Def Leppard and Tonsils

  Def Leppard and Journey bring families together, that's why we had a visit from Hadley.

 We left the ladies at home and went to rock out. Rock and Ryker have been waiting for this concert for a long time.

  Def Leppard was awesome. It made me feel 17 again, rocking out in the giant Dodge van on my way to practice. I loved sharing that with Rock, Ryker, Dad and Nick.

 Ryker seemed to enjoy the concert, at least until his bed time.

 He hit his witching hour around 10 and checked himself into a nice blanket cocoon.

In other news, Jens is a terrible sleeper. It's not her fault, it's her tonsils. They are huge and obstructive. She snores like Hampa, sits up often in her sleep, and is always tired. The doctor decided that it was time for them to come out, and that's what we did.

 She puts on a sad face, but she was pretty brave.

 The surgery went great. She got to stay overnight in the hospital and enjoyed all the attention that she nurses could give her.

  She sleeps so quiet now that DeA often checks her to make sure she is breathing. That's a success!

 Back to football, I call this the "brodders package" because that's what Jens calls Rock and Ryker. Rock is #3 and Ryker #9.

 Ryker begs and begs to carry the ball. I thought this would cure his desire, but it didn't work. The good news is they beat Eastmont 25-0!

 They were pretty proud of their victory. They celebrated with root beer floats and burgers.

 Ryker demanded a burger from the main menu, then complained about the lettuce, relish, tomato, onion, and mustard. Oh, and he only finished half of the thing. Looks like it's back to the kid's menu for that boy.

 General Conference is always great. Feeling the Spirit, spending time with the kids, and making donuts make is special.

 This year Ryker and Jens helped a lot, and wanted both the glaze on their fingers and the credit from everyone else.

 Mmm...delicious glaze.

 It looks like a lot of donuts, but the kids ate them quickly.

 Rock was busy in his room, drawing different ideas of his.

 Jens has started wearing lenseless glasses again. I think the attention from her tonsillectomy was wearing off and she needed something else to catch people's attention.

Fall!!

This early fall has been full of family. We had an unexpected encounter with Hadley and her parents at Brian England's funeral. It was sad to say goodbye to Brian, but at least funerals get people together.

 We spent our traditional day at the fair, wondering why we ever made it a tradition. At least Jens had fun winning cheap stuffed toys. 

 The best part of the fair tradition is the stop at Country Boys BBQ after. The boys love their ribs.

 Yeah, they aren't weird at all.

 The drive home was peaceful.

 They didn't even stir when I pulled over to take this picture.

 A big part of our fall has been football. The boys playing, and I've been broadcasting Manson games on Facebook.

 Saturdays are for the boys, the football boys. They've had a game every Saturday since Labor Day. It started with a jamboree against Chelan and Brewster. They balled out, Rock had some good runs and Ryker made a 20 yard reception.

 Dioci and Jens had fun at a Linger Longer at church.

 I'm not sure who is supposed to be influencing whom. 

 DeAndra spent most of September galavanting around Idaho and Iowa. She took Doici to school at BYU-I and accompanied Tiffini on a trip to Palmer. It was nice to have her home and back on her spot on the couch.

 She brought the boys MLBopoly.

 Ryker was not a fan of losing.

 The boys lost their first game against Okanogan, but turned it around to beat Omak and Chelan. Pizza was had after the Chelan game and I think both teams chowed as much as they could. 

Weeken' in Stehekin

DeA and I planned a long weekend in Stehekin over a year ago. We saved up for it, moved stuff around to accommodate it, and were excited to go. We loaded the kids up in the boat in the early afternoon and took off up-lake.

It was a beautiful start of the trip, with blue skies and clear water.

 You might see this picture and wonder what I'm smoking. Did I accidentally insert a helicopter picture from another time? We made it halfway up the lake and then had whitecaps come over the bow of the boat. DeA wasn't happy about it, which meant I wasn't happy about it. We turned around with plans to ride the Lady of the Lake the next morning, but the kids used their powers of guilt to convince Hampa to fly us up that night. 

 He flew Rock and I up first with most of the gear. We checked in to the room and the lovely staff at the Ranch made us plates to bring to our room. DeA, Ryker, and Jens arrived later, right after dusk while the local band was finishing their set in the dining room. It was quite the entrance.

 The kids enjoyed the roasted chicken and corn on the cob. They had strong opinions about the other veggies, but I won't get into that here.

  We were all excited to wake up and meander down to breakfast, maybe the best part of the whole trip. 

 Well, some of us made it to breakfast.

 A large portion of our first day was spent at Rainbow Falls.

 The boys wanted to play football every possible moment, especially when they noticed that I was sitting down.

 We tried riding bikes again, this went better than last time.

 Jens is old enough to ride on my bike with me, instead of inside a cart.

  A rest in the hammock was a welcomed activity after all the real activities we did that day. 

I spent some time reading to the kids. It was nice to have a break from TV, computers, and other distractions.

 What's this? Another helicopter picture? Aaron, what are you doing? 

Don't fret, it's real. Nick and Emily wanted to bless Hadley at church the Sunday we were supposed to be in Stehekin. It was important to be there, and Dad made it possible by picking Rock and me up.

We went to church, helped bless Hadley, and then loaded the boat up and took off for a second try at getting all the way to Stehekin.  

 This time, the water was perfect. Not a whitecap to be seen.

 We spent the rest of the day enjoying the beautiful nature around us.

 It was pretty to look at, and the mountains and river wasn't bad, either. 

 The kids made some hard mud balls. They were pretty proud of their work.

 Jens was excited waiting for dinner.

 We thought it would be fun to go on a fun exciting relaxing hike with the kids.

 We were no more than ten steps in before the complaining began. 

 To call it a forced march wouldn't be that far off. One of us had to stay behind Jens to encourage her to keep walking.

 Their spirits picked up considerably when we found the log bridge at the creek.

 A pretty view of the mountains helped some.

 But, the kids kept asking if we could turn around and go back, even when we were under half a mile from the end.

 "Left, left, leftrightleft"

 Finally, we made it! The kids enjoyed the rest of their packed lunches (they had been used previously to encourage more walking).

 Boy, you should've heard the wailing when we told the kids that the only way home was to go back the way we came.

 At least it was pretty.

 Rock wasn't among the complainers, he was a good little trooper.

 This proves that I has on the hike, too.

 Lunch at the bakery seemed to make them forget their deathmarch hike. 

 Somehow, they were still hungry after stopping at the bakery.

 We stopped by the gardens, thanks to a recommendation from Aleasha, and checked out the flowers and bees. Jens especially liked the flowers. 

 We took the boat back to Manson. Rock, the longshoreman, did a good job getting us away from the moorings. 

 Other than smoke, the ride home was great.

 The kids took turns learning to drive home. They got bored after they were told no donuts, crazy turns, or racing.

 All the kids ended up in the bow curled up on some life jackets.

 The warmth, the constant white noise from the engine, and rhythmic bouncing knocked them out.