It's Been Brought to My Attention....

...that I haven't blogged in awhile. (As if I weren't painfully aware of that fact all by myself.) I don't even know the reason. We've been extremely busy, but I also just haven't been motivated. I'm going to blame the weather. Maybe it's a lack of vitamin D. I feel as if I've been taking it all in stride, patiently waiting and telling myself that it will warm up soon. But sometime this week, I hit my limit. I am done. If it doesn't warm up soon and stop raining, I'm going to scream! (For starters anyway.) Then I don't know what I'll do next, but I need sunshine. And not anymore of this stuff where it's supposed to be a nice day but we really only end up with a couple of hours of sunshine before the clouds roll in again. Anyway, whatever the reason for my state of blogging apathy, I will, in a lengthy post, attempt to briefly review the past couple of weeks.

A MAJOR theme of our lives has been water polo. In fact, so major that it will probably warrant it's own post but still requires a mention here. In addition to coaching, Shawn has had the opportunity to get in the water and play a little himself. He's played in 2 or 3 scrimmages against the high school team trying to get them ready for the state tournament.
Can you tell he's having fun?
Three weekends ago, it started with the JV state Water polo tournament. (All the tournaments involve several games over Friday and Saturday, so rather time consuming.)There has also been lots of hiking. In preparation for the upcoming 50 miler this summer, Jonas is required to get in so many hiking miles. This was a hike that he enjoyed as opposed to the hiking/camping in blizzards and snow that he's had to do. Wow. Those involved a lot of grumbling and complaining. (I think he's hopeful that if he complains enough we'll tell him he doesn't have to go. I guess he should have had someone else for parents if that's the case because he is going on the 50 miler whether he wants to or not. And as of right now, he doesn't.)

But a fun hike along pipeline with Shawn and Robbie seemed to cheer him up a bit on the hiking front.

There has been a Young Mens/Young Womens photo scavenger hunt. This particular photo is Jonas' group with a 22 year old fish. (Unusual pet category? I know I've never managed to keep a fish alive that long.) Anyway, no, I am not in Young Womens, but I find that if I actually want to see Shawn, sometimes I have to go where he is. In this case he was hanging out at "headquarters" waiting for photos to be texted in so I stopped in to hang out with him for a bit.
Then there was a weekend of the girls state water polo tournament.
Somewhere in the middle of that Shawn headed off to a Stake Priest Rodeo overnighter. (I would have stuck out like a sore thumb there, so I stayed home.) But there was lots of meat,
and an enormous fire, so it must have been a success.
Samantha made cookies for everyone.
Samantha had a class play. It was great except for the part that it was in Spanish so I didn't understand it, but I knew the basic gist of the story. It was still fun to watch.
She makes a good old lady, don't you think?


And then, there was more water polo. The boys state tournament. First, Friday night.
Followed by a gig for Shawn's band,
which made it possible for my kids to enjoy this enormous balloon for a few days.
Then a ward day of service starting early Saturday morning. (Just enough sunshine to make this event happen.) There was a really good turn out.
And we were all put to work.
Some of us were more enthusiastic than others.
At this point Shawn and I were missing the St. George triathlon that I was all ready for. But, you know, water polo got in the way. Now I need a new goal because I'm finding it difficult to make myself get up and out the door in the morning.

More water polo, followed by another band gig Saturday afternoon at the Utah State Tree Climbing Competition. (I know, I'd never heard of it before either.)
And then, more water polo. (Did I mention it was a major theme in our lives?) In fact it became all consuming by the end of the day Saturday and for the next several days actually. Like I said - it needs it's own post.
Then there was the packing up of everything in Jonas's room in anticipation of new carpet on Monday.
I was so looking forward to not seeing the lovely sub-flooring anymore.
But, the carpet didn't come in. (It would have been nice to get a phone call or something letting us know, because we're not moving all the stuff back in at this point. Jonas is sleeping on the floor a little longer, I guess.)
And of course, packing up Jonas' room meant once again, losing access to the exercise room. See how lonely the TRX straps are? This will all be over one day, right?
Then there was an orchestra concert. Jonas' last in elementary school. Can't believe he's almost done!
Entertaining the 2 year old during the concert requires some creativity with the camera sometimes.
I've managed to squeeze in a couple of bike rides in the rare sunny hours that we've had. Plus we can't forget the awesome U2 concert, or preschool graduation. But those will get posts of their own, I hope.