Soccer Season

Well, soccer season is *finally* over! It went for three months because Connor & Aiden's seasons started in August, but Cohen's didn't start until the middle of September.  So, just as Connor & Aiden's seasons were wrapping up, we were just getting started with Cohen's.

Here's a quick rundown of each of their seasons:

CONNOR

Connor had a good season!  He ended up playing a lot of goalie and defense because those are definitely his strengths.  Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of great pictures of his games because Mike was his coach, so I was busy watching three other little munchkins while taking pictures.  Therefore, most pictures are from a distance & not very good.  Here's one of Connor doing a goal kick...

And blocking a shot...

Unfortunately, one of the best pictures I got all season was one time when he wasn't able to block the goal.  Bummer...

I thought this was an okay shot.  It would have been better if I had hit the button about 1/10th a second later to show Connor catching this shot, but oh well...

His team didn't do great during the regular season, but in the playoffs, they kept winning and winning and winning--which meant the season kept going and going.  They made it to the semi-finals before losing.  Connor had a good time & enjoyed having Mike as his coach.  I think Mike liked coaching a lot as well.

AIDEN

Aiden had a really good season as well...and fortunately, broke his finger two days after his last game.  He was fairly aggressive and constantly going after the ball.  His pictures aren't a whole lot better than Connor's because many of his games were at the same time as Connor's, so I usually had at least Viv with me so that Mike would be free to coach the team.  Here are a few...

Here's one looking way into the distance...

Aiden mid-air after attempting to kick a goal.  It was blocked, but still kind of a fun shot...

Aiden breaking away...

Slide tackle...

He had a good year & had a lot of fun as well.

COHEN

This was Cohen's first year playing.  He was still "technically" too young for city league since he's not in kindergarten, but one of his friend's mom's put together a team through another league.  This will be his team for both fall and spring, and they were such a cute little team to watch.  I loved going to "Orange Lightning" games.  Yes, that's what they decided their team name would be.  Cohen loved playing soccer...

Cohen is our kid who has always loved sports.  If there's a game that involves hitting, kicking or throwing a ball, he wants to play it.  So, I was surprised to see him be a little timid when he got out on the field.  But, as the season went on, he got more comfortable & started getting a little more aggressive...

 

What a stinkin' cute soccer player...

Go Orange Lightning...

Orange Lightning had kind of a rough season.  They lost every single game the entire season--except one.  They were finally able to pull out a win during the last game of the season.  They scored three goals and Cohen scored one of those goals!  The kids were all so excited about it!  Hey, who am I kidding, we were all so excited about it!  It was an awesome game!!

So there's the low down on the 2013 soccer season.  It's ends just as wrestling season begins.  And, boy oh boy, is wrestling season going to be rough!  Connor is now playing in a more advanced wrestling league & his practices are down in Orem twice a week!  That doesn't even include matches which are all over the valley.  Aiden will be doing city league wrestling again.  Luckily, his practice is just once a week.  So, basically, I'll be living in my car for the next three months!  Plus, we'll add Aiden's Jr. Jazz Basketball into the mix in January.  Good grief!  I can already tell my blogging is going to suffer even worse than it's already been suffering lately.  Sigh...I'll catch up sometime.  Maybe.  --Lindsay

Small Finger, Big Problem

About a month and a half ago, Mike took all the kids to Connor's soccer practice one evening while I was at work.  Aiden brought his Ninja Turtle Nunchucks and was playing with them at the park.  He was swinging and throwing them around while fighting some imaginary bad guy.  After throwing them one time, he ran over to them, bent down to pick them up--and then started screaming bloody murder.  Mike ran over to him to see what had happened.  Aiden told him he had hit his finger hard on the ground when he went to pick up the nunchucks.  Mike was sure he had just jammed it or something, so he told him it would probably hurt for a few days and they would ice it when they got home.  Well, the next day, his pinkie looked like this...

 

It was so swollen!  The picture doesn't do it justice.  The thing was huge!  I decided to take him into the pediatrician's office to make sure it wasn't broken.  I was sure it was just jammed because who breaks a finger picking something up off the ground?  Ummmm, Aiden does...

