Classic Waterpark

Sometime last year I had purchased a Groupon deal for Classic Waterpark. Just $20 for four people, plus pizza and pop. A pretty good deal! We'd gone and had fun a couple times before and enjoyed it. Well, the July 31 expiration date was rapidly approaching, so I figured we'd better go. 

Landon was working, and Callahan wanted to spend the day playing basketball with friends at Gene Fullmer, so it was just the three little boys... until we thought to invite Jacob and Travis, and I think the addition really made it more fun for everyone.

There are the four classic waterslides ... the kids had fun racing, going backwards,  launching themselves off at the end ... up and down, up and down many many times. Then there are the huge inflatable slides. Up and down those too ... with a little bounce at times. 

There were a couple new items this year ...

 Cliffjumping

... and the BUBBLE pit!

Of course pizza and snowcones are always a hit as well ...

The kids lasted a little longer than I thought they would. 

A full day of fun in the sun.

Our DiFran Family Friends

Last Fall, our wonderful friends, the DiFrancesco family moved to California. We missed them and were excited when they came back to Utah to visit family and friends. We felt super lucky that we got to see them a few times during the week they were here.  

We first met up with them at Jump N Bounce, where we had spent MANY hours together in the past few years. Trying to make the most of their time, we rounded up some additional friends, as everyone wanted to see our bouncing buddies while they were here.

The next day the DiFran family came over to our house. I made some Snickerdoodles and chatted with Kiana while the kids played. Again, we invited over a few extras. There was basketball, chess, video games and of course some water fun!

Colton and Mara playing chess!

 Marc and Cooper
Gameboys!

Keaton, Tony and Joey

I asked them to look at me for the picture ...

 They said that was not possible.

One last picture of the DiFran Family and the Blackham Bunch ...  these two moms and these six kids had a blast reconnecting this week! The DiFran family stopped in one more time to say goodbye before they left. They brought some friendship bracelet/necklace makings to remember them by.  We hope they have a safe return home and that they can come visit again!

21 years

That was then ... (above)

This is now ... (below)

21 years ... I was 21 years old when I married Gray. Yes, we had been together for a year before we actually got married, but this makes it official. I have now been with my man as long as I was ever without him ... We had an anniversary dinner at Market Street Grill.

This is our current love song ...

When Grayson sings it to me, I swoon

Summer Basketball

I haven't done a basketball post in a while. I do have a separate blog devoted to Blackham Basketball (you can see it HERE), but I hadn't updated that in a while either. Winter basketball just was NOT what we expected.  Poor Callahan, the broken foot in September set him out all through Fall and through the start of Winter. Then ... after only playing a few games, he broke his other foot, which ended Winter and Spring season for him. He did get in a couple games at the very end of Spring, and participated at a tournament at the University of Utah and a camp at the high school in June. 

Keaton had been able to play Winter and Spring, but his games weren't really as great as we would have liked. He just wasn't getting the plays or the playing time ... they did end up winning first place in the Dimple Dell Spring Superleage.

But the boy's teams were taking the summer off. Keaton still wanted to play and Callahan ... well Callahan NEEDED to play! I contacted Callahan's old coach and asked him if he had a team for summer. He had been planning on taking the summer off, but decided to play if Callahan wanted to, and we could get a couple more players to join. We got a couple friends, and I ended up putting Keaton on the team too. I did really debate that decision, as Keaton was just in 6th grade, and it was a 7th/8th league, but we decided to go ahead. It sure did simplify the summer schedule!   It was a quick season, just over four weeks with two games per week  (Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings).  I did NOT get any video (to make muvees) ... both gym locations had a jogging track above the court, and as I'm working on my weight loss again, it was a great time to get in a workout while I watched (see my post about the two tracks HERE). 

The team was undefeated. Both boys did GREAT, and had a lot of fun, and I sure enjoyed watching them!

Bonks and Big Eyes

Bonks and BIG eyes ... luckily not in that order. The dilated eyes came first. Keaton had been complaining of  a "shape" floating around the vision of his left eye when he was outside. He was consistent enough with his worry that I decided to take him in to get it checked out. He had a full eye exam (complete with dilated eyes and the cool dark glasses) and the good news is that everything looks healthy and normal. I haven't heard Keaton complain of the shape since the Dr. appointment, so maybe he just needed the reassurance. Sometimes I guess that is worth the cost.

Later that week, Keaton took a hard fall during a basketball game. Smacked his head right on the hardwood floor. There was a decent bump and we were put on concussion watch for the rest of the day. He did have a bit of a headache, but no dilated eyes or nausea or any of the other symptoms.  It's a little hard to capture a "bump" on film, but the reddish coloring was picked up on camera.  Poor Keaton ... rough week!

Star Wars Stuff

Keaton's Star Wars interests have continued. He asked for this cute tin lunch box ... we did get it in time for him to take it to school a couple of times before the end of the year. 

