A little of this and a little of that...

My birthday came and went in a flash...just like the past year. Clearly a sign of aging. I was lucky enough to get beautiful arrangements from each of the kids and Jack is sending me on a getaway in a few months to spend time with a dear friend. It was a week full of lunches with friends, dinner out with the fam, and special cards and tokens from dear friends! My special day coincided with the boys' football game. Connor had an amazing tackle which made both of our day. They assured me they'd give me a win for my birthday and they did...



The school year is underway! As I mentioned below, I received a wonderful call from Connor's teacher the first week of school which was nice but not surprising since you really couldn't ask for a better student than Connor. Then when I was volunteering in Ty's class his teacher shared with me a sweet thing that had happened during their first week of school. She said she was discussing with the class that she was pretty certain she had the "best class in the whole school" to which Ty immediately raised his hand and responded "it would be the best class in the whole school if my brother Connor was in this class." That's my sweet Ty! Love the bond these two boys share. Then when I was volunteering in Sage's class her teacher pulled me aside to tell me that every day Sage compliments her. She was curious if this was something I had told Sage to do. That too doesn't surprise me because Sage is always so sweet about paying me compliments. I use to wonder what it was she wanted when she did it but it's become clear over the last year, she just enjoys complimenting people. I always hoped for respectful, kind children because I knew that even if they were goof-offs or got into trouble occasionally, people would cut them more slack if they were courteous and kind. Glad to see it's working!

I was asked to be classroom photographer for Sage's classroom. (This was only because no one else stepped up and clearly they were desperate.) What I like about it though is that I get to be a part of all the special classroom events and field trips. Their first field trip was a "Walking Field Trip" which was a tour of our City's main street looking for particular signs and marking them off as they see them. Here she is growing up on me way too fast...



Well, we are half way through the football season and although the boys experienced their first lost ever this past weekend, I have no doubt as a team they will all grow and learn from it and bounce right back. Losing is a part of life and unfortunately it's not the easiest lesson to learn. I'll do one main post after the season but here's a shot I captured of them before this weekends game as they were lining up for weigh in...

Yankees at Mariners...

Who better to go with to a Yankees game than Ty and Rachel Bailey. Of course Rachel is a bigger Yankee fan than anyone I know so that always make it a fun night! Here we are enjoying the game, our great seats (thanks to Rachel's sister) and Jeter, AND celebrating Ty's successful fight with cancer! It's hard to believe it's been a year since he learned the devastating news of his stage 4 colorectal cancer. We feel so lucky to call Rachel and Ty friends. Our faith grows because of them and we feel so blessed to know them. This has been a rough battle but how thankful we are to see Ty coming through it. Thanks for the fun evening Bailey's!!! Oh, and if you are looking for great food at the stadium, you must try the chicken curry at the Thai place there. It was fantastic!!!




Well, look who it is buried under this hoodie! A-Rod...



Oh the excitement of a close game...



It seems that every game we've gone to between the Yankees and Mariners has been close which is always so strange to me! The Yankees won by one at this one...

Labor Day Weekend with the Brents!

Jack and David have been good friends since their days at 24 Hr. Fitness. Whenever it works out, they make a point to get together when their paths cross. David and his family decided to come up to our neck of the woods for Labor Day weekend which made Jack one happy camper! Although they refused to stay with us, once we learned they were staying at the Four Seasons in Seattle we totally understood. I mean really, who can turn down the views, spa, and pool at the Four Seasons? Unfortunately the Roddy shack just can't compete with that. Thanks Brents for sharing your holiday weekend with us even if our shack wasn't good enough! HA!

After the boys' football win we all headed into the City to enjoy a night swim at their hotel. What should have been a romantic moment for hotel guests quickly turned to a frenzy as six kids entered the pool area just as the sun was setting. At least it was magical for six people under the age of 10!



Enjoying Seattle and of course taking Dave and Kristen to the first Starbucks store ever!


What could be more enjoyable at the fish market than poking the fish eyes until they practically pop out...



Another day of swimming and fun in the sun...

Back to school...back to reality!

Hard to believe the Roddy household has two fourth graders and a kindergartner! As tempting as it is to request the boys be in the same class which would make my life a lot easier, I continue to have them placed in separate classes so they can continue to grow and develop without any pressures from the other and no feeling they have to gravitate to the same friends, extracurricular activities etc. or feel like they are always being compared to each other. It was nice not to have to worry about who they got for teachers since this year we had heard great things about all of them but as it turned out Ty got a teacher that apparently Connor had really wanted (even though I was clueless about this until the day they learned who their teachers were.) In the end though, Connor has seemed thrilled with his teacher and I told him that she must be a pretty special teacher considering she's the first teacher to call me on the first week of class to tell me what a "pleasure it is having Connor" in her class. We are really looking forward to a great year and from the weight of their back packs this year, I'm guessing the homework and learning curve is about to increase substantially.

Here are my two sweethearts!



