California Camping/Doctor's appt

So we got back last week from camping in Castro Valley, CA. That is about 20 miles east of Oakland just over the mountains. Anyhow, TONS of sycamore trees, which is a nice change from pine that are in our mountains. Anthony Chabot campground. It was beautiful! Cold, but beautiful. Low to middle 60s, but with the humidity, it was chilly. Nice change from our upper 90s to 100s. But still cold!

Saw wild turkeys everywhere.....deer once in a while.

Lake Chabot

MORE turkeys! ;-)

We drove down into the Bay area (Muir Beach) and the kids played in the ocean. I don't know how kids can do that....FREEZING water and they still play in it!

Nathan, Daniel & Sammy didn't last as long as the others. THey stayed up under the towels and blankets with me!

Three years ago next month will be Daniel's anniversary for his transplant. I got a new picture of one that I loved from back then. Anyhow, they have grown up so much!

Daniel's doctors appt went well. Dr Talley said he is doing great! Kidney is nice and soft, which is what they want.

We then drove over to Walnut Creek to visit the Olde San Francisco Creamy. We love watching Man v Food. This one Adam took on the challenge of "THE KITCHEN SINK". Almost 2 gallons of ice cream, 8 toppings, 8 servings of whipped topping, 8 cherries.....

8 hungry people.....well, mostly 7 hungry boyz......

GONE in under 10 minutes!

Lords v. Food........LORDS WON!

We did a lot of hiking around out campground. There were osme beautiful trails.

Bryce had to go to the bathroom. He lifted his leg to go and we all started laughing. Funny boy!

Found an active beehive while on one of our hikes.

Played lots of games.

Ate lots of food! Smores....YUM!

We experimented with different cookies, candies, etc. Here we tore a marshmallow in half, put a caramel between them....YUM! Threw that on a pj cookie! WOW!

On the way home we stopped at the jelly belly factory in Fairfield. Got the tour and free jelly beans! Can't beat that!

We had a lot of fun with our travel trailer. This was the first big camping trip with it. Back yard doesn't count! We were gone for 6 days, 5 nights and batterie, water and propane all lasted! We pulled up that first night and there was a big sign, "NO GENERATORS". I died! But we had power....I know, we are not 'true' roughing it campers!
Today we are going geocaching and scouting out some closer camping areas that don't require reservations.....wildreness camping.

Daniel and and iPod

So on our trip back from camping yesterday (pictures to follow) Daniel was listening to an iPod. He was singing away the primary songs. Here is my favorite:

"When Jesus Christ's bath time down in the river Jordan"

We have a little gentle correcting to do. So cute, though!

Singin' in the Rain & finger update

I can't believe our summer is half way over! Kids have done swim lessons and just plain swim a lot. Boyz had father/son campout, scout camps, I had girl's camp and next week we are camping as a family in California. (Daniel has a doctor's appt over there!)

Here is the 'fixed' finger. Super glue is amazing! Looks like I got a papercut! Took 2 weeks to heal, however. I am glad it didn't get infected with girl's camp and everything.


Yesterday we had a 10 minute burst of rain that I didn't have to coax the kids out into. Of course power went out and the surge ruined the Wii. So the kids don't know what they are going to do today! MOM doesn't know what she is going to use as bribery to get the kids to do things. Guess they will just have to do it! At any rate, rain cooled off the 100° weather down to low 80s.


Hope your summer continues to be great!

A little blood with breakfast?

So this morning I was making bagel,egg, bacon & cheese sandwichs for the kids. Bagels were frozen, so I was using my fabulously sharp Pampered Chef knives to cut them apart. (You can see where this is going, don't you?!) I made 8 of them. Once those were gone I got up to make some more. They were a big hit! Anyhow, the bagels had thawed a bit, so when I when to cut one open, it sliced right thru the bagel and part of my pinky finger!

