Albuquerque Water Polo Trip with Noah

I got to take Noah to his water polo tournament in Albuquerque, NM this weekend. (Mason had a swim meet so he was unable to join us) Such a great trip and lots of fun memories with this kid. Colter and Lindsey carpooled with us which made it even better. We left Albuquerque on Friday morning, Noah had a couple games that same evening. The weekend was filled with lots of polo games, food, laughing, yelling (at the refs), hoarse voices, watching FRIENDS TV, and snuggling. Noah got kicked out of his first two games…MY NOAH! I think he learned a lot and it was really fun watching him the rest of the tournament try really hard not to get the whistle blown on him. Sunday afternoon at the post game “coaches talk” the whole team cheered for Noah NOT getting kicked out of the remaining games. The highlight for me (besides being the loudest moms in the stands w/ Lindsey) My absolute fav was just talking to Noah one on one and the time spent supporting him doing something he loves. Also HUGE shout out to Ron for holding down the fort and taking care of a Phoenix swim meet, a Daddy Daughter night, and the primary program. #ilovemycrazylife #lovemyman #lovemynoah

Noah Wrestling

Noah came home from school one day and said "I think I want to do wrestling"... I was like "What?!?" Not sure exactly where this came from but he did! The next day he went to wrestling practice/try outs. His very first meet I was SO nervous for him. My stomach physically hurt I was so anxious. Franklin Jr High is an amazing school. I love it and we have had amazing experiences there but it's definitely not a school known for athletics. It's an academically based school and a much smaller scale than the average jr high. Noah going into wrestling made me really nervous about him getting beat up! After all he is my Noah, my quiet, kind, nice, timid, thoughtful, over thinker Noah. His first meet was excruciatingly long we had to wait for about 2 hours before Franklin even got to start wrestling. Watching Noah rough house with another kid is very nerve-wracking. I did not like it. Thankfully he won both his matches, my favorite part was after his first match you could tell his adrenaline was pumping and he did a little excited air fist punch. He did NOT do a victory dance or anything like that he was excited and it was his first match EVER. The stupid ref told Noah to "calm down" I was so annoyed. He literally did an air first pump, it was small and of no consequence. I wanted to yell to the ref "this is his first match EVER give him a break!" Oh well. I got it all on video and I love watching him thrive. He comes home from wrestling practice so exhausted but so happy and content. It makes me so happy to see my kids try new things and find joy at working at something new. 

Mason Life Guarding Job

Mason has worked so hard all summer long. Life Guarding is no joke, out in the sun for long hours. He seemed to really enjoyed it. He made some great friends and good memories. In the spring he took a life guarding course approximately 20 hours long over 5 days. Then once he was hired he took a drug test and proceeded to have hours and hours of training, approximately 4 different all day Saturday trainings. His starting rate is $16.40/hour. The month of August if he clocked 20 hours which qualified him for $500 bonus. It’s been harder for him to get hours once school and swim started back up. He has to watch the work app and sign up for shifts as they become available. He worked very hard and even chose to miss a family beach/sea world vacation so he could get the necessary hours. 

Back to School

10th, 8th, 6th, & 2nd grade! We are so excited for this school year! It's going to be amazing. Let's go Fire Birds and Jack rabbits! here we go wrestling, swim team, choir, dance, piano, orchestra, tumbling, and waterpolo! I am really sad that this will be the last year April will have a sibling at her school. Poor girl will be all by her lonesome the rest of her school days. But I don't worry too much because she has good friends and is crazy popular.

Summer 2022

We survived Summer 2022. I worked 4 days a week (I've never worked that much as a mom but I'm super blessed. My office spoils me and let's me keep a schedule of 8-2pm M, T, W, & F. During the school year I'm home when they get home from school and that's very important to me.) Thankfully I had an amazing sitter lined up for the summer. Lily Johnson took such great care of my kids M, T, and W from 9-1pm. She ran them all over the place and made sure April practiced the piano and did school work with her also. 

Our Typical Summer schedule:

5:30-8am Mason MAC club swim @ Kino pool

6-7am Noah swim team at MHS

7-8am Callie Swim Team @ MHS

8:30-9:30am Callie Synrcho Practice @ MHS

9-10am April Swim Team @ MHS

10-10:45am Callie Orchestra @ Franklin East

Mason had life guard shifts almost daily either from 9-4pm or 1-7pm

Noah was a Jr Guard and had shifts a couple days a week for a few hours, and helped almost every morning during the younger swim team practices AND helped at the swim meets with the Youngers. His best friend Christian was a Jr. Guard with Noah at MHS they signed up for the same shifts and I think had a lot of fun getting service learning hours in together. 

Tuesday Evenings Callie had Synrchonized Swim Meets

Thursday Evenings ALL evening Swim meets Youngers and Older swim meets are back to back. So hot! But April was sure fun to watch! And Noah has really taken off in swim I can tell he is pushing and applying himself. He made every relay race on the A team. (Even when he missed time trials haha!)

M, W, F 6-7:30pm Mason/Noah Water Polo practice

Saturday Mornings 9-10am Water Polo Games

After writing all this down now I'm wondering if we may have overdone it a little with the scheduling but... I think all my kids had a lot of fun. Callie wasn't too thrilled about swim team but I let her pick one morning a week to sleep in and skip practice plus she only had to do one swim meet the whole season. I'm so grateful we had Lily to help drive the kids around and take care of them. She is one amazing young woman and was a blessing to me this summer. 

Mason LOVED working at the pool this Summer. He made lots of new friends and was really happy with his paychecks. I'm so proud of him and his work ethic. We didn't take many family trips this summer mostly because of his job (and FSY) but I'm happy for him to be working so hard and learning life lessons in the working world.

Sea World/La Jolla Family Trip

We haven't been to Sea World in a few years and I decided it was time to go back. We planned an end of summer Family trip. Sadly, Mason chose not to come so he could clock more hours at work before school started back up. We missed Mason but we did have a fun short weekend trip. We got some much needed beach time (including unintended close up encounters with a sea lion) and plenty of playtime at Sea World. Sea World has always had a special place in my heart. We have taken all of our kids there since they were very young. It's just a magical place it has fun for all ages. April's absolute favorite things at sea world was riding the swing ride. 

We played in La Jolla Cove and really enjoyed watching the Se lions be very active jumping and playing with each other in and out of the water. We liked watching until one particular sea lion decided to jump up on the rock we were sitting on and literally kick us off "his spot" Haha Poor Noah got snapped at and with in inches of that sea lions mean mouth. 

The kids were so fun on the beach. At one point they let Ron and I go paddle board in the ocean while they babysat April and played on the shore. I love when my kids hang and play with each other.