All the Fall Things

All the fall things happened pretty uneventfully.  Henry played soccer with his best friend Jack and Randy helped coach.  Parker finished his cross country season with only one rainy race.  Landon went to homecoming and has become a sometimes-grumpy teenager.  Landon started shaving and insisted on specific instruction from Randy.  The other boys just figured it out on their own after I told them the basics.  Landon also finished his drivers ed course.  Now he just needs to learn how to drive without killing anymore deer.  Yes, you read that right.  He hit a deer in Randy's new Audi.  You might be wondering how many Audi's the Ball family will continue to wreck before getting a different car.  I wonder the same thing!  You might also be wondering how much we pay for car insurance for four cars and five drivers.  It's a lot and makes me question why I had five kids.  I'm not kidding.  And in case you didn't know, deer actually make noise.  I wouldn't call it talking but it turns out in the split second when you hit a deer with your car, it makes a crying sound that will haunt you for the rest of your life before the impact takes its life.  

Henry and Jack with all their donuts and end-of-season treats.  

When bribed with donuts, this team scores goal after goal.  Otherwise, they really don't care and it's hilarious to watch.

Henry's tongue!!

Ethan came home for a weekend and cheered Henry on, then carried him off the field on his shoulders as they headed to Panda Express--Henry's favorite place to eat. Brothers are the best!

Parker's first meet

finishing strong

I've been watching cross country finals for years!  So glad it wasn't in the rain this time.

Landon confidently asked this cute girl to homecoming during one of the football games.  He was hoping his freshman friends would follow his lead but they were too chicken.  Things got pretty stressful the week before the dance when there wasn't much of a plan but it all worked out.

New suit courtesy of Amazon

Landon doing big boy things is still weird to me

Pictures and dinner at the Plateau Club.  All the kids ordered salads for dinner since it was the cheapest thing on the menu :)

Clean shaven...luckily he has super blond facial hair so shaving every couple weeks is probably enough

Cute little Henry playing the piano.  I finally got him a teacher because the battle was not something I could handle with him.  He loves it and is actually really good.  Also, I love that he stands at the keyboard.  

Happy Fall Y'all!

Sometimes I have Fun

Big changes continue around here. I only have three boys living at home and I’m no longer the Relief Society President. Now I’m the stake Relief Society President and it’s not as busy. Definitely more meetings though. I’m taking a Spanish class because I need to use my brain and we have a Spanish ward that it would be nice to communicate with. However my Spanish is not progressing the way I hoped. I can order a cup of coffee with/without sugar or milk but I have no idea how to say “how did your ministering interviews go?”  Go figure. 

For more than ten years, my good friend has planned Adventure Tuesdays—weekly adventures for women, no kids allowed. I e never been able to go but thought it would be fun to try out the dragon boat paddling. 

It was a ton of fun! Lake Union was quiet and calm until we got there. I met some cool ladies and our half of the boat faced off against the other side and dug in to win the competition. So that was fun and exciting. 

Last night I want to my first Kraken game. I know nothing about hockey but it was so fun! Probably due to our front row seats. There were pucks and players flying at our faces and we were spotted on TV multiple times. I love friends who know friends with great tickets. 

Three Weeks with Marcus

We had three short weeks with Marcus home from his mission before he left for BYU.  We played so hard!  We ended up spending the first couple days he was home with the Walker family.  Their son Jacob returned from Brazil the day before Marcus.  As soon as Marcus was released from being a missionary, we went to lunch at his favorite place, Q-Doba, then took him to see Jacob.  They were basically inseparable after that.  I think they both loved having someone else to help them navigate all the weird feelings of being home.  They worked out together, saw friends, got caught up on movies, and played hard.  They both spoke in sacrament meeting together (Marcus gave a great talk about how his mission was the best decision he'd ever made and how God is in the details of our lives) and we held a joint homecoming party at the Walker's house.  So many people showed up and there was a ton of good food and of course swimming on the lake.

Q-Doba and his first meal at "home"

We were on Lake Sammamish with the Walkers within few hours of Marcus' return.

The next day we were on Lake Washington watching the Blue Angels.  It's the best day of the year in Seattle.  Randy also managed to get pulled over not once but twice by the Coast Guard police.  Luckily we weren't given a ticket.  I think the cops were sure that a boat with 17 people in it must have some serious partying going on.  

The first of two police after they pulled us over

Dad and Kathy came for Marcus' homecoming talk

We squeezed in a temple trip after boating and before dinner and the homecoming party. 

The only picture of the homecoming party

Elder Snell, Marcus's bestie from Utah was serving here and got permission to hear Marcus speak

Marcus's first nap after the mission.  He was out cold for a few hours.

This is the bear rug that greeted him when he came home.  The boys love to accessorize him.

And this is the disaster area of my bedroom as Marcus unpacked and re-packed for college

These boys are besties and hung out whenever we weren't with Marcus

We played so hard that the only person willing to go to the Mariners game with Randy was Landon.  They had fun and the rest of us had fun not being there.  

Summer This and That

Summer is long gone and I can hardly remember all the things we did.  As school was ending I began to panic as I tried to figure out how I would entertain my children, or should I say how they would entertain themselves.  We've had so many of our friends move away in the past couple years that the summer was looking pretty borking and lonely.  But we made it through and of course, started out strong with schedules and job charts that were quickly disregarded like yesterday's trash.  We didn't do nearly as much boating as we wanted.  The weather was too cold!  And we didn't go anywhere because we save our traveling for winter/spring break.  But summer was great and I survived with minimal friends/play dates and adventuring with only two boys in tow.

weekly park day in Seattle and we were the only ones to show up

After about 4 years of broken doors in the bonus room, I finally bought, re-sized, and painted new doors.  There were multiple trips to Home Depot and to our friends house with actual tools to get this done.  Turns out those door frames aren't the standard size.  But they're done!

Cold summer weather meant lots of hot tubbing

Henry got to play some lacrosse for the first time

Ethan bought an Audi.  He worked hard and bought it (mostly) with his own money.  Not sure how he plans to pay for school but maybe he can charge people for rides in it?

Din Tai Fung with the Johnson's and Henry was in heaven.  Landon ate 23 dumplings!

Henry hanging out while the family did baptisms in the temple

Swimming as the sun sets on Pine Lake = heaven on earth

Henry having fun for once

Free Slurpee day!  Marcus did it right!

Despicable Me 4 - I took the Bishop's kids to the movie with us and tried to hit the $6 Movie Tuesday deal.  Long story short, no deal.  This lame movie cost me over $100.  But at least I scored a discount on popcorn and maxed out the number of times I could refill the bucket which made me feel a little better.

This is the second summer Parker has done DC Speed summer camp.  It's twice a week and the kids basically play recess games like dodgeball, kickball, and capture the flag.  Parker loves it and its not a ton of money either.  Major win!