Fly like an EAGLE!!

Saturday was one BUSY day for us. We all got up early and excitedly headed off to Deacon's Eagle project! He chose to work with Save the Family, an organization that helps families of domestic violence get on their feet. We prepared an apartment for a family to move in.

Here's one of Deacon's uncles helping with the job. Sure appreciated the hard work he put in. Most of his time was spent in an upstairs bathroom...eeewww.
We have a very small Deacon's quorum, here is one of our newly baptized Deacon's and his Muslim friend that came to support in the cause.
The best friend was a big help!
And the prospective Eagle himself! He led the project and did a pretty good job at it too.
Kitchen kept me occupied the whole 4 hours!
Ward helpers! Appreciate these guys!
Fellow boy scout and cousin lending a hand. It was a project that left me with a feeling of doing some good in the world that day!

A Little 2011 Heaven!!

We had the privilege of spending October break with Mom & Dad and all of their posterity (minus 2 Dad's that had to work). It was a wonderful week full of scheduled and impromptu fun. The weather and scenery was beautiful! Here are a few things I don't want to forget.

We determined to do some work projects while we were there. The kids were great worker bees as we chopped a HUGE fallen tree into firewood. Papa's tractor came in quite handy...as you can see:)
Yep...this pile was the work of lots of little worker bees.
Here's a shot at the top of Green's Peak. It's a beautiful view don't you think....look at those kids
Here's a group pointing to the spring. This was the destination of the hike one day. Doesn't look like much, but it's the source of the pond down the mountain.
Truckload of kids on their way to Green's...most of this group chose to run down the mountain instead of drive down.
Here's a shot of one of our Minute to Win it games.
Another game, get the cookie in your mouth with only facial movements! She did it!
Watching this game made me cry from laughing so hard!
We spent one afternoon riding horses. It was another highlight for the kids.


Some other favorites were Family Feud, team building games, singing around the fire with Papa playing the guitar. Making smores, watching old family videos, and exercising with the adults, it was a week full of fun and family. It truly was a little heaven in 2011!

Our little.....more like BIG star!

Derek tried out for the school musical and had a wonderful experience. They performed Give My Regards to Broadway and he played "Legs." Here are a few photos of the gangster.

I was proud of his efforts to overcome his stage fright! Boy did he overcome!
Here he is in his tutu trying to avoid capture.
He was definitely MY star of the show!!

Grand Canyon Railways

Mima was itching to spend some time together so she arranged for ALL of us to take the train from Williams AZ to the Grand Canyon on Labor Day. It was a fun trip, cool weather and beautiful scenery.Here we all are. Mima and Poppa's posterity-5 kids with spouses and 19 grandchildren. Quite a crew.
For some reason our rail car was kind of noisy:)
At the Grand Canyon the kids all participated in a jr. ranger program. Here they are at the pinning ceremony.
On the way back to Williams we were robbed! Here are a few of the bandits.

Here we all are being trained by the ranger. She was showing us what animals live in the area. We were even lucky enough to see a couple of California Condors.

Mima and Poppa with their laps full. It was a fun day. Thanks Mom and Dad!!

cousin campout

The weekend before school starts we have an annual cousin campout for kids 8 and older. We have missed the last few years but were happy to be able to attend this year. Our whole family could go as everyone is older than 8 yrs old. It was an awesome experience. From cooler weather, to playing in the creek, to sharing our favorite scriptures around the campfire.

We were all tuckered out when it was all done. It was a fast and furious trip.

First Day of School!! (a month later)

Sophomore (holy cow!!)
8th grade
5th grade
My favorite crew of kids. These are fun people!

So far so good for the 2011/12 school year!

Summer of FUN!!!

We are just catching our breath from finishing one of our best summers yet! We began the summer with a Mayberry reunion in St. David. I loved rubbing shoulders with relatives that we don't get to see as often. I especially loved the map that showed all of the different areas in the world that have had missionaries from Grandpa Jim and Grandma Gwen's posterity. What an inspiration. We left the reunion to travel to SLC for Shay and Steve to perform in the tabernacle. That was an amazing trip as well. The kids and I got to hike Ensign Peak, tour the conference center, go to the movies, shop, and visit with the Brubakers. The trip finished with a bang as Mamo and Susie flew in from CA to go to the concert with us.

We spent June doing Scout camp, EFY, Girls Camp, and swim team. Super fun. The kids and I left on June 30th for an awesome week at Aspen Grove. It's a family camp run by the BYU alumni at Mt Timpanogas. What an amazing experience. We were lucky enough to spend the week with Janette and Brian and their two cute boys. Here are a few pics of that trip.

Twinners slept in the loft of our little A-frame
Shay in the middle of the high ropes course. She rocked it! I couldn't believe how well she did. It was SCARY....I experienced it:)
Here they are going around on the balancing wires. Yikes, and SUPER tiring.

Here we are in front of our A-frame (it just happened to be the furthest one from the eating hall) Which ended up being ok as we were pigging out all week long!

Derek during the family dance-pretty good at the limbo for a tall guy huh?

One of our favorite things was meeting the Hamacher's from Missouri. We loved getting to know them, having game night and especially kicking booty on the wallyball court!

So many memories! We drove home and 2 weeks later flew to Quincy for the Wright reunion. Loved spending time in that little town. The weather was gorgeous and the company was great. We had a whole 10 days to get home and prepare for school to start!