B-ball - Dallin style

This year has been a little rough on my two older basketball players.  Basketball just isn't the same here.    And it has been a bit discouraging at times.

 However Dallin's team pulled together to get to the semi-finals and then play in the 3rd/4th place game (they started with 8 teams in the league but I think ended with 6).  And then they played the best game of the season to end up in 3rd place.  And their team won the sportsmanship award for the league.  So they definitely ended on a high note.  And let me tell you about Dallin, he definitely isn't the tallest guy on the team, but as the season went on he really progressed and improved.  I am proud of the energy and the effort he gives at his games.  I think at first he was discouraged because most of the players were larger and taller than him, but once he realized he could defend and get in the way of the opposing team, he really found his grove.

Finally - A soccer Game!

Drew has been playing soccer at his school since he started at Nido.  But the way the sports program for the Elementary school works basically they just have the kids doing practices (with a few scrimmages between the grade levels here and there).  So this year he finally got to participate in a tournament with other schools from around Santiago.
So I had to admit I was a little nervous for him.  Their team had never had an official game and they don't practice nearly as much as the Santiago school teams.  But he and his teammates were so excited and so determined to give it their all.  And guess what, I didn't need to be nervous at all.  Those boys got out there and won 2 matches and tied their last one.  So their team won their age group bracket!  Go Nido Eagles!  And excuse the far away shots, we only brought one lens to the game. :-(

I think the sun might have been in Drew's eyes...

Playing soccer and being with great friends!

Celebrating afterwards!

A little more Halloween

A few more Halloween pictures!

Mason ready for a Halloween party.

Cub Scout pack meeting/trunk-or-treat

The morning of this party, Easton says mom, I don't want to be a monkey.    Ok, I say, what do you want to be…only hoping that what ever comes out of his mouth is something we can do before the afternoon party.  Lucky for me, he responded with a robot.  I thought, "THAT I can do!."  A box, some duct tape, some decorations, a glue gun = costume!

My secret service agent.  

Going Trick-or-Treating

Not wanting to get his picture taken, but once we got going, he was all smiles.

Halloween Happenings (Part One?)

Really Halloween should not need more than one part, but as it turns out, this year it does.  Because I want to tell you about our church Halloween/trunk-or-treat party.  So at the beginning of October we had a meeting with the Young Women in our ward to plan activities for the next coming months.  And we had said we wanted to have a Halloween party on Oct. 24th with the Young Men in the ward.  Then the idea came from one of the youth to do the party for the Primary, making it a ward event.  In my head, I had visions of mounds of work to pull this off.  Oh, please no, I thought, but as the girls started planning and the party started taking shape in the next couple of weeks, it became apparent to me that with a few hours work, they could pull this great party off.  And you know what?  It worked and was a huge success!  And it wasn't the mounds of work I first thought of, probably just one little mound.  The delegating (thanks to my good friend) went smoothly and lo and behold a great time by all!
The thing that I loved about this was that the kids had a blast!  A USA Halloween party in Chile!  The ward loved it.  And I am thankful for the those teenagers who willingly made it all happen for others!  Go teenagers who serve!

Handing out the candy is serious business!  

Temporary Neighbors

We had some new neighbors move in for about 6 weeks.  And boy were they loud and territorial.  This mom made her nest right across the street from our driveway, right in the grass.  And laid three blue with brown spots eggs.  And then sat on those eggs for nearly 4 weeks.  And the dad walked around and protected her and the eggs.  These birds, called Treile, are very loud so whenever we backed out of our driveway or came out of our gate they would yell at us to stay away.  Sometimes the dad would even fly at us.  And then the eggs hatched and the territorial stuff got even worse, the kids couldn't go over to the park for about a week.  After a week or so the parents and the kids started roaming the circle we live in and now they have left.  It was fun to watch this whole family come about!

Also we live on Camino El Treile…they must have known this was the place to live!!!

Proud Dad

I am guessing a mom grateful to not have to sit 24/7 anymore.

Time to let it go

Do you have things you cling onto for memories sake?  Soon after Mark and I started dating, it was Valentine's Day (1997).  Mark gave me a gift of flowers and a sweatshirt.  Which I loved, because those are the kinds of things I really like.  I have been holding on to this sweatshirt ever since and refusing to throw it out.  But the day came a few weeks ago where it just had to go, so I took a couple of pictures to remember just how loved it was.