The Wakley Wrap Up

Hiking to Donut Falls

2008-11-07T09:57:00.003-07:00

I have fallen behind in blogging again. I am going to do my best to catch up on the big stuff. A few weeks ago we hiked to Donut Falls up Big Cottonwood Canyon. We all had a great time, but we will be sure to go a month or so earlier next year to be able to see leaf colors at their peak. Even though we went on Oct. 18th, the weather was beautiful!
The boys hiked with Dave up to the top of the falls. I stayed behind with the girls. The rocks were a little too treacherous for them.

I sure love hiking. In making a list of my 100 life goals, a lot of them centered around hiking. I hope we can hike more next summer. It can only get easier and easier now that our kids are getting older. The four oldest are great hikers. Lindsay still gets tired easily, and wants help. We warned her as we started that she is a big girl, and we weren't carrying her or giving piggy-back rides to her. She did great, but Donut Falls is a very short and easy hike.

At the bottom of the falls, there are a bunch of small rocks to traverse to get to an area to sit and relax. The kids always love to slip off and get their feet soaked!

I will be sure to plan at least 4 or 5 new hikes for next year!

Jon Got His Mission Call!

2008-10-15T08:32:00.003-06:00

The entire family has been waiting very impatiently for Jon's mission call to finally come. We knew it had been sent from church headquarters last week. My mom and dad were set to leave for Hong Kong on Wednesday, October 15th bright and early in the morning, so we were all crossing our fingers that they would still be around for this important event. I talked to my mom about 3 p.m. on Tuesday, October 14th, and she was pretty certain it wasn't going to come that day. She had talked to a post office worker that assured her that mission calls always came in on Thursday in Springville. Thanks goodness, it came! We all gathered at my parents' home in Springville to be with Jon as he opened his call.
He is going to the Chile Concepcion South Mission, and reports to the MTC on January 28th. I think he is really excited to be able to speak Spanish!
I am so excited for Jon! He is going to be an awesome missionary. I am so grateful for his example to my kids! He always shows genuine interest in them and always takes time to give them attention and play with them. We love you Jon and are so excited for you!

My Long Lost Brother

2008-10-15T07:50:00.002-06:00

Chris came out to Utah this past weekend. It was really fun to see him, Cade, and Nathan. I had just talked to my dad a few days earlier where he mentioned how much Chris and I used to hang out together as kids. The funny thing, is I had just been thinking about that very same thing the day before.

Chris and I were the best of buddies growing up. I didn't hang out with Jared and Aaron nearly as much as I hung out with Chris even though he is 3 years younger than me. I loved being with Chris.

A few things we did together as kids: built forts, caught lizards, played pickle, swam in the pool, played marco polo, sat in the sauna, biked the neighborhood, collected junk from ravines in the neighborhood, swatted at bees, made trips to Thrifty for ice cream cones, called for rides back home so we didn't have to bike up the huge hill in Diamond Bar, boogie boarded at the beach, attended YMCA camps, played basketball and baseball, played pool, sang songs with the player piano, performed skits, imitated karate, shot bb guns, and went on a lot of long walks to explore. I wanted to post some pictures of us playing together as kids but I don't have any...so sad!

I feel bad looking back over the last 20+ years that we haven't stayed as close as I would have liked to. As I got into high school, I started going to my dad's house for less and less time. I had my friends and sports I was involved in. I started becoming less and less close to Chris; not that I didn't love him, just that we didn't spend as much time together anymore.

I feel bad that my kids know Chris mostly as #76 of the Steelers. Lindsay refused to sit next to "that guy" to eat her banana split. I told her "that guy" was Nathan, her cousin. She obviously didn't believe me, because she went to sit next to her cousin Jacob instead. I am so happy for Chris and all his success. His wife, Jaimee, is awesome. I only wish his family lived a little closer so we could spend more time together. We all have our fingers crossed, that eventually, Chris and his family may move out to Utah.
Some things I love about Chris:
1. His laugh! Dave and I were talking about being excited for Chris to come visit so we could here him laugh. His laugh is a deep hearty laugh, that makes me smile ear to ear every time I hear it.
2. He is scared of so many things you wouldn't think a 300 pound football player would be scared of...everything from mice to strange sounds in the house. One of my favorite memories of Chris is on our family vacation to Lake Powell nine years ago. A mouse, or some rodent had climbed aboard our houseboat, and Chris was squealing his head off while standing up on a chair. It was so funny!
3. He is sensitive to so many things! Chris is not afraid to let his emotions show.
4. I love talking to Chris. He is so personable and is so easy to talk to.

I love you Chris! I am going to work harder at building an adult relationship with my little "big" brother.

Jaron is 14!

2008-09-25T09:59:00.002-06:00

Where in the world does time go? I can't believe my little boy is now 14 years old! I only have him 5 more short years until he leaves on his mission! Grandma and Grandpa Wakley and Goddard all came over for a little family party for Jaron.
This is Jaron's present from Lindsay. All the kids made him things.

Mmmm.... cheescake and ice cream.
A Few Things I Love About Jaron.....
1. He is a very good example to his younger brothers and sisters.
2. He always tells me thank you for dinner, and he never complains about what I make. If he doesn't particularly like something (mushrooms), he just moves them to the side of his plate.
3. He is very obedient. It is very nice to have such an awesome teenager.
4. He loves to tell me about all the things he did during the day, he asks lots of questions (of which most I don't know the answers to), and he is fun to talk to.
5. He looks out for other people, especially his siblings.
6. He is always up for playing a good board game or Dance, Dance Revolution.
7. He works really hard including doing well in school, scouts, and learning the clarinet. I never have to ask or tell him to practice the clarinet. He is constantly practicing just because he wants to improve.
8. He is working hard to develop a strong testimony of Jesus Christ. He works diligently to read his scriptures, and he is always so attentive in Sacrament meeting. All my other kids still love to color and read the church magazines in Sacrament meeting, but Jaron has been earnestly trying to listen for several years.
9. He is always willing to help out. He will take on a project, speak in church, teach a lesson, help someone with homework, hang out with those who need friends, and just do little things around the house without being asked.
10. He is a very good babysitter! The younger kids love that he takes time to play with them when Dave and I are away.
11. Jaron is very social, and a goof around his friends, but he knows when to be serious and not goof off.
12. Jaron is always excited to try knew things, and works hard to improve in the activities he undertakes.
13. Jaron genuinely loves each member of our family, and he shows it through hugs, play, compliments, and patience.
14. Jaron is an amazing young man! I couldn't be any prouder of him than I already am. He lives up to some very high standards he has set for himself. He is an amazing son and older brother, and he will make a wonderful missionary, husband, and father someday!

Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-02T09:30:00.005-06:00

We had a fun Labor Day weekend filled with a lot of activity. The Gockens gave us some free tickets to the Children's Museum at the Gateway that expired on Saturday, so we decided to make a day of it. We headed up to the Gateway, and spent all morning and afternoon there. Here is Dave helping Natalie on the climbing wall.
Brayden seemed to have the most fun at the museum of all the kids. He was excited to try each thing out. He loved to see how things worked, and he has no qualms about dressing up in costume when Dave told him to. I am glad Brayden is not worried about acting too grown up yet. I love enjoying my boy!
Here is Brayden on the climbing wall. He climbed it many times.
After a couple hours at the museum, we were ready to move on to other activities. The kids were very excited to rideTrax, so we took Trax to Temple Square. The kids loved riding the "train." We went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to check out when the show times were for the Legacy Theater. We were up in the waiting room, waiting to watch the Joseph Smith movie when a missionary came up and chatted with us for a little while. We asked him if Harold and Carolyn Asplund were still serving on temple square. He pulled out his little blue schedule, told us they were in the North Visitor Center for a little while longer, so we skipped the movie, and headed to see my aunt and uncle. It was fun to see them. I know I don't see enough of my dad's side of the family, because as I came up to talk to Carolyn she didn't seem too sure that she knew who I was. It was fun visiting with them for a little while. Carolyn reminds me so much of my Nanny, especially when she talks! We took the kids up to see the the statue of Christ and then headed back on Trax to the Gateway so we wouldn't miss the BYU football game! If you zoom in on this picture, you will see Natalie is not too happy. She really wanted to go back to the children's museum, and was upset with us that we weren't heading back.
We had big plans for Labor Day to go see "Kung Fu Panda" with my mom and dad and all the siblings and cousins. Somehow, none of us thought the movies would be crawling with people and sold out for all of the shows except for late at night. Since we couldn't get movie tickets, we finally decided to head to Riverwoods Park to play and hang out. We had a good time, and the weather warmed up enough where we were very comfortable. The boys and men played bocce ball, the kids played on the playground equipment and rolled down the big hill, and the rest of us sat around and talked. We finally planned to get our family study group up and running again, so I am very happy about that! We had a great weekend!

