More Baseball...

(Wesley is on 2nd & Derek is on 1st)

The boys played in the Pioneer Tournament in Spanish Fork the end of July and in the Cedar City Tournament in Cedar City the first weekend of August. For some reason when this team gets into tournament play they get so close to the championship but can never make it. We had an awesome season but tournaments have not been their thing.

The boys at Wendy's between games in Cedar City.

Wesley was able to play catcher at the end of the last game, it is fun to see him be able to play different positions. His favorite play and one that he is very good at is when he is playing in right field and the ball takes a bounce or two before getting to him and he bare hands it and throws them out at 1st. He knows that if he were to put it into his mit first the runners would be safe.

Eric took the boys down on Friday since I had my grandma's party. When I got their on Saturday the boys did pretty well. Derek had an awesome double!!!

Now it's time for football to start so hopefully I will have more exciting photos to post. :)

The Spring Lake Fire - Payson

On our way home from Grandma's party we noticed some huge flames on Payson Mountain. After everyone left Artic Circle and went their seperate ways I thought I would ride over to Payson to check out the amazing site. I called my friend Karlie from Payson to see what started the fire. She was on her way home from Salt Lake and told me to stick around until she got there. When she got there we were able to get pretty close to the fire because her mom is an EMT and knows all of the cops. Then her mom decided she better go get one of the ambulances in case they needed it, but I think it was really for her to get even closer to the fire. As we were up by the cops I realized I wasn't to far from my friend Melissa's house. Karlie and I walked about 2 blocks and found Clint and Melissa sitting out in front of their house just waiting it out. They had been through another fire scare about 3 years ago, it wasn't fair that they had to be on stand by again. I hit tired mode about mid-night and was shocked I was still awake so then I started taking pictures.

Thankfully nobody lost their homes!!! When I looked at my watch and it was 1:00 a.m. I decided to go home. This was more excitement than I have had in a long time.

Grandma Wardle's 80th Birthday Party!!!

Grandma Wardle turned 80 in May but because 2 of her grandchildren were having babies in June we decided to have the party in August when everyone would already be coming to Utah for 1 of the baby blessings. My mom has 1 younger brother who lives in Washington and 1 younger sister who lives in Pennsylvania. My Uncle Lynn had all but 1 of his kids that were able to come. My Aunt Karen came by herself. All of her kids live in Georgia. Grandma's 2 sisters, Orpha Dee & Maurine were able to be there and her brother's wife Nelda. We just sat in a circle and told stories of Grandma, Springville & Mapleton.

My grandma is the BEST!!! She is such a great example to me and I feel so lucky to have lived close to her the past 12 years. She is so good to my kids and is always concerned about how they are doing and where they are at.

This is my Grandma's parents, my Great Grandpa & Grandma Bird.

Nelda Bird (sister-in-law), Bob Allen (brother-in-law), Maurine Allen (sister), Orpha Dee Johnson (sister), Grandma & Grandpa Wardle.

Mom, Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Lynn & Aunt Karen

Most of us :)

After eating some good food Fred and Ryan needed to top it off with ice cream. We decided to meet at Artic Circle and Fred bought everyone ice cream. My mom and dad got there when we were getting ready to leave. When Tyler, Sisi, Erika & Owen saw my mom walking up they all ran to her to give her a hug. We thought that this was so cute and we needed a picture so we told them that they had to replay it. Well.... they were even more excited this time and knocked her to the ground. At first I was worried she was hurt but then when she started to laugh we thought it was pretty funny that it was all for a photo shot.

TAGGED

I have been tagged by Annalyse.

The rules are I have to write six random things about myself and then tag six others. Here are the six...

I LOVE 3/4 Diet Pepsi with 1/4 Pepsi. I know that I would be able to lose weight a lot faster if I wouldn't drink it but sometimes things that make us happy aren't always the best for us.

I LOVE to sleep!!! I use to be able to sleep alot more before I started my job but now I just lay in bed and can only think of things in the office that need to be done.

I LOVE when my car is clean. I think I might have OCD issues with this too. It probably gets washed alot more than it should but I really like when it's clean.

