Strength of the Youth

When my sister and her family were her over spring break she had this great idea that all of the cousins that are 12 and older go do baