Christmas Kayli's Sweet Sixteen

It may be a bit odd to be writing this on Christmas Eve, but this way I won't be so far behind on Christmas, and besides it is an appropriate thing to do on a day that Kayli thoroughly enjoys.  Kayli was born six days before Christmas on, not so coincidentally, the only year that I was completely prepared for Christmas by the end of October.  That was sixteen short years ago and now she is grown into a beautiful young woman.


Kayli's birthday brownies.

Kayli hoping to get her wish.

Kayli is a very thoughtful person and I am a little worried about what our house will look like when she stops acting like Cinderella.  She does such a good job of helping out.

Kayli is very musical and has been taking guitar lessons the last three months at the same time as me.  She already plays the piano beautifully.  She has decided to go back to piano lessons rather than continuing with guitar.  We'll see if she really learns guitar on her own like she thinks she will.  I didn't have much success with that!  Thanks to her father's urging she has also joined me in singing in the choir on Sundays.

For her birthday Kayli had a friend get together because her Dad kind of made her.  She requested that nobody bring gifts and so she got presents from everyone.  Tia was in charge of being hostess and they played games, watched a movie, and barely made a dent in all of the treats that Derek bought.  Kayli's actual birthday was on a Monday and a school day.  She didn't get to open her presents until dinner time but she got brownies, ice cream, and hot fudge at snack time.  We had the food that she requested for dinner (sweet and sour chicken with chicken nuggets on the side for those who don't like sweet and sour chicken).  Then we watched a movie because that is what she wanted to do.



Kayli opens presents with Jake as a sidekick.

She must have liked whatever present she was opening here!

Kayli is a good, helpful girl.  She has good friends and is a good friend to others.  She likes high school a lot better than junior high and she loves Christmas.  She is writing a letter to Santa as I type and looks forward to racing Trisa up the stairs in the morning.  I don't know that she has ever won that race yet!  Happy late birthday to my close to Christmas Kayli!  I hope 16 is sweet!

Energetic Erin

Erin with her family

Erin is strong, imaginative, and fun.  She finds energy when I'm sure I couldn't, and she uses that energy to take care of those that she loves.  I remember once that I was talking to somebody who I thought might know Erin.  I knew she was describing Erin when she said, "Is she the one that's always carrying two children?"  Erin says it keeps her balanced to have one child in each arm.  It would have kept my children at the emergency room being treated for head wounds.  It probably would have sent me off for early shoulder surgeries too, but Erin is strong and she seems to manage just fine.  Somehow she never gripes about her arms or her aching back or anything, at least not to me, and her two youngest children know they can count on her to hold them when they need snuggles.

Okay, so this isn't Erin.  But this is exactly how she would carry these boys.
It must be a family talent.

Erin has five children and a husband (Russell).  The husband came first.  She also has a nice house.  She uses her imagination in playing with and teaching her children, and in coming up with more ways to decorate, and redecorate her house.  It is always fun to go and try to figure out what is different.  She only lives about 15 minutes away, but something is different every time I go.  I haven't kept track of how many times the front room has been repainted, or any room.  The floors have changed, the furniture gets added to, the rugs come and go, the cabinets are a different color, new pictures or plaques take the place of old ones.  The constant is that it always looks nice, and there are always happy children around.

Happy Erin with a happy Dylan

Erin has a couple of different blogs, including a cooking blog.  She cooks up yummy things and then posts the recipes and pictures.  I admit to not visiting that blog often, but it is not the blogs fault, it is Dan's allergies.  We all know that yummy stuff has milk, or cheese, or eggs thrown in there somewhere!  Yummy desserts seem to be her specialty and for a while she seemed to get the dessert assignment for every single family dinner that we had.

I call Erin every now and then when I want someone to talk to and I always enjoy the chance to chat.  Quite frankly, it makes my day that she always seems so happy that I called.  She's on the computer quite a bit too and so I like to write her e-mail because she's usually very good about writing right back.

Erin likes to shop and I hear (from my girls, and Russell, and Tanya) that she is fun to shop with.  I think I'd like to peak and see how many shoes she owns.  She shops both in stores and online and has been known to sell a thing or two on ebay, which I think is brave because, well, because it would make me nervous to do that.

When our kids are opening presents slowly we tell them to "open it like Aunt Erin!"  Because of her childhood habit of sneaking a peak at her wrapped gifts, I still wonder if Russell dares put any of her presents anywhere in the house before Christmas -- or maybe she just buys her own now, but I think Russell has managed to surprise her a few times. 

