Football Tryouts Begin......

T.J. started football tryouts this week. He has it every night from 6 to 8 and then Friday from 4 to 5:30 with the draft afterwards, then first practices starting Saturday. Already this is intense. We knew going into it that it would be a lot of time but I wasn't expecting this much the first week. Here's pictures from the first 3 days...

Starting out they all line up in the groups they've been put in. Start with stretching and warm-ups.

T.J. is the one wearing navy blue shorts with green lines and white on the top of the sides and brown shirt.

Next running. They didn't run laps as much the first day.

Then they broke off into rotations. They spend 10 minutes at 8 different rotations and are graded on how well they can perform each task. This will determine what team they will be put on. That's Jared watching on the side lines. We found out to be a coach we had to register back in March and go through major back ground checks and classes. So hopefully once the teams are picked, he can be an assistant this year.

T.J. taking on a big kid while learning how to block. He did really well.

Blocking again. T.J.'s definitely going to be a line backer.

Sprints.

T.J. placed in the top 3 in the bear crawl!!! Very good for his first year.

Weighing in and height measurement. T.J. weighed in at 120.8 lbs with pads.

Cherie and Jim came to see T.J.

Learning to block.

At the end of practice they all line up to do ladders.

Jared and T.J.. My two football boys.

2nd day of practice. Stretches again. The head coach this year is married to Jared's old babysitter. And he's Jared's Uncle Dave's cousin. He has twins in T.J.'s class. T.J. really likes them. And their dad's a good guy. Kind of confusing, I know.

Jumping Jacks. T.J. doesn't like those very much.

Today after warm-ups they ran a lap around the field, grabbed their water and went right back into the same groups for more rotations.

Playing intense capture the flag to learn how to know your surroundings.

Practicing running and catching the football.

More guarding.

Cody and Hunter thought they were smart and stole this cause it wasn't being used. Hunter's smirk on his face says it all. 

More sprints. This time from a 3-point stance.

Hunter decided to race with them. He'd line up next to them and run. That kid never tires of running.

I loved this coach! He gathered them all together and told the kids 'It doesn't matter if this is your first year or third. What matters is that you are teachable. We've had the best athletics who were dumber then a post cause they wouldn't listen.' He was really pushing self esteem in these kids. And he was really good with T.J. the first day. Especially when he found out it was his first year but still made the top 3 in the bear crawl.

Gathering in afterwards to listen to the head coach for instructions. I love watching this part at the end.

T.J. and his best friend Brodie. Look at these cute little men. We hope they get on the same team this year.

3rd day of tryouts. This time they had to wear full gear... pads, mouth guard, etc. We had to buy T.J. a new jersey because his other one was really tight with the pads on. So today he is 76.

There's T.J. in the front. They got put into new groups. They based them more on their levels and build today.

Learning to pass the ball quickly.

Hunter found Savanna to play with. Her brothers are playing, too. Just on different leagues.

Cody watching practice with Jamie's glasses he stole. She came to watch tryouts today.

This drill was fun to watch. They get in their 3 point stance and then try to guard the other person when the whistle blows.

T.J. did really well. He held this kid back for a while then finally lost a bit of ground. But the second time, he won!

Practicing catching the ball again.

Day 3 was a harder practice for T.J.. He's not used to wearing the pads like that yet. Plus his neck was sore from just wearing his helmet for first two days. Before practice Jared told T.J. it's ok if your arms get cut up a little bit, that's normal. So T.J. was a little nervous for that. Then during day 3 of tryouts (first day of full gear) they had to have 3 different ambulances come for 3 different kids. One broke his leg, one broke his arm from getting hit hard with a helmet (they couldn't reach the boys parents so that's why they had to call the ambulance) and we aren't sure what happened with the third boy. All 3 injuries were with older kids at tryouts. Jared was surprised they were already doing full gear by the 3rd day and starting to hit and guard. When he played they did two weeks of conditioning before pads.                                                         T.J. has had a hard time since tryouts last night. Seeing those ambulances come got some anxiety running. Plus, Jared is gone the rest of the week with a scout camp and T.J. is pretty lost without him during this football week. T.J. was pretty sick to his stomach this morning with nerves. Jared found T.J. out by the garden by himself crying. Jared talked to him for a bit and then gave him a blessing for some peace. That helped some. T.J. is such a good kid. He's worried about getting hurt but also hurting others. He's one tough kid but also a teddy bear inside. His emotions run close. We reminded him how we've been getting him ready for this. We started sprints about 4 weeks ago and then Jared's started him lifting weights and running. So he's got some conditioning in already. Hopefully the rest of the week goes better without injuries so he gets more confident again.

It's so cute to hear they draft these kids at this age. It's like a mini NFL. As much as we'd like him to be on the top team, we'd like him to start a bit lower so he can learn more. Can't wait to see where he ends up!