I don't mind being spontaneous but I do like to have things planned out. If I know when things are coming up and I know that Eric will have the boys I will ask him what they will be doing then. He always laughs and says that is still 2 weeks (or however long) away. We don't plan that far ahead.

I HATE shopping for shoes. I wear a size 11 and I cannot ever find what I am looking for. I am trying to find shoes for family pictures and it is harder to find shoes than something to wear. AUGH, if only someone would come up with a foot tuck or a foot reduction. LOL

I LOVE to spray off the driveway. I will go to Manti and clean out my parents garage and my reward for doing so is spraying out the garage and spraying off the driveway. My parents know to not take the hose away from me. There is just something about it that is so relaxing to me.

Okay, so now I tag Andrea, Brindee, Karole, Katie, Teresa and Natalie.

MISS UTAH!!!

From little old Manti, to Miss Utah!!! Kayla Barclay was crowned Miss Utah on Saturday night. Congratulations to Kayla on representing our small little community so well!!!

INSIDE MY HEAD!!!

I have been tagged by Nicki with "Inside My Head".... so here goes.

3 Joys...
1 - My Boys - I know that I would not be where I am today without them in my life.
2 - My Family - They have helped me out so much with so many things in my life.
3 - My Friends - I have some amazing friends and I feel very lucky to have them in my life.

3 Fears...
1 - Losing one or both of my kids.
2 - Losing anyone who is close to me.
3 - Having enough money to raise my kids and let them have a good life.

3 Goals...
1 - To be a better mom to my kids. (Working closer to home has been a huge step!!!) :)
2 - To get out of debt and be able to pay cash for toys. :)
3 - To establish a savings account for me, and my boys and leaving the money in it. ;)

3 Obsessions/Collections...
1 - My Blog - LOL I love it and I think it's such a great way to keep up on the people in your life that you care about but can't always see or call.
2 - Keeping my house in order. If I am home alone everything has to be in it's place or I put it in it's place. My family thinks I am weird. I tend to agree!!!
3 - Keeping my office in order. Everything has a place so I am usually the one cleaning up after other people to make sure the office stays clean. I guess I am a little OCD!!! :)

3 Random Surprises...
1 - I love my job!!! I know it is still new but usually you hate a new job at first.
2 - For the 1st time in over 9 years I can honestly say that LIFE IS GOOD!!! I am hoping that this is finally my reward for the HELL that I have gone through. ;)
3 - I have lost 5 pounds since leaving Castle Rock. I think it has to do with loving my job and being happy in life. :)

TAG! your it.... Karole, Andrea, Teresa, Natalie & Annalyse

4TH OF JULY!!!

There is nothing like the 4th of July in Manti. I have been to a few other cities celebrations but none of them compare to the one in Manti. We started off the holiday with a parade down Manti main street on Thursday night. The 4th seems to be packed with way to much entertainment to fit a parade in too. We use to have our normal family spot on main street until Angie and Fred bought the Bright Spot so now we always know we will have GREAT seats, good food, drinks and ice cream if we want it during the parade.

The 4th starts off with a breakfast at the park and the fun doesn't end until 11:00 that night after the awesome firework show. We headed to the park about 10:30 and watched the little kids fashion show. I thought that the boys would be so excited to participate in all of the races but the only thing that they could focus on was the dunking tank. Fred was scheduled to be on the tank at 12:30 so the boys could hardly wait for that. I was told that we probably funded half of the new fire station with the amount of balls my kids threw. They really weren't to worried about who was on it, they just wanted to dunk them. They both did pretty well and we all were very successful in dunking Fred at least once.

The boys both ran in the races and did very well. Derek let up at the end so he wouldn't take out anyone on the other side of the finish line but Wesley ran straight through. Wesley received a free pass to the swimming pool and a free ice cream cone. They also participated in the egg toss. I think that they entered as many as they would keep giving eggs for (i.e. father/son, grandparent/child, girl/girl) they didn't seem to mind but had fun doing it. Derek also participated in the arm wrestle. I missed it but he won the 1st round and lost the 2nd.

