Easter

Easter kind of snuck up on us this year. We were just past Lexi's birthday and I realized Easter was in a week. It was also different because we didn't go to church because of General Conference. It was nice in the fact we didn't have to hurry in the morning to get everyone ready for church. Lexi was the one up and excited and it took a while to get Taylor to cooperate and wake up. It was a very pleasant day, listening to the counsel of apostles and prophet, sharing good food with friends and being together as a family. Most importantly remembering the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement. A gift that is a blessing everyday.

Taylor's wisdom teeth

At the beginning of April Taylor got his wisdom teeth out. Everything went as planned and he came out of surgery very giggly. The nurse said he did great and was entertaining them all in the back. I could see why, Taylor is a spaz with drugs. He has never had his mouth numb so he kept touching his lips and chin. I was videoing him and driving at the same time and so it's a bit wobbly. He kept telling me he was feeling well enough to go to school. The video shows how goofy he was. He has quickly healed and with minimal swelling.

Tennis anyone?

In the Fall Paige and I had a discussion about the importance of physical exercise. She tried to tell me she got plenty in her PE class. We all know that that's a joke and I told her she needed to find something to do for physical activity. She decided on tennis, her junior high has a tennis club that she was able to join. The emphasis was teaching the fundamentals of tennis, which was perfect because Paige knew nothing about tennis. In Feb. there were tryouts for the tennis team and Paige made the team. She has really enjoyed learning a new sport and hopefully she can enjoy playing tennis throughout her life. It's interesting for us to learn the game and watch her matches. Sorry I don't have any "action" shots. It's hard to get decent pics. from some of the places we have to watch the matches.

21 yrs ago

Wow, how quickly life changes in such a short time, at least it seems like just yesterday that this picture was taken. Obviously not, but I can't believe my baby is 21 today. We had such a naive perspective on being parents and were so excited to have our new baby boy here and healthy. We had a lot to learn!!! We have loved being parents and the great joy that comes from seeing the growth in each of our children. There have been plenty of tears and trials too. It is very gratifying see the great work that Jordan is doing and realize that there is so much still to come. We are grateful that Heavenly Father has seen fit to have been blessed us with 4 great children and pray we can do the job as parents that we are suppose to. Happy Birthday Jordan, Love you whole hearts!!!!!!

Jordan in Hemet

Jordan's 6th area on his mission was Hemet. It is southeast of Riverside. This is the area that he had been in the longest, he was there for 4 1/2 months. He was just transferred last week. He really enjoyed the people in Hemet and had some great experiences as a missionary. These pictures are a bit old-from the end of the year but he broke his camera and we just got it replaced a couple of weeks ago. We are hoping for some updates soon. His new area is Beaumont. It is right along I-10 between Yucaipa and Banning, both areas where he had previously served.

When Jordan left he decided that he didn't need a rain suit or special rain gear. The Riverside area gets about 1 1/2" of rain/year. Of course this was the wettest winter in several years and Jordan was on a bike. This is after being out in rain all day.

Jordan transferred to Hemet the end of November so the holidays were spent there. His 1st companion was Elder Dunn.

The youth group from the ward wanted to make sure the missionaries started their day out right. Looks like they're good for a couple of weeks. I love the artwork on the wall.

Elder Torbit and Elder Dunn with Rita, an investigator they were able to teach. Her friend that is a member of the church baptized and confirmed her.

Each of the places Jordan has been has their "local" activity. In Hemet the elders played softball on Mondays with a city league. Here's a clip from Jordan. He got a couple of strikes before getting a piece of it and hitting a home run.

Taylor the cook

As a senior Taylor had only a few credits needed to finish this semester. He decided to have some fun and do something besides what was required. I talked him into taking a food and nutrition class. He has learned quite a bit and will be something that will benefit him the rest of his life. He had a assignment to make and bring a family recipe and present it to the class. We settled on chocolate turtle cookies. They aren't really fancy but fun because they are baked on a waffle iron. It was fun to watch Taylor use some of the things he's learned and do it. The hardest part was stepping back and letting him do it. He did great and the teacher thought they were a really unique cookie. The bummer was not getting to eat them, they are one of our favorites.

Visit from Sis

My youngest sister Sara came to visit my other sister Amy during spring break. Since Amy is up in Nacogdoches and the scheduling thing we didn't catch up until the end of her visit. We met up by the airport and got to spend a few hours together before she headed back to Calif. She brought Benjamin and it was fun to visit and see how much he has grown. It's always great to see family.

spring break camping

We did our annual spring break camping trip. There were 7 families all together and we headed to Lake Livingston this year. We hadn't been there before but thanks to Holly for getting us this great area where the kids could play in the street and we were all together. We were up there for Thurs., Fri., and Sat. which turned out to be perfect planning. It was nice to just get away from the everyday schedule and be out in the beauty of nature. We even had beautiful weather.

On Fri the kids decided since it was nice (mid 70's) and we were by a lake they needed to go swimming. Some of the kids had brought bathing suits but those who didn't had figured out something to improvise in. This was before heading to the lake. And this wasn't even all the kids there were nine not pictured. Of course, some were not of the age to be swimming yet. Don't they look like a happy, warm bunch?

Of course when they just put their hands in the water it didn't feel too bad. Lexi was the first one in and jumping in was a whole new experience. Then it became a matter of who would be brave enough to take the plunge. Many of the kids jumped in but not very many were in for more than a minute or two.

Paige made the jump and was back out quickly.

Lexi all nice and wet

Paige and Lexi dared each other to jump in again.

Besides the lake there were lots of other things to keep everyone busy. Paige tried out her kite flying.

Taylor and Taylor with Michael

The 'tween' girls-Olivia, Carly, Morgan and Lexi

The 'middle' girls-Quincy, Paige and Andrea

Ken-helping cook up some yummy breakfast tacos.

We even got some service hours for the elementary school by cutting out some laminating for the teachers. Hey, might as well make the most of the time. Not something that is easy to come by at home.

Playing washers, you just have to be careful of wandering little ones.

Tracball

I'm not that bad of a partner

The whole family before the end of the day.

Sat. morning as we were enjoying a leisurely breakfast, Ken showed us the radar screen on his phone of what was heading our way. A big rain cell. We quickly went to work packing everything up. As we were literally putting the last things in the car, the raindrops started. It was a good thing we were ready to go, since it rained the rest of the afternoon and brought a cold front with it. Camping is fun, but not in the rain.

Kodiak X

Summer of 2009 Taylor attended a special Venturing summer camp. It was leadership/team building skills course taught through a week long high adventure camp. Each day they did different activities-small boat sailing, horseback riding, climbing, shooting, etc. The boys all loved it and were then qualified to attend Kodiak X. This was taking the skills they had acquired this past summer and putting them into practice. The first weekend of spring break Taylor and 4 other boys from our crew went to Kodiak X. It was perfect camping weather and they were able to renew friendships and learn many things. Taylor even interviewed to go on staff for Kodiak this next summer. We'll see if that works out. Ken and I went to pick the boys up at the end of the weekend so I was finally able to see some of the things the boys all come home talking about. I actually got some pictures to boot.

Taylor in front of the camp logo

This is outside San Marcos in the hill country of Texas.

Taylor participated in the closing flag ceremony for the weekend.

After one last group activity everyone had to tell something memorable from the weekend.

Taylor receiving his gold Kodiak X medal. One thing that is different about Venturing from the other Boy Scout programs is that it is co-ed. Of course separate facilities and sleeping areas but there is a growing number of female crews.