Two Father's and Two Son's Campout

The Father's and Son's campout was last weekend, and Scott's brother Jaron and his son Jaxen were able to come too. If you look closely at the sign in the picture below, you'll see the name of where they went. Yes, I'm happy too that nothing bad happened while they were there.When they first got there, they saw an eagle's nest, with baby eagles in it. If you look closely at the picture below, you'll see a baby eagle poking it's head out above the nest.Here are my two guys standing on a raft that was half on the shore, half in the water. Somebody apparently thought it was attached to the shore, umm...it wasn't, and they fell in. Don't worry, it wasn't any of our four guys.

Some of the pretty flowers Scott was able to take pictures of along the hike they went on.

What Jaxen found along the way to give to his Mom. So sweet.

Tyler brought his yo-yo on the campout and practiced a lot. He can do some pretty neat tricks with it. This one is called rocking the baby.

They found an elk track. (See the imprint next to Scott's foot?)Tyler made it to the top of the mountain!!Tyler, Uncle Jaron, and Jaxen hiking together.Does this really need any explanation? Other than WHY?

Um, yea, I was forced to show these pictures too. Of a store they found on the way home. Again, no other explanation is necessary. Or even possible. I love this picture of Tyler. It shows how much fun he had hiking and camping with his dad.

Where we were when that picture at the top was taken...

We were at Crater's of the Moon! Again! But this time I was overcoming a silly fear of mine-going there when I'm pregnant-and this time nothing bad happened. It was one of the best days we've spent as a family. I was able to go on all of the hikes with everyone else, and I wasn't even sore the next day. Which goes to show that all that exercise I've been doing this pregnancy is really paying off!
I wish this picture above was bigger, so you could really see the pretty yellow flowers that are growing amongst desolation all around. For those of you who don't know, Crater's of the Moon used to be an active volcano about 2000 years ago. Nature is still recovering, even now. This little flower is a lesson of growing and blooming wherever you are planted to me. Even on a lava rock. Here are Scott, Tyler, Krysta, and Emalyn standing in front of one of the cones (sorry can't remember which one.)

Here are Krysta and I hiking in Indian Cave.

Scott, Emalyn, and Tyler climbing out of Indian cave.

How the kids felt after that hike-exhausted. Eating a candy bar was very reviving though! Isn't it always?

Kindergarten musical assembly and graduation

First, the Kindergarten musical assembly (back in May). Here's Emalyn walking in to the auditorium.

Next, here's a cute picture of Emalyn smiling inbetween songs.

Then, on June 3rd, Emalyn graduated from kindergarten! The following is a video of her walking in to the auditorium.

Emalyn in her graduation hat, smiling for the picture.

Next, is the tail end of Emalyn announcing that the next song they're going to sing is "Give a Little Whistle", and then her class singing the song.

Emalyn showing her diploma after graduation is all over! Yay Emalyn! We are so proud of you and how hard you worked in kindergarten. I can't believe she's growing up so fast.

Emalyn and her teacher, Mrs. Gale.

We love you Emalyn!

Our famous soccer players...

Here are some pictures of Tyler and Emalyn playing soccer this year. Their last games were Saturday, and they both had a great season. Tyler is in the picture above, he is the orange player closest to the ball.
Tyler as the goalie.

Tyler going in for a great kick.




Emalyn (in the red) going in for a kick.

Emalyn leading the pack to the ball.

How we cheerleaders often looked--COLD!

Really belated post...

Sorry, I went off the radar for a while. I'm feeling better now (20 weeks pregnant today!) so hopefully I'll be able to catch up and keep up. I've missed a lot of stuff.
First, I'll start with Jason & Christy's visit back in April. Tyler was in school, but the rest of us went to go feed the ducks and go on a walk. Emalyn, Krysta, and their cousin Lily.

Krysta, posing for the camera.

Rylan, Emalyn, Krysta, and Lily posing around this cool Chinese lantern sculpture.

This is not photoshopped in any way. They really are an amazing family! It was a fun visit. Our kids had so much fun with their cousins.

So do April SNOW showers still bring May flowers?

We'll start with our super fun weekend we spent with Megan and Weston (my sister and her husband). The thing is though, I have no pictures of the two of them. Lots of pictures of the kids and the Easter activities, but none of Meg and Weston! So sad.

I loaded the pictures backwards and out of order, so we'll not be going in order either. Here goes: First, here are pictures of the kids receiving their Easter baskets Sunday morning.

Next are pictures of the kids finding eggs during the Easter egg hunt. We four adults filled the eggs with candy the night before, and then our Easter Bunnies (Weston and Scott) hid the eggs for the kids to find them on Saturday. They did a good job of hiding them (on top of doors, under couches, etc.) The kids were unbelievably fast at finding them too though.

Okay, Scott and the kids needed an activity during the last session of General Conference on Sunday. So they built the following out of K'Nex.

And then....!!!!

Yes, these last three pictures are from TODAY! We just found out that school is cancelled today due to the six inches of that yucky stuff outside... Crazy for April! It has snowed (and rained a little too) everyday since last Thursday. Ever since April Fool's Day! While Megan and Weston were here, Megan told me how April Fool's Day came about because the weather would "fool" everybody on that day (aka SNOW or other forms of harsh weather). I never knew that before. And it doesn't make me feel any better when I look outside to know that. But it's still pretty cool. We had so much fun with Megan and Weston. Megan is the most beautiful pregnant lady (along with my other sister who is also pregnant, who I haven't seen in months, but I'm sure she's loooking beautiful too.) Weston did the biggest mountain of dishes for me on Thursday night...which was WONDERFUL. Especially when you consider that he doesn't even like to do the dishes! They were wonderful company, and I miss them horribly. So does everyone else. Especially Tyler, Emalyn, and Krysta.

O Mamma Mia!

Today is my mom's birthday. I'd love to call her and tell her happy birthday, but I can't. Because she and my dad went to Saudi Arabia and Egypt all last week through next week! So I'm happy for her that she gets to do this AMAZING trip! So happy for her. I actually got to spend her birthday with her last year (which was a lot of fun-remember the manicures?) and I hadn't gotten to do that in years.

But, to celebrate with her this year, the kids came up with some good ideas to send birthday wishes to Grandma.

Love you Mom! Happy Birthday!

swimming lessons and much bragging to do

Tyler:

At his parent teacher conference, his teacher said that he was her, and I quote, "top student". That she puts him by kids that don't stay on task because he will help them focus and get done. And she also said that whenever she has a long paragraph she needs someone to read aloud that she calls on him because he's such a good reader. He is getting top scores in all of his subjects. Yea for Tyler!

Emalyn:

At her parent teacher conference, her teacher said that she is a good friend to those in her class. She also said that when she was quizzing Emalyn on her sight words that she knew more than they'd learned in class, she's good at sounding out words and is a great reader. When her teacher asked her to count to 20, Emalyn counted to 100. Emalyn has been working on her reading at home a lot, so we're really proud of her!

Krysta:

Well, I have to mention first that at Emalyn's parent teacher conference, she kept interrupting to show the teacher that she knew all the colors of her legos... It was funny because she's normally pretty shy around strangers but we finally had to listen to all her colors before we could get back to the conference. I guess she didn't want to be left out and wanted to show off her smarts too. Also, she's potty trained! She always tells me when she needs to go now. And loves to go potty at other people's houses...which can make giving the lesson at visiting teaching appointments take twice as long...ha ha. But I never believed all those stories before about kids who were potty trained in less than a month. I've never seen a kid of mine get it so quickly. But she did and I'm very relieved and very proud of her too!

I just re-read the title of this post and realized I still need to talk about their swimming lessons. Tyler and Emalyn love the water and they are really progressing in their swimming. Emalyn is getting better at kicking, putting her face in the water, and just becoming more comfortable in the water. Tyler is working on his backstroke and freestyle strokes. He went from one end of the pool to the other on his own for the first time last Tuesday! Krysta will be old enough for lessons next year...and is having a hard time waiting.

It is Well With My Soul

In the last few months I've heard the hymn, "It Is Well With My Soul" several times, performed several different ways. My favorite is by Dustin Christensen from the Album, Nearer: A New Collection of Favorite Hymns. However, I also recently learned the story behind the man who wrote the words, Horatio Spafford. It is an incredible story. I wanted to share it here because it is a story of someone who lost almost everything, through which his faith and his trust in the love the Savior has for all of us, was strengthened. He was a Christian. His story helps me remember that no matter what happens in life, our Heavenly Father is always there and that "the Lord loveth whom He chasteneth" D&C 95:1

Someone put his story with the hymn and some of the words in a youtube video. If you want to see it go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8_EfDqF7YI