Granite Flats

Our second camping trip of the summer was at Granite Flats. We left Sunday after church and stayed until Tuesday after breakfast. It was just a quick trip up the canyon, but very beautiful and we loved being with our friends.

Janna brought Emily Simpson, Brooklyn Dahl and Hannah Jones. Cammie brought Julie Jensen. Jeffrey had his friends McKay and Rhett there with their families. Amberly started her new job and only came up for dinner Monday night. We hung out at Timble Fork on Monday and the kids had fun in the water. Then after lunch the boys went up to Silver Lake and the girls hung out at camp. We had great weather, but the trade off is lots of mosquitos. Yuck! Delayne and family joined us for dinner Sunday night and the Criman Family joined us for dinner Monday night. Love having family night with our friends!

Daniel Family

Wright Family

Farrer Family

Barney Reunion

We had a great reunion for my mom's family on Saturday after we got back from sister retreat. What a great few days of lots of chances to be with the family I love.

Sister Retreat in Park City

For sister retreat this year I found a condo in park city on the vbro.com website. We headed up on Thursday and stayed until Saturday when we came down for the Barney reunion.

According to Frances this is our 9th sister retreat. This year everyone except Sherri was able to make it. (back-left to right: RaeAnn, Ruth, Maria,Frances; front-left to right: Lydia, Jenny, Janice, Sarah and Mom)

Sarah beautified our toes for us.

Ruth beautified our hair and eyebrows (with chocolate wax) for us.

Jenny made sure we had plenty of movies although we ended up renting the one we watched at the redbox.

We swam a little. Or maybe I should say we laid out and watched chipmunks and squirrels a little.

We shopped at the outlet stores a little.

We played silly games.

And we laughed a lot.

I look forward to being with my sisters every year. We lift each other and recharge each other and help each other remember what it's all about. Then we're ready to go back out into the world and share the amazing love we have for each other and the Lord with others. Thanks sisters and mom. I love us!

Locks for Love

Well Janna has been growing her hair for a long time and wanted to donate it to Locks for Love. Yesterday, my sister Janice came over and cut Janna's hair so she could send it to Locks for Love. Janna loves her new haircut and I'm sure whoever gets a wig from her beautiful red hair will love it as well.

Canyon Glen

Monday night we went to Canyon Glen in Provo Canyon to hang out with family while my sister Janice is here from Kentucky. We want to get together as often as we can while she's here. It was fun to drive just a few minutes and BBQ like we were camping. We really do live in a beautiful place and I love hanging out with my family. Glen and Sarah and girls, Frances and Todd and kids, Janice and girls, mom and dad and Rusty of course and our family were able to attend.

No Room to Receive it.

You know that promise about tithing? If you pay your tithing, the windows of heaven will be opened and you will have no room to receive it? Well I proved the Lord herewith. Kevin and I have always paid our tithing as soon as we are paid. And the Lord has truely blessed us so much it feels like there isn't room for all our blessings. Here is one example. My wonderful mother taught 1st grade for years. When she retired she gave me all her stuff. It was my second year of teaching and I was just starting in kindergarten after sharing a room my first year with another teacher and using her stuff. It was ideal timing because I now had a place to put everything. Now I am going to share a room again and teach first grade with another teacher who has been teaching first grade and has everything we need so I cleaned out my kindergarten classroom yesterday. I did leave alot for the new teacher who is an intern, but still after loading 4 huge garbage cans and taking 5 boxes to DI, I ended up with this pile in my family room. Where oh where shall I store this blessing? Hopefully Kevin can clean out his office a bit and we can pile it in there since he doesn't ever use it anymore. Thanks mom for being an instrument in the Lord's hands and providing this teaching blessing!

Happy Father's Day

I am so blessed to have the fathers in my life that I do. First of all, I have a great dad. (guy in the BYU hat) He raised me right. He loved me, taught me, provided for me and plain old is a great dad. Happy Father's Day dad.

I am also married to a fabulous dad. I feel so lucky to be married to a man who takes fathering seriously with a laugh. Thank you Kevin for always being there for me and the kids. Thank you for providing the priesthood of the Lord for our home and being worthy to use it in behalf of your family and others whenever it may be needed. Thank you for providing for us and just being with us. We love you very much.

I also want to thank Kevin's dad for the great influence he is in all of our lives. Even though he didn't have a father around as he grew up, he has made sure to be there for his family. I'm so glad to have you in our lives Leon.

Happy Father's Day!

First Camping Trip of the Summer

We left Thursday afternoon for our first camping trip of the summer. We went to a campground in Manti canyon which was absolutely beautiful.

