2014-2015 Class Lists



As much as the kids are sad to see the summer come to an end, the one thing that they do look forward too is the posting of class lists.  This year's list was posted about a week earlier than normal and for some reason, Trey was extremely excited this year.  I bet he called me 10 times at work to see how soon I could get off work to take them to see whose class they got in for the upcoming school year.   I am not sure if it was who his teacher would be or  to see if Shea was in the same class. 

 

And their teachers for the upcoming school year are . . . .

 

                     Allyson - 1st Grade                                           Trey - 5th Grade
              Teacher - Mrs. Brooke Blackburn                    Teacher - Mrs. Loreen Sorensen

 

Yay, they both are the in class that they hoped they would get this year!  Even better, Shea Anderson is in Trey's class and Bryler Blackburn is in with Ally!  Sure makes them excited for school to start!

Swimming Lessons

Here we go, ten days of swimming lessons ahead of us.  Oh, will they survive (better yet, will mom survive?) because, two of three of them do not want to go.  Trey has fought us for the past several days saying he doesn't need them because he knows how to swim.  And I was smart enough not to tell Ally until the morning of because of the tears that we might have had to listen too days before the actual day.  Yes, surprisingly, Lottie is the only one excited about going to swimming lessons.  Funny thing of it was, is that I didn't really even think about signing Lottie up because I thought she might be too young and too afraid that I thought maybe next summer would work out better.  Goes to show, you never know, each of them are so different!

 

 

 

By the time we were through ten days, Trey had improved a ton.  He now wasn't so afraid of the height of the diving board to the point he dared jump off without any hesitation.  He was so comfortable with it that he even dare dive off, yes there were a few belly flops in there, but overall made a huge improvement.  He learned some new swimming strokes and improved on some old.  Favorite part was learning to dive off the edge and then being able to dive of the board.

 

Allyson, well she was brave enough to jump off the edge, kick to the edge, float, and dare go off the diving board with a life jacket on and a life guard waiting for her in the water.  You wouldn't be able to wipe the smile off her face when they used the pool noodles to make a train, she thought that was pretty fun to hang on to her friends and do the train into the deep water.  Her favorite part of swimming lessons was jumping off the diving board and swimming.

 

Tyra Lottie, still after ten days refused to put her face in the water.  As brave as she is at home, that part of her did not come out in the water.  She was a little hesitant in everything she did.  She stayed comfortable sitting on the stairs just watching.  Crazy part of it though was on the last day when Jeremy showed up to watch, she decided to put a life jacket on and go off the diving board.  We were all quite surprised, so we hurried and got her ready to go before she changed her mind.  There was a life jacket on the diving board that lifted her down to another life guard in the water.  When she got up out of the water, she was so proud of her self and walked right over to her dad to give him a big hug.  Can I say, show off! 

Well, we DID it!  We all survived!

Cold Water Challenge

The latest fad on Facebook right now is the 'Cold Water Challenge'.  This is where you are nominated to dump cold water on you or donate a $100 to your favorite charity, or in Ally's nomination was that if you didn't fulfill the cold water challenge, you owed her a treat!  McKenna, Trey, and Ally were all nominated by their peers to accept this challenge.  It ended up being a lot more fun than expected.

McKenna was nominated by her friend Brylie Maxwell.  In return, McKenna nominated Morgan Gurney, Brynn Okerlund, and McKaylyn Edwards.  Trey was nominated by Jake Sorensen, so in return Trey nominated Shea Anderson, Marshall Okerlund, and Kort Sorensen. And Allyson was nominated to do the Cold Water Challenge by Paige Peterson, so she nominted Maddie Taylor, Laynee and Kambree Okerlund. 

 



To think that you are only underwater for a splint second, these kids just kept dunking their bodies over and over again.  If they didn't like how their video looked, they would dry off and do it again.  The water that they are standing in is pretty cold, but in McKenna's video, she had Grandma JoAnn and I drop buckets of ice on her while she was going under.  Needless to day, she didn't stay  in the water very long for how cold it was when we hit her with the ice.

 

After a while, Tyra decided she wanted a turn.  You can tell from her reaction that she didn't like it at all.  She came out of the water and just couldn't get warm fast enough.  JoAnn and I were even nominated several weeks later by Jodi O'driscoll.  We stood under the bucket of Rod's tractor and had him dump water over our heads.  I did not like that at all, nothing hurts worse than a cold shower!  Jeremy too was nominated but we couldn't get him in the mood to get wet, so he got left out!

 

It has been amazing to watch what people have done to complete this challenge.  Some people went all out in order to get out of donating.  I bet this went on for over a month on facebook, but thankfully it too shall pass.  You almost got to the point of you have seen one, you have seen them all! But most importantly, my kids had fun, so that's all that matters.

Beating the Summer Heat

The holiday celebration continued into Saturday when Eric, Jenna, and kids showed up at Grandpa and Grandma's house.  Our kids always get so excited to see and play with Maddie, Tripp and Krew.  We ended up barbequing hamburgers and enjoyed watching the kids play out on the lawn.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we were done eating, Grandma JoAnn decided to let the kids play in the tub of ice water  This started out as a small attraction for Tripp and Krew and then it quickly grew into fun for all the little ones.  All the kids took turns splashing and throwing water in the air to see who would get wet.

