Fall Sports

We've been doing a lot of cheering for the Hulks and the Knights!

This season Will has been a great little soccer player! It took a couple of games for him to figure it out but now he gets it. He took last year off from soccer because he wanted to play baseball and do tumbling. Soccer used to be about wrestling on the sideline with the other players who weren't in the game and the post-game treats, but now we're sure he's having fun chasing and kicking the ball. Way to go Wilbur!

Go Hulks!


This is the first team picture that a 6 Clarks kid has been on the back row.
Millie & Sambo are always one of the shorter kids on their teams - always in front.
It appears Will isn't shortish like the other 2. {Not that he's tall, just not short}


This recreation league is sponsored by "Land O Frost" which is a local lunch meat company.
At the first game, I heard Will tell his friend,
"Look, the other team is playing for the Land of frosting too!"
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Go Knights!

Sambo is LOVING playing football! On Mondays, he's always bummed because they don't practice on Mondays. He sat this week out of practice because he got a stiff neck from playing
something during recess! Recess! A bunch of boys were playing "2 hand touch" and a kid got a little rough with Sam and he got knocked to the ground, giving him a sore muscle in his neck.
Even though he didn't actually practice, Sambo wanted to go and watch so he could stay caught up on what they were working on. Such a good kid.
We love watching this cute team become best buddies and
learn about hard work and about team work. So far, they are 3-2.

G-mas & G-pas

Our kids are lucky to have awesome Grandpa's and Grandma's.
They've been able to do some fun things with them lately:

-Fishing with G-pa Jim at Strawberry Resevoir (Will). And hitting a badger on the way home!


-Sleepover with G-ma Cindy and G-pa Tom (Quincy). She LOVES sleeping in their bed!

-Boys building their fort with G-pa Tom:


-Millie went to BYU football game with G-pa Jim, then a sleepover at G-ma Judy's.

-Came to Sambo's football game:


-Came to Grandparent's Day at the school (every year)!

Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you! We love you, love you, love you!!! We are always so happy to see you!!!
Happy Grandparent's Day (last Sunday)!

People

New people keep popping up at our home. Everywhere I turn, we have some visitors:


Quincy has been drawing her very first people! In the last picture, she drew our family on the garage floor with chalk. She named each member of our family, from biggest to littlest. Even Daisy and Pork Chop, the little ones near her 4-wheeler. I was way impressed. I love this stage when the legs and arms come out of the huge head.
Oh, I could eat her up!

Tuesdays

Tuesdays are quickly becoming my favorite day of the week. Last Tuesday morning, I kissed and sent Mills, Sambo, and Will out the door to school. Then I kissed and sent Quinny out the door to preschool. It was only 8:30. I thought about all of the things I could do with 3 hours all to myself. It didn't take me long to decide what to do. I turned on the ceiling fan, closed the shutters, and climbed right back into bed. Then I slept for 2 hours!!! It was so awesome. I can't tell you how much I needed that rest, how long it's been since I could do that, and how good it felt!

Today {Tuesday}, I did the same kissing and sending off to school, and instead of climbing into bed I climbed on my bike. I spent the next 2 hours riding up American Fork Canyon with perfects temperature and gorgeous changing fall leaves! And the best part is, I wasn't alone. BS was able to put off his work for a couple hours and join me. We rode to Timpooneke, which is almost to the summit. It was fun, but not easy. I love how BS can be so fast and competitive with the guys, but so patient and leisurely with me :)
The riding down part was really fun! Here is a picture I took with my phone cam near Mutual Dell.

I'm learning quick the perks of having all 4 kids at school at the same time.

Labor Day Weekend

This year, Labor Day really meant LABOR DAY!

Outside of my number one priority of taking care of my family, I have been consumed by something called Swiss Days. Those of you who have ever been there, know what I mean. Soooo many people crowded into one tiny village with the intent to shop, eat, and shop.

