Sunny Thanksgiving!

Shawn and I decided to head to sunny Arizona for Thanksgiving this year. Shawn's motive to ride in the desert with Jake. Becky's motive to visit family. In order to make the trip worthwhile, we took off the three days prior to Thanksgiving off. It was a stressful time before trying to get prepared for a sub in my class for three days. We headed out in Shawn's truck down to Las Vegas on Sunday. We arrived to Uncle Brad's and Aunt Chelsea's house to excited cousins all the way around. The kids played and played until it was time to go to bed. The next day we headed to the strip to walk around with 9 kids and 3 adults. Now we can say we have done that. We headed for a little shopping at the one and only Las Vegas DI. We are in the big time now. The next day we headed out to Arizona. We traveled well in our 4 door pickup. Excitement would flare up about every hour and half. Shawn's brother let us borrow his GPS which we liked, except when we got close to Phoenix it kept taking us off the freeway. Shawn was a little grouchy about that. We got to Beth and Jake's house that night. The next morning we met Brian and Shan and their kids and went to the Desert Museum. We learned about a true desert. We saw snakes, spiders, mountain lions, and river otters. I didn't think river otters were part of the desert, but okay. We ended our walk through the desert with dinner at CiCi's pizza.
Thanksgiving was the next day and we worked hard to make a fabulous dinner. We had barb-qued turkey, lots of mashed potatoes, frappe, and wonderful pie. We played games and watched movies on the projector in the garage. We loved the sunny weather where no coats were needed. Beth wanted to it the midnight sales for Black Friday, so away we went at 10 o'clock. We stood in line to no avail. There were others who figured out a better system than us. Got home at 1:30 in the morning with nothing to show but tired bodies. The next day was leftovers and good-byes to Brian and Shan's family. Shawn and Jake took off to ride the desert with the girls finding a part for the truck. I was thinking we might have to stay another day. We had gone to about 5 different parts store and I even crawled under the truck and took pictures of the part we needed. (It was a seal for the drive train.) We finally tried the Dodge dealership and hit jackpot. Once the boys were back from the desert, the girls headed to get our toenails done. We enjoyed the foot massage and cute nail polish.
The next morning we got up and headed out about 7:30 in the morning for the long trip back. This time Shawn ignored the GPS and went the way he thought he should go. We stopped for lunch near Vegas and kept trucking. The kids held on pretty good until the last couple hours. We stopped in Wells, NV for gas and snacks. It was definitely time to put back on the coats. Brady wanted Shawn to sit by him so I drove the last 2 hours. We got home at 10:30 pm from a sunny Thanksgiving trip. We thank everyone who helped us have a great vacation.

Halloween 2011

It is not good that the only camera we have is a camera that is Blakely's. Consequently, it is hard to get pictures taken and posts posted.
I love trunk or treats, but at the same time it is hard to dress the kids up twice for trunk or treat and then for school. When Halloween rolled around we went to the dress up box to see what we could find. I had bought costumes for the boys on Halloween clearance last year, which they have worn quite a bit through out the year. So thankfully, they wore the costumes for Halloween. Garret was a dragon from "How to Train your Dragon." Then the girls told him he couldn't wear his mask and he became HALF BOY HALF DRAGON. He still looked liked a dragon with a boy's head never the less.
Brady became Buzz Lightyear. He is starting to outgrow Toy Story. He wore the Buzz costume with a little hesitation. He loves dressing up for any occasion. He loved the Halloween party as he got to play games and win prizes.
Once the kids hit a certain age they come up with different costumes. Katelyn and her two good friends at school decided to become Cinderella and the two evil step sisters. Bekha was Cinderella, Emily and Katelyn were the evil stepsisters, and Mrs. Harman, Bekha's helper was the evil step mother. I am sure they look cute, but did not get to see them because they all dressed up during school.
Blakely really didn't dress up because she had a football game that she played at. She decided that she would be a juvenile delinquent and dress up as herself. I don't think she mainded too much not dressing up because she loves to go and hang out with her friends. We went after the ward party to pick her up from the football game. This a whole new ballgame for us with Blakely now in high school.

