Annual Tradition

We have an annual tradition to go to Silverwood amusement park as a family. We usually go on Labor Day, but this year Labor Day was supposed to be rainy and cold so we went a few days early. Unfortunately, Amery couldn't come this year. She had a football game she had to preform at. We have some fantastic friends who worked at Silverwood this year and we so kind to save enough tickets to get us all in for free! We were even lucky enough to enjoy their company for a short amount of time while we were there. Thanks Greens, you guys are the best!!

This is the Panic Plunge. I rode a couple of rides like this at Lagoon, in Utah, many years ago.


This is a pretty cool roller coaster. You go through the whole thing forward then get to the end and you do the whole thing again backwards.

I didn't really ride on many rides. I spent most of my time with the little kids. I have learned the older I get, the more sick I seem to get on the rides. I love being with my family have a good time though.

No, I didn't let the little kids go on the scrambler by themselves :) I went with them. It just about did me in. I wasn't sure I would make it off before I got too sick. Lucky for everyone, I made it with out loosing my cookies.

James was so funny, he went on the scrambler and didn't seem very nervous at all. But as soon as the little kid squirrel cages started, the tamest ride in the park, (Dallen was probably too big, but they let him go with James) he cried and cried like he was scared to death. They had to let him off after one time around. Later he even went on the kiddy coaster without too much fuss. Maybe because I went on the other two rides with him.


I had the hardest time convincing Ashton to bring his helicopter down so I could get a good picture of him. He wanted to stay up high the whole time.


Dallen and Evan had a great time on the bumper cars and bumper boats trying to get each other.

James and my favorite part was the water. He loves playing in the water and I love the water tube rides. This is Jim on the middle slide.




And,of course, you can't go to Silverwood with out getting a funnel cake. Well at least Jarom can't :)

All in all, a great and exhausting day!

And The Winner Is........

I thought I would let you know that we decided to go with this choice for Jarom's senior picture. Thanks for all your opinions :) Also, I am having camera issues, that is one of the reasons it is taking me so long to get postings on my blog- that, and I'm sure the 6 kids and crazy schedule might have something to do with it!

Jarom Senior Pix

Last week Jarom got his senior pictures taken. I just can't believe it is already time for this. I am sure our last year with him is going to go so fast! Senior year is an expensive one too! Plus Amery's band fees (got the bill yesterday, $560), I may need to get a part time job :) Anyway, here are some of the ones I like for the yearbook. Tell me what your favorite is.

Amery's Big Night Out

Amery and her two best friends decided they wanted to get all dressed up in formals and go out to dinner for her friends B-day. We went back and forth about whether or not she could go because she would have to miss some of band practice. In the end I gave in :) They looked so cute!! I had to practice my picture taking skills for when she is actually old enough to go to a formal dance. They were going to dinner at the Olive Garden and I gave strict instructions that she was supposed to bring me home pictures. Well no luck with the pictures from them. Good thing I got some. Don't forget you can click on the pics to see them better.

Dinner with the Band

Since Amery has had band practice everyday for the last two weeks, my friend Alison and I put on a dinner for a bunch of the band kids. They have a dinner break from 4-6:30 this week, so we took 3 cars and went and picked up all the kids they invited. Somehow the first two cars left 1/2 empty and my car was extra full. There were about 21 freshman. The kids were so good and so well mannered. I think they really had a great time.

More confused then ever :)

Thanks everyone for their answers to my blogging question. Now I know that everyone seems to do it differently. Two things I have decided. First, every time I leave a comment on your blog I will try to remember to check the box that sends further comments to my e-mail. Then I don't have to check back and see if you answered. It will come right to me. I suggest you do it too:) The second thing I have decided is that I will post the answers to you after your comments or in my blog. Then the answer will come in your e-mail if you follow the first suggestion. Hope this helps. I am still open to take more suggestions :)

Proper blogging etiquette

Since I don't know the proper blogging etiquette , I have another question for all of you. If someone posts a comment and your blog and you want to answer their comment, do you post it on your blog or do you go to their blog and post a comment on one of their posts?
I think if you post it on your own blog, they might not see it. Or do people know to check back for your answer? If I post it on their blog under one of their posts, will it make sense to them since it is out of context? Obviously, I am confused!! Maybe the answer is neither :) Can you all shed some light on this?

