Utah!

We had an eventful week last week. I only had two basketball practices due to parent teacher conferences. I'm guessing tomorrow's practice might be rough! We also have our first game this week. I'm nervous! I still haven't decided who I'm going to start or how I'll rotate the girls as far as playing time is concerned. It should be interesting.

Scott was in Utah for work training all week and the kids had two days off of school because of parent teacher conferences so I decided to take the kids down to Utah for a visit. Even though we saw everyone at Disneyland it's not the same as being at Nana and Papa's house or sleeping over at Colie and Rustin's house. The kids were definitely ready for a Utah visit. I headed down around lunch time on Thursday. The drive was long but okay. That night Rustin built a campfire and the kids told ghost stories and roasted marshmallows. They had the best time! 

On Friday the kids mostly played in the backyard all morning or watched shows. We went to Hires for lunch. Yum! I ended up going on two walks that day. Utah is SOOO beautiful in the fall. That evening was Nana's coco party. The food was de-lish! Afterwards we painted skulls, played a game and sang karaoke. 

On Saturday we picked boxes of apples from Papa's tree. We just enjoyed the beautiful weather all day. That evening I had to work because of stupid Dada (two more weeks). I crashed Clark's girlfriend's apartment because I figured that would be the best place for me to work. I ended up spending the night and taught for Gogo kid this morning. Now I need to pack up all of my teaching stuff and head back to the Cannons to pack up and go home. 

It was a great relaxing trip. Now back to crazy town!

Gabby made this out of card board and I wasn't sure if I ever took a picture. 

Ryan drew this picture. Gabby says she didn't help him with his letters. Not bad!

Campfire!

Corbin had the scariest voice when he told his spooky story.

Papa pushing Ryan and Greta on the swing.

Hires and Gabby's amazing long straw.

Coco party

Food!

Decorating Skeletons

Cute!

Cute!

Cute!

Cute

Corbin's creepy shrimp fingers.

We had a mini Ryan birthday celebration.

I love this picture so much!

Ryan loves beanie boos!

My makeshift classroom away from home.

Backdrop.

Basketball Begins

Another week has come and gone. I thought I was getting better last week but then I got hit with a sore throat and it wouldn't go away. It was hurting pretty bad to swallow so I decided to suck it up and go to an Urgent Care and see if I had strep. Yep! I'm on antibiotics and feeling fine and so far no one else has gotten sick. Fingers crossed!

I made it through the first week of basketball practice. We had a combined try-out for the first couple of days and put the girls on either A, B, or C team. There were two girls that felt like they deserved to be on the A team and they made the B team so they were threatening to quit. I'm the B team coach so we will see how that dynamic works out. The A-team coach gave all the girls a big speech about sportsmanship and all that. I told the disgruntled girls on Friday that they needed to be a part of our team and they needed to step it up in practice or they wouldn't even be starting. They worked a lot harder after that. I've felt pretty stressed all week. I like coaching basketball a lot but I am in over my head for sure. 8th grade seems a little more intense than 7th grade so I feel like I need to up my game that much more. I just have to take it one practice and one play at a time. Ha. 

On Saturday night our friends hosted a smallish Halloween party. It was just a movie and snack night this year because the host is too busy right now to do a costume party. We got there late because I work Saturday night (only 3 more weeks!). We were still able to stuff our faces and talk for a while and watch the movie so it was all good. 

Scott flew down to Utah for another week of training this week. I took the kids to the park and I brought a basketball with me. Corbin made quite a few baskets. I told him he will have to try out for 7th grade basketball in a couple of years. After that we made "Halloween sugar cookies" except I don't have any Halloween cookie cutters so we have all kinds of random cookies. They taste good and the kids had fun so that's all that matters.

Splash Mountain!

Everyone's facial expressions are amazing! Ha!

Taking a seat while we were waiting for the Indiana Jones ride which ended up being broken down.

Another Disneyland pic.

