No more injuries...

I know it's back to school time, because all of my kids are back to sports too!!!

Naomi is sporting a beauty of a bruise on her hip from playing volleyball. (We've since determined that she is most likely diving wrong) She broke some blood vessels and it looked... colorful!

Presten started in with football pads and had to ice some swollen and sore shoulders.

Austen was going for the goal, slipped and landed on a previously injured elbow.

Isn't Larson sweet? Tying big brother's shoes?

I am hoping that we'll get all the injuries taken off right off the bat and we'll be good for a while!!

Post script.... Since this was written Austen has jammed his thumb a real good one and sprained his Achilles Tendon. Oh joy... it continues!

First Day of School!!

I am really not happy that school is already starting. The summer just went by way too fast. I didn't play enough. It might be because of the fact that my kids aren't little anymore. They were working, working, and working, plus scout camps, swimming lessons, volleyball camps, football and basketball clinics, etc.

It's a good thing that we didn't try to schedule a real family vacation, because I seriously don't know when it would've been "squeezed" in.

Nevertheless....

First day of school is always such a bummer for me, but the kids are mostly excited to get back!

Cutie pies... I miss them!

Presten's new wheels

I know some mothers out there would freak out, but I am actually really excited for Presten to have his new wheels.

He has been waiting for a long time and has gone through a lot of garbage just to get to drive his motorcyle, but finally everything is all in place and he has a new sense of freedom and independence.... and I get my car back!!

She's leaving me.....

Tia hates to pack!!! I hate it too!! It just means that there will be one less person at my table, one less person to wait up for at night ("there's a double meaning in that:)", one less radiant, fun, laughing, child home.

She is so happy to be getting back to college and with friends, late nights, music classes, etc. etc. but I will miss her terribly.

Good thing she is only 1 hour away, and I can talk her into coming home pretty easily!!

For not liking to pack she sure has a lot of stuff!!

Panic to Beauty

Tia came running into the house shouting "Mom...., Mom..., Everybody...turn off the video, hurry up!"

My heart fell to my shoes, I instantly went into worry mode. Was she hurt??? Did she crash??? Did someone give her a ring???? (sorry, can't help myself)

Her excitement was over this amazing sunset in our very own backyard. I am so glad that she is a lover of beauty. She sees it everywhere and wants to share it with everyone.

We were talking about it later and Presten told us that during "heck week" for football, when they were practicing in the evening... Coach Pearson would halt practice and have all the players turn and look at the sunset while commenting that we have the best sunsets in our part of the country.

Being an Arizona girl I would almost disagree, but this particular one was out of this world!

Like Father... like son

Anyone who knows Rick, knows the many stories of head and mouth traumas that have occured in his lifetime. Our oldest son is following in his footsteps by having his own series of head and mouth traumas. Can you remember the post about Presten breaking his tooth at basketball practice? Well, Dr. Hatch miraculously repaired the tooth and all was well. Then....

Presten was celebrating one of the few times he wasn't working this summer and actually had time to hang out with friends. They were swimming and having a great time. Presten has recently learned to do a "gainer" and was demonstrating it when the board that he jumped off of came up and whacked him in the head mid flip. This caused a jar to the head (obviously) which slammed his mouth shut and broke off the tooth that Dr. Hatch had so marvelously replaced.

When I got the call from Presten, I told him to walk next door to Dr. Hatch's and ask if he could help. Once again it was after hours, once again Dr. Hatch had company and plans for the evening, once again Dr. Hatch's assistants were unavailable, and once again he came to our rescue.

There was no finding the broken tooth this time so that we could put it back on, so he "built" a new one for Presten. Boy, did he do a great job. Amazing! You can't even tell. He will have to get something more permanent in the future, but we are going to wait until football season is over!!

Before.....

After....

By the way... Presten had this huge gash in the top of his head... I wanted to go get stitches, but he said "No Way". I think the tooth trauma was enough for one evening! Besides boys like scars right?

Pioneer Day Part 3

Can't let the day go by without recognizing the most adorable pioneer day birthday boy ever!!

(for some strange reason my pictures won't upload... cute photo coming later!!)

Larson gets the whole town out to celebrate his birthday!! We had lunch with G'ma B. and aunts, uncles and cousins, then did a little birthday shopping and later lit off fireworks! What a great way to spend the day!

Pioneer Day Part 2

Foot races are always part of the fun tradition of Pioneer Day. Naomi was working so it was just Austen and Larson having the fun.

Notice Larson has his lucky feather in his hand. (it's actually from his headband from the parade) :)

Austen had a slippery start, but still made a good showing!!

Pioneer Day Celebration!

Larson (aka "birthday boy") is the only one left in this family that can ride in the primary children's July 24th parade. The leaders told them to dress up like their ancestors that crossed the plains.

We have been having many discussions about Dad's indian heritage (Cherokee) so Larson decided that he would dress up as one of his ancestors... the indians.

That lead to a great story about how the Toquer indians really did help many of our other ancestors in settling our little valley.

Larson loved being different and I think many of the parade watchers enjoyed the variety as well.

The Johnson Reunion

This year's reunion was held at Crytal Springs. It is a natural hot spring with pools, jacuzzi's, and water slides. We camped, ate, swam and had a blast! Here are a few of the highlights. Thanks to Kristi and Paul for fun fun time! The family videos were especially entertaining!

Cut... then Promoted!

This week was volleyball tryouts for the highschool volleyball team. Naomi was a little bit nervous, but felt fairly confident that she would at least make the freshman team. There were a lot of girls trying out and that always means nothing is for sure. She worked hard and hustled. She anxiously waited all afternoon until the list was posted at 5:00 p.m. Holding her breath, she walked up to the door then turned and smiled. She had made it through the first round.

She headed back for the second day of tryouts with renewed confidence. She knew that she could make this team. She served, she passed, she hit, she hustled, she sweat, and then she had to wait.

Later that afternoon Mom gets a call from Coach. He wants to move Naomi up to the Varsity gym so that she can progress and learn faster, but is she ready for it? Can she handle it? After consulting with her big sister Tia, we decide to encourage her to take on the challenge and give it her very best shot.

In the mean time, big brother was at the highschool doing senior stuff and ran into Coach. He had the final list in his hand and was talking about Naomi to Presten, saying that he just didn't know if she was ready for the challenge, then crossed Naomi's name off the list in his hand. Presten started to feel bad and concerned for his little sis, until he realized that by crossing her name off the list it meant that Coach was promoting her to the Varsity gym. Whew!!!!!

So we went down to "the door" to see the list. On a list of seventeen girls Naomi's was the ONLY one crossed off. It almost looks like they changed their mind and cut her after all.

Good thing that we knew she was promoted!! That could've been a whole box of kleenex and several chocolate bars just to repair the self image. :)

Tia's Dream House

Earlier this spring I was on a volleyball trip up north with Tia. We stopped in on 4th South at the CNG gas station and next door was this amazing house. Tia fell in love with it. She and grandma J. went over to explore and got "caught" by the security guard. He told them that they have homeless people and vandals trying to get in all the time. He told her that she could go ahead and take pictures though. We love the style. We have fun making up stories about how our lives would be if we lived in that house.

This past summer Tia found herself once again at the Fisher Mansion. She wandered over to dream and take photos. Low and behold someone was inside and the door was open. She carefully walked up the steps and nervously called out if anyone was there. A friendly face greeted her and told her that there was an architectural class that was studying it and they were going to refurbish it and put it to good use! Tia was surprised and delighted when the friendly face invited her to look around and take photos! Who knows someday, Tia might be found sipping lemonade on the porch of her very own Fisher Mansion!