Summer in a serious nutshell

 Our summer was jam packed full of fun, as usual!  Never a dull moment around here!  Since I missed staying caught up on my blogging, here are a few of the highlights!

Morgan played a lot of softball this summer. She was on a team that played in two different leagues and traveled to tournaments on the weekends.  She played second base and short stop. 

 

Mataia trained hard all summer and competed in the Regional Junior Olympics in Bozeman, MT in the Heptathlon.  (A Heptathlon is 7 events: 100M hurdles, High Jump, Shot Put, Long Jump, Javelin, 200M run and 800M run.)  At Regionals she qualified for the National Junior Olympics which were held in Baltimore, MD.  The girls, Jeff and I and my Mom went to Baltimore to support her there.  She did great and ended up 10th overall.  She learned a lot and it was a great experience.  This is Mataia as we were checking out the facilities on the day before she started competing.  It was held at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

We caught a Baltimore Orioles game while we were there, too. That was a great time.

All the other kids were off at baseball, softball or volleyball on the weekend of the Hurdles for Hope race.  That didn't stop Jeff and Kace and I from running it along with my nephew Foster and our friend, Alli. It was full of obstacles, swimming through a river, a mud pit and even jumping over fire.  Crazy, but oh so fun!  Next year we are hoping to get the whole family in on the action!

Kace loved the race and he also loved having bragging rights over the other kids.  He never whined one bit!  What a kid!  

Yes, this mom can still slip and slide! 

The girls went to Girls Camp with our new ward.  They made many new great friends and had a good time strengthening their testimonies and testing their physical stamina as they climbed Table Rock.  Jeff went along as a priesthood leader.  I was jealous.  I love girls camp and I love hiking Table Rock!  And I love being with my family!

The Crapo family spent a weekend on Island Park Reservoir boating, eating and having fun!  Grandpa and Grandma rented a cabin and Brett and Mindy brought their boat.  We had a great time!  That was our one last hoorah before Braxton left.  Kace loves riding around in the boat and swimming in the lake.  He even like riding in the tube occasionally.

We said goodbye to my little brother, Braxton for two years as he left to serve a mission for our church.  We miss him like crazy, but are so proud of him and his example.  He is serving in the Nevada Las Vegas West mission.  He spent 2 1/2 weeks in the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT and then he flew to Las Vegas two weeks ago.  We have received several letters and emails from him.  He is doing great.  You can follow him on this blog:  www.elderbraxtoncrapo.blogspot.com

The kids are enjoying our new neighborhood and yard.  This is Mataia (on the right) with some of our new neighbors enjoying a little silly fun on the trampoline during a rain storm.

My kids have the funnest grandma!  She took us all on a 12 mile bike ride to Driggs a couple weeks ago.  It was during the Olympics and as you know, everything in our house is a race, whether it is or not.  Well, when we all got the end, the boys informed me that Chad won the Gold and Kace won the Silver.  Too bad I didn't have a medal to give them.  I gave them a big juicy burger at O'Rourkes instead.

My parents take the kids on a Granddaughter and Grandson camp out each summer.  This has turned into an annual tradition that the kids look forward to all year.  This year the girls went first and then the boys went the second night.  They all camped at our ranch in the mountains.  We love going there.  We also make a trip to Warm River Springs where the water comes out of the mountain.  This is the boys on a rock just below where the water comes out. 

 On the second day, I made a trip to the ranch to do the kid swap.  I picked up the girls and dropped off the boys.  My sister-in-law, Shanda was here that week and she rode up with me.  We stopped at Mesa Falls on our way down.  That's always a favorite stop when we go to the ranch, too.  They are gorgeous!  If you don't know that they are there, you can drive right past them and miss out on one of the most gorgeous places around here!

Last weekend Jeff competed in the Olympic length of the Rush Triathlon.  He swam a mile in Rainbow Lake, got out and rode his bike for 24 miles and then ran a 10K.  He did great and the boys and I enjoyed following him around and cheering him on!  Maybe someday if I ever learn to swim well enough, I'll do it, too. 

This is Jeff just finishing the bike portion and getting ready to run his 10K. 

