Fall Season Kickoff

Our favorite season is here again!!  We love the smell, the feel, the color, the activities.  This pic is from a drive we took up the canyon at the end of September and it doesn't even convey the bright yellow colors intensely enough.   We are so lucky to live by the breathtaking mountains!  

We loved going to Snowbird at the beginning of the month and spending our annual Petrick family time.  Gage came and introduced his fiancee to all the peeps and Emmalee and Bucky were able to surpise us all with a stay as well.  Blake and Lindsey made it for a few days, as well as Caleb-so the week was represented by each family of the clan!

The Activity Day boys got to volunteer at the Healing Fields by assisting in putting up the flags for the 9/11 memorial there. 

They did such a great job and worked hard in the hot sun.  The camera crew that followed the helpers around seemed to be in our vicinity a lot, so Harrison was sure he would get on the news.  Alas, it only caught Dave and the most shy/unassuming of the fellas- little Cameron.  Harrison was not pleased, but I think he will one day remember it was about the service and not the minute of fame.  Ha! 

Fall sports are always being watched at our house-whether in person or on the tv.  We all get a turn to attend a BYU football game with Dave 

and this month it was Harrison and Katelee that each went. 

Harrison loved his game and Katelee...well...she continues her streak of never watching a good/winning game 

 

The cougs started out strong, but lost it in the end.  Harrison was so upset as we were viewing it at home.  He started yelling, "I blame Katelee!"  And he legit meant it.  She did get to sit by a boy that caught her eye and they stopped at a restaurant that served gluten free crepes prior to the game.  So, I would still call the date a success.   

Super Sevens rec league lacrosse started and Katelee is loving playing with her buddies as we watch beautiful sunsets and time Harrison as he laps the fields over and over.  

With sports and school beginning, so do the fundraisers and shelling out of all the money...I actually won't complain about the Swig cards we buy/sell and the color run at the elementary school is one of this boy's favorite events.  I had to work this time around, so i didn't get to spray the young runners with the chalk.  I didn't miss out on the neon colorful boogers that accompanied that but I really was sad to not see Harrison and the other kids enjoying themselves so much! 

Maybe it is the crisp air, the onset of our familiar and healthy schedules, the routines, the traditions that seem to be prevalent as we get into autumn and holidays, who knows- but it is a time of year we love and we are enjoying all the moments, well...maybe not all the moments- like the ones where we are picking up endless leaves for hours and hours.   But, overall, it is the best!

 

A Decade Dude

August is the month this little bro reached double digits!!!  A whole glorious decade with Harrison Carl McArthur blessing the world with his presence.  But, before that could happen we had a few other things that wrapped up the summer.

We love volunteering for United Way's Stuff the Bus event.  It's a gathering where donated items are 

put out on tables and we assemble backpacks for students/refugees who will need them for the school year.  This year Dave and Grant couldn't come with us.  

But we still stuffed the bus like no one's business.  These were some hard working peeps!  

Harrison had a jazz basketball camp with his friend Tate.  They got to meet one of the Jazz players...whom I should know, but alas, I don't recall who it was.  The Jazz Bear was there to pump them up and now they should play like NBA professionals after two days of hard work, I am sure.  

These Activity Day boys loved getting to have a pool party at our friend's house in the stake.  I tried to talk Harrison into doing his birthday party there, but he opted for a movie night with these

but he opted for a movie night with these turkeys...

It was before school had started for most of the boys.  We took Mason, Paxton, Tate, Gage, Ryler and Cameron to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I mean, I thought they would be thrilled- it is a blast from my past.  The new reboot would be fun, right?  They told me they were not sure if they would like it but after the show- all I heard was how epic it was and some even reviewed with the comments it was the best movie they had ever seen.  So, TMNT blew them out of the park!  

Parties concluded, camps wrapped up, the weather started to cool down and it is time to start school!  Yippee!!  I mean, everyone was excited but sorry to say goodbye to sleeping in.  I totally agree.  Brenna had to finish up some do-able items on her summer bucket list.  So, the day before school, we found some trees she could climb.  