Erin makes me smile.  She's just so creative and quick witted.  She reminds me of her Mom in the way she can take a rather daunting task and tackle it with a positive attitude and the thought that if we just get to work, we'll get done soon.  She also seems to have inherited, or developed, the gift of keeping a positive attitude even when sleep isn't very abundant.  All the same, I hope that she got a good nights sleep before her birthday and that today is a totally awesome day for her.  She won't want me to be too mushy, but I love her, and hope she has a happy birthday!

This is to let Erin see the lone picture she would have had on here if I hadn't gotten some off of her Picasa web album.

Handy Mandy

Mandy

Mandy is married to my brother-in-law Devin.  They have four children, 2 girls, one boy, and a very new baby girl.  They live about 15 minutes away from me in a beautiful two story brick house where Dan and I, and occasionally my whole family, have enjoyed some happy times.

When Mandy was dating Devin we were all looking forward to meeting her.  We got the chance to meet her for the first time at the annual Halloween party, where we were all dressed up in costumes.  There were about ten adults and a LOT of children all dressed up in unique ways to greet her.  I figured she must like Devin a lot when she was actually willing to come and meet us all again!

Mandy is smart.  She has her bachelors degree in Biology from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County where she played basketball.  She is six feet tall and has basketball skills (obviously).  She loves to play sports and played flag football quite a bit too.  She has an M.A. and a PhD from BYU in exercise science and so she can be called Dr. Mandy.  She also served in the Geneva, Switzerland mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  She speaks French.  If she weren't so nice, I'd find her accomplishments a bit intimidating.

One of the most fun things about knowing Mandy is getting to see which creative project she will do next.  Here are pictures of some of the things she has made.

This is an outdoor pizza oven that Mandy made.  They have made pizza for the neighbors and themselves in this oven.

Mandy designed this play set for her kids and her Dad helped build it.

These are some of the canned goods that Mandy put up this summer during a year when she was pregnant and not feeling her best.

Devin and Mandy worked together to make an apple cider press.

This is another part of the press and they got several gallons of apple cider this fall.

The girls wanted a doll house for Christmas.
 I called during nap time once to find Mandy working downstairs on this project.

Some of us would just go buy an easel at the store.  Mandy decided to just make one herself.

Besides all of these things she also decided to try her hand at sewing a year or so ago and made her girls some beautiful princess dresses for Halloween.  I expect Mandy can do whatever she puts her mind to.

If you were to visit Mandy's house you would know immediately that she is patriotic.  If you went at night you would be greeted with electric candles in the windows.  This is a tradition that she brought from the east where she is from (the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area).  It is a very welcoming look, and I think it fits a house that Mandy lives in because she always makes me feel welcome when I come to visit.  I love Mandy.  She is good to me and I always enjoy the time I get to spend with her.  Happy Birthday Mandy!

I'm Thankful for Tina

(left to right) Brian, Tina, Ray, Mom, Dad, Jenny, Sherie

Today is not Tina's birthday, but tomorrow is.  Her birthday is sometimes on Thanksgiving and I am always thankful for her.  She is a good person who loves the gospel of Jesus Christ.  She is a good example for me.   Besides that, here are some of the things that I am thankful for:

Tina has been my friend since I was very small.  There were times when I'm sure Tina thought I was a bit pesky, but for the most part she was patient, and kind, and fun.  When she was a teenager I used to tease her for doing her hair at night.  I asked her if she was hoping to look nice in her dreams.  She didn't clobber me, so you can see that she was patient.  When she came home from youth activities that I was too young to attend she would take the time to tell her curious little sister (me) all about it.  She and my other siblings were my main playmates during the growing up years and we had a lot of fun.  Tina taught us in "school", did gymnastics, played dolls and barbies, baked, and did many, many other fun and imaginative activities with us.

Tina is compassionate.  On those sad days as a teenager when all of the emotion I had been holding in bubbled out in tears, it was Tina or Jenny, my two good sisters, who would let me lay on their lap and cry until I was able to pull myself together and become my "naturally cheerful self" (I'm quoting my brother Brian there).  It is Tina who, as a rather poor newlywed, would call to check on me, a rather poor college student.  Somehow she and Chris always found enough food to share with me, and it was much better food than the noodles and salt that I got down to once.  I never felt she was judging me, just kindly taking care of me.  When I was grown up a bit and had children of my own, I can remember Tina (and Jenny) coming to the hospital to see my little Tia who had to have surgery when she was two weeks old.  They both cried to see my little girl hooked up to monitors and tubes and I remember how glad I was that they had come.  Tina has been there to be understanding and loving during the challenges of my life, and this is very helpful to me.

