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Welcome to Summer

Our first full week of summer is behind us! Let's take a trip down memory lane of summers past ...

June 28, 2003

School has been out for one week. Easton breaks his collarbone running and Superman leaping from our front sidewalk to roll down the hill. (sorry, no pictures!)

July 5, 2004

At least we got 2 weeks of summer in. Nixon and Easton are leaping down the stairs in our house trying to touch the ceiling. Nixon can't fight his impulses anymore than his father on most days and reaches out and grabs Easton's ankle mid air. Result: Broken arm

June 26, 2005

THREE days after school gets out! Easton attempts to Tarazan swing out of a tree after church and it doesn't work out like he planned. Our worst break by far ...painful, requires "reducing" in the emergency room, only to slip so that our poor baby needs to have surgery to re break the arm and pin it. Pretty much the whole summer in a cast!

In 2006, we moved to a new way to torture mom. After all, it was our first winter in Park City, and those ski passes were begging to be used. Oh wait, Easton broke his arm the week after Thanksgiving and exactly 4 days after the resorts opened. This was accomplished by "grinding" on an icy balance beam on the playground in his tennis shoes (now against the rules at Trailside Elementary):

Just to be sure we killed the whole ski season and not to leave 2007 out, after the cast had been off for a few weeks in January, he re broke it. Here he is celebrating his cast coming off the day before we leave for Lake Powell for spring break:

Oh, did I mention Lake Powell? Well, we'd hate to leave Nixon out - the FIRST day at Lake Powell he fell off of a CLIFF and we were grateful that the only damage was a broken arm. Never mind the part where it took about 16 hours to drive to a hospital, get fixed up and get back to the Lake.

After all that, I deserved the summer of 2007 off, didn't I?

Well, boys and girls ...I'm sure you've already guessed the only place such a post could be headed - not fun notes about:

Our trip to Bryce with lots of friends AND my sister!

Nixon's 5th grade Clap Out and Movin' On Celebration

Our End of the Year Field Trips

Sara's Seminary Graduation

No ...

Welcome to Summer 2008! (Nixon, Easton, and Noah getting ready to bust through the Welcome to Summer sign on the last day of school):
June 16, 2008 - 10 days after school gets out:

Easton. Thumb. Baseball.

Looking forward to Summer 2009, where we can try, try again!

(PS We have been assured by medical professionals that this child does not have weak or brittle bones. "You SHOULD break a bone when you do this stuff.")

Blog is Back (in Black)

What could bring me out of blogging hiatus? How about Nixon rocking the (elementary school) house? Yes, that is my cute, quiet, reserved little boy as the toe tapping lead singer. We tried to get him to head bang a little, but no luck. We think he'll be pretty awesome once he hits puberty. Geoffrey kept telling him to get his voice lower - he said "Dad, I'm 11. This is as low as it goes."

This video is of their encore (I didn't even know they had practiced more than one song). So the crowd was pretty wound up already - their first number was TNT, this is Back in Black in case you can't tell. They also performed at the end of year BBQ and they added Long Way to the Top. What a bunch of cuties!

Oh yea, so one of my summer goals is to update this baby every Sunday. My paranoia has passed and I'm not on private setting anymore, but I did have to change my address, so if you have a link, please change it to http://www.jenniferannbarber.blogspot.com/. You can always see what we've been up to on Smugmug, but I had 2 main goals for this blog - recording stuff that was important to me and keeping in touch with friends. We'll see how I do!

Rise and Shout

the Cougars are out!

Here are a few things I learned this weekend ...
*November football games are COLD!
*Drinking hot chocolate helps with the cold. If you look at Nixon and Easton, the more on your face, the better!
*Tailgating can be fun, even at BYU.
*Sitting through a cold game is totally worth it when it brings joy to my boys.
*17 is more than 10, and that makes 2 years in a row Utah - ha!






I thought we should let the boys rush the field after, but Geoffrey's dad was security right on our side of the field. Apparently, he's threatened his kids since birth about the evils of field-rushing. Maybe next time - doesn't it look fun, though?

Preview ...

Priesthood Preview that is. It was on Sunday and yes, Nixon is turning 12 next year, so we got to go! May I present the Deacon's Quorom of 2008:

One of the speakers told a story about a deacon jumping over something while he was passing the sacrament and spilling all the bread. He probably thought the story was funny, I thought he was just giving the boys ideas.

Not that you can tell from that photo, but Nixon is so serious about receiving the Priesthood next year. Looking at that boy just warms my heart.

I'm pretty sure that I'm not old enough to have a 12 year old son to go with that 18 year old daughter (not to mention the almost 10 year old youngest child!).

The Simmmmmmpsoooons ...

da da done done done done done done done dadadadone dadadadone. Yes, my family was a tribute to being inappropriate for Halloween. Except Sara, she had to dance until 10:00PM (really! 3 Musketeers opens this weekend!).

The Simpsons is a show we don't even watch in our house. But Geoffrey did wear me down eventually and we went to see the movie this summer. The boys laughed and laughed, and when I say boys, I mean all THREE of them. If you didn't see the movie, you had no idea who we were for Halloween, but here we are:

Spider Pig:

Harry Plopper:

Marge (yes, I made the wig - it is cardboard and cotton balls):

Geoffrey was a Silo of Pig Crap(photo coming soon):

It was a busy day with parties at school, the most amazing dinner at the Peers - check out how cute the Peers decorated the table for Halloween:

then it was trunk-or-treat and trick-or-treating. This was the first year that Geoffrey and I just stayed home and the boys went out with friends. It felt a little strange and a little sad that they really are growing up fast. I'm so grateful that they have good friends that we could be comfortable with them out going door to door with!

It worked out great for us because we got to snuggle Indy while Paul and Alisha took cute Cal out. Once the doorbell starts to be rung only by groups of middle schoolers, I'm ready to turn off the light though.

More pics on Smugmug, of course. Hope your Halloween was great!

Bodychecking, Goals, and Grizzlies

Bodychecking Definition: Using the body to slow or stop an opponent.

You know, shoving/slamming against the boards/taking the other guy down. Why the hockey lesson on the blog? Because this sweet boy:

is officially old enough that it is LEGAL to CHECK in his hockey league. Nothing takes a mom's breath away like the sight of your son's face mask pressed against the glass right in front of you (2nd game). Nixon is pretty much the smallest person on his team. So he needs to learn to play heads-up-hockey, and he needs to be fast, and he needs to strengthen his core which will help him absorb hits. He has had his bell rung a few times in practice, but the first game of the season, he scored a sweet breakaway goal, so we think he's going to be OK.

In other hockey news, Geoffrey is coaching Easton's team and on Friday all three boys got to skate out on the ice at the Utah Grizzlies home opener. One of the players came in the locker room and talked to them before the game,:

they were on the ice for the pre-game stuff and the National Anthem:

they played a scrimmage game in between the 1st and 2nd periods (Easton in the red helmet celebrating his goal with the Grizzlie Bear:

and they got to pick up the foam pucks that people threw on the ice in between the 2nd and 3rd periods!

Just because Nixon and Easton thought this was the funniest thing ever: The headless hockey players:

The Grizzlies tied the score with 14 seconds left in the game and won in overtime, so it was a great game! Feel the excitement:

As usual, more pictures then you have time to look at can be found here.