Tumble Time

Last Saturday Millie and Sambo had a tumbling performance. They take lessons together with some friends. They love it, and after going just one year, we're impressed with their progress. Take a look:

















Quincy had fun doing her own cool tumbling tricks:
Below are some video clips:

East Canyon Retreat

This is a journal post:
Growing up, I spent half my childhood at THE CABIN. It's a cozy place up Weber Canyon by the river. My dad built it (with my uncle) before he even built a house for him and my mom. She always tells about how angry she was at him for spending all of his spare time at the property for 5 years building it...while she was home with 4 young kids waiting for him to build her a house. But as soon as it was finished and we spent our first night up at the cabin, she knew he was brilliant.
I was just a baby, so I remember going there for as long as I can remember. Almost every holiday we spent at the cabin. Long summer days/nights we spent at the cabin. It was only a 35 minute drive from where we lived, so it was away from everything... but close. We would go for a few hours, or for a few days. I have soooooo many awesome memories of that place. Like all of us cousins lined up in the twin beds playing orphanage. And climbing up and down the ladder that led to the toy loft. Spending hours on the tree swing. Packing a bandanna with lunch, tying it to a stick, and pretending we were "Hobos," and exploring all day. Riding horses, especially "Smokey." Playing in our tree house. Tubing down the river. Having Junior High parties and dancing with boys on the deck under trees strung with lights. Going there with 100 kids after high school dances. Snowmobiling in the field pulling sleds. Riding motorcycles. Learning to not be afraid of Box Elder bugs, ticks, mosquitos, and bees and just "flick" them off. Of course, going to the cabin always meant really good food! I could spend all day telling stories.
So, it was a heartbreaker when we found out 10 years ago that my parents were selling their half of the cabin (not the property) to my uncle and aunt. The plan was that my uncle and aunt would live in the cabin and have a condo in St. George, and my parents would build themselves a new cabin on the property. Initially, we figured it would be about 5 years before the new building would be complete, which meant that we would have no access to the cabin anymore. We went through and are going through major withdrawls.
Well, life happens, and here we are 10 years later. No cabin. I'm sad that my kids haven't had the opportunity to make their own memories of the cabin. But I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks to the crappy economy (and drop in home building), my incredible dad has found some time to work on the new cabin and hopes to be finished by the new year. Oh the joy and anticipation! We look forward to many many fun times at the new cabin now called the "East Canyon Retreat." There's no question in my mind that my kids will soon hold a special place in their hearts for this place, just like I have.
Occasionally, over the course of the 10 years, my sweet Aunt has hosted family get-togethers. Everytime we are up there, we just die with love for the place. There's just something about the smell of the air and the beauty. They have worked hard to keep the place looking amazing. They even added a fish pond stocked with huge trout!
My dad has had his trailer parked up next to the work in progress so every once in a while we've gone up to help and/or play. Will especially loves to build with grandpa, even has his own gear. Always a good time. Here's some pictures from a couple weeks ago.
I'll update on the progress.

Jenny Lake

While in Jackson Hole, we drove to Jenny Lake, which is in Teton National Park. We enjoyed gorgeous weather, scenery and great friends!















We spotted this moose on the way back















Noah, Seth, Will, Parker, Sam











Will showing his prized "quartz chrystal." He just knew it was worth 1 million dollars!

Quinny threw rocks the whole time




























Just for fun, below are some pictures of us the last time we were here at Jenny Lake. We came with the Clarks in 2004. Millie is 4, Sambo 2, Will 3 mo. Check out the new Sheriff.

Logan to Jackson

Last week we had the chance to head north for the "LotoJa" bike race. This is a 200 mile road bike race from Logan to Jackson Hole. Sam did the whole race for his first time 2 years ago, last year he did it as part of a relay team, and this time around he chose to do the whole thing again.
I love that Sam has so many great biking friends because that means they have great wives who are all my great friends. That also means we ladies get to spend time together at these biking races/trips and have a blast! It also means that they have kids who are great friends with my kids...it works out really well. For some reason, my girlfriends and I decided to bring our kids along for this race this year. In the past, they've stayed home. We thought bringing kids wouldn't be that big of a deal...but we were so wrong.
This race in particular is quite intense because the riders require support at 4 different stops along the route. My job is to support and crew for Sam at these stops. It's hard enough without kids, but apparently we are getting old and losing our memory because we forgot. Bringing the kids this year meant lots of driving all day long (in a line of millions of cars), parking 4 blocks away from the feed zone, fixing water bottles and food exactly as ordered, getting Quincy in the stroller, running my toosh off to make it to the feed zone, and making sure the boys were following. Oh yeah, and stopping to do this 500 times along the way:

In the past 10 years I think this was the only day I had wished my child was wearing a diaper! Good thing I brought her potty because she had to go potty many many times! But no accidents :)

This is also the reason we nearly missed Sam at the 3rd stop. I was so stressed!

The other funny thing was that we thought the kids would love watching and cheering on their dads during the race but really they just wanted to goof-off and play on the playgrounds at the stops. Pretty clueless to what was going on.

So dad's goal was to finish in under 10 hours and his time was 9:55. Yay! He beat his previous time by almost a whole hour!