School 2011-2012

This time comes around so quickly. I hate to see it come but I know it has to be. This school year brought our family a change in the line up. Blakely is now in high school. Katelyn is in junior high. Garret and I still reside at Declo Elementary.
Blakely loves loves high school. Did I say she loves high school life? She enjoys coming home and telling us all about the different kids in her classes. She loves seminary. She tells me how the scriptures used to be boring, but they are more exciting than she can imagine. She of course loves the social life. She is involved in pep band. She loves being able to go to every home game and play for the school. Every game does ask if we are coming. Which I reply, I coming with a big old sign that says,"My daughter plays in the band." or I am wearing a shirt that says BAND across it. She of course begs me not to do it. Maybe one of these times. She also found herself a part- time job working at the School house Grill a few hours a week. The first couple of weeks of her training about killed me. She would work from 6-8 pm 2 nights a week. Now she works after school or during lunch, we have handled it better. She has already gotten her first paycheck and she felt rich. We did ask her for gas money which she laughed at.
Katelyn has made the transition into the junior high beautifully. She loves her teachers. I begged her not to do band. I tried to tell her that she didn't have to do band just because Blakely did it, but to no avail. She now she a flute player. She plays pretty good I think and I appreciate that she will practice almost every night. Better than her piano. I also convinced her to run in the cross country club. She has done a good job running with the club. She has a great coach. She hasn't yet ran in a meet which is okay, I just wanted her to run. I even ran with her and her coach put us through the paces.
Garret is onto second grade. This year he has two teachers; Mrs. Clayton and Mrs. Hepworth. They will be wonderful for him. He drops into my classroom for two seconds before he is off playing with another teacher's little boy. He is really into AR points, so he is trying to read, read, read. It is a little different that Garret is my only child at the elementary school.
Brady is with Christy. She is wonderful lady that takes care of Brady while I am at school. He loves going there. He loves to take treats to share. My girls have been babysitters for Christy's own children. They all think that is pretty cool. I have Christy's son in my class, also.
My class has 25 first graders. They are social butterflies. There are lots of girls this year. They love to flit from one desk to another desk. So hopefully, I can survive this social class. I haven't made it home before 5 yet. I also got the opportunity to the Wolf leader. I hope that I have the energy for this calling. I had a hard time leaving YW, but I guess it was time.

Trying for Family Pictures

Mom and Dad



Dad and his boys


Brady and his orange vest


Garret


Boys wrestling


All the kids


Happy Kids


Mom and the girls



Dad and Katelyn

Blakely

Blakely and Katelyn

Garret hanging on



Garret needs a boost

Mr. Sun go away

The best picture of the family. I just need to change Garret's face.

Garret is distracted by the grain

I have wanted to try to take family pictures in a grain field since last year when I took the girls' friends pictures in one. So, once again grain harvest is upon us. I knew I had just a few weeks to get it done, so I decided to call my friend Jamie and have her come and try to get our pictures taken. We picked 3 o'clock; which probably should have been a little later. The kids held up pretty good for the first few pictures and then the sun was getting to them. Garret was too distracted by the grain. He kept playing with the grain. Shawn then fell to the sun's rays also. We changed positions a couple of times. Shawn decided he was done. Blakely didn't know if she wanted a picture with just Katelyn. The boys wrestled. Dad unwilling posed again with the boys and maybe me too. Brady had to have his picture in an orange vest. So has you see we might have to try again next year.

4-H

This year Blakely and Katleyn did 4-H with the Dudes n' Dolls group lead by Miss Carrie Burton. As always they had so much fun attending the meetings and hanging out with the group. Blakely decided to do two different things: Teens Entertain and Scrapbooking. Katelyn did sewing and scrapbooking. Luckily, we were able to plan a few parties this summer so that Blakely could count that has her projects. She helped plan and decorate her Aunt Oralia's baby shower and Shawn's 40th birthday party. She took pictures and made a poster. She was a little disappointed that she planned Shawn's party but didn't get to come. :( She did very well in earning a preinum ribbon in this event. She also did scrapbooking this year. She had to complete 16 pages. This project, she also did very well in getting another preinum ribbon. This project stressed me out the most because she was still finishing the pages the day it was due. She completed them and her record books in the nick of time. She enjoyed being involved in 4H this year.
Katelyn also enjoyed the social aspect of 4H. She and I picked out the fabric for her skirt the beginning of July and started on her skirt as soon as Trek was done. She did a very good job of sewing. I helped her with the gathering part of the skirt. She received a red ribbon on her very first project and she as the cutest skirt. She also signed up for scrapbooking and she only needed to accomplish 8 pages. The very first day we scrapbooked, we invited Mrs. Burton over and she had the funnest circut cartriage. It was a paper doll one. Katelyn then spent the rest of the time playing with the paper dolls. She also finished her scrapbooking pages in the nick of time. The record books her hard for her to do because she didn't want o sit down at the computer and get them done. She earned a blue ribbon on her scrapbooking. The girls did a great job on 4H this year.

