max and his friends getting ready to go trick or treating. They had a blast.

"Flippin with Joy"

Back in March out of the blue Asher said “Mom I want to do gymnastics”. At that point I did not do much with it not knowing if he really was serious. Well come to find out he really was. I put him in at the recreation center in Farr West and he loved it.

He just learned how to do his back hand springs. He is so cute, every time he gets ready to do one he wants to make sure the parents are watching. He has now realized that if he can do a back hand spring that he could do a back flip. He does them like crazy on the tramp. I am a bit afraid that one of these days he will flip right off the tramp. Max is a bit envious that his little brother can do something that he can’t do. Max is one determined kid, knowing him he will practice until he can do cool tricks as well.
Asher has done really well at tumbling and really taken to it. He loves it!! Here is to more super cool stunts in the future!











Max loves to do awesome tricks off of our fort. This fort has been a hit for the kids and their friends.

Our Denver Broncos Fan

I can’t even tell you what it was that made Max become such a Denver Bronco fan- but he is. He has liked them for awhile. Maybe it is because his dad has a Bronco’s hat and his Uncle Spencer lives in Denver. He never watches their games on T.V. but he would tell you he was a through and through Bronco fan.

He has asked us a few times if he could go stay at Spencer’s to go see a game. We printed the schedule this year for him and had him look to see if he saw a game he wanted to go to. He looked over the schedule and said I guess I will have to catch it next year- all the games are on Sunday and there are none in Denver on a Monday. What a good kid. He is a better example to me. I was going to tell him he could still go, but how do you do that when he sets the example for us.
Here is to a look of some of Max’s favorite items:

Note- he has a desk that is broncos, a uniform his uncle went to 4 stores to find for him, and a uniform that his dad bought him. He loves all of his bronco stuff.

UEA Weekend

This year for UEA weekend we went on a little get away to St. George with my older sister. Of course there was nothing relaxing to it, we usually go full force at everything, but it was a fun weekend.

We got in plenty of swimming and playing at the indoor and outdoor pools.

We spent time hiking. The weather could not have been better. We were able to hike in some beautiful areas. Max and Asher love to hike and explore every rock they see. Hikes usually take double the time because of all the exploring but it is so fun being together as a family. Max slid down some rocks and played in the water. He only did it one time though, that was enough for him.

Later that night we hit a show at the Tuachan Theater. We saw Tarzan. The boys loved it. Max said "It would hav ebeen better if they could have left Jane out." I am not sure Disney knew that 9 year old boys don't really care about girls at this point and would be happier if they were left out of the story.

My only wish now is that we could get just one normal family picture- is that too much to ask?

Asher's 6th Birthday

When I was pregnant with Asher he was due on October 17th. As we got closer to the due date I thought it would be so cool if he was born on the 12th. Max was born on the 12th of august and I thought it would be fun if the two of them were born on the same day of the month. We thought this would never happen because my body would just stay pregnant as long as it could. Well as it has it, the boys were both born on the 12th. I just realized the down side to this. As soon as Max has birthday or even starts the count down so does Asher. This makes for a very long count down. He spends a lot of time anticipating his birthday. To him he knows he has 60 days after his brother's birthday.

This year Asher really wanted a birthday party. Nelson and I are not against birthday parties but in the past years decided we would rather take the kids to do something for their birthday that we normally would never do. Asher agreed to this so we headed out for our adventure.

To begin we met the grandparents in Roy at ABC Mandarin for dinner. Asher picked this placed and absolutely loved it. The owner came in and played a leaf and a musical instrument for him. It was a great start to his night. After that the four of us headed to the flow rider to do some surfing. Asher and Max ended up doing it together. I could not stop smiling. Every time Asher and Max jumped out of the water they had the biggest grins on their face. They loved every minute of it.

While we were there a teenage girl spent time with Max trying to teach him how to surf standing up. They had a great time and begged to stay longer. It was a great way to spend his birthday.

Flag football

This year the boys wanted to play football. Truth be known Max really wanted to play tackle but I am not sure I am ready for that big of a commitment. We made a compromise and signed them both up for Flag Football. They both had a great time playing and had awesome coaches.

I was not the parent of the year and forgot to take my camera to each game. Luckily another mom got some pictures of Asher's team but we don't have anything for Max. We had a great time watching the boys play and learn more about football. Asher was the youngest on his team but he hung in there. They both loved it!!

LoToJa

This year Nelson decided to sign up and ride Lotoja again, but with a different approach. With Travis Poll’s passing he decided to ride in his honor. Instead of signing up and paying the money to do the ride he was going to raise the money for his entrance. The Huntsman Cancer Foundation does a fundraiser that you have to raise so much money to get into the ride. Nelson decided he wanted to do this.

During a few months he did what he needed to in order to raise the required amount. The night before race day he decided he was going to make and laminate a sign for his back. His sign simply said In memory of Travis Poll with his birth and death date. The next morning when he started the race he pinned his sign to his back.

At the finish line he told us and others that this ride was more emotional for him. He said the support he received during the race was amazing. There were several times in the ride that people would ride up to him and start talking about Travis. They wanted to know all about him. Other times people would ride up and say jump in with our group Travis would not want you to quit. He was amazed with all the support people were giving him.

When he finished the race we were waiting at the finish line for my brothers. We werestanding around talking and watching the other riders when a lady stopped and started reading the sign on his back. She got a huge grin on her face and started getting the attention of the other people with her. They approached us and began asking how we knew Travis Poll. Nelson explained that it was a good friend of his. They became teary and said, “That is our cousin and nephew, thank you so much for doing this for him”. They asked him if he would take off his sign so they could get pictures taken with him. I felt myself get emotional as I watched and listened to them talk to each other. The crazy thing is there are about 1,800 people who do the race. What are the chances we would run into someone who would know Travis?

Nelson had a great race and felt pretty good when he was done. This year for the race Nelson wanted to complete it in ten hours and 30 minutes. He actually got 11:08. He was not so pleased with that but still had such a great accomplishment of completing the race. This year was a little rougher on the training with the half ironman and his bishop responsibilities. He did a great job and I was grateful we could be there cheering him on.