Uncle Kirk raced as well so it was fun to have Aunt Heidi up there too.

After a long day, we checked-in to an amazing place in Teton Village (thanks Whitney) called the "Cody House" where we spent the next 2 days having a total blast with our friends. Thanks everyone!

We cooked a yummy brunch, played around the resort, just hung-out, swam in hot tub, took naps, shopped in town, and went to Jenny Lake. I'll post on that next.

Labor Day Weekend

I am writing this post in the car on our way home from Jackson Hole. More about that later, because for now I want to write about last weekend.

On Saturday Sam went on a bike ride then we all went up to our cabin in East Canyon to help Grandpa Tom build the new cabin which is next to the old cabin. The boys were stoked as always to be builders. Especially Will. While Dad and Grandpa and Uncle Nate worked on the electrical work, we did a lot of riding 4-wheelers and motorcycles, swinging, fishing in the pond, throwing sticks in the river for Daisy, laying in the hammock, playing in the playhouse, climbing the ladder to the loft playroom, exploring and designing the kids "hide-outs", playing bad minton, jumping on the tramp, and all sorts of fun.

That night Sam and I went out on a date with some friends to dinner and a movie. How is that for a perfect day/night?

Sunday Grandma Judy hosted all the Clarks for dinner - always fun to be with everyone. Thanks Judy!

This next part is an exerpt from dad's blog describing our day on Monday:

On Labor Day, we decided to put away the bikes and break out the skis. Lunchbox has been taking tumbling for the past year and wanted to try his hand on the water ramps at the Olympic Park in Park City.

The Lunchbox is just a little guy and is already an adrenaline junkie. I can honestly say just seeing these jumps freaked my out, but he suited up and went out with a smile! We showed up for his “session” (with a real coach) for 1 on 1 training. This session had a series of checkpoints that he had to complete before going to the next step. Here is step 1, the mini-tramp into the pool.Step 2: The ramp with no jump. They would go down the ramp and run into a big pad

Step 3:The mini ramp-Launch #1

Step 4: Big air, with tricks

He actually was doing a “Spread Eagle” on this one, which is still my go-to move off jumps!

This was a great experience for our family. It couldn't have been a more beautiful day. I would like to thank his coach Austin at the Olympic Park for his patience and encouragement. It was amazing how natural, and comfortable Lunch looked, especially in comparison to the 50-year old Asian guy belly flopping off the medium ramp. Lunchbox I am proud of you and can’t wait to see you do it again! Olympics 2018 here we come.

Afterwards we ate at Bandits then headed for the Alpine Slide which never disappoints! We had a great time!

Here are some video clips of Sam "ramping:"
1. His first jump
2. Doing a spread eagle

Big Kid Now

SHE DID IT!
(we did it!)
Quincy is now officially in panties! She has also filled-up her potty chart with stickers which means she has been successful 30 times! She earned herself a trip to the toy store! I can't believe my baby is potty trained! No more diapers! It's been almost 10 years since we could say that! A funny thing is that she likes to wear Will's underpants!?

Back to school also means new chore charts for the kids. Growing up means more responsibility; so to show what a big girl she is, I took some pictures of her doing one of her chores today. She loves putting the silverware away!



Quin's other chores:
-To make sure all the lights are turned off in the house
-To make sure everyone always knows where her blankie is at any given moment
-To eat lots of Otter Pops (the only bribe that worked to get her to try to go potty). She has gone through a whole box just eating otter pops while sitting on the potty waiting for some action.
-To boss everyone around.

She's really good at those chores!

Out of diapers, no more binkies, and sleeping in a big girl bed...all in one month. Wow.

We love you Quincess! Way to go girl!

(Do I dare to admit that I'm kind-of sad about this? Not because I love wiping poopy bums, but because I know she's now officially a big girl?)

T loves T ball

Will's middle name is Thomas. So one of his nicknames is "T." Well, T has fallen in love.
Last Fall and Spring Will played soccer. He liked it, but only because it involved wrestling friends on the sideline and treats after the game. Sam and I tried not compare his athletic ability (or lack of) with Sambo's, but we couldn't help it. Watching him in action was hilarious, because he was so awkward. We pretty much concluded that Sambo is the "athletic" one in the family, and Wilbur is the "smart" one in the family. I know you shouldn't label your kids like that. And trust me, in their minds they are both very awesome at playing soccer AND total geniuses.
About a month ago, Will asked his dad to play catch with him outside. So they did. Sam came in an hour later with a huge cheesy grin, so proud, and commented on how good Will was at throwing and catching the ball. The next day he brought home a "T" so that Will could practice hitting the ball. Soon he asked if he could play T-ball with a team, so we signed him up with 3 of his friends. It's so cute to see him and Sambo go outside and play catch together. He gets a huge confidence boost when he throws it just as far as his big brother.
He had his first game this week, and he did so good. He even tried to slide into home base, but ended up just landing on his knees and getting really dirty! It was funny. These little guys look like bobble heads with their huge helmets on! But the best part is, he loves it!

They took team pictures yesterday, I will have to post the picture when I get it back, his expression clearly explains his love for this sport.

Is our little Will Clark going to be the next Will Clark? (If you don't know, Will Clark is a famous baseball player, Sam's favorite).