Kevin's Fat Albert Flight of the Blue Angels

Here is a video on Youtube that shows the crew inside the C-130 when they go weightless. Kevin was strapped in but the Blue Angel crew just hung on to things!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMRhESlDHJQ

Here is the video of Fat Albert and some guy who flew in it during an Ypsilant, MI (my birthplace!) So this is exactly what Kevin experienced, if anyone would like to watch! He 'salutes' University of Michigan. He isn't a U of M fan, so he is not saluting very nicely....might want to close your eyes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuaptIhsGIE

Fruits of our labors!

Some catching up of miscellaneous things! Here we are a Lattin Farms for a HS soccer fund raiser. They served dinner and then had things for the family to do. Here we are in teh corn maze. We got lost! Then the girls helping us out....with the map....got lost. We eventually got out! But it took 55 minutes! It was fun, though. We had a good time in there. It just started getting dark.

The kids are riding the cow train. They put the twins in the back 2 seats....NOT a good idea! They never cried, but it was bumpy and kindof whipped them around. They didn't want to do it again.

Here Bryce decided to 'paint' the mirrow in the bathroom with our cherry tomatoes from the garden. WHY? I don't know. Bryce often doesn't have a reason for things he does.

One day I was inside the house and the 3 younger kids were in the front yard. All fo the sudden I hear Nathan yell, "Sammy, get away! I don't know what it is! It might KILL you!" I RAN outside to be met by Nathan running inside. I was picturing scorpian or something. It was a little gopher snake. We haven't seen any snakes around here, so I understand why he said that. We tried to catch it but it was fast!

Friday Denise and Joshua Youyels (as the twins call them)and Nathan, Daniel, Sammy and I went out to Lattin farms to pick raspberries. At $2 a pound I couldn't pass up some raspberry jam! The kids did good for about 1 hour. Then they were off in the pumpkin patch to catch grasshoppers and butterflies.

Daniel partook of "pickers privledge" and ate a lot of berries. OK....we all did, but his made it more on his face! It was a fun morning!

Here is the quilt I made for my CUTE nephew Connor. The picture looks darker than it did when I took it. So you can't really see the dark brown backing.

Here is my 'fruits of my labors!' I canned 20 quarts of pears.

9 1/2 pints of pear butter. (I have one pint that I had already given away.)

5 quarts of tomatoes from our garden and 5 pints of raspberry jam! YUMMY!

I love seeing canned foods on my counter!

My Newest Nephew

Connor Gabriel Stewart was born yesterday, Wednesday September 23 at 8:23 pm. He weighed 8 lbs 5 oz and was 20 inches long. This is my brother TJ and my sister-in-law Amanda's 3rd child. The other picture shows their 2 other children, Alex and Katelynne, looking at thier newest family member. Isn't Alex's face priceless! Congrats TJ and Amanda! He is beautiful! I got his baby quilt mailed out 3 1/2 hours before he was born....don't think it's going to get there in time. They live in Fort Wayne, IN. He'll have it when he comes home!

Poor Bryce.......

Sammy (whiny voice): "Mommy, I have a sun burn on my fum!"
(Sammy sucks his thumb so it's always red!)
Me: "How did you get a sun burn on your thumb?"
Sammy (stern voice): "BRYCE DID IT!"

Poor Bryce gets blamed for something and he actually didn't do it this time. Something Bryce did do though, yesterday at dinner we were eating soup and homemade bread. Bryce LOVES the crust and when the plate came around to him he yells, "YEAH! I get the elbow!" Funny boyz!

Catch Up Part 2

So for Labor Day we were going to go hiking with some friends. They decided to do a pool side party, which was a lot of fun! So we spent the day eating, swimming and visiting with friends! What a great day off! Thank you, Koenigs!


Here Bryce is trying to dive. He was hilarious because we'd tell him he'd have to lead with his head and him (and Nathan.....see next picture) would just belly smack! Sadly, we adults would just sit and laugh at them every time they did it!


Here Nathan was trying to do the dive thing, too! Thank goodness they had life jackets on or we would have som pretty red and sore bellies!



So after the air show on Friday we drove over to Reno to spend the night. We stayed at the Peppermill and asked for a room to face the hot air balloons Saturday morning! We swam in the pools Friday night and then woke up to this:


We tracked down the Energizer Bunny because that was the kid's favorite one! They were beautiful!

Yesterday I think we started a Stake Conference tradition! We had a fondue party with our friends the Sommer family! WHAT FUN! WHAT FOOD! There was SO much yummy food but if I had to pick my favorite it would have to be the sour dough bread in the artichoke fondue and the bananas in the white chocolate with cinnamon. YUM! I am not even going to post how much weight I gained!


Here is Kara.....she LOVED the chocolate course. Had a slight panic attack when the kids started eating and she still didn't have her fondue fork! Lucky for Jake he handed it to her quickly! He saw the emergency! So she didn't want a picture of her putting food in her mouth, yet I knew she couldn't sit there for too long! So her she is 'hiding'! We have such a great time! Thanks Sommer Family for coming and sharing in the fun! Can't wait for February!

