2 People + 70 Years=

5 Children, 15 grandchildren, 26 great grandchildren, and 4 great great grandchildren!  This past week we had the opportunity to celebrate Bill's grandparents 70th wedding anniversary.  We all gathered from various places and had a dinner in their honor.  It was great to visit with everyone.  We are so grateful for the example of Grandma & Grandpa and hope to be able to celebrate their 75th  anniversary!

Camping

Lara's shooting school

Trace patiently trying to master fly-fishing

Tate's fish

 Yes I was actually there!

After a two year hiatus we returned to the camping world this weekend.   The Winders found a beautiful spot near Huntington Reservior - just outside of Fairview. We joined them and the Mortensons  on Thursday evening .  We went fishing, played games, hunted night crawlers, made the best smores ever, went shooting, and got really DIRTY!!  I would be a happier camper if it wasn't for all the dirt! - I always have my trusted Lysol bottle strapped to my hip.  I don't think we will let another 2 years go by before we go again, it really was a lot of fun.  Now I get to finish doing all the "smokey" laundry.

Sleeping Out

The kids have been begging to sleep on the deck all summer.  After a couple of failed attempts due to weather, they finally did it Sunday night.  We are quite spoiled -  rolling out sleeping bags and plugging in a television is much easier than the time my Dad spent setting up a tent in the backyard for my sisters and I to sleep in- oh the memories!  Tate lasted until the movie was over, about 10:30.  Trace and Taylor lasted until about 4:30 and claimed they had to come in because it started to rain!?  Bill and I decided that actually the sprinklers  started and there must have been a breeze that made them feel damp.  I am sure this is just the first of many deck camp outs for the 3 T's.

Move over Jonas Brothers!

The next family band to hit the airwaves will be the T-Bills!!  Yesterday Bill and Trace went to Home Depot to buy fertilizer and came home with Rockband from Walmart.   Needless to say everyone is having a great time living out their rockstar fantasy.  This is how we spent our Sunday afternoon.  I'm not quite sure that it is in the realm of keeping the Sabbath day holy, but one of the songs is by the the band Black Sabbath - that should count, right?

A year in the making

We were counseled by our Stake Presidency that one of the struggles our youth are facing is that they don't want to work or do things that are difficult.  One of the side effects of this issue is that then they lack self esteem because they have never felt the pride that comes from conquering a challenge.  I thought about that and last summer came up with the idea of having a place to post all of the difficult things my children accomplish - report cards, piano recitals, chores, goals etc. So now a year later we have our difficult things board.  The kids seem to enjoy seeing their accomplishments displayed and I hope to really follow through with the whole idea.  Anyway, What do you think of the new template?  I like that it is more stretched out and the white background is very crisp.  Now I just need a new camera and some photography lessons so my pictures are better!

All by himself

After many years of needing assistance, Tate was able to put together this Lego kit all on his own.  He was so patient, it took about an hour.  He followed the directions and was very proud of himself.  I am too!

A fishing we will go...

Saturday evening we decided to go fishing up American Fork Canyon.  Tibble Fork Reservoir was very busy so we journeyed up to Silver Lake.  The drive was quite treacherous and caused a lot of drama.  Bill thought it was so funny to make everyone scream as he drove close to the edge.  It was NOT funny!!!  It was a beautiful setting, but we didn't catch anything.  Maybe next time.