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.