If you look closely at the top of the lowest bone in his finger (near the knuckle) you'll see a little portion of the bone looks like it's slipping off the rest of the bone.  Sorry for the quality.  I hung the x-ray up on our backdoor.  That's why you can faintly see our church and backyard through Aiden's bones.  Haha!

Once the pediatrician saw the x-ray, we were immediately sent down to the emergency room.  Aiden would need to see an orthopedic surgeon--preferably a hand specialist--because this was a complicated break that would most likely require surgery.  Surgery?!?  He picked something up off the ground & now he needs surgery?

We cancelled a barbecue we had planned for that evening & headed to the hospital.  Once we got there, the emergency room physician looked at the x-rays & called the orthopedic on-call doctor.   That doctor decided that nothing needed to be done that evening and that we could just make an appointment with a hand specialist on Monday. They put Aiden in a splint and sent us home.

We were able to get into the hand specialist on Tuesday.  He looked at the x-rays and explained that the reason Aiden's broken pinkie was tricky was because he had broken it at an angle.  When bones break like that, they tend to slip really easily--even in a cast.  Because of this, Aiden would most likely need surgery to pin the broken piece back on to the rest of the bone.  He said that it would probably be worth at least trying a cast for a week or so to see if it would heal correctly on its own.  After that, we'd do x-rays to check on the progress and then make the decision about whether or not surgery was needed.  So, they casted him.  And, boy did they ever cast him!!  The cast went almost to his elbow to try to immobilize the entire area--giving the finger its best chance to heal correctly.  Who would have thought this huge cast would be needed for such a little finger?

A week and a half later, we returned to see if it was healing correctly.  Unfortunately, it wasn't.  The bone had slipped, even while in the cast.  So, the decision was made to do surgery the following Monday & pin the bone in place.

The surgery took a little over an hour.  Finally the doctor came out and told us everything had gone well.  The bone had been a little tricky to get in place, so they had needed to open up his finger in order to manipulate it back where it needed to be.  Then, once they got it there, they couldn't get it to stay in place--even with a pin--so they decided to stick two pins in.  Yep, two pins--in one little tiny finger!

Aiden had a little bit of a hard time coming out of anesthesia.  He started freaking out!  He was yelling & screaming and flailing everywhere.  The nurses had to hold him down so he wouldn't punch himself in the face.  It was kind of scary, but the nurses assured us that lots of kids do that when they come out of surgery.  After a couple minutes, Aiden was back to his happy self.  Oh, excuse me, I should say, he was back to his drugged-up-on-morphine happy self.  It was hilarious--let's just say that...

Here's the x-rays they took mid-surgery (before they trimmed off the pins).  Ewwww...

Side view...

When we got home, we found this on our door...

And these all over our garage door...

 

 

Our good friends & neighbors, the Simons, had "heart attacked" our house to welcome Aiden home from surgery!  He loved it!!

 

Aiden got the chance to lay around and watch TV for the next few days while he iced his pinkie.  But, just a couple days after surgery, he was back to school--and back to being wild & crazy again.

 

Ten days after the surgery, we went back to the doctor for Aiden's follow-up appointment & got our first glimpse at his post-surgery pinkie.  As soon as I saw it, I nicknamed it "Frankenfinger."  Appropriate for this time of year, isn't it?

 

Aiden has now had the pins in his finger for almost four weeks!  We are scheduled to see the surgeon tomorrow, and as long as everything looks good, he should be able to have the pins removed and finally be able to use his hand again (for the first time in almost a month and a half).

What an ordeal!  All because he hit his pinkie weird on the ground while picking up his Ninja Turtle Nunchucks.  Aiden obviously inherited his father's accident prone gene!  If you're keeping track, this is the 3rd surgery and/or hospital stay for our family this year.  We've almost hit our $2000 Out of Pocket Max.  Goodie!!  Hummmm, what other elective surgeries do we need to have done?  Haha!  --Lindsay

Aiden's Birthday Party

Since Aiden's birthday was the day of LOTOJA, we held his birthday party after we got home.  Aiden thought it would be fun to take some of his friends to a movie, so that's just what we did.  We went and saw the movie "Planes."  Here's my attempt at getting a picture of the kids before the movie started.  Do you know how hard it is to get 6 kids to look at a camera in a dark theater?  Plus, the flash totally washes out the kid closest to you, while the kids on the other end of the row are still in the dark...

