Halloween 2011

What a cute little Tinkerbell! Her shoes lit up as she walked and her dress had glow in the dark designs on it - best of all she was soooo excited to be Tinkerbell!Posing as we get ready to head over to the Elementary school for their Halloween parade. Rebekah ended up falling asleep on my shoulder before it was even started and missed the whole thing. For some reason she had the idea that she was going to be dancing in the parade so when she woke up and we were on our way home she gasped, put both hands on her cheeks and in major drama voice said "Oh, no! The parade! I didn't dance in the parade! I forgot!" It was hard to get David to pose for a photo. He's much more shy in front of the camera than Rebekah and the other children. He really liked his costume too. He first really wanted to be spiderman or one of the other super heros, but they all seemed to be too small or too big and when we found this he was sold. He liked 'riding a dinosaur'.

Here's James and Melissa as we caught them marching in the parade. Always a fun event and amazing how it draws a crowd in our little town. I love how so many of the Moms and Dads and Granparents come out for this. How fun for the kids!

Hmmm, where's Tinkerbell?

Ready to go trick-or-treating. What posers!

Since Halloween Rebekah asks insistantly every night when it gets dark if we can go trick-or-treating.

Bed Bugs, Really?

I had the great priviledge of going to Girls Camp this year with Melanie. Her first year (I'm still having a hard time believing she's in Young Women's already!!) It was a wonderful week. Melanie is a great young woman and we were surrounded by tons of other wonderful young women. I am very grateful for my wonderful In-Laws for helping watch all our younger children so I could go. Thank you!

Below is a picture of me and the two other women I was priviledged to co-lead a cabin of first year campers. We had a combined YW camp with a stake in Rochester. These two ladies are from the Rochester Stake. In the middle is Sister Iveth Trimm and to the right is Sister Janet Davis. Amazing and wonderful women that I am so grateful I got to serve with and get to know. We REALLY got to know each other well! The very first night poor Janet didn't get much sleep . . . what she thought was just itchy sheets she soon realized was bed bugs!! They had infested her bunk and were working their way up to mine. We headed to the nurse to see what to do about bed bugs. Luckily because the leaders bunks are seperated by a wall and doorway from the YW's bunks we found that the bed bugs hadn't reached anywhere else in the cabin yet. Janet and I took a couple of very thorough showers and spent the day at the laundermat. We washed and dried all of our things in very hot temps and just as a precaution ran all the girls things through hot dryers.



Not what we expected to be doing our second day of girls camp, but I can't think of anyone I'd rather spend a day at the laundermat with - Love you Janet!

Here's most of the girls, outside our new cabin with all our laundry - ready to move in. They quarentined the old cabin and luckily had another next door we were able to move into. Anything that wasn't able to be put in the dryer we bagged up and put in the kitchen's walk-in deep freeze for 24 hours. It was a little hard to settle down and get to sleep that second night, but once we did we were able to really enjoy the the rest of camp. What a crazy thing to have happen, but we were blessed with some amazing young women who were so calm and easy going that we were able to just make the best of it and move on. They were awesome!

Here's us at the flag pole. What a great group!

Around the camp fire. Making waffles for breakfast. We were kind of spoiled - we got to sleep in cabins and had lunch and dinner prepared in a big mess hall for us, but we did get to make our own breakast over the camp fire. Got to pass off that camp certification!

Here's our cabin. They were the best - the best! The girls in the orange shirts are the 1st years, the ones in the pink are the YCL's (youth camp leaders) and then us leaders in blue.

Here's all of us in the Fayetteville ward. Also a great group of girls. I love each one!

Okay, now just for fun - which we had a lot of. Camp Hair!

Melanie had camp hair too!

EEuuuuuu!! Cabin 2! Yuck!
Our flagpole cheer after switching to cabin 1 . . ."We're cabin 1, can't be cabin 2! - cuz we can't sleep tight, cuz the bed bugs bite!" Hahaha, glad the girls could have fun with it.