Girlfriend is 13 years old, but I still had to push her bum up when she got scared.  I am not going to suggest this item to check off for next summer!

The first kiddo to kick off the 23-24 school year is our High School Junior Katelee!!  (Technically, I started the school year first since I had to head back to work before the students came...but I didn't take a first day pic) ;) 

Katelee is in her middle year of high school and has a really challenging schedule this year.  She is taking some AP and concurrent classes and jumping into full academia while not missing out on any social events.  She is going to keep her job at Tilly's and plays Sevens for Lacrosse right now.  The high school season doesn't start till the spring with practices beginning winter.  She is so great and we are soaking up all the minutes we can with this cute high schooler.  

The not tree climber extraordinaire, but dancing queen Brenna started 8th grade!  She is officially in the middle of the pits of junior high.  But, she is excelling and currently is afraid of boys, so her focus stays mainly on dance and getting straight A's.  

Harrison started school before his actual birthday, so he began 4th grade as a 9 year old and then just a few days later, he is a decade man.  

He is really excited for his teacher and class this year.  He is very smart but mostly his focus is on recess.  

 

We love celebrating Harrison right as school gets started for the year.  A lot of exciting things are beginning and no one is more thrilling than our Harry boy.  He is an artist/designer always tapping into his creativity.  He asked me to play hangman in church one Sunday recently and when I started guessing incorrect letters, I was confused as an oval was drawn on the bottom then what looked like a rectangular slicer.   It took me a second to put it together so I asked Harrison what was going on and he told me it was a guillotine.  No other child has ever asked me to play guillotine-man.  But as I missed letter by letter, the little man's head was put in a drawn basket.  

Harrison is still into logos and designs- he wanted to decorate the chalkboard for his birthday whishes and you can see it is full of his favorite icons at the moment- Mr Beast, the Rams, Golden State Warriors etc.  All drawn by our favorite bball player.  

He asked for an Olajuwon jersey for his birthday and a BYU cake.  We had to laugh when Dave brought home the cake and we saw how the Costco bakers interpreted the Y request.  The quotes are the best. 

The cake brightened our day just like Harrison always does- you never know what you are going to get!  He is so in tune with people's feelings and spreads joy wherever he goes.  He did ask at dinner one night how many 'swears' he gets a month.  When we jokingly told him one, he, without skipping a beat just blurted out, "hell."   At least he asked permission before he just let a stream of profanity out.  It is going to be a good school year and a great new decade for our caboose!

 

It's Comin in Hot, Hot, Hot

As soon as winter is over, Dave starts lamenting about the heat and wishing for cool weather.  So, when we drag him out into the sunshine, it often ends up like this-the high temperatures just draining the poor guy and him insisting on shade.  This was at the park before the fireworks on the 4th of July.  

Earlier that morning, Brenna and Dave had run the local 5k, so the fatigue from that that probably caught up to him too ;).  Brenna has been saying how badly she wanted to run a race with her dad and of course he was up for it.  The rest of us opted out...and Brenna thinks she will opt out next year.  She did amazingly...for the first couple of minutes and then she did not enjoy it.  

Maybe she will train next time and become a runner- but for now, she is sticking with dance.  

We love 4th of July at our city park and this year was just as great as previous years- food at our house before and then fireworks and games.   Please note Harrison's tattoo right at the base of his neck.  It was displayed perfectly with his hand me down v-neck flag football jersey.

The rest of the month was not short on hot fun!  Harrison had Camp Tracy with the other little turkeys in our activity days group 

as well as the older girls in our primary.  

 

It was a warm, dusty fun morning up the canyon!  The kids canoed, played gaga ball, did archery, a mini rock wall, and shot bb guns.  Harrison's gun malfunctioned so he was not a happy camper.  

