Dinner out with friends and family

 
Not sure why the pictures aren't being blogged in the order I put them on Picassa but I wanted the picture of Jen and me to be beside eachtother. One of me as a blonde and one as me as a burnett (I'll explain later). Anywho, this is me and one of 2 of my besties from the good ole days.

 
One of my friends from High School, Leslie Groves, also showed up at the restuarant (that I can't remember the name of...just that they have this "bang,bang shrimp" that we have GOT to try. Everyone raved about it). It was good to see her again and fun to have her there as she always makes you laugh and fits right in with my family.

 
Jane with Rachael and one of Rachael bestie, Serena-who also fits in well and can hold up her own around my brothers.

 
Schell's minus Tom and Sam:(

 
The waitress was kind enough to come outside and take a picture of the whole crew....and what a montely one at that:-0

 
K, this is the picture I was talking about earlier. Rachael bought this wig and was getting hot in it so she took it off at the yogurt place we went to after dinner.I decided I wanted to try it on. Jennifer's so pretty in this picture that you don't even want to look at me. GORGEOUS JEN!

 
And then Amy tried it on and really looked pretty! I think I like her as a blonde better though....

 
what do you think?

 

and then there's Rachael cracking us up and entertaining us like usual. I love that girl! I had SO much fun that night with just the adults. I SO wasn't ready to leave the next day. Good times....

2 more just because...

 
Okay, so I have figured out how to go from my collages in Picassa to another month and post them in the same post yet. That is why I am posting these last two pictures in another blog. I wanted them more blown up so you could see them better in the book I make of my blog at the end of each year. In fact, I reallized that I am getting too hookied on collages and you won't really be able to see the pics in my book/journal so I am going to try not to go as many collages...or put so many pictures into one collage. This is Granpa and Grandma Boden with all their grandkids (minus the one that will be coming in March...John and Erin) :-)

 

This is also a picture I wanted bigger so you could see it better. We went up to Hanging Rock one day for a hike with Nate, Amy and a few (but not all) of our kids.

back to the Schell side

 
Jen came up to see and spent some time with us. I wish it could have been more. It had only been 2 months since I had seen her but she's like a drug: the more you see her the more you want to see her. Thanks for coming up Jen!

 
Fletcher (Rachael's youngest) was as mischevious and cute as usual. I love this picture of Amy and Jane together. I have great sister-in-laws. We had fun palying games and laughing together. The one of Dave and Nate is fun too: caught in the moment of just really enjoying eachother. Sure wish we were all closer.

 
And then there's Hanging Rock State Park. It was a muggy day for a hike but when you actually stopped hiking it was very pleasant with a slight breeze now and then.

 

I wish I could remember the name of the 2 falls we hiked to. If I didn't get so far behind in my blogging I could. You can't see the snake in the bottom right picture but it was a copperhead that we saw. eewwww!
True story: as we were heading back Ryan realized that his phone fell out of his pocket somewhere along the way. He was very distraught and so, like a good dad that Dave is, they went back to the falls to see if perhaps that is where it dropped out and they could find it. If not, then we were going to count it as a loss as we didn't want to hike all the way back up to Hanging rock. What are the odss?....but they found it. And yes, there was a prayer of gratitute said right a way and that night at family prayer. What a blessing.
We had a wonderful time with both sides of the family and only missed out on seeing Tom, Jane, and their kids because they had just moved to San Antonio, Texas:(. They were noticably not there and missed greatly. Family reunion next year in San Antonio? :-)

just us....

 
Look at this good-lookin' bunch of kids. They are almost as sweet as they look in this picture too....almost. What lucky parents Dave and I are.

 
Meagan and Jenna are truely best friends. I love this sweet picture of them.


 
The family. Tyler-15, Ryan-12, Chase, Meagan, and Jenna-10.

 
Fun picture.

 
gooshy picture.

 

crazy picture. 17 years and still going strong:-)

 
The next day we went on a "hike". Okay, so e thought it was a hike but it ended up that the parking lot came pretty much right up to the falls that we were supposed to hike to. The only hiking we did is through the water to get to the falls. Of course we found out after the fact that there is a trial that leads you up to the falls. I think it was Seantylle who found it but I can't remember. Everyone got good and wet bu that's okay because it was a hot day and it felt good.

 
We also had a family "variety" show. Grandpa began with a song on the ukulele that I can't remember the name of nor pronounce nor spell but we said, "fell into the well, fell into the well" alot. It was very cute and fun. The 10 year old girls sang "Army of Helaman" while Jessica played the recorder, the Steve Boden family had some cute little skit where they were pretending to be raindrops, grass and lawn mowers, and fun things like that. Charlotte danced, the Dan Boden family sang a fast song, some of the girls got together last minute and sang "I heard him come", we showed some video of the kids playing their instruments and then did a fun dance routine to music, Mike and Riss and kids did a cheer if I remember right and John and Erin and kids sang a primary song (if I remember right). Thank goodness I got it on video camera because I can't remember alot of things. I'll have to watch it soon.

