November

November started with YW in Excellence for Megan and me - it was lots of fun! We did an Olympics theme and all the girls got to compete in an event that represented the value they had chosen. Megan chose to highlight her Knowledge value project which is why she is dressed all in green.

Megan has been having a great time in her sewing class this semester. Here she is modeling the sweatshirt she made and showing off her quilt. I love that she loves sewing since she helped me sew a bunch of pillows for Christmas this year!

Devin was busy with scouts and karate, where he tested for and earned his Han Ban Bu belt - his next test will be for his black belt!

Seth did swimming lessons and cub scouts, which he absolutely loves. He earned his wolf badge in October, but because the cubmaster forgot in Nov and they didn't have a December pack meeting, he will get his badge in January. He doesn't really care, he just loves going to den meeting each week!

Autumn has kept us all smiling with her non-stop singing - during November she was singing all the songs she and her kindergarten class performed for their Thanksgiving program, which was a play where they reinacted the Mayflower voyage (even praying on the "ship" - you have to love living in Utah sometimes!) and then told about what happened with the Indians once they got to America. Autumn was a little songbird during the play - she definitely loves being on stage and it's funny to watch!

We loved having Grandma and Grandpa Ririe and Grandpa Finch here for a while at the end of November!! The kids especially had fun making gingerbread houses with Grandma and having a huge Thanksgiving feast at Jeff's house - yummy! It was fun to have guests in our new basement guest room - any of you are welcome to come try it out for yourselves!

We spent the rest of the month finishing little details in the basement and getting it furnished, although our furniture seems to have been cursed - our couch that was supposed to be here November 30 is only 2/3 here, the ottoman we ordered got lost in transit somewhere and still hasn't arrived, the screen we ordered for the projector arrived dented, so we had to send that back and are waiting for a replacement, and I managed to put a HUGE (25" X 15" according to Bryce, who is in the middle of repairing it) hole in the drywall at the bottom of the stairs with our new beanbag chair. I am sure it will all eventually get here - maybe in time to be considered a Christmas present!

October

October was beautiful around here - sunny and warm and we sure enjoyed it!

Autumn celebrated her 6th birthday by taking the family to "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" - very definitely very Autumn, but we all had fun. Here she is showing off the outfit grandma and grandpa Ririe sent for her birthday. She also enjoyed a couple of new barbies and the new barbie movie and enjoyed shopping with the money her Grandpa Finch and Grandma Jan sent. It was a fun day!

Devin had another karate tournament where his SWAT team again took 1st place against 10 other schools - it was pretty exciting and Devin is getting fast with his nunchucks!

Seth played a whole lot of flag football and had a fun time, most of the time playing as a running back (he's a quick little runner and good at finding holes) and playing some on defense as well. Bryce helped out as an assistant coach and as always, loved being involved!

We did the usual fall things like spending a day at Cornbelly's where Megan successfully navigated all of us through the corn maze, decorating pumpkins, driving through the canyon to see the gorgeous fall colors, and raking and jumping in the leaves - I'm not sure if we ever got them raked up or if they just eventually all blew into the neighbor's yard, but the kids had a great time anyway.

We had a great Halloween - the weather was so warm that the kids didn't even need long sleeves when they were out trick or treating and we enjoyed a fun neighborhood party that evening as well. Megan dressed as a BYU fan (probably since most of our month was spent watching BYU football anyway), Devin as a dragon trainer, Seth as a BYU football player, and Autumn as Tinkerbell. It was a fun night!

The big news for the month is that all of the major work is done on our basement and we got carpet installed just in time for Megan to host a Halloween party with a bunch of her friends. We still don't have furniture, although Bryce has his projector up and running and is still hoping the couch we ordered will be here for the BYU - Utah game (it's not looking good - for the couch being here, I mean.) We are also working on digging our way out of the storage room where we have been dumping everything during this project - that will be our next major project! Anyway, I haven't taken any pictures yet, so I guess you will just have to come out and see it for yourself - Bryce is quite the builder -who knew?!

September 2008

Is it really October already? September went by in a whirlwind - we were so busy, I couldn't even stop to take pictures, so I don't really have any this month. We have been enjoying gorgeous fall weather and it still feels like summer here, but I'm sure the snow will come all too quickly!!

