Lest it be said that a whole year passed between posts, I’m posting to let it be known that the past 12 months have been eventful and we have diligently posted updates on Facebook. 

I need to get back in the groove of blog upkeep.  I so appreciate reading back over the past and remembering all of the little things I have since forgotten.

This afternoon I had scheduled to make cookies for some friends who did us a kindness.  They live right next to Gianna’s ballet studio so I could deliver them during her lessons today.  Effecient, eh?  Thank goodness Someone more effecient than me helps me through the day when I let Him.  I pulled out the ingredients after lunch but just couldn’t get myself to mix them up.  In the past I would have questioned the lack of gusto but thankfully I recognized the feeling as a prompting that I just shouldn’t proceed.  It’s now 4 hours later and I’m getting Gianna ready for ballet.  Out of the blue she bursts into tears and says she just doesn’t think she can go today.  What the??? She LOVES ballet.  Something must be wrong here….I pull out the most excellent temporal artery temperature scanner (I love that thing!!! Thanks Mom and Dad) and lo n’ behold she has a fever.  So does Lizzy.  Well, so much for leaving the house for awhile.  The kids were exposed to Influenza on Sunday and I knew if they were going to get it it would probably hit by Wednesday.  At least I didn’t waste time baking cookies this afternoon that would not have been delivered (heaven forbid we eat them ourselves!!! . 

I know it’s just a little thing, but those little things add up and smooth my days.  I am truly thankful for them.  Now off to prepare some chicken soup!!

This year, Katrina chose to perform a ballroom dance number at the annual Young Women Night of Excellence and asked Joseph to be her partner.  Both are performing this number as part of a school group…tonight actually!  I’ll post that later.

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=482687569482

Yowzers – we haven’t made an entry in nearly 3 and a half months!  I’ve been doing a lot of my updates on Facebook but I’m learning that not everyone frequents that site (mom ). Here’s a quick attempt at catch-up.  I’ll still reference Facebook though so I don’t have to upload all the photos twice .

AugustSeptember

Yellowstone

Birthdays

Picking Peaches

Wood-cutting with the scouts

Fall Camporee

Joseph’s week-long experience at Elevation

Summer Fun

More wood-cuttingDay at the park

October

General Conference

Aviation Merit Badge helicopter flight with scouts

Joseph performs at LDS Conference Center

Quail Lake campout with scouts

Halloween

November

Biking in Zion

Thanksgiving

CaliforniaDisneyland trip (coming soon)

Whew!  August and Summer are coming to an end and I’m way behind on xanga.  We just got back from an unprecedented 11 day family vacation to Park City, Cache Valley and Yellowstone.  An update is coming soon, but THIS entry is all about what we did BEFORE that!

We celebrated Georgiana’s 7th birthday this month on the 12th. 

Georgie with the traditional birthday cereal.

Georgie also lost her first tooth on her birthday.  She take’s after her dad, a late tooth-loser.

I did another BSA canyoneering training trip a few weekends back.  This one was in Yankee Doodle Canyon near LeedsSilverreef north of St. George. 

More photos are available on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=192568&id=810679482.

The garden is doing fairly well, much better than in years past.  Tonight we had corn, beans and squash from our garden.  Hooray!

The four oldest kids all have online components to their homeschooling this year which means a bottleneck for our single family computer.  Sooo… Katrina and Joseph purchased laptops with their very own money.  Wal-mart specials – Windows 7, 2GB ram, 250GB hard-drive. 2.1 GHz (as I recall) for $300 each.  Not bad!

Joseph participated in the Utah Shakespearean Festival’s Playmaker (youth) organization’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream performed in the outdoor Adam’s theater, a replica of the Globe theater in England.  Here are some photos from the performance.

Over the Pioneer Day weekend, Joseph and I participated in a two-day BSA Topping Out climbing/rappelling instruction course.

This is Joseph going down the first (of four) rappels in Benson Creek/Hidden Haven. This one is about 105ft.

This is me about to descend a 105ft rappel at Nine Mile up Cedar Canyon.

Here’s Joseph on one of the Benson Creek rappels, I forget which.

Joseph descending the second rappel on Benson Creek, 60-70ft.

Looking up at my friend Kalon Langston as he prepares to descend the 105ft (first) rappel in Benson creek.

Joseph and Kullen Langston (Kalon’s son).

Another view looking up the first Benson Creek rappel.

Looking up the Nine Mile rappel.

Joseph about to descend the 105ft. Nine Mile rappel, his first ever.

During the sit-down training portion Joseph improvised some shade.

Last but not least, Lizzy is always drowning in our adult size towels so one night I wrapped her in a little hand towel.  It was so cute I had to snap a shot and she obliged with a stance.  Where do they learn to pose?

More photos available on Facebook.

More Summer Adventures

Katrina returned from Girl’s camp last week.  She wore braids which she promptly undid.  Behold!

This week, young men and young women were combined and we hiked the Kanaraville Falls trail.

Friday morning I woke up early and drove the five oldest kids down to the Church Farm in Hurricane where free-pick-days were underway. Then we spent Saturday spinning liquid gold (actually pulverizing) under Mom’s expert guidance.  Apricot nectar. Mmmmmm.

For a more pictures, visit Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/photos.php?id=810679482

I’ve updated Facebook with some of our summer adventures so far, a sampling of which follows. I must admit we’re making up for last summer which was the hardest four months of my life, preceded by the hardest six months of my life and followed by the next hardest four months – so we’ve been making up and making the most of the beautiful So. UT weather and surroundings!

Here are my girls, ages 3, 6 and 12 – the last night we would ever have doubling of ages, as Lizzy turned 4 the next day.

One night we went to the Bairetts for a bar-b-que and Jungle Rumba.

Here we are in Main Street Park on the 5th of July after watching the parade that “our girls” got to march in.

We took our exchange students and 20+ others on the Kanarraville Falls hike.

Here’s Ally, just having gone down the slide.

Here’s Brian Bairett and I in our “ducky” running the rapids on the Colorado River (Varsity scout trip).

For more adventures, visit http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/photos.php?id=810679482 (I hope that link works!)

Last night we took our foreign exchange students to the Greenshow, a 45 minute pre-show open to the public with music, dancing and skits performed nightly before the evening Utah Shakespearean Festival performances.  They called a member of the audience up to answer a trivia question and get a picture with the cast.  Georgie got picked and her she is in all her cuteness.  As a bonus, Elder Todd D. Christopherson of the Quorum of the Twelve was in the audience.

On Tuesday, Liesl and I took a carload of kids to the annual Youth for Freedom youth conference.  This year it was held on the east side of Zion National Park in a beautiful location.  On the way back, Liesl and I took Gary Logan on a hike on the river path between the turn-off to the tunnel and the visitor’s center.  A short, beautiful hike and a much needed “date”!

Then, yesterday, I took the three oldest on a hike up Kanarraville Falls.  It was Jacob’s first time.

Well, xanga says their photo upload service is down for maintenance.  Check out facebook for photos from both excursions.