 
While we were together we did family pictures, of course. These first few are with our own camera before the lady came who actually took the pictures.

 
Then the lady came and the fun began. Boy, it's hard enough to get your small family to all be looking at the camera and smiling at the same time but try 32 people of different ages and different stages of hunger and lack of sleep or whatever. They turned out pretty good taking that all into account. These are still all with my camera.

 
We took lots of group pictures of different families and groups of people. I just followed behind the girl and took my own.

 

What a great family we have. You can tell the love just from the pictures. I love how the light is hitting Erin and Natalie in the one picture.
After everything was said and done with we bombarded a little ice cream store with all 32 of us. It was funny to see their face as we kept pouring in. We filled the entire room up. Glad the pictures were done because we had alot of ice cream accidents.

First full day of Boden family reunion 2011

 
This year we had a Boden family reunion in a town in North Carolina seven miles away from the Georgia border. I can't remember then name...Haynesville? It was a beautiful mountain town in the smokey mountians and we hadn't all been together since the one in Breckinridge, Colorado in 2008.
The first day there we went to a nearby lake (can't remember then name...ugh) and swam, played games, read books, took naps (grandpa):-), had a picnic and swung from a rope into the lake.

 
Steve and Darcy live(d) in North Carolina and John and Erin live(d) in South Carolina so they took care of all the food and games and pool toys and extras (thank you, thank you, thank you). They did an amazing job at not forgetting anything. All of us that flew in sure did appreciate it.

 
Here are some pics of the rope swing. I think the kids were on it for nearly an hour.

 
I think everyone but the women tried it out....oh, and grandpa. They all had tons of fun trying to get high or doing fun tricks.

 

This is one of the many fun games that Steve and Darcy brought. I forget the name but I want to get it. I actually have bought alot of games that we learned from them there: "scrable flash", "spot it", "bonanza" and am going to buy "ticket to ride" for a Christmas gift to the kids. Very fun times.

South Jordan Parade

 
Every year the individual cities around here have a week of fun and rides and parades. We went to the parade one morning while Shane was here visiting us. Where are Tyler and Ryan you ask?.....
 
They "volunteered" to be the horse poop picker-uppers. I say that loosely because they were asked in church who needed/wanted volunteer hours for their Eagles. Tyler and Ryan both shot their hands up. They didn't tell them what they had volunteered for. They just called me on the phone and told me that they volunteered for it. When I told Tyler and Ryan they were like, "we did not volunteer for that". Well, they weren't very happy but they didn't fight it either. Good for you boys! AND we made sure that when they passed us in the parade we cheered EXTRA LOUD for them. When they announced them everyone cheered for them. Me and the kids yelled, "Go Ryan and Tyler! Pick up that poop!". It was so funny but I was very proud of them and alot of people were too and were very impressed.

random pictures

 
Shane came and stayed with us for a week this summer to go to EFY with Tyler. He is so much fun to have around. Such a great kid! I thought this would be a fun picture to take with Ryan because he is so much bigger/taller and there is only 2 year difference.

 
For 4th grade this year the kids learn the counties within Utah. At the end of learning them they are assigned a county to do a report on and create a "float" for for a parade at school. They had fun making them but mom didn't. Mom is very glad that 4th grade is over and done with. No more floats:-). I am sure once they all hit high school I will be missing the "float" days.

 
The week that Shane was visiting us he slept in our guest bedroom in the basement. One morning he wake up and said how tired he was because something kept banging on the window all night. We went outside and looked down in the window well and there was a bird stuck in there. It couldn't get out. I sent a very nervous Ryan into the window well to get the bird out. I should have gotten the video camera out as it was quite the spectacle:-). I don't know which was more freaked out; the bird or Ryan. It was a success though and the bird flew away happily. (and yes, I did go and clean the window well after I saw how bad it was)

 

One of my friends from Omaha, Ne was in town for a wedding and came for a visit/night. It was so good to see Sherri and her kids again. She so fun to listen to because she's one of those people that smile the whole time. Her little boy, Austin, took a liking to Dave. It was SO cute to see him explain how to play the gameboy to Dave. He is a very cute boy with a very cute personality.