The kids are all doing well in school and we have settled back into that routine. Devin, Seth and Autumn all participated in their school's "Hawk Walk" to raise money for the school while getting a little exercise in the process - they all did great!

Megan is loving 9th grade, especially seminary, honors English (never thought I'd say that - Megan has always preferred math to english), and Spanish. She still likes math (she's in Algebra II this year), but she misses her amazing teacher from the past 2 years. She is also keeping busy with young women's, piano lessons and helping out a ton at home - don't know what I'd do without her!

Devin is still busy in karate and this month tried out for and made his school's SWAT team for another year, which he is excited about. He is also really enjoying 11 year old scouts and got to go on his first campout with Bryce early in the month - they had a great time and Devin came home with some fun experiences and great songs to share with the rest of us! Devin also went on an overnight fieldtrip to Clear Creek and had a lot of fun doing science experiments, learning more about the outdoors and staying overnight in a cabin full of 6th grade boys!

Seth has been working hard in the third grade and doing great! He started swimming lessons this month with Autumn and they both like that. He also started flag football in the middle of the month and has been doing great! His coach is awesome and very disciplined and Seth is learning a ton. He is a great little running back - very quick on his feet and has already scored 2 touchdowns, and we've only had 2 games. He has been lots of fun to watch!

Autumn has struggled a little adjusting to kindergarten, much to my surprise! I'm actually a little flattered that she misses being at home with me, but she is definitely doing better. She loves school and has lots of friends already. She is still loving dance and loves, loves to play with her friends. There are 2 girls that are daughters of the ladies in the YW presidency with me that are a year younger than her, and Autumn loves to "play" with them during presidency meeting(mostly tell them what to do and have them hang on her every word) - it's pretty funny. She also continues to play soccer, though she's not loving it as much this year as she did last year. She's still a great little cheerleader for the team, though.

Bryce celebrated his birthday this month, and he and I took an overnight trip to Midway and enjoyed the beautiful fall colors in the mountains - it was great! We have also enjoyed a whole lot of really great BYU football so far this season - it's our favorite time of year! Bryce also took two days and went to Zion's with a group of friends to hike The Subway - a grueling 14 mile hike through some gorgeous scenery. Bryce can brag that he was the only guy not sore on Sunday that week - what a stud!

I have been busy trying to get my feet under me in young women's -it's a lot of fun! I also got to participate in the RS General Broadcast choir which was such a life -changing experience, really. It was time consuming with 3 hour practices every Sunday and 2 rehearsals at the conference center on Saturdays, but so worth it. I actually missed going to rehearsal last Sunday and seeing all my choir friends - a little withdrawl, I guess!

I forgot to post it on our last month's blog, but there is a website where you can watch the project Devin's class did last year that included our family if you want. There are 3 different versions you can watch - one is just a brief overview, one is medium length (about 25 minutes, I think) and then the last one is the full length version, which is about 45 minutes. Just thought I'd let you know. Here's the website - http://amenat.com/clients/legacyfoundation/

July and August

I am just going to give up on doing a separate blog for July and just cram the rest of our summer together.

July was crazy fun around here! Devin went to Sparring camp at his karate school and learned all kinds of new skills - his favorite is the volcano kick, which he is still working on perfecting. He also went to Space Camp with his cousin Trevor, a three day overnight camp with all sorts of space missions in simulators and fun activities. He had a great time!

Megan went to her first EFY with her cousin, Bethani, down at BYU and had an amazing time! She already can't wait for EFY next year. I don't think she got much sleep, but she had a great time making new friends and going to all sorts of classes and activities. We missed her, but I don't think she missed us much - too busy and too much fun!

We also did our annual hike through Timp Caves and had a great time, as always. The kids all love this annual tradition and all have their favorite parts of the cave - it's fun to go each year.

Of course, by far the highlight of the month (and August, too) was our Ririe family cruise to Alaska - it was amazing! The kids all had a great time on the ship with plenty of food and ice cream and hanging out with cousins or playing at Club HAL, and our time spent in Alaska was so much fun! Some of our highlights are:

• Visiting the sled dog training camp in Juneau (on Devin's 11th birthday - Happy Birthday, Devin!), getting pulled by sled dogs, learning about the Ididerod, and playing with the husky puppies (Seth said that if he could rank the days of his life, this would be #1!)

