The California Rods came to visit for New Years and we rented a cabin in Island Park. We had some more good times and made some fun memories! As they do every year, the kids enjoy sitting in the outside hot tub in the freezing cold. They are even known to go jump and roll in the snow and then pile back in the hot tub. Crazy kids!

Spoons is another family tradition. Uncle Bob (Bill - don't ask) and Chad are especially competitive. There are not too many good losers or winners in our family. We all like to win and rub it in! But we have lots of fun!
The kids even got the parents to compete at Just Dance. Fun times!

Pine Wood Derby Champ

Chad made a Pine Wood Derby car, with a little help from his dad. We had the Parker 1st Ward Pine Wood Derby in January. It didn't start out so good. The first race down the track, Chad's car basically exploded at the bottom. His wheels came of the axels and Mom, Dad and Chad all nearly had a heart attack. It was nothing that a little super glue and black tape couldn't fix! So from there on out he did really well. He ended up in the top 4 at the end of the regular races. Then he ended up in a tie for 1st place after the race off and ended up winning in the end! He was super excited! It was a fun night!

Thanksgiving in Nevada

Last week we went to Nevada for Thanksgiving to visit Jeff's mom, Sue and her husband, Dennis and his twin brother Joe and his family. We left right smack in the middle of one of the worst winter blizzards we've had in a long time. (My parents were not happy about this. They did not want us on the roads.) It was the longest drive. A normal 10 hour drive took us 15 hours. The kids were surprisingly good. We broke it up and stopped in Provo the first night. Then on the way home, we decided to leave a day early to try and beat the next round of snow that was supposed to hit. We ended up driving all night long. We left Pahrump, NV about 6:00pm and arrived home in Parker at about 6:00am. We had good roads all the way until Ogden, UT. Our 10 hour drive only took us 12 hours.

I'm too old for overnighters, (even though I was in and out of sleep in the car.) I think Jeff and I will both pay for that for the rest of the week. We had a good time and it was worth the drive to spend some time with family.

Aunt Shanda and the girls took us up into the mountains to see some petroglyphs. It was on a crazy road and we had a great time piling into one vehicle and climbing hills. When we pulled up to our stopping point, there was a herd of wild horses. We quickly scared them off with all of our action. The kids had fun climbing around on the rocks.

The kids are all growing up way too fast! Back row: Mataia, Whitney, Jessica and Haly Front: Chad, Morgan and Kace.

Jeff finishes his first Half-Ironman Triathlon

Jeff drove to Las Vegas last weekend with a couple guys and did the Pumpkinman Half-Iron Triathlon. That means he swam 1.2 miles, then biked 56 miles and finished with a Half-marathon (13.1 miles.) He finished in 6 hours and 13 minutes. He is amazing! Someday I hope to accomplish even half of what he does!

This is him just about at the finish line.

Looking strong on the bike.

Checking out the water the day before the race.

Chad and Kace's First Wrestling Match of the Year

Chad and Kace started wrestling again. Their first tourney was last night and Jeff had a responsiblity with the SF Football team who were playing their first State playoff game down at ISU in the Dome. So that left me to help the boys wrestle. Scary! I know nothing about wrestling. Luckily, they have some good coaches and they both did great. I had told Chad if he got a pin that I would take him to the Straw Maze today. Looks like we're going to the Straw Maze tonight! He came out and pinned his first guy in Round 2! I was so proud of him! Here's a video of it. Chad is in the red. (And one of these days I'll remember that I have the camera in my hand and I'll quit being a screaming idiot mother!)

Chad excited about his Gold medal!

Kace looks so cute in his singlet! (Can't get Chad to wear one.) Kace loves putting it on and rubbing his tummy. He's such a fun kid! He has come a long way since last year. He didn't even get pinned last night! He beat his first kid 10-3 and lost his second match to a really good wrestler. But he put up a good fight and never quit! Here's one round of the match he won. Watch near the middle when he gets on top of the kid's back and his little legs just go a kickin'! He also shoots a smile at the camera a couple times. Kace is wearing the red singlet. So cute! He got a second place medal that he hasn't taken off yet. I'm pretty sure that's going to school this morning for show and tell.

Kace sporting his silver medal.

Chad and Kace NFL Flag Football

Chad and Kace both played NFL Flag Football this year. Chad's team was the Cowboys and Kace's team was the Colts. Jeff coached both teams and this kept us hoppin'! They both did great. Chad's team made the playoffs and ended up 3rd place. They did awesome and it was fun to watch.

This is Chad running for one of his many touchdowns this year!

He's a quick and was easy to see in his red cleats!

Kace had a blast. He loved spending time with his dad and being just like his brother!

Jeff loves coaching his kids!

Below is a video of one of Chad's touchdowns.

The video below is of a run Kace made.

I know, I know......it's been a really long time since I updated my blog. I have no excuses, other than my intimidation of technology. Since it would be too hard to back and catch up on all I've missed, I'm just going start with the here and now. So here goes.

Since our life seems to revolve around what activities the kids have going on, we'll start there. Mataia just finished up her first high school volleyball season. She transferred to Madison this year and she played on the JV Volleyball team as their setter. She made some great new friends and they had a very successful year, ending up with the best record in the conference. She was moved up to Varsity for the District tournament, where the team did not do so well. They ended up 4th in the Conference. Mataia felt really good about being moved up as a Freshman and totally enjoyed the volleyball season!