But he managed to get over it, eventually and we got a fabulous pic, so we can add that activity to the positive experiences of the day.  The next week Brenna and Katelee had girls camp at Heber Valley.  I had to drop them off and run out of the parking lot without helping them load up because I was feeling FOMO so bad.  It will be the first year in like 6-7 years I didn't get to be involved or go to a camp for the summer (covid we still did a camp day).  They had a great time and came home happy!  

Harrison and I decided to play a bit while they were out and we to see one of my most favorite productions- Newsies.  I am so happy Harrison wanted to go and he even liked it!  a lot!  He is such a fun kid to hang out with.  I always have an audiobook saved to my phone so when I drive in the car alone, I often turn it on.  I plugged in my phone the other day while driving with my pal Harry and the book automatically turned on.  Harrison said, "Ya know mom, I would listen to books with you if you would just lay off the romance and Nazis."  Sorry son, that's all there is in the world!!  hahaha.  We do read books together, so I have expanded my horizons to fantasy and juvenile non-fiction as well.  I am actually surprised he said to lay off the World War II books because he is quite the historian.  One minute he's asking me to look up spiderman and sports facts and then the next minute he legit asks me to look up which countries have "absolute monarchy" or '"fascism"  Thank heavens for Google.  

Brenna and Kate spent a week at Oakcrest.  Katelee never got to go because you know, world wide pandemic.  So, I was thrilled Brenna got to experience this once in a lifetime camp!  

The counselor they were originally assigned ended up having to leave the first day and they scored with the best counselor ever!  This amazing leader had the girls growing and loving and laughing all week.  

Core memories made for our little teenager!  

Brenna has spent her summer at Lagoon over and over again.  That season pass has come in clutch.  Katelee got to go to Lake Powell with her friend Berkeley and Berkeley's family.  She killed the wave surfing and loved every steamy minute down there.  Meanwhile, Harrison and I explored places like Kennecott Copper Mine.  

We did a full family event (minus Grant who did come home for a few weeks from Miami which was a bad experience of selling and moved on to a different company selling pest control in Louisiana).  Dave scored tickets to the Kamas demolitian derby and we had the best time!  No major injuries were observed and the smashing was spot on!  Such a classic small town summer tradition.  

We melted at our minor league baseball game while Grandma McArthur was in town.  We had to split up where we sat- we had a big group of Shannon, Paige, Jason and their kids and Brenna, Harrison, Dave and Catherine.  I had quite the uncomfortable set up with the gentleman behind me, but it gave me a perfect view of Harrison's hat he assembled and insisted on wearing to the game....

The Bees are a training team for the Angels, so it made perfect sense to wear his Angels gear with a Bees mini helmet taped on top.  We loved staying for the fireworks and checked another fun event off our summer bucket list.  

This post should be wrapped up how it began-with an outing that ended up with Dave asleep after lamenting about the heat.  We took Brenna and Harrison to the drive in to see Haunted Mansion.  It was super stuffy, I will agree to that, but it was a great time and fun movie...Dave will have to catch the ending later.  He couldn't quite catch the whole story through the snoring!  Haha

 

Swoon for June

June lived up to his summer hype this year for sure.  Grant decided to make a go at pest control sails and flew out to the Miami heat while we enjoyed a more mild climate...but still nice and warm.  

I am Harrison's Activity Days leader and we planned a 'Dress Like Your Dad' BBQ.  It was so funny to see the boys  matchy matchy with their dads.  

Harrison wanted to be truly D-Mac authentic and wear a yankees hat, even though he despises the yanks.  The collared polo with athletic pants and a hat was spot on.  Some boys/dads were in star wars gear, or tie dye, or a certain color.  It was so fun, especially when we played a game where they had to answer questions about their partner to see how well they knew each other.  These two have a lot of  fun together.  Harrison and I were talking about girls at school and he, with all sincerity, told me he IS kind of a heart throb.  I can totally see it.  It also sounds like something his dad would say- so they are twinning in that way as well as their yankee apparel.  

It was our month to go work at Fill the Pot.  We love that place.  Truly it is run by some of God's angels/hands on earth.  

