Cottonwood Soccer

The girls had a fabulous season. They both played well, scored a few goals and had a blast with their teammates.

Courtney was team captain and loved getting to know the new girls. She took pride in being a "nice" captain. Apparently the seniors and captains weren't so "nice" when she was a sophomore and Junior.







Katie was interviewed by The Tribune and was mentioned in a few articles. She got a kick out of seeing her name in the newspaper.



I crocheted hats for the team. It took me the entire summer and most of the fall, but I got all 33 finished before it got too cold. I know 33 doesn't sound like a lot, but when it takes almost 2 hours to comlete just one, it is huge. The girls loved them though, so it was worth it!







This photo was taken at their last home game. The parents got together and got the seniors a little gift and presented it to them.



Courtney wrote personal letters to all the girls on the team and handed them out at the soccer banquet. Needless to say, there were a lot of hugs and even more tears!





I am still in denial that Courtney is a senior! She is so independant and mature. If anyone figures out how to make time go by a little slower, let me know...

Rrrroberto's Rules

I went down into the kitchen yesterday morning before work and saw this sitting on the counter.



Before I go any further, I need to explain a few things.

First of all, Courtney has named her car Roberto. When asked why, she said, "Because Rrrroberto from the bachelor is hot and so is my car."

Secondly, Courtney takes Katie and her friend Nani (pronounced
Nah-nee) to school every day.


Rrrroberto's Rules:

1. No eating in me unless you are granted permission from Courtney, in which case you must immediately clean any spills that may have occurred and throw away your wrappers. The use of spoons will not be tolerated; you must always use a fork.

2. Be respectful to Courtney. She is a wonderful, (and might I add) beautiful person.

3. Never leave your stuff in me. EVER

4. If you bring a sack lunch, you must take it into the school with you and if there are any leftovers or tupperware they are to be taken into your house as I drop you off. (Nani)

5. I am not a trash bin. If you have any trash in me please take it out as you are exiting. Do not say you will do it later... because I know you won’t.

6. Another major problem that we seem to be having is leaving shoes and clothes in me. I am not a hamper or a shoe-holder thing... so stop leaving them in me!

7. No shouting “Courtney you don’t know where you’re going!”

8. No taking me for a joy ride. The only person allowed in the driver’s seat is my beloved Courtney Joyce Jones.

9. Courtney is my master and the captain of my radio.

10. If Courtney says she’s not taking you to Wendy’s, then, SHE'S NOT TAKING YOU TO WENDY'S!!"

11. Don’t lock the keys in me or leave any of my lights on.

12. Do not hit, pinch, slap, punch, spit on, or hurt Court in any way including name-calling.

13. No spitting out your toothpaste until the car has come to a complete stop.

These rules at their essence should convey the following thought: keep me clean and happy! If any of these rules are broken, you will owe Court $1 for each act of cruelty. If #7 is broken at any time you will owe her $5 each. I am not lying. Abide by these rules and nobody gets hurt. Thanks ugly children!

Love,

Rrrroberto

Number 7 and 13 are my personal favorites.

By the way girls, if I ever find out who took Rrrroberto for a joy ride, well, let's just say that Rrrroberto will enjoy a nice week long siesta in the garage! :)

Reid Ranch

This year girls' camp was at Reid Ranch again. And, once again, we had a blast.

Here we are all ready to leave on our adventure!



Waiting in front of our cabin to get our wrist bands.



Sorry Kerry, I just had to put this picture in. We had been up at the ranch for a total of 5 minutes when Kerry snagged her pants and ripped a hole in them. In the picture Jana has just finished putting a piece of duct tape on her butt. We all had a good laugh over it.



Here is a picture of the leaders after finishing with our skit. I think that we thought we were funnier than we really were. Alicia is the one in yellow, she was the sun.



Here is our bishop, what a great sport!



It has become a tradition to make bananna boats up at girls' camp. Everyone shaped their foil into an easily identifiable object. Courtney's was the phone and Jenn's the receiver.



Cute pictures around the fire...







90% of our time was spent around the craft tables, though we did make it outside eventually.







I have to admit I got just a tiny, itsy-bit obsessed with the horses. We had certain times that we were scheduled to go and I went every single time. Granted, I couldn't walk for a week, but it was worth it.









The girls had a blast flirting with the boys-I mean going to the archery post.



There was a lot of swimming, paddle boating, KSB squared (kick soccer bum ball), hot tubbing, and eating. But apparently some of us didn't get enough sleep at night.







Here is a picture of our amazing camp directors...



Jana and I are going on 3 years now. I couldn't have asked for a nicer, sweeter, kinder, make you laugh until you cry...friend. I love you Jana, I can't wait for next year!!