• Going to the Lumberjack show in Ketchikan - Autumn loved being part of the show!


• All the totem poles in Sitka - I think we have a picture of every single one


• Cruising through Glacier Bay - too amazing and beautiful for words


• Of course, spending time with family - it made the trip so much more fun to be together!

We will never forget our fun, fun time in Alaska - thanks again Grandma and Grandpa Ririe!

After our cruise, we spent a few days in Seattle with Michelle's dad and had a great time at the air and space museum. Seth and Devin especially loved the flight simulator, especially going upside down, Megan wasn't so sure, and Autumn was absolutely positive she never wanted to do it again!

For the rest of August, Megan went to Girls Camp and had an amazing time, Michelle did her second (and final) pack meeting as Cubmaster and then found out 4 days later that she is the new YW president in the ward, much to her absolute shock and Megan's absolute delight. It will be a fun adventure, I am sure - the 42 young women in our ward are sure to keep our whole family busy for the next few years!

The kids all started back to school on August 18 and we have settled back into a school schedule much sooner than we wanted to. Megan is loving 9th grade, Devin loves his 6th grade teacher and being big man on campus, Seth is tolerating being back in school and is enjoying 3rd grade and Autumn says that being in kindergarten is the "most fun ever!" Hard to believe that another school year has started already - where does the time go?

Summer Fun in June

June was a wild ride at our house, but we've been having a great time! Devin has been busy with swim team and having a great time - his freestyle has improved tons since last summer. He loves going to the pool every day and it's a great way to keep him busy.

Seth and Devin also took a Fishing class through the AF recreation department and had a great time with that, too. Seth caught a rainbow trout at the first class, came home and insisted that we cook it right then and then ate the entire thing almost completely on his own! He also caught a catfish, which he also loved. Devin wasn't as lucky, but did catch a small fish on the last class day, and then had to throw it back. As you can tell from the picture, Devin doesn't like fish much anyway, so wasn't too disappointed when he didn't catch some.

We took a fun camping trip to Bryce Canyon with Grandma and Grandpa joining us for the last couple of days. It was beautiful scenery and we ate lots of good food and had a good time hiking, too. Bryce was just happy to have the kids finally see his namesake up close!

Michelle and the boys kept busy with Cub scouts - Michelle pulled off her first pack meeting and then the three of them all went to Day camp together, which was fun. This is Devin's last year of day camp as he is about to graduate to 11 year old scouts at the end of July.

Megan and Seth both took a week long tennis camp and both loved it - they want to take tennis lessons now and we are having a hard time finding lessons that don't require taking out a mortgage to join a tennis club. We'll see what we come up with.

Autumn shined on stage at her dance recital! She performed in two dances - "Surfin' USA" and "Rainbow Connection". Autumn loved being on the stage with all the lights and especially loved the make-up she got to wear for the performance. She now thinks she needs to wear it every day, but she'll have to make do with chapstick for the next few years - I swear that child was born a teenager!

We flew out of Salt Lake on Megan's 14th birthday for a 10 day trip to Chicago to visit Michelle's sister and family. Megan was so excited to fly on her birthday, and Michelle made sure to have the entire plane sing "Happy Birthday" to her, with Megan grinning the entire time. Our trip was awesome and over way too quick - some of our favorite things we did are going to a Cubs game (would have been way more fun if the Cubs hadn't lost 11-2), going on a nighttime fireworks speedboat cruise on Lake Michigan (sooooo fun!), going to Six Flags (Bryce and Michelle only lasted through 2 roller coasters before joining Seth and Autumn on the more mild rides), going to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, going to the Jelly Belly warehouse in Wisconsin (Megan then ate an entire 2 pound bag of Belly Flops by herself before we came home), going to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Taste of Chicago without the kids, eating Chicago style stuffed pizza, and seeing fireflies.

We have also been busy in the basement in our spare time. The drywall and mudding and taping got done (and we are still covered in a thin layer of dust), and we have finished painting (after doing 5 coats of paint in the huge main room - just a testament to how much Bryce loves his wife!) We are now busy installing doors, cabinets, shelves and trim, and can't wait for this project to be done!!!