Tina is very talented.  She is a good musician.  She plays the piano, and sings alto like me.  At one time she knew how to play the guitar.  Tina sews.  She used to sew clothes for her barbies and dolls, and could sew things without patterns.  Now she does the most wonderful quilts.  She made a gorgeous quilt for my parents 50th anniversary that took her hours and hours.  She is also the one who made the fun hamburger puppet for my birthday.  She likes tools and fixing things and is very handy.  She also is a gardner and has gardens that my Dad (the chief gardner) can be proud of.  She does a lot of canning and is good at feeding guests, even at the last minute (at least she used to be, we can't really just pop over anymore).  She is a good teacher too and has taught her children well.

Finally, because I can't bring myself to leave it out, Tina was always super fun to have around at Christmas time.  All of my siblings (except Ray who preferred sleep) spent a lot of time on Christmas Eve sneaking around the house, and even playing with our toys from Santa.  We had so much fun every year.  It was always our goal to not get caught by my Dad.  My parents were very patient and Mom would come out first to warn us to get quiet.  When Dad came out we knew we'd have to go back to bed, at least for a few minutes.  Tina loves Christmas still and I think she probably still gets very little sleep on Christmas -- but more because her own children are up wandering about!

There are so many good things I could say about Tina!  Tina is a great sister.  I love her and am very thankful for her.

Kindergarten Drama

I didn't know that having Dan in Kindergarten would bring more drama into our lives.  We have a cute neighbor girl who is not in Dan's kindergarten class, but who rides the bus with him.  He loves her, or at least he has for the past two weeks.  He kept praying "I'm thankful that I love my Mom and I love Tiffany".  "Her is my best friend", he would say. 

He played at her house after school once and had a great time.  And then there came a time when we invited her to come over here and play while her Mom worked.  She didn't want to because "Dan scratches my head and I don't like it", reported her Mom.  After some discussion we discovered that Dan was "tickling" Tiffany.  He told me that "her likes to be tickled".  I informed him that "her must not because her doesn't want to come over" (I can use my pronouns incorrectly if I try).  He played with somebody else and I tried to convince him to stop tickling her, and anyone else.

He went back to loving her until yesterday when he came howling down the street from the bus.  I thought he must have fallen.  No.  "Tiffany called me a bad word", he said.  After hugs, and telling me again, and telling Tia, he clarified that she had called him "stupid".  This can be a bad word for sure.  It didn't make him feel good anyway.  Today he came home happier and matter of factly informed me that Tiffany had told him that she didn't want to play with him ever again.  I asked, "Why not?".  Dan reported, "She said my singing is annoying.  I told her I'd stop!"

Dan still loves lots of people in his prayers.  He's taken to ranking us all.  "Thankful that I love Jake, he is my favorite.  Thanks that I love Jesus more than anybody else in the whole world because I have to".  Okay so he only said he had to once, since then he just adds it in as if it makes him super righteous just to say it.  Religion is always interesting when heard from Dan!  I think he might be hoping that we will all spoil him extra so that we'll move up in the prayer rankings.  Poor Tiffany might have dropped out of the rankings all together after today.  But, it is likely she'll be back next week!  Things change fast in the life of a Kindergartener.

Trisa Kay's Big Day

Trisa is officially an adult.  21.  She has been 21 for two weeks and 3 days.  She is a junior in college majoring in Elementary Education.  She is beautiful, and kind, and smart.  Thankfully, she's coming home today so we can see her.

Trisa is our oldest child which means that one day she will be telling Dan tales of how hard her life was compared to his.  But, lest you feel too sorry for her, she also has lots of aunts and uncles and many of them were unmarried when Trisa was born.  They were her fan club and they loved to play with her, teach her things, and spoil her in any way they could.  I still remember Trisa at about two carrying a basketball that was about as big as her out into the middle of a basketball game because she wanted to play basketball with her Dad and Uncles.  They usually let her play games with them!  She was a little angry when I chased her down and carried her off the court.  On Derek's side of the family she is the first grandchild and the first great grandchild and she was treated like a royal princess.

