Conversation Time

This morning Garret was playing with Brady when he notices that Brady eye teeth are quite pointy. (Which they are) He exclaims, " Brady, you are turning into a vampire." He then calls the girls into the livingroom to come and see that Brady is turning into a vampire. He then proceeds to have Brady climb up on the couch and try to fly and turn into a bat. Because we know that vampires turn into bats and can fly. I really don't know where he comes up with all this stuff.I was laughing this whole time and just needed to write it down.

Swimming lessons 09

We had swimming lessons last week. Blakely, Katelyn, and Garret all took lessons at the Raquetball club this year. Lessons were at 9:30 in the morning, so it was always a rush to get walking in and a few things before it was time to go. We took them with our friends the Bronsons. The ratio was 3 to 1, so lots of undivided attention. All the kids did great. We had lunch in the park afterwards almost everyday. We enjoyed getting out of the house everyday.

38 is old!

Well another year has come and gone. It was Shawn's 38th birthday on July 18th. I can not tell you how much I love this man. The first thing besides his looks of course that attracted me to him was his work ethic. He works very hard at his job and dreams. He still has his manly figure.(Yah Yah!) He doesn't even look 38. He is extremely supportive of me and the kids.
For his birthday he decided to get a DVR and ESPN. Yes, I have been holding out on him for the last couple years. So we upgraded. He loves the DVR. It will be well used. We had a wonderful dinner of meatballs and cheesy potatoes. (His favorite dinner) He had a boysenberry ice cream cake. It was a wonderful day of celebrating. We have a nephew that has a same birthday. We hope Makoy had just has good of birthday as Shawn did.

YW Camp

Since YW camp was a week ago, I guess I better get it on the blog.I was priligived to go to girls camp this year with Blakely. She was so excited to go to camp. Our camp theme was United in Example. We camped up on Thompson Flats. We started out on a hike. The first mile was straight up. We hiked over the mountain into Albion. We then proceded up to the camp site. We had lunch and started into our value stations. Our wonderful camp director had each leader have a station on a value. Each girl needed to learn the color, definition, and scripture for each value. If they learned this they received a bead for each thing. They could end up with 24 beads. I think everyone did a great job. Blakely and I got all 24 beads. (Now if we only can remember everything now.) We had some crafts to do. The girls could make dog tags to go with their necklaces and make a ball to throw around. I had divine nature and brought blue beads for every girl to make themselves a Blue bracelet to remember them of Divine Nature. The girls could make Bubble CTR rings and cute mini clip boards. There was so much for them to do. My friend Jamie and I were in charge of skits for the night. I decided to make skits in a bag. The girls did a nice job putting them together. This is where the wildness begin. I don't know if it was the mountian air or the sugar, but the girls sang and were basically crazy. We sang "Bananas Unite", "Little Sally", "Ride that Pony", and did the washing machine.
That night the girls went strong until about 2 am in their tent. It was so cold that night. I froze my toes off. I was so glad to see morning. I did call Shawn and ask him to send more sleeping bags and blankets. He did make the comment that that when the boys went to camp the leaders didn't ask if they were cold. The boys just dealt with it. The next day was freezing all day long. We did camp certifcation and more crafts. Everyone at camp ended up with braided hair and some kind of painted fingernails. We had wonderful meals and lots of food. We had a nice testimony meeting which included giving the camp director and the bishop their own levi quilt. After the testimony meeting the wildness roared up again. The bishopric and the high council over YW joined in with all the songs and doing the washing machine.
Then we had the famed snipe hunt. The older girls had the younger girls ready to hunt. They insisted on wearing toothpaste on their faces. Even the leaders that went ended up with it on their face. I think I ended up with toothpaste in my hair. Some had it inside noses and ears. We found a good variety of baby, teenager, and momma snipes. I even got scratched by one. It was another late night, but lots warmer. The next morning we packed up and played a little more before we headed down off the mountain. I quickly showered and headed to get my other three children. I thought they would be ready to come home, but no one wanted to leave Grandma's.(Thank you Grandma and Dad) I am so glad I finally got this opportunity to be with YW.

