Thanksgiving 2015

We decided to stay home for Thanksgiving this year and just do our own thing. We wanted to spend the time relaxing and not traveling like we have the past four years. It was wonderful other than the fact that I got strep throat, which put me in bed for three days. On the bright side I got out of cooking some of the Thanksgiving meal. Joseph is a fantastic cook and makes everything taste amazing. He is super awesome when it comes to seasoning food and cooked the whole meal. The kids were ecstatic that it snowed over their Thanksgiving break and went sledding at the local park many times. I rested a ton and felt refreshed going into the work week after the holiday.

Silly Logan

Snow

The kids were supper excited to get snow over Thanksgiving break and had a blast sledding. 

Date Night with Logan

Nature Hike With Aurora's 5th Grade

I took the day off and went on a muddy but fun hike with Aurora and her classmates. Logan also took the day off and joined us.

Skating Spooktacular

This is the first time Logan has been wiling to skate with the stars after an ice show and he stayed on for the whole time. In the past he has only lasted a couple of minutes before he tells us he is to big.

Aurora preformed in her first Halloween show this year. She had a blast working on her various numbers. Her coach is amazing at what she does and in helping Aurora develop beautifully as a skater.

Aurora is now taking a ballet class where she is learning some different techniques that will help her with her skating. She thinks the class is so boring but wants to improve as a skater so she is willing to do it. This girl of ours is super busy and has been so good at getting her homework done and in early. We hope this continues. #lovestoskate

Guitar Hero

We had a great Fall Break. It was super nice being able to get extra rest and just being able to be home with each other. The kids each a had a play date/hangout with a friend and Joseph and I went to the Boise game but for the most part we were just home. We played a lot of guitar hero and I even played a little each day. It was super fun. One morning Joseph decided to be funny and came down just like the South Park guy. Luckily for us Joseph has boxers. Later that day we watched the South Park episode together.  

Boise State Football Game

We were happy we got to see Boise State play this year but it was a very disappointing game. 

Avery

This was a big Court of Honor for Avery he earned his Tender Foot, First Class, and Second Class rank advancements and many Merritt badges. We had to motivate Avery a bit over the summer by having him earn T.V. and game time. He had gotten into a bad habit of only doing chores and electronics at the start of the summer this last year. But he stepped up and made his life more productive.

Below is a picture of a black eye Avery got a few days ago. He was in his speech and drama class performing a Star Wars play his group had come up with and was hit with one of the light sabers. Avery enjoys school and is good at it. He was bumped up to 9th grade math 5 weeks into this school year. He entered 9th grade math on a Monday and the very next class was a test, he scored 65% which isn't bad considering he hadn't been present for the class. The teacher allowed him to make it up and he ended up with a 95% after only getting about an hour and half of tutoring from his dad. While we are very proud of Avery and all his accomplishments there are times he lets us down. For example, he saved an entire months worth of  math homework for one evening. It was homework that was online. He is lucky his dad was willing to stay up with him until midnight in case he needed help. He was able to getting 33 sections of the 38 sections done in about six hours. He says he has learned his lesson and didn't like working on math for 6 hours straight, I hope he did. Anyhow, he is a good kid and friends have become more important to him and it is nice to see him being more social and just enjoying himself. Oh and I should add that he is doing Science Club this year since there isn't a chess club. He seems to be enjoying it and many of his friends go with him. 

Logan Turned Six

Logan was so excited for his birthday and had been counting down the days since his last birthday. He loves to swim so we invited his friend Brie to go to Surf N' Swim with us. She also joined us for Logan's soccer game. He had a great day and is now counting down the days until he turns seven. He is enjoying school and says he is looking forward to being able to go to first grade where he believes it will be more challenging. I should also add that he loves money and talks about owning a restaurant and a hotel one day. We sure do love this little guy of ours.

More Park Fun

We decided to check this park out on our way home from Salt Lake one Saturday. We had been down in Salt Lake for a 3ds meetup and to go out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants. 

Backpacking

Avery went backpacking last weekend and had a blast. They hiked Ben Lomond Peak. They hiked 4 miles in the first night and then set up camp. On Saturday they continued to the top where they enjoyed lunch and then hiked back down to their camp.They hiked a total of 16 miles. He said coming back down was the hardest part and his ankles hurt when he got home. He kept up tradition and was the dirtiest scout. I guess his face was covered with dirt when Joseph picked him up. But the upside was that he wasn't sun burnt at all on his face. I am thinking the dirt helped keep him protected because he often times comes home looking like a reverse raccoon even though he always has a bottle of sunscreen.  

