Great Track Results

Look at the standings from Tuesday's Cross-Town Track Meet.  The top three are varsity and the bottom three are JV.  Not bad for the freshman kid - 2nd in JV.  He was very excited and again it is his personal best.  He had another meet today but didn't do as well length wise because of the rain and the cold.  Gotta love Montana in the spring.  Saturday's meet will be really fun it is only Freshman but it is supposed to be cold and rainy again.  We'll see how it goes.  Stay tuned.

Track was going so well . . .

Keston's first track meet - I could only stay for one event. Here is the long jump. He gets better each time. I don't remember what the exact jump was but it was over 16 feet. His next goal was 17. He had a meet last night and I missed the long jump but his best was 16 11 3/4. He missed his goal by 1/4 of a inch but he still jumped farther.



Here is the triple jump from last night. He did great - the jump he sat down on was his best jump, I think it was 36 something. It would have been great if his butt would have stayed up.




To try something new he decided to do the 200m. Well it didn't end well. He was running his heart out and I don't know if he tripped or if the momentum got the better of him but he went down and it seemed like it all happened in slow motion. It seemed like all he had to do was stick out his tongue and he would have been across the finish line, he did get up and take the two steps over the finish line but here is the result. OUCH!



Can't wait to see what the rest of the season will bring.

College . . . already

Over Spring Break Tylissa and I visited Montana State University and University of Montana. I am so blessed that she is a very reasonable young women and when she saw the price of out-of-state tuition she understands that she will have to stay instate and BYUI and BYU don't have her program so she is looking instate. She wants to be a forensic anthropologist. First we headed to Bozeman to MSU and she really liked it, however she is not looking forward to sharing a very very very small dorm room with another person. We took a tour of campus, tour of the dorms, met with an Anthropology professor, stopped by the LDS Institute, and shopped. It was a great time at MSU.


Tylissa sitting in the MSU library. This is very important to her.


Can you read what the sign says . . . she was very happy. She could not stop smiling. She really liked the feeling at MSU but it doesn't have her full program. It has a small Anthropology department with some forensic classes, she will have to get a Master's degree if she goes to Bozeman. Plus it is about 6 hours away so she will only be able to come home during the big holidays.

We next headed to Missoula, and we were so tired that it didn't start out very well. Bozeman was a more personalized trip and Missoula was a big UM day with hundreds of people so it was a slow morning sitting in a huge theater just listening to admissions, career opportunities, financial aide, you know the boring stuff. The tour of campus was cold and rainy so it was miserable and she hated it and did not want to go there, until the after lunch. They fed us at the Food Zoo which was amazing for college food service and then they had a question and answer period with current UM students. One of the students on the panel was a Forensic Anthropologist major so Tylissa perked right up and then spoke with her afterward. From there the afternoon really looked up. She met with the department head who was very honest that there is not a lot of job opportunities but she doesn't care because she really wants to study it. We went on dorm tours and tried to visit the institute but they had closed for the day. All in all it was a great few days, she loved it and is very excited to start the next leg of her journey. She just took the ACT this weekend and is scheduled for the SAT next month. She may be ready for her next chapter but then I will be stuck with just boys, I guess it is a good thing I have Maggie.

After heading back to Kalispell on Friday, we then headed up to Canada to retrieve the boys and save Granny, Grandpa Paul, and Kayden from them. I am so grateful that mom and dad just take the boys with no questions asked. Should we remind her now that Chad is planning of living with her the whole summer . . . ? We stayed for conference and then headed home. Again traveling in Montana is always exciting. For about 10 - 15 miles it was a complete whiteout and I just followed the car tracks in front of me, hoping the car didn't end up in the ditch. But it didn't last long and we made it through the mountains. Why does this always happen when Val isn't with us?

It was one of those trips were I was looking forward to going back to work just to rest. Fast and Furious, we wouldn't have it any other way.

Odds and Ends

I finally painted the living area of the house. Look behind Keston to see the before style, the three-tiered beigeish color. It took me awhile, I had primed it and it sat for a few months.


Not the best pictures - it was a long day but I love the look. It is steel grey and it matches the new couches quite nicely.




The new throw pillows for the couches. I am trying to find curtains or window treatments the color of the aqua pillow.



Cakes I made for the scout auction. It had to be something quick, easy, and something of a novelty. I was able to whip these out with Chad's help. We had a lot of fun making them.



Back in December when Austin stayed with us he and Keston had a little too much fun in WalMart. I think he is the bumblebee transformer here. It was taken with my cell phone and I don't know how to get the color setting back on. It is the curse of WalMart . . .


Thor is beating up Captain America, of course he could do a better job if he wasn't laughing so hard.




The three little boys hanging out at Granny's during conference. How big do these three little boys need to get before they are no longer the three little boys. I guess they need to be big enough not to fit in tiny spaces. It is hard to believe they are old enough to all be Priesthood holders.

Concerts - Choir and Band

Chad is really enjoying choir this year. This is at one of his concerts. He was selected to be in the Grade 6 honor choir this year so I traveled with him to Missoula to work with a guest conductor. He did great and had fun. His next concert is songs from Disney.

I love choir concerts - they are short and sweet, no getting there really early to warm up, tune, and no switching seats. Plus the conductor does not talk forever between between pieces. Sometimes Tylissa and Keston's concerts go on forever.

Keston's latest concert was amazing. It was all the band students together doing Marches and Medleys. I have a lot of video but they are so long, I had to pick a short one. This is from Phantom of the Opera. They did all kinds of marches and medleys from Disney songs, Phantom, Pirates of the Caribbean, and others. Ignore the weird camera - it has a mind of it's own and started doing weird things. Can you see Keston? He is on the second from just to the right of the conductor. Look for his red hair.



Tylissa's last concert will be next month, and she has decided not to continue orchestra next year so stay tuned for her turn.

Snowshoeing on Blacktail

Dad and Tylissa got up no problem, but the boys did it the hard way.



What goes up, must come down. The boys love the coming down part.





Fun in the snow.


A new Winter Olympic sport, synchronized snowshoeing.

Tylissa's Birthday . . .

Tylissa's birthday was a bit low key. I decorated her locker at school so she would have a great start to her day. I wish this was in color but I only had my phone so just imagine all the colors. It looked great. However, when she got to school there was only one balloon. Oh, well.



She even had fun and great day. She was surprised and it took her awhile to figure out who the culprit was.


Another LEGO mini fig to add to the collection.


Her thing now is socks, especially knee-high ones.


Her friends got her a giant cookie, with her birthday pie, and red velvet mini cupcakes.


Yummy apple pie - who needs cake when you have pie?


Her new bedspread. I was hoping to get her bed room painted but I didn't make it. Hopefully before she goes away to college we will get her bedroom done and it will no longer pink and purple.


Thanks Grandpa Paul for making a great bed. She loves it.


Happy Birthday Tylissa . . . I know this post is months old but we still love you!

More Skiing . . . just a bit more

Chad was ready to hit the slopes.



Keston wasn't quite awake yet . . . didn't take him long.



Doing good!


I love the hair and the ears . . .


This was Chad at the end of the day.