I instantly clinched my hand into a fist and still dripped blood 4 feet to the sink. There was a LOT of blood! I grabbed 2 paper towels and put them inside my fist and kindof wrapped it around my finger. Within 30 seconds the paper towel was drenched. I was worried! Kevin was in interviews all day. I had 6 kids at home and knew a simple bandage wasn't going to stop this. So I got another paper towel and stuck in there. It was GROSS! I could see muscle. NASTY! I do not do well with my own blood, for some reason. Anyhow, I called Kevin's just to see if he was inbetween interviews. Seeing one started at 9 and it was 9:10, if figured not. But talked to one of his secretaries. Needed an adult who was calm. Not kids freaking out! I decided to just keep it wrapped tight and pray it would stop bleeding. 3 minutes later Kevin called and was on his way home. Interview was short. He superglued my finger. I felt like throwing up and passing out all at once! Here is the end result.



That is all cut! My finger feels a little strange, I am thinking nerve damage. Guess I won't be swimming today!

Got a LOT more to update on the blog....stay tuned!

Missionary transfers in the mind of a 7 year old

So we had a phone call Thursday from an Elder that had served here 2 years ago. He was coming back to Fallon for the weekend and wanted to come by sometime. We have had some great missionaries come thru here, he being one of them, and always love to see them again! Anyhow, I was telling the kids that Elder Fugate was going to come over for dinner Sunday and visit a little bit, asked if they remembered who he was, etc.
Nathan looks at me with this very puzzled look on his face. After a minute he says, "Isn't he dead?"
I never expected that to come out of his mouth! After a little bit of talking, apparently Nathan thinks that when missionaries 'leave Fallon' or are 'transferred' or 'go home'....they die.
So we had a nice teaching moment and now (hopefully) understands that none of our missionaries are dead.

On a side note, I have learned that when a missionary goes home from an area, they say that he died there and also that their companion killed them. So I guess in a small, unknown way, Nathan was right! We do seem to send a lot of missionaries home that serve here. (Their 2 years are up, not that they get in trouble and go home!)

Learned something new....

So a friend borrowed my cricut and in the process taught me how to do freezer paper stencils for t-shirts. SO cute and easy! Here is a sample one for Girl's Camp this year. The theme is "We Believe in Happily Ever After". Gotta do princess crown!



Glued a few jewels on and all done! We'll see if the girls like them! I am going to do our Disneyland tees like this! How cute!

Our Easter Week

So I like to celebrate the week in the life of the Savior instead of hte whole Easter Bunny thing. Of course this was while we were on Spring break, so I took it all with me. The kid's favorite part of the whole week was the Passover. They love the food and eating on the floor (although we ate at the table this time as it wasn't our floor!) We reinacted the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, played parable charades, read scriptures, did a scavanger hunt, watch DVDs, etc. I always enjoy listening to the kids ask questions and really think about the events that happened. If I could figure out how to get video on here, some of their charades were SO funny!

Here is our Passover meal: chicken, cucumbers, yogurt, nuts, goat cheese (actually quite good!), eggs, dried apricots and cranberries, carrots, mozzarella cheese, grape juice, olives and unleavened bread.



We drove part way back and spent the weekend with Beth Anne. She is such a COOL aunt as she let the kids decorate eggs! I don't even let the kids to that! They have been too young and it' just too messy! But they proved me wrong and did great! They even got to do an Easter egg hunt with Beth Anne's ward.






We made Easter Breakfast rolls. Here the kids are rolling a marshmallow up inside a Rhodes roll. You sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and let set overnight. When you bake them Easter morning you have.....

And empty roll to symbolize an empty tomb. Plus you have a yummy breakfast!


Aunt Beth Anne had these REALLY cute easter story in eggs. You can do it as an advent thing all week, or we just opened them and the kids took turns.

Daniel's was a donkey to represent the donkey the Savior rode on into Jerusalem during on Palm Sunday.


Here is the yummy Easter dinner. Kraig and Boyd's families both came over and we had a great time! Thanks Beth Anne for letting us crash at your house a few days!