There was such a great turn out this year and I am sure it had to do with the long weekend. I ran into so many people that I haven't seen in a long time. I ran into an old friend Andria Boston McCaul and she said "I have been blog stocking you" LOL!!! It is amazing how much the blogging world has changed our lives for the better. We had a good laugh and it was so much fun to check out her blog when I got back to my parents house. I also saw my good friend from high school Molly and her little boy Tyson and fiance' Ameen. Molly and Ameen are getting married on Aug.1st. They are such a cute couple and I am so happy for her. CONGRATULATIONS!!!

After the festivities at the park the boys wanted to go to the high school and watch the homerun derby. They tried to be patient for all of the big guys to finish so that they could at least hit a few balls. Thanks to their Uncle Fred who is so good to them he pitched them each a few balls.

Thank goodness my parents live across the street from the park. It makes it nice and we were able to have a nice feast once again during the festivities. When Fred is around there is always plenty of food to eat. He always fixes enough food to feed our entire family even when only a couple of use are here. It was nice to be across the street from the park too for Angie. Just having Max a week ago she wasn't sure how much she would be able to get to the park. She was able to leave Max a couple of times with my mom so that she could come over and be with her kids and watch her husband go down.

After the festivities at the park and the homerun derby were over Dave & Cari Steven's rented the pool for a little while and invited the boys to go down with Mac and Fred and the kids to come down too. All of the guys/boys played a basketball game in the pool that was more like a football game in the water with a basketball. Fred got 2 nice shiners on his forehead and Dave Stevens ended up ripping his big toe nail off. I guess that is what happens when "older" men try to be young again. ;) The teams were split into furs & skins, furs being those men with fur coates on during the summer. :) I just sat on the side to help watch Sisi and Tyler.

After swimming it was time to get ready for fireworks. Fred bought a HUGE box of fireworks that kept the kids pretty busy until Manti's fireworks started. Fred divided up all of the fireworks between him and the kids and away they went. It was pretty fun!!! Sisi and I took a ride down by the fairgrounds to get a closer look at Manti's fireworks. It was pretty cool because we were able to tune to the local radio station and listen to patriotic music as the fireworks went off. I think that music with fireworks makes them even better. I do love the Stadium of Fire but I guess since we couldn't go to that the Manti City 4th of July was the next best thing.

We ended the night with Mac Stevens having a sleep over on the trampoline with Wesley & Derek. They had fun on the monkey bars before heading off to sleep. On Saturday the boys went over to some other friends and ended up going out to Gunnison Resevoir to go tubing. They had a great time!!! I took a ride out there on the 4 wheeler and was able to catch a few shots of them. We had a great weekend!!! I left the boys in Manti for a few more days. Wesley won a free swimming pass for winning his race and they have so much more fun in Manti. They really have a great time down there and I never really have to worry about them. I am so lucky to have my mom home during the summer so that the boys are able to spend some time down there. Thanks mom for letting them stay and keeping an eye out for them.

Evanston, Wyoming

Derek was asked by the Spanish Fork Sugar Kings to go play with them in Evanston, Wyoming.

This was a 10 U tournament so Wesley was too old to play. I was excited for Derek to see how he did with kids his age since he has been playing up. He did really well. He played catcher, short stop, 1st base, short stop, 2nd base and pitcher. He did great at all of those positions. He had some great hits along with 2 homeruns. I was very proud of him!!!


Wesley wasn't quite so excited for him and I think it's just because he wanted to play. Although Wesley was able to go swimming between games on Friday and Derek wasn't. Wesley was able to run around and have some fun too. On Friday night he entered the homerun derby and had some great hits. After the games on Friday we had a firework show sponsored by one of the big firework companies in Wyoming.

The Sugar Kings did a great job in Evanston and took 1st place. They played a team from Evanston twice, Jackson Hole and they beat West Haven (I think from Utah) in the championship game. It was fun to see them do so well because I think the Sugar Kings have struggled a little this year and so the other kids on the team were so excited to finally win a tournament.