I can't believe it's already time for him to start football. It's seems like it was just yesterday when he was 6 years old and asking how long until he could play. These last 3 days have been so fun to watch T.J. tryout, learn new drills, and such. I kept hearing the song by Kenney Chesney "The Boys of Fall" playing in my head. Almost made me want to cry. I'm excited for this fall and our days of football to begin. T.J. is growing up way too fast.

Sometimes I don't understand....

Sometimes life throws curve balls that I wish I could throw back. And sometimes those curve balls are results of other peoples choices. I had one of those curve balls today. This morning Jared and I ran errands together. He didn't have appointments this morning (which worked out well because it was pouring!) so we finished getting things for T.J. to start football tryouts tonight, got my ring back from finally having it fixed! (apparently it's a good idea to take that off before using Dad's belt sander cause it might just sand the prong's down - oops!), and so on. Then Dad called.


He told me my brother was in jail again up in Park City and we needed to get up there and pick up his truck before it got impounded. Wasn't really expecting this call today but for some reason I knew it was coming soon. A warrant for his arrest was issued and he was picked up this morning. He'll spend about a week up there then be transferred to Salt Lake for probably a month.


Sometimes I don't understand why people make the choices they do in life. I don't understand why someone would want to drink, or smoke, or do drugs that could cost them their life or land them in the same spot he's in now. I've never understood it and I never will. I know we all have our free agency and I have to respect that, but I will never understand why some choose to do these things. Especially when they've seen what it does to their lives. My brother's been in jail before from these kinds of choices. He's seen that his "friends" who are there to party with this kind of stuff aren't there when he's in jail from it. I don't understand why he keeps going back to them when it's the family that has to pick up the slack of these choices. He can't see how his choices affect the lives of others. It's really hard to tell my boys their uncle is in jail and why. But at the same time, this is also a good teaching moment for us. A good teaching moment about having good friends in our lives, about keeping the word of wisdom and keeping our bodies healthy. And a good lesson in making the right choices in our life so we can be happy.


I guess a good highlight though from all this is it's fun to go with my dad to rescue his truck. We had to do this last year with him, my mom, Jared and my boys. And this time it was just me and my dad. He jokes with me that we need to stop doing these kinds of trips (which we really do!) but it's also fun to talk as we drive up the canyon together and laugh. I love my dad. He's been so good to us and is always there when anyone needs something. So despite the circumstances of the spontaneous day trip we had, we still had fun together. All we can do is be there for my brother and show him good people care about him. Hopefully one day he will see this and want a better life for himself.

Learning to barefoot trim...

Jared started teaching T.J. how to barefoot trim today. He wants these kids to learn early how to really take care of their horse. First he showed T.J. how to pick up the horses foot and get into place.

Jared just got that new stand 2 days ago. It's more comfortable on the horses foot to rest it on there then to have it held up in between Jared's legs. Plus it doesn't kill Jared's back, which is a good thing.

T.J. started out by cleaning out the hoofs. Cody held the horse.

After Jared did the clipping and cutting, he showed T.J. how to rasp.

Jared finishing up the last hoof. It's so funny to see the horse laying his foot on the new stand. It looks like he's getting a big pedicure cause he seems so relaxed.

All finished.

Afterwards Cody walked Tabasco around the yard for only a minute. After you barefoot trim you can't ride for 24 hours because their foot is a bit sore. Cody wanted so bad to take Tabasco on a walk. He loves animals and loves to take care of them.

T.J. did really good for his first time. He didn't clip or work on the angles yet but that will come with time. It's crazy how big these boys are getting.

My $75 Steal...

Our treadmill that we've had for years finally died and I've been looking here and there for a new one. I love walking on a treadmill when I don't have the time to head to a park or the river bottoms to get my steps in, so I desperately wanted one. Yesterday I decided to jump and KSL classifieds really fast and look what I found...

An almost brand new treadmill for $75 dollars! When I saw the ad I jumped at the chance to go grab it. The lady I got it from said it's about 3 years old and only been used maybe 10 or 15 times cause she hates to exercise. She looked it up on line and could have sold it for 3 or 4 hundred dollars but didn't. Cha-ching! I was so excited!

Notice Hunter's way of walking on there. He thought he could get away with using roller blades and "ride" the treadmill.

All the boys took turns trying it out. T.J. walked on it with his football helmet to start strengthening his neck muscles for football season. (Very good idea!)

Our old beastly treadmill. I swear this is one of the first treadmills ever made. It's so heavy. Good bye ol' thing. Good riddance.

Jared hauled the treadmill away but first had to stop at his parents. So the boys rode in the back sitting on it.

I love my new treadmill. It works great, folds up, and is quiet. And best of all... was a great price!

It's Football Time!

