Dylan Goes to EFY

Dylan spent last week in Cedar City, Utah attending EFY for the 3rd year in a row. He had a great time and is still missing it. He took tons of pictures and so I snagged just a "few". He had really great classes and did the same service project that Devynne did went she went to Salt Lake (coloring mats for children). He met some new people and got to see some that he knows from the prior two years. Both Devynne and Dylan truly have wonderful experiences when they go and I can't wait for Dakota to be old enough so he can experience EFY as well. It had been almost two weeks since I had seen Dylan with my Wyoming trip overlapping his EFY trip so I'm very glad he's home. :)

By the way, the date on his camera is not right. :)

A Star in the Making

Devynne took this video in Cheyenne of my sister's daughter Ava. Pause my music to hear it. She's a cutie!

Vacation Pics!

Devynne, Dakota and I just got home from vacation. We went to Cheyenne, Wyoming for 9 days to visit family and do some Frontier Days stuff. Steve couldn't get away from work and Dylan had to be to EFY before we came home. My vacation pictures usually are of people and not places as you will see. We had a great time though. I don't have pictures of everything but some of our "fun" was:

Pancake breakfast downtown (by the time we were at the front of the line they had served over 10,000 people within 2 hours)
The fairgrounds
The Indian Village
Horse drawn tour downtown
Tour of the old Governer's Mansion
Trip to Denver for Psychic Readings (mom, missy and ink dink)
The Finals Rodeo
South Dakota trip (Dakota went with his cousin Rhett)
Lots of shopping
Lots of family dinners and family time

These are the pictures we had on Devynne's camera. I'll have more pictures later of Dakota's South Dakota trip and of my dad and when I get them I will post them. :)

Devynne and Ava


Dakota and the girls


Part of the line at the pancake breakfast




Devynne, Ava and Claire


Annabelle



Indian Village


Downtown






My mom, Devynne and Ava


With Missy (my sis)



Ink Dink, Grandma and mom





4 generations


End of vacation and looking tired :)

Simple Conversation....I Don't Think So

Dakota was eating lunch while I was doing dishes and washing strawberries and blueberries having a nice time chit chatting away. Then...

Dakota: Why do we have two eyes instead of one?
Me: Maybe for depth perception. (sounds good to me)
Dakota: Well if I cover one of my eyes, I still have depth perception so that can't be it.
Me: I guess because Heavenly Father created us in His image and He has two eyes.
Dakota: Who created Heavenly Father?
Me: Uh......
Dakota: I mean think about it. Who created Heavenly Father and the universe He lives in? Who was the first Heavenly Father and who created the first universe? And do we have a Heavenly Grandfather?
Me: Uh.....(shaking my head with bewildered eyes) It is alot to wrap your head around isn't it? (me trying to buy some time)
Dakota: I don't get it.
Me: You know, I just think about THIS world and OUR Heavenly Father and Mother.
Dakota: How do you make spirit children?
Me: Uh......(really? where is Steve when I need him)

My Latest Craze

I love this show!! Talk about rivoting television!! It's on Tuesday nights at 9:00 on the Discovery channel. I spent hours watching it one day when they were running a Deadliest Catch marathon before this latest season started AND WAS HOOKED. Love it!!!

Devynne Goes to EFY and Steve Heads to Idaho

This is a short posting with lots of pictures. Steve and his boys spent some time in Idaho with a friend while Devynne was at EFY in Salt Lake City. Steve and the boys did some hiking as you can see from the pictures and they had a ball. Devynne, too, had a great time. They did a service project coloring floor mats for kids which I included a picture of. Dakota spent the week in San Diego for Scout Camp. I don't have pictures of Dakota but he did have a great time and he earned 4 merit badges while he was there. He said the staff was awesome and he wanted to stay another week. I'm glad to have all my family home. :)

A Quickie

What?!! No, not what you think. I'm just taking a quick minute to update my blog. Saturday was busy with doing yard work (that never seems to be done), dropping Dakota off at his scout leader's home because they headed out for San Diego for scout camp and we ran errands. Steve played golf Saturday afternoon (Happy Father's Day)and I ran some Father's Day errands. Father's Day started out with Cinnabon cinnamon rolls (yummy) and then off to church where the primary children sang a Father's Day song with a few fathers singing with them (Steve was one of them) and I did shed a tear or two, of course. After church, Steve and Devynne headed to Salt Lake City for EFY. Steve will be with his kids this whole week, he and the boys will be spending some time with a friend of Steve's in Idaho. Steve, Devynne and Dakota will all be home this Saturday and hopefully I will have some pictures to post next week. Anyhoo, Dylan and I are just kickin it this week and I'm looking forward to everyone being home. :)

Skills, Drills and a Grill

This is the week that Dakota did the basketball camp at UNLV. He spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons learning and improving different basketball skills by running different drills. Dribbling, passing, shooting, offensive and defensive techniques and so on. Then they ended each day by playing 3 separate games since they were divided into 4 teams. The coach for his team was Steve "Chop" Jones and he was very animated and positive with the kids. I thought it was a great thing that they also focused on attitude and being a team player. Dakota had so much fun that he wants to do it again next year. He also made me promise that we would get a basketball hoop by the time school starts. So basketball was Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday was the day he got his braces on. Yay!!! He is very happy to have them on although he is now experiencing the "ow" part of it. He only has them on the top teeth right now but they are hurting a little. Thank goodness for Tylenol. Here are some pics (some are a little blurry however) of basketball camp and Dakota's grill. :)

Two Kinds of Driving

This post is about two kinds of driving. The first kind is when you play golf. When you tee off you can hit a long drive or a not so long drive. This past Saturday Steve and Dakota went to Boulder City and played a round of golf. It was Dakota's first time playing golf and he played a whole round of 18 holes. Steve and Dakota both had such a great time that they were still talking about it on Sunday. I will be going next time for sure. The next kind of driving is behind the wheel. Devynne took her driving test yesterday and passed!!!! She now is a licensed driver and I'm a nervous wreck. :) See, two kinds of driving, I'm so clever. :)

Last Day of School

Yesterday was the last day of school for my kids. Yippee!!! We now have a break from giving rides to seminary at 5:45 am and picking up kids at 1:00, 1:45 and 2:15 everyday. No more homework, tests and projects for a couple of months. Even though we have a busy summer planned it's all fun stuff. (well, except 3 weeks of summer school for Dylan to make up a Health class he hasn't taken yet and the ACT test for Devynne) Anyhoo, it's official, Devynne is a senior, Dylan is a junior and Dakota is a 7th grader. Crazy I say! :)

To celebrate we went to A&W for lunch.