I'M BACK!!!

Well, I think I'm back! I've been back for a week and a half, but we've had sickness in our house and I havn't gotten on the computer long enough to do this big post! I knew it would be big so maybe it was a brain cramp I was having! Anyway, here I am and I'll see if I can't get something posted here!

I'll begin with the recital which came at the end of the last week of school. The kid have been taking piano lessons for five months and they were practicing hard for the recital. Each one of them had a song from a movie and also a classical song. Since we were all dressed up we decided to take them out to dinner before the recital and they enjoyed that. Baillie and Brodric were both nervous to play in front of people. I didn't think Brodric was going to do it, but after a breif delay he got up there and did great!! Baillie kept saying how much she didn't want to, but when it came time there wasn't even a delay, she just popped up with a huge smile and did awesome. The other kids did wonderful too and they all enjoyed it. The Smithons gang were also part of the recital and in total the "cousins" made up 10 of the 17 students in the recital. Here's some pictures of during and after.


How cute is he?????


Clara Baillie and her cousin Shelbie

I didn't put one of Kendahl's back (playing) but I thought this one was so beautiful!

Carter is really a good piano player after only 5 months. He shows real promise. Too bad he doesn't see any of that.

This is kinda Carter's usual face! If I could only get him to smile more...

All the kids after. My kids are never happy about picture time, so this was amazing to get them to even half smile. They are awesome kids though!!!!


The week after school ended and we had the recital, Scott took the kids to the cabin in Arizona and Kendahl and I ran off to girls camp. I got to go this year as a unit mom and Kendahl was a fourth year. We were in seperate units (we thought it would be better that way) but we ended up in the same cabin that housed 3 units. It was a new building that was built due to the California fires burning several buildings at our camp. It is an awesome addition to the camp and we got our own huge bathroom with several stalls and showers. It is NICE. So that was cool. Camp and the girls didn't wear me out as much as I thought they would. I had a really good time! I don't have too many picts, but here's a few.
These are most of the girls in my unit. I didn't get a goup picture! Lame huh!

This is Kendahl and her friend Jennifer. This a normal hair style for camp. For some reason everyone rats their hair... I don't know.

Well, we weren't home from camp for an hour (literally) before were running off to Arizona. We came home, showered, changed out some luggage and we were off.
We went to Williams where Scott and the kids along with Tory and their kids were for the week while Melanie and I were both at camp. So we met up with them. We had a mini family reunion with the Thomas gang. At one point we had My Mom and Dad, Melanie, Billie, Marci, Staci, Stephanie and Rick and most of their entire families. We went to church in Williams with 38 people or so! So 38 people in one cabin was... well you can imagine how that went for yourself! If nothing else, we could add the word "interesting" and that would cover most of it. It was nice to get together and when I look back on it I am glad for the experiences. The cousins will remember these times forever I hope!
During that weekend the favorite thing we did was go to the Lava or "Ice" caves near Flagstaff. It is like a hole in the ground that had tons of rocks that you just climb down into. It is 32-40 degrees year round and the tunnel or cave is almost a mile long. We went about a 1/3 of the way into it and had a little "devotional" with everyone. It was pretty cool. Then some of the group came back and the rest went to the end and back. Everyone LOVED it and I'm sure it is something we will do again! Here's some picts of that!
I wanted to put a few pictures of the hole in the ground. There's actually a 2 foot wall around the opening. The one above of Brodric is at the opening of that little wall. There are a few steps and then you are into the part that is shown below. That is my nephew at the opening of the cave. You just climb down the rocks.

This is looking back at the opening. Carter is standing, looking in. Freaky huh?

This is Carter and his friend climbing down the rocks.


I think this one is just a bunch of the group where we stopped for a while. When you turn off all the flash lights it is pitch black! And freezing! It is pretty awesome!

This is Brodric and I with the lights out. We shut our eyes cause we didn't want to see the flash of the camera!

After some of the kids got out they were up around the little wall, I thought they were so cute.

And this is the kids walking back up the path to the cars. They were so hyper after leaving the caves, it was hard to contain them! But aren't they great?


It wasn't long before we were sending the teenagers off to EFY in Flagstaff at NAU. We had 7 teenagers from our extended family, plus Kendahl's friend Jenny was with us too. They had a great week and EFY and the ones who stayed at the cabin had a nice time there too. My parents, Rick and Aleena, and our husbands all left, but the 5 sisters stayed with the little kids. The week went pretty fast. We rode quads a little, and the kids jumped on the tramp, watched movies, played video games and enjoyed each other a lot!
Just a couple pictures of the cute kids! These are all the 4/5 year olds.


Isn't that peaceful? Wouldn't you like to be out there jumping in the forrest?

Let's see, we decided to come home a day early after the kids returned from EFY. We were supposed to stay till Monday, but we packed it up and came home Sunday. Good thing, because the kids were already starting to get sick. It was kinda going around at the cabin, and we brought it home with us. So we've been dealing with that. I hope were done dealing with it now.

The other thing I didn't mention is that Carter broke his arm at the cabin while I was at girls camp. He flipped a quad trying to keep up with Nathan. He got it splinted in Flagstaff and we had to get it set and casted when we came home.

Again, he wasn't too happy about that whole thing. He is now at Scout camp with a broken arm, I hope he is doing well with the whole cast thing. He had to change some of his choices, like swimming and archery, but hopefully he will come home with tons of merit badges that he could do with a broken arm.

That is the end of my story for now! I probably have tons more things I could blab about, but it's not easy to put one month into a page. So, maybe you'll get more later.
C'ya!