The Winds of Change

Well, the Jamba Juice didn't cure me, but it sure was good. Hopefully soon I will feel better. I stayed home from church today because I didn't want to spread the germs around. Today wasn't a good day to miss. Especially because I always like to know the news. Our ward boundaries were changed. A couple of months ago it might not have been as big of a deal. Our ward was very LARGE, like chapel full, over flow full and several rows into the gym (or the cultural hall, as brother O'Donnal reminds me :) ). The last couple of months our ward has been shrinking. We have lost many many active families and some of our biggest families :( Today with the boundary change, we loose at least 4 more of our big active families, and gain none. They just took people away, no additions. I guess we will survive, we have been in much smaller wards before and loved them!! Great opportunity for growth, I guess. Anyway, we soon found out one of our good friends who was just moved out of our ward in the morning, became the other ward's Bishop in the afternoon. How hard would that be?? Brand new in a ward, don't know anyone, and you are called with in the first few minutes to be the Bishop. Our friend has never been in the Bishopric before, as a matter of fact he was an Elder. Good Luck Scott!! I enjoy change, most of the time. I hope we can stay in touch with our friends who have been transported to another ward. I am sure they can use them.

Peaches, Granite and Pizza???

Last night I finally finished canning the wonderful peaches my sister Doranda picked up for me on her way to my house last weekend. They were a great deal $7.50/box. I really should have got to them a few days earlier. My family loves to eat home canned fruit, but doesn't want to help can it. Does Henny Penny sound familiar? I usually convince (force) them to help. Most years we do peaches, pears, apples, applesauce, and plum jam. Last year we also did pickled asparagus (James personal favorite), tomato sauce and chopped tomatoes. They were a nice addition so I plan on doing them each year. This year I might make a second attempt at salsa. Last time I made it, 10 years ago or so, my family didn't like it very much. I have a new recipe I will try this year, lets hope for good results.

As many of you know I have been remodeling my kitchen for awhile. I am taking it very slow and so far we haven't had any disruptions in using the kitchen. The counter tops are taking me the longest. I just can't make up my mind about what granite to go with. I have looked almost everywhere. We finally thought we narrowed it down and had high hopes to pick out our actual slab today. We drove all the way to a slab yard in Idaho, just to find out they are moving to Spokane and many of there slabs are already over here. No luck today, maybe next time :) Jim is so tired of looking at granite, so maybe you can help us. Here is a link to the yard we went to today. http://www.montanastonegallery.com/gallery_view.asp?sort=%20ASC&type=%20AND%20Material_ID=1&color=%20AND%20Color_ID%3E0

Some of the colors we are considering are:
Golden Ray
Pietra Imperiale
Mountain Mocha
Talisman
Copper Canyon
Giallo Cappella
Giallo Cappella Standard
New Venetian Gold
I would love to hear your opinion. Remember each slab can be so different. After you click on the color you can click on the left on each load number and see how different they are. Also, keep in mind our kitchen cabinets are very honey oak and stainless/black appliances.

On the way home from Idaho, we ran across a pizza place having a grand opening. Since they had jumping castles and we had two of the kids with us, we HAD to stop. The pizza was good, but expensive. Since they had free Slurpee's and the jumping castles, we made out okay :)

Race Cars and Jamba Juice

Jim is in the middle of changing offices. There was a cool race car by Jim's new office, which is just across the parking lot from his old office. So technically the car was by both offices. Anyway, the boys got a kick out of it. Ashton was willing to let me take some pictures of him with the car. He is a good sport :) I am really sick today, hopefully I will feel better tomorrow. My brother Nathanael says at Jamba Juice (which is about the only store I don't have with in a couple miles of my house) they have a drink that cures his cold. So I called them, they said they would be open until 9pm. I drug myself out of the house along with 3 kids and headed down to Jamba Juice, with high hopes of a quick cure. When we arrived about 8:15pm, the gal said they were closed. I was totally bummed. I explained how I had called ahead and they told me 9pm. She felt bad and said I could get a free one the next time I came in. So I plan on heading there 1st thing tomorrow morning. I will let you know if it works.

