Monday, June 22, 2009

St Louis Mini Vacation!



This year we decided we are going to play tourist around our new home town. This weekend we went to St. Louis. Originally we were going to go diamond digging which changed to Omaha, and when we couldn't get a hotel room in Omaha for less than $200/night we ended up in St Louis. It still ended up being a great time!

The water was higher than I remember and we had to go park in a garage. There were tons of people parked in no parking zones, but we decided against taking our chances getting a ticket.



Waiting to get on the tram to the top of the arch. This is why Kendall is so tough. Her brothers love to tease her. At least you can tell she is still smiling.







Looking out from the top. The kids thought this was great fun!



Back at the bottom a picture with the arch.

Girls Camp

Our priesthood helped not only with setting up the tents, making fires, and shelter, but they helped also with entertainment. I don't know who told the priesthood to bring candy, but with each shift one of the priesthood leaders showed up with candy. The first full size candy bars for answering his trivia questions correctly. He sure kept the girls entertained while I met with the rest of the leaders and let them know what was going on. The second day another brother showed up with more starburst as the girls finished shooting!
Our group picture at the sign for Riverbreaks! The leaders and YCL's have on blue shirts and the 4th year girls yellow. We insisted as the leaders that the 4th years (leaders and girls shirts) all say
"I survived Riverbreaks" The girls were so excited to read that the last day after they had turely survived 8 miles of hiking and two nights getting soaked in the rain. My shoes were so covered in mud that I threw them away on the last day.
In the back of this picture you can see the tarp shelter that the priesthood built for us. They found long logs and used roap to put it up. We were so greatful!

Our great fire pit that the priesthood set up for us!
The hike the first day was down this dirt road that was not even visible from the main road until you started walking down it. It looks nice and neat here but once you have almost 30 people walk over it it was sure slippery muddy by that back of the pack.

This year I was in charge of the 4th year High Adventure trip for our stake. Myself and the First counselor worked on this trip for more than 6 months! The whole thing was put together from scratch and amazingly went off with almost no problems. The first problem was that we were supposed to have a porta potty pulled on a trailer from camp to camp so that there would be a bathroom at the campsite. Ooops! It got canceled and we had to make due with a walmart emergency porta potty in a tent. (FYI a walmart porta potty ment for emergencies for a small family doesn't work so well with 20 young women) it broke by the second day and we ended up tossing it in the dumpster along with the tent it had been set up in. (Who wants to sleep in the porta potty tent after that!). The only other problem we had was all the rain and mud although it was also a blessing in that it kept away the bugs for the most part and less ticks! I was also nice that it wasn't muggy hot! So all in all it went great. My partner borrowed from her school 20 GPS units which we had the girls program with 11 different points which they were to go to . some were just numbers where we had hidden the day before camp small plastic boxes with "treasures" in them, accompanied with scriptures and quotes from general authorities. Others were the shooting range where the girls were taught to shoot one shot 22 rifles. We even had a few get a number of bulls eyes, and our camp sites. With out the gps units it might have been hard to find these points as we were wondering around a hunting reserve with mowed trails, but with so many trails moving in and out of each other many not on the map it might have been pretty hard. The girls did seem to have a great time. And we had the best priesthood anyone could have ever asked for. Our origional plan was to have the girls sleep outside under the stars. When we realized how many bugs there were we decided we needed tents for tick checks everynight and to get away from the bugs a little. Boy were we glad for the tents too when it rained every night we were there. The priesthood went ahead of us with the cars and set up tents, started chopping firewood and getting other shelter avaliable for us when we hiked into camp. The second night they even cooked our chili and the corn on the fire for us. We were so greatful to them for helping out so much. The girls did get to set up tents back at the main camp to air them out as most of them were still pretty wet from the rain the night before. We had a great time and my family survived without me for the week. (Barely if you ask Zach) : )

swimming


Kendall has jumped in with both feet this year! She loves the water and seems to think she should be able to go anywhere the boys are. Even the deep end.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Pics of the Boys!











I finally got some pics done of the boys, I decided to do it for Justin for Father's Day. I thought they turned out really cute but I am a little biased.




Monday, June 8, 2009



Hello there!
Just wanted to update everyone on us. Ryan got laid off a few weeks ago and is staying home with Amaya playing Mr. Mom. I have to say he is really good at it. He is working here and there. Sebastien is on summer break and we are proud to say he had only 1 "F" for the whole year! He passed 6th grade and will be moving on to 7th. Amaya is doing great. Growing by leaps and bounds. At last visit she weighed 22lbs and measured 28 inches. She has 2 two teeth now, and is learning to wave Bye bye.
We are off to Las Vegas tomorrow for my nephew's high school graduation. We're only staying one night but it will be so nice to get out of town. And Ryan has never been to Las Vegas so it should be fun.
I have gone back to work full time with a Urology practice. I am loving it. It was hard at first to leave Amay, but knowing she was home with Daddy sure made it easier.
And that about sums it up! Hope everyone is well. Talk soon. We love and miss you

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Summer Time?

I thought summer meant hanging out by the pool enjoying the warm sunshine.


coming home from school a 1st grader and a 3rd grader
water balloons and sprinklers!


the sprinkler turned into a tee ball pitcher!

The kids had a great day on Friday with their friends parting outside, cupcakes, kool-aid, and waterballoons!

Saturday was warm and sunny too!

Fun day at the pool. Kendall got the hang of it pretty quickly.
She was floating all over the pool with her floats on.

Today we're back to rainy. So we had to get crafty.




Dylan's final product!

Hopefully the sun will shine soon.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Last Day of School

Today I sent my boys off to school as a Kindergartner, and 2nd grader they will come home 1st grader and 3rd grader. It was almost as hard as sending Dylan on his first day of school this year. My babies are growing up and there isn't anything I can do about it but enjoy and cherish everyday with them. Here are their last pictures of 2nd grade and Kindergarten.

At least we have all summer to swim and play together before they leave again for another school year.