Next up...Track & Field

Eighth grade has been the year of trying new things for Megan.  First volleyball, then cross country, and finally track and field.  Her volleyball coach is also the track and field coach at her school.  She recruited Megan to try out the high jump since she is tall and has such long legs.  

She then decided to put her in a second event - the 3200m relay. 

She was running her relay leg fast enough that when the 9th grade team went to the conference meet, they put Megan on the 9th grade relay team.  They took first at conference.

So then she was able to go with the 9th grade team to compete in the Regional track meet.

And they took first place!  Megan ran her 800m leg in 2:43 - a personal best!!

Megan had an awesome first season - we're so proud of her!

Easter 2010

Easter weekend this year started with Noah's party and Easter egg hunt at preschool.  

He always looks so excited at these events

Waiting for the egg hunt to begin

And they're off

Noah and his buddy Chase

Easter morning the kids were anxious to wake up and find their baskets that the Easter Bunny had hidden.

In between General Conference sessions we had our own Easter egg hunt in the backyard.

Spring Break in Branson

After living in this area for 4 years, we decided that we were going to check out some of the things this place has to offer closer to home. Branson is about an hour and a half drive for us, but the two times that we have been there before we hadn't really enjoyed it that much. We had some friends talk us into buying season passes to Silver Dollar City, an amusement park in Branson.  We decided to take advantage of these passes by checking it out over Spring Break.  We spent 2 days in Branson - the first we spent shopping and swimming at the hotel. First thing the next morning we joined the masses of other people headed to the park for opening weekend.

Mike was reluctant about the whole thing, but was a good sport.

We weren't the only ones who decided to spend our day there, we had lots of friends were there too.  It made it so fun since we could split up and everyone could ride the things they wanted to.

We had a great time and are looking forward to many more visits to Branson in the future.

Sammy the Crocodile

At Sammy's school there is a teacher that every year puts together a ballet recital that any of the kids in the school can participate in.  They start practicing at the beginning of the school year, and perform the recital in the spring.  Sammy decided to participate this year.  The show that they put on was Peter Pan.  Sammy got to be one of the crocodiles.  The show was really cute, and Sammy had a great time! 

Visitors

We finally got some excitement in March. My brother Jeff, his wife Amy, and their new baby Austin came from Denver to spend a week with us. We had so much fun with them. Everyone was so excited to finally meet Austin, and we couldn't get enough of him. He was one of the cutest and happiest babies I have ever seen. Noah keeps telling me he wants us to have another baby. Unfortunately for him, he is our baby, and that won't be changing!

Lucky for us, Jeff was here on his spring break from school, so he was looking for some down time. He came to the right place! We tried to provide them with a little bit of fun, and give them a taste of what Arkansas has to offer. One thing they wanted was some real southern BBQ, so we took them to our favorite.

Posing with the pig

We made it our "B" night - BBQ and bowling

Mike was trying to show Jeff his moves.

Megan even decided to be seen with us on a Friday night

Look at that form. Jeff looks like a pro. It must be from his bowling league years!

February Happenings

The winter months seem to be a little slow, with fewer activities to take pictures of. Here are a few of the things that happened in February:

Noah lost his second top middle tooth.

He looks so cute with them gone. We are dreading the big permanent teeth filling in the gap.

Valentine's Day!

Noah had his preschool party the Friday before Valentine's. They always have fun food for the kids. They got to pull out the parachute, which the kids always love.

And the kids were excited when the much anticipated "Secret Admirer" left them a treat at our doorstep.

Costa Rica!

Mike was able to go on a week long business trip to Costa Rica. He was there to do some training for employees down in Central America. Even though he wasn't able to do much sight-seeing, it was one of the best experiences he has had in his career. Unfortunately he didn't take many pictures.

Snow Days

Ever since Christmas, we have had an unusually snowy winter. But since this place is not accustomed to an abundance of snow, it takes days to clean up a moderate amount of snow. It is even worse when ice is involved. Thus, the kids have so far missed 7 days of school since the beginning of January. Unfortunately, the days will have to be made up, mostly at the end of the school year. It is starting to feel like summer might not ever come! The kids have enjoyed taking advantage of those days off and going out and playing in the snow. They have forgotten that it was the norm when we lived in Utah.

Daisy loves running around and eating the snow.

While in the midst of shoveling, the kids talked Mike into building them a snow cave.

Mike started running out of place to throw the snow, so he decided to just pile it in the middle of the driveway.

A few days after one of our storms, there were a couple of mornings when we had freezing fog. It looked really cool on the plants.

I discovered this picture on my camera when I was downloading all my pictures. I'm not sure what to say. I think that this is the result of too many days out of school.