Ryan's preschool had a field trip to the Lindor Farms. 

Hayride.

Ryan got to pick his own pumpkin from the patch. That was his favorite part!

Nothing like trying to get a photo with a bunch of preschoolers. 

Friend scary movie night. Our friends hosted a movie night and they bought four inflatable couches. It was sweet! 

Scott and I sat down first so we could get the most comfy seats. Ha.

"Halloween sugar cookies." 

Sick

It wasn't too bad coming back from vacation. I had to work Saturday night and my classes felt like a drag Monday morning but after that it was okay. My allergies are especially bad in the fall so I take an allergy pill every day. I thought my allergies  were just going crazy but as the symptoms continued to progress I realized that I had a cold and it was not my allergies. I spent Monday blowing my nose all day and was pretty miserable. It was our Anniversary that day. Scott went and bought me medicine and made stir fry for dinner, true love! I rested as much as possible Monday and Tuesday. I really can't afford to be too sick. If I can't teach my classes I will get fired. They don't have very good policies with that kind of thing. 

On Thursday I subbed my token sub day. I'm trying to sub as little as possible in hopes of staying in the system to keep my options open for next year. I have a love/hate relationship with subbing. Mostly it's the worst but I love having the option to work or not. I had to put Ryan in day care to do it which was not cool. I think he was fine though. It's an in home day care and it's just this mom with her two small daughters so it's not too bad. She will be watching Ryan while I'm coaching basketball which starts tomorrow! I'm nervous/excited about that. I really don't know a lot and have zero skills. Ha! Coaching Basketball for Dummies will be my friend.

We had some friends over Friday night and we watched "The Shining." It's scary movie month! On Saturday I made the kids go rake some leaves. You would think they were being murdered. Oh man! Those kids need their butts kicked and to move to the farm to learn how to work. We later went to my brother Gabe's house for his annual soups and sweaters party. I had to leave early to work.

Speaking of work I'm quitting my job with Dada ABC. I'm so excited. The countdown is on! You have to give a 30 day notice or they will charge you $300 for ending your contract early. I sent in my notice and my last day is November 11th. I hate the lesson plans and I mostly hate being locked into a schedule. I hate working every Saturday night, it's terrible. I love being able to choose my schedule with VIPKid. I don't mind working a Friday or Saturday night if nothing is going on and I want to earn some extra cash but I hate being stuck doing it no matter what. I'm so glad I decided to quit. I started with them with the hopes of being paid more (which the pay is the same, only worse because of more prep time) and because I liked that they supply you with students because my bookings were down (my bookings are back up). 

Well that's about all. I'm still sick, I thought I was getting better but I'm not. My sore throat was raging last night. I'm trying to take as much zinc and drink as much Emergen-C as possible. Coaching starts this week. I hope it's good!  

This was me on Monday, totally miserable!

Poor Ryan was sooo sad after daycare when he couldn't take home their fishy stuffed animal. He LOVES stuffed animals so much it's insane. But that face! 

I decided to decorate my classroom for Halloween! I figured out how to put lights across the screen door as well. I love the lights the most!

The kids playing in the leaves before they started to work.

Ha!

Disneyland!

Our trip was really good. On Monday I packed everything up and tried to gather everything we needed for the trip like printed tickets and things like that. We got up around 4:15 to get out the door and catch our flight. I was able to get the airlines to accommodate us a bit and for the most part we always got to sit in pairs and in the least I was able to sit next to Ryan so that was great. Our plane had something that was leaking water and it took them awhile to fix it. By the time we got to Salt Lake our connecting flight was boarding. We had to run through the airport as fast as we could bearing in mind we were running with small children and a lot of luggage. We made it and had to board the plane frazzled for all to watch! When we got to San Diego it took awhile for us to get our van rental and Ryan was a hot mess. He couldn't handle his life being awake so early and not eating proper food. We went to eat an early lunch at a Mexican place and Ryan was having a tantrum every other second it felt like. This did not bode well for a day of walking at the zoo. Luckily by the time we got in the zoo and took the tour bus ride he had chilled out. He was a good little sport and walked around the zoo for a long time. We were there for about 4 hours but everyone was tired from traveling early and we were all ready to go except for Scott. We all kind of compromised and we stayed a bit longer and Scott had to leave a bit earlier to try to accommodate all of us. 

