Family Pictures!

While we were in the Caribbean we took advantage of the resort's photographers and then splurged on buying some of the photos. As bad as this is, these are our first family photos including Fern! We had some taken right before we left Calif. but they all turned out so bad that I only bought the ones with Grandpa and the kids! :) So here they are, now if I only get them printed, framed, and hung up we'd be good! :) Here are just a few of them! The whole family!
My babies!
I do not think I am old enough for him to be this grown up!!
I think I am unplugging the phone when he gets older, how cute is he!!
And my beautiful girl, I am so glad I got one! :)

That is it for now, I just never got a chance to show these before we left for Ut., I still have a few more of my pictures to share still, maybe I should save them for when it is snowing outside!! :)

Pioneer Family!

Here are the slew of pictures I took on Saturday at the Pioneer Day Activity! Here is our whole family in front of our covered wagon in the back yard before we left!
Look at these two cuties posing for me!!
My sweet Fern eating a piece of bread at the activity.
She was just too darn cute, I had to keep taking pictures!!
Riley enjoyed the zucchini bread!
There were different "stations" to visit, one was pioneer games, pioneer stories, toy making, butter making, and the most popular... hand cart rides!
Riley and Fern are on the left in the back and Jake is on the right right up front!
Jake LOVED this part, he protested though most of the rest! :)



Then it was time for the parade!! Here is a short video I took. (Yes I know that is not Jake, that is Riley's cohort in mischief Micheal! :))

And the back of our wagon, Riley wrote it out for us!
Fern was doing very well with her princess wave!
She was very happy to have a pretty costume to wear and for the boys to pull her in the wagon all the way around the church parking lot! :)

The End!

Cake & Camp!

Thanks all for the birthday well wishes, we had my birthday dinner a day early on Thurs. because the family night got cancelled due to bad weather. So we had our Pioneer/Birthday dinner then! So here I am being serenaded by my favorite folk (this is one of Fern's new favorite songs so she was very happy to have everyone sing with her)!
So on Friday (the last day of camp) families where invited to come out in the afternoon and watch the fun! Here is Riley playing tug-o-war, they won this round against the other half of his den, but...
after this round it was the den against the moms, and we won! :)
Then we got to watch Riley at the archery range!
Just let go...
And got it on the blue!! Yea!!
Then to the be-be gun range, he got a bulls-eye! He earned both his archery, and his be-be shooting belt loops!
Here is the Den 6 flag!

We then got to have the "camp fire" and the dens performed skits, here is Riley's. They start out by saying, "who will go find fire wood" and a few walk off. Lets see if you can get the rest! :)

At flag ceremony Riley received his camp patch from Sir Lancelot (that is Merlin behind in the cloak)...
and was knighted by King Aurthr!

And that was camp! Riley had a blast and can not wait to go next year!! :)

Today we had our fun Pioneer Day activity and wait until you see our cuties, I'll post those soon!

Have a great Sabbath!

Happy Pioneer Day!

While in Utah the kids and I went to Cove Fort one afternoon and had a great time. I thought today was a great day to post these since it is Pioneer Day, one of my favorite holidays! :) Then the sister missionary was kind enough to take our picture all together!
After hearing some fun stories in the bunk house the Sister Missionary there taught us how to play a pioneer game, this is how Jake and Fern played it! :)

Riley did pretty good with it!

I, for some un-known reason was pretty good at this, Riley did not get the whole thing, but here is the end. The sandals worked against me but I was able to keep it going for a good while!

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We have had to postpone our pioneer dinner, tonight is family night at camp. But we are planning on having Veggie and dumpling soup (think chicken and dumplings with no chicken), cold slaw, rice pudding, whole wheat applesauce spice cake, & lemonade! YUMMMM!! So hopefully we will have this tomorrow, but it is looking like we will have to cook inside vs. the fire outside as it has been raining to 2 days and it is looking like it is staying around. And now all of our fire wood is wet! :) Saturday is the Pioneer Day Primary activity for the stake, I hope to have some cute pictures of that for you!! :)

Happy Pioneer Day!

Yea for Camp!!

Well I just picked up a very happy camper from his first day of Cub Scout day camp. The first thing he said to me was, "I wish I could sleep here"! I thought maybe it would take him a little longer to get into the groove, but alas my baby did not need me! :) Here's his toothless grin in front of the sign, he said, "mom make sure you get the flowers in the picture"! Funny kid!
When I asked him what he did he told me about making a bug box, leather punching, scoring a bag of chips at lunch, among other things. And then oh yea and I shot a be be gun and arrows!! Oh my, and he got a bulls eye with the be be gun, and "in the blue" with the arrow! Here is his target from the be be guns which I did not know he got to keep until he pulled it out to show dad at home! Boys!! :)

Riley is very excited to go back tomorrow and I am excited that I now know where it is and will not get lost tomorrow morning (for 2 hours, thanks mom for helping your silly daughter)! Thursday night we got to all go to the camp, I think that will be a big hit with Jake! Hopefully we will get a few more pictures! :)

Today!

