Family Reunion

 It seems that we have been on a whirlwind tour.  We were gone this past week for a family reunion in Garden Valley, ID.  We got to stay in cabins and play with lots of cousins.  I went by myself because Sam had to work but we had an absolute blast.

 This was the kids favorite place to be.  It was a very steep hill with powder fine dust on which they would slide down and get very dirty.  They were in heaven.

Luke was the dirtiest of all and he loved it.  He never gets to be this dirty at home so he was enjoying every minute of it.

We had lots of things to do.  The kids loved the marshmallow guns and bows and arrows.  We also learned how to make rope (I got a sweet tow rope),

played games,

 had a pie eating contest,

 made flags, 

 made some cute crafts, and got in some sweet visiting time.

We had lots of fun and are back home now trying to get all the dirt from under our fingernails.

Girls Camp--Bakers Creek

 Sam and I were lucky enough to go to girls camp last week.  Sam got to be the priesthood and I got to be the cook--sweet!

We took off last Thursday morning and headed north to the beautiful mountains.  When we were getting ready to leave we noticed one of the back tires was flat and had a nail in it.  They gave us directions and they took off and we went to Les Schwab to get the tire fixed.  They were quite quick and then we were on our way.  

It's a several hour drive which we completely enjoyed talking and hanging out together.  When we got up there we could not find our group anywhere.  We drove around for a hour and half winding through tiny roads and searching all campsites.  Finally we decided to head back to the nearest town where we could cell service and see if we could get ahold of anyone.  No one answered so we hung out for awhile and then decided to walk around town and get some lunch (thank heavens we didn't have all the food with us).  We enjoyed a very nice soup, fries, and sandwich and kept waiting for someone to get worried and call.

Finally, after hanging around for three hours they called us and informed us that they gave us wrong directions--no wonder we couldn't find anyone!

Anyways we finally made it to camp and had so much fun.  We have a great bunch of girls in our ward and I loved being able to cook for them, especially because I didn't have to chase my yahoos around (thanks a ton Emily!).

 The ycl's convinced the girls that if they put toothpaste on their faces the snipes would flock to them.  Silly girls!

 Sam was wonderful at getting fires started, chopping wood, taking down tents, and swimming in very, very cold lakes.  

 One night we made delicious scones with berry butter...mmmm so delicious!

All the cute girls.

Showers here we come!

Kathryn's Softball

 I was able to coach Kathryn's softball team again this year.  It was coach pitch this year and the girls all did a great job learning to hit from me.

 Here are just some shots of Kathryn batting and fielding.  She liked it most of the time, but it's so hot this time of the year, it's hard to love it.  

 She still did a great job and catcher was her favorite position to play.

 Here is most of of our team (FR: Kathryn, Lily, Thalia, Kylee, Hannah.  BR: Addison, Siera, Natalie)

Seth's 11th Birthday!

Seth turned 11 last week!  I can't believe it....I know I say that every year but time flies faster and I can't believe Seth is already that old.  He has been so excited and couldn't hardly wait for it to get here.  My mom, two sisters (Emily and Natalie), and niece Ezra came to spend his birthday with us (and bring us a couch).  That's why they are all sitting outside on a couch :)

Because they had to leave before the evening celebrations, we had a birthday breakfast.  We had crepes (Seth's favorite breakfast) filled with cream cheese, white chocolate or chocolate mousse, and bananas, blackberries (Seth's favorite), or strawberries.  Talk about sugar overload at breakfast but it was so tasty.  All of our favorites was cream cheese mousse with all the fruit in the middle, topped with the white chocolate mousse.

After lunch we headed out to a place called Steadmans.  They have awesome water slides, a zip line, sand boxes, a trampoline, volleyball nets, and many other fun things.  We stayed at the water slides almost the whole time and had an absolute blast.

Then most of us were very brave and tried the zip line.  It was quite a rush and the perfect height for beginners (which was definitely me!).

 Seth and Sam.

 Natalie and I and Emily below.

After playing for hours we headed home to eat Seth's favorite dinner--Hawaiin Haystacks, open presents, and eat his awesome dessert.

 Ezra is just hanging out and Seth is making a silly face because Sam is singing his family rendition of happy birthday which is like 10 verses long!

 Seth's dessert because it was that amazing!

Some thoughts about Seth:

 favorite color: royal blue

favorite movie: harry potter

favorite school subject: science

friends: Logan, AC, Karson, Alec

favorite things to do: play the wii, build legos, or play board games

favorite games: lego star wars and ghost recon 2

what he wants to do when he grows up: engineer for the military or design lego sets

favorite book: "Throne of Fire"

favorite sport: soccer

Seth is a great big brother.  He loves to play with Luke, Sarah, and Kathryn (most of the time anyway) and is a great babysitter.  He still loves to read and can be found playing legos for hours.  He has an amazing memory and is quite the artist.  We are so glad he is part of our family.