Camping in the rain

The week before Memorial Day Joe ended up with 6 days off in a row. Looking for something to do close to home we decided to go camping. I love camping and was really looking forward to this trip but as we watched the weather forecast it wasn't looking good. Lots of rain. :( Being adventurous and REALLY wanting to go I convinced Joe & Brian to go anyway and give it our best effort - after all we were only going 2 hours away how bad could it be? It started raining on the way to the campground but it was just a few sprinkles. We had a great dinner and sat by the campfire just relaxing. Over night the storm let loose and we were treated to lots of wind, rain and thunder. In the morning the rain had stopped but Kevin and Kaitlin were soaked as the tent had leaked. Apparently we have never camped in such rough weather before as we have used the tent countless times with no problems. The morning looked good so we had a hearty breakfast and headed out on a hike. It was absolutely beautiful! I LOVE being in the mountains. During the hike it started to sprinkle again so we headed back to camp. By the time we got back the rain was in full swing. I sat in the car with Tyler as he took a 3 hour nap while Joe, Brian, Kaitlin and Kevin played games and tried to keep a smile on their faces. Meantime our poor dogs were freezing. I looked out the car window to see Tank - Brian's boxer walk by in a garbage bag! We had gone up to the nearest town to see if we could find some doggies coats but alas little towns have no pet stores so they bought a beanie and cut a head hole and leg holes for Harley - Brian's Boston Terrier & put old Tshirts on Tank & Cleo to keep them warm, then put the trash bags over the Tshirts in an attempt to keep them dry! When Tyler woke up from his nap he was not a happy camper. He loves camping but had had enough and begged us to take him home. Brian my die hard camper looked at me and said he was ready to call it quits and Joe who was only there to humor me made his opinion clear as well. We checked the local forcast & discovered that the previous nights storm was nothing compared to one the headed our direction so we headed back and in a record 45 minutes had camp broken down and packed in the car ready to head out. Guess we'll have to try another time. I so appreciate my guys who were willing to go out in the rain just to give me a chance to be in the mountains. I am so lucky!!!


The whole reason for going! Need I say more?

Me, Brian, Ty, Kevin, Kait, Cleo, Tank & Harley at the trailhead

Cleo & Harley trying to stay warm together

Heaven on earth!

For Carinna

I gave Andrea a hard time the other day for not updating her blog and then Carinna called and gave me a hard time for not updating mine! Lots has happened since that last entry at the beginning of March.

March -
We celebrated Joe's birthday by driving to Vegas and spending the weekend with all our girls. Amanda flew in from Denver and Alex & Nick drove down from Rexburg. We had a four person birthday celebration as we helped Papa Joe turn 53, Andrea turn 28, Avery turn 3, and Kaeden turn 2. Riley was supposed to catch a ride back up to school with Alex & Nick but decided to stay and spend a few weeks with Britt & Derek before heading back to Idaho. We had loads of fun but had to come home way too soon! I would post pictures but we left the camera in Vegas by mistake and someone - I won't say who - has not mailed it back to me yet.

April -
Joe and I spent our 31st anniversary in Hawaii. We have the benefit of having great friends serving a mission at the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu so we had a place to stay and easy access to the best places to visit. We climbed to the top of Diamond Head, went snorkeling at Huanama Bay, took a glass bottom boat out to see the coral reef and the sea turtles, toured the Dole Pineapple Plantation (ate enough fresh pineapple during the week to make me sick of fresh pineapple!), toured several botanical gardens and a few museums. We toured the Arizona, the Bowfin and the Aviation Museum, bought souviniers at the famous "Aloha Swap Meet", and visited the PCC. Neither one of us are beach people so we spent very little time at the beach but we did take the time to sit and watch the sunset at Sunset Beach. We got to eat lots of fun food as we tried several very small local restaurants and while the temple was closed for renovations we got to tour the grounds and the visitors center. Charlene & Terry (our hosts) have a grandson named Parker who is reading Flat Stanley in school. He had sent a Flat Parker to them and asked them to take picture of Flat Parker wherever they went in Hawaii and then send them back to him for a class project. Flat Parker went with us everywhere we went and is in more pictures than either Joe or I but it was lots of fun to get shots for them. We had a really wonderful time. Not much relaxing but lots of different activities from our usual daily routine so it was a nice break. Again no pictures but this time I'm blaming Joe. We still don't have the camera back from Vegas but we had had so many problems with that one we went ahead a bought a new one for Hawaii. When we got home he downloaded all of our pictures onto his computer and cleared them off of the camera card. He copied them to an external drive for me but I haven't been able to get them to copy onto my computer so I can resize them and upload them on the blog. Hopefully I will figure it out soon!