We just got back from signing T.J. up for FOOTBALL! I can't believe he's old enough to play. It seems like it was just yesterday when we told T.J. "only 3 more years until you can play." Jared wanted him to wait until he was 10 to start. When they are too young, they just get hurt. Well, in 2 weeks, T.J. will be 10. He made it.

Doesn't he look so cute! And so old!! After we registered (which costs an arm and a leg! Thank goodness it included the jersey, pads and helmet.), he got fitted for his helmet, pads, and pants. He said first thing that those shoulder pads make him sweat. Just you wait little buddy!

We got the boys all jerseys to wear to the games and I got a hoodie. T.J.'s practice jersey number is 67. When Jared played in pee wee league he also had the number 67. Cody is number 7 (like John Elway) and Hunter liked 16. Hunter was the only one who got a purple jersey. T.J. wasn't too happy about playing for Riverton because their colors are purple and black. He'd much rather play for Bingham like Jared did and wear blue. But, we go where we go.

I can't believe T.J. is old enough to do this. I was never into football when I met Jared but slowly it's growing on me. I always said I'd learn the game when T.J. plays. Guess that time has come. I was having major anxiety signing him up. I feel like this is a huge step in his life. The beginning of a possible career maybe. T.J. loves football almost as much as Jared. And that's huge! It will be fun to see where this takes T.J.. It was crazy reading all the fine print and signing a release so he can be treated by medical professions... even surgeons if need be. There's the other part of my anxiety with this. I pray he never gets hurt bad enough for that, but it is football. Hopefully his large size will help. He's going to play lineman because of his weight and size. I think he'll do good. We've been practicing running and sprinting at the park the last few weeks, trying to get him ready for those long, grueling practices. Tryouts start Aug. 1st and then it's good bye to our fall days cause you know what we'll be doing most of the week. That's right... FOOTBALL!

P.S.... We almost had Cody playing this year, too. I know he's only 8 but he's the same size as T.J. and we want him to get into sports more. He's a little unsure this year though. Cody has a hard time trying something new. So this next year we want him to work with Jared and T.J. learning techniques and such and then try next year. When one of the coaches saw Cody and found out he wasn't signing up he begged Cody to change his mind. Said they need big kids like him for his age. There's no doubt Cody would be out there knocking everyone over. He already does that with me. That made Cody feel good, but still nervous. Maybe next year.

The Turkey Named Jeffery

Jared bought some turkeys last year to breed. We have one tom and 3 hens. They started laying eggs this spring so it was time to start incubating them. We collected about 10 of them and put them in. Every day you have to turn the eggs at least 3 to 7 times, plus make sure the temperature doesn't fall below around 100' and that there's enough water in the bottom so it's humid in there. Needless to say you can't forget about these eggs. Well, we kinda did. We have the incubator downstairs this time so no one bumps it but it's like they say, out of sight, out of mind. Sometimes we were lucky to turn the eggs three times, but usually it was twice.
After two weeks we candled them and saw we had five fertile eggs. Two weeks to go until they should hatch. Well, it got worse from there. Not only were we forgetting to always turn them, they ran out of water for a day or two, the lid was partially off so the temperature went down, and Jared was having the boys turn the eggs; mainly Cody. That doesn't seem all bad except they aren't the most careful with them and any little rough movement or drop can kill these babies. We thought for sure we'd killed them, so we didn't expect anything and didn't do anything the last 3 days where you are supposed to increase the humidity and leave the eggs alone.
Jared was working downstairs on the computer almost two weeks ago when he heard something. It was a baby turkey that had just hatched. He was walking around in the incubator and his egg was making tiny sounds. Jared came running upstairs and said "Well, there's a turkey downstairs." Took me a minute, then it dawned on me. I couldn't believe it. I grabbed my camera and ran for a picture. 
Jared got a box, hay, food and water and the heat lamp before we took him out.

Here he is in the incubator walking around. He was still a bit wet, and because we didn't always have the water in there and didn't increase the humidity, the shell was kinda stuck to him. Oops! Jared could just pull it off though.

When Jared took the cover off I snapped this picture really fast. He tried to hurry as fast as he could but that little turkey darted right off the incubator and onto the cement floor right after I snapped this. Thought he would have died from that.

Nope. He's ok. Phew!

His new home for the next  to 8 weeks. We didn't expect him to live. Birds don't do well unless their in groups. Turns out he's the only one that survived. No other turkeys hatched from this batch. (Still can't believe he even made it.)

The boys were so excited to hear the news. Our first turkey we've ever hatched and we did a horrible job this time of incubating. Cody named him Jeffery after the turkey on Charlotte's Web. Cody takes care of him every day and loves him so much. And to this day, he's still alive and kicking. He's the toughest turkey I've seen. If he can withstand all that before he was born, then falling onto cement, and still be alive, we've got a good chance he's going to be around for a while. (At least 'til thanksgiving.)