Each month, when we meet with David's family for family home evening, we report our family's highlights of the month. The most interesting thing that we had to report this month was that Blake burned his hand on the stove while helping his mommy cook. I let my guard down for one second - and that's all it takes. Here's a particularly disgusting picture of his injury:
Braxton got a new motorcycle this year. Although he has had motorcycles in the past, this is the first year that he's been able to really enjoy it and get in to it. The field behind our house has provided the perfect playground and several of the boys in the neighborhood that have motorcycles and ATVs have joined us in turning the field into a mini motocross track. There are a few really good practice hills for them to work on their skills. Braxton has become quite comfortable on his motorcycle so I decided to go out with him this weekend and take some videos and pictures of him.
One night we called the kids in for family home evening. They had been playing pretty hard outside and were pretty overheated. As David was trying to give the lesson, Blake kept asking if he could go put water on his head. Finally, I told him to go ahead and do it quickly. He went to the cupboard, got a cup, went to the fridge and filled it up with water. Then he came back to the table and stuck his hand in the cup and rubbed the water on his head. He repeated this until his head was pretty well soaked (as well as the table, the chair and the floor). Then he went and got a kitchen towel, dried off his head, the table and everywhere else that he had spilled. All the while David is still talking about the lesson (for the life of me I can't remember what the lesson was about).
Then Braxton got up and went to the fridge and got a large glass of orange juice and came back to the table with it. Braxton set it on the table without taking a sip. Blake looked at Braxton with a perplexed expression and said, "Are you going to put orange juice on your head?"
Braxton replied, "No, I'm going to drink it - like normal people." Blake quickly responded by saying, "Oh, well, I'm not normal people."
I had the opportunity the other day to take a tour of the practice facility, it was really fun to go "behind the scenes". It was interesting to see the film room where there must have been 50 VCR's, but by far the best part was going into the locker room and seeing how each of the players kept their lockers. Some were pretty clean, but some were total slobs with a ton of junk in their locker area.
Braxton & Farrah went with their Grandma to see the new Draper Temple. Grandma got a special invitation to go through the open house early! It was Grandma's first time in a temple (and it didn't fall down). Farrah hasn't been in one since she and Braxton were sealed to Dave and I on our wedding day. Braxton gets to go and do baptisms now, but he was excited to see what the rest of these sacred buildings look like inside ;)
Late one night in the middle of December, a super crazy coach tip toed out onto the field, where his team had won their championship game, shovel in hand...and stole a bunch of dirt from the endzone! He had to make a quick escape - he was spotted and the cops followed him for about a mile, but ultimately decided to let him go ;) Each of the guys got a cup of dirt to go with their championship trophies. Compare Braxton's smile while holding his championship trophy, to his smile while holding his cup of dirt! Clearly, the boys charish the dirt (makes sense if you've seen their pre and post game routine).
This was Braxton's first year of playing football. He's been begging me for years to let him play and I finally gave in. And I am sooooo glad that I did - it was so much fun for our whole family!!!
Not only did we get to spend a few months getting to know some really neat people, but the team did very well (they had a perfect season) !!!
I put together a little video about the team when they were about half way through the season.
The best thing about owning a Hummer in Utah is being invited to join other Hummer owners in the area to go on an off-road excursion to Moab. It was an incredible event. They really went all out in putting it together. Jerry Siener Hummer reserved nearly an entire resort for us to stay at just up the canyon from the city of Moab. The Red Cliffs Lodge was a very nice lodge with cabins, a reasaurant and even a small museum with items from movies that were filmed in the area. The rooms were really nice, which kinda surprised me since it's in the middle of nowhere (in Utah). The room rivaled some of the most expensive places we've stayed in, but it was very reasonably priced.
The coolest thing was the morning of the excursion, seeing all of the Hummers lined up to head out for the trails. There were over 30 Hummers that were a part of the event. The dealership hired professional drivers to lead the excursion who taught us every detail about how the vehicles worked and also shared some insight to the special features that make Hummer such an incredible off-raod vehicle.
When we first arrived at the event we didn't know another soul in the room, but by the end of the excursion we had so many new friends it was amazing! Everybody cheered eachother on as we worked together to get through the different obstacles on the trail. There were some pretty scary moments on the trail - times when we were going down so steep that all we could see was the ground and it felt like the front grille was touching and times when we were going so steep up that all we could see was the sky and didn't know if we were going to just drive right over a cliff! It was quite the adrenaline rush!
Wow! What a year 2008 was. Every year my mother-in-law asks everyone in the family to put together a "Top 10" list of the most memorable things in 2008. I have 14, here they are:
14)Dave and I went on a weekend excursion to Moab with the Hummer Club
13)Braxton & Farrah learned to Fire Knife Dance 12)Braxton, Farrah and I attended the ReAL Salt Lake's first game in their new stadium
11)Dave and I had a romantic getaway weekend in Scottsdale
10) Farrah learned to play guitar 9) Braxton Received the Priesthood 8) Braxton was called to serve as the Deacon's Quorum President 7) Dave was called to serve as the Young Men's President 6) Braxton started Home Schooling via a virtual academy 5) Dave quit teaching full time 4) Family vacation to Southern Cal - Disneyland, SeaWorld, etc. 3) Blake successfully completed potty training 2) Braxton's football team had a perfect season 1) Preston was born February 17th
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