Lindsay's 1st Trip to the Zoo

2008-09-02T09:23:00.003-06:00

Dave took Lindsay to the zoo for the first time while I was away at Education Week. They had a good time. Her reaction to the zoo was typical Lindsay... check each thing out for just a few seconds and move on. I have quizzed her about the animals several times, and each time she changes her mind about which animal she likes best. She keeps talking about the train she got to ride there. I think the train was her favorite part.

Education Week in a Nutshell

2008-08-26T09:28:00.004-06:00

I went to Education Week with my mom this past week. I have been 8 or 9 times. I am not exactly sure. I love it, and I always come home renewed and ready to take on the new school year. This week was my favorite of all the Education Weeks I have attended. My husband is so awesome to take a week off work to be with our kids so I can go. I always stay in the dorms on campus, and it is a mini-vacation for me.

We went to Brick Oven twice, and Cafe Rio once, along with grabbing a sandwich here and there for lunch on campus. We do not believe in taking time off from class to stop and eat, so we are always eating on the run until we stop going to classes at 5:30 p.m. We also get to relax and play in the eveings. We spent our evenings going to Iron Man, The Hulk, and a musical production of Pride and Prejudice at BYU. One night we ate leftovers in the dorm and watched the Olympics on the TV in the lobby.

This year was my favorite because of the concrete ideas in my head and in my notes that I want to work on. I left very inspired.

Things I am Going to Concentrate on Now because of what I learned at Education Week... The Short List

1. I am going to create a list of 100 life goals. I had two different teachers talk about this. I know it may take a while to think of 100 different goals important enough to label as "life goals" but I am going to work at getting that list put together and keep it somewhere where I can be motivated by it.

2. My uncle, Wally Goddard, spoke at Education Week this year and he was probably the speaker that had the most profound effect upon me. He made the atonement come more alive and real for me. He also spoke of keeping a "Samuel" Journal where we record our spiritual feelings and experiences to show the Lord our gratitude of his hand in our lives. In 1 Samuel 3:19 it talks of Samuel not letting any of the Lord's words fall to the ground. I have tried to do this in the past, but not in a separate journal. Here is a picture of my new Samuel journal below.

3. Randal Wright actually made me feel fine about having not kept a journal all my life even though he said he was trying to make us feel guilty. He said that all experiences can be summarized into 3 words to help us recall the experience. He also mentioned that we could go back and record lessons that happened a long time ago. So I am going to record experiences into 3 word summaries to help me to recall them, and then I am going to write out the full experience when I can get to it.

4. Elder Robert D. Hales spoke on the Education Week theme "The Journey of Lifelong Learning." He said "The most important thing we gain from lifelong learning is not the degrees, recognitions, or jobs, but who it makes us become." "Nothing, absolutely nothing, could help a woman develop her talents more than being a mother." I just need to be more actively involved in learning and recognize the lessons I learn with my children and not just let life happen to me.

5. I didn't really attend a class on scripture study, but Wally taught the subjects for his classes using the scriptures. I felt inspired to find a scripture study program for myself and for my family that would make us yearn for our study time. I bought a book to help us in our family study. Dave looked at it one time, and said we need to buy the same books for all the other books of scripture (I just got the Book of Mormon one). After our first scripture study as a family, I have witnessed Lindsay trying to mark in her scriptures, and Bryce asking about important scriptures he can mark.

I can't wait to go again next year!

Back to School

2008-08-26T09:18:00.003-06:00

I can't believe my kids are back in school already! I like getting back to a schedule, but I miss having the kids around a little more. Brayden started on August 15, with all the 7th graders. He seems to enjoy Jr. High.
Jaron is now in 8th grade. He has ended up having 2nd lunch both A and B days, so he is unable to hang out with Brayden and show him the ropes, but Brayden doesn't seem concerned by it.
Natalie and Bryce are in 1st and 3rd grade respectively. They are both very excited to get back to school and all their friends.
Bryce is the man in charge now. He is the oldest sibling at Harvest Elementary, so he is in charge of making sure he stays with Natalie and they both get to school and home together. Natalie is very excited to be able to ride her bike to school now. We were in a carpool when she was in kindergarten, so she wasn't able to ride a bike.
The kids didn't really want me to tag along to school, so I sent Brayden biking with them since he had no school that day. He made sure Natalie made it to class.
Everyone seems happy with their teachers, and are excited to be starting a new school year.

Johnson Family Reunion

2008-08-26T09:09:00.004-06:00

The Johnson Family Reunion was the usual... catching up on everyone, eating food, and mixing in a few games at the end. We were up at Rock Canyon Park above the Provo temple. The kids ran a mile, but it wasn't much of a race... just running for fun.
The small group before they started running.
Go Bryce and Elise!
Dave was in charge of the horseshoe tournament. Jaron partnered with Jon and had fun competing.
Lindsay loved holding the snake that one of the cousins caught. She did not want to put it back in the box.

Natalie's Lost Tooth

2008-08-26T08:42:00.003-06:00

Natalie had been working very hard wiggling her little tooth, trying to get it out. We had a barbeque with a few of our neighbors. Natalie was eating a chip, and chewed on something hard. She took out her tooth, looked at it and threw it in the grass, not sure what it was. It dawned on her in the next few seconds, that she just threw her tooth.We looked for that first lost tooth for quite a while with the help of friends, but didn't find it. Natalie seemed fine about it once we told her she could write a note to the tooth fairy and she would still come and leave money. Natalie wrote her own note, explaining the situation. This is Natalie right before she went to bed. She couldn't stop laughing and smiling. She loved touching where her tooth used to be with her tongue. She thought this was definitely cool.

Deer Creek with Papa

2008-08-26T08:17:00.003-06:00

Deer Creek was a blast! We all had fun on the waverunners and being pulled in the tubes. Brayden and I especially enjoyed being pulled in the tube but I was so sore and tired for the next couple of days. Hanging out with all the family is always a lot of fun!

Dad's Visit

2008-08-16T19:33:00.002-06:00

My dad, "Papa" to our kids, made a trip up to visit us last week all by himself, which meant we got to spend a lot of time with him. He lives in California, and has a 2nd home in Midway, so he comes up every few months; however, we don't see a lot of him unless he travels alone. When Cathy comes along, they always have a busy schedule and have a lot of things planned to do. I love it when he comes and we just get to hang out with him. All the grandkids love to crawl all over him. I have so much fun watching him interact with my kids because it reminds me of how he was with us growing up. He is such a tease! He came up Wednesday night, and the fun started at our house. We hung out and visited and watched "Nim's Island" on the side of our house. On Thursay, we went to a park out in Highland. Later that evening we went to Classic Skating. On Friday, we went to 7 Peaks. Saturday, we spent the day at Deer Creek. Here is my dad with Lindsay at 7 Peaks.
Here are a bunch of the cousins in the lazy river. When we woke up this morning, it was raining and overcast, and the forecast called for scattered thunderstorms all day. We made the decision to go to 7 Peaks anyway, and we are so glad we did! Even though it was a Friday, it was deserted! It was overcast for just a short time, and then it was beautiful the rest of the day.
Natalie put on her own sun screen and got a little too much!
Here is Tori and Natalie with Papa.
Lindsay couldn't get enough of Andrew (Kelli's youngest). She loved holding him and feeding him and making him smile.

I wish I had more pictures of the activities we did with my dad before 7 Peaks. My dad's visit happened to fall on the week that Jaron and Brayden were at Scout Camp, and Dave took the camera with him on Thurdsay. I'll post about our Deer Creek excursion soon.

Camp Steiner

2008-08-16T18:18:00.001-06:00

Jaron and Brayden went to scout camp last week. They went to Camp Steiner up in the Uintah Mountains. They had a great time. Dave went up to spend the day with them one day, so we have a handful of pictures that he took. I know why moms aren't asked to go and chapperone... the boys would miss out on a ton of "boy" fun, things that would give most moms heart attacks. Dave said there was never a shortage of firewood for the camp because there were always boys over chopping wood with the axe. Here is Brayden swinging away.
Here are a few of the boys. Jaron had a lot of fun earning his archery merit badge. He did awesome scoring 261 points. Most boys have a hard time scoring 150, the required amount for the merit badge. He was very happy with his performance.
Brother Kohler challenged the boys that if any of them threw a rock across the lake without it touching the water, they could have anything they wanted from the trading post. Jaron threw a lot of rocks, but always fell short by a foot or two. This is Jaron skipping rocks on the lake. Here is another thing that most moms wouldn't allow. The boys loved to climb up to the top of the cabins, and slide down the roof. Jerry Gocken fell off and hit his head on a rock, requiring 4 staples. Dave said Brayden also loved his woodcarving class, and spent a lot of time carving. He had several cuts on his hand from the pocket knife, luckily nothing serious.