After getting set up at camp, some families went down to save places at the pagent grounds. We ended up at two different places for dinner, but the turkey dinner was delicious.

Here we are with the Stewarts at the stake center where we had a yummy turkey dinner. The day before we left, Cammie was a little bored so she made our family some T-shirts. Way to go Cammie. It's nice to to know who you belong to.

We headed for the temple grounds to wait about 2 1/2 hours for the pagent to start. Our friends had saved two rows in the front so the kids played on the grass and the adults visited until the pagent started.

Kevin relaxing and posing.

I usually end up braiding hair. This trip I only did Janna and Hannah. Gina and John Farrer went to Manti friday and picked up some fresh corn on the cob. Kevin had gotten a new BBQ for his birthday and we decided to BBQ a few in their husks. Jennifer Daniel showed us how to make them pretty. They were very good cooked on the BBQ. Kevin's birthday present will serve us well.

Amberly had a great time with her friends.

Cammie and Haley also loved camping together. They were prepared with their own matching shirts.

Pretty much Jeffrey played wiffle ball with all his friends. They can entertain themselves for hours. Thank goodness.

Janna and Hannah were in heaven playing together. It's so nice that our children have such wonderful friends and I'm glad so many of their friends have parents that are our friends. We had just as much fun if not more with our friends. What a fabulous camping trip. I can't wait for the next one.

Painting My Bedroom

So it's been almost 18 years since I've painted my bedroom and this is why...

Kevin built this massive water bed when he was in high school. I absolutely love it, but it weighs ALOT! Needless to say it hasn't been moved since we moved in.

I really don't mind painting, it's the prep work that I don't enjoy. I must say, it's very satisfying to finish a big project like this. I do seem to need more ibuprofen than I did in my younger years.

I've loved purple since I was a little girl. I remember as a teenager having a pair of Nikes with a purple swish this exact color. I really don't appreciate homosexuals claiming it as their color because I guarantee I'm not homosexual, but I do love the color purple. I'm sure it's not for everyone, but I'm looking forward to having a couple of purple walls in my bedroom. Fortunately Kevin also likes purple (definitely not homosexual). Mostly he likes not being the one to do the painting.

Oh What Do You Do In The Summertime...

Oh what do you do in the summertime when all the world is wet? You play baseball anyway. Jeffrey and a couple of his friends haven't let the wonderful rain stop their baseball fun. They have had a blast the past few days playing in the rain. I just hope all the clothes are getting hung up to dry and not molding on the floor.

El Libro de Mormón

For the past two summers I have had the goal of reading the Book of Mormon in a week. Yes that's right, a week. My mom gave me the idea. She has done it several times. In fact, one time she read it 6 times in 6 weeks. Wow! I decided that as much as I like to read and as many hours a day as I spend reading other books, I certainly could read the Book of Mormon in a week once a year. As I have mentioned on this blog, I was given the impression to learn Spanish last fall and have been using a Spanish Book of Mormon to help me. I decided to listen to my Spanish Book of Mormon as I read it in English and I just finished today right before church. What an incredible experience. When I read the Book of Mormon in English I spend about 3 hours a day to meet my goal of 75 pages a day and the whole thing in a week, but listening took about 4 1/2 hours a day. It was tricky sometimes to fit that into my schedule, but the sacrifice was so worth it. I picked up more Spanish vocabulary in this past week than I have in the 9 months I've been trying to learn. I still can't say much, but I can understand ALOT of what I read and listen to. I'm so amazed at the power of the Book of Mormon in every aspect of our lives. I'm constantly learning more from my regular study of this divine book.

I want to try and bear my testimony in Spanish. Kevin said to preface it with: "It's true as far as it is translated correctly." For those of you who are "real" Spanish speakers, I preface this as Moroni did when he said, "y tú has hecho que no podamos escribir sino poco, a causa de la torpeza de nuestras manos. He aquí, no nos has hecho fuertes en escribir, como al hermano de Jared; porque le concediste que las cosas que él escribiera fuesen tan potentes como tú lo eres, al grado de dominar al hombre al leerlas. (Éter 12:24)

Yo sé que El Libro de Mormón es la palabra de Dios. Yo sé que El Libro de Mormón es el libro más correcto en todas el mundo. Yo sé que Joseph Smith es un profeta y restaura la iglesia de Jesuscristo. Yo sé que Thomas S. Monson es un profeta hoy. La iglesia de Jesucristo es la iglesia verdad. En el nombre de Jesucristo, amén.