Now the BIG Angry Birds are the Birdy Blankets Maga gave the boys a while back ... but the little ones are new additions. And if you look close, you can see that they are STAR WARS Angry Birds! A little Luke and Lea ... Han Solo, Chewy, a Stormtrooper and even Darth Vader  ...

Keaton spent some of his hard earned derby money
on a couple of Lego sets too.

And of course ... he has a light saber collection.
He doesn't have ALL of these.
But I thought this was a nice reference.

There are so many cute Star Wars things out there! A while back, I created a page here to keep track of some of them. I actually found one of the "Wisecrack" bobble heads pictured (the "Totally FETT up" one) and it is now in Keaton's Star Wars collection.  I haven't added to the blog page lately, but I have a Pinterest board where I collect character clever images, Star Wars items are one of the main additions there.  See my Star Wars Blog Post HERE, and my Pinterest board HERE.  And may the force be with you!

Time to Try Again

Well, I haven't been great at keeping up with this blog lately. It's not that there haven't been things to blog about, I've just been a little preoccupied. As the warmer weather rolled around and I pulled out the summer clothes ... nothing fit :( It's been slow, but steady. My weight was pretty much back up to where it was before I had my successful loss seven years ago.  Mid-May, I decided it was time to try, really TRY this again. It is said you can't out-cardio your calories, and while I've stayed very active through the years, it has not been enough. Admittedly, I was not logging my food ... and I do like to eat.

I had tried the whole calorie counting thing before. There are many free applications, and I had an account at MyCalorieCounter.  Although I struggled with some of the less user-friendly aspects of the website and app, I was hesitant to change because I had invested so much time in personalized entries. But when I found out My Fitness Pal had a very broad and easy to use database, an app for my iPhone AND synced with my Fitbit ... I decided to make a fresh start there. 

I can get a little obsessive, starting something new. I've been spending a lot of time making new MFP friends for support and encouragement. Logging foods and adding personalized meals and recipes. Checking out the community for inspiring success stories.  And of course, upping my activity again (I had slacked off a little). Recording everything ... in fact, I decided I wanted to keep track of this journey. So I started another blog for me to keep track of all my daily stats, successes (& failures), and graphs (many of the visuals are there only temporarily, and I want to keep a record for myself). It is said, to help motivate, tell people your goal ... So here it is... If you wanted to see what has been keeping me busy NOT blogging (here anyway) you can check it out.   Jen'sJourney ... It IS a journey, I think it's going to be harder and slower than the first time, but I'm pretty determined. As said in a quote I like ... "You can't change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight!" ~ Jim Rohn

And I'll TRY to get back to the family blog as well!

Columbia Comes to a Close

It's the end of the school year (finally!) While the tests and schoolwork were wrapping up, there were quite a few activities that made the last few days of school quite busy! Of course there was the Honor Roll Assembly, and of course, all three Blackham Boys were up for this award (as usual!). I got their report cards and they really could not be any better. Good job boys! We are so proud of you.

Cooper's 3rd Grade class put on a little show ... Cooper had quite a few lines, but he had them all memorized. He pretty much had everything memorized! He would help his classmates out, whispering their lines to them if they forgot. 

Colton's class put on the annual first grade program.

I got a little video and made a muvee ...

The kids had Field Day  on a SUPER hot day. It was well over 100°. They complained that it wasn't nearly as fun as when THEIR daddy was in charge of it. Gray always did an awesome job!

This is what Keaton wore on the last day ... I don't know why exactly. They had the annual "6th Graders vs the Teachers" Kickball game and the students WON. Keaton said that hadn't happened since ... well, he wasn't sure if it had ever happened. 

As it was Keaton's 6th grade year ... he is now done with elementary school and Columbia. But it was actually the last days at Columbia for Cooper and Colton too, as after much discussion and debate, we have decided to switch schools. I complain about the year-round school EVERY time we go off track and trying to resume the routine when school starts back up. Terra Linda is close by and is on a traditional schedule and so we are going to give TRADITIONAL a try!

The Heat is On

We've been hit with a heatwave! Temperatures over 100° several days in a row. Of course our air conditioning decided this would be a perfect time to die. It was over 90° in the house too. After a couple miserable days, we got it fixed, but I did encourage the boys to play in the water outside to cool down.

The boys love filling a big garbage can (purchased just for this purpose ... we haven't ever used it for trash) and dunking themselves in it. We have some big sponges Gray bought for an activity a while back, and the boys love soaking them in water and then throwing them at each other.

Water balloons are also always a big hit. We have the awesome water balloon filler (you can see it there in the background, five spigots so everyone can keep busy) and we don't only use the small water balloons. We also use the BIG ones, and the long, twisty ones too.

I'm sure there will be a lot more water fun to come!