Jaron and Brayden both earned a lot of merit badges. Brayden earned 6 and Jaron earned 4. Jaron didn't need many to reach the amount he needs for his Eagle Scout Award. He has 3 partial required merit badges he needs to finish along with his project.I am glad our boys had fun and got to do a ton of fun activities, but I admit I was a bit nervous while they were away.

Family Pictures

2008-08-05T08:23:00.002-06:00

We went and had my sister-in-law, Steph, take our pictures for this year. She always does the kids school pics now. She does such a great job! I love that she takes a bunch of pictures, and makes all of them black and white, sepia, and color, and puts them on a cd for us to print our own pictures. She is also good at Photoshop, which we definitely need. Our last family picture had several people switched from other shots. With 7 people, it is hard to get a picture with everyone looking great in one pose! For anyone interested, Steph's webpage is photographybysteph.com. We haven't had a family picture in two years, so it was definitely time. Here are some pictures of Steph taking the kids' pictures.

I love how Jaron totally doesn't fit on her platform anymore! It was funny to watch his legs hang off.
We had the majority of our family pics taken outside.

I snapped this picture of Dave and Natalie. It turned out pretty great.
Lindsay loved playing on the fence. She fell several times but usually came up afterwards with a smile. This is just a few seconds before she takes a spill into the grass.

We are supposed to get our cd's from Steph today. I can't wait to see how everything turned out!

Loving Bugs

2008-08-04T07:26:00.000-06:00

The Wakleys and Gockens spent Thursday evening playing with praying mantises and grasshoppers. They kids had a bucket full of them, and enjoyed showing them off to us. I nearly jumped out of my seat as they took the lid off the bucket, and I almost got a grasshopper in my face. Here is Lindsay with a praying mantis.
Lindsay doesn't seem to mind bugs at all. I know she used to love bugs when she was much younger, but I thought she might have grown out of it. Not so.
Dave couldn't help joining in the fun by using his new iphone to look up praying mantis online to find out some interesting facts. He found out it isn't so great to be a male praying mantis. Dave doesn't particularly like candid shots of himself, but oh well.
Brayden seemed less interested in the bugs, so he started bringing out his rats to see if they would eat the bugs or try to play with them. Two of the rats ignored the bugs. The last one seemed very interested in killing them so we made Brayden take the rat inside. I think we ruined his fun.
Here are Cameron and Lindsay showing off their grasshoppers.

7 Peaks

2008-08-01T15:24:00.000-06:00

We have loved having Seven Peaks passes this year, and we have definitely gotten our money's worth going at least once a week, but usually twice each week. We will be getting them again next year for sure, as it can only get easier and more fun the older Lindsay gets. I don't have much to post about our trips to Seven Peaks though, because I rarely take the camera, and when I do, I am busy swimming and playing with my kids, so I don't take many pictures. I did bring the camera this last Monday when we went with the Gockens, Arnolds, and Wilsons. So here are the few pictures I snapped.

We were there from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. and everyone was exhausted after a long day. Lindsay was begging to go again on Wednesday, so I guess they don't get tired of it. We are always there when it opens, and run to ride as many slides as we can before the long lines develop. We pack a cooler of food, and if it is even possible, I think my kids eat a lot more at Seven Peaks than they do at home. Seven Peaks has made this summer fly by even faster than usual.

24th of July Block Party

2008-08-01T15:18:00.000-06:00

We had our annual 24th of July Block Party with all of our friends on our cul-de-sac. We had a barbeque and hung out out for a while before fireworks. Here's a picture of all the kids watching the show. Lindsay decided pretty quickly that it seemed much safer on mine or Dave's lap during the fireworks. She started on the curb with all the other kids, but as the first firework was lit, she ran straight to us and never headed back.

July 4th

2008-07-06T15:38:00.001-06:00

We spent the 4th of July at Payson Lakes. We had never been there before, but have been wanting to go for a while. My mom and dad, Kelli's family, and the Gockens were all there with us. The boys especially had fun! They were in a kayak or canoe the entire time! Just 10 minutes after we found the perfect spot along the banks, a man and his wife brought their canoe to shore and offered to let us use it for the day. The man even went to his truck to get a bunch of life jackets for us. We were very grateful for their hospitality! This is the first run out in the canoe...Dave, Bryce, Brayden, and Jaron.
Grandpa Goddard, Tori, Dave and the boys.
The boys spent most of their time in the kayaks, which were 1 and 2 man. They loved how easy they were to maneuver and I know they loved being out on their own on the lake. Here is Jaron taking Lindsay for a ride.
Here is Grandma and Bryce. Bryce really thought he was in heaven when he started doing the paddling himself. After this ride, he started taking out the kayak by himself. He has already asked several times since coming home when we are going to go kayaking again.
Here is Brayden playing in the tube.
We had a great day! Natalie spent most of it with Faith again. The adults had fun relaxing and visiting. I am sure we will head to Payson Lakes again sometime soon. We came home exhausted, ate dinner late, and headed to bed...no energy left for fireworks for us. We are saving our enthusiasm for fireworks for our neighborhood 24th of July celebration.

Busy Day!

2008-07-05T11:32:00.000-06:00

After our exhausting day in the Uintah's, we took a break from activity on Wednesday. We took our van in to get new brakes, and just hung out at home. On Thursday, it was back to the crazy vacation schedule of filling our day with activities to do. We woke up at 5:30 a.m. and headed out to the watch the hot air balloons in Provo and go to the Kiwanis Breakfast. Lindsay was pretty scared of the balloons at first, but became less afraid as time went by. My dad worked at the Kiwanis Breakfast, so we were able to see a lot of him, and my mom, Jon, and Travis' family showed up later for the breakfast. We finished with breakfast and headed to Springville to feed the ducks (and the fish) with my mom and Jon.
We still had time to kill before 7 Peaks opened so we headed to Colonial Days on Center St. in Provo. We played old-fashioned games, explored a replica of the Mayflower, and looked at a lot of exhibits on early America. I was really entrigued by the lady making lace. It was so intricate! Here is Brayden in the stocks.
We then headed to 7 Peaks where we met my mom and Kelli's family. Natalie and Faith are inseparable buddies! I don't think they were apart the entire time.
Kelli and I ventured to the tall orange slide. She screamed most of the way down! It was fun and scary all at the same time.

Another exhausting day!

Ruth and Jewel Lake

2008-07-05T10:46:00.000-06:00

Dave took a week off work for our "vacation from home." We decided with gas and lodging prices being what they are, we would stay at home and plan a week of day excursions for our family. On Monday, we went to 7 Peaks together and had a great time. On Tuesday, we headed off with my dad to the Uintah Mountains to hike, relax, and enjoy the surroundings. It is quite a drive to get to the trail head of Ruth Lake, and after a couple hours of driving, I was thinking that these mountains don't look that special and that maybe we should have spent less time in the car and just headed to Provo Canyon or Little Cottonwood Canyon. My impression changed as soon as I got out of the car. It is amazingly beautiful up there and so worth the drive! This first picture is before we started our hike. That is Mount Hayden in the background. I didn't know it when we started out, but we would use that mountain a lot to help us find our way back. Here are the kids on the snow. There were still many patches of snow still on the ground. In several places the snow was soft, and we would sink down past our knees!
Here is Bryce next to a small waterfall. There were streams everywhere created from the excess run-off from the snow melting. It was so relaxing to hear the trickling water along most of our hike.
Me and Lindsay. This is Ruth Lake. It was awesome! My favorite thing about the day was how isolated I felt. We only saw a few other people the entire day. This is also the only part of our hike that had an actual trail to follow. From here on out, it was climing rocks, and choosing our own way. At Ruth Lake we sat down and ate lunch while the kids skipped rocks.
After Ruth Lake, we headed out to find my dad's favorite lake: Jewel Lake. As soon as we left Ruth Lake, Lindsay wanted to be carried and ended up on my back for a while. We came to another lake we named "Frog Lake" because of the constant croaking from the frogs. We tried to find and catch a frog, but they would stop croaking as we got close so we couldn't see any frogs. This is me and Lindsay in front of Frog Lake.