Baby Steps

Yes! Finally got the background changed. One thing at a time :)

A New Approach

Since it is August and I have an Easter background on my blog, I guess I am not a very good blogger. It isn't that I don't want to be, I am just busy doing so many exciting things that I don't have the time to write about them. My hang up is getting all the pictures uploaded to go with my post. It takes me forever to get the pics on my computer. I have a ton of draft post that haven't been posted mostly because of the pictures. Because I like order I don't want to post anything new until I have posted the old ones. Well I think I am going to change that today. I am going to post as I go along. I will just have to put in old things that happen whenever I get to them. I will also add the pictures when I can. Maybe that will help take some pressure off of me. Well at least it is worth a try. We'll see how well it works :)

Easter background

Okay, so obviously I never look at my blog. I didn't realize I still have and Easter background. Hopefully I can change it soon.

Check again :)

If you have looked at our blog this week, I have been in the middle of updating. You might have missed some post that were inserted in between others. Take another look so you don't miss anything.

skiing

We went skiing today. We usually go away for spring break but were unable to this year, since Jim had to work. Jim has taken the boys skiing a few times this winter, but this is my first time. Ashton- 4 years old, is the only one of the kids who has wanted to go every time. He has gotten to be quite a good skiier. He is doing jumps. That was his favorite part. He just kept wanting to go on the jumps. He thought he should be able to do anything his dad could do. Since his dad has been skiing for 35 years or more, I think he might need more practice, but Ashton doesn't think so.

Wrestling

This year Evan decided to do SJW wrestling. He usually just does a camp that the high school puts on, it last for a couple of weeks with one tournament. SJW goes for a little over a month with practices 2 times a week and a tournament each Saturday. Needless to say, it kind of put a damper on our Sat. plans. It was a good experience for him. He had a cold for about 1/2 of it, the timing wasn't very good. He loved the medals and trophies, but I don't know how much he liked the wrestling. We will see if he wants to do it next year. I wouldn't mind if he didn't :)

You can see his pour nose. He gets this way anytime anything is going around. He has a hard time getting rid of it.

Amery Junior National Honor Society

We were invited to Amery's school today for the National Junior Honor Society ceremony. It is for 8th graders who have a certain GPA. Amery has a 4.0, so she was nominated. We are very proud of her. She always does her best on her school work, and gives 110%. We don't have to remind her or anything, she just does it on her own. She is a very responsible girl and a great example of doing her best. Congratulations Amery!!

I was on the news in Seattle

For those of you haven't heard yet, I started a new business. I am so excited about it. I teach workshops on how to save time and money on your groceries and other household items. I work with a company called BeCentsAble. They are based in Kansas City and are looking for educators in the west. I am the only certified educator in the state of Washington and there are currently no certified educators in ID, CA, OR, UT, MT and other western states. I went through a lot of training and an interview. I thought it would be a piece of cake because I already new it all. I actually learned several things. On my first shopping trip after being trained, I purchased $115 worth of products for only $16.

I went back later to stock up on more and my total for the day was $256 for $39.50. How much fun is it to save money? Even better, I love to help others save too. If you know anyone who might be interested in becoming an educator or attending a workshop send them my way.

I had my first workshop Saturday and KOMO 4 news, the Seattle ABC affiliate came with a reporter and a camera. I couldn't believe I was going to have to do my very first workshop on TV. If that isn't nerve racking, I don't know what is!! I think all went well. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

This is me getting my hair done for the big day. Cute huh?

This was my second workshop at my sisters salon.