 

The movie was cute and all the kids really enjoyed it.  After the movie, we went to Thanksgiving Point for some ice cream...

Yep, we didn't even do cake--that's how simple this party was!  I figured it wasn't a big deal since Aiden doesn't even really like cake anyway.  That kid would pick ice cream over cake any day of the week.

After ice cream, it was on to presents...

Spoiled again...

Then we took everyone home.  Easiest birthday party ever!!  When Aiden first told me he wanted to take his friends to a movie for his birthday party, I was a little hesitant because I thought it would be hard to get a bunch of kids--along with their treats, drinks and popcorn--into a seat.  And, don't get me wrong, it *was* hard.  (I compared it to herding cats.)  But, once the movie started, it was a breeze!  I think it may be my new favorite kid party idea!

Happy (belated) birthday to my sweet, fun, crazy Aiden!!  I can't believe he is eight-years-old!  He was supposed to be baptized earlier this month, but that didn't happen because of some medical issues involving a pinky finger.  So now he is scheduled to be baptized the first Saturday in November.  I'll go into detail on his "pinky problems" next time.  --Lindsay

LOTOJA 2013

I'm finally getting around to blogging about LOTOJA weekend, which happened over a month ago.  If you need a little refresher course, LOTOJA is the bike race that my Dad competes in every year.  They ride from Logan to Jackson Hole (get it--LOgan TO JAckson) which is 206 miles in one day!  Mike competed last year with my Dad, and was planning to do it this year as well, but then had his biking accident which meant he was out for the season.  We still decided to go to cheer Poppy on.  Here are Mike, Poppy & the kids at the start line...

 

After registration, we went back to our hotel & got in a little pool time.  Vivvie, once again, wasn't a fan of the water & refused to get off the stairs...

The other boys had a blast playing in the water though...

After swimming, we met up with my Uncle Bruce, Aunt Bonny, Cousin Michael & his wife, Jamie, and their kids for some dinner.  Michael also competes in LOTOJA, so we usually go to dinner with them the night before.

LOTOJA just happened to fall on Aiden's birthday this year.  He was fine with that because he loves LOTOJA, but he made sure we brought his birthday presents along on the trip.  We decided to let him open them the night before since the day of the race was going to be so chaotic...

And now, for your pleasure, here's a couple pictures of Aiden posing with his presents while making strange faces...

He's going through that awkward I-can't-smile-naturally-for-the-camera phase...

Then there was more present opening...

And rejoicing...

I'll write a separate post about his birthday parties next time.  After opening presents, we all jumped in bed to get a good night sleep.

The next morning, we got up early, grabbed a quick breakfast & then sent Poppy on his way...

My mom bought matching earrings to wear on race day.  You may not be able to tell from the picture, but they are cute little bikes...

Here's the kiddos waiting at the 2nd Feed Zone in Montpelier, Idaho...

We amused Viv with a bag of Cheetos.  Then she amused us with her stinkin' cute orange smeared face...

After the Montpelier Feed Zone, the support vehicles actually get to drive along side the cyclists for most of what's left of the race, so we were finally able to get a few pictures of Poppy...

We were super impressed with one cyclist who was a paraplegic and did the entire race using a hand bike!  Holy freakin' cow!!  How is that even possible?  This dude must have some serious upper body strength...

One of the hardest parts of the race is the climb over Salt River Pass.  It is a 7% grade for about 3 1/2 miles & many cyclists can't make it up without getting off and walking their bikes part of the way, like this dude in red that you see to the side of the sign...

But, Poppy had no problem with it...

And even smiled as he did it.  Mind you, my Dad is almost 60-years-old.  Pretty incredible, if you ask me...