My dad and Brayden decided to go scout for Jewel Lake while we hung out at this lake (I don't remember what we named this one). We probably saw 8 to 10 ponds or lakes throughout the day.
We found Jewel Lake! The kids liked climbing over the rocks, and throwing rocks in the water. It was so peaceful here, and I felt like I was in another world apart from it all.
The kids were determined to go in the water even though it was FREEZING! You can tell from Natalie's expression just how cold it was!
Natalie took a pretty good picture of me and Dave at Jewel Lake.
This is my dad, Lindsay, and Natalie on "Natalie's Rock." My kids loved that my dad thought to name a ton of landmarks after them!

This is the gang at "Lindsay's Brook" at Jewel Lake.
We headed from Jewel Lake up the brook for awhile. This is Jaron traversing a log.

Lindsay was getting tired, but the boys were dying to explore further. The boys went off with my dad, and Dave and I took the girls to head back. The boys found an area where an avalanche had come through earlier and left destruction in it path. We had tons of rocks we hiked over, and it was a good thing I had Dave with me, or I would have been pretty lost. We finally made it back to Ruth Lake and the trail! This is Dave and Natalie at Ruth Lake.
At the end of our day, driving out of the Uintah's, we decided to stop at the Provo Falls. They were a lot bigger than I expected, and I was glad we stopped to see them. Here is a picture of Brayden at the Falls even though the falls aren't in the pic. The kids also enjoyed the fairly tame chipmunks at the Falls.

We finished the evening by stopping at the Dairy Keen in Heber (the hamburger joint with the train). I had never been there before. We had a great time, and finished off our hamburgers with Grandpa treating us to shakes. What a fabulous, exhausting day! Dave has even agreed to go tent camping in the Uintah's next year. That tells you how awesome it was because Dave hates tents!

Missy's New Do

2008-07-02T11:14:00.001-06:00

A few days ago, our dog, Missy, came running down the stairs in one of Lindsay's shirts, her ears done up as pigtails, and her tail done in a fancy ponytail. She had a backpack on her back, and she seemed very hyper and excited. Lindsay and Natalie ran down the stairs shortly after Missy did, very proud of their work.
A close-up of Missy. She actually seemed very happy with Natalie and Lindsay's work. She had a grin on her face for quite a while.

Lindsay's 1/2 Birthday

2008-07-02T10:57:00.000-06:00

Lindsay loves birthdays, the "birthday song," and of course, opening presents. She is constantly asking when she gets her birthday party. We don't normally celebrate half birthdays in our family, but we decided now that Lindsay is 3, that she needs a day of her own to celebrate her birthday in addition to Dec. 25th. It doesn't seems like your birthday when everyone else is opening presents too. We let her choose dinner which is our birthday tradition. She emphatically wanted noodles, so we ended up with Spaghetti. We had planned this special day for Lindsay for weeks, but we got a phone call right before dinner that my cousin, Ammon, had received his mission call and was going to open it at 7 p.m. with any family that wanted to come. We decided it would be fun to be there for his call, and something we wanted our boys to be at. It was perfect! Everyone was so excited, the Spirit was powerful, and there was a ton of family there. We are very glad we took the time to go. Ammon is going to Oakland, California and Spanish speaking.
We rushed home after Ammon opened his call so we could properly celebrate Lindsay's 1/2 birthday. She has been begging for a bike.
I hope you had a good day, Lindsay!

Saratoga Splash

2008-07-02T10:45:00.001-06:00

I have gotten behind again in blogging. Blogging is starting to remind me of scrapbooking more and more. I take lots of pictures I intend to blog, and don't seem to find time to do it. Oh well, I've decided to catch up rather than just skip the last couple weeks.

We had our city celebration called Saratoga Splash. This is the first one we have been to in a while because we have been in Moab the last couple years during the Splash. The kids had a fun time.

Brayden, Bryce, and Jaron on the climbing wall. They did it over and over during the day.
Natalie is the higher one up the wall.
Lindsay sliding down the blow-up toy.
Brayden and Bryce jousting.
We ended the day watching the fireworks from our backyard. It was a busy, fun-filled day.

Father's Day

2008-06-16T09:53:00.001-06:00

We had a great Father's Day. I hope Dave felt so too. This is a picture of Natalie and Lindsay just before Dave started to open his presents Sunday morning.
This is Lindsay's present to Dave: a very nicely colored Spongebob Square Pants. That is by far Lindsay's favorite show. It makes me cringe to think that my kids watch it so much, but it is Dave's favorite cartoon, and I gave up a while ago trying to keep the kids from watching it. Natalie made an adorable picture of our family.
This is Dave opening Jaron's gift of homemade ice-cream sandwiches made with macadamia nut cookies and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.
This is the gift Brayden and I spent countless hours on. We are very happy with the results. This is a street with buildings, and everything in this picture is of our life together. We tried to go mostly in chronological order from left to right. Every word and picture has meaning to us.
Here is a close-up of Lindsay's gift.

This is Natalie's gift.
We were waiting several minutes for Bryce so we could open presents. He finally came downstairs with a paper that he had quickly written "Happy Father's Day" on. I asked him where his real gift was, and he started crying that he couldn't find it. He was very distraught for a while. I felt so bad. He said he wanted Dad to open his presents, and he would look for the gift he made later. Brayden went up to help him look after Dave had opened all the other presents, and they found it. Here is Bryce's real gift.
Here is a close-up view of the gift Brayden and I made.
I hope you had a great Father's Day, Dave. I love you so much! You are a wonderful Dad!

Last Day in Moab

2008-06-13T08:35:00.000-06:00

The time really does fly. We are finally on our last day, and we have to leave around noon so we can drive home and pick up Missy by 5 p.m. We were going to hike Delicate Arch, and then decided we needed to wait an additional year for Lindsay to get a little better at hiking. We decided to head to the Sand Dune Arch so we could enjoy it without the blowing sand and rain.
Broken Arch is right next to Sand Dune Arch, but we have never hiked it before because we usually head to Sand Dune Arch after a big hike to relax. So, we decided since we were fresh, we would hike to Broken Arch. This is Brayden and Bryce along the trail.
This is me and the kids in Broken Arch.
Jaron buried by the kids.
The adults really relaxing this time.

This is me and Lindsay over by Broken Arch.

Jaron and Brayden spent most of their time there digging large holes.
The whole gang hanging out.
We had a blast in Moab and can't wait until our adventure next year!

River Hike in Moab

2008-06-13T08:18:00.000-06:00

Well, the day of our river hike was finally here. This usually seems to be one of the highlights of our trip. My favorite part of this hike is walking upstream with everyone. Several mentioned they didn't want to hike in the water as far this time, but it is definitely my favorite part. Here is a small group of us making our way upstream to our water hole and waterslide retreat.
This is me and Lindsay. We had the hardest time hiking upstream this year because there were so many beaver dams. We probably had to go around 5 or 6 of them on our way to the water hole.
When I arrived at the water hole, Jaron was already there showing off a couple of snakes he had caught. He was very excited Sara Arnold gave him $10 for catching the snakes and letting them handle and take a bunch of pictures with them.
Here is the view of where we stop each year to hang out and enjoy the water. The water hole has been dammed up more than usual by someone, so there wasn't much of a water slide this year.
Brayden spent the entire time we were there jumping in, getting out and running back up to jump in again.
Here is Natalie jumping in to Dave.

Lidnsay's turn.
Here is Bryce under the little waterfall.
Lindsay tagged along with Saunder the entire way back. Saunder was very sweet to carry Lindsay a lot of the way on her back.
We ended the day at the camp swimming pool. This is a picture of Natalie minutes before she fell asleep. The kids are always exhausted after a full day of swimming.

3rd Day in Moab

2008-06-12T08:48:00.000-06:00

This day started out very rainy and cold. We thought we wouldn't be able to do much hiking, but we ventured into Arches hoping the weather would be nice enough to climb at the Windows Arches and Double Arch. It rained the entire drive there, but stopped as soon as we arrived at our destination. The kids loved climbing. This is Brayden out on some ledge.

This is a picture of the kids climbing at Double Arch.
We decided to head back to camp to rest for a couple hours before heading out on our Corona Arch Hike. By the time we started this hike, the weather was perfect. This is towards the beginning of the hike.
When we arrived at the arch, there were several people repelling from the top of the arch. Dave and Brian Ricks wanted to climb on top of the arch, and possibly repel down. They made their way up a little ways, and decided it was a bit too dangerous to risk. I was relieved when they came back.

This is the one of the sections that has cables and foot holds to help you get up and down. Lindsay spent nearly the entire hike with our next door neighbor, Saunder. She loved being with her, and Saunder was so good with her!
We were able to enjoy s'mores without any rain!
Another wonderful day!

