A Cat's Tale

Well, this last year was a new adventure for us. Brynley started high school! She started seminary with Sister Reddish. They meet at the lovely hour of 6am at the stake center. 5am wake up time is early for non morning people like us! I tried to prepare myself, but there is no preparing for waking up in the dark! She also made the Freshman volleyball team (about 70 girls tried out and 15 made the team) which we were so excited about! We were practically living volleyball this last couple of months. Practice Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 3-5 after school and games on Tuesday and Thursday; sometimes lasting until 8pm because they wanted all the girls to support the varsity girls and stay for their game. It's been frustrating because I don't feel like Brynley got hardly any playing time. We feel like the coach definitely has her favorites. Brynley was put in as the middle blocker but had to go through 3 rotations before she was even rotated in. Most of the time she only played a few minutes the whole game. It was frustrating but we tried to be supportive and have team spirit. Her high school was voted "most spirited school in the nation" last year! lol ... Homework has been a beast! Late nights and early mornings have been a hard adjustment, but we've somehow managed to stay somewhat sane. (Barely).

Brooklyn and Addyson are still attending I Shine as 7th and 5th graders. They both seem to have a good group of friends. Brooklyn has tried out cheer leading and tumbling, but I'm not sure that I want her to go that route. Our neighbor (who is also our home teacher and choir director at church) is offering voice lessons so I think we may try that out for Brooklyn. She also has friends at school who play extras in movies; sitcoms and commercials... we're thinking we may look into that. (A little extra money on the side to put away for college isn't a bad idea!). She seems to love school and is pretty responsible at getting up on time and getting ready and completing any homework. She loves being at school with her friends and meeting them at the mall on the weekend. Don't tell anyone, but she actually passed up going to Universal Studios to meet her friends at the mall. What??! Definitely a teenager thing to do. :)

Addyson really loves her friends at school, but she's gone back and forth with her teacher. (Nice, mean, etc). She really struggles with math and has gotten behind so we've been working like mad to memorize multiplication facts and complete her homework. She loves to read if she has the right book... For some reason, she lacks motivation to even get up in the morning and go to school... I wish she found it more exciting! She's so into learning outside the classroom. Field trips and hands on stuff is her thing. I'm hoping we can find something that she is really passionate about. When she grows up, she wants to work at a pet store. (As her first job). She just wants to be surrounded by hundreds of dogs and cats and guinea pigs and bunnies! lol. We're hoping to get her on a soccer team this spring and/or try out ice skating this winter! She has also been on a no sugar kick, which has actually helped all of us to eat a little healthier!

So, Brooklyn is taking care of our neighbors cat while they are away in England for a few weeks. It's not hard. Just feed it once a day and clean out the litter box every couple of days. Well, one day Addyson and I went over because Brooklyn couldn't go. I've never seen a cat so scared to be around people before. It is the most skittish cat ever! We quietly walked into the house and Addyson found the cat in one of the rooms under the bed. It tore past me and hid under the couch. We went in the laundry room to clean up its litter box and on the way out the front door, I noticed it was slightly open. I cringed and looked at Addyson and whispered, "I hope the cat didn't get out..." So later that day, I sent Brooklyn to go look for the cat and make sure it was still there. She looked everywhere...opened closets and looked under beds but didn't find the cat. I was a little worried and as soon as I woke up the next morning, I went over and looked. I couldn't find the cat anywhere. We went back that evening and we both looked and couldn't find the cat. It hadn't touched it's food or pooped in the litter box. I was definitely getting worried and stressed. So, I texted the owners to let them know what was happening. I told them I was worried the cat might have ran outside. She didn't seem that concerned and said the cat was probably hiding. Well, it had been over 2 days. The food had not been touched. I sat inside the house with the food dish outside and the door cracked in case the cat was outside. I was SO worried and upset we had lost this darn cat! I thought for sure by now that it had gotten out. We had definitely searched everywhere! I was literally praying that the cat would come back. I told Brooklyn to go with another friend and go look again and then start asking neighbors and hanging up signs. I had to go for a couple hours to Brynley's volleyball game and hadn't heard anything from Brooklyn. I was so stressed. I got home and Addyson comes up to me as I'm getting out of the car and says casually, "well, we found the cat." I exclaimed, "What??!!" Are you sure? Wait, you found the cat?? Where??!" (At this point I am seriously in tears!) She says, "well, Brooklyn found the cat in the closet." At this point, I had to find out for myself and went to find Brooklyn. Sure enough, they had found this crazy cat in the closet!! I couldn't believe it and was just crying in relief. So happy. I guess what had happened is it had run into one of the closets when they were looking a couple days earlier and they shut the closet door when they left. I was so relieved and happy it was found. I didn't care about anything else at that moment. I texted the owner (at 3 in the morning in England) and let her know we found the cat. Now that's a long cats tale. ;) Owners are coming home tonight, thank goodness!

