the pribyl family: 12/11/11

Sunday, December 11, 2011

2011 Soccer

Yesterday was a full day, that started at 7:30. There was no time to think about how sick I was. It was one soccer game after another, and I LOVED it! I love watching my kids play soccer.

Ethan had a game early in the morning, about a half an hour from here. I never get to take him to his games, so I offered while Ben stayed here to wait for the carpet cleaners and Sears guy who services our appliances every six months!

Ethan lost his game, but it was hard to be upset about it since the team he played were a bunch of refugee kids from Afghanistan. After the game, I cheered him up with Dunkin Donuts. That took his mind off of it. I then came home only to shortly turn around to Boston's game. His first game was against the hardest team in the league. If they beat them they could have taken first. They were up 1-0 for the first 15 minutes. Then the other team got an awesome/well deserved corner kick. Boston's coach put in a different goalie and the game turned quickly. They lost 4-2. Boston was disappointed, (as were some parents) but the last time they played them the lost byALOT! So I tried to help him realize the progress his team made, and that second place in the tournament is AWESOME! Ben spoke with some parents who are trying to put a winning team together, and they want Boston to be a part of it. We will see how that works out in the spring. In my eyes, his team is a winning team. I especially like the spiritual focus the coach brings into every game and practice. That is more important to me than anything. Boston won his other two games. His first game was actually Friday night. Joe took the kids, while we had our party. Boston's win that night solidified second place for his team. It was great win, since the team slaughtered them last time!

Aubrie had a great tournament! They won their first two games. Their second game was amazing. 9-1! Their team also got the record for fastest goal scored, and most goals scored in such a short time. Those wins put them in the Championship. The Championship game was against an amazing team who was undefeated! The blew out every team they played, except us. It was time for a rematch. This game was especially hard for Aubrie because her best friend Olivia is on that team. Aubrie is not as aggressive when Olivia is close to her. The game was one of the best soccer games we have watched. Our team scored first. We held them for a long time, and finally they got a goal. Second half was nail biting! There were so many close goals on both sides. With 30 seconds left Olivia made the game winning goal. Aubrie was so sad. She wanted a tie so bad. As soon as the game was over, Olivia rushed to find Aubrie to make sure she wasalright, and then they embraced each other. It was such a tearful moment. Two great teams and freinds...so close! So Aubrie's team also placed second. We celebrated later that evening with the Pribble's (Olivia's family. Funny, huh?) at Yogurtology. Aubrie was her happy self again, and left me a sweet note by my beside after I finally crashed, saying she hopes I feel better soon. I hope I do, too!

Here are some pics from the season!

Aubrie's Championship game.

Boston's Championship Game

Aubrie's first game against Olivia (She also had Strep and we didn't know it)

Jump Start

This year I felt like I needed to get a jump start on the Holidays. I think with Aubrie at Basis, the soccer season running into December, and our Christmas Party being pushed back a week l, made me feel like I needed to get some things done early. Before Thanksgiving I ordered my Christmas Cards and stuffed, and addressed them. I also purchased all my "friend gifts" and wrapped them. I thought that would relieve some stress and free up some time. Then I was asked to decorate a table for our Ward Christmas party. It wasn't hard, but just took time to get stuff, etc. It turned out nice, but now I still have the buckets of decorations in my Mom's room. My new dumping ground. This past week I busied myself with finishing up Christmas shopping, helping out a sick friend, preparing for our Christmas Party, fighting a cold, helping with school projects, and playing the roles of both parents while Ben was out of town. I'm hoping that this week I'll be able to get in a workout!

Our Christmas Party was a lot of fun. Since our Ward did the same exact type of party, we thought we might skip it this year. Then we realized how many people we typically invite from other wards, which is more than half. We decided to invite only a few families from our Ward who have been coming since the beginning, or had strong relationships with a majority of the other couples, along with some several friends of ours who don't go to our church. It was a good mix! Everyone was very friendly to the new people, and things were seamless. The only bad thing was that I lost my voice Friday morning, so that was VERY hard not being able to talk much. In reality, I spend most of my time playing hostess, which leaves little time for talking anyway. There were some fun gifts. But no animals this year!:) Shocking that Ben spaced taking pictures this year. That's his job at the party!

Thanksgiving 2011

This year we had Thanksgiving dinner with the Hawkins. I was in charge of the Turkey, and also made the Shoepeg casserole & stuffing. I had to make the stuffing for the first time this year, with my Mom being gone. That was weird. I decorated the table with place "cards" that were leaves with names written on them, and hot glued to a walnut, grouped with a few other nuts.

Tirza brought the sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls, salad, and pickles and olives. Dinner was very yummy. The turkey didn't cook all the way, and I was disappointed with my meat thermometer:( I had to put it back in, and once you cut into it and put it back in its not the same. Oh, well. That just meant no good left overs which I'm not a fan of anyway.

The kids had a fun time playing, and the adults talking. It was very nice and relaxing. After dinner, the Hawkins went home and we headed to the movies. Ben and I wanted to see the Muppet Movie, but the kids were dying to see Jack and Jill. The ratings were bad, and Ben and I were skeptical. Being it was PG were figured at least it would be harmless. It was funny. The kids laughed a lot, especially Ethan.

