Bountiful Baskets

So lately I have been participating in the co-op called Bountiful Baskets. It's found at bountifulbaskets.org (put www in front) if you want to look if something is available in your area. Every other week a semi comes to Fernley (soon to be Fallon, too) and a delivery is made of fruits and veggies. I pay $15 and this is what I got htis week:



5 ears corn, 2 bell peppers, lettuce, yukon potatoes (I believe), broccoli, carrots, nectarines, pears, tomatoes, bananas, grapes, cantaloupe.....YUM!

I estimate the cost in the store is roughly $25. I bought 48 ears of corn for $.30 each....way cheaper than the store ($.38 when I went shopping yesterday!) Anyhow, if you are interested, check it out! The more people you get signed up the more produce you get! You can also pay for organic products, too.

First Day of School!

So all 6 boyz went to school today! YEP! Twins are in kindergarden! They were SO excited! (Mom was a little excited, yet shed a few tears!) They are starting this year to make their own lunches. They all get pulled out of bed at 6:45 am. It was a great morning! After dropping them off I went to breakfast with some girlfriends! I have some amazing friends! Thanks for the visit ladies! Happy to get back into a routine. I think the kids were getting kind of bored.

Sammy - kindergarden (not same class as Daniel)

Daniel - kindergarden

Nathan 2nd grade

Bryce (who forgot his lunch on the first day) 4th grade

Comptyn 5th grade

Ryan 6th grade

Some friends invited us out to their farm and hooked up a HUGE horse to a wagon and did rides. The hay stacks have a swing that you climb up (as high as you dare) on the hay, then sit and FALL! I mean swing. Root beer floats, kick ball, horse carriage ride, swings, good friends, had a great night! Thanks guys!

The loss of someone I never met

I just got on the Church News website to print off an article I read a while ago for a lesson I am giving tomorrow in church and saw that Cheiko Okazaki passed away August 1. She was 84 years old. I don't know how many know her, but she had a great influence in my life as a late teenage/early 20s. I have probably every book she has ever written and always remember her talks in conference as powerful and spoken with conviction. It's amazing I have never met her, but I am really sad by her death. I look forward to meeting her someday.

Mavala

Anyone who knows what that means knows we are trying to get Sammy to stop sucking his thumb. We are about 30 hours into it and he is doing great! I thought last night was going to be hard be he sucks while he sleeps but he said he never did. He has a sticker chart and gets a pillow pet when he has gone so many days without sucking. Then we get orthodontics bills to correct the underbite. I would love hear some of your experiences......length of time, successful and failed ideas, etc.

End of summer update

Catching up on the last few weeks. Now that daddy is back to work, as one of the kids said, "The fun is over!" So here is some of a few things we have done in the past week few weeks.
Open swim, a little boy came down the slide RIGHT after Daniel. Daniel came up out of the water and the little boy came down on top of his head.....with his teeth! That gash is easily 1" across. Bled a lot. But all beter!

We signed for the free bowling that the Fernley Family Fun Center is participating in for the summer. www.kidsbowlfree.com and your kids can have 2 free bowling games Mon-Fri until Aug 31st. You pay for shoe rental. So our whole family can bowl 2 games for $12. Can't beat that!

We got a new missionary in our ward, who we love to bits! He is great and we hope he will be here a long time! Kids love him!

We had a quail nest in our tree in the front yard. However we got some storms thru here and it blew the birds out. It was sad. Fun while it lasted, though.

Something REALLY huge is Kevin turned 40! Old man!


Squeezed in one more camping trip. Quick but BEAUTIFUL! This was our view from out campsite. Jackson Meadows Reseroir. Our lot was a double lot, so it was big. Kids love to throw rocks. so the shore is a little less rocky. Hiking trails were beautiful!





We ran over to Utah for my sister's oldest's baptism. This is my dad with Jonathan.

Our family with the happy little boy.

My sister and her family.

Both families. I played piano and spoke on the Holy Ghost. Kevin said prayer. It was nice to be there for that day. They have been going back to church recently, so we are very excited for their family!

After eating at Chuck-O-Rama (can't go to Utah w/o doing that!) we went to BYU campus and the Bean Museum. It's the Life Science Museum. SO much fun and FREE!

This is the skin of a 14' boa constrictor. HUGE!


Butterly exhibit was really neat. All made of butterflies.

Moose with a moose.

Daniel with a cougar. He is a BYU cougar fan thru and thru!

Here is my cute niece. Isn't she adorable! She turns 5 in October.

Daniel found Pumbaa!

Went back to our hotel and swam at the pool. Then back up to our room for some wrestling with g-pa.

After church on Sunday Kevin took us up to Ensign Peak in SLC. The youth hiked it for Youth Conference last month. This is where Brigham Young and other men looked out over the valley and planned the development of where everything was to be built.


Amazing view, huh? Way worth the strenuous hike!

So that is the end of our fun for the summer. Kids don't know we plan on swimming and squeezing some more bowling in, but traveling is definately over. Which I am kindof glad for!
Kids have their teachers! We feel it will be a good year. (starts next Wednesday!) We picked up supply lists today so we are going to be poorer after buying all that! :-) Twins are SO excited to start kindergarden! Ryan's last year at the elementary level. (6th grade) and maybe even Comptyn's as their are hoping to put 6th grade up with 7th/8th grade after next year.
We hope your summers were safe and filled with fun!

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.