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| Tyson teaching Justin how to tie his tie before church yesterday. |
Monday, May 16, 2011
8th Grade Banquet
Emily went to "Banquet" Saturday night. I am not sure why they call it banquet because it is not a dinner it is a dance. This is a pretty big deal out here for the 8th graders. The girls all get nice dresses and some of the boys rent tuxes. Several of the kids were driven to the dance in Limo's, Emily was not one of these kids, she absolutely refused to have it be a big deal like that. Emily and her friend Mikaela went together. We took them out to dinner before they got their dresses on so they wouldn't spill on them. This was a mistake because it took a lot longer to eat then expected so they didn't have much time to get ready which is why I don't have many pictures. Emily had a fun time. Here are the two pictures I have.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
District Champion!
Emily played in her last tennis tournament at FMS. It was in Plainview against everyone in our district. This is the first time to play these girls because we usually just play the schools in Lubbock which are not in our district (they are all 5A and we are 4A). Jeff took Emily to the tournament and I stayed home to take the boys to their soccer games. Emily played 4 matches and won all of them quite easily. In the second match she played the number one seed girl, here is what Emily said in her own words.
"This match was against the #1 seed girl, and she was expected to win the whole tournament. I ended up winning 8-4, but for the first time ever, I got mad during a match. The other girl was from a school called Westover. Westover feeds into Canyon High School. The Canyon coach stopped the match a few times (at least it was while we were switching sides) to give her 15 minute sermons about what to do if I hit the ball here, what to do if a do this shot, blah, blah, blah. On top of that, he stood there, right next to the court almost the whole match, yelling advice and such. In tennis, there are very strict rules about these kinds of things, and he broke all of them!" Jeff said she played great all day. We are all proud of her. Ellen decided we needed to make her a sign and a trophy for when she got home since she only got a medal from the tournament. We all sang "You are the Champion" when she got home. Here are a few pictures. I wish I could have gone to the tournament to watch her, but I am glad Jeff got to go see her play well because he hasn't been able to as often as me.
"This match was against the #1 seed girl, and she was expected to win the whole tournament. I ended up winning 8-4, but for the first time ever, I got mad during a match. The other girl was from a school called Westover. Westover feeds into Canyon High School. The Canyon coach stopped the match a few times (at least it was while we were switching sides) to give her 15 minute sermons about what to do if I hit the ball here, what to do if a do this shot, blah, blah, blah. On top of that, he stood there, right next to the court almost the whole match, yelling advice and such. In tennis, there are very strict rules about these kinds of things, and he broke all of them!" Jeff said she played great all day. We are all proud of her. Ellen decided we needed to make her a sign and a trophy for when she got home since she only got a medal from the tournament. We all sang "You are the Champion" when she got home. Here are a few pictures. I wish I could have gone to the tournament to watch her, but I am glad Jeff got to go see her play well because he hasn't been able to as often as me.
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| Emily in front of her sign |
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| Regan's drawing on the sign |
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| Addison's drawing on the sign |
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| Miller's drawing |
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| Justin's drawing |
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| a few of the others |
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| Emily with the trophy Ellen made for her |
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Piano Lessons for Ryan
Ryan has always shown a lot of interest in the piano, but I don't start my kids in lessons until they can read, but Emily took the time to teach Ryan how to play the chords to "Rain Dance" Ryan patiently listened as Emily helped him learn the right rhythm through out the song. Here is a picture of him and Emily performing it for Family Home Evening.
I love to see the smile on his face, he was so proud of himself as were we proud of him. If only the enthusiasm for piano lessons could stay forever!
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| His hand was too small to reach the chord so he had to use both hands. |
Easter Festivities
We had a lot of Easter activities this year. Abigail and Ryan had an Easter Egg hunt at school. Abigail wanted to look like the Easter Bunny so I suggested we put a bun in her hair so it would look like the tail of the Easter Bunny. She agreed and then pulled out some cotton balls and told me I had to put those in her hair to finish the tail. Here is a picture of her "bunny tail"
Ryan and Abigail both enjoyed finding eggs at their hunt, although the weather was a little bit cooler than we had anticipated.
We had another Easter Egg hunt the Saturday before Easter at the park, it was Ward, neighborhood party. They decorated cookies, got their faces painted, jumped on a bouncer, and hunted for eggs.
