HELLO HOMECOMING

We strongly discourage our children from dating until they are 16 years old.

 

Markus turned 16 this past summer, so he was able to attend to his first Homecoming. 

 

Him and several of his friends planned a night out with their dates. 

 

 

Markus picking up his date.

 

 

They all met at the Lucille's BBQ  restaurant and after that went to Green Valley Ranch (local hotel/casino) to get some pictures taken.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there they got picked up by limousine which took them to the Strip. (Center of Vegas). 

 

One of the mothers had created a scavenger hunt for the kids in Strip, them having to find several different places. 

 

 

The limo drove them around until 10:30 pm.

After that the limo took theme up to one of the boy's home where they finished the evening by the fire place, drinking hot chocolate and just visiting. 

 

 

According to Markus he had a great time and the evening was a success.

FREE DOUGHNUTS

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts had a special promo one day.

 

If you dressed like a pirate you got a box of doughnuts for free.

 

We ended up with 36 doughnuts that day.

 

 

 

Maija and Markus giving their best pirate appearance.

MARCHING BAND SEASON

Markus and Kai both were involved with marching band this fall.  Markus playing trumpet and Kai trombone. 

Their band has grown into almost 300 students, being the largest in the state of Nevada. 

They went undefeated in all 4 competitions in Las Vegas valley, and advanced to finals in both Bands of America competitions, one in Utah and one in California. 

 This past weekend was their last competition in California, and they ended up taking a 2nd place in their division and 5th overall.

 

Of course it was not just fun and games, but lots and lots of work. 

 Every day, Monday through Friday they practiced from 6:55 to 8:05 am, additionally having a weekly evening practice, usually three hours long, and occasional all day Friday or Saturday practice. 

But hard work pays off. 

Good job Markus and Kai. 

Way to go Foothill Falcons!

 

Here is a little video clip from their warm up before their last competition in California.  Markus and Kai are somewhere there :)

Post by Foothill HS Band.

 Here are few photos of the band in BOA in St. Goerge.

They first performed in Preliminary Show during the day, and once they made it to the Finlas they performed again in the evening.

 

 

 

 

Here they are lined up for awards ceremony with all the other finalists

 

 

 

And here are some photos Markus posted from the California competition trip on November 9-10:

 

 

The kids had to meet at the school on Saturday morning, at 5:45 to get into the buses and head out.

 

 

 

Markus with his friends celebrating the awesome competition season.

 

Girls on a "car bike"and Markus bumming a ride. 

While they are pedaling he is chilling on front!

 

 

 

 

KAI IN XCOUNTRY

Kai started as a freshman this year in High School.  He chose to run cross country, and had quite a season.  When he started he was somewhere around 6th fasted runner in the cross country team, which included all the freshmen through seniors.  Him being one of the youngest.  Last week we finished the season with regionals, and it was his second competition in row he finished second fastest from his school.  We are super proud of him.  Well done, Kai.

 

Some photos of various xcountry races.

WHERE DID THE FALL GO?????

Writing this blog is like riding a journal.  You skip few weeks and then it seems like such an impossible  mountain to climb to start over again.  But here I go.

I will do a fast recap of some of the things that we have done this fall.

There has been soccer, basket ball, marching band, cross country.  We celebrated the Halloween and now we are getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The high schoolers finished their first quarter strong with straight A's, and Niko and Maija both got a WOW certificate from elementarty schools; Niko with his writing, and Maija with her robot project.  It has been a good and busy fall. 

 

 

Here is Maija with the robot she built out of duct tape and all kinds of containers and cans.

According to her, this robot turns tissue paper into a duct tape!

 

CHECKED OUT WHILE SEWING FLAGS

If it seems like i have been hiding, it is because I have been super busy sewing flags for the marching band drill team. I promised to sew 10 of the flags, but it ended being pretty time consuming. It took hours and hours, but now they are done. Just in time for the competition season.
The first competion will be this coming Saturday. I can not wait to see how the flags look on the field.

LAZY SUNDAY EVENINGS

Sundays get pretty busy with church, callings, visiting teaching, choir, ect....But there always seems to be some time for relaxation as well. Which is just plain wonderful.

Maija is taking it easy with an ipad.

Niko loves to make cookies...and of course eat them as well. Because he loves to make them we get to enjoy fresh, warm cookies several times a week.