2nd Day in Moab

2008-06-11T12:46:00.000-06:00

Our 2nd day in Moab started out a little dreary and overcast. We headed into Arches National Park and hiked to Pine Tree Arch, Landscape Arch, Wall Arch, and Sand Dune Arch. This is Brayden, Jerry, and Paden along the hike.
This is Jaron, Lindsay, and Brayden in front of Landscape.
This is Lindsay posing in front of Pine Tree.
By the time we started hiking, it had gotten pretty chilly and was starting to rain lightly. Lindsay couldn't keep herself from playing in the sand. Even along the trail, she had to constantly bend down to pick up sand and drag her hand through it. Here she is playing in the damp sand.

This is looking down from Wall Arch.

After hiking, we headed to a picnic area for lunch. The kids continued their climbing and exploring. This is Brayden in the "bowl."

After lunch, we headed to the Sand Dune Arch. This is one of our favorites because the kids have a blast playing in the sand, and the adults can relax and talk. We only lasted at the arch less than 20 minutes because the wind picked up and sand was blowing everywhere and we were freezing!
We headed back to camp, and shortly after the rain really started coming down and didn't stop until mid day the next day. Here is the group trying to roast s'mores in the rain.

1st Day in Moab

2008-06-11T11:05:00.000-06:00

We decided to start our vacation in Moab on a new hike we haven't tried before called Morning Bridge. It was just our family and the Gockens. The Ricks' and Arnolds' didn't arrive until later. It was very hot outside, and Lindsay didn't make it very far on her own. Luckily, Jaron offered to carry her a lot of the way on his shoulders. What a good big brother!
After about 1 mile of hiking, everyone was hot and tired and kept asking to get in the stream we were hiking next to. The kids had a blast in the water. Lindsay perked right up from her exhaustion, and Natalie looked so much better. She was so red over her entire body before she got wet. This is Jaron pretending to eat a crawdad. The kids spent 90% of their time in the water catching crawdads. Those crawdads were everywhere and we had to be careful where we walked so we wouldn't step on them. The kids had and absolute blast!
This is Jerry and Brayden on the Morning Bridge hike.This is where we entered the stream. We walked a bit down stream before we just sat around and let the kids play. The girls had so much fun lying on their tummies enjoying the water!

This is the beautiful area we decided to stop and enjoy the water for a while.
Moab is all about getting a little messy along the way. We took pictures to have proof.
After hiking Morning Bridge, and going to a lot of the gift shops in town, we headed to the swimming pool in our campground. The kids swam until closing, and we all hit the sack exhausted from our first day of vacation.

Natalie's Field Day

2008-05-29T18:16:00.000-06:00

Natalie had her first field day yesterday. She had a great time. I helped out doing the tug of war. I was not very smart, on just the 2nd round of kids out of about 20, I wrapped the rope around my hand when it was me and another woman against 12 kindergartners. Those little kids are very strong when you get a bunch of them together! My hand still hurts so bad a day later, and is very swollen and blue. I wish I could have just traveled from station to station with Natalie. Luckily, the mom in charge of Natalie's group was a neighbor, and offered to take pictures for me, and take Lindsay along with the group. That was a huge help! Lindsay was bored at my tug of war station before the events even started. Natalie said her favorite events were where she had to pick up marbles with her feet, playing with the parachute, and the pillowcase race.

Hope of America

2008-05-28T18:37:00.000-06:00

Brayden's teacher called Dave while I was in California to let us know that Brayden would be receiving the Hope of America Award. This award is to recognize and encourage students who have demonstrated academic accomplishments, leadership and good character. The Kiwanis Club presented this award to one boy and girl in each 6th grade class. Dave and I were hiding up on stage with the other parents of kids to receive the award so the kids would be surprised when their names were called. It was so much fun to be there for his big accomplishment. We are so proud of Brayden! He is such a dedicated, determined young man. We are so proud that he works so hard to accomplish everything he sets his mind to do. He has straight 100 percents in all of his subjects in school. A while ago, I told Brayden that when I was about 11 years old, I went an entire year without candy and my mom paid me $100 for doing it. He came to me one day and asked if I would pay him $100 if he went without candy for a year. I said I would. He made it to the year mark, earned his $100, and continued to not eat candy. It has now been 2 1/2 years that he has gone without candy, all of his own accord. When President Hinckley put out the challenge to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year, Brayden was determined to follow the prophet and read the entire Book of Mormon cover to cover in those few months. He did it, and was only 9 years old at the time. Brayden will accomplish anything he sets his mind to. He is also so kind and considerate of others. We are so proud of him!

Zach and Kaari's Wedding

2008-05-28T18:23:00.001-06:00

My parents and all the brothers and sisters except Chris. He didn't arrive until later.Zach and Kaari at the temple.

I flew down to California with Kelli for Zach and Kaari's wedding. I'm so glad I made the decision to go. It was great to be there to support them. All 10 of the kids from my family were there, and all but Jordan (only 17) were in the temple together for Zach and Kaari's wedding. That was awesome. I can't wait until Jordan's wedding, when I hope all 10 of us can be there together! The trip was very fast, very busy, and I didn't feel great, but I am so glad I was there! Congrats Zach and Kaari! I took these pics off Cam and Channy's blog because I didn't even take a camera down there. I am going to have to get copies from others.

Memorial Day

2008-05-27T20:52:00.000-06:00

We went to Dave's parents' house for a barbecue in the rain. Here we are playing "thump" after dinner. This is the traditional Wakley card game that they have been playing together for many years.

Brayden Turns 12!

2008-05-27T20:40:00.000-06:00

I can't believe Brayden is 12! Here his is enjoying our new whipped cream tradition.
Go Brayden!
He got an erector set that he has already spent many hours on. He loves to build things and create things. I am glad he liked his gift. He still has money from grandparents that he hasn't figured out exactly how he will spend it. He is leaning toward buying some clay and other art supplies. Brayden will spend hour after hours creating artwork up in our quiet room. He is working on some art projects for our kitchen that I will post when they are all finished.
This is Dave and Brayden on the Sunday he was ordained a Deacon. He passed the sacrament last week for the first time and did a great job!

Bryce's 1st Pinewood Derby

2008-05-27T20:19:00.000-06:00

I have totally fallen behind in blogging, but I am going to be good and catch up on the highlights! Bryce had his first cub scout pinewood derby earlier this month. He was so excited. He worked on the car at Grandpa Wakley's with his cousins Carter and Cole.

To start the morning off we had a pancake breakfast outside in the church parking lot. It was pretty chilly, but Bryce didn't care about the cold. Bryce took 3rd overall averaging 223 miles per hour (to scale) with his speedster and was very proud of his car and his performance.

Mother's Day

2008-05-13T12:23:00.001-06:00

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. I really didn't do much of anything, which is a nice change because the past few weeks have been so busy! The kids made adorable gifts for me. Dave helped the girls make handprint flowers with a cute picture of each of them in the middle. Bryce made me some flowers that had chores he would do around the house. He is always begging to do more chores around the house. Brayden made some awesome stick figure artwork of our family to hang on our wall in the kitchen. Jaron wrote me a sweet letter. Dave gave me some pretty yellow roses and the quesadilla maker I asked for after doing our Cinco de Mayo party at Kelli's. I used the quesadilla maker last night, and I love it.

I loved watching most of the Jazz game after going to church. I did fall asleep at half time and didn't wake up until it was almost the 4th quarter. It felt wonderful to take a nap! After a thrilling Jazz victory, Dave grilled up some steaks for dinner. I tried my hand at making onion rings. I have been craving onion rings for the last few days, so I decided to try making them. They were so yummy! We had delicious strawberry shortcake for dessert. We ended the day watching the Boston Red Sox game. The entire day was perfect to me! I know most women wouldn't love to spend hour after hour watching sports on TV- but I love it!

This day was very near perfection! The favorite part was spending the entire day at home as a family!

Cinco de Mayo

2008-05-06T12:11:00.001-06:00

Kelli called me yesterday mid-morning wondering if we would like to do a Cinco de Mayo party for Family Home Evening together. It sounded like fun, so we started planning. We went over to Kelli's and had a mexican dinner and Spanish music playing all night. The kids had plain cheese quesadillas, and the adults and Jaron and Brayden had quesadillas with refried beans, hamburger meat, chicken, and cheese with salsa and sour cream. We played a "hide the maraca" game. All the kids sat on a blanket outside and closed their eyes and counted to 10 twice in Spanish while 2 kids hid maracas. The kids seemed to have fun but there was an awful lot of peekin' going on!

Searching for the maracas
Tori and Lindsay played on the teeter totter instead of looking for the maracas. We finally had them take a turn together hiding the maracas. As soon as the kids stopped counting, Tori led all the kids straight to where they hid them. She obviously didn't get the game, but it was very cute!
The pinata was definitely the highlight of the night. The kids had a blast! Brian rigged up a long bannister railing to the pinata and moved it around while the kids were blindfolded. After all the kids had a turn, we let them each have a turn with no blindfold.