They all had a great time. The night before Emily even got to have an Easter Egg hunt. One of her friends did a night Easter Egg hunt where they used flashlights out in the field to find eggs. She had a great time. We had another big one at our house Saturday night where the kids could find as many eggs as they could. We were planning on making it one in the dark like Emily had done, but we realized although we live in the country, we still have a street light right by our house so it doesn't get very dark. The kids still had fun. On Easter morning the kids just had to find their Easter Baskets, but no eggs since they had already hunted so many. Here are a few pictures from Easter Sunday.
We had a wonderful Easter, and the kids learned about the true meaning of Easter. A few days later I heard a conversation between Ryan and Abigail that went something like this..... Ryan says, "It will be so wonderful when we die because then we can be resurrected, and when we are resurrected we won't get sick anymore, and when we fall down it won't even hurt." Abigail responds, "Oh Ryan, I can't wait until I can die so I can be resurrected, will you make me die right now so I can get resurrected?" Ryan then explained how he didn't want to make her die because he would be sad. We are so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and for his willingness to die for us.
Ryan and Abigail both enjoyed finding eggs at their hunt, although the weather was a little bit cooler than we had anticipated.
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| Ryan getting ready for the hunt |
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| Ryan getting one of his eggs |
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| Abigail looking for her number |
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| She found one! |
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| Ryan trying to make sure it is the right number |
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| Abigail with a full basket |
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| Ryan after finding all of his eggs |
We had another Easter Egg hunt the Saturday before Easter at the park, it was Ward, neighborhood party. They decorated cookies, got their faces painted, jumped on a bouncer, and hunted for eggs.
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| Ryan decorating his cookie. He insisted on wearing his Easter hunting shirt again on Saturday. |
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| Abigail's cookie |
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| Abigail heart broken after her cookie fell on the ground. She wanted me to pick out all the rocks so she could still eat it! |
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| Ryan after getting his face painted |
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| Abigail with her first find in the Easter Egg hunt |
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| Looking in the eggs |
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| Tyson (he had to leave early for his soccer game) |
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| Justin |
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| Abigail showing her bunny |
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| All the kids |
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| Emily |
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| Justin |
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| Tyson |
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| Ryan |
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| Abigail (She has "bunny ears" in her hair today. She wanted me to make them stand straight up, but we convinced her most bunnies have floppy ears!) |
Sunday, March 20, 2011
SPRING BREAK
We had an adventurous week at the Cluff house. I was wanting to stay home and clean and organize my house this week, but no one else thought that sounded like fun, so I let the majority win, and we partied all week instead! I am glad I didn't do what I wanted to do!
On Tuesday we took our annual trip to Palo Duro canyon. My kids said it was the most fun time they have had there. I had to agree considering the youngest child on our hike is now almost four. Ellen and I were thinking back to when we were younger and had young kids to carry, and were pregnant, a lot of times both at the same time. It was a beautiful cool day, and the river was flowing well. Here are a few pictures from the day.
Wednesday the kids worked hard in the morning to get the house clean and then we went and saw Gnomeo and Juliet. The kids thought it was a great show. When we got home we got the car packed and ready to go so we could leave for Denver early the next morning.
Thursday we got up early and left for Denver. We got there in enough time to check in at our hotel, freshen up and head to the basketball game. Jeff wanted to get their in plenty of time. There was a session going on before ours started so we had to wait outside since the game went into overtime. I was kind of thinking we shouldn't have come so early, but when the opened the doors, we got in and headed up the elevator I looked back at the crowd that was behind us and I was very glad Jeff had wanted to get there early.
The game was stressful, but in the end BYU won! We stayed and watched a little of the Gonzaga vs. St. John's game. After watching BYU struggle through their game, I was thinking it was going to be ugly on Saturday when we played Gonzaga.
Friday we drove to Colorado Springs and spent the day there. We started at Cave of the Winds. It was a fun cave to go through. It was a guided tour which is always fun because you get to hear more of the history behind it. Emily and I decided we wished we lived in the early days when there was more adventure in exploring the caves.
We then drove through Garden of the Gods. This is a park owned by the city. It was beautiful with all of the red rock. We got out to climb on the rocks for a little while, but it was getting past lunch time so we didn't stay too long.
After lunch we went up to Seven Falls. It is a waterfall that has seven different drops. It would have been fun to climb to the top, they have some stairs you can climb, but it was too icy so they weren't letting people on them. We did get to take an elevator about half way up and look. They were beautiful.
The last thing we did was take a tour of the Olympic training center. It was very interesting, and fun to see future Olympians practicing. This was the stop that a lot of the family liked the most.