While waiting at the 4th Feed Zone in Alpine, Wyoming the kids amused themselves by playing in a field of weeds.  Hey, whatever works...

After Alpine, the ride goes through Snake River Canyon, which is beautiful.  I think it gets the riders--who have already ridden 160+ miles at this point--the incentive to keep going...

A few hours later, Poppy crossed the finish line...

I can't believe that Poppy can still do this crazy race!  It is an amazing feat for any athlete to be able to complete this race, but to be doing it for your 12th time at the age of 60 is beyond amazing!

I have to tell you a cute story that happened as we were walking from the finish line back to our cars.  I'll just let you read my Dad's version of it because I couldn't tell it any better than he does:

"After I climbed off the bike at LOTOJA Saturday night, my body was chilled, drained of energy and a bit shocky. As we walked to the car, I felt a small warm hand slip into my ice-cold hand. My five-year-old grandson, Cohen, looked up at me and said, 'I'll hold your hand, Poppy.' I said, 'But my hand is so cold.'  But Cohen simply said, 'I don't care. I'll make you warm.' Thanks for being my little buddy, Cohey!"

Cutest story ever!  Sweet Cohen!!  After that, we went back to our hotel so Poppy could shower and clean up & then we hit up our favorite Mexican restaurant in Jackson, El Abuelito.  After stuffing ourselves, we all crashed for the night.

The next morning, we got up and went swimming in the hotel's indoor pool.  We stayed at the Painted Buffalo Inn and we were really impressed with it.  They had nice rooms, complete with cute stuffed Buffaloes and the pool was a nice perk--considering most hotels in Jackson don't have pools...

Viv wouldn't have anything to do with the pool this time, and threw a fit anytime anyone suggested she just try it for a minute...

But, she did enjoy the sauna--along with all her boys...

I just hope someday she'll magically turn into a fish like her big brothers...

After swimming for awhile, we all got dressed and then watched the road construction going on right outside the hotel (which was probably why we got such a good deal on the place).  The arm of this backhoe kept coming right up next to the building, which the boys thought was the coolest thing they had ever seen...

After that, it was time to head into Grand Teton National Park and have some fun at Jenny Lake.  Here's my cute kiddos hanging out by the Jenny Lake General Store.  FYI, Cohen was mad about something, but I can't remember what now.  Hence, the face...

Then Mike & Poppy took Connor & Aiden canoeing on Jenny Lake...

Cohen wasn't tall enough to go, so just these boys went...

They actually rowed all the way to the other side of the lake, tied the canoe up & did a little hiking--with their life vests on...

While hiking, they found some huckleberries and ate them.  They said they were delicious & no one got sick, so win-win...

And if you happen to find a big rock while hiking, you have to climb on top of it & take a picture...

Same goes for waterfalls...

They hiked over to Inspiration Point...

And took the steep climb to the top of it...

They made it!  And, Poppy actually came out from behind the camera to get a picture with the boys...

The view from Inspiration Point...

Poppy climbed up a little higher to get this awesome shot...

While the boys were on their canoeing/hiking adventure, Nana & I decided to take Cohen & Viv on a tour boat around the lake...

Viv wasn't so sure about it at first.  What is up with this little scaredy cat?

It was fun and we learned lots of interesting things about the history of the Grand Teton area.  We also got a bunch of pretty shots...

The littles weren't as amused with the ride, and both of them ended up falling asleep...

After we got done with our boat tour, we waited for the others to get back from their adventure.  Finally, we spotted them coming around the bend...

Once we all got back together, we took the kids to the general store to buy a few souvenirs.  Viv picked these pretty pink sunglasses.  Such a diva...

She wore them the rest of the day, either on her eyes or on top of her head.  Haha!  What a crack up!!  Love her to pieces...

Then we started the 5 hour drive back home.  It was a great weekend!  Congratulations to Poppy for completing his 12th LOTOJA!  Mike is excited to do it with him next year.  He has been going through physical therapy for the past few months, and was finally given the go-ahead to get back on his bike a few weeks ago.  Next September can't come soon enough for him!  --Lindsay