Pioneer Trek

Well, we have been preparing for this trek all summer long. Every morning we would be up walking with the YW at 7am. Linda Wayment and I were in charge of the food for 70 people, so we have been planning and buying the food. We have sewn skirts and bonnets. We had buckets to put all our stuff in. Well, the day finally came to see if we had prepared enough to endure this trek. (After spending all day Monday getting the food together and handed out; I was ready to call it quits when I walked in the door at 9:30pm.) We headed to the church to meet up and head to Iowa City. Which actually was a place called Worthington Springs. We arrived about 45 minutes later and learned of our families. We gathered with our families. Shawn and I were the aunt and uncle in our group. We were given the rules to follow from the trail bosses and a jar of whipped cream to shake as we walked and away we went. The first day was going to be straight up about 3 1/2 miles. I was so glad to have strong young men with us to pull until the women's' pull. The men were taken away to go fight in the Mormon Battalion and the women were left to pull of the steepest part of the mountain. I pulled with everything I had and more. The angels did come and help, but as my husband said, "They had to run to catch up with those ladies." As we got to the top I tried very hard to catch my breath, but oh my chest hurt all day long. We made camp early, which would be a trend everyday. The youth pushed hard everyday all day long. We set up camp and I was glad I could set my cot next to Shawn's. We had a historian of the area come up and tell us tall tales. We also have a wonderful fireside; " Remember the Journey" by Jenny Phillps. 2nd day we broke camp and followed the Emigrant trail down Granite Pass. My nickname for my family became the "Extreme Hand carters." They wanted to jump every bump, rock, and wash out. We stopped midway because we were moving too fast. The men and some girls did the stick pull. My husband rocked, of course. We then had hardships placed upon the families. Our family tried to outrun the YM president, but he caught us. Just for that we were given two hardships. Guess I shouldn't have told them to run.... We carried everyone on the handcart at sometime. We were at the last and we were slow down to keep our family together, but as soon as we were back together we would run to catch up with the group. After 8 1/2 miles we saw the sights of City of Rocks. My foot was killing me and I didn't know if I could do another 12 miles on it. We soaked our feet and set up camp again. We had a wonderful dinner and another wonderful fireside. 3rd day: We cleaned up camp and switched order of the carts, we were put first; they wanted to slow us down, not likely. We hiked along the path that the pioneers traveled to California. It would be so hot and you would think that we could not handle anymore heat when the clouds were roll into cover up the sun and the breeze would blow in. Just a little reprieve. We arrived at our first campsite and started to unload when some guys showed up and kicked us off the property. Well, sure enough we had to load back up and head another 3 miles to our last campsite. We arrived running not wanting the other families to beat us into camp. We were able to stay and the wonderful Almo City Park. Running water and shade. Hallelujah! Water fights came sure enough all night long until the YM leaders slept between the girls and boys. The next morning we enjoyed family time and alone time before we went swimming at the hot springs. We headed down the mountain back to the church. I was ready to go home, but remembered all the food we had to unload from the trailers. Not so much fun being the leader, now. What a great experience we had. I wish I could say we got to walk with Blakely, but she was with her trek family; right where she should be. I can now check trek off my bucket list.

4th of July Hiking

My brother and his family invited us to go hiking up to Independence Lake. I thought this would be a great hike. Get us ready even more for trek. So the morning of the 4th we headed out about 10 o'clock. When we got up to the trail to start hiking we had a little snack and headed out. The kids took off with the little boys in the lead and us adults at the back. We crossed fallen trees, water running down the middle of the trail, and snow. We, of course didn't want the kids wet because we knew it would be miserable having wet feet. We walked very carefully around every thing. As the trail became steeper we had to encourage a few of us along the way. Brady needed to be carried on someone's shoulders. It was getting tough, but I would say," Let's just make it to the next tree." When the trail was lost our fearless leaders left us women and children behind to find the trail. After about 15 minutes or so we once again took up the trail and we then made it to the lake. It was a beautiful sight. The mountain water rushing into the lake. Snow covered about half edges of the lake. The kids of course wanted to be as close to the water as they could which resulted in some wet feet. Oh, how we didn't want them wet. We refilled our water bottles with Blake's filter. We had a snack. Blake tried to go fishing and Shawn hiked to the second lake with two of the boys following him. We sat at the lake watching the littler boys throw rocks into the lake. After about an hour we decided everyone was getting hungry that we better head back down the trail. This time Blakely and the boys were in the lead. Brady either wanted to hold Jack and Garret's hand or be carried down the trail. The boys wanted to surf down the snow pack; which they did. About halfway down the sky began to rumble and the rain began to fall. It started pouring and hailing on top of us. Those streams that we carefully went over now we sloshed through them not really caring if we were wet or not. We made it back to the cars and quickly made sandwiches under the hatch of the van. We then hurried on our way down the mountain. It really was a good hike and I enjoyed spending time with Blake's family.