Outside of the duties that come with being a mother - I have never, never, worked so hard, been so exhausted, or had such satisfaction than I've had taking on this little {big} project. Hotch Potch was a vendor there this past weekend. It was such a great experience! It's good that it came in a hurry because I'm sure BS was about to die putting up with me during my month-long spree of no sleep, non-stop sewing, and spending time at my sister's house trying to figure out the whole business thing. We would have been more prepared had we not sold so much inventory at Raspberry Days in Bear Lake a month ago. It was a great learning experience that was necessary, but definitely a double-edged sword in that it left us with so much stuff to make.

There is so much to talk about but I'm still too drained and emotional to think about it. The support we received is unbelieveable. Sadly, we were so busy selling that we forgot to take pictures of us in our booth at the big event! Our booth looked awesome, if I say so myself. We hung tons of enlargements of the girls wearing some of our newer stuff. So for now, I'll just post some of those.










So we spent the weekend in Midway, Utah. One of our favorite local spots for sure. We stayed from Wednesday night until Monday night. Sam joined us on Friday and the kids joined us on Saturday.

For BS, his LABOR was a HUGE mountain bike race in Park City on Saturday. It's called Park City Point to Point. Even though I had so much going on in my life on Saturday, my mind was on BS. This was the first hard race that I wasn't there to crew for him. I worried about him. I was feeling bad because I hadn't even really asked him any questions about the race because as I mentioned above, I was consumed. I didn't even know where the race started or finished. I didn't know how many miles. And I didn't know how challenging it really was. My girlfriends texted updates all day until I couldn't stand it anymore. I left the booth in the hands of my sister, my brother, my parents, and my friend Julia to catch him at the finish line. I made it there about 15 minutes before he came in. I was so happy to see him and he was so happy to see me. Tears.

He looked great and felt great. Of course, he raced awesome and finished in 9 hours and 15 minutes. I didn't realize how awesome this was until today when I heard from several people that the course was the hardest course they've ever ridden. Sam would have agreed, had he not raced Butte :)

Anyway, we kissed and hugged and then I headed back to Midway to finish our big day. By 9:00 pm we secured the canopy and went to a celebration dinner at a super yummy Mexican joint called Tara Muhara. We were all so happy but way too pooped to show any joy. You can say we slept like babies that night. Thanks to mom and dad for booking us a nice condo to stay in! If I made a list of all of the things my parents have done for my sister and I in this venture, it would never end. And Shad, thanks to you too. You know it was fun.

Saturday, Sambo had a football game (thanks to my friends who got him there). The other kids had birthday parties and played with our awesome sitter who can drive and get them where they need to be (thanks Braedin)! We all spent Sunday and Monday together and it was beautiful! We finally relaxed, swam, and even went to the Sheepdog Championship at Soldier Hollow yesterday! Random, but apparently it's a really big deal. It was fun watching all the dogs do so many tricks including the long jump into a pool. We couldn't believe how many people go to these things. Big deal.

I forgot to mention we sacrificed a trip to Lake Powell for all of this. That was hard. Really hard, but worth it.

3 Racoons

The 6 Clarks have 3 Racoons...Ridgeline Racoons!
Today was their first big day of school. This year, we are "early birds," meaning school starts at 8:00 instead of 9:15. Meaning the bus comes at 7:25 instead of 8:45. Meaning I have to wake-up everyone but Quin at 6:30. Not a big deal to some people, but we are not morning people.

We chose the early option so that the kids can have an extra hour after school for play, homeowork, and activities. They begged for early start so we're giving it a go. Today they jumped right out of bed so chipper. I can only hope that lasts until next week.

We started the day with an "A+" breakfast of pancakes with buttermilk syrup and bacon:


They had a GREAT first day today! They are really happy with their teachers and classmates. I had another moment today as I watched Will get on the bus, knowing I wouldn't see him for 7 hours. My little guy is so big, going to school all day. I missed him today. I missed Millie and Sambo too.