Catch Up Part 1

So we have been crazy busy that I have been behind! Here we go to catch up! On Friday, 9/11 we went out to Top Gun Navy base and watched the Fallon Air Show. WHAT FUN! We missed our friends, the Youles! We started out with them, but due to other circumstances 'lost' them during the day! Anyhow, I have learned a lot about planes, but still am a novice. So if I say something wrong, sorry to those of you that know planes! The twins and Nathan and I headed out after dropping the other 3 kids off at school. They were riding the bus out and we met up with them. They got to each talk to one of the pilots of the highlight of the air show....the BLUE ANGELS! They are the pinnacle of Navy aviation. It's amazing what they do! But we'll get to that! There were a lot of static planes to look at (ones on the ground we could walk up to). But once the air show started there really wasn't a lot of time! It was hot! Upper 90s. Luckily we had LOTS of water, a few umbrellas and snacks! We were set for the 8 hours in the sun!

So this is a picture of the Black Daggar flag jump. I thought it was WAY cool! He'd float back and forth while the red smooke streamed out below him. Of course, the red stripes represent the red stripes on the flag. It was neat! I don't know if you can see it, but he does have a flag with him. Great way to start the show!
There was a 9/11 commemoration where they went thru the entire day 8 years ago and reviewed everything minute to minute. It was strange to hear and actually remember a lot of it and what I was doing at the time. Sitting on the couch, watching TV while my little 18 month old Ryan was playing on the ground.

We had a short break and found a Blue Angel pilot. She signed all the boy's posters and even was kind enough to pose with the kids. They were all pretty excited. Especially Bryce. He is determined he is going to be a Blue Angel. Of course, yesterday he wanted to be an ice cream taster. So who knows!

I barely got a picture of this....things fly so fast! Anyhow, it is the Air Force Heritage Fly-By. There is an F-22, A-10, P-51 and P-38. It is in commemoration of 50 years of Air Force something.....I can't remember what they said! The P-38 is Ryan's favorite. It's called the Glacier Girl. It's the one in front of the diamond formation. This plane crashed in Greenland in 1942. In 1992 a group of men removed the plane from 268 feet of ice! It then took 10 years and $4.75 million to restore. It's the only WWII plane flying today with original engeins and propellers. In fact, 80% of the plane is original. It think that is pretty amazing!So it is a pretty neat plane!

All the Blue Angels F-18 planes waiting to fly!

Here is MY favorite plane! The Fat Albert of the Blue Angels. It is a C-130 and is the cargo plane for the Blue Angels. It carries all their supplies around country and does some pretty amazing things. It was also carrying Kevin! He was chose as 1 of 4 communitee members to ride in it. He said it was pretty amazing! He went weightless many times! Looked out the window and saw the cows and ground a little too up close! But had an amazing time! They pride themselves on their quick and bumpy stops. They even showed it! They can stop that big thing in under 2500 feet! Pretty amazing! Kevin received a signed poster by all the crew and really had a great time! He was first alternate for the F-18 Blue Angels but everyone showed up to ride in those. That would have been neat, too!

So the Blue Angels finally took off! It was amazing! THey are in their diamond formation. They would be 18 inches apart from each other! INCEDIBLE! They even did the move in the Top Gun movie where one was upside down on top of the other!

Here they fly at each other and then at the last minute they flip sideways and barely miss each other. The kids were always funny when they did these ones. They were always so glad they didn't crash....as was I!

So here are 5 of the Blue Angel planes. There are actually 7. Each are numbered. The 7th one is used when one of the others breaks down.

Here they split off and went in different directions. Their timing on everything was spot on.....it seemed to me!

Here are the 6 F-18s all flying together. They did some pretty amazing things! Overall it was a LONG, HOT but very fun day!

WAY TO GO COUGARS! For those of you that haven't heard, 20th ranked BYU beat 3rd ranked Oklahoma in football yesterday on 'neutral' ground in Arlington, TX at the new Cowboys stadium. Major upset! AWESOME game! Kevin has stuck his BYU tie inside his coat pocket today and will flash it frequently to people. Especially to UNR fans. (They lost.) :-)

Why Parents Drink

A friend of mine emailed this to me! I laughed SO hard I had to share with all! I think it is funny now....but with my 6 boys and seeing how 1 or 2 or maybe even 3 might pull this....it might not be so funny! ENJOY!

A father passing by his son's bedroom was astonished to see that his bed was nicely made and everything was picked up. Then he saw an envelope, propped up prominently on the pillow that was addressed to 'Dad.' With the worst premonition he opened the envelope with trembling hands and read the letter.

Dear Dad:

It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mom and you. I have been finding real passion with Stacy and she is so nice. But I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercing, tattoos, tight motorcycle clothes and the fact that she is much older than I am. But it' s not only the passion...Dad she's pregnant.

Stacy said that we will be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children.

Stacy has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone. We'll be growing it for ourselves and trading it with the other people that live nearby for cocaine and ecstasy. In the meantime we will pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Stacy can get better. She deserves it.

Don't worry Dad. I'm 15 and I know how to take care of myself. Someday I'm sure that we will be back to visit so that you can get to know your grandchildren.

Love, Your Son John

PS. Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over at Tommy's house.

I Just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than a Report card That's in my center desk drawer.

I love you.

Call me when it's safe to come home.