Canyon Fun and more soccer

Daddy was home all week...so we had lots of fun. The kids wanted chili in the canyon, so I pumped out pot and we headed up... it was the perfect fall evening with the colors just starting to change (just can't believe it's getting close to winter! Time is FLYING!)

We told Daddy that he bent the bench :)
Taylor got attacked by Kimmy...Kara measured Taylor's wing span the other night and figured out her arms were longer than her height. Kara told her that Kimmy's arms were longer too and Taylor screamed "no!!" Kimmy was offended :) Kara called her orrangatang (no idea how to spell!) arms and hot dog fingers...She used to want to be tall like Kimmy, but has recently changed her mind? Taylor's feet are officially as big as mine now! crazy!
I ate a million smores! Bryan can roast the perfect marshmallow.
It always goes here :)
There was a boys against girls football keep away game...it got crazy!

Daddy got to go to Zacky's soccer practice...we don't have an outdoor team this season...so he's been practicing with a Premier U11 team. It's been great! (Daddy also went to 2 days of recess with the kids....they love it! He's a fun daddy!)

The girls had a tough game this week...after a major fight, they won 2-1. Taylor made the first assist (a perfect pass!) and then kicked a gorgeous corner kick high and hard to the middle and Alicia put it right in :) She got hooked around the elbow near the end of the game, so she spent the rest of the day on the couch...she said she felt nauseous and had throbbing elbow pain :( Her extra peanut butter and chocolate Roxberry shake did help :)

flag football starts :)

Zacky still begs me to let him play tackle football, but I'm holding strong :) He was SO excited for flag football! He LOVES it! He is about the only player on the team that understands the game and so he got a bit frustrated. He was not happy that they made him quarter back half the time because he said no one got open (true) and he had to run it every time. He made some great diving catches and ran lots of yards, but unfortunately they put Max on him the whole time and he is FAST. Zacky got in a bit of trouble from mom for throwing a fit of frustration at the end of the game. After, I came up to talk with him about being a good sport and he said, "yeah, I was going through my highlights, and realized I did good and shouldn't have thrown a fit." He cracks me up!
He's happy to have Hudson on his team :)
Getting ready for Taylor's game...
Daddy came home for the week and started out by getting Zacky yet another nerf gun...oh boy! Grandma Gayle took all the grandkids to the Dew Tour and Zacky learned that they have nerf gun competitions! He's ready! Taylor got her name drawn to go in with her family to meet Chaz! They got their shirts signed too...they were so excited!

Corndog Party and Taylor's soccer game

Time for Corndog to go back home. The cancer is back and spreading, so Kathryn came to pick him up so that we don't have to go through the downhill stages. Me and the kids had a Corndog sleepover together in my room. The kids cried themselves to sleep for an hour, then woke up several times during the night to cry, then when Kathryn came in to get him in the morning they spent another half hour crying. Zacky stayed home from school since he got no sleep and Taylor went with major bags under her eyes. I'm sure her teacher thought she'd been in a gang fight! It was a sad, sad night. The kids loved that dog!
We took Corndog out for one last canal run/swim.

Bryan sent me these gorgeous roses! They were amazing!
We had a goodbye Corndog party...
Seth and Alec came over to give Corndog some cookie dough :) (at the baseball tournament, Corndog pulled me off a bench trying to run to the twins! smart dog!)
They played fetch...
and we had Corndogs for dinner :) Corndog stole Austy's :)
That dog was in treat heaven!
The spa cover has officially been destroyed!
Against my better judgement, I let Taylor play soccer with her bad elbow. She missed one game and was not willing to miss another! She loves games! Darren put her forward right to protect her elbow...she usually plays center forward :)
The best part of the game was when a girl shoved Taylor to the ground, straight on to her elbow, of course...she got a free shot and sailed it perfectly over everyone's head (and past the huge goalie) and into the goal! It was awesome. She was actually crying while she shot it, and came out right after. Her elbow is still really sore. She made 2 goals that game and some great assists. She has the most amazing shots (although she comes out of every game talking about how terrible she did! she's so hard on herself!...she's very accurate and consistent especially on her corner kicks. She's so fun to watch :)
Zacky played catch during half time :)
We went to see the worst movie ever for adult date night (500 days of summer). And we finally tried the smokin apple...yum. We hardly ever draw attention to ourselves ;)....kara's sliding down the theater!
Kara threw Kimberly to the floor! I don't know why she brings that on herself!

Zacky's 3 day Labor Day baseball tournament

After yelling at our stupid basement guy, then at bryan for telling me not to yell at him...we got to the baseball field and had to deal with the rudest parents ever from the other team! Not a happy morning...but the games went great. It was our first super league tournament in this division and we didn't expect to win, but ended up taking second over all. Zacky was happy because he got to get out of school early on Friday to get down to Salem :) He pitched and played short stop. Our team is huge and we have some interesting politics going on with these coaches, but Zacky has earned these spots and did great! He made some catches that were crazy amazing!
Poor Taylor spent Friday evening at the Earls and ended up hanging herself by her elbow on a swing chain (bizarre!). So she sat through the games on Saturday in tons of pain...We finally went in on Sunday (she was still struggling and although it looked more like a surface injury, it was soon obvious that it was much deeper). After waiting for 4 hours at instacare, the doctor told us it was broken in 2 places. Luckily before he casted it, he told us we should go to a specialist on Tuesday. After that appointment and showing the xrays to the Bills next door, it turned out that there were no breaks just soft tissue damage and temporary nerve damage. So glad we didn't let the idiot doctor cast it! We were so grateful that it wasn't broken and that there would be no cast! Still she's been in a lot of pain and had to write with her left had in school for a week :) Luckily Austin and Brittany are in her class to help her out :)
He loves pitching and did great! He's gotten really fast! He only had 1 or 2 walks the entire tournament (which is really good in this age group :) and struck out a lot of batters. I hate when he pitches...it makes me so nervous for him!
Corndog came for good luck...it was a lot of baseball in one weekend! :)
JCW's milkshakes have become the family favorite! Yum!
The kids love nachos on Sunday...Zacky wanted Daddy to take a picture of his super nachos!
Zacky picked #14 this year...when I asked him why, he rolled his eyes, and said "you know." (grandpa Ashby's number) and I love that he wears his socks tall...I hate the long pants :)
The kids were dissappointed in 2nd, but later that week Zacky cleared out all his legos (he says he's "over them" right now...Derek and Ryan and Logan couldn't be happier with the hand-me-downs!) and put his baseball trophies on his dresser...this trophy got center stage :) so cute--he's middle front row here
the kids were trying to blind the coach during his after game speech :) Then it was off to Brick Oven to celebrate! I had to help Taylor with her pasta...she wasn't so great with her left arm ;)
Here's one of our favorite moments from Zachary's tournament :)