So I took a picture of our garden literally as Dan was pulling the van out of the garage as we left for the road trip.
Here's what I came home to! We are not even sure what they all are as alot of them have sprung up from last year's garden!
And yea welcome home to New England! The outdoor temp. is 94, with 64% humidity makes is a real feel of 102!! About a hour before I took this picture it was 96 degrees with a real feel of 105!!! I thought I left the hot weather!!

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Also today I got to pick up my new glasses that have been waiting since the day after we left!! No pictures today but I am sure you will see them, or not! :)

Have a great day!!

ROAD TRIP!

Yes I know it has been a LONG time!! Well we went on a little trip! Here we all are as we left our house on Monday June 23! Utah or BUST!
When we got to Nebraska we stoped in Omaha where Winter Quarters is. Fern got to dress up as a pioneer and we saw some neat thins and chatted with the Sister Missionaries!
Across the street from the Visitor's Center is the pioneer cemetery, and this famous statue. Sorry it is tilty, pre-tripod!
Here is my cowboy at the Buffalo Bill museum and grave, isn't he too cute!!
And he's a paleontologist! We went to a great dinosaur museum in Fruita, Col!

We took a great photo on the Colorado river during a bit of leg stretching!

We arrived in Utah on Friday, and then Dan had to fly out on Sunday (that is why he is MIA in the rest of the photos!
While in Utah we got to take Novella to her first library story time... Celebrate the 4th of July (and a nice strait picture post-tripod a pre-birthday gift from mom!! Thanks mom!).
Look what I found at the resale shop! Too cute red cowboy boots, perfect of the 4th!
My friend and best Visiting Teacher ever, Cherish came all the way to Richfield to see me!!

Riley was wrestling with Jake, got kicked in the mouth, and lost his very loose front tooth...

And then a couple hours later he lost the other one while eating a carrot!!!
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Of course I have a MILLION more photo's of Utah but this is just the brief highlights!
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I finally got the gumption to drive home by my self, with 3 kids and left Richfield last Saturday.

We went to Arvada, Col. where my Grandpa grew up.
And to Wheat Ridge, Col. and found my Great-grandpa! This is a man I have done a ton of research on, and I am still looking for more.
We finally arrived home yesterday afternoon, and yes officer in Illinois, I gave my kids the clickers! :) I got pulled over in Illinois a few days ago because the officer said it looked like the kids were not buckled up, since they were he gave them clickers but advised me not to give them to them until we got home! :) This was the first time I have ever been pulled over, I almost had a heart attack!

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There is the short of our trip, you'll get more sprinkled in with the day to day around here!

June 23-July 17, I am not leaving my house for a while so if you want to see me you'll have to come here!!

PARTY!

Well, Dan and I were invited to his bosses 60th birthday party. So we got all gussied up and went to New York last night!!

Here we are leaving our house, yes Dan is wearing a tux, last time he wore one was for our wedding!! We rode a shuttle bus that was chartered for the party, it took us from the corporate office to downtown. The party was on the top floor of the St. Regis Hotel!

Here we are on the top floor "mingling" before dinner, if you look to the far right of the picture, all those trees are central park!

Here is the other pilot that Dan works with, Torrey and his wife Barbara. They flew in from Canada to party with us!

And Rob, the mechanic on the airplane, and his wife Laurie! They braved the shuttle bus with us!

We were all siting together at table eight, we ate in the ball room and there was dancing in between our 4 course meal (I counted dessert as one course even though there were 5 desserts)!!!
Here is our table marker and our menu for the evening!!
Here is a shot of the ballroom, it was beautifully decorated in blue, my favorite!
Here was one of my desserts, VERY yummy! It is "Almond Tuile Filled with Fresh Berries and Miniature Fruit Sorbets", the sorbet was frozen in shapes of fruit with little plastic leaves and stems! Too cute!

We sang happy birthday and danced a bit and then said farewell and jumped on the shuttle bus as it began to rain! The whole ride home (3 hours instead of 1.5) we watched the lightning crashing, and dropped into bed at 4am!!

We also got a little goody bag on our way out, I love the flower arrangement they tied to the bag, it was a little bag that looks like a Dr.'s bag with some of his products and one of his books, so I guess I'll see what he has to say, and maybe I will look fabulously younger too!

* I purposely did not mention Dan's bosses name as I do not think it is appropriate on the Internet, so those of you who know please do not post it! :) Thanks!