Bryce Canyon

This summer we went to Bryce Canyon with the Jones side of the family. We had never been before, so we were pretty excited to go.

It was such an incredible place. I had heard a lot about it and seen a lot of pictures, but I don't think you can really appreciate the beauty until you have been there and seen it for yourself. We went on some of the most amazing hikes and saw some pretty spectacular views.

The kids were real troopers they went on a some really long hikes with us and didn't even complain when we woke them up at 5:30am to go and see the sunrise.

We had an amazing time. I have to thank Alisa for coming up with the idea and making all of the arrangements.

Here are some of my favorite pictures.

Spudman 2010

The Spudman this year was extremely exciting to say the least! After 5 years of running, swimming and biking his butt off (literally). Sean finally potatoed! He came in 3rd in his age group and finally, finally got a Spudman trophy.

Sean trained this year with two of his good friends from work. His goals were to (in order) be in the top 3 in his age group, be in the top 20 overall, run the race in 2:05 or less, and beat both of his friends' times.

Here is a picture of Sean and Adam before the swim. They started in the same wave.



This is Sean at the bike transition. And Adam! That was NOT supposed to happen. Sean is a faster swimmer and thought for sure he would be long gone before Adam got out of the water.



Here is the best picture of all. Sean is in the front, and if you look really closely you can see Adam not far behind him.



They both came in 3rd in their age group. Sean came in at 2:03:32, and Adam came in at 2:03:46!



Although he beat Adam, he did not beat Todd. Todd is in a younger age group, and his time was better than both of theirs (2:02:44). Here is a picture of Sean, Todd and Adam's brother after the race.



Unfortunately, Katie and I were witness to a horrible accident during the race. We were standing watching the bikes come in with Adam's and Todd's wives (who are sisters) and their children. A female biker came around the corner and crashed right in front of us. Adam's wife was the first one to run over and see if there was anything she could do. She came back to get something to wipe up the blood and then ran back out. In the course of running back to help, she was struck by a bike and knocked unconscious. Her sister ran out to help her while Katie and I stayed with their children.

Luckily, the ambulance was right there and the paramedics were able to get her to the hospital quickly. The minute Adam finished the race, he got on his bike and rode straight to the hospital. A few hours later she was flown to IHC in Salt Lake and later that day we found out that her skull had been fractured in two different places. She is out of the hospital now and expected to make a full recovery.

I have never witnessed anything like that before and hope that I will never have to again. It has taken me a while to even be able to talk about it. Of course I am leaving out a lot of details, like the amount of blood on the scene and the fact that I actually thought that the impact had killed her.

It has really made me realize how precious life is. In the blink of an eye everything can change. I find myself cherishing all the moments I spend with my family and telling them I love them constantly.

Sean has been so good to comfort me through all the tears and to listen to me talk through it.

I am so proud of him for getting a trophy this year. I may even forgive him for spending all that time away from me while he was training. :)

Dixie

At the end of June, Sean and I went down to Dixie with Cottonwood's girls soccer team. They needed a mom in each condo, so I volunteered along with another lady named Diane. Since Sean has been helping to train the girls this summer, the coach asked if he could come down with me.

Although we have been to St. George quite a few times, it was never in the middle of summer and never when the temperature was over 100 degrees every day. Needless to say, it was very, very hot!

We had 18 girls to take care of. We split them up into two different condos and were responsible for breakfast, lunch, dinner and transportation.







They had two games each day. Luckily they only lasted an hour, so we were able to get the girls back into some air conditioning pretty quickly.

On Wednesday, their coach took them to the Pizza Factory for lunch.





I threw in this picture to show you the bread sticks. If you have never tried these beauties, you are missing out. (Insert image of Sean rolling his eyes.) They were so amazing, seriously, I have never tasted a more delectable piece of heaven. I am not going to admit how many I ate, but it was a lot!

Thursday they were each given a movie ticket and since Eclipse had just come out, there was really no question what movie they wanted to see.

The girls played really well and won most of their games during the week. Friday night they had an all-star game where each high school team got to pick a player to go and play in the game. They all voted and Katie was picked, she was pretty shocked and extremely excited.

Before the game they got some paint and decorated their faces with Katie's name.



I have to admit, it was pretty exciting sitting in the Hansen Stadium watching my daughter play soccer. I have to keep reminding myself that she isn't even 16 yet and I still have a good 3 years before she leaves me.



After the game we went back and had banana splits to celebrate.





It was an exhausting week, but I had the time of my life. There was very little drama, and it was so much fun getting to know all the girls a little better. Diane and I worked our tails off feeding, cleaning and chauffeuring. We would fall into bed exhausted every night. I can't think of a better way to spend a week of vacation and have already signed up to do it again next year!