Thankfully, even with all of that spoiling, and our unskilled attempts at parenting, Trisa is a good daughter and a good big sister.  She dragged Tia around by the feet before Tia could walk (Tia was sitting up) so she could play with her and they are good friends still.  Tia can hardly wait to join Trisa in grown up land (away from home).  Kayli misses having Trisa around and especially looks forward to racing her up the stairs on Christmas mornings.  Connor and Trisa love to talk about, and share books.  Trisa talks to Jake and makes him smile, and Dan loves her and wishes that college weren't so far away and didn't take so long. 



Look at the candle glow on that chocolate cookie.

Trisa looks like she was needing to blow really hard to get this candle out.
And I look like I might need to help her.

This makes us wonder who really blew out the candle.

Trisa got a package from us before her birthday.  She opened it on her birthday and called me and let me listen when she opened her presents.  Her friends made her a cake and lit all of the candles I sent. That probably took a LOT more air to blow out than the one candle we lit. 

Derek and I love Trisa.  We miss her as only parents can.  We miss her baby self, her one year old self, and all on up to the wonderful person she has grown to be.  Three more hours and we won't have to miss her 21 year old self any more.  Until Sunday. Happy Belated Birthday to Trisa.

The Random Update

I have a half hour before I need to drive Kayli and I to guitar lessons.  I hope I'm more skilled for my teacher today than I was at home yesterday -- but that doesn't seem likely!  Still, I have improved from when I started a couple of months ago.

Trisa the beautiful, whose birthday blog I have not done yet because I seem to have turned flakey at the end of the year, came the Sunday after her birthday.  I'll save her lovely pictures for when I do her birthday blog.  She had spent the weekend with a former roommate and her family.  They attended a concert and an SUU away game and seemed to have a fabulous time.  They came here for Sunday dinner and we enjoyed visiting with them and the former roommate's friend.

One of the October Mondays we had some people over and carved, or painted pumpkins.  Some people did both.  We had some fabulous pumpkins.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of them before I threw their shriveled pumpkin faces in the garbage today.  Oops.

Then, there was the annual C. family Halloween Party.  Derek had a work party before the Halloween party and a lot got done.  Here are the pictures from those events.

This is only impressive if you know what it looked like before.

Professionally stacked wood.

This pile is much bigger than it looks.
It would be a fabulous, but dangerous, bon fire.

Devin did this before the work party day.  He also picked the apples.
This looks a lot better too.

Ninja Jake has been doing quite well at the piano.  He was probably playing his Halloween song.

This is the only picture I have of the group.  It does not adequately capture the crowd.

Finally, after the Halloween Party we got to have Quinn, Porter, and Haven come for the night and then to church to hear me speak, and before we knew it Halloween had arrived.  Dan was Ironman.  Jake was a ninja and went trick or treating with Brennan.  Brennan's mom drove them somewhere and so they had piles of candy.  Connor went to a party with friends.  Kayli opened the door and handed out a lot of candy.  Tia handed out candy and then went out with friends.  I took Dan trick or treating with his friend Tifanny and my friend Diane, and Derek helped with the door occasionally and watched television (I think, but I was off trick or treating so I can't be certain).  I have one picture of Dan before Halloween.  He wore his costume so much I had to sew it back together Sunday night.

IronDan with his ghost hat and necklace from Kindergarten and his camo-jacket.
"Aren't I cool Mom!"

Dan says.... Mom says ..... Jake says...

Dan: People at school say I'm mean.

Me: You're not mean, are you?

Dan:  No.  I always say I'm sorry.

Later in the day....

Dan: I repented today.

me: Oh?

Dan:  I said I didn't like a toy a boy had and he punched me in the face, and so I punched him back in the arm.

Last week Dan was crying in the bathroom and Jake went to investigate.

Jake:  Dan, what's wrong?

Dan:  I'm tired of blowing my nose.

Jake:  Well, everyone has to blow their nose sometimes,  (pause)  well almost everyone.  Do you know who doesn't have to blow their nose?

Dan:  no

Jake:  Chickens!

Championship Game

The soccer team that Hamburger puppet attended was the championship game.  For the third year in a row Connor was on the winning team!  The last two years they gave him a trophy.  This time they got to wear their trophy.  This is the last year that Connor can play city league soccer.  Our town only has teams through the 8th grade.  This year he not only played with Mason (his friend who has also been on the winning team all three years), but also with his friends Kevin and Clayton.  He was coached by his scout master and the scout master's son-in-law.  They had a really good time.  Connor is a great soccer player and especially likes playing as a defender.  He is very good at keeping the ball away from the goal he is protecting.  Congratulations to Connor!