Brayden broke the pinata a little, and we let Jaron have his 2nd turn to finish it off.

The loop holding the pinata to the pole broke, so in the end, Brian pitched the pinata to Jaron to hit.
The kids and their stash from the pinata.
We ended the night with ice-cream and sparklers. Kelli made a yummy topping for the ice cream so it would be like fried ice cream.

We all had a great time, and decided that this is now going to be a new tradition of ours.

Busy Saturday!

2008-05-06T10:07:00.000-06:00

We had a very crazy Saturday! We spent several hours Saturday morning at Thanksgiving Point at the ScoutExpo. The weather was perfect and we had a great time. Brayden did over 100 push-ups in a competition. Jaron had the record for vertical jump, and Faith did over 120 sit-ups (she just turned 6). Bryce and Natalie loved everything, including climbing, branding their pieces of wood, jousting, and shooting marshmallow guns. Lindsay was in a bad mood all day, but at least she had moments of happiness.

We rushed home from the scout expo to have lunch before we headed out to Jaron and Brayden's soccer game. They both did great, and the team won 4-0. Shortly after we got home from the soccer game, my parents called to see if we wanted to go to a humanitarian dinner auction in Salt Lake City at the Little America Hotel. The catch was we had to walk out the door, all dressed up in a few minutes. Dave hopped in the shower and we both got dressed and ready in record time, and beat my parents to the ride and share where we all met to drive up to the dinner together. My parents, Sandi and Dave, Kelli, and Dave and I all had a great time together. There was a silent auction at the beginning of the evening with many things that were not that expensive. We had fun browsing mostly, but we did bid too, even though we didn't win anything. We had a nice buffet dinner, and then a program and live auction. Mark Koelbel from channel 2 news was the emcee and Kurt Bestor sang a couple of songs. The evening was wonderful, and I came away more determined to be grateful for the many blessings I have, and to better share with those who don't have much. I was especially touched by the ambassador from Mali who spoke, and reminded us of how happy his people were despite poverty. It is true, most of the pictures my Dad has from when he travels to Africa, the people look so happy! They have little huts for homes and very little food, and yet, they are so happy. On the drive home, all of us decided that we had so much fun together that we are going to have a big group date night on the 4th Saturday of each month with any of the adults that want to come from the Mel Johnson family. I think we are going to have a blast. We decided that each couple would take a turn planning the activity one month. I can't wait! We arrived home after 10 p.m. and then watched "No Resevations" on dvd while Dave caught up on work. I actually stayed up until about 1 a.m.! That never happens! Luckily, I did sneak in a short nap between soccer and the phone call from my parents or I never would have made it.

Jaron's Alpine Days Meet

2008-05-04T13:11:00.000-06:00

This is Jaron competing in the long jump on May 2nd. He ended up getting 14'3" and placed 4th in the district of 10 schools. This day was much better than the day before which was freezing and so windy! I only got a few shots from very far away the first day because I was too cold to move or take out my camera much.

I decided to pull our other kids out of school a little early so they could come support Jaron. I don't know if they watched much, but I am glad they were there. The kids mostly ran around the bleachers or played on the grass hill. Grandma and Grandpa Wakley and Grandpa Goddard were all there to cheer Jaron on.

This is Jaron running the 3rd leg of the mile relay. They did great and took 3rd. Lindsay went to this meet with a perfectly good pair of pants and underwear! It was funny and embarrassing walking out of the stadium to our car with a huge hole in her pants! At Mountain View High School they have some large painted cement letters on the grassy hill. The kids thought it would make a great slide, but since it was just painted cement, Natalie and Lindsay's pants will never be the same again.
Besides running around and sliding down giant cement letters, the kids ate a ton of snacks! They always think they are starving. This is Lindsay's adorable face after dirt and many snacks

were rubbed semi-permanently into her face. Jaron did a great job, and we had a fun time watching him! He also placed 10th in the high jump at 4'6" and 13th in the mile with a time of 6:12.45. I am so glad Dave has a flexible job where he can come and support our children in their activities and accomplishments!

Happy 15th Anniversary!

2008-05-02T10:02:00.000-06:00

In many ways it seems much longer than 15 years. Not to say that things have dragged on, but Dave and I have known each other for a long time. I went through a few of our old pics. Man, we used to be so young! The first pic is from 1988. That is the Wakley family station wagon in the background that Dave got to drive.
This is Dave's Jr. Prom. Incidentally, this is April 29th (our anniversary) 1989.
This is our engagement picture that was on our wedding invitations.
We had our reception at the Lion House in Salt Lake.
This is on the Salt Lake Temple grounds.

Our anniversary this year wasn't very eventful. Neither Dave nor I were feeling well. Dave brought home a Cafe Rio burrito for us to share. I fed the kids before he got home, and we rented a video for them to watch so we could have time to ourselves. Everything didn't turn out like we planned when Jaron came to us after the movie asking for help with a school project. We spent most of the rest of the evening helping him look for comic strips on the internet that were about certain subjects, like self-esteem, goal setting, ineffective communication, etc. Dave and I were on separate computers looking for comics. We laughed a lot, but it certainly wasn't what we had in mind. We'll have to have a "make-up" anniversary night soon.

Dave is absolutely the perfect husband for me in every way! I am so excited that I get to spend forever with him!

Spring?

2008-04-24T19:32:00.000-06:00

I can't believe these pictures were taken today, April 24th! I sat with Dave and both of Dave's parents in a near blizzard trying to watch Jaron's track meet. Jaron slipped on his second long jump attempt and hyper extended his knee. He seems to be doing o.k. now. He thinks he will be able to run tomorrow. They cancelled the meet not long after the start as the weather continued to get worse.

Here we are braving the weather. Lindsay was begging to come with me to the meet, but she has been fighting a bad cough for a couple weeks. I am so glad I made her stay home with Brayden! I was totally freezing by the time I headed home. My hands were so cold just by gathering the blankets and chairs to pack up to go home. This is an experience I will remember for a long time! We hope next week brings better weather for the big Alpine Days meet. At least it isn't likely to be worse than today. I'm hoping spring arrives before summer gets here.

Happy Very Belated Birthday Dad!

2008-04-23T20:16:00.000-06:00

I finally took my dad out to the lunch I promised him for his birthday that was back on Feb. 21st. I didn't forget, life just gets busy. We met at NuSkin, and walked across the street to a little Chinese dive called the Lotus Garden. He had eaten there several times, and he and my mom had both talked about it. Well, I love Chinese, so I had to try it. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet...not great for me trying to lose weight, but oh well. I tried to be farely good but I didn't do great. I will definitely be going back there! My favorite part was the Mongolian Grill where you fill up a bowl of any meats, shrimp, vegetables (mmm... onions and mushrooms were half my bowl) and a teriyaki sauce that they cook for you right there. I took Lindsay along with me. She wasn't really hungry because she ate lunch with Natalie before we left, but she kept eyeing my broccoli. I offered her so many different things, and she tried a few, but kept insisting on the broccoli. Grandpa offered to take her to get ice cream with him and she was all smiles when she returned. They brought back a bowl that had a little of all the different flavors they offered plus some cake, pudding, and strawberries. She couldn't stop smiling. Grandpa also gave Lindsay a balloon, which she accidentally let go of as we were walking back to the car. I thought that was the end of that balloon, when my dad took off after it (and it was breezy outside and there was quite a bit of traffic there on Center St. in Provo). Lindsay was very pleased that he returned safely with her balloon. As I left, my dad and I agreed that we have to get together more often. I really had an enjoyable time.

As a bonus, Lindsay fell asleep on the way to lunch, and on the way home from lunch. Two naps in one day... that never happens. Here she is asleep on the couch with the balloon from Grandpa.

Bye, Bye Rats

2008-04-23T19:58:00.000-06:00

We all said goodbye to most of the rats today. It was definitely time to get rid of them though. We had 13 rats living in very small quarters. It was quite the ordeal just to separate out the 10 we were taking to the pet store, and the 3 we were keeping. There were rats jumping everywhere!
Those baby rats are like baby kangaroos! I thought the kids would be more upset about getting rid of them, but they did fine. They realized now that the rats have grown so much, that we can't keep them. Their room was starting to smell like a pet store! It is just very difficult to keep a cage clean with so many rats!
As we drove to the pet store, I was crossing my fingers that they wouldn't give us a hard time about bringing all those rats to them without any notice. We walked into the store, explained the situation, and they took them, no questions asked. It went very smoothly. I was very relieved.
I just hope we actually picked out 2 baby females for us to keep. I made Brayden triple check our rats, and I hope we didn't goof.

