oops...more of the second day at Moab

 
Oops. Here are more pictures of the second day. Here we are at the Firey Furnace view point. Cool pic:-)

 
Dave, Me, Sara and Quinn.

 

Sign in German telling us to stay on the trail. I am pointing to "boden" which means "floor" or "ground". Know wonder I always feel walked all over;-)

2nd day of Moab trip-Oct. 2011

 
On our second day in Moab we hike two different Arches. This one was about 3 miles round trip and moderate. It is the most popular/well known arch; Delicate arch. The other was a very short hike and it was amazingly busy! In fact, there was a lady there who said she's come several times over the years and had never seen this many people before. There was lots of sand for the kids to play in...I wonder why I didn't take any pics....I could have sworn I did.

 
Here is Delicate Arch in the background and then a picture of our family under the Arch.

 
Stopping for a break under the shadow of the Arch.

 
I think if I were doing Christmas cards this year this would be it:-)


 
Chase....:-P

 

The Diva's; Meagan, Jenna and Tatum.

1st day of Moab trip

 
This year for Fall break we went down to Moab with some friends, the Wigingtons, and camped and hiked. We have never gone camping with another family so we were excited to go. We love Quinn and Sara too so we knew it would be fun.
Not 20 miinutes after being there we had our first 2 injuries; Tyler and Tatum. I think Ty got a splinter but I can't remember and we think Tatum got stung by a bee. That first aid kit came in handy. Glad to say there were no more on the entire trip. Glad we got that out of the way:-)

 
We were supposed to have a 26 foot trailer that this guy was going to loan Dave on a trade for some consulting that Dave did for him. We had it for all of three hours (you know, just long enough for us to get excited and most of it packed in the trailer) when he called and apoligized profusely but, "I have a buyer on that trailer and he wants it today so I need you to bring it back". He sells mainly new but has a few used now and then that he was going to loan us. Well, that was the only one he had at the time and since the last 2 times we have gone camping we rented a popup camper we didn't have anything. Not even a tent because the one we had used in the past we threw away because it was probably 35 years old and was getting holes in it (it was Grandpa and Grandma Boden's old tent). Needless to say we made a Walmart run and bought a ten person tent.
Here are the boys setting it up. It was actually very comfortable and fit all 7 of us nicely with room to spare (since it IS a 10 man tent ).

 

Then, since we didn't get there until 4ish in the afternoon, we started dinner and played games. Garrison is the Wigington's youngest and he is a very smiley, happy boy (except for the second night at 3 in the morning ).

Volleyball and crafts

 
This year the girls wanted to try volleyball out so I signed them up to play at Marv Jenson Rec center. I volunteered to help out as assistant coach but since nobody signed up to be coach I was automatically the coach...and a very nervous one at that. I played one year in High School but that was nearly 25 years ago!
It was not something I would do again for various reasons but the team did well winning 6 out of their 8 matches and the girls really did improve which is always fun to see. Neither one of them could serve the ball over the net at the beginning but my the last 3 games they would have one or two serve go over the net. They also weren't afraid to go and hit the ball. Some kids were and never got over that. Proud of my little girls. Funny thing though. When I showed up the first day and met the 7 other players on the team I thought we were on the wrong team because all the other teammates were so much bigger than my girls but I asked everyone their name and age and they were all 10 and 11 so I guess my girls really are just small for their age.
 

I am not one who has ever really gotten into Halloween but this year I thought it would be fun to have a couple of the girls friends over and make some simple halloween decorations. The pictures and frames turned out great but and really so did the yarn balls but I don't know if I'll ever do the yarn balls again. They were really messy. I don't know. Never say never, right? If I do it will be with older kids though.

2 day Bingham High cheer camp

 
The girls went to a 2 day cheer clinic that was put on as a fund raiser for the Bingham High School girls cheer squad. They had alot of fun doing it.

 

 

 

This is Jenna doing an Ariel (seriously need to make sure I'm spelling that right:))

 

These are a couple of friends, Alaina and Brinkley, that did the cheer camp too. They all do tumbling at the same place and they go to the same church ward we do. It was fun to watch them do all their tricks.

Remembering and Honoring.

 

This is in Sandy, Utah (about 15 min away). It is called "the healing field" and is set up every year for the last few to honor those people lost in the 9-11 attacks on the trade center, flight 93, and the pentagon. It is a very solemn experience to go there. Even the kids felt it. It was really neat. This year they added a statue of some firefighters hoisting a flag. There was a flag that had the name of every person who lost thier lives that day printed on it, and a flag was set up for every individual person that lost there lives with a card attatched that told the persons name and a little about them. That is what you see the kids reading.
The long navy blanket with all the stars is a blanket someone made that has a star on it for every person that lost their life too. There were also some soldiers there and Meagan and a couple of the other kids went up and thanked them for serving our country. There were also flag to represent the people who were not Americans that died that day to with a card attatched to them and the legnth of the field we walked down that had all the flags on them was the heigth of the Trade Centers. In the background were men playing the bagpipes. It was beautiful! I especially loved "Amazing Grace".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Random pics in September

 
I love it when the girls crawl into our bed in the morning with us. The girls LOVE their daddy:-)

 
Dave has been studying to get his CPA. There are a series of 4 tests that you have to study for and pass. They are not easy tests but so far Dave has done well and only had to take them once. He is half way there. He actaully takes the 3rd one next week (this is Novemeber that I am blogging September in...heehee). Anyway, the kids had fun making this sign for him to surprise him when he got home.


 
Our neighbors have been sharing their garden with us:-) I have gotten to can some apples and tomatoes this year thanks to the Chandler's....and the kids have gotten lots of zuchinni bread which they love and zuchinni for dinner which they don't so much:-)

 

One night before Dave and I went to bed we peaked into the girls room to find out that Chase had decided to sleep with the girls that night. SOOOOOOO cute! and look how funny they are splayed all over. I love seeing things like this!

More California fun.

 
One of Grandma and Grandpa's friends manages a water park in Irvine calles Wild Rivers and he graciously gave us tickets to go. SWEET, uh? So, the next day we made up for the bummer beach trip and went to the water park.

 
Mom didn't get too many pictures here because she was too busy enjoying herself too:)

 
There were lots of slides to go on that the kids loved but they still just enjoy being in the pool and hot tub too.

 
The only thing mom doesn't like is that wave pool. I am so paranoid of that thing. I'm always worried one of my kids is going to drown. It gets so crowded and I loose sight of them. I prefer them going out with a tube when they go but my 12 and 15 year old don't think that's cool at all. Thank goodness they only did it once that day.


 
So this is the only picture of me on the entire trip...taken in the reflection of Dave's glasses. Haha! This was actually just a normal pic of Dave that I decided to zoom in on. Cool,uh?

 
Grat Grandma Larsen was actually down visiting in California too so we got to visit with her while there. Jenna was so cute/sweet as she loves to read out loud and decided to read to Grandma Larsen.

 
Grandma Larsen loves to draw so she decided that the kids would love to draw. She got one of her books out and let the girls draw pictures from them (the boys were off doing their boy things somewhere). I even joined in on the fun. This one is Meagan's first attempt at a real drawing. She did a good job! I acutally liked it better before she colored it in because you could see more of the details.

 
This was Jenna's and I was truely impressed. I think she has alot of potential. We have alot of artist in the family; Grandma Schell, Uncle Sam and Uncle Mike and of coarse Grandma Larsen.

 
This was my attempt at a Zebra. Not soo shabby either if I don't say so myself ;-).

 

These are a few others that the girls did.