California

"R" and I were able to spend a few days in California a couple weeks ago. He was there for a business meeting so I met up with him a day later. It was the first time I had ever flown anywhere by myself. I was very glad everything ran smoothly.....especially the flight there:-) We had such a great time! Here are a few pictures from the weekend. Thank you "B's" for letting us crash at your place. You guys are awesome!!!!

Breakfast on Manhattan Beach.

Manhattan Beach Pier

Laguna Beach

Dodger's Game......"R" was on cloud 9.

Lake Powell September 2009

We had a great time in Lake Powell a couple weeks ago with some awesome friends in our ward. We had such a fun time boating, playing in the sand, jumping off the houseboat, sliding down the slide, jumping on the water trampoline, playing games, watching movies, face painting and just hanging out with friends. The weather was perfect!! And the kids loved it!!!

Don't know why it say's the year 2004. Ignore!

This is "R" in the back of the boat paddling us out.......proceed to the following story.

Lake Powell isn't Lake Powell without an adventure, right? One day 3 adults (myself and "R" being 2 of the adults) and 10 kids ranging from ages 3-12 went on a boat ride to hike some Indian ruins. It is about a 30 minute boat ride and about 15 minutes into it the boat overheated. We sat in the middle of the channel for about 15 minutes to let the boat's engine cool off and then we headed back to the houseboat. We were approx 5 minutes away from the houseboat and the boat was running great so we turned back around and headed back to the Indian ruins. The boat did great and we got there with no other problems. We hiked to the top looked around for a bit and then headed back down. When we got to the boat we were hot and very thirsty and pretty much downed all the water and gatorade we had on the boat. We all got ready to head back and the boat wouldn't start......it was completely dead! Ummmmmm.......what to do? The two men on the boat ("R" being one of them who I might add had a cracked rib at the time) started paddling us out. The poor guys were just sweating like pigs and had very little water left at this point. We eventually got more out in the open and started having other boaters stopping to see if we needed help......which obviously we did. One boat had an extra battery which wasn't what our boat needed, one boat just went right by video tapping us ......guess we did look kind of weird. 2 men, one woman (me) and 10 freakin kids! Another boat went by and called us Jon and Kate plus 8. Nice!!! Anyway's long story short a very nice family from Kaysville, Ut told us they could at least tow us to the marina. 3 broken ropes and 3 hours later we finally made it to the marina at about 8:30 at night. I forgot to add that not only did we not have enough water, we had no food and no cell phones. Dah!! We thankfully had a group of incredible kids with us who remained calm and didn't complain even though we know they were a bit frightened and starving. I also might add that because we had no cell phone so we knew that the other parents at the houseboat were probably in a major panic. I would have been, not knowing what was going on, if we were safe, etc. We had left at 2:00 and by now it is 8:30 and its dark. We walked the docks trying to find someone who could help us and we found a couple different people who were willing to help. People really are amazing! We all piled in to this man's boat and headed out in the pitch dark, lightening all around and the other "R" who thankfully knew how to get us back to the houseboat. A 20 minute boat ride took us almost 2 hours in the dark. We finally arrived back at 10:30 to moms, dads, kids balling their eyes. They told us they had done everything they could back at the houseboat to help us but kept running into problems. Everyone was definitely relieved! Like I said always an adventure......we are just glad nobody was hurt.

This is "W" with a couple of her friends still smiling as the men are paddling us out. They didn't know at this point how long they were actually going to be sitting in this boat:-)

"W" and "H" after their tube ride!

"C" and "K" getting ready for their tube ride!

Me and "B" getting ready for our tube ride!

Building a sphinx and pyramid out of sand.

It really turned out amazing. Wish I had a better pic.

The mummy!

Kid's having fun on the water trampoline.

First Day of School

The big 4th and 1st grader!!!

Can you say.......Girls Camp!

I had the opportunity to spend five days with the best Young Women leaders and the BEST Young Women ever.......I know I'm biased but SERIOUSLY.....they are incredible people. We went to the Heber Valley Camp which was an amazing place, not to mention my kind of camping......cabins, bathrooms, showers, cooking equipment, crushed ice and beautiful scenery. I was called to be the Assistant Camp Director and was really excited about it but also a bit nervous because I don't know the first thing about "camping," and I knew I would have to leave my kids (not very good at that) but knew there was a great Director that would tell me what to do. BUT..... then she had to be released because her husband got a new job out of state. AHHHHH......NOW WHAT!!! Turned out that I became a "Co-Camp Director along with the Young Womens President (not like she had anything better to do.) We had seven weeks to basically plan camp but we did it along with the all the Young Women Leaders who never complained for a second!! Thank you Thank you!! It was an incredible week......but glad it is over too :-) The only downfall of being at camp was the fact that my sister had her baby while I was gone! Oh, well!

Funny story! Found out at camp that my friend (the one at the end on the left) and I both have family from Whitney, Idaho. Her Grandmother is a Weaver.....well my Grandmother is also a Weaver. WHAT! We did a little research and found out that her grandma and my grandma are cousins.......that we both have the same great great grandfather.....which means my great grandpa and her great grandpa were brothers. I have known this friend for 4 years. Who would have known. My grandma has passed away but her grandma is 92 and is still alive. She knew all about my sweet grandma. My mom couldn't believe it when I told her. Such a small world!

Last Day of School

"C" getting his High Flying Hawk Award.

This is what "C" calls girl trapped......doesn't look like he minds:-) The little gal on the right is our next door neighbor and one of his best friends.

Unfortunately these two pics of "W" turned out so dark. This is her getting her High Flying Hawk Award. At the beginning of each year their elementary school has different items/goals that each grade has to pass off to earn an award. To be honest its not the easiest thing in the world to do......they really do have to work at it. So way to go kiddos!!!!!

St. George Trip

We decided in June kind of last minute to head down to St. George. We swam, saw the movie Up, ate at Pizza Factory twice and walked around the St. George temple. It was nice to get away with just our little family.


"C" was so proud of this picture. We are sitting inside the play area by the pool. Hate close-ups but too funny not to add it:-)

Mr. Farmer Tan

"W" helping her little brother get used to swimming on his own with a life jacket.

At the St. George Temple

Mom's 60th Birthday

We celebrated by going to the Cowboy Grub......it's pretty much a family favorite. Good times!! This is the whole gang except for one sister-in-law who was at home with some sick kiddo's. We were planning on going miniture golfing afterwards but the weather wasn't cooperating so we ended up at my parents house for a night of games. It ended up being a ton of fun.......and we even got my dad to play which is usually unheard of (not a fan of games)......thanks DAD!!

My sister and I took my mom (hooray she took the day off) out to lunch at Rumbi Grill on her big day. There were big thunderstorms going on during lunch and we left just before a huge down pour hit. Parts of I-15 were like a river. It was a crazy drive home.