Vander Linden Musings

Gerritt and Josh are back on the baseball field. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or cereal every night again! Makes dinner planning easy
They’re both loving it. Baseball is in their blood!

Jake will be playing on a FLAG football team instead of REAL football or fall baseball. Yes, his mother is a wimp! I’m worried about concussions with all the recent reports. He’s also practicing his basketball skills. He’s trying to keep his point guard position!

What would these boys do if I didn’t love sports??? OR what would I do if I didn’t love sports??? This is definitely a boy household.

I kept forgetting to upload pics…so the blog waited.

Gerritt is now a fifth grader!!! Oh my goodness we’re getting old! He loves his teacher- though feared that she was mean! It was rumored that she was MEAN!

He even told Jake that Jake’s teacher is mean. Jake feels differently. He loves his 4th grade teacher!

Josh loves his 3rd grade teacher!

It’s a GREAT year!!!

Here are some pics from their first day of school:

We had our annual 1st day of school breakfast at McDonald’s, a day late. Dad was fasting to get blood taken on the Monday school started, and we thought it would be nice of us to let him eat with us Here’s a few pics of them at McD’s…

We finally went camping for real…not in the back yard! We got to go with some friends. The kids seemed to have fun with their kids…it was GREAT!

We drove up to Bountiful, Utah and found some camping areas behind the Bountiful “B”. The drive up is a bit scary! Right off this road is a steep cliff that scares the crud out of me! The boys kind of freak out too. BJ just laughs at us. Here’s a couple of pics from the way up…


SCARY STUFF!!!

Here’s a few pics of us around the campfire…we forgot to get a picture of Dad, he really was there though!!!

It was a fun night up there! The kids were excited to have legal peeing outside since we didn’t have a bathroom near us…or at least we didn’t think we did! As we drove out the next morning we did see a bathroom right down the road!!! Funny times!

We took a couple pics on the way down…

For my first day back at blogging…I’m going to write about feet! Kind of

Gerritt swore that when he was 10 he would be taller than his mother. Not gonna happen! He’s a bit less than 6 inches away However we put our feet together today…

Gerritt's is the barefoot...

His feet are now bigger than mine!!! I have size TEN women’s feet, so for my 5 foot 6 inch frame…I have big feet. If I have big feet, what can his be considered???

He may not reach my height this year, but his pride is immeasurable when it comes to his feet being larger

This year for our vacation, we decided to do a “Staycation”. We stayed home and took in the sights around us.

We took the opportunity to visit Mt. Timpanogos and its incredible cave. The boys were truly impressed with the beauty and wonder of the cave. The hike up is about 1.5 miles, on a paved path. You’d think it wouldn’t be that difficult, but we had to make a few stops along the way. The view was beautiful up on the mountain looking out to the Salt Lake valley. Once we made it into the cave it was about a 30 minute trip through the three separate caves. There are some really incredible views of rock formations within the cave. Some that you can’t see anywhere else in the world.

We visited Antelope Island and the herds of Buffalo and Antelope. The interesting thing about visiting the island is that because of its isolation from the rest of the valley it has remained as the pioneers would have seen when they first entered the valley. There is a ranch on Island that has been around since the mid 1800‘s. It has obviously changed over time, but it was interesting none the less to see all the tools, pictures, and buildings. The boys really seemed to enjoy themselves. We saw a number of buffalo and antelope as well.

Finally, we took an early morning trip out to the Dugway Geode beds. It’s only 95 miles away, but takes almost 3 hours to get there. For the first 40 miles of the trip we were on small highways. However, thereafter we turned onto the old Pony Express route. We left early that morning, around 6:15 AM, so we reached Lookout Pass just as the sun was coming up. We got out of the car for a bit to enjoy the sunrise before continuing on.

When we finally got to the Geode beds we spent the first hour digging in a spot that was void of our treasure. We were getting ready to leave and decided to check the notes that we brought with us. We realized we needed to drive another half mile in from the sign. Once we did that, we found hundreds of these cool rocks. We dug up a number of whole stones up while finding many, many other pieces. It ended up being a very successful trip.

All in all, it was a good week. We spent a lot of time together as a family and created some good memories. It was definitely time worth spending.

Well- my second oldest is eight!  I don’t know how that is possible since I am still 25.  He got to go bowling with Papa, Grandma, Kayla, Sean, Gerritt and Josh on his birthday.  Uggg…. I can’t believe he’s 8!!!

Christmas was great!  After opening presents and eating a big meal, we all went to see Bedtime Stories.  That was a funny movie!   As opposed to the sad movie I really wanted to see- Marley and Me.

Yesterday Jake was baptized.  He and Dad did great!  No toes popping out of the water!  Gerritt and Katija gave the talks on Baptism and the Holy Ghost.  They did awesome!  And in the hustle and bustle I forgot to thank them!

One of these days- I will get pictures of all of these events posted!

Oh- and we are buying a house in the neighborhood we live in!  So excited!!!

So- it’s flag football season.  All three of the boys are playing this year.  Gerritt on one team and Jake and Josh on another.

Gerritt’s team has won both of their games.  He’s been able to play quarterback, running back, and he’s done well blocking.  He scored a touchdown in his first game.

Jake and Josh’s team have also won both.  Jake has scored 2 touchdowns in each game.  He’s doing great.  Because Josh is younger, he plays on the line mostly.  He’s does very well blocking.

They all say they want tackle football next year.  I don’t know if Mom is ready for that.  Maybe Gerritt.  But don’t quote me- I’m a pushover.  If we find a league that allows all of them to play tackle football- I’m sure they’ll be doing it.

It was a fun trip- I’ll just put in a few pics…

Well- they went back to school on Monday.  Actually Gerritt and Jake did- Josh just had an appointment to meet the teacher.  He was very moody all day because of that- so he and I went grocery shopping and met BJ for lunch to cheer him up.

Before school BJ and I took the boys to McDonalds for breakfast to celebrate going back to school.  After MickeyD’s we walked to school…

When I picked the boys up from school- Gerritt came running out screaming “I LOVE my teacher!!!”  So I guess he had a good day.  Jake came out saying, “My teacher is so nice- she will never yell at us!”  So I guess he had a good day too!  Josh came out of school yesterday and said he liked his teacher.  So- so far we’re having a good year!!!

The boys invited friends over to have a last day of school get together.  We’ve decided it will be a tradition.  I decided after spending the afternoon with 6 boys, 8 and under, alone that it will be BJ’s tradition to ask off and participate in the last day of school party!

The boys had a water balloon fight which lasted 2 minutes (I took about 2 hours to get all those balloons filled while they were in school).  Since the water balloons didn’t last long we drove to Arctic Circle to eat some ice cream shakes.  The people who worked there didn’t look very happy when I walked in with 6 boys 8 and under!  Guess I should have tipped them.  Here’s a few pictures of the boys’ get together.