Morgan also transferred to Madison School District this year and attends Madison Middle School where she is in the 6th grade. She is loving it! She has made many new friends and is enjoying being in the orchestra. She has been playing competitive soccer this fall and will be starting her indoor soccer season tomorrow. She is having fun with this, too. She just turned 12 and is excited to move into the Young Women's organization at church.

Proud Family Moment!

Such a proud moment in our family!

You might be a redneck if three members of your family are the reigning Pig Wrestling Champions of the County Fair! So my sister-in-law, Mandi, calls me up and says, "I have a proposal for you and you're gonna like it!" She wanted me to be on her Pig Wrestling team at the county fair. So I succombed to the peer pressure and drug Mataia (very willingly) into it with us. What do you know.....we won! With a very impressive time of 13.38 seconds! That pig was no match for us!

Then, not to be outdone by his girls, Jeff joined a team when one of their members was not able to make it. So his team is basically 3 tough high school athletes and him. As much as they wanted to win the men's division, they wanted to beat our time more. One of the boys was Mandi's little brother, Regg, so his competitiveness was coming through, too. They won the men's division and beat us by less than a second with a time of 12. 87 seconds! Dang!

Morgan was on a Pee Wee team and they ran out of time before they could catch the pig. But she still had fun getting dirty and chasing the pig!

So we've been making fun of ourselves all weekend. It's actually a little embarrasing, but it was pretty darn fun. And we came home with $240 prize money between the three of us!

Vegas, Baby!

For Jeff's birthday, I gave him a session at the Richard Petty driving school at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He got to drive the #07 Jack Daniels car for 18 laps. Being a girl, I don't get what it is about fast cars, but it was a hit! He had a blast and I quite enjoyed watching him have so much fun!

Jeff gets ready to start his laps in pit road.

This is Jeff posing like a dork in his jumpsuit before he drove.

Landon and Lindsay Saurey went with us. Landon and Jeff discuss their first round of driving as they wait for their second round. They got to drive 8 laps, then they took a break and got some pointers from the instructors and then drove the last 10 laps.

This is Jeff on the track.

On Sunday we drove out to the Hoover Dam. It was amazing! If you haven't been there, you should put this on your bucket list! Pretty cool!

This picture shows a bridge that they are building across the canyon next to the dam. It was crazy!

Sunday afternoon we drove out to Pahrump to see Jeff's mom and his brother. They were having a BBQ at the park. So we got to spend a little time with them. In this picture from left to right are: Whitney (our niece), Jeff, his twin brother, Joe and his mom, Sue.

Shanda and Joe, and Jeff and Hali.

On Friday before we left for Vegas we went to Grand Targhee. Jeff and the kids snowboarded and I skiied. We couldn't have had more perfect weather for it. It was a beautiful day and we had a blast!

This is Jeff and the kids on the ski lift.

This is our nephew Foster and the view from the top. It is a gorgeous view of the Grand Tetons! This is God's country!

Finally a new post to the Roderick blog!

I'm finally taking a minute to update the Roderick blog. We have been busy, as usual. I'll give you a little update on each of us.

Chad played 3 on 3 basketball this year. It's a lot of jungle ball. In this picture, they are trying to figure out the difference between wrestling and basketball. (He's the one on the floor.)

Chad started wrestling a few weeks ago. He and his dad are having a great time with this. He has won some and lost some. Whenever he loses, he always thinks the other guy is "cheating." Jeff has been waiting a long time to have a son he can help wrestle. We can only hope that Chad will enjoy it as much as Jeff does!

Morgan has been taking dance this year in Rexburg. She has really enjoyed it and done very well. She got to perform at half time of a basketball game at Madison.

Morgan also played basketball. Jeff coached her team. She loves having her dad coach. She really surprised us how agressive she was. She progessed a lot!

Mataia (#4) is back in volleyball season. She has had 4 tournaments in Salt Lake and they have done pretty well. It's fun to see how much they are learning and getting better each week. We have 4 tournaments left in the season - two local ones and two more in Utah.

How did this happen? Our little girl is not little anymore. She had her first night dance at the Junior High in December. She looked more like 16 than 12! She was beautiful and had a great time! This is a picture of her and her friend, Joslyn before the dance.

We are big American Idol fans around here. The girls are especially fond of David Archuleta, the runner up on last years' season. (They call him David Hotchuleta!) He had a concert in Pocatello and we got tickets and took the girls and a friend. They had a ball! Jeff and I had a ball watching the girls! In the above picture are Morgan, Mataia, Peytan Crapo and Bradyn Bartschi.

Kace is still mom's little buddy! We are both enjoying our time together while the other kids are in school. He has preschool twice a week and we both enjoy that also!

Kace LOVES his big brother, Chad! They are such good friends. He is Chad's little shadow. Kace is still a little clown. He says some funny stuff and keeps us all laughing. He pretty much gets whatever he wants, too!
Jeff's twin brother Joe and his family came to visit over New Year's. It was tons of fun playing in the snow and hanging out with them. This was a picture at the nearby sand dunes where we went tubing. Left to right: Morgan, Jeff, Kace and Joe.

Kace really took a liking to Uncle Joe while they were here. He wanted Joe to sit and watch him play the Nintendo DS for hours. I think Joe kinda likes him, too!

We are ready for spring to show up here in Idaho! We thought we were done with winter, but then Mother Nature hit us with a full on blizzard yesterday. We have had a couple nice days where the weather teases us with what is to come. Mataia informed me yesterday that there's only 45 days of school left until Summer Vacation. Yahoo! I'll try to keep this updated a little more often......no promises, though!