Last day. Blowing bubbles while waiting for everyone else to get cleaned up and checked out. It was a great week, went by fast. Can't wait to do it again - but hope to skip the bed bugs part.

(oh, and the day after we got home - got a call from the camp director that one of the girls from our cabin had gone home and found she had lice! NNNNOOOOOO!!)

Time with Grams and Pops

We always have fun when Grams and Pops come to town and this time was no different. Below is Eric trying out a zip line they put up at the lake. Here's what our family is known for at the lake - pyramids. This one has Melanie and Melissa on top and Ryan, Will and Andy on bottom.

Here's another with Melanie and Kelsey on top and Kalin, Pat and Will on bottom.

These pictures are terribly out of order, but the next few are when we stopped for dinner before going to the airport to say goodbye. Rebekah bawled and bawled when they left - she didn't want to see them go! None of us did. Notice Rebekah's antanae pig tails - hahaha they were funny.

Here's the boys - David and James were posing crazy and wouldn't stop, so got ejected from the first photo. They were mad and wanted to be in it, so once they settled down we took another.

Below here is a classic. When we went on a girls day of shopping Rebekah found her favorite store. She was a rock star!

Loaded stroller =empty wallet (that of course was Eric's imput to this post)

Always gotta ride the carousel.

We didn't mean to shop for so long, but we made a good day of it and stopped for dinner on our way home. It was some nice girl time. The boys had a good day at the lake barefooting and playing.

Lounging on the couch after a long, fun day.

Rebekah loves her Pops!

We spent a day with Gram's sisters at their new camp up at Oneida Lake.This swing was a hit -we couldn't hardly get them out of it.An ice cream truck came by - we never have that out where we are so Aunt Bonnie treated the kids to ice cream. Aunt Delores became friends with Rebekah real fast when she gave her ice cream - unfortunately I think she ended up wearing some of it too!

Above - the big boys helpin' out with the grill. Below - the little boys helpin' enjoy the results! Aunt Bonnie made some good ribs!

These pictures don't say it all - one week out of their stay is missing because I went to girls camp with Melanie and they helped watch the kids. That was so nice! Thank you!

Pioneer Day Breakfast

In our church we celebrate a holiday on the 24th of July we call Pioneer Day. It's the day the early Latter-day Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley back in 1847. They travelled west from Nauvoo, Il to escape religious persecution. It's of course a much smaller celebration out here, but we still like to take time to remember the faith and sacrifice of the early pioneer Saints. Here's Eric and Melanie cooking the last of the pancakes. We had a great breakfast and a lot of great help!
After breakfast our Bishop gave a great devotional and then we had a fun bike parade for the kids. There were a couple of covered wagons people made to remember the pioneers - many came across the plains by covered wagon. This bike that Rebekah is on isn't hers. It's an old one of Alexis Parke's that she brought in case anyone needed one - since it had princesses on it Rebekah assumed it must be hers!

After the bike parade we had some games out on the back lawn of the church. Here's David and James trying to make a go of the 3-legged race. It was a nice morning. I hope everyone else had as much fun as we did!

Melanie's 12!

Oh, my goodness! How in the world is she growing up so fast! Melanie is now 12!She has been a blessing and a joy. She is a great girl and we are so glad to have her!

Her brothers and sisters adore her and she is the perfect first child because she is patient and kind and generous and very nurturing. She is a great example and I couldn't ask for a better daughter!

Melanie and Melissa's birthday's are exactly opposite on the calendar, so on each others birthday its the other's half birthday. Melissa remembered that and wanted some gummy bears for her half birthday - Happy 1/2 birthday goofball!

These are pictures from the end of the day on Melanie's birthday. We forgot to take the cake to the lake with us so when we got home we sang and ate cake. The little two were exhausted and fell asleep but the big kids were still full of energy and pretty goofy!