MHS 20 YEAR REUNION!

Now THIS made me feel old! I didn't feel old standing there talking to everyone, but telling people I was going to my 20 year reunion - the words hurt to come out of my mouth! Where is time going?! I had the best time! It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be! I wish I had taken more pictures, dang it!  Some good memories right here!

ELI'S ARROW OF LIGHT!

Eli earned his Arrow of Light for Cub Scouts back during the summer, but every time they have pack meeting he has sports so he hasn't been able to attend. Our scout leaders are so nice and this time we let Eli go to pack meeting even though he had baseball and the leaders did him right at the beginning so he could take off. He was looking forward to this day for the last week. He had his Biztown field trip and go to be a Papa John's employee in charge of writing the checks, etc and then his pack meeting afterwards and he told me that "today is the best day ever!!" Eli and I have different opinions of the best day ever, but I love him for being so excited about it! Emma had a cheer game during the pack meeting and it was still going so I called Jared to see about what to do and he told me he would just video tape it, but Eli could hear what was going on and he told Jared he wanted a lot of people there to see it! They didn't set up enough chairs and had to add another row - bless his heart - that made him even more excited and he told Jared how so many people had come to see him get his award they had to add more chairs! Ha ha - love him! Thank you Brother Harper and Brother Casslebury. Way to go Eli and Jared for squeezing in scouts in between school and sports! We are proud of you son!

BALLERZ SUMMER 2017!

Tyler and Tyson had their second season of basketball! They sure do love this sport! I love to watch them play so aggressively! They aren't the tallest on the court, but they can sure move, shoot, steal, etc! This year Erika coached them and Jared was the assistant coach. We are sad the season is over because the boys sure did look forward to going to the games and practices each week!

KARA'S BRIDAL SHOWER!

Jenn and I through Kara a bridal shower! It was fun and nice! I'm getting a lot better of passing jobs on to others and not stressing so much over them anymore - look at me growing up!

EMMA'S DRIVER'S PERMIT!

After bringing her drivers permit book with her to Nationals, Utah and Flagstaff the day had finally come for her to take her test. She was so nervous. So many people don't pass on the first time and she was stressed! As soon as she turned it in to be graded she looked at me and was stressed about 3 questions so she hurried and looked them up online and she answered them right! She breathed a huge sigh of relief. He took a little bit to grade it. Then finally he called her up and she PASSED!!! She is very excited. Now to start driving all over town and practicing a lot more! Yikes!!!

FLAGSTAFF FLAG FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT!

What a weekend! The boys were so excited to go to Flagstaff for the weekend! Mostly the twins just wanted to stay in a hotel, Eli wanted to stay in a hotel AND play football! Coach Percy gave the best description of the weekend so I will just copy his facebook post:

There are times in our lives when we get the opportunity to see something incredible happen. This weekend was one of those times. Saturday and Sunday our 10u Flag Football Team The Ely Raiders competed in the 5th Annual Prime Time 5 on 5 Football at 7000 Ft Tournament in Flagstaff. This tournament brings the best teams from around the entire state of Arizona. With 80 teams in total across all divisions to kick off the new flag football year. There were 15 teams in the 10u Competitive Division which was the most of any division. What made this weekend so SPECIAL is that we played 8 games in TWO days and we WON the 10u championship with ONLY 5 players.  JD, Eli, Caleb, Trey and Chase.  ALL 5 players had to play EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY GAME to win the championship at 7000 FT altitude. To know that you CANT take break, takes a special kind of mindset. No on complained about being tired. We had several near injuries but the kids got up, dusted themselves off and kept playing HARD. We kept playing with THE FOCUS TO WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP. Now what made this championship extra special is how we won:

The Play in Game we won 28-0 Mercy Rule
Quarter Final Game we won 38-34
Semi Final Game we won 34-6 Mercy Rule
Championship game we won 38-6 Mercy Rule

We mercy ruled 3 of the 4 teams in the tournament bracket. All 5 players scored in the championship game!

To add to that: I would selfishly say that Eli played the games of his life. He was so focused. He worked so hard. He rushed just about every time and sacked the quarterbacks several time, got a safety, scored a couple of times and caught some crazy passes! By the championship game our whole family was standing on the sidelines with the other family members and cheering like crazy and jumping up and down. What I also liked about Eli is when the coaches would yell at a boy for something, he would just pat them on the back and say, "it's ok, it's ok, don't worry about it!" We couldn't have been prouder of him this weekend! (and secretly I am writing this blog 4 days afterwards and Jared is still talking about it and still beaming!) Eli even wore his ring to school the next day! Bling Bling Baby!

PS - there was more to the weekend! The Parrys were up there the same time and Emma hung out with them and then we all met up for dinner for Oreganos like we did when we did the Polar Express together - Eli did not join us for dinner because he was with his team! We hung out with the Germaines and took little Everly to play with for a while!