The next day we spent putting up all the Christmas decor. When we put up and plugged in our tree, I noticed a huge portion of lights were out. Ben ran and got new nine foot tree, that happened to be on sale since it was black Friday. It looks really nice. I went to Micheal's later, and got some new decorations, with Aubrie's help, to add to it. Now our tree downstairs has some blue in it. It looks nice. We put the old tree upstairs in the loft. It's the kids tree. It's very cute, also. The kids like it best! It was nice to get up all the decorations, and be done with it, especially with company coming.

Saturday the Hendrickson's came for a night. The kids stayed here and had pizza and watched movies, while the adults went out for dinner. We had a nice dinner at Cheesecake Factory. Things are always so comfortable with the Hendricksons. When we got back we went in the hot tub, and when the kids went down, we watched some Modern Family and talked.

Sunday the Nelson's came for the night. They got her much later, so Ben and Pat stayed up and talked, while everyone else was in bed. The next day Ben and Pat had some meetings, so Mindy and I spent time with the kids and got to know one another better. Pat married her after college, so I have only hung out with her once. She is very nice, and it was a nice morning getting to know her.

Whew! We sure know how to pack in the Holiday's, huh? I'm not sure if its possible for us to do "nothing" during any holiday. So much to do, so many people to see. It's hard for this family to sit still!

November Disney 2011

Since Aubrie had a full week of of school for Thanksgiving, we planned another trip to Disney. Since the Christmas decorations were up, I figured it would be busy. However, we still were able to ride everything and also did some things we never did before.

The first day we got there (Sunday) it was raining. Well, when we got to the hotel it was overcast, and by the time we got in line for Star Taurs it was sprinkling. When we got out of Star Taurs it was POURING. We bought the overly priced Disney Pancho's and some gloves for the boys, and then ducked and covered to the closest inside ride, which was Captain EO.

We thought the rain would lighten up, but it didn't. The closest place for cover was the Innovations building that we always say we should check out, but never do. Guess it takes something like rain for you to stumble on something great! We all had a blast in there. They had 360 Kinect games set up in there, along with other cool games, and inventions to look at. Boston spent most of his time playing a Kinect football game, Ethan played Kinect Fruit Ninja, and Aubrie, Sophia and I became addicted to the Kinect Micheal Jackson dancing game. Sophia was the first one to try it, and by the end she had a crowd of people surrounding her. Still meaning to send that video to AFV!

After spending about two hours in there, we finally checked outside. The rain had stopped and lines were short, but we didn't want to risk rain again, so we headed back to the hotel and then went out to dinner. We found an Olive Garden (per Aubrie's request). It was a great dinner, except for the shocking caloric count that is now required on California menus. I tried not to think about it as we devoured a great meal, and enjoyed one of the best servers we have ever had! We went on an on to him to the manager (who happened to be the General Manager) and she comped our desserts b/c it made her night! SCORE!!!! After dinner we headed back to the hotel to settle in and watch fireworks from our balcony.

Monday was busy, busy. We rode the firetruck that goes from main street to the castle for the first time, and we spent a few hours checking out Santa's reindeer, doing Christmas crafts, meeting Mrs. Claus and waiting for a chance to sit on Santa's lap. We had some fun people in line, which made the hour wait bearable. The kids had fun in line checking out some funny things on youtube. Here are some pics of that! Can't think of a better place in the world to see Santa and his reindeer!

Sophia was a little timid to ride anything that seemed to go fast. Our first ride of the day was Matterhorn, and she didn't want anything to do with it. I sat on a bench with her while everyone else waited in line. By the time they got to the front I convinced her to try it.

I couldn't believe that Ben convinced her to ride Space Mountain, later that day! Guess bribing her with a Mickey stuffed animal as the trick. As the ride was about to take off she said, "Mom, see now the whole family can be together." We were offered another free ride, when they couldn't print our picture's due to some kids doing some bad things in the background, but when we got there, Sophia wouldn't do it again. I was afraid that was it for her, but she did it again the next day, and said she liked it, so I'm hoping we have crossed a bridge with her.

Sophia's favorite ride was It's a Small World. It was decorated for Christmas. She rode that a few times. She also got to visit with the princesses. We waited in line for that, while the boys went off by themselves to Toon Town. They thought they were so big being able to do that on their own. We were all daring enough to do Splash Mountain, despite the freezing weather. We were lucky to avoid being drenched. While in the neighborhood, we enjoyed lunch at our favorite spot. Mmmmm, love that turkey sandwich and sweet potato fries!

In California Adventure, we enjoyed the comedy of the Genie in the Alladin show. The kids are finally old enough to get a lot of his satire, and so it made it more fun. We did the boardwalk games for the first time, and Sophia won a big stuffed Mickey on her first try. That took care of Ben's bribery from earlier. The boys were disappointed with two small toys, and Aubrie scored a big Dumbo stuffed animals. It was fun to do that for once. We also saw the evening water show (can't think of it right now). It was hard to see, I had Sophia on my shoulders most of the time ( That was the longest 22 minutes ever) and we were freezing. The nights were frigid! We broke down and bought hats for the kids on the Disney Walk. We enjoyed dinner on the "Walk" both nights. First at the pizza place, and next at the ESPN restaurant. Boston was disappointed there wasn't a good game on! LOL Overall, it was a great time to spend as a family for the Holiday. Wednesday we headed home so we could be home on Thanksgiving. That meant Ben had to drive home on his birthday. I arranged for the Waishnora's to come and put up streamers. Couldn't break the family tradition!:)