 

Now on to more adventures as we start a new school year!  

Change is Good!

 382 Eagle Court, Rexburg, ID 83440

Wow!  I'm bad at this blogging thing!  It's been way too long and we have had MANY changes in our life!  The biggest change is that we moved!  We finally got our house sold in the spring.  It was with many mixed emotions that we left our home in Parker.  We loved that place!  We put SOOO much work into making it what it was and we enjoyed it.  We loved our neighbors and our ward!  But over the last two years, it became apparent to us that we needed to be in Rexburg.  I think we looked at almost every home on the market in the Rexburg area and finally found the perfect one for our family!  Contrary to what I thought when we started house hunting - I love the location!  We are in town with neighbors all around, but we love it!  We are very central to all of the schools (including BYU-I.) We are just minutes from the grocery store, Wal-Mart and all the conveniences of town.   We went from taking care of almost 5 acres, to just a small yard.  No more need for the riding lawn mower! We love our new ward and our neighbors have been great.  The kids started school this week and they are all adjusting well.  After about one week of living here, it felt like home, as if we had been here forever!  Here are a few pix of our new place.  We've had a few visitors already and look forward to more!

 This is the view from the back yard.

 When we moved in, the first thing the neighbors asked was, where is your trampoline?  Most of our close neighbors do not have little kids, but they have grandchildren.   The old owners had a trampoline and shared it with the neighbors' grandchildren.  It didn't take long for our kids to miss their in-ground trampoline from the old house, so we got another one and had it buried, too.

 I was glad to still have a few places to enjoy some flowers!

 This part of the yard is sunken down with a rock wall surrounding it.  The previous owners planted some great annual flowers that make it pretty maintenance free.  I love that!  The kids call this the swimming pool.  Don't ask me why.  There's no water anywhere around.  Maybe in their imagination they wish it was a pool!

There is a door from the basement to the "swimming pool" part of the yard.

Pre-Christmas Fun!

I hate to admit that I had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. It's usually my favorite time of the year and I go all out with decorations and other stuff. I think it was a combination of a lot of things, but I decided it came down to being in school. I couldn't focus on much besides school and final tests and projects. As soon as I got that out of the way, I was ready. Good thing my kids didn't have a hard time catching the spirit! That helped a lot. They basically drug the tree out of storage themselves and begged me to help put it up, which we did shortly after Thanksgiving. The boys are so fun at this time of year!

My parents always do the 12 Days of Christmas for their grand kids each year. This year they are doing a music theme and started it all off by taking the whole family to a performance of the Forgotten Carols, by Micheal McLean, which is always good! Each of their gifts are centered around the gift of music this year, which I love. A couple years ago they gave each family a little elf (a little creepy, but "magical" all at the same time.) Well, this elf comes with some "magic" dust. If the kids sprinkle this dust on Bernard (that's what we named our elf), before they go to bed, then Bernard wakes up in the night and does something mischevious in the night. Here are a couple of things our elf has done so far this year. He toilet papered the front room and then hung onto the light fixture with his hand. This was fun for the kids to clean up.

Last night he made a fishing pole out of a pencil and a paper clip and tried to

fish out of our fish tank.

My favorite thing "Bernard" has done: Write on the boys' faces during the night. They must not have even stirred. I think it must have been hard for "Bernard" to keep from laughing in the process and not waking the boys up. Chad was not real happy about it when he woke up, so there are no pictures of the artwork on Chad. He jumped right in the shower and refused to pose for a photo. But here's Kace's artwork. Naughty little elf!


We knew Bernard was guilty when we found him with the markers in his hand!


Other things he's been known to do: turn the milk green, toilet paper the Christmas tree, hang the kids' underwear in the shower, he even snuck in our suitcase to Hawaii when we went there for Christmas a couple years ago! Silly little elf! While this is sometimes hard for a parent to keep up with, the boys absolutely love it. The last thing they do before they go to bed is sprinkle the magic dust and the first thing they do in the morning is search the house for Bernard. It will be part of their Christmas memories forever!
My parents are awesome at creating fun family memories!

Early Season Snowboarding!

