Spencer's first day of practice

Spencer had his first day of practice today (no pads) and it was a great day for it. Cool and overcast. Spencer (#26) is seen here on defense holding one of the "dummies." Practice lasted for over two and a half hours with the last 15 minutes in running drills. Spencer was pretty sore when it was over, but he did great! Spencer is a lineman and I knew that he would be. He is a solid kid with a size 11 shoe. He is in pretty good shape for a bigger kid. I was impressed with his hustle out there today. I only watched about the last 30 minutes or so and I was pretty proud of him. His coaches were very good and motivated the kids well. It will be a good season for the Jaguars this year I think. On a related note: Jordan was able to get his physical today so he will be playing football for Olathe South starting tomorrow. He is pretty excited to play and will more than likely be a receiver or defensive back. That's my guess anyway. He is in great shape and can run! It will be a fun season for us. Maybe we can get Diana more into football now. Fingers crossed. (photos: Spencer modeling his helmet, listening to the coach, Spencer on defense in gray shorts)

First day of school for Andrew and Chase

This is the first year that Andrew and Chase have had to ride a bus to school because we have always lived very close to the schools. Andrew didn't want his picture taken with the bus but did allow a photo inside the school.
Photos: Chase and his cousin Chyna (Tamara's daughter) getting on the bus in the morning; Andrew, Chase and Chyna arriving at school; Chase in his class; Andrew in his class.

Back to school

(Back: Andrew, Jordan, Spencer; Front: Chase)

This past Thursday Andrew and Chase started school and they were very excited to get there. Andrew is in 5th grade and Chase is in 2nd grade this year. They did pretty good for being the new kids again. They made a lot of new friends, but Andrew had a head start because he participated in a special school chorus before school even started and got to know several kids from there. Chase is a social little guy so he had no problems making new friends. Their school, Briarwood Elementary (Bears) is a very nice school and much smaller than they have been used to so that made it easier for them to make friends too. Spencer is in 8th grade and started school last Friday. His school, Frontier Trail Junior High (Jaguars), is behind Briarwood so he is close to his brothers. Spencer is on the football team and starts practicing tomorrow. He got his equipment last week and is very excited to play. This is his first year of playing football, but he knows the girls like that (greeaatttt). Frontier Trail is a great school too. They have two gymnasiums and a very nice pool. Plus, both of these schools are just down the street from the house. We have been impressed with the schools, including the staff. Jordan got here yesterday from Wichita and started school today. Diana and I took him to his school, Olathe South High School (Falcons), this morning and finished getting him registered. Jordan is a Junior this year and his school has an enrollment of about 1400 students, but was used to about 5000 at Davis High School in Utah. Jordan got enrolled and then just kind of got absorbed into the masses. He acted like he had been there all along. He was so calm and collected! So now everybody is in school and seems to be adjusting just fine. Hopefully they won't have to be the brand new kids again for a long time. They will however be making some changes in the district next year that will affect Andrew and Spencer. Next year the 6th grade will be in the Junior High and 9th grade will be in the High School. They are loving that because it makes them feel older.

The move back to Kansas

My last day of work at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City was Thursday, July 23rd, and as soon as Diana picked me up from the Front Runner station in Clearfield we drove directly to Ogden to get the U-Haul. We got back to the house at around 7:00 pm and immediately started loading the truck. We loaded until about 11:30 that night and it was still pretty hot out even then. Once we stopped we were still up until about 1:00 am and then went to bed. We were back at it the next morning at around 5:00. Once we were finished loading on the 24th we left Utah in the rear view mirror. That day we drove all the way through Wyoming and into part of Nebraska, stopping in Paxton for the night. Wyoming was pretty boring until we got to Laramie and Cheyenne. That was some pretty country. Eleven hours in a U-Haul was not fun, but the weather was great! The day of the 25th was a little better. We finished driving through Nebraska and then drove through parts of Iowa, Missouri and Kansas, crossing the Missouri River twice. We were so glad to see Kansas City at around 8:00 pm because the trip was coming to an end and my butt was asleep! Diana was tired too since she drove the van the entire way with the boys playing musical chairs. Jordan missed out on the action because he had flown to Wichita a couple of days prior to the move to visit family and will join us later this month. Diana and I left behind some great people that we worked with and we miss them a lot (holla') , but it is good to be back in Kansas. (photos: Kansas City, Missouri; Missouri River in Iowa; Spencer, Andrew and Chase in Nebraska; U-Hauling near Laramie, Wyoming)

A work in progress

Well, here is my first attempt at blogging and I hope it actually does what it was intended to do; entertain, inform, enlighten, etc. Diana didn't get the name of this blog at first so, for those of you that don't either.....one of my favorite old Clint Eastwood westerns is "High Plains Drifter" and I thought that had a unique tie in with our recent move back to Kansas. I will tune this site up as I learn more about what I have at my disposal, so please check back from time to time. As soon as I get more time I will document our move for everybody. It was fun!