May festivities

May started with Seth's 8th birthday on May 5 and we celebrated by going as a family (minus Bryce - work can be such a pain!) to Jump On It! and had a great time jumping all over the place. It took nearly an hour, but Michelle finally mastered jumping off the trampoline on the wall to the one on the ground without landing on her face - it was a proud moment!

We had lots of soccer games for Seth and Autumn and they both improved lots this season. Autumn was having a great time towards the end of the season scoring goals and keeping up with all the boys on her team, but when we asked her if she wanted to play again next year, she said no because it's "too much running for a girl". She has since changed her mind and we look forward to another great year of soccer for her next year.

Michelle got to celebrate Mother's Day by having Autumn wake her up by saying "Mom! It's raining in the family room!" Sure enough, the kids bathroom had flooded and water was pouring out of the ceiling downstairs. Lucky for us, we were just about to the drywall stage in the basement and have had the drywall guys fix the holes in our ceiling at the same time. All's well that ends well, right?

Megan had her final choir concert for the year, which left her sad that she decided not to take choir next year, but she just didn't have the time in her schedule since she had to add seminary for next year. She also played a song in Sacrament Meeting that was very challenging for her (many months of practice and many tears during practice), and she did an amazing job! All that hard work definitely paid off!

We had our final filming night for Devin's class project with all the families from the class and after the filming was finished, they let us watch the part they have done and edited and it looks pretty good. It's never fun to see your face on a huge projection screen, but Devin was happy with how it has turned out so far, so I guess it's worth it.

Devin and Seth also performed in their school's musical extravaganza with Seth's grade performing songs from "The Sound of Music" and Devin's grade doing songs from "Wicked" - it was lots of fun to watch and they both did great!

Autumn graduated from preschool (much to Michelle's disappointment - why do they keep getting older?) and was so much fun to watch! She is definitely an enthusiastic little performer and kept us all in stitches watching her - it was a delight!

The kids all finished school on May 30 - now we are all looking forward to an awesome summer vacation!!

Of course, the culminating event for the month was Seth's baptism on May 31. It was a wonderful day! Seth's smile coming up out of the water was priceless and the day spent with family was awesome! Definitely no better way to end a month!! See you all next time!

April at our house

Is April over already?! It seems like we are still stuck in winter - May 1st and there is snow falling outside. We are wondering if spring will ever come!!

We had a great month! It started off with Devin and Seth both designing and building cars to race at the Pinewood Derby. Seth's only stipulation was that it had to be shaped like a Y and painted blue. Devin got a little fancier and even added a driver to his car this year. Both boy's cars raced well - Seth's Y car didn't lose a race until the semi-finals and Devin never finished lower than 2nd place in the races he ran. We all had a lot of fun! Pack meetings promise to be even more fun in the future with Michelle's new calling as Cub master (didn't know a girl could do that, did you? Neither did she!) Should be fun!

We had a fun Spring Break camping down in Zion National Park - lots of hiking, playing in the Virgin River (right next to our campsite) and enjoying skits put on by the kids each night at the campground ampitheater. We most enjoyed being warm for a few days since we came home to yet another snowstorm and had to set up the camper in the garage to unpack it. Sasha came with us and enjoyed playing at the Doggy Dude Ranch while we were hiking in the park and rolling around in the dirt the rest of the time - she came home one very brown black lab!

Bryce and Michelle ran the Salt Lake 1/2 marathon this month. It was a windy day and we were both pretty much done by about mile 10, but managed to keep running to the finish line. Bryce wonders why Michelle keeps signing him up for these things.

Devin tested for his Chan Ban Bu belt in karate and survived the 2 hour test well enough to earn his belt - he is now only one belt away from being a black belt! His test was really intense and we are all impressed with how much he is progressing lately. He also had a karate tournament this month where his SWAT team took 1st place out of 7 schools competing - they've been working really hard this year!

Seth and Autumn both had several soccer games, all of them in freezing cold, windy weather. At least they always enjoy the hot chocolate after the game!

Devin also had a piano recital and did a great job! He's excited to have some time to play "fun music" for a while now. Megan wasn't able to perform in the recital because she had a musical performance that night.

