Water Polo Begins!

Monday was nuts.  There was the usual laundry and groceries and swimming and work outs and such, then I also had to go to the school to pick up all our equipment for water polo.  The girls team is looking good - we already have 9 players and we have some strong new players coming in and some awesome old faces coming back!  We were still low on boys numbers at the beginning of the week - but it is getting better as the week progresses.  We have boys that have said they will play, but who have yet to sign up....  

Practices have been going well - I've really been enjoying getting to work with the newer players and helping them learn basic skills!  

Wednesday was out parents meeting after practice and then masters after that.  It was a lot of fun!!  The parents meeting went well

Thursday was a busy day getting things ready for our Team Dinner on Friday, and David helped me run errands - then fell asleep on the water polo balls in the back of the car!  It was so cute!  

Thursday, Dan headed up to Washington to run the Ragna Race with some old friends from high school.  It was cold and wet and crazy - but he had a great time!  

And he even remembered to take pictures for me!!  He was gone until Saturday evening - and he ran a lot and barely slept at all...

Friday was the team dinner.  It went well, we had a good turnout and lots of food was eaten and lots of fun was had!  

Saturday was crazy.  I got up in the morning to swim and got home and only had time to do a tiny bit of clean up from Friday night before getting the kids up and getting packed and ready to head down to Salem for little Evelyn's birthay party.  Then I took my Evelyn to band and then I grabbed the rest of the kids to head down.  We had a great time.  Eileen enjoyed showing off her mice to a sweet little girl at the party and James enjoyed making Evelyn jealous by having me send pics of him holding Harrison.  

After we got back from the party, I took Eileen to the Celtic and Fantasy Faire in Hillsboro, then took Aaron and Evelyn and James to the youth temple trip, then took David and met Eileen at the fair.  We had fun walking around and doing a bit of shopping and Eileen and I got dressed up!  Then we headed home just in time to grab some dinner and read some scriptures before taking Evelyn and her friends to a dance.  There was no open polo (boo) but after picking the girls back up and taking them all home, I was still very ready for bed!  

Church today was wonderful - the choir number went really well and the talks were awesome! 

 After church, we mostly took it easy and played some games.  Did a bit of napping.  Then dinner and the Seminary kick-off.  
  

Camping!

This week was our annual camping trip with our church friends!  Monday and Tuesday were mostly spent prepping for the camping trip, then Wednesday morning after swimming and working out we packied up and headed for the coast.  We also brough James' friend Caleb with us.  He had never been camping before and it made James much happier to have him (though admittedly, it made Eileen less happy)  

The weather had been threatening to rain the whole time, but then it ended up being clear the whole time.  It was a typical cool day at the Oregon Coast, but warm enough to enjoy being on the beach and for the kids to enjoy getting wet!  

One of the funnest parts about going with this group is that it means we all have friends to hang out with.  It was fun since Eileen mostly chose to hang out with adults (and around whatever fire she could find) so she hung out with me a lot!  

The other fun thing is getting to share food and games together.  There was a group of teenagers playing D&D and multiple s'mores nights and the Olsen's always had yummy food that they wanted to share.   

Eileen also had fun sharing her crochet creations with the kids.  She gave head scarfs to Kallie and Fiona and Rory and they all looked so cute in them!  She also brought out her mice and the kids had a blast playing with them.  Rory was making my little boy mouse break dance on the table!  

The weather out on the beach was especially beautiful on Friday.  The kids all had a blast playing in the sand and getting wet and building a huge sand fort.  

Anna and Evelyn stayed home with Dad since Evelyn had band camp that week and Anna had work.  We got back early-ish on Saturday morning.  Aaron and I wanted to go play water polo, then Dan and I went to a wedding reception, then we met up with Evelyn at the school for the marching band preview show.  It was a lot of fun and we had a great time with her learning how to march.  

That evening, Anna and I went to open polo and had fun since a bunch of friends showed up!  

I am in the process of gearing up for Water Polo season.  I spent a lot of time this week talking with the new head coach and asking questions and deciding how we want to proceed with stuff.  I am looking forward to the new season and I think it's going to be awesome!  

Band and Polo and Swimming and Friends

 This week was the beginning of band camp for Evelyn, so she has been gone from 10 in the morning until 9 at night every day this week except Sunday.  We've had to make sure to drop dinner off for her at 5 and get her dropped off and picked up.  She's having a blast, but it's long and tiring!!  

I took the boys swimming a couple times this week - we also brought Paxton and one of the times they ran into their friend Anna there.  They had a blast playing together and Aaron and James were great with the little kids.  

David had a sleepover at Paxton's house.  They just switched back and forth between houses periodically during the week.  But they had fun together and they love playing together even if they can't play video games.  :) 

Wednesday at masters polo we had 30 people come!  It was awesome to see so many people!  Anna and I had a blast and met a girl who used to play for Mountainside who was home for a couple weeks and stopped in to play with us.  It was fun to chat with her!  

Saturday was absolutly nuts.  I had 3 places I was supposed to be.  at once...  There was the coaches clinic all day - I only got to go to a little bit of it before I had to leave for the open water tournament.  The part I got to go to was amazing, but I wish they would give us the date more than a week in advance... 

The tournament was a lot of fun.  It was in Lake Oswego.  The group we played with was awesome and we won all our games.  I had to miss one of the games though so that I could go to Brother Steven's funeral.  The funeral was beautiful.  After, I hurried back just in time for the last game.  We won all our games by a pretty large margin and everyone had a great time!  

Finally in the evening, I went with Anna to open polo and we had a blast - it was a good group with some good polo happening!  We started out with a full game plus subs, but people filtered out as it got late and we ended up with 4 on 4 by the end.  

Church today was wonderful - the talks were amazing as was the music.  Primary went well and we had a fun time and practiced the music.  After, we played games and ate dinner and had fun together.  I caught this cute sisters snuggling during scriptures.  

FSY

Monday morning, I got up to swim early as usual, then worked out as usual, then I gathered kids up and we drove down to drop them off at FSY.  Anna, Aaron and Evelyn all went with friends and we had a fun drive down.   

The kids had an amazing week - and I got glimpses of it through BeReal which was fun.  

Wednesday, I took Eileen, James and David to George Rogers park to play in the water for a few hours with friends.  We had a great time and the weather was perfect.  We had a wonderful day!  

Thursday, Dan and I went out to Rockaway Beach for a night away to celebrate our anniversary.  22 years!  We had a fun evening watching the sunset on the beach and watching some olympics.  Then a relaxed evening eating a yummy breakfast and walking on the beach and browsing some of the shops.  

Friday, we got home and got right back into busy.  Eileen was glad to have relief from the boys again and we got back into regular routines.  

Saturday, I picked up kids from FSY bright and early, then since none of us had had any breakfast, I took them out for donuts.  Anna found a fun little bakery with donuts that was open in Salem and we stopped there for some of the best donuts I've ever had.  They were a big hit all around.  

Saturday was crazy - we had water polo, temple trip, birthday party and more water polo.  Anna was exhausted after FSY and slept most of the day.  Evelyn immediatly went to hang out with her friends for the rest of the day.  

Sunday was wonderful.  Sacrament Meeting was beautiful, and primary went well with our little Olympic themed activity.  We had the sister missionaries over for dinner and then I took the boys to the park to play for a bit before bed time.  We met up with Paxton and his dad and brother.  The boys had a fun time playing together and then planned a playdate for Monday.