Toni is one of our most fav people on the planet and keeps us laughing and inspired.  Grant was there helping one day and they happened to be filming so he was spotted on a between general conference program that highlighted their organization.  Grant can also been seen on their website sporting a very fanciful hairnet.  We need to screenshot that before they update the photos because it is stunning.  

Speaking of stunning, Blake and Lindsey are currently residing on a lake house just north of Coeur d'Alene.  They have been saying we should come visit because it is so beautiful and they have all the lakehouse toys we could use.  So, we decided to coordinate with Paige's fam and grandma and grandpa and take them up on the offer.  Sooooo glad we did...

Unfortunately, Dave couldn't join us because it was the end of his fiscal year, so I took Katelee, Brenna and Harrison to the lakeside paradise and slept in their a frame cabin on the property.  It was perfection.  

We kayaked, paddle boarded and canoed to our hearts desires and that was A LOT.  We literally walked out the door and to the dock.  There was a lot of pushing into the lake, chasing/racing each other on the kayaks and riding in Blake's friend's speed boat.  

Caleb still works for the wave runner company and got us all out on the lake riding.  

The last time he had Harrison and Brenna, they tipped- so Harrison was a bit reluctant, but this go was pure success!  Grandpa zoomed through the waves yelling "42" as that was how fast he got going.  These two posers were so adorable for pics that they almost ran into the dock, but hey they got a good photo! 

Brenna and Harrison did some rock jumping into the lake while they waited for their turn to ride and had a blast doing that as well.  We had smores along the lake, had epic Smash Bros tournament that had all the cousins crying laughing, 

some went fishing off the dock, really we just soaked up every minute in that magical place.  We did for sure miss Grant and Dad.

We stayed up super late every night in our little personal cabin and woke up to stunning views and and a couple of smashed frogs for some reason.  Ha!  Saying goodbye was rough, but due to the lack of sleep and playing so hard, some melt downs occured.  I made Brenna and Harrison sing our verison of Happy Family and she felt like Grandpa needed to experience it as well.  I am sure he appreciated it.  

Because I get car-colepsy I had to break up the drive.   Katelee was more than willing to take a turn, but we drove in Dave's company vehicle (plus I wouldn't have wanted her to...shhhhh)  so I was the solo driver.  We almost always plow through long drives when Dave is with us.  We will both drive, him with the majority of the time behind the wheel, but when it's just me- I have to break it up.  So, we had a lovely over night stop in Montana on the way back and ate super yummy food and digested it's goodness and our memories!  It was so great!

The next week Brenna jumped back in to dance training and Katelee and I got to head up to Book of Mormon Youth conference.  I had been released from Young Women's in December, but I was so looking forward to going to youth conference, so my friend Kristen took pity on me and called me as her assistant director.  

The months leading up to the event I helped her with the run throughs of each scene, casting, rehearsing, scouting out the location (luckily she had done it all before).  Right before we went up, I learned I would be the tech guy's assistant as well.  I totally just nodded my way through whatever the technology jargon was but I pressed the buttons like I knew what I was doing...and I didn't ruin youth conf!  Hooray!

I got to be Abish during the character lunch and watch so many cool scenes.  My favorite was Abinadi and Jesus coming.  They were all so fabulous.  It was so fun seeing Katelee there and watching her experience it as well.  The wards were divided into families.  Here was hers...

We made it back home for Dave's birthday!  I gave him tickets to a candlelight Coldplay concert, which was really fun.  Harrison made him this dandy hat...to accentuate his bald spot.  

I mean, we are getting up in age and the results are inevitable.  I am accepting it in stride.  Dave is in denial, but that's a-ok. He is one year closer to his goal of getting to be over 100.  Apparently Harrison is awaiting a developmental goal as well.  He gets dry, itchy skin occasionally.  All of our kids do.  I saw a spot on his face and told him he had a little eczema developing and he excitedly responded with, "oh yea.  What's that? Puberty?"  I had to explain the difference between the skin condition and maturation.  It was a good convo per Harrison discussions.