The highlight of the month has been after months of long practices, Megan finally starting her performances of "Seussical". Despite a little mishap during the first performance when the who dancing right next to Megan fell through the set and broke her ankle bad enough to require surgery, Megan has been having the time of her life and is already counting down to next year's musical. We took the whole family to see her on Tuesday night and she did a great job - it's a great production for a Junior high and was lots of fun to watch! She has 3 more performances this week and then we look forward to seeing her around the house more often.

March at the Highland Riries

March was a busy, and mostly cold and snowy month at our house - we are all ready for Spring!!

Megan is keeping busy with play practices - she is at school now every day at least until 5:30, but never complains as she loves getting ready to play a "who" at the end of April in Seussical the Musical - we can't wait to see all her hard work!

Devin kept very busy this month with extra karate practices getting ready for his SWAT team's performance at a Jazz game this month. He did a great job at the game and is now busy getting ready for his karate tournament later this month.

Seth started back at soccer and is having a great time being back on the field. Both of his games in March were freezing cold and windy, but he still manages to have a good time.

Autumn has also started back with soccer and was thrilled to find out that another girl was added to her team this spring, so she is no longer the only girl on her team. She is also having a lot of fun in dance and preschool, and hates being called "baby".

We all had a good time getting ready for and enjoying Easter. Seth was actually really sick on Easter Sunday, but had a good time decorating eggs anyway.

Devin and Seth had fun with their school's crazy hair day - I think their scalps were green for at least a week!

We have all been going to Sasha school this month so we can be trained on how to train her - it has been an adventure. She is definitely becoming more well mannered and can sit, lay and stay on command and she also knows "drop it", "leave it", and "take it", but she's not so great at come or down. She is a great running companion for Michelle and Bryce and has made it to 10 miles without being the least bit tired - we're starting to wonder what it will take to wear her out.

Michelle spent a Saturday installing an underground fence and Sasha is pretty good about staying in our yard, but she is sometimes willing to just take the shock (or "static reminder", as it says on the box of the underground fence), so we have to keep a good eye on her still.

Bryce is still keeping busy in the confines of the basement and he has finally finished all the framing, electrical, plumbing and duct work - hooray!

You'll have to tune in next month to see what happened at our pinewood derby, since both Seth and Devin get to compete - blog you then!!

Februrary 2008

Well here goes, thanks Tami for moving us into the 21st Century.

Februray had a major change for for the Highland Ririe's. We have added to our family once again, this time with an eternal toddler. We made a trip to the Humane Society and came home with Sasha. She has consumed our family ever since. We have had a lot of fun with her, but she is also a lot of work.

Sasha is a black Lab "mix", mixed with what only heaven knows, they told us at the Humane Society that she was about 11 months and probably full grown, wich was great, because she is smaller than a full grown lab. Michelle took her to the Vet and they said she is probably about 7 months and has more to grow. Bummer. She is a very cute dog and is already potty trained, so that is a major bonus of not starting with a puppy. We have spent much of the month training her to sit, lay, and stay and not pull us around as we walk around the neighborhood. Some things with success and others not.

She acutually gets along with Cookie which was a big supprise since Cookie doesn't get along with much of anyone or thing.

Autumn had influenza again, despite having the flu shot this year, it is never fun being sick and she missed being able to go to school. She also had a bad reaction to some imunizations. She is very excited about now being registered for kindergarden next year and looking forward to riding the bus. Since she is already reading above a 1st grade level, it will be interesting to see what she finds to do.

Megan has started practices for Susical the Musical and is having a lot of fun. It looks to be a fun play and she is having fun with the songs and dance.

Devin's school class is helping with a documentary that is being filmed and the teacher asked that Devin's family also be filmed, so now we have a film crew in our home every other week for 4 times. It is a pain, but Devin loves being the star of the show since they focus on him in class and at home since he is one of only a few students being filmed at home and in class.

Michelle spent the month going to (and I quote) "a billion ward conferences" with here stake primary calling.

I spent most of my month confined to the basement. The electrical is now "mostly" done as I just have a few more parts to finish.

It was very cold and we got lots more snow. We are very ready for spring.