Birthdays galore

 
Tyler is the only one with a b-day in May but since we couldn't fit in the triplets
b-day in April we had lots of parties in May. This year Tyler turned 15. This number for some reason made me realize that he is not going to be with us much longer. 4 years will go by really quick and it scares me just a little. Funny story though; I can't remember what specifically he asked me if he could do the very next day after his 15th b-day (that's what you get when you are 5 months behind in your journal/blog) but the answer was something along the lines of (raised eyebrows and laughing) "I don't think so" with his response being, "but I'm almost 16." LOL! Really? It reminds me of something John Bytheway (whom we L-O-V-E, love) said in one of his books. He says, "Most teenagers never turn 15 years old. They just skip that year. They're either 14 or "almost 16". I read this just recently and laughed as I remembered what Tyler had said right after he turned 15. John goes on to crack my up by saying, " Sixteen is an age to look forward to because of the two D's: dating and driving. You might be interested to know that your parents think of two corresponding D's when you turn 16: depression and dents. Depression because you're growing up too fast and "dents" because of what happened to the can as a result of the lesson you missed in driver's ed." The first is very true....the latter I hope we will avoind:-)
The shirt he is holding up was a gift from one of his church Young Men's leaders that he loves, Brent Jenson. Brent is math geek and we LOVE him to death. Very good friend and nice guy. He also gave him "star trek" uno cards:-).
Happy 15th birthday, Tyler David Boden! You are growing up to be an awesome son and wonderful young man!

 
I decided this year that 10 years old was old enough to have seprate boy/girl parties. Chases was a movie themed b-day. They kids played a couple of games and then watched "Scooby-doo" and had cake and opened presents.

 
It was fun to decorate the room for his b-day and I made some dang cute invitation that I just now realized I forgot to include a picture of. If I remember I'll put it in the next blog entry. He had alot of fun with all his friends. Happy 10th b-day to my buuuudddY, my handsome boY, my little joY!

 
The girls, on the other hand, had a pajama themed b-day party and decided to have a craft instead of games so they all made their own tye-dye (sp?) shirts with permanent markers and played on the trampoline. The craft took up most of the time and then they had cake, ice cream and presents. Again, their invitations turned out cute and I forgot to include a picture. I hope I took some pics. UGH! I'll have to look. Theirs were sleeping bags that we made though and they turned out really cute.

 

No matter where we have lived the girls make friends very easily. They are so much fun to be around and full of energy. They are my BEST FRIENDS! I love you Meagan and Jenna. Happy 10th b-day! (P.S. last pic was them pooped after their party. don't you love how they are laying all over the bed and eachother?)

Trying new things...

 
Sticking to the theme of this blog entry...,Ryan ran for student body this year. He is such a happy, fun kid! He can't tell a story without smiling or nearly laughing the entire time. Anyway, he didn't make it but he is not giving up. He came into the school year half way through the year last year so by the end of the year this year more people will know him. I, on the other hand, decided to see what extentions would look like on me. I've had a lot of fun with them.

 
We heard that the Author of the "Fabelhaven" series was in South Jordan signing bools so we took ALL (heehee) our Brandon Mull books and had him sign them. The kids were SO excited to meet the guy who has written some of their favorite series. And, yes, that is Ryan giving him bunny ears (hello!).

 
The girls LOVE gymnastics and are doing really well at Jolley's. They go twice a week and most of the time they come home and say they want to go more than twice a week.

 
This time, at their performance, Meagan had gotten her aerial. I didn't get her on camera in the actual aerial (dang it...the battery in my camera was dying) but I got her on video camera (or rather Tyler did) thank goodness. They both did really well. It is fun to see them succeed!


 
This year Ryan got to go to his first official concert and what better group to start out with than U2! He and Dave went to the U2 concert and had a blast! He couldn't stop taling about it for days!
Chase also had a pinewood derby for scouts and got second place this year! We were so proud of him as he designed and painted and made the entire thing (well, we did the cutting...too protective still). Good job Chase!


 

Okay, so we decided to go to Antelope Island to do a bike trail one Saturday. As we paid at the entry they had a sign up warning us about the gnats. I asked the lady if the bug spray I brought would help. She said sometimes. We decided to go for it. As we were driving out all these bugs were getting smashed all over our windshield. We should have taken that as a hint and left. We went on, got out, rode our bikes for about 1/4 of a mile before I was dying! People coming back were telling us that it got som thick "up ahead" that you could hardly breathe. We decided we wanted it to be a fun, good family experience and that if we went on there was NO WAY that was going to happen. We decided to pack it up and haul it out. Dave thought I was being a wimp but the 18 gnat bites all over my face and neck were proof that I wasn't lying. Yes, 18 in about 15 minutes. When you go out to Antelope island and it warns you about the gnats, DON"T IGNORE IT! Lesson learned:-).