Park Fun

We have been trying to get in as much park time as possible before the weather gets too cold. We really like the High Adventure park because it is perfect for older kids. We also practiced playing soccer as a family before Logan's first game. 

Logan Udate

Logan was so happy when he learned how to hula hoop. He has also recently learned how to do the monkey bars and I will get a video of that soon.

Logan begged us for months to sign him up for soccer but when the day finally came he was not wanting to go. I gave him his soccer clothes to get dressed and left him because he likes his privacy. Later when I went to check on him he was not in his room. So I called for him and got no response. I then went and was looking for him because we needed to leave. Joseph and I found him hiding under his bed. He said he was confused and he had only put on his shirt. We had to get him dressed and more or less force him to get his shoes on. He was not a happy camper. We then all loaded into the car and left for the practice/game. We were fortunate that he more or less complied once we introduced him to his coach and teammates. He was also a little bummed when it was his turn to sit out during the last quarter of the game.( a good sign I hope) Logan is like most of the boys at this point and doesn't really know what to do but is at least willing to try. I don't think we will have any troubles next Saturday when we go.

I kinda think that being on a swim team may be in his future because of his love of water. We are signing him up for more swim lessons next month.

First Day of School

Logan started school two weeks ago. He was a little nervous and a little excited his first day of school. He has had a bit of trouble adjusting to his new routine and has been a lot more grumpy and tired. I am glad that we didn't test him out of Kindergarten because I can only imagine how tired and grumpy that would have made him if he was going to school all day. He doesn't like to talk about what happens at school and tells us that it is a secret and asked for a notebook to write about his days at school.  We are hopeful that things will get better as he gets more used to his routine. 

Aurora started 5th grade and is loving her new class and teacher. She didn't care for the teachers last year but really loves the teachers this year. She loves learning about science and many of our dinner discussions are about science and the things she is learning. She is great at getting her homework done early so that she doesn't have to worry about it on skating days. 

Avery is now in the eighth grade. Wow he is growing up too fast! He loves to learn as well. He is more quiet and doesn't say much about school but is happy that he will be learning more in Spanish this year. He said he learned more during his first day of Spanish 1 than he learned during his whole semester of it last year.

We are so very happy with all of our kids and the progress they each make.

Summer Wrap-Up

We had an awesome 12 weeks off together as a family. I seriously think Joseph and I have the best jobs in the world and wouldn't change it for anything. Every summer our focus has been to spend as much time together as a family doing various activities. This summer we decided it would be good for our kids if we made sure to spend more time with our extended families. So we visited Joseph's family twice and my family twice. We went on several bikes rides, a hike, camping, to the movies, swimming, etc... It is sad to see it come to an end  but I do look forward to having more of a schedule. I can honestly say that we had more positive experiences this summer than not. Our kids only felt excluded from one extended family activity that we had no control over. But we were able to use it as a teaching moment for our kids. And we hope that it taught them to always make sure that they are including those around them.

Lagoon

Aurora received an amazing discounted ticket to Lagoon at her last competition so we took advantage of the opportunity to get in for 30 bucks a ticket and went this last week. The weather  was in the lower 80's and the skies were clear so it was super nice. The kids had a blast on all the rides. I joined the family in the evening because I had already started work but was still able to enjoy many rides until the park closed. We had a ton of fun as a family. 

Free Skate 4 Compettion

She placed second at this competition. 

This girl of ours is still very much in love with skating and we are so happy that she has found something that she cherishes. She enjoys spending multiple hours on the ice each week and is working hard on landing her axle. We are very fortunate to have a coach as good as hers. Kelsey (coach) is kind and loving but knows how to push her skaters to be the best they can be. 

Bundren Family Weekend in St George

Laser tag results for the red team. Joseph's score was double all the scores on both teams. He is just that good.

We had a great few days in St. George with my side of the family. We were all able to enjoy sometime together at the arcade, where my dad gave all the grandchildren multiple rolls of quarters. Our kids combined all of their tickets and purchased a dart board. Aurora found a game she was really good at and won a ton of tickets for her and her cousin. We all enjoyed a ton of swimming at the St. George Recreation Center and the hotels where Mark and I were staying. We also enjoyed time at the children's museum. One afternoon our family and Mark's family went to see Fantastic Four. Every night we got together and ate dinner together. Sunday we ate outside at Grandma Dee's, Monday was at a park, and Tuesday was at Thomas and Brittney's home. Fun was had by all. We felt welcome by everyone and enjoyed being included in all the activities. It has been nice to spend with my family since leaving the church because we don't feel any judgments and they are all very accepting of our choice.