MAY 2009, by Becky

May went by so quickly! Our month was filled with end of school activities, programs, and fieldtrips, soccer, track, music, t-ball, and best of all, FAMILY. Being together or being with any of you is always the highlight! It’s been fun to see Karen, Rachel, and Andrew more often this year – we’re looking forward to the wedding and a chance to see all of you. We hope Rachel is recuperating well! We got to see Teresa and accompany her as she shopped for missionary clothes. She will be such a good (and well dressed) missionary. We also got to see Stuart, Heather, and Emmaline in May – it was a pleasure. We’re so grateful for any chance we have to associate with all of you, and we’re especially grateful that our kids have such great cousins.

We had fun playing and going to the BYU Creamery with Jenny and Chad this week. We also enjoyed seeing Brenda, Alan, Konnie, and kids this weekend. We met them at the Church Museum on Friday (since it was too rainy for the zoo) to experience the children’s exhibit. The kids could’ve stayed there all day, they didn’t want to leave - we had to encourage them away with ANOTHER trip to get ice cream. Isaac ate so much ice cream this week, he said he never wanted to eat ice cream again!

Saturday we met up with them again. They joined us in Heber for a track meet where we had fun watching Natalie and Isaac both run fast! They both placed first in the 100m, Isaac’s 4x100 relay team got 1st and Natalie got 1st in the standing long jump. After the track meet, the three older kids and Bjorn were scheduled to play their instruments at the Utah Outdoor Adventure Expo at the Utah State Fairpark. They did a really great job, and we were glad their Grandma and Grandpa Pendleton were there to listen, since there weren’t a lot of other people there. But, it was a great chance for the kids to experience playing with a sound system, since they’ll have a few other opportunities to perform this summer.

We spent the rest of the day at the Expo and had a great time! The kids were able to try out some kayaks, some 4 wheelers, mountain bikes, and scooters that sway back and forth. They also had a giant slide that the kids went down over and over. Miriam was so tired from walking around the fair, that she said she couldn’t take another step, but when we got to the slide, she ran up the stairs 4-5 times to go down. We also watched a dog jumping contest, where the dogs jumped into a pool of water. The dogs could jump twice as far as the people we watched in the track meet that morning.

Ellie didn’t want to go down the slide, or ride in the kayak or the 4-wheeler, but she almost mastered the little scooter that they had at the Expo, and she did a great job of climbing every fence she could find, in her flip flops, even though I told her a thousand times not to climb the fences. The other day Ellie looked outside and said, “Daddy’s washing the grass!”. She continues to make us all smile everyday! We all ran a mile in the school fun run a few weeks ago, even Ellie! We feel like we don’t have a baby anymore!

Miriam learned how to ride her bike this month, for one day. She hasn’t been willing to try again since, but she did great that day! She got her first loose tooth and is eagerly awaiting the day it’s loose enough to come out. It was great fun to watch her come down the big slide at the expo, with squeals of delight. The second she came down, she’d jump up and yell “Again!”

Enoch also learned how to ride his bike! He hasn’t ever in his life had a desire to ride a bike, even with training wheels. Since he’s 6 years old and should be able to ride a bike, I bribed him with candy! I told him if he’d just get on the bike and try to ride it, I would give him the candy. He hesitantly got on and started pedaling, and after maybe 5 seconds, I let go and he took off! He hasn’t wanted to get off since. He’s also having a lot of fun in T-ball this year!

Natalie qualified to run in the district track meet next week in the 50 meter race. She seems to really be enjoying track and, as I mentioned, took first place in her meet yesterday in the 100m, and the standing long jump. She has said she would choose track over Irish Dance if she had to choose! I love to watch her dance AND run – I don’t know which I would choose!

Isaac also qualified to run in the district meet with his 4X100 relay team. He has made some friends in track and really enjoys being a part of it. He’s done really well in the long jumps, relays, and 100m this year. Isaac learned how to do a back flip a few days ago! So far this summer, if he’s awake and not reading, he seems to be on the trampoline. Our neighbors also have a trampoline and both tramps are scooted to the fence, so the kids jump from tramp to tramp over the fence.

Auriana finished 7th grade strong! She joined the National Junior Honor’s Society and received the “Director’s Award” in orchestra for being the student who is always doing what she’s supposed to be doing. She also made the symphonic orchestra for next year, so she’ll be doing that along with show choir. With one field trip to a swimming pool and another to Boondocks, she really enjoyed the last few weeks of school.

Bjorn gets to be the fill-in choir director for the next few months! He is also doing a great job leading the Pendleton Family Band. It was so much fun watching their performance on stage. The lady in charge was so impressed and said it brought tears to her eyes to see a family playing wholesome music together. Even though the kids dreaded it, they seemed to really enjoy it and were glad they did it! Next week they’ll be performing on the steps of the Springville Art Museum, and in July they will perform at Colonial Days, which is part of the Provo Freedom Festival.