Our Memorial Day Weekend

For the last couple of years our friends, the Frandsen's have invited us to go with them on their annual weekend at Nat-Soo-Pah, a hotsprings/campground in Idaho. We have always had stuff going on, so this year we finally had the chance to go and we had a great time.
The boys swam in the pool alot!






On Sunday we took a drive to Balanced Rock, where the kids all hiked up to the top;




Then we went to Clear Springs fish hatchery and had a picnic in their beautiful picnic area;



We checked out the Trout and HUGE Sturgeon fish in the pond;



Then we took a drive to see Thousand Springs;


And the Falls;



Two nights we were rained on so the little boys gathered in the trailer to watch a movie;

While we were out cooking dinner in the dutch ovens;

Monday turned out to be beautiful,so we all went swimming again before heading home;


We had a great time and will be going again next year!

Brad's Mission Call

We are so excited! Our oldest son, Brad, just recieved his mission call this week to go to the Columbus Ohio Mission. He reports to the MTC on August 12th.
As a parent raising four boys in the world today, I have hoped and prayed that I have done the right things in teaching my boys the gospel. Helping their testimonies grow and giving them a love for the gospel and a desire to serve the Lord. Your greatest hope is that they will chose to serve a mission. It gives me peace in my heart to know that Brad does have that desire to Serve the Lord.

San Francisco

This last weekend I helped chaperone Nash's Choralier Trip to the Heritage Gold Festival in San Francisco.
We had a wonderful time sightseeing, shopping, and eating!
On Thursday we took a trolley and headed up to Lombard Street, or the crooked road;


Then we headed to China Town for some shopping;

We found a lot of great souveniers. It must have been market day, there were alot of trucks bringing in fresh fruit and fish. We saw some interesting things to eat! Stuff that I don't think I will mention!
We then went to the Embarcedero where we caught the F-line (cable car) and headed back to Fisherman's Wharf for lunch.

After lunch we took a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge, where we walked along the bridge. The views of the city were fantastic!


On Friday morning we walked up to Ghiradelli Chocolate Factory to taste the goodies there. Who can resist chocolate?

Then we had to leave to St. Ignatius Church for the Choraliers' Festival performances, where they took 3rd place out of thirteen schools. Congratulations Elko High!

Saturday gave us some more time shopping. We spent most of the day at Pier 39.




P.S. We also saw the Broadway musical "Wicked" which was awesome!
I am ready to go back and see it again! Anyone want to join me?

And yet another injury...

As most of you know, Nik is not the most outgoing, carefree, or reckless person in our family, and yet he keeps injuring himself. He asked, "Why does this keep happening to me?" I said, "Maybe you're just trying to get out of doing dishes longer!"
Last Tuesday evening as he was playing basketball in the back yard, he tried to slam dunk the ball and ended up with the whole basketball hoop coming down on him. He fell back hitting his head on the cement and cutting his right hand pretty badly. We ended up taking him to Utah to the ER where he had a cat scan done on his head (everything turned out good) an xray done to the hand (no broken bones) and plenty of stitches (we don't know exactly how many, though they had to numb his hand 5 times!) Then we went to see an orthopedic surgeon to make sure everything was good. On the good side he had his cast taken off the left arm 2 days early, but still has to wear a brace for protection of that arm. Today was his first day back to school, and as you can see he is doing pretty good! Hopefully we are done for the year with injuries!

Just when we thought spring had sprung....

Easter Sunday woke with beautiful blue skies and glorious sunshine streaming through the windows. Nik and Austin came in early searching for their baskets hidden the night before by the Easter Bunny. (Yes, they know the truth, but love to play along) After searching high and low, and getting a few hints, they found their baskets along with their brothers' baskets. They had so much fun searching they just had to go wake up their older brothers, who were trying to sleep in and got them up to search for their own baskets. After a wonderful sacrament program and much Easter candy, the day ended in all it's glorious spring splendor. According to Elko tradition, we have this saying; "Elko has 2 seasons, Summer and Winter". We definitely followed tradition. Monday came in cloudy and cool, Tuesday was the same until afternoon when the rain and wind started up, then Wednesday hit with four inches of snow. My tulips and daffodils bowed over from the weight of the snow. A day later and the snow is gone but the daffodils are still hanging their heads.

Our first cast!

I am surprised with four boys we've gone this long before one of them ended up in a cast! We have done stitches a few times, but this is our first cast!


Nik was riding his motorcycle when he hit a rock and went end over end. After picking himself up and coming in the house we cleaned up the few scrapes and bumps he had, gave him some tylenol and iced his wrist where it was hurting. It wasn't swelling so we just watched it for a while, because it was not an obvious break. By the next morning it was starting to swell, so we took him to the ER. After an X-ray the doctor thought he had a fracture in the growth plate of the wrist, so they decided to send him to an orthopedic surgeon. The first appointment we could get was Wednesday afternoon. We immobilized it with a brace, luckily it was his left hand, so he was able to write, etc. As soon as the orthopedic Dr. saw the xray's he immediately put a cast on it. I am glad it wasn't any worse, from the scrapes on his helmet he could have done more serious damage! Have I mentioned that I love having boys?

Nash's Prom 09

Nash asked Whitney to their Junion/Senior Prom,which was held this last weekend. They doubled with their friends, Mason and Miriam. The day started out windy and cold, and turned rainy by afternoon. The guys left to pick up their dates around 6pm, then they were having pictures taken by our friend, Kari Bates, shortly after. The following 4 pics are Kari's (thanks Suzanne, I stole these off your blog!)




This is a close up of the corsage Nash gave Whitney.

After having pictures taken the couples came over to Mason's house where his mom, Marianne and I made them dinner. They got there earlier than we planned so we had them hang out in the living room for a little bit.



We set the table in a beautiful burgandy and white which coordinated with the dinnerware.


We started with a chilled strawberry soup. This picture shows the bowl as it was given to them, then after it was placed before them we poured the soup into the bowl. (I didn't get a picture of the soup in the bowl) but everyone loved the soup.

Then we served a nice salad...

Oops, so I forgot to take a picture of the main dish :(
But it was equally nice to look at and also delicious. We served a Malibu Chicken (similar to a chicken cordon bleu, but the ham and swiss was on the outside and we served it with a honey mustard sauce),mustard glazed carrots,rice pilaf, and a parmesean crusted croissant. Then for dessert we served a strawberry tartlet...


After dinner we took some more pictures, then they headed off to the dance.



They had a wonderful time, and looked beautiful together.