I was thrilled to learn that Sage got Mrs. Kinghorn for her teacher. Calla was Connor's kindergarten teacher and she happens to also be a friend from church. She is fantastic and everyone in the community knows and hopes for her. It also worked out that Sage has a couple of her friends in the class with her which is always nice. I didn't know how I'd take dropping her off on this first day. It wasn't until I had returned back to the house that I felt the sadness. Not because she would now be gone five days a week (granted it's less than three hours a day) but rather because she is the last one and we are starting to enter a new phase in our life. I guess I feel like I'm experiencing a mild case of the "empty nester" syndrome. Sage on the other hand seemed very excited and ready for this new chapter in her life when I dropped her off this morning but when I arrived to pick her I could tell she had a concerned look on her face. I later learned that she did shed a few tears at school today during the lunch recess. Apparently many of her friends had siblings that shared the same lunch period. She was sad because Connor and Tyler never came by to see her and she didn't understand that they didn't have the same lunch as her. One of the recess guards saw her and gave her a hug which I was told helped but she still said it was "not a good day" at school. Oh dear! At least she looked happy beforehand...

Summer in Washington

Unfortunately the Roddy family was around for part of the summer but summer herself decided to be a no show! We still did our best to take every advantage of getting out for what some called the "78 minute summer"...

Here we are at Ensign Ranch. This is a huge piece of property that the church owns just over Snoqualmie Pass. They've got campsites, cabins, horses, canoeing, a river, etc. available for members to use. We drove up for the day to check it out and meet up with friends who had been there overnight for the daddy/daughter campout. (Sage had not been feeling great so we passed on the overnight part of it.) It's never good when you lock your keys in your car the first 2 minutes of getting there but thankfully Cadillac came through and within an hour they had us back in our car.

After a family canoe trip, the kids enjoyed going down the super sized slip n slide...



Next it was on to the rope swing for Ty...




And finally a drive by of the camp site the boys and Jack had stayed at for the father/son campout!



We spent another beautiful Saturday going over to Alki beach in west Seattle. It's only about a 10 minute drive from Jack's office in Seattle and although you don't go for the perfect, white sand beaches, it does offer up one of the best views of Seattle we've seen. It was perfect weather and we got a perfect parking spot which makes for an even better day! I had to laugh when I first saw this photo I captured of Sage as she was crawling over to where the boys were digging in the sand. I can assure you we are not prepping her for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition...

Utah: Where summer can always be found!

So it's been a pretty rough winter, spring, and beginning to summer here in the northwest. This made heading to UT for our annual summer vacation very easy to do. The only thing I would change would be having Jack out there longer with us and squeezing in a few more visits with friends!

Here were some of the highlights:

All the cousins LOVE Uncle Paul. So when he was playing in the championship softball series, they all wanted to go and show their support. Congrats to Paul and his team for taking 1st place in the tournament! It was so fun watching you win those last three championship games!!!



Cousin Power! Nothing beats having all the cousins together. This was our first time meeting baby Chaz who is clearly no longer a baby. The kids spent their first few hours together enjoying Teagen's slip n slide!





Sunday shots, minus Jack, Steve, and Paul...




Celebrating Paul's and Teagen's birthday...



Enjoying Provo Canyon and the Moe's cabin at Sundance...





We can always count on plenty of sun and pool time. I decided to enroll Sage in her first round of swim lessons while we were out in UT. I was worried since she was five and had yet to take classes that she'd be the oldest in her class. To our surprise, she was the youngest by a long shot and she did fantastic. Her favorite things to do include floating on her back for as long as someone is willing to count to, doing dives (belly flops), and searching for rubber fish on the bottom of the pool (shallower end). In the meantime, the boys continue to grow in their swimming abilities. Ty now can do great dives and almost has a perfect back flip while Connor still continues to love practicing his laps and would someday like to do swim team!





A big highlight to the trip to UT is going boating. This is Jack's thing and if he's in town for three days you can bet this is how we spend his first day in town. Last year Ty had given the knee board a try and enjoyed it. This year he took it to a new level going over the wake, doing 360's and doing it backwards. He tried out the wake board but decided he'd work on that next year. In the meantime, Connor tried the knee board for the first time and loved it. Sage sticks to the tube for now. It's so fun to watch the boys develop their skills and talents and watch them push each other to do things that the other may be less inclined to try. I know one thing for sure and that is that they all have more guts than I do...









The boys had a blast at the BYU sports camp they attended this year. I'm guessing it had less to do with the actual camp and more to do with the fact that they were doing it with Harrison and Wyatt. Although these boys hadn't seen each other in a year, they immediately became the band of brothers doing everything together and having a blast doing it! They enjoyed afternoons in the pool and going to the movies together. Countdown until next summer...





Seeing Michele! It had been close to ten years since Michele and I had seen each other but how delighted I was when she said she wanted to fly up from Southern Cali. to spend a few days with me. We had a great time catching up and remembering old times. Thanks also to Marsha H., the Merril's, Moe's, Gibson's, Moore's, Kristen H., Jodi W., and Jack's missions President and his wife, the Lee's for sharing some of your time with us. It was so nice seeing all of you! It's always so hard finding time to see all our friends who now live in UT or visit during the summers. For those we missed, we'll look forward to catching you soon!




Finally, here are a couple favorite photos with some of the boys favorite people!



Thanks again mom and dad for a fabulous time! xo