But Quinny and I had a heck of a time together. We ran to the store, baked rolls, folded laundry, loaded/unloaded dishes, played with the doggys, and even took a little nap. I was worried about how she would be today with the others gone but she was very delightful! I can get used to this.

Here's to another great year. I hope time slows down. Go Racoons!

Big Deal

Several members of our family have had an exciting week...

Millie:
She did it!
She has wanted to for awhile but she has been too chicken.
Growing up, the rule in my family has been that you have to be 12 to get your ears pierced. As a young girl, I hated that rule. But when my sister and I had our 12th birthdays, my mom, aunt, and girl cousins made a visit to the jewelry store and got our ears pierced. Then we would celebrate all day with shopping and dining. It was a big day and a BIG DEAL. I can still remember most details from that day.
I choose not to have that same rule for my daughters, but I also know that I want it to be their own choice to have holes put in their ears. I'm really glad Millie waited until now because she has been a perfect gem at cleaning and taking good care of her ears. And she glows. She has worn her hair pulled back every day this week because she just knows that EVERYBODY will notice her new earrings! Love her. Here is a video clip of her big moment:

She was so brave! And being brave isn't Millie's forte. I was prepared for a full on scream. I think she fell to peer pressure with such a big audience. I can't tell you how happy she is with her new look :)
Here's her support crew. Grandma, Aunts, cousins, mom, sister. Quincy tried on this hat at Claire's while she was waiting.

Sambo:

Sambo started football for the Lone Peak Knights. They start 'em early here. BS and I wavered about if he was too young to start playing tackle football. But in the end, Sambo's determination and good behavior made us cave and give-in to his wanting to play. He has some buddies who played last year and he wanted to join them really bad.
He has been working hard with daily practices from 7-9 am. It's a BIG DEAL. They take football very serious. Lots of dads involved. This kid loves it. These pictures were taken at his first scrimmage game last night. Official season starts in 2 weeks. His coaches say he hits like a diesel. He's not tall, but he's tough! And, he's way cute.

Playing tight endLook at him - all tired, sweaty, and happy :)
Reminds me of BS. The kids don't know what a football stud their dad was back in the day.
A chip off the old block.

Quincy:

Quincess started pre-school Tuesday! She is going with her little buddy Hope who lives next door. We are thrilled that she is going to Newcastle, where Sambo went as a 3 year old.
Since the other kids don't start school until next week (pre-school in Draper, elementary in Highland), the whole family went to drop her off on her first day. I took some pictures in front, walked her inside to her classroom, and all of the sudden I was tearing up and had quiver lip going. I was crying! It totally caught me off-guard. How bittersweet it is to have my baby so big that she's going to school. It's a BIG DEAL! If it were up to me, I'd skip pre-school this year and keep her home all to myself. But, she is so ready and excited to be going to school!
On Monday, the older 3 kids got invited to do various activities with their friends so they were gone all day. Quincy was a lost soul. She struggled with not having them home and kept saying, "I want to play with a friend!" and "I want to go somewhere" and "Where is Millie" and "Sambo" and "Wilbur?" She even put her shoes on and jumped on her little 4 wheeler and told me she is going to Hudson's house.
So, she's ready. And she's so happy.


Pork Chop:
Chops got chopped.
Can you even believe this lick guard cone they put on him? It's like a satellite or parachute or something. As if getting neutered isn't bad enough. He has to wear this baby for 10 days. This picture does not do it justice, I have to take some video! He started running and a neighbor said, "I hope it doesn't get too windy!" Tonight our windows are open (thanks to cool breeze and 1.3 inches of rain in 15 min. today in Draper), and we heard banging from our back porch. I went out there and the banging sound was him trying to get into his dog house - his cone wouldn't fit through the opening! So so sad :( But funny.
Getting neutered was not such a big deal for us, but I'm sure it was for him.

So that's it. Our big week. What about Will you ask?
His biggest excitement this week was going to the dentist and finding out he has 3 cavities.