The kids all bought new snowboards with their spud harvest earnings this year. When Mataia decided not to try out for the basketball team at school (which consumes the whole winter), we decided to buy a season pass to Grand Targhee Ski Resort. We went the day after Thanksgiving on Opening Day and have gone a couple other times. We have already had a great time and the kids keep getting better and better on their boards. I decided you can't teach this old dog new tricks, so I'm sticking with my skis.

Jeff is helping Kace down the hill on his board. We put him in a lesson for part of the day every time we go and he is getting good. The first day, it took him about an hour to get down from the short ski lift. Now he goes up and down in a hurry. If the other kids aren't careful, he's going to be better than all of them by the end of the season!
It's fun to watch him improve so fast and he loves it!

My little snow bunnies!

When the big kids want to go up the big lifts, Kace and I get some bonding time on the smaller lift. As long as we can get off the lift without taking each other out, we do good! I love this little guy. (Oh, and the smack talk continues on the ski hill - ALL DAY. He's getting good and if you don't believe me, just ask him!)

I'm Thankful for Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving was really nice. We went to my parents' house for dinner with my family. Mom cooked a Prime Rib and all the food was delicious, as usual! We had a relaxing afternoon playing games and hanging out. Then mom had reserved some bowling lanes for us and the Dayton side of the family. We had a good time getting to visit with the relatives. It's always a good time with the Dayton side of the family.

Brett and Mindy at the bowling alley.

Yes, we even got Dad and Braxton to come bowling.

This is my Aunt Jerrice, Aunt Tammie and my Mom.

Morgan and Mataia love our cousins, Janessa and Natasha!

Mr. Smack talk, Kace. I'm not sure he even knows he didn't win. What a kid!

After bowling, we went back to Mom and Dad's for sandwiches and more fun. Somehow we got into a leg wrestling competition. Now, I know Weston would tell this story a little different, but here's the proof that I'm the Champ. (Coy missed out on this and is already talking about challenging me at Christmas. I better get doing some squats or something!)

Time Out for Women and Girls!

The girls and I went to Salt Lake City for a weekend with my mom to a retreat called "Time Out For Women and Girls." We had such a good time! We ate good food, shopped a little and most fun of all, learned a lot and felt the influence of the Holy Ghost at the retreat. We all had a great time. The girls had classes that were on their level and learned things that pertained to what teenage girls are going through today. They learned a lot. Of course, they have learned from their dad how to get what you want, and so they got front row seats both days. And they got to meet all of the presenters. They met Hilary Weeks (she was on the top of the Christian Billboard charts with her latest CD), Jericho Road (another amazing band), Carmen Rasmussen (former American Idol contestant), Brad Wilcox and Sheri Dew (CEO of Deseret Book.) The messages were great!

This is the girls getting some fresh air on the balcony at our hotel. I love it that they love each other and get along so well (most of the time.)

My sister-in-law, Emilee, was there with her daughter and some other family. We hooked up with them for dinner and sat by them during the sessions. This is all of us! Fun times!

This is the girls meeting and getting autographs with the band, Jericho Road.

Hilary Weeks was so gracious and talked individually with the girls and signed a CD and a piano music book of hers. Her latest CD is amazing! This song video below is off of her latest album. If you want an inspiring story, check out the website www.nieniedialogues.com
This is a blog that the burn victim, Stephanie Nielson, on this video does. She was in a plane wreck and was badly burned over 80% of her body. She has fought to get her life back and her story is amazing! We got to hear from her at Time Out for Women also. She is inspiring! Watch this video and then go visit the website above to be inspired! Life is Good!

Halloween Fun!

Carving pumpkins is something we take serious around here, (thanks to Jeff.) We always have fun and try to be creative. This year we all went to my sister, Mindy's house to carve pumpkins with the family. We had a great time and came up with some fun ones!

It's nice that Chad is big enough to do his own now. From the clean out to the carving, he's on his own! This wolf was the final result of Chad's hard work. Jeff worked hard on this BYU Cougar. I have to admit, it was pretty impressive! Go, Cougs!

Is he cute, or what?

This was a picture of all the kids and their final products. It was a fun night! We are lucky to live close to so many cousins and be able to get together often.