We stayed at my brother's time share and the lady at the front desk forced me into getting a free breakfast to receive a free gift if we listened to their spiel. I did NOT want to do it. We couldn't figure out what to do. We ended up going and Scott informed me that it was a 90 minute presentation, HECK NO! I told them we had to get out and that this was our only day in San Diego and we would not be sitting here for 90 minutes with our 4 kids. They told us that was the only way to receive the free gift to which we said, "we don't want the gift!" Phew! We got out of that. I HATE stuff like that from the bottom of my cold heart!

After our stressful escape we headed over to the beautiful Coronado Island. This was the kids' first time seeing the ocean and they loved it. We were there for awhile just walking in the waves and collecting sea shells. After that we got some lunch and headed to Sea World. We enjoyed seeing everything there and going on their rides. They had some really fun roller coaster rides and zero lines. We could walk right up and go on the rides. After Sea World we went to Old Town San Diego to pick up some souvenirs and eat some dinner. After dinner we drove up to our hotel in Anaheim. The kids slept in the car and crashed as soon as we got checked into our room. 

The next morning we headed out to Disneyland. It was very crowded. I didn't think it would be that busy in October. I should have known better I guess. I think if I go back to Disneyland and it's my choice I will go the first week of November after the Halloween crowd and before the Christmas crowd or go in Jan or Feb and deal with the bad weather. I like bad weather more than crowds. Ha. When you get the fast pass you really aren't waiting in line that long for rides but walking from point A to point B was nuts. People were everywhere going every direction. I was constantly counting my kids. My least favorite part of the trip was how crowded it was. It was still fun though and it was fun to be there with the rest of Scott's family. We were there for 11 hours and called it a day and a day it was! 

The next day we had breakfast at the Cannon's hotel and got packed up and went to Little Corona beach. It was really beautiful. We hung out there for a couple of hours and then we headed to visit Scott's old mission buddy in Irvine. They fed us lunch and we got to chat with them for a bit. We stayed there a little too long and it was a stressful drive to the airport. We were stuck in LA traffic for a bit. I made peace with missing our plane and was not very stressed about the situation. Being stressed wasn't going to make the traffic go away. Luckily the traffic cleared and once we got to the airport there wasn't a line in security and we made it just fine. Phew! I really did not want to miss the plane. We got to Boise around 11:30 that night. What a trip! The weather was great, the company was great, the parks were great. Overall it was a smashing success! 

Statue in front of the San Diego Zoo.

Riding the double decker tour bus. I loved it.

Riding the sky ride over the zoo. 

Coronado Beach

Eating our food in the parking lot before entering Sea World.

Everyone liked the cleaner fish. I was good, I didn't want to feel it although I was tempted to put my feet in and have them have a go at the dead skin on my heals for a bit.

Petting the sting rays.

Sea turtles.

Shipwrecked rapids. Gabby, Scott, and Piper got doused pretty good on that ride.

Dolphins

Dinner in Old Town.

I bought the kids Mickey and Minnie mouse shirts ahead of time. I barely remembered in time and they arrived the day before out trip. Phew!

Little Piper in front of the Piper sign.

At the entrance of Disneyland. Ryan was a super good sport about getting his picture taken the whole trip. Ha.

Selfie in front of the castle.

Scott took a picture of how crowded it was. It was literally like this everywhere. UGH!

They had a mini golf course right outside our hotel room.

Little Corona Beach

We finally got one picture with all of us on the trip. Mandys' family already lives at the beach all the time in Florida.