Natalie's Crazy Birthday Day

2008-04-18T16:04:00.000-06:00

Many of these pictures describe yesterday to a T. Lindsay wasn't able to make it through the first five minutes of dinner before she zonked out. I got up at 6:30 a.m. and didn't stop until 10:30 p.m. I felt like I was so busy all day! After getting ready for the day, I had to make a quick trip to Smith's. I already had a bunch of cake mixes on hand, but I have been stubbornly boycotting the high cost of eggs, so we had no eggs in the house. After I got back from getting eggs at the store, I had to get started on two birthday cakes for Natalie. She needed one for her friends party and an ice-cream cake for our family party at night. As soon as the cakes were done, we headed out to meet Dave's mom to go birthday shopping for Natalie. We went to Kohl's and Target, but we didn't really find what we were looking for. We did find shoes for Natalie at Payless. One of my favorite parts of the entire day was watching her strut up and down the store aisle swaying her hips. She knew how great she looked in those shoes! We raced home, made and cleaned up lunch and prepared for the friends that would be arriving soon for Natalie's party.
Natalie got two phone calls from grandparents in the middle of her party. She was happy to talk to them but as soon as she finished, she would run the phone back to me so she could resume playing with her friends.
I sent the kids out to play on the trampoline while Jaron and Brayden set up a treasure hunt for them.
This is the kids racing back into the house after finding a clue taped to the bottom of the mail box. The "treasure" was located in our basement under our stairs. Jaron was down under the stairs to ensure that there was no fighting, etc. You can't stand up to full height under our stairs, but Jaron attempted to and hit his head very hard on the short ceiling. Jaron came upstairs with his head split open. I helped him clean it up, and we headed over to Sara Arnold's to get a professional opinion if he needed to go to the doctor. She said he would need a few staples. I thought Jaron was going to cry when he heard the word "staples" when his head already hurt so bad. Well, I had to take Jaron to Instacare, but I had a party to finish first. I knew how important this party was to Natalie. We quickly opened presents and had cake and ice cream before I shooed everyone out of the house so I could get Jaron to the doctor. When we made it home from the doctor, I had Natalie's dinner request of Nachos to make before Dave's parents came over for a little party. It was a fun and crazy day. Natalie reminded me several times about the whipped cream. We didn't forget. She got a huge mouthful. I hope Natalie had a great 6th b-day!

I Turned 35 Yesterday!

2008-04-16T12:21:00.000-06:00

This was 20 years ago! I can't believe how time flies! When did I get so old? It seems like just a few years ago, I was in high school. Now- I have a couple kids not too far away from starting high school themselves! I had a great day despite my old age.
I spent the morning cleaning, more than I had planned to because I was outside the day before for nearly the whole day, and I got nothing accomplished in my house. My visiting teachers showed up in the morning with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. My old college roommates and friends- Amie and Heather came over with their kids for the day. I hadn't seen either of them in over 3 1/2 years. We scheduled our get-together when the weather was supposed to be in the 70's, but we ended up with 40's, wind, and snow. The kids were great though, and Amie, Heather, and I were able to visit for several hours. It was so fun catching up, and after they left I felt disappointed in myself for letting so much time go by without planning a time to see one another before then. We now have a date scheduled when the three of us are going to meet for dinner in a couple of months. I am determined to keep these friendships intact, and I will not let time get away from me again!Dave was so sweet! He was determined to make dinner for me even though it was too cold to barbecue outside. He isn't that comfortable around the kitchen, so I am always touched that he wants to cook for me. He called me 3 or 4 times from the store, because he wasn't sure about ingredients, but the dinner ended up turning out great! We had homemade cheese steak sandwiches with roast beef, onions, peppers, and Swiss cheese on hoagie buns. Heather brought over fresh pineapple as a birthday gift. I don't think she had any idea that fresh pineapple is my favorite fruit, and we added it to our dinner menu. We had a little celebration afterward with with me, Dave, and the kids. Everyone chipped in money to buy me some sweet gifts, and each of them also made me homemade gifts that I love. We had cupcakes that Amie brought over and mint chocolate chip ice-cream. I unknowingly started a new tradition on Bryce's birthday. I sprayed whip cream straight into his mouth. He loved it, and yesterday he asked if he could spray whipped cream in my mouth. I initially said no because I didn't really want cream, but then I thought of how much Bryce would enjoy spraying it in my mouth, and said he could. He was so thrilled. Now, Natalie can't wait for her birthday tomorrow so we can spray cream in her mouth. I love traditions, and it is so funny how little ones creep in and become an important part of our lives. I had a great birthday, and I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life!

No Pics of Just Us

2008-04-14T16:20:00.000-06:00

Dave and I take lots of pictures. We checked, and we have 2400 pictures saved on our computer from the past 12 months. Out of those 2400 pictures, not one is of just Dave and I. That is sad!In fact we have just a handful of pictures of just us since we met. So, to remedy the situation, we had Brayden take pictures of the two of us before we left for church.

After we had plenty of the two of us, Dave wanted to try out our new tripod, so we attempted to do a family picture with the timer. We have never tried this before, and there are seven of us, so we weren't too hopeful that any would turn out. They actually look decent. It only escalated from there, and we have a ton of pictures from Sunday! Bryce got his hands on the camera and took pictures of the walls, his hands, the side of our heads... you get the picture (no pun intended). I am going to make a bigger effort to have Dave and I in some pictures together.

General Conference Tradition

2008-04-11T09:09:00.001-06:00

Every General Conference, after the Sunday sessions, my siblings and their families meet at our parents' home for hoagies. We used to meet after the first session, have lunch, and watch the 2nd session together. But now, my parents have 19 grandchildren all living close by, and nobody gets to listen to any of the last session with all those kids running around! So, we wisely changed it to after the final session in October of last year. It is a fun tradition that we have been doing since my mom married into the Goddard family. I remember going to Grandma Goddard's and having hoagies when I was younger. It will always be a fond memory I associate with General Conference. My kids expect it now too. As soon as we mention that General Conference is coming up, they always mention, "We are going to Grandma and Grandpa's for hoagies, right?"

100 Things About Me

2008-04-10T15:13:00.000-06:00

I just read my friend Amie's blog. This was my favorite thing on her blog, so I am copying the concept to my own blog. I didn't think I would be able to come up with 100 things about myself, but it didn't take very long at all, and I had a lot of fun thinking about it. Well, here we go...