Surprise!

Tina (my sister) wrote me a note telling me that she was making me a present for my birthday but she wasn't done yet.  I had no idea when she would be done or what she was making and so it was a surprise that today I got a package.  Here is the fun present that my creative sister made for me.

It's a cheeseburger puppet!  I just took five pictures of it and these are my favorites.  I took him to Connor's soccer game to show to all of my friends.   My hamburger was a big hit, though he did remind several people that they hadn't had dinner yet:).  

Generally Spoiled

I often say that I have the best family and friends around, and my birthday seems to prove me right every year.  As usual, I was generally spoiled.  I got cards, gifts, facebook messages, e-mail, phone calls, visits, and even a text message.  My sister-in-law Laura wrote a very nice blog about me.  Kayli cleaned, made cakes, and was in charge of dinner.  Tia and Kayli decorated cakes and Tia made a part of the dinner.  I only have pictures of a few of my gifts -- but I appreciated every one that I got.

Pretty flowers from Derek

The cake Tia decorated.  The cake was crumbly and the frosting soft and so Tia was frustrated -- but I could read it and it was yummy!

Who knows what this look is for but Kayli loves this picture and so I added it.

This is the cake Kayli decorated.

 I got the idea of coloring canvas shoes from my sister-in-law Tonya.  So, with some birthday money from Derek's parents, I got some canvas shoes and Tonya helped me color them with pictures of my puppets and my kids' puppets.  Her drawings are the ones that look skilled.  I tried hard but that princess looks a little evil if you look at her eyes closely.  I blame it on the markers:)

Connor drew Oscar the Grouch

Tia drew the musical notes, I drew the vine.  Tonya drew Dan's "dragon" and I drew Jake's velociraptor (with the partially red head).

I like Tonya's Magnus the Magnificent (the lion), my pirate is funny close up -- It doesn't look much like Connor's Arrrghus (Argus) but it looks more like a pirate than my tiger looks like a tiger on a different side of one of these shoes!

One friend who knows I like instruments brought me an Ocarina.  It sounds a bit like a piccolo.

Another friend sent me these cheerful daisies.

One brave friend even bought me some clothes, and another brought me a whole bag of things to help me relax.  It arrived just in time, at the end of the day when I was exhausted.  So, you can see that I am not exaggerating, I really am generally spoiled, especially on my birthday.

The Three Fates

Tia's cosmetology school had a Disney program.  The students had to get models and dress them up like Disney characters.  There were some fabulously well done characters.  Tia did the Three Fates from Hercules.  They are the only ones I got pictures of.

Kayli is the Fate on the right -- carrying the eyeball.

Generous Little Jenny

Jenny with her husband Jeff and their five children.
Photo by Mitzi Torgersen



Last week, two days before my own birthday, my little sister turned forty.  I am four years older than her which maybe explains why my brain keeps turning off when I want to remember something and then helpfully remembers that thing in the middle of the night days later.   This time it remembered 8 days late.  Better late than never is becoming my new motto.  Here are some of the things I admire about Jenny.

Jenny is very good at organizing events, and being in charge.  In a family where we sometimes have a tendency to not be very decisive about some things, it is helpful to have a Jenny around.  When Ray (the oldest) and Jenny and I have traveled together before, Jenny was in charge.   

Jenny and Jeff are unfailingly generous at sharing their home and their resources.  Their house is almost always the family reunion / Harvest Dinner (early Thanksgiving) location.  Once they were able to take a lot of us to Lake Powell to stay on a house boat and it is still something that many of my kids love to remember.

Jenny loves to help.  If she knows something is wrong she wants to jump right in and help solve the problem.  She even called one of my doctors once to make sure he was doing all he could to help me.  How could I not love a sister who would do that?  She is also good at helping my Mom, and since I love my Mom, this makes me happy too.

Jenny has a good sense of humor.  I wish I had a video of her during one of our family reunion skits a few years ago.  Jenny loves yoga, and climbing, and is very strong.  Still, she is also very little and does not have your usual body builder physique.  So, during a part of one skit Jenny was making muscles in a dramatic fashion that had us all laughing and laughing.  Hopefully I would still laugh and not just sit there and covet the strength that she works hard to maintain.