We ended the day with a slice of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. This is a restaurant we wish was in Lubbock. We didn't have any food because we were all still too full from lunch.
Saturday we started out at the Denver Aquarium where Emily, Tyson, and Justin got to swim with the fish and sharks. They put on wet suits and went snorkeling in one of the tanks. They had a lot of fun and they got to see a lot of cool fish up close. My favorite were the two 80 + year old turtles. They told them not to get in their way because they would just run them over. I saw it almost happen to some girls who were putting on a mermaid show.
The aquarium was amazing. It was well laid out, and there was a lot to see and do. The kids got to touch sting rays, feel star fish and crabs, and according to Abigail see real Mermaids. Everyone had a good time.
Our last event in Denver was the BYU basketball game. We were all real nervous after Thursdays game, but we were thrilled with the outcome. The crowd was incredible, everyone was there so excited, and the whole team was on! For this game our tickets were way up high, but we were by a lot more BYU fans than we were the first game, and it was so fun. BYU played better than we could have asked for and we came home with a victory! It was a great ending to a wonderful spring break. Tomorrow, back to the real world, and for the kids school!
On Tuesday we took our annual trip to Palo Duro canyon. My kids said it was the most fun time they have had there. I had to agree considering the youngest child on our hike is now almost four. Ellen and I were thinking back to when we were younger and had young kids to carry, and were pregnant, a lot of times both at the same time. It was a beautiful cool day, and the river was flowing well. Here are a few pictures from the day.
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| Everyone posing on "picture rock" |
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| A little cave they found along the way |
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| Abigail at the 1 mile marker on our hike. She walked herself up until then. |
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| Justin after playing in the river |
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| Abigail making a sand angel in the sand. She insisted on taking her shirt off since all the boys did. |
Thursday we got up early and left for Denver. We got there in enough time to check in at our hotel, freshen up and head to the basketball game. Jeff wanted to get their in plenty of time. There was a session going on before ours started so we had to wait outside since the game went into overtime. I was kind of thinking we shouldn't have come so early, but when the opened the doors, we got in and headed up the elevator I looked back at the crowd that was behind us and I was very glad Jeff had wanted to get there early.
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| All the people behind us coming in |
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| The line clear out and around the corner |
Friday we drove to Colorado Springs and spent the day there. We started at Cave of the Winds. It was a fun cave to go through. It was a guided tour which is always fun because you get to hear more of the history behind it. Emily and I decided we wished we lived in the early days when there was more adventure in exploring the caves.
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| Everyone at the start of the tour. |
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| The view outside the cave. It amazed me a little boy discovered this cave up so high. |
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| The whole gang |
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| A little rock climbing. |
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| Emily |
After lunch we went up to Seven Falls. It is a waterfall that has seven different drops. It would have been fun to climb to the top, they have some stairs you can climb, but it was too icy so they weren't letting people on them. We did get to take an elevator about half way up and look. They were beautiful.
The last thing we did was take a tour of the Olympic training center. It was very interesting, and fun to see future Olympians practicing. This was the stop that a lot of the family liked the most.
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| The kids doing their own Olympic poses. |
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| One of the bobsleds |
Saturday we started out at the Denver Aquarium where Emily, Tyson, and Justin got to swim with the fish and sharks. They put on wet suits and went snorkeling in one of the tanks. They had a lot of fun and they got to see a lot of cool fish up close. My favorite were the two 80 + year old turtles. They told them not to get in their way because they would just run them over. I saw it almost happen to some girls who were putting on a mermaid show.
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| Here they are getting ready to go in. |
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| While they were snorkeling |
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| A picture of one of the giant fish they saw. |
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| One of the Sharks, it stayed close to the bottom the whole time |
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| A sting ray |
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| The group when they were all done. |
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| A picture of the kids outside the aquarium. You can see Abigail off to the side, she is not happy she couldn't be on top. |
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| Tyson, Emily, and Justin at the first game |
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| Jeff and Abigail at the first game |
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| Emily, Justin, Tyson, and Ryan getting ready for the second game |
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| Abigail getting ready for the second game. She took a much needed nap during the first half! |
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| Tyson singing the fight song. He was the only one who sang his little heart out every time they played it. They play it a lot when the game is on TV, lots of TV timeouts! |
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The backside of Jimmer
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| Warming up after half time, you can see the BYU flags waving |
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| The final score |
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| A happy Cluff Family! |
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