1. I love being a wife to Dave!
2. I love being a mom to my 5 wonderul kids!
3. I love being a stay-at-home mom. It never has seemed like a sacrifice to me-it has been what I always wanted.
4. I love playing basketball!
5. I hate running unless it is when I'm playing basketball.
6. We eat dinner together every night as a family.
7. I hate dusting the house! That is definitely the worst chore for me!
8. No, ironing is worse. I have ironed maybe 3 times since I've been married out of pure necessity. If I find a piece of clothing that can't be fluffed in the dryer to get the wrinkles out, I donate it to D.I.
9. I love ice cream and eat it 5 or 6 days a week.
10. I snack on too many sweets. I know a lot of people that go without sugar, but it is never a consideration for me.
11. My favorite sweets are Whoppers and Pearson's Peppermint Patties in those huge containers from Costco.
12. I enjoy cooking- I just don't like coming up with ideas of what to cook.
13. I would experiment more with new dinner menus and recipes if I didn't have so many picky eaters.
14. My favorite meals are in the summer when Dave barbeques hamburgers or steaks.
15. Dave and I have known each other since I was 14 and he was 15.
16. I never sleep in. I hate wasting my time in bed in the morning.
17. I'm not a late night person. I have probably stayed up past midnight just a few times in the past 15 years.
18. I hate to know anything about a book or movie before I read or see it. You can tell me if it is fiction or an action adventure- but nothing else!
19. I love March Madness and the Bracket Challenges! We always have a group set up on Yahoo every year.
20. I love fantasy football and have played for at least the last 10 years- and I'm pretty good at it.
21. I love watching BYU fooball! I just need to see the game- I don't need to be there. Going seems like a lot of work.
22. I love tickling my kids. I tickle at least one of them every day.
23. I love reading but I tend to let characters and books consume me and influence my feelings way too much. I have to be careful about what I read.
24. I love the gospel! I have always had a strong testimony as far back as I can remember.
25. I love my friends! I need to do better at keeping in touch with old friends!
26. I love taking pictures. I'm always afraid if we don't take pictures of things, we'll forget all the wonderful times and memories we've had - they will just slip away.
27. I like digital scrapbooking as a means to help us remember how blessed we are and the wonderful times we have had together. I will never go back to paper scrapping.
28. I'm really scared of when my youngest starts school! I don't know what I will do with myself!
29. I love reading personal finance blogs.
30. I am very frugal. If I can do it myself or Dave can do it- I won't pay someone else to do it.
31. I love getting my food storage in order. I love organizing it and feeling somewhat prepared.
32. I love family traditions and we have a lot of them!
33. I'm not much into style. I know I don't wear the cutest clothes or have the cutest hairstyle and I don't care.
34. I love being comfortable. Jeans and T-shirts is my style.
35. I love playing basketball with the women in my ward! They are some awesome basketball players! I hope they never move!
36. I love our neighborhood. I am happy and content to live here forever!
37. I can shop for hours and not spend any money. I usually have to be looking at a specific item many different times before I actually buy it. I am not an impulse shopper!
38. I love to find great deals on groceries, and then stock up. I love when the ads come out!
39. I love visiting with friends outside when the weather is nice.
40. I don't like winter to last very long because of #39. Winter really puts a damper on my social life!
41. I am outside in the summer for at least 6 to 8 hours a day but I am a sit in the shade person. I don't care about being tan!
42. I hate being overscheduled!
43. If I have to use a calendar or planner, I am overscheduled! I like remembering all I have to do in my head.
44. I don't have much use for lists. I can't believe I am making a list!
45. I am probably one of the last people in the U.S. who has never had a cell phone. And as of right now, I have no need or desire for one.
46. I love going to Education Week with my mom, Kelli, and sister-in-laws every year. It is my fun girl time away.
47. I love being at home when my kids come home from school.
48. Even though we have 2 kids that babysit now, I don't like leaving them much. I feel guilty that I should be spending time with them at home instead.
49. I love our yearly trips to Moab and Arches with our awesome neighbor friends.
50. I am fairly shy until I get to know you well.
51. I hate being late or rushed. I am not rational if I think I am going to be late.
52. I don't like wearing jewelry.
53. I can't live without my wedding ring though. I have to take it off to play basketball and I am so paranoid about losing it. I have even worn it throughout all 5 of my pregnancies.
54. I hate it when my kids don't get their chores done, because then I nag, and I hate nagging. I don't like being the bad guy.
55. I used to be pretty good at tennis. I don't play much now because of an injured shoulder.
56. I worry more than I should.
57. I love living in Utah and having so much of our family close to us.
58. I have so many fond memories of vacationing in Yosemite. I hope my kids have fond memories from our vacations.
59. I cut all my kids' hair. None of them have ever had their hair cut by anyone else. (See #30)
60. I am excited to take my kids to Seven Peaks this summer. We have season passes!
61. I worry too much about what others think of me.
62. I think long and hard about most things before I say them out loud.
63. I love General Conference. I just feel uplifted and wonderful afterward. I'm so happy to know we have a living prophet here on the earth!
64. I am not a spur of the moment person. I am a thorough planner.
65. I don't like skirts or dresses. I am changed out of church clothes within 5 minutes of being home.
66. I am horrible at thank-you cards, e-mail, and Christmas cards. I sent out our 1st Christmas card this past Christmas after 14 years of marriage!
67. I don't paint my fingernails or toenails except clear on rare occasions. I don't like to draw attention to them, or take the time to do it.
68. I wear size 11 shoes and wish I would grow taller to match my feet. I'm only 5'7".
69. I am a cautious person- including driving.
70. I can't sew at all, and have no desire to learn. I can sew on a button if I have to- otherwise- it goes to D.I. or Dave calls his mom.
71. Unlike my parents- I don't like going to movies.
72. I love Chinese and Mexican food.
73. I like watching movies at home on DVD once. I don't like watching a movie more than one time.
74. I love bouncing my kids on the trampoline.
75. I wish I were in a book club.
76. I love being with good friends. It feels awkward being with people I don't know fairly well.
77. I like eating out as long as it doesn't cost too much. I definitely can't spend money on drinks. Water for us!
78. Dave is the perfect husband for me! I knew what I was doing when I fell in love with him as a teenager.
79. I don't like soda pop.
80. I get motion sick so easily! I hate it.
81. I don't like yard work. I'm a horrible gardener.
82. We finally decorated our master bedroom after 14 1/2 years of marriage. I love it.
83. My new exercise routine is Dance, Dance Revolution.
84. I bite my fingernails but they don't look cute even when I don't bite them (Kelli understands.)
85. I graduated from BYU with a degree in Business Administration.
86. I love hanging out in the basement that Dave and I finished mostly by ourselves.
87. I feel so blessed! It often scares me that my life is going so well.
88. I am horrible at detail work. Dave takes care of lots of the detail stuff.
89. I love being with my kids. They are awesome!
90. I had Bell's Palsy 10 years ago and still feel many of its effects every day.
91. I'm not very artistic, which is probably why it took so long to decorate our bedroom.
92. I love wearing tennis shoes. If I am wearing shoes other than tennis shoes- I am going to church or some other special event.
93. I love my fluffy, comfy, colorful socks. I wear them every day.
94. I love all that my children teach me.
95. I love board games.
96. I wish I could sing well.
97. I want to be a better mom and wife.
98. I love watching the TV show "24."
99. I am terrified of bees and heights, but especially bees.
100. My husband gives me the best back rubs, and I love them!

Our Kitchen Project

2008-04-07T11:07:00.000-06:00

This winter has been full of home improvement and decorating projects. We finished our kitchen about 2 weeks ago, and we are so happy with the results. It took about 6 weeks from start to finish. We replaced our ugly fluorescent light box with recessed lights, added crown molding to our cabinets, painted the kitchen walls, painted the cabinets, added cabinet hardware, and added cubbies above our fridge. These are some before and after pics. I didn't think to take before pictures until right before Dave started to do the molding, so it is a bit messy, but I am so glad I did it anyway. All we need to do now is get new chairs to go in the kitchen, and add some artwork to the walls.

We Can't Be That Old

2008-04-04T14:06:00.001-06:00

to have a son in track! It seems like it was just yesterday that I was watching Dave at his track meets. Needless to say, we are so excited to watch Jaron compete for his Jr. High track team. He has performed well in his two meets so far, and improved a ton from his first meet just a week ago, to his 2nd meet yesterday. In both meets he has run the 400 meters, the mile, and done the high jump and long jump. He has a talent for jumping, and we hope he will improve even more when he learns some technique.

Here are his results: 1st Meet vs. Mountain Ridge Jr. High
400 meters: 1:12
5th place

1 mile: 6:31 3rd place

high jump: 4'3" 3rd place

long jump: 13'6" 1st place

2nd Meet vs. Canyon View Jr. High
400 meters: 1:14 3rd place

1 mile: 6:18 (don't know the place yet because they run all the grades together, yet they are placed according to grade)

high jump: 4'8" 2nd place

long jump: 14'6" 1st place

For anyone interested in coming to any of his remaining meets, here is his schedule:

Apr. 8 at Willowcreek Middle School at 3 p.m.
Apr. 24 at Lehi High School at 3 p.m.
May 1-2 at Mountain View High School (These are the district finals, and all the schools compete together and I don't know the start time yet.)

2008-03-26T16:38:00.000-06:00

A Bit Embarrassing but Funny.

Natalie had some of her hair up in a rubber band for a couple days. I took out the rubber band, and then combed it straight back, and she begged me to leave it that way. I tried many times to get her to change her mind, but she thought it looked beautiful. We came downstairs and I asked Lindsay if Natalie's hair looked weird, and she said it was pretty. I let Natalie go to school with this lovely hairstyle! Her permanent substitute is a woman in my ward who until now probably thought my family was semi-normal. Oh well, she was so happy when she walked out the door to go to school. You can tell from this picture that she is actually very proud of her new do! Natalie, you are absolutely adorable no matter how weird your hair is!

The Pet Store Gave Us Two Male Rats

2008-03-25T18:10:00.000-06:00

...and now we have 13 rats. The babies are pretty cute, and the kids are so excited, but 13 rats! Dave and I came home from a basketball game when Jaron and Brayden informed us of the 11 new babies. My reaction was to just laugh. We had 2 "male" gerbils about 7 or 8 years ago, and they also had babies. I guess when you purchase little rodents, and you know very little about their anatomy, chances are, you may not get what you thought you had gotten. We are hoping the pet store is cooperative when we bring a bunch of rats back to them. Brayden wants to keep his rat: the mother, but we obviously have to get rid of Jaron's father rat. Bryce has also been begging for a rat of his own, so we will keep a baby for him and one for Jaron to replace the father. Hopefully we will be successful at getting all the same sex. I don't want another surprise litter, but so far this surprise has been fairly enjoyable.