Summer Vacations

Now that the kids are all officially back in school. I thought that I should give a little update on what we have been up to this summer. Somehow between three weddings:-) one funeral :-( and other misc activities we managed to have a pretty great summer. Joshua had a blast at BYU basketball camp with his cousins. Hannah met Jenny Phillips at girls camp. The whole family rocked out at the Jonas Brothers concert and to top it all off we went camping and boating up at Lake Hebgen near West Yellowstone. We paid 20 something bucks for the privilege of driving thru Yellowstone and I had to keep yelling at the kids to get their noses out of their video games and look at all the umm....trees. It seems that all the wildlife was napping or something. Anyway, it was a busy summer but we survived and even had a little fun. Here are a few pictures.

Thomas Family Temple Day

Our very dear friends Mike and Mariella Thomas went thru the Temple last week and were sealed together forever as a family on Saturday. It was just over a year ago that they were baptized. So many miracles have happened since then to bring them to this point. Words cannot describe how wonderful it was to watch their family be sealed together. I don't think that there was a dry eye in the room. Steve and I feel truly blessed that we were invited to witness and be a part of something so special.

Saturday at the Salt Lake Temple





Thursday at the Bountiful Temple


Nate and Cami Hansen, Mike and Mari Thomas, Jill and Steve Peterson, Elder Palmer

Tyler's Graduation

I know Graduation was almost a month ago but I had to post these pictures from my Nephew's Graduation. Ty lived with us for a while during his High School career and we definitely had our ups and downs but I have to say it was a privilege having him in our home. Congratulations Ty! I am so proud of you.

Womens Conference and Wicked

I am having a hard time coming back to reality today after the wonderful weekend I had with my mother and sisters. It has been a tradition now for 4 years that my mom, my sisters and I attend BYU Women's Conference together. It seemed as though every speaker tailor made their talks just for what I needed to hear. At the closing session with Elder Perry the congregation was singing The Lord is my Light. All of a sudden people started to stand up and then Elder Perry and Elder Nelson stood and by the end of the second verse everyone in the Marriott Center was standing and singing The Lord is my Light with tears streaming down their faces. Words cannot adequately describe the feelings in that place at that time. It was truly a "Zion Moment"
Then as if the weekend couldn't get any better, Saturday I got to take my mom and my sisters and Hannah to "Wicked" at the Capitol Theatre. We went to dinner first at The Roof Restaurant and then headed over to the theatre. When we walked in I thought Hannah was going to hyperventilate. She was so excited. We were a little early getting there so we had to wait for about a half hour before the show started. She kept turning to me and saying "I can't believe I am actually here" and when the lights dimmed and the music started she had the biggest grin on her face. I think it was more fun to watch her then the show.

Disneyland, flooded basements and in general, life passing me by

This one's for you Lori. It has come to my attention that I have been neglecting my blog. It's not that I don't have things to blog about it's just when I think I have a second to sit down and come up with something clever to say the phone rings or a diaper needs changing or someone is hungry or thirsty or a fight breaks out and boys need to be sent to their respective corners. The past couple months have been a little crazy. It all started with plans to go to Disneyland at the end of March. I casually asked my brothers and sister if they wanted to tag along and before I knew it I turned into a travel agent extraordinaire researching and booking hotels, flights and rental cars. The week before we were supposed to leave I was up late working on finalizing our plans. I looked at the sink at thought to myself how nice it would be to wake up in the morning to absolutely no dishes in the sink(something that rarely happens). So I loaded up the last of the dishes turned on the dishwasher and went to bed feeling like I had accomplished something. The next day Andy came up the stairs and said, "Mom, there is a bubble in the ceiling." I ran down the stairs to find my basement ceiling sagging and very wet carpet. After some investigating I figured out that the hose that leads from the dishwasher to the disposal had come loose and had sprayed water under the sink all night eventually finding it's way to the basement all though not before warping my beautiful wood floors. We managed to get everything dried out and cleaned up before I hosted a baby shower for my friend Jana the following weekend and then packed up the day after the shower and headed for sunny California. Whew!






We had a great time with all of the cousins and loved being in 70 degree weather. Can I just say I love Disneyland. We even managed to get through the entire vacation without loosing Luke.

The magic of hairspray

A couple of months ago Steve and I finally decided to get a new couch. Our old couch was literally on it's last leg. So we went down the road to RC Willey and picked out a gorgeous chocolate brown leather sectional. We were a little nervous about buying something so nice considering our children seem to have a talent for destroying anything of value, but we bought the protection plan and figured it was worth the risk. When the new couch arrived we sat all the kids down and laid out the rules for the new couch. No eating, drinking, playing with action figures that might puncture the couch etc. Apparently though we missed one rule. No drawing on the couch. So yesterday when Josh came up the stairs to inform me that Andy had drawn on the couch with a pen I had a mild stroke...well not really a stroke so much as a big fat grown up tantrum. I ran down stairs to find not just one little drawing on the couch but a foot long star wars action sequence complete with clone fighters and walkers. I grabbed a wet wash cloth and attempted to wash off the pen unsuccessfully then tried a little soap which did nothing. Then I remembered the protection plan I had purchased so I called RC Willey to see what I should do. I was told to call the pen company....what!....the pen company. Of all the stupid things. Anyway, I gave up trying to talk to customer service and decided to turn to the Internet and my favorite tool google. I found several sites that suggested I try hairspray. I was a little skeptical but desperate so I decided to try. It worked like a charm. After the pen marks were gone I used a little soapy water to remove the hairspray residue and the couch was good as new. After an hour long timeout I told Andy that I enjoyed his imagination and artwork just not on the couch...or the walls or anything else for that matter that was not a pre-approved piece of paper. Hopefully the next furniture mishap will be as easy to fix.

Hannah got a new haircut

I have been trying unsuccessfully to get Hannah to cut her hair. She has been letting it grow for quite a while. Finally at about 6:00pm Saturday night she turned to me and said, "I want to get my hair cut short." Not wanting to miss an opportunity, I told her to go jump in the car and we headed off to the nearest Salon that was still open. I thought she would chicken out at the last minute but she went through with it. I absolutely love this new look on her. I think she likes it better too.