May -
We found out that Kaitlin has enough credits to graduate at the end of first semester next year. She will be done with high school in December! That is a bit scary to me!
The end of seminary! Today was the last day of seminary for the year. What ever will I do next week when my alarm does not go off at 5:30am? The sad thing is I will probably end up waking up at 5:30 anyway for the next few weeks until I adjust to not having to be up. I have loved being there with the kids and the last few days have been very nice as things have wound down. One of the students baked me cookies as a thank you for being there every morning, another one stopped and gave me a hug and said thanks for being the principal - this particular student is one who I had had problems with last year when I had subbed for his class so it was especially nice to have him stop and say thanks for everything. This morning one of the classes gave me flowers and a thank you card which was very sweet. Four of our five teachers are not returning next year, I will miss them dearly! They have strengthened my testimony and it has been so nice to serve with them. All of them thanked me for always being there to help and said that I spoil them. One of them said he thinks that attendance has doubled since I took over as principal because the kids know that I care. That meant a lot to me as I always wonder if it matters whether or not I'm there everyday or if I stay the entire time, but I realized this week that the teachers and students do notice and it does matter to them.

We are going camping next week and I can't wait. I love being out in nature and really having a chance to enjoy all the beautiful things Heavenly Father has blessed us with on this earth. I'll try to take possession of the camera when we get back so I can post pictures. I make no promises but I will try to post more regularly over the summer!

Coming Home

When Joe & I came home from choir practice yesterday Tyler came running and yelled with joy "Papa Joe you're here! I love you Papa Joe! I've been waiting to see you!" Then he proceeded to blow us kisses from the top of the stairs. Needless to say it filled our hearts with joy and laughter. As I thought about that later in the day I wondered if that is what it will be like when we return to our Father in Heaven. Will we shout with joy and love that we have been waiting to see Him? Or shrink in embarrassment over how we have lived? I hope I shout with joy!

Rising numbers

Andrea and Todd have announced the pending arrival of their third child in late fall. That will make 5 grandkids! Andrea read some Chinese calendar and it predicts an 89% chance it's a girl. I guess we'll find out how accurate the Chinese calendar is! Needless to say we are thrilled.

Shared experience

Kaitlin got her braces off two weeks ago and last week Kevin & I both got our top ones on. So after 10 kids 6 of whom needed braces (two of those as adults who paid for them themselves) I get my turn. I don't mind the pressure so much and I haven't had any pain but I am not enjoying the cuts on the inside of my mouth from the wires & brackets. I am becoming good friends with my wax! We have had at least one of us in braces for the last 5 years running but hopefully in two more we will all be done!

Expanding the next generation

Alex and Nick are expecting their first baby in September. This will be our fourth grandchild. The race is on to see if they have the first girl!

Catching up

It feels like I haven't posted anything forever. We have had a string of things lately that have kept me occupied doing other things. A couple of weeks ago Joe's hard drive crashed and he lost everything on his computer. Thankfully he had almost everything backed up so once the new drive was in he was able to restore most of what he had. That same week the microwave quit working, the stove top got water in the electronic ignition and we had to keep it unplugged until it dried out other wise it clicked incessantly, the suburban broke down and if that wasn't enough I ended up with a 3 day long migraine and the week ended with my computer drive crashing, only I did not have things backed up so I lost everything. Needless to say blogging was put on hold. Joe & Brian replaced the fuel pump in the suburban, but we ended up having to take it to a mechanic because the service engine soon light would not turn off. It turned out that in the middle of checking to see what was wroing with the suburban a spark plug was cracked causing the light to stay on. It ran fine for almost a week but the light is back on and the brakes are starting to grind! We got a new drive for my computer but two weeks later I'm still reconfiguring things. The stove top dried out after a few days and works fine now. We had an old microwave in the garage that we brought in to use until we can get the good one fixed but it sounded like a plane trying to take off everytime we used it. The other day Joe noticed that the side panel on the good microwave wasn't sealed all the way closed. He pushed on it, it popped in place and lo & behold it works! If only everything was that simple!