Jeff calls Jenny "Little Jenny".  When he goes to find her I expect that he often finds her outside in the yard -- at least if the weather is good.  Little Jenny sometimes drives a backhoe to move rocks or dirt around.  Jenny's yard is beautiful.  She does lots of things like laying stone patios, or working in her beautiful flower or vegetable gardens.

Jenny is talented, generous, strong, fun, and kind.  She is also loyal, helpful, and friendly (like a good scout).  I love her and hope that her 40th birthday was a happy one, and that she'll enjoy many more happy birthdays.

My Trusty Bike

Me and my bike.  Photo taken by Dan.

I have had my bike for 25 years.  My Dad bought it for me when I was in college so that I wouldn't have to walk everywhere.  It has seen times when I rode it a lot, and times when it spent the whole year hanging in the garage.  A few years ago I had it fixed up, but in the beginning of the year it was in bad shape again and so I went out with Derek and got a new bike.  My old one is a Schwinn and so was the new one.  It was white and red.  It had a little bell, and a rack on the back, and fenders.  I rode it around the store for a while and then bought it.  Of course, when we got it home we discovered that its gears didn't work, it's brakes were always on and were impossibly hard to adjust, and the handle bars were installed off center.  I took it back and was assured that it could be fixed in about 40 minutes.  I decided to get my money back.

After more looking, and lots of considering, I decided that fixing my old bike up was a cheaper option and a really good one for someone as sentimental as me.  So, I took it to the local bike shop and they put road tires on it again (I had replaced its road tires with mountain biking ones).  They replaced the rusty cables and oiled the chains enough that I wasn't having to work extra hard to pedal.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that my bike was fun to ride again!  I added a bike rack on the back (for snacks, jackets, or library books) and a speedometer (It's fun to know how fast you are going and how far you have ridden).  So, the bike that my Dad bought for me, and he bought me a good one, is working for me still.  Good exercise and good fun.  Thanks Dad!

Family Fun in Idaho

     No summer is complete for us without a trip to Idaho.  Unfortunately, our summer was so busy we didn't make it there during summer vacation.  Fortunately, we figured out a way to fit the trip in later.  We left right after school on Thursday (Aug. 25) and had the kids skip their first Friday of school.  Trisa and Tia were not able to come, but the rest of us had fun.  Here are some of the highlights of our trip.

     We stopped at my parents house for dinner on the way to and from Idaho.  The food was delicious both times, and it was "Dan safe" including the Oreo "cake" to celebrate Dan's birthday number 5.

     Friday the kids played a lot and Derek and I got to attend the Rexburg Temple with Chris and Tina.  It was a blessing to get to go and it was nice to spend a little time with Tina and Chris.  W also enjoyed delicious Jamba Juices afterwards.  Tina's carrot one was not really making me jealous.

     We got to see their new beehive.

Emma handled the bees, Kayli got near them because she was in a suit.  Derek, Connor and Stephen could look into the hive from above.

Emma, Kayli, and lots of honey bees

     We got to see the chickens and watch the roosters strut around cock-a-doodle-dooing.  This is funny if you are not the one being woken up at four or five every morning.

Handsome Rooster

Stephen and Connor in the chicken coop.

Connor gazing lovingly at the chicken

Connor being amazed that he is holding a chicken.

     Saturday was also fun.  Chris and Derek took some of the kids on what was apparently a fabulously awesome hike (thanks Chris).  They went to a cave that had a wind tunnel.  Derek had me buy so many sweets for the hike that the sugar buzz alone should have kept them happy. While they were off seeing beautiful things Tina and I took some boys and went to the splash park.  They rode the carousel before getting wet.  Seeing the cute boys waving at us from their horses on the carousel was probably my favorite part of that trip, though it was kind of funny when Jake accidentally squirted me in the face when I told him it was about time to go.

     That night we had a big family dinner with my sister Tina and my brother Brian's families and that was really fun too.  We spent quite a bit of time trying to think of ways that the roosters (that were supposed to have been hens) could meet their demise without Christopher feeling guilty.  We obviously weren't successful as, last I heard, the roosters were still strutting around cock-a-doodle-dooing.

     Sunday was spent at church with Brian's family.  That Relief Society room was about the temperature of the Antarctic in the winter, but Brian found me a nice lady to sit by and the lesson was good.  I can't remember the trip home.  I think I had trouble staying awake and was glad that Derek was able to make the trip without falling asleep.  It was good to be home, but we are glad that we fit in some good family fun in Idaho.