 

 

Before we knew it, Grandpa Rod bought up a water trough to fill up with water to let them all get wet.  What was supposed to be a small simple idea of getting wet turned into a redneck good time in the old watering trough.  Funny thing of it was, one water trough was not enough, Grandpa had brought up another from out of the field.  Both filled with cold tap water, each one of the kids loved to get in and cool off to beat the summer heat.  Tripp and Krew even got done to nothing and loved every minute of it. 

 



 

McKenna was the only one  of the kids that we could not convince to get in and play.  I guess the teenage years are kicking in!  With a fight, she was able to keep Dillon from dunking her in head first.  

I sure do love this time of year, it is so fun to make such fun memories with family. 

Fourth of July

 

Oh, how we love the 4th of July!

 

It's hard to beat holiday festivities that consist of watching an amazing show of fireworks that light up the night sky, gathering up tons and tons of candy at the parade, watching float after float pass you by in the early morning sun, eating popsicles to beat the summer heat, but most of all, spending time with family and friends.  This year was definitely no exception to total fun and excitement. 

 

Lucky for us, Gunnison's celebration begins the night of the 3rd.  The celebration here consists of dinner, auction, and concert, followed by fireworks.  This year, we skipped out on the stuff at the park and hung out at home.  We barbecued hamburgers at our house with Rod, JoAnn, Dillon, Lyman, Marci, JD, Brianne, Kallie, Ryker, Rylan, and Kaylor.  This was fun to sit out, visit and enjoy the nice evening breeze before we watched the fireworks.  As the dark sky settled in, all of us jumped into Rod's Toyota truck to go closer to the park to view the fireworks.  Yes, all 16 of in his truck!  The firework show this year was amazing, probably the best yet.  It seemed to never stop and just when you thought it was the grand finale, they would start again for a long show that lit the night sky.  It made for a great way to start the holiday!

 

Everyone was up early and ready to go for all the festivities.  Jeremy was smart and went and saved us a section on the parade route early Thursday morning so we could watch the parade and be out of the sun.  The parade starts at 9, so we always leave a little after 8 to head to our seats.  The kids always line up front and the adults always set back to enjoy this parade.  It is amazing to see the amount of people that line the streets of Gunnison for this parade. 

 

 

 

 

  This year, McKenna decided to be in the parade instead of on the sidelines.  She was asked by her best friend, McKaylan Edwards to ride on the Christensen Arms float with her.  Not only was it a bonus to ride with her bestie, but she was riding on the float for Jeremy's work. They threw hats and shirts, the best part was shooting their water guns.

 

 

The amount of candy that is thrown at this parade is unreal.  It gets so bad that even the kids get tired of picking it all up.  I know Trey brought home at least five pounds of candy, the amount he gathered up in his bag was unreal.  The little girls didn't bring home so much.  Ally only wanted to pick up the candy that she liked and Lottie needed a little encouragement to pick up candy without me following her out there to get it!

 



 After the parade, everyone always walks back to Grandpa and Grandma's house.  This year was a little out of the ordinary because we are usually barbecuing a hamburger and getting ready to continue on with the festivities.  But this year, Darcy and his family invited us up to their small family reunion to hang out with them for the day.  So instead of lunch, JoAnn had muffins, fruit, and cupcakes to tie us all over until lunch. 

 

 

McKenna did stop by before heading to the park to hang with all her friends.  She stayed busy hanging out all day long.  While we went to Darcy's, she stayed and did the park thing, walked to a friends house and played baseball, and then as the evening drew, she, McKaylan, Kennedy Hall, and Belle drove to Salina to the Rodeo.  Kinda sad to see her grow up, days like today she just wanted to hang with friends. 

 

 

Lottie with her kitten.  This little stray cat just showed up at our house one afternoon and ever since, Lottie wants to pack that thing everywhere. 

 



Grandma Loraine, JoAnn, Lyman, Marci, Allyson, Lottie, and I all drove up together to the Johnson Cabin up I-70 to hang out with Darcy and Julie's family.  It was fun for my kids to hang out with all their cousins.  There was plenty to do up there, Trey, Ryker, JD, and Brianne drove to the lake not too far away and went fishing.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any luck in catching fish.  The little kids just had a good time playing and hanging out with each other.  We enjoyed a nice lunch and us adults were able to hang out and visit while the kids just went and did stuff around the cabin.

Izzy, Rylan, Allyson, Lottie, Bryler

 

 

I went with Rylan, Ally, and Lottie on a hike behind the cabin.  They found small hill and took off running to see who could get to the top.  Rylan was up to the top in a flash.  My girls were a little hesitant in climbing after Rylan spotted a lizard, but with a little convincing, they did it!

 

 

 

Trey was amazed at this big dog.  It was huge and sure gentle.

We got back after a few hours and because McKenna was with her friends and Trey stayed with Ryker, Jeremy and I took the girls for ice cream and spent some time at home out of the heat.  Jeremy worked on the yard while we were gone, so he was glad for a break as well.



 

 

That night, we were invited to Lyman and Marci's house for a barbecue.  It was fun, we could see Salina's firework show from his backyard.  Plus afterwards, we enjoyed more fireworks in his front yard with all that everyone else brought to let off that night.

 

Like I have said before, we all do love this time of year.  We love celebrating the RED, WHITE, and BLUE!   We are so lucky to live so close to family and friends that make this holiday so fun to celebrate.