Colorado

So, I'm kind of back tracking, but I wanted to write about where we've been in the last couple of years. So, in fall of 2012 we moved from a house by my parent's house into a little town home in Provo up by Canyon Rd on the East side of Provo. Our goal was to save as much money as possible, and Ric and I were both working for a company called Engagex. We were planning on staying here for a while until we eventually were able to save for a house. We moved there a few months before Christmas, and that's where we got our dog, Kira, from Santa. He was so kind to leave her at our door dressed like a reindeer, barking her face off! The girls were SO excited! I realized that Santa may have made a mistake and wanted to give her back after 2 weeks! She barked at every single sound, and because our neighbors were night owls and we could hear them yelling through the wall, Kira would go crazy trying to figure out what was going on. Her bark would send me leaping out of bed in the middle of the night; my heart beating out of my chest. She also threw up in the house multiple times and got into something that gave her an allergic reaction; swelling her face up beyond recognition. We finally changed her dog food and that seemed to help. But still...the barking! With all that said, we still have Kira and she has followed us on our crazy moving around everywhere. 

So, through some networking, Ric actually found out about a job with a large security company called Protection 1. They offered him a job, but it would require us moving to Colorado. We felt the benefits like salary and health insurance outweighed the cons. This is a move we weren't anticipating, but after praying about it, we felt that it was an opportunity we just couldn't pass up. This is the first time in all our moves that we've actually had a moving company move us. We had downsized a lot already, so we didn't have a lot to pack. I thought it was funny that they sent one person to come "pack us." We visited in the kitchen as she packed my dishes and she told me stories about her grand kids. I think they must have paid the moving company by the hour, because they were certainly not in a hurry! So we finally got all packed up and luckily our landlord was ok with everything. Ric drove our car down, and the girls and I came later via airplane. That was an exciting trip into Denver! 

After looking for weeks, we finally found a house in a town called Westminster. It's in between Denver and Boulder. It sealed the deal when we found out the owners had a black lab too, and when I looked at the house on google maps, there were chalk drawings in the middle of the culdesac; meaning there were kids nearby! Come to find out, the teenage girl next door would draw a big dinosaur in the middle of the street every year, and then the neighborhood kids would come color it in. It seemed like the perfect scenario. 

When we arrived in the middle of winter, it was not like I imagined at all. It was 50 degrees out, and kids were out riding their bikes around! I was just picturing a whole winter of deep snow! Come to find out, the winters are very survivable. It will dump snow for a few days, and then the sun comes out and melts everything and you have a beautiful week! 

Our ward seemed really small compared to all the other wards we've been in, and we drove about 20 minutes to get to the building. We got the girls enrolled in school and our Colorado life began. I never would have imagined us in Colorado, but it has been one of our very favorite places to live. 

The Beach Life

Wow, this blog has definitely missed out on some highlights in the last year or so! I don't even know where to start, so I'll just start with our latest adventure yesterday! I will be missing a lot of details, but in the last year we have moved 3 times and ended up in Southern California. A place I have always WANTED to live, but didn't think we would ever end up here. I always loved the beach, but never knew how much I would love having access to beauty and therapy within an hour (if you miss the traffic, of course).

So, here we are in Murrieta, CA. It's part of what's called Inland Empire in Riverside County. It is an hour from the beach and an hour from the mountains (and snow! if we ever want to mess with that stuff again, lol). We would have loved to have been closer to the beach, but it's more affordable here and also a great family community with a high concentration of LDS members. Exactly what we were looking for...that, and somewhere we could possibly be grounded for a while. No promises, but that's what we really want and what we feel is best for our girls. It is so hard to leave forever friends.

On to our adventure... well, the day didn't really start out as planned, but ended up being great. There is a new LDS movie out "Once I Was A Beehive" and we found out that it was going to be at a theater in San Diego (about 45 minutes away). Since we have 2 Beehives in the family (Brynley and Brooklyn-can you believe THAT??) I really wanted to take them and make a day out of it. They don't have school on Fridays, so we planned on an earlier show and then thought we would check out a beach and hang out for a few hours. The movie was AWESOME! The girls and I all laughed and cried...who knows, maybe Ric even got teary-eyed. We even nerded out and clapped after the movie! We went and had lunch and then I researched which beach would be the best. We decided on Shell Beach; not really knowing what to expect, but it sounded very intriguing and exciting!

It was actually raining lightly before the movie, so we weren't sure what the weather was going to be like, but it turned out gorgeous! We parked and walked down a steep staircase and through a park towards the ocean. We got to the steep cliffs with the ocean below, then walked down a little ways to another set of steep stairs leading down to a small beach. We took our shoes off to walk across the sand, and it was soft, but gritty. It felt SO nice...Come to find out that the beach is full of small shells and sea glass! We could have spent the whole day there, but we only had a couple of hours before we had to head back. It wasn't really a beach for swimming in the ocean, but we had such a great time scouring the sand for unique sea shells and sea glass. Brooklyn had fun pretending that she was Ariel from The Little Mermaid with the waves crashing behind her on the rock. Ric finally took his shoes off and got in the ocean a bit and even found the girls a little crab hiding in the rocks.

We hesitantly dried our feet off; put our shoes back on and started the trek back up to the car. It didn't hurt that we were bribed with ice cream. :) We enjoyed our cones and took in as much as we could of the beach life, and then headed back home.

Addyson's Baptism Invitation

Addyson passed these out to some of her friends and teacher at school; neighbor friends and all the kids in her Primary class. Plus, we sent them to family members and friends who lived out of state so they could feel included in this special day too. We are SO proud of Addyson!

Addyson's Baptism Photoshoot

So, normally I would hire someone to take baptism pics (like I did for Brynley and Brooklyn), but after talking to a couple of people, I was encouraged to just take them myself. 

Afterall, I am a wanna-be-photographer...

Plus, my subject matter was very photogenic and beautiful...how do you pick one?

You don't. You pick LOTS! Well, here ya go:

 I LOVE the light. We took these outside one of our ward buildings in our stake.

 In the back of the property, I noticed some kids playing on a swing in their backyard. Their backyard connected with the church property, so I HAD to ask to take a few pics on their swing. 

SO perfect!

 And then, before we lost the sun behind the mountains, we went over to Standley Lake and got a few great shots there...by this time, Addyson was DONE. 

I "Mustache," Will you come to my PARTY?

After throwing some ideas around, we finally decided on a "Mustache Birthday Bash" for Brynley's 12th birthday. You know, it's a "thing" right now...mustaches are IN. Even for girls. Even for babies and animals. Everyone needs a Mustache! :)

As you can see, I had FUN decorating! 

 She invited some of her closest friends from school and church... They were all into the mustache theme. We had pizza; salad; fruit and cupcakes...Oh, and our new favorite "Izze" drinks (which are surprisingly kinda healthy-ish). 

We played pin the Mustache on Justin Bieber. 'Cuz he needs a stache, right? Brynley is TOTALLY not into the Biebs (which is totally fine with me), but Brooklyn was SO excited to peel the mustaches off after the party and put the poster up in her room. 

Soccer Season-Spring 2014

We finally gave in to the pressure of playing soccer here in Colorado. This is serious stuff here! Brooklyn and Addyson both decided they wanted to play this spring, so I signed them up for a rec league. It was a time commitment, especially for Brooklyn. She had 2 hour practices 2 times a week with games on Saturdays. Her coach had coached club soccer before, so being 45 minutes early to a game was normal for him. Not for us! Brooklyn hardly complained and seemed to love playing, though, so it was all worth it. She hustled out there on the field and got to play forward; defense and goalie. We stayed after practice a couple of times and worked on her drop kick. She got it down for the last game when she played goalie for the 2nd half, and booted it down the field! She dove after the ball and even got dirt in her mouth (I'm sure she'd want me to tell that part, lol). She worked hard to improve, and her coach said he was so impressed at how "coachable" she was. I know she was excited that Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Sean and his friend Liz were able to be here from Utah to watch her 2nd to last game and to watch Addyson's last game.

 Coach "Kon"

For Addyson this year, soccer wasn't really her thing, but she rarely complained and went out there and ran around the field. Most of the girls on the team, including her, were more interested in making friends and they would just follow the ball around the field in a big clump, lol. It was fun to watch. 

They also do this tunnel thing here (which I was unaware of the first game when I totally missed out being a part of the "bridge", whoops!) where all the parents go out after the game and the kids run through the tunnel while the parents congratulate and cheer them on. It was really cute and fun!

Brooklyn hustling to the ball as the goalie...

 Brooklyn and one of her good friends from school happened to be on the same soccer team. They made a great team together as defense and goalie.

 It was a fun season. Brooklyn's coach is pushing us to try out for "Club" soccer (which is crazy here btw...SO many club teams) so she will be trying out next week. But I just found out that a lot of the games might be on Sunday and practice might start in July, which would not work at all for us (we'll be in Utah in July, and we don't do sports on Sunday)...but I guess it will be an experience to try out. We're still not sure if we want to pursue more soccer or try out something different...

Evergreen Lake in the Spring May 2014

How could we not drive up to this beautiful lake just 30 minutes from our house...My parents came over from Utah for Addyson's baptism, and we wanted to take them to some of our favorite spots. We lucked out with warm, sunny weather and good fishing. Ric even took the Brooklyn and Addyson out for their first ride in a canoe. (Or Can-Oh as the girls say). They weren't sure about all the paddling...neither was Ric. But they made it to shore and were all smiles...they looked like expert canoers. :) We all enjoyed a picnic lunch and then Ric set Brynley up with a fishing pole. 

 We had an audience as Brynley pulled in a BIG catch. She had just put in her line a few minutes earlier, and got a bite. Ric had to help her reel it in since it was such a fighter. 

She pulled in a 18 inch Rainbow Trout!

 Brooklyn and Addyson weren't so sure they wanted the fish to die. Addyson is actually "petting" the fish and Brooklyn went and filled a bucket with lake water to keep the fish alive. They wanted to put it in our pond at home. At my mom's request, Ric finally put it out of it's suffering, and stepped on it's head (wha??)...traumatizing everyone watching, lol. My dad teased that that's how they must do it in California. I knew I didn't like fishing...but I don't mind eating it! We cooked it up the next night and it was tasty!

 As we were leaving the lake, these guys were just hanging out on the lawn. So cool...