Short Course Kickoff Invitational ~ Day 2

Even though I am the Volunteer Coordinator for the swim team (and get all of my volunteer “credits” with that position), I always try to help with something at each meet. This meet, I signed up to do “hospitality” – taking water and snacks around to the officials, judges, and timers. I was able to do my shift with my good friends, Cherie Hunsaker (Gates’ mom, for those of you who know Gates and his story), and Paula Sheridan (Thomas’ mom). We had a lot of fun.

I signed up for the earliest shift, so I was done with my shift by the time Ryan started his events. He swam the 50 Butterfly…




100 Breaststroke…

And 100 IM…

As always, there were plenty of opportunities for Ryan to socialize with his friends, too. The kids work non-stop during practice, so meets actually provide them with more down-time to socialize. They always have a lot of fun together.

Short Course Kickoff Invitational ~ Day 1

September is the beginning of the new “short course” swimming season. We started the season with a home meet – the Kickoff Invitational.

Thursday, September 29, was a short day, with only a few events. Ryan had one event – the 200 IM (50 of each stroke). He beat his own time by about 3 seconds, and placed 4th overall.







We often invite friends to come and watch Ryan’s home meets. We were excited to have our friends Linda, Melissa, Jonah, and Sophie join us to cheer Ryan on! Jonah (6 years old) was a little bit disappointed that Ryan didn’t “win,” but his mom said it provided them a great opportunity to discuss other elements of being an athlete (good sportsmanship, performing at your own personal best, etc.).

Primary Program

Sunday, September 25 was a bitter-sweet day. It was Ryan’s last Primary program. Ryan is such a great kid. As the oldest boy in the Primary, he always sets such a good example for others. He has a lot of kids that look up to him. Even at 11 years old, he is already a wonderful role model to others.

Ryan's First Court of Honor

On Wednesday, September 14, Ryan had his first official Court of Honor. We attended one in the Spring, right after Ryan had started in scouts.

Ryan has been working so hard the last few months to earn ranks and merit badges. At the Court of Honor, he was presented with his Tenderfoot rank.


He also earned the Citizenship in the Community, Citizenship in the Nation, Family Life, and Swimming merit badges (all required!). His scoutmaster, Steve Cohen, complimented Ryan on his desire to start the merit badges early. Most scouts don’t start working on them until they turn 12.

Ryan is well on his way to being an Eagle Scout!

Money Saving/Money Making Presentation

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet – just a couple of months after Papa was released as the bishop of the Young Adult ward, Rara was called to be the Relief Society president in their home ward. I guess they won’t get that break they were looking forward to!

Their Relief Society activity committee is also new, and they had an activity night scheduled for Tuesday, September 13. They were thinking of people they know who have great information to share. Rara recommended me. :)

I did a presentation on great ways to save money (and make money!) on the Internet, using sites such as Swagbucks. I took all of the things I have gotten free (shampoo, conditioner, laundry detergent, other cleaning products, toothpaste, cereal, gas cards, and dozens of other gift cards) as my visual aids.

I had prepared a presentation that would take about 30 minutes, but with all of the questions, it ended up to be closer to an hour!

Rara had many compliments, and many people expressing their excitement to do some of the things I discussed.

A few days later, the person over activity nights gave me this incredible plate of treats as a thank you gift!

Dog-a-POOL-ooza

Another one of our Fall traditions is the South Davis Recreation Center’s “Dog-a-POOL-ooza.” Every September, they close the pools for two weeks, drain them, and clean them. The outside splash pad is the last thing they do. So right before they drain it, they hold the Dog-a-POOL-ooza, letting doggies run wild in the splash pad and pool.

I’m pretty sure Ryan & I enjoy it more than Copper does.

Greek Festival

There are so many local Fall activities and traditions that we enjoy. Once school starts, I always know that the Greek Festival is close!

We have found that our favorite time to go is Friday afternoon (before people get off of work). We can walk right up to the food line (for those of you who go to the Greek Festival – no, we don’t wait for hours in the serpentine line under the tent), get our food, and sit close enough to actually see the dancers. This year we sat right behind the stage. The back is open, so we were able to see quite well. The dancers were great, as always!

They came off the stage right by us. Rara kept trying to convince Ryan to go over to the “pretty girls” to get his picture taken. No, he is too cool for that now.

I debated buying tickets for the bounce houses. Ryan doesn’t enjoy most of them as much as he used to. But he spotted a couple of his favorites, so I bought a few tickets. He decided that he wanted to do the boxing, but two people are needed for that one. Ryan turned the tables on us as he then tried to convince all of us to go do the boxing with him. As we were talking, we saw two kids going in. There were three sets of gloves, so Ryan ran over and asked if he could join them. They said he could. However, once he got in and they realized how much bigger he was (they hadn’t even started boxing yet), they hopped out. Ryan was devastated! He came back over to us in tears. Most of you know that Ryan is really a softie. The thought that he may have scared younger kids away really bothered him.

As we were consoling him, we spotted a kid that looked a little bigger than Ryan. He was a volunteer at the Festival, but it looked like he was on a break, and was looking around to see what he wanted to do. We convinced Ryan to go over to him and ask if he wanted to box. Ryan was hesitant due to the prior experience, but he did. The kids had a lot of fun.



Interestingly, Ryan’s principal (Ms. Jan Rawlins) always goes to the Greek Festival on Friday afternoon, too. We have seen her every year. I volunteer in Ryan’s classroom every Friday, so that morning she asked if we were going. We told her we were, and that we’d watch for her. We looked for her the entire time, and spotted her as we were leaving.

I’m a Cougar!

I am SO proud of my team! They played an amazing (but stressful) game against Ole Miss, and won 14-13.

I loved this ad that ran during the game.