The DROPS

Last Monday night we headed to Shoshone to a place called THE DROPS My brother Brian and his family were here visiting. It would be my only chance to see their family before they headed back to Arizona. So even though we were leaving for girls camp the next morning at 7 am we went to party it up. We went to a place where they have a cement lined canal. You jump off a bridge into the water. The water flows about 15mph and you float down about 5 min. until you have to hurry and get out before you go over the DROP Well first my brother Blake who is the most cautious person there is, scared us to death. He told the kids and I in exact terms what his expectations were for us to follow. #1 You must wear a life jacket. #2 Children will only go with an adult. #3 As soon as you hit the rapids you swim to the side or you may not be going home tonight. (Katelyn at this time pipes up "That's okay, I don't want to go home tonight." Which brought a smirk but was told she might die.) Well, I did it first so I could get a feel for it and it was pretty fun. Next I took Garret who I convinced to go. We jumped in before
he could change his mind. He clung to my neck the entire way, but we made it out alive. Next was Katelyn who had already got down with my brother. Katelyn did great execpt when we hit the rapids it shot us out in the middle of the canal and it made me nervous. So I kept pushing her over and trying to get her to the side. Well we made it with seconds to spare. All in all it was fun, but next time I would like my husband there also. We ended up getting home at 11:30, I stayed up until about 1:30 making sure I was ready for camp.

First Boating Trip of the Season

We sure love having a Grandpa that lets us borrow all his toys. Grandpa Peterson lets us borrow his snowmobiles in the winter and his boat in the summer. Thanks Grandpa. The girls were ready to go out on the boat on the 4th of July, but we talked them into waiting until the next week when more people wanted to go. Friday night was a beautiful night out on the river. We took Kali out with us. We got some pizza and ate it on the boat. Shawn drove the boat and the girls and I took turns riding the tube( not too fast of course.) The one time we got dumped Katelyn and I went skidding across the water. I almost lost my swimsuit bottoms. The favorite time is when we would stop and the kids could just jump into the river and swim alittle. We even got Brady in the water. Garret dipped his toe in the river, he still is not ready to jump in. I don't quite get it. He loves the water, but he just can't get over his fear when it comes to the river. We enjoyed the evening and decided that we better head back before dark. We raced the sun as it set. The kids want to do it again this week.

Oh, What do you do in the Summertime? pt. 1

This summer so far has been a little crazy. I keep thinking it will slow down but I think that life is just crazy in general. We have tried to have a family walk every morning. We have done pretty good until the last two weeks and then it has gotten spotty. I wanted a time where the kids and I could be together and enjoy each other and get the kids moving more at the same time.
Sometimes we go with a little ear twisting, but it has been done.



Blakely had a YW project to do before camp. The YW presidency wanted each girl to make a denim quilt. We cut a lot of denim squares. We spent most of May activites cutting denim. We cut a lot of denim at home. Each girl and leader decorated their own square and exchanged them. One of the YW leaders embroided all the YW values, the Twin Falls temple, and our camp theme. Blakely and I got it sewn in record time and even had enough material to make a pillow for her and her cousin Alyssa.

Bear Lake- Haws Family Reunion

Last weekend was my mother's side of the family reunion. We went down with Blake and his family. We spent the night in Lava Hot Springs. We got there just in time to set up camp and roast smores. Since we don't do much camping unless our Dad is forced to I went and bought some new sleeping bags and some fancy dancy headlights for the kids. I keep trying to presuade Shawn in more camping but so far he wins. It was a long night with 5 trains coming past our campsite. The kids of course had a ball. We then heade to Bear Lake to meet up with my mother's side family. We passed Soda Springs and Uncle Blake spotted a car show so we had a detour. The kids walked around looking at the old cars and played at the playground. Then on to Bear Lake. We headed down to the beach. The kids loved playing in the sand and in the water. Blakely and Katelyn were barely seen because they were out so far. They swam all afternoon. We enjoyed visiting with my cousins and aunts and uncles. It still shocks me everytime I see my Aunt PollyAnna because she looks like my mother so much. I think I just stare at her.
We then filled our car with sand has we headed up to Minnetoka Cave and walked down 440 stairs to see the inside of this cave. And you guessed it 440 steps back up. The kids made it and the parents made it too. It was interesting for the kids to see the inside of a cave. We then returned home arriving home about 11:30. I so enjoyed having my little immediate family with me and spending time with them even with all the hard work to get ready.