Boating

Last Spring we had a fundraiser at church to help the youth pay for all their summer camps and activities. It was an auction where people donated things, services, tickets, experiences, etc. and then we bid on them and the money went towards the youth activities. Well, David was out of town but I did a great job at bidding to win a day of boating with our bishop. We tried all summer to coordinate our calendars so we could go and it never worked out. Finally, we arranged to go last Saturday. The most perfect boating day of the whole summer. Warm but not too hot, the water was warm, and the water was very calm. It was beautiful. Then to top it off, the bishop and his wife hosted us including lunch and everything. They have a great boat that apparently has an awesome wake... perfect for jumping. Needless to say, we had a great time and the kids have declared that we need to buy a boat. Hahahaha. 

Below is a short slideshow of some of the fun. 

Oh, Rebecca had never been before and she got up on her second try. She had so much fun!

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Tanner Went to Homecoming

Tanner and Erin

School Has Begun!

August has been a busy month (so were July and June) but this post is about August. Today was the first day of school. Jared is down at BYU and started class today. I didn't get a picture of him. Tanner started 11th grade and he left early so I didn't get a picture of him either. Rachel started 9th grade and she left even earlier so I didn't get a picture of her. By the time Rebecca and Adam were ready to leave I did remember about the camera so I have a cute first-day-of-school picture of them. Rebecca is in 6th grade and Adam is in 2nd grade. Everyone is growing up so fast!!

In the middle of August we went on a family vacation on a Disney Cruise to the Bahamas. We took all six kids and had a fabulous time!! It was everything I expected and more. I've included a short slideshow to give you an idea of how fun it was.

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After the cruise, we had one week until school started. During that week, we had a visit from Steven, Linda and Griffey.  While they were here, we had dinner with the Arnolds.

Rebecca got her braces off and she looks so cute. She had her braids done while on the cruise (half of them anyway). I finished the rest after we got home.

Also during that week, Jared officially got engaged to Tori Blonquist. We are so excited and the wedding is set for December 20th.

Now we are getting Josh ready to go on his mission in October. Life never seems to slow down but it sure is fun.

Happy Birthday Jared!!

We celebrated Jared's 22nd birthday last Sunday.  His actual birthday was while he was still hiking the John Muir Trail.  Now he's home and we had his birthday dinner with the whole family.  I sure love him and am so glad he is part of our family.


 

So Cute!

Rebecca got her hair cut a few weeks ago and I think she looks so cute and so grown up.  It's amazing that she is already going into 6th grade.

Half Dome... Again

We just got back from a trip to Yosemite... one of my favorite places. David, Rachel and I took Jared, Joshua, Tanner and their cousins, Aaron and Derek, to Yosemite so they could start the John Muir Trail. We spent a few days camping in Yosemite so we could get the proper permits and then we started backpacking last Monday morning. We went to Little Yosemite Valley where we spent the night and then the next morning we climbed to the top of Half Dome. Since David, Rachel and I were going to camp in Little Yosemite one more night, we didn't have to pack up our stuff. We got up at 6:15 am and started up the trail by 6:30. The boys got up at the same time but they fixed breakfast and packed up all their stuff so they could just continue on after we did Half Dome. They didn't leave camp until 8:30 am and they arrived at the bottom of the cables where we were waiting only 20 minutes after we got there. It's a good thing we started early so we didn't hold them up with our slow pace.

The climb to the top of Half Dome was great. David and I have already climbed it before but Rachel really wanted to do it so we went again. She did it without any problem and we ate lunch on top. The boys climbed down and headed off because they had a long ways to go that day. For those of you who aren't familiar with the JMT, it is about 230 miles long and takes them about 3 weeks to hike.

David, Rachel and I hiked back to Little Yosemite and spent the afternoon swimming in the river which was so fun! We got up early the next morning to hike out. After we picked up the cars, we started our drive home and happened upon the boys as we were driving through Tuolumne Meadows. They were having lunch and everyone seemed to be doing great.

 We drove to Reds Meadows where we dropped off a box of food for the boys to pick up in a few days and then we drove to Whitney Portal where they will end their trek. We left our van there so they can get home. We left there and drove through Death Valley. It was 120 degrees at 10:00 pm. I would hate to go through it in the middle of the day. We were exhausted by the time we got to Las Vegas at midnight so we got a hotel room and slept until 6 am. Then we headed home.

We had a great time and once again, I am already planning my next backpacking trip. Anyone got any good suggestions?

Gaylene and Rachel practicing their synchronized diving.  :-)

Bells Canyon

Last Saturday we decided to go for a hike up Bells Canyon. It's about 4 miles round trip to hike up past the lake and go all the way to the first waterfall. We didn't leave until about 5:30 in the afternoon so it wasn't too hot and we got to the falls just before sundown. It was a hard but great hike. The falls were beautiful and so much bigger than I expected. There was so much water too which kind of surprised me given our dry winter. We hiked back down quickly because it was getting dark but we made it to the car just as it was really getting too dark to hike. Our dog, Ace, loved it and was completely exhausted when we got home... and covered in mud. We all slept really well that night. :)

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