Homecoming 2011

Jacob and Katie attended homecoming in a group of ten couples. They all wanted to be together so we hosted the group of 20 for dinner in our backyard. It was such a fun night. Here are some pictures of the big event.

A good friend who is a wedding planner came over and helped me, and some of the other mothers, create a beautiful place to hold the dinner in the backyard. After we decorated, you could hardly tell it was a basketball court.


Katie, Josh Reynolds, Ben Hodson, Savanah Asay, Ashley Mork and Jacob
Katie and her date, Josh
Katie trying to pin on the boutonniere
By the time the kids arrived after taking pictures, it was dusk. We had put out nearly 100 candles, so there was plenty of lighting. One girl said it was so pretty she was going to cry. Beth and Bekay, Savanah's little sister, helped serve the meal. They also helped with all the clean up afterwards!
The whole group
The boys in their 'tiger' pose
The girls were more demure for pictures
Twins' love
Jacob and his date, Ashley

Summer 2011--Trip to Utah, part 2

The 4th of July in Utah County is amazing. They just passed a law that you can have aerial fireworks that shoot 150 feet. So we did fireworks in Nancy and David's neighborhood, and then we stood and watched all the amazing fireworks that were taking place all over the valley. It was beautiful!
The kids had fun setting off the fireworks in the front yard.

We were all tired but we took a nap and then everyone was ready to dress up for the evening activities. Beth and Mallory were matching.
Rich with Anna and her painted red hair.We spent the rest of the week having fun together. We went to see a movie one day. Another day we went to the American Fork public pool. The kids had a great time together!
Jacob helping Kate over the lane lines with Hannah and Mallory.Beth and Anna

Morgan catching some sun. It rained off and on all week so she had to take advantage of it when she could!

Rich, Anna and Beth
Jacob taking Anna down the slide.
Cutie Anna Banana
The last day was Adam's 1oth birthday and all week we had been watching for good weather to go to Seven Peaks, which is a local Provo waterpark. We finally went on Friday, despite gathering clouds. The day turned out to be great. Although there were some summer showers, it was warm. Later in the day, the sun came out. We had a great time. Jacob was having so much fun he didn't even slow down to eat! Here are Adam, the birthday boy, and Jeffrey. Jeffrey told Rich and I over and over that this was the best day of his life!Jacob was so fun to have along. (He attended EFY later in the summer, so he just hung out with us all week.) He would take a couple of kids and a tube up to one of the runs and then come down with them. He did this over and over, all day long. His energy never gave out. Even at the end of the day, he was still grabbing a tube and kids to go with him to go down the slides! This time, it was Beth and Mallory.

Here they come!Getting out

The next morning, we picked David and Daniel up at 7 am and headed home. It was a great trip! David and Nancy are so fun to be with. Utah is beautiful! We were glad to get home to Katie, though.

Summer 2011--Trip to Utah for the 4th of July, part 1

Summer has flown by. I have a bunch of pictures to post from all the fun we have had. The summer started off with a bang for Daniel's 15th birthdayThen we had girls' camp, Cub Scout Camp, and Boys Scout Camp for three weeks of June. The sun never came out much until the second half of June, and we wondered what was happening to our summer! The kids spent time indoors together doing things like making popsicle stick houses.
It finally warmed up in time for EFY. Katie went to Santa Barbara with her best friend, and we took a family trip to Provo for Daniel and his friend David to attend there. David and Nancy let us stay at their house, and we had a great time!! Here is Anna listening to her "new boyfriend, Justin Bieber" in the car on the way. This was our first trip with our new van, which does not have a movie player in it. It went really well! We listened to an audio book on the way, and the kids played their hand held video games, drew in coloring books, did word searches, and played games together. I don't think we will get another movie player.
We arrived in American Fork on Sunday, and the next day was the 4th of July festivities in Provo. The boys had to be at EFY by 11 am, so we got up early to see the hot air balloons and to watch the parade. Darth Vader was a new balloon showcased this year.
The balloons start filling up at 6:30 am, so we mostly just rolled out of bed after going to bed at midnight. Here is Hannah, Beth, Adam, Mallory, Jacob, Anna and Josh, and that is the back of Cohen's head up front.
This is inside one of the balloons, and below that is a picture of the balloon filling up. You can't believe how hot it is!

After the balloons, the dads went to get some breakfast and we went to find a spot on University Avenue for the parade.
David with Jeffrey on top and Jacob with Ryan and Cohen.
Daniel didn't care about the parade. He needed a nap!
Some kind people let our kids crowd in on their blanket. They are on the front row. In the back you can see Beth, Kate and Mallory. Hannah is behind Mallory. To the right of Beth is Anna's curly hair and Cohe, with Adam in the royal blue t-shirt and Ryan on David's lap. It was a fun parade, then it was time to take David and Daniel to EFY.
We dropped the boys off at May Hall after taking them to lunch at Sonic. They had a great time!!

Easter and the debut of warm weather

This year, we stayed home to celebrate Easter. We had a fun egg hunt and had some friends over for a yummy ham dinner. Here are a few pictures:
Anna was so excited to participate in the egg hunt. She found more eggs than anyone else, especially since Daniel, Jacob and Katie mostly didn't participate this year and were around to give her extra help.
Beth looking for eggs cleverly hidden by older siblings.

They hid eggs up in the trees and in the basketball standard. Josh and Jeffrey trying to grab some eggs up high.
They also hid them up in the fences.
We did hide three eggs each for the 'big kids', including two that held Cadbury Cream eggs and one with a dollar. Jacob, Katie and Daniel consider themselves too old for egg hunts, but not too old for extra treats.


Jeffrey has had terrible allegies this year, but allergy medicine has made it so he can go outside without his eyes swelling up.
Adam had fun finding lots of treats, too.

Josh likes to be counted among the 'big kids' but he is not to old for an egg hunt!
The rule at our house is no water games outside until it's above 70 degrees. It hit 70 degrees the day after Easter. This is what it looked like at our house.
There is no better fun than jumping on the trampoline with a hose!
We didn't get around to coloring eggs until the Monday night after Easter. Silly, but the kids had a great time.