More of Yuki's Wagon Ho day

 Here's her teacher.

 Here she is with one of her BFF's Caleb.

 Nice face.

 Girls against boys. Go Yuki.

 Turns out they lost.

Sole kids 5k run

So the kids joined the 'Sole running club' at school. They sent out a notice and I figured it might be something they could do to keep their fitness up. Yuki was doing soccer and the other two were just doing soccer in a neighbourhood club and this running club was after school Tues/Thurs till 4:30pm which meant a little extra time for me and some fitness time for the kids.

They learned how to run and stretch and worked towards this 5k race yesterday.

Emiko didn't even want to go. She told us she's a walker and would rather go to soccer.

Once she found out that Dad was going to run with the kids though, she changed her tune and wanted to be with Dad. So she decided to go.

Here she is at the beginning of the race with Masaru. I told Masaru that he was, in fact, coming to support his siblings and he was, in fact, going to run with his little sister. 

There were a few grumbles but he did it and I'm pretty sure this kid had a great time doing it. It's good for him.

The day was beautiful and crisp and perfect. We were all up and ready to head out at 8am so bright and early for a Saturday and arrived with plenty of time to meet out mates and get our numbers and stretch for the race.

Yuki came in first out of the kids. She looked tired and when I asked her how she felt she said sick. I think she put her whole heart into it and it turned out to be amazing cause she came in first out of all of the girls in the race. How awesome is that. She totally won the thing. Is there anything this girl can't do?

Now Takeshi had stiff competition. There were some fast third grade boys out there. He did amazing and got 9th out of his age group and he was pretty quick. He told me he only stopped once. Pretty awesome for a little tyke. 
Emiko came in third last and STILL came away with a trophy. She had the opposite problem as Takeshi and was basically one of three girl kindergarten kids doing the race.  She had a positive attitude though and when she was finished wanted something to eat and felt fine. This tells me she was in cruise control hahahaha
Masaru did a wonderful job running with her and trying to push her. She's pretty cute. We'll see if her love, or lack of love, for running changes when she gets a little older.

They each got a medal and they had drinks and snacks for the kids. It was pretty well organized.

I love this shot of the kids.

So here's Emiko getting her 2nd place trophy for K kids.

Here's Yuki getting her first place overall in the girls.

Yuki came in 19th overall. There's some fast boys alright.

Takeshi came in 9th and 29th out of all the boys and 37th overall.

Close up of Yuki with her trophy. It's a bobble head. Pretty funny. She's so beautiful.

Here's Emiko with her trophy. Takeshi was fine with his run until Emiko got a trophy and was like "What the crap" Poor Takeshi. I agree Takeshi, Emiko's trophy was a bit of a stretch. But whatever man, she was loving it and maybe this will help her continue to try new things that she doesn't really like.

The kids had a great time with their friends and at the race.
We came home and had a great Saturday full of chores and good times.
Dru and I had a Halloween party at the Zipps place later on that night and this is what we dressed up as.
Dru's mother helped me make this outfit a decade ago and so I whipped it out and wore it again. Maybe I'll whip it out when I turn 50 to use again hahahahaha
Dru was wolverine. Hey man if you make those claws you gotta use them right?
It was a fun night.

Released

So last Sunday I was released from my Young Women's calling in church. 

It'd been almost 3 years and as much as I wanted to stay in it, it was time to go. 

Not because of the girls, but because of the leaders. Most of them were done and over it and I have to listen to that you know.

Plus I had the most hardest time of my entire life working with my first counselor. I've never worked with anyone as difficult as her and it took years off of my life!!

As much as I loved the girls I had to listen to the feelings of my leaders and allow us all to be released. It broke my heart to leave the girls. I love them.

I knew it was going to happen for a long while. I'd say about 4-6 weeks. 

Dru was excited to have me back and to not have to listen to me venting probably hahahaha

So during the time I knew it was going to happen, I just enjoyed the girls. It was really nice. I had fun with them and soaked up all of their goodness for a while longer before I had to let go last Sunday.

I hadn't cried about it hardly at all. I'd gotten teary, but nothing bad. When I was teaching one of my last lessons I broke down. I'm sure the girls were wondering what on earth was wrong with me. I'll just miss being around them and I'll miss teaching them. I love teaching.

I figured I was ok until they announced my release last Sunday. I sat back there and held it together for a while and then it was too much for me and I had to dart outside. I lost it. I walked down the path and cried and cried and cried. I sat in the gutter at the edge of the pathway and cried and cried some more. 

I then finished, walked back in and talked to everyone from the pulpit. I think I did ok and left talking about the girls until the end of my talk cause I knew I would lose it.

I chose, on purpose, not to wear make up that day, due to knowing I was going to cry a lot. I related my leadership to a 'no make up' kind of leadership and how I was real and hoped the girls knew they could be real too. 

Later on that night we had what's called 'Young Women's in excellence'. This is where the girls bring things they're proud of from that year within the programme they do in the young women's programme. 

It was a good final night with the girls and an opportunity to celebrate them, us and each other. I said one final goodbye to them and we all had a great night.

There were many tears shed and sad feelings, but the new Presidency that have been called are a solid group of women who are going to work wonders with those girls.

I'm super excited for the girls and feel nothing but peace about it all.

I had to know that the girls were going to be loved and looked after and they will.

A lot of the leaders are the girls mothers, so that is exciting for the mothers and the girls I'm sure.

I knew who the new President was going to be for a couple of weeks before and so her and I were talking and talking about the changes and leadership.

She'll be wonderful.

In a way it's a HUGE relief to be released so I don't have to deal with all the meetings, text messages, emails, questions and the list goes on...........

I'll just miss the girls and it hurts my heart. 

Oh well. I couldn't be in it forever right? I had to be released at some stage.

I asked the bishop not to call me into anything until I've gotten back from NZ in January. Maybe he'll forget about me and I'll be put nowhere for a while.

For now I'm going to sub at church, wherever anyone needs me.

This Sunday I'm doing my old calling and teaching music to the primary kids. I was also asked to sub in nursery but already said yes to the music calling. I'm sure I'll be used for the few weeks I'm in town until the NZ trip and I'm happy to do it.

Bishop said "You'll be able to go to Relief Society now" To which I replied "Not if I'm subbing the whole time" He laughed.

I haven't been to relief society in almost 7 years I think which is fine.

So onwards and upwards now into a new beginning and ending for me. I'm excited to have time off, see the girls and get hugs, and see what new calling I'll be in. Hopefully something with no meetings.

Here's Dru in the middle of making Takeshi's halloween costume.

Hats off to Dru man. That man has been working hard to get the kids costumes all done. He's such a great father for doing that and he's excited to do it.

He was sewing all yesterday after working in the yard and almost has Takeshi's costume done. 

I'm mountain biking in this amazing weather we're having at the moment. What beautiful, perfect days we've been having and I love, love it.

Takeshi went to his buddy, Hank's bday party the other day. Jobecka said he was talking so much he didn't get to eat much of his pizza. His teacher also sent home a note saying Takeshi had to be talked to about talking to much.

This kid loves to talk man. He talks on the uphill mountain biking, he talks in his sleep, he talks while playing soccer, he talks all the time. You'd think it'd end, but it doesn't. He's a talker, just like his mother.

Meridian Temple trip

We meet Koko and her best friend that was in town out at the chapel close to the Meridian Temple Open House. They were interested in seeing the new Temple and Dru booked us an appointment to go on the Saturday it was open.

It was a busy morning as we had soccer all morning then a quick turn around to get dressed and head out here to meet Koko.

Her best friend had a really cute daughter that the kids loved and played with the whole time. It was pretty neat.

The temple has a Mayan south american kinda of feel to it and is beautiful. We answered all of their questions as we went through and saw everything. It's really beautiful and I'm excited to go in it again.

They took us from the carpark in a bus to the temple. It was all very well organized and impressive.

We got these pictures outside afterwards.

Yuki refused to wear a dress so wore jeans and a nice top. She only does dresses on Sundays I think.

We had a really good time together and it was wonderful to be able to see the temple together as well.
I'm glad we went.
We then went home and got ready to have friends over for dinner.
It was a busy but really nice day.

Latest happenings in the Nakaya world

Just a hairstyle I did in Emiko's hair. I'm pretty sure this lasted about 5 days. Talk about awesomeness.

Yuki self portrait that we had handed into us. Pretty awesome. I LOVE Yuki's teacher. She is one great woman and Yuki is having such a fantastic year. I love it.

Yuki's class had what's called a 'Wagon's ho' and I'm not sure what that means but the kids had a blast. They all learned about the old pioneer days and how they lived and even had a real campfire going. Here's some shots my mate Shannon sent me as I wasn't there.

Trying roping.









Cool right?

Then Emiko and I started the book 'The Twits' by Roald Dahl.  What a great book and such a classic. I almost threw up when I was reading this part about Mr Twit's beard though. So gross.

I'm playing mop wars with my floor and finally mopped it. I hate it man and wrote this up on instagram about it:
"This is my kitchen floor. I used to mop it once a week but then I started "slacking" and filling my life up with other stuff. It never goes away, however, and is always around letting me know it still needs to be mopped. I think out of all the chores I have in life, mopping the floor is my hardest. I don't know why, we all have our most hardest chore I'm sure, and it's all different. This is mine. I think it's been 2-3 weeks, maybe and today I mopped it, and it feels good. But I know it'll only last about 10 mins till the kids get home and it'll be smiling at me again and showing me it's messes.  I often ask myself "why bother" but then realize it's because I like a clean house. I'm way better at letting things go, saying no when I can't do things and yes when I can. I think it comes with age and perspective really. But Yuki said it best when I was cleaning the kitchen and saying how I can never keep it clean, she said "Mum, this is where we do everything, homework, eat, read scriptures, dance, talk and cook, it'll never be clean" In that moment I realized, again, how awesome Yuki is and how right she is too. I'm grateful for the hussel and bussel of life, for the talks, dinners, dances, books and teaching that goes on in this room and I'm grateful that every now and then, even if it's further between now, for a mopped floor that teaches me to do things I hate cause there's a reward at the end."

Some work Takeshi brought home with him. I loved this picture because it's his favourite pizza and, unlike most kids, has actual real ingredients on it. I love that Takeshi loves good food so much. He's lucky too cause he's got no body fat on him and so can eat whatever he wants with very little consequences.

Isn't this cute? I love his answers.

Then this is part of a class puzzel that Takeshi added to the class about himself. He said he likes mountain biking as well as his remote control car and food and hiking mountains as well as snowboarding (which he's never done) he also put wakeboarding and then drew a picture of us. Pretty awesome I'd say.

Playing catch up

We played touch rugby last week with the missionaries. The taller Elder used to play back in his home town so he was keen to come and play in the back yard.



Masaru got his braces looked at and his dentist or the helper or whoever thought that this sticking out wire was a good idea. Masaru came home and was complaining about it for a while and rightly so. So Dru got his pliers out and snipped that bad boy down so it was a decent size. He was really happy. Dad's a hero.

I decided to put purple in my hair for fun. It's pretty faded now but I liked it.

Masaru had his 4th race in Magic Mountain last weekend and went with friends since Dru and I felt like we needed to stick around town for the kids soccer games. It was great to watch Yuki play. She's so good.
Masaru is the back of the A group pack and I couldn't be prouder of him. What a rockstar and we're really grateful to our friends the Bryners for taking him to that race. He had a wonderful time.

He got back and visited our neighbours who are like family now. Max was happy to see him.

Yuki got this sweet certificate for being awesome at school. Go Yuki.


We decided to all put on our tye dye gears and get a picture with our mates.

Dru went to a ho down party with Yuki and her girls group "Activity Days"
They had dinner together and played games and took cute pic's. I'm glad they got to go together.

Yuki and her cute friend Susie.

The kids had Thursday and Friday off of school and I loved it. They got their chores done and we all went out mtb together. We found Emiko a playdate and headed to the foothills to try ketral and sidewinder together. I took a couple of our friends boys as well and so it was a car full alright.
The boys went up but Yuki had had running club that day as well as this then soccer that night. She opted to go halfway and sit and chill with me while we waited for the boys to be done. She didn't want to go but afterwards she said she was glad she did and loved it and was glad I forced her. She's like me in that it takes a little force but then I'm sweet.
Takeshi is a machine and he's rocketing up these hills and down. I'm so impressed. Yuki is doing well too.
A man came down Sidewinder and was so impressed with Takeshi that he had to tell me about it. He said "Is that your little girl riding up sidewinder with a fullface helmet on?"
I said "Nope it's my 8 year old boy"
Then he proceeded to tell me how impressed he was with him and how he's the youngest kid he's seen on the trails that far up.
I'm glad the kids love it and see many future trips ahead as a family. All my dreams coming true.

The next day I went for a mtb ride with Jobecka as she was trying out a new bike she thinks she may buy. I had so much fun riding a trail called Cobb. I love that trail. She did amazing as well. So it was a good time all in all.


Saturday we decided to go out to the Eagle Bike park and have some fun while Masaru went up to Bogus and pre rode the race trail for the next weekend. There was a couple of races going on but we made it work. Here's Emiko having some fun on the little pump track they have there.
We went up and rode some of the other trails with the middle kids and had some lunch as well. It was nice to be together. I wish the whole trail was open though. Oh well. We made the best of it.

Then we got Yuki back to her mates birthday party. She hurt her hand playing football. But I'm sure she'll heal up quick.

We also have had a few visitors in our backyard.

Couple of pretty big deer and then some ducks who are loving it at our place.



Isn't it so great?

It's nice having the kids home and spending the weekend together. I enjoy it.

I'm finding that I'm letting go of stuff more around the house. I can't keep up with it all cause I wanna do it all.
I wanna mtb and volunteer  and work out and bake and hang out with mates and read and knit and play the piano and so mopping the floor isn't really happening.
I'm trying to work it all out you know. I dunno if I'll ever crack the code to balancing but I'm having a good time.