Aurora plays Soccer!

It feels a little weird to me that my baby (a.k.a. oldest child) is old enough to participate in extra-curricular activities outside of our home.  This year she has done gymnastics, a sports intro class, and soccer.  She's loved them all.  I think gymnastics was her favorite, but she loved soccer a ton because her daddy got to be her coach!  She was thrilled about it!

Soccer took up our Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings starting the end of August and through the entire month of September.  It was fun to watch Darwin coach and tons of fun to watch Aurora play soccer and learn and grow over a few weeks.

First soccer practice before their first game

A lot of the girls had the same soccer socks :)


I think the kids' favorite part of playing soccer was the treats they got after every game.

Rori with some of her teammates before their first game

Our sweet Savannah wanted to play soccer with Rori so bad!  Poor little thing.

It was a super bonus that Rori and Mr. P got to play on the same team together this year!

My two soccer cuties! :)

Rori and one of her new soccer friends.
(Turns out her mom was in the single's ward with me and Darwin way back when.  Small world!)

Miss Savannah with her very own soccer ball

 Because she couldn't play in the game with Rori and her friends, she found ways to entertain herself.  She loved playing with the orange cones.



Practicing before a game

Running for the ball

I think her favorite thing during games (besides making a goal) was throwing the ball in.  She was a little bit of a ball hog and had a hard time taking turns throwing it in sometimes. Haha!

The three girls on our team watching the boys play for a few minutes

Darwin's parents came to every game the could (except when they were out of town).  My family came down to watch Aurora play in her last Saturday game.  It was fun to have the cousins together :)

Savannah and Hyrum being silly together


It was fun to get some action shots during the game, but hard to capture them sometimes!

During the last game, Savannah and the younger sister of one of Rori's teammates played for a long time in the dirt together.  They had tons of fun until they started throwing it at each other and both got dirt in their eyes.  It was a sad time for Savy having so much dirt in her eyes that we tried our best to wash out.  I was still getting dirt out of her ear for a few weeks after that.  Silly kids!


Playing in the leaves during their break while other teammates played on the field.

Final team cheer after their last game!

We're #1!

Receiving their medals!

Our cutie-patootie soccer girl!

The team and the coach.  What a fun experience!

Team Photo
(minus one kid who didn't stay for pictures)

Highlights:
*They were the T-Rex's
*Aurora made several goals throughout the season
*She made 4 goals in one game!
*Daddy got to be Aurora's soccer coach
*Watching the kids improve in their soccer skills individually and as a team throughout the season
*Watching the kids aim to kick the ball, miss, and then sit on the ball on accident
*Humorous moments in the games
*One kid on our team continually tackling our team members and others (thinking he was playing rugby instead of soccer)
*Spending time with family and friends who came to watch Aurora play
*Aurora playing on the same team as her BFF, Mr. P
*Aurora says her favorite thing was making goals and having Daddy be her coach

Oregon Trip 2015 - Day 9 - Headed Home

Wednesday - August 12th

Driving home from Lincoln Beach

First and foremost, August 12th was our 10th wedding anniversary!!!
Happy anniversary to my eternal sweetheart!
I love you, Darwin!
More than you know.
Thank you for being mine.
Forever!

Our little family had to book it back home because Daddy's summer vacation had ended and he needed to be back at work on the 13th.  Dar and I got most of our stuff packed up and ready to go the night before and we were out of the beach house by 4:50am.  Luckily the girls and I slept for the first couple hours of the drive, and Darwin was a trooper for driving the vast majority of the trip.  I don't blame him though.  Our new Pilot is pretty sweet and super fun to drive! :)
After a while we had to find things to keep the girls entertained during our 16 hour drive home.  Money is always a game changer. Haha! It's amazing what one little dollar bill can do sometimes!


 I stocked up on a few new items for their backpacks the day before, and they absolutely LOVED the Frozen ring pops I got for them (along with all the other little goodies they got too, of course).


Our goal was to be home by 9pm.  We almost made it!  About 50 miles north of our house, we got a flat tire driving through south Salt Lake.  Of course it happened while I was driving. (I drove a total of 4.5 hours of our entire trip, and not only got a flat tire but our first huge rock chip in our windshield.  Why couldn't it have happened while Darwin was driving?  Seriously.)  I'm pretty sure this was my first flat tire.  Ever.  At least that I can recall.  I'm glad to have a husband who knows what he's doing.  We pulled off the free way and by the time we stopped at the nearest gas station our tire was f-l-a-t!

My handsome hubby got the tire changed and the spare put on like it was nobody's business and we were back on the road headed home in no time.

I was honestly grateful that it happened so close to home and not when we still had hours of driving time left.  That was certainly a blessing! When Darwin took our tire in to the dealership to get fixed a few days later, they found the blade to a pair of scissors in our tire!  No wonder it went flat so quickly!

The girls were super troopers through the whole trip!  Although the drive was long, I was glad that we did it during the day and not through the night this time.  Darwin and I were both a little surprised we made it home in one piece the last time we vacationed to Yachats.  Driving through the night was HARD!  We pulled into our house around 9:40pm and we were all so grateful to be home!  Vacations are always fun, but there's just something about coming home after being gone that I love too.
Thanks to everyone who made our vacation so great!
We love you all!
Until next time! :)

Oregon Trip 2015 - Day 8 - Hunting for Agates

Tuesday - August 11th

Adventure in Yachats, Hunting for Agates

Usually when we go to Oregon, we stay in Yachats which is mostly rocky beach.  Some of us felt a little homesick for Yachats and deprived of rocky beach on this trip, because we were surrounded by sandy beaches in Lincoln City.  That's totally not a bad thing, just different.  So, on the last day of our trip, we ventured down towards Yachats to enjoy some rocky beach and look for more agates to add to our collection.

Our first stop was at Beverly Beach.  It was mostly sandy beach, and not a great place to find agates, but it was great for Savannah's love of rock throwing, and a nice stroll along the beach.

She was thrilled to find more jelly fish in the sand!  I thought it was pretty cute that she had to pick up each jelly fish (or just pieces of jelly fish) and throw them back in the ocean.  Sweet little thing!


Strolling along the beach :)

Playing with some kelp

Daddy and Aurora in the ocean.

It was a beautiful, warm day!  Probably the best day for putting swim suits on the girls, but we didn't have them with us that day.  Go figure!

 Daddy and Savy taking their kelp for a walk ;)

Writing messages in the sand

Our cute, wet, little girl at the beach!  Life is good!

My loves.

On our way back to the car (we decided we needed to try a different beach to find agates) I saw this HUGE bumblebee!  You can't really gauge the size of it from the picture because it's sitting on a big flower, but it was a big one!

On our way further south and headed to Yachats, we had to stop at our favorite traditional seafood joint for lunch.  The girls and I enjoyed our chicken fingers while everyone else loved their seafood.  Sorry that I've ruined our kids, babe!  I promise it wasn't on purpose!
Doing "cheers" to the camera.
(Aurora was a little wet and cold, thus the grumpy face.)

Our family in front of the giant crab!

After our yummy lunch we headed into Yachats.  Ah, I missed staying there this time! (Although Lincoln City was super fun too!)  We all spent some time looking for agates. I was actually really impressed with Aurora.  She was great at finding agates, at least until she got bored with it.

Looking for agates is actually super fun, and addicting!  Haha!

The whole fam was into it!
Sean (way over on the left), Andrea, Savannah, Geo, Darwin, Mom (behind Dar), Aurora, Dad, Ryan was off hunting somewhere else, and I was taking the picture :)

Closer shot of the hunting group

 The girls loved climbing on the rocks!
(Caught Savy in the middle of a blink. Haha!)

Fearless!

 Queen of the mountain!

We knew we needed to head back to the beach house after a while but wanted to make sure our girls got to see some of the sea creatures that hang out on rocky beaches before we headed back.  We probably should have saved more time for this adventure, but we'll definitely plan to next time!
Savy touching some sea stars!

Aurora taking a turn.

Dar found/caught one that was eating some seaweed :)

Savannah was brave and held a tiny baby sea star.  Way to go, baby girl!

Their favorite thing was to touch the anemone and watch them contract.  They thought that was the funniest thing ever!

There was a random ladybug in with the sea creatures.  Random.

Daddy showing the girls a hermit crab.  They didn't take him up on his offer for them to hold it though.

Taking a few minutes to watch the waves crash against the rocks.  I can sit and watch the waves crash for hours and be perfectly happy about it!

Ah, the ocean.  I miss it already!

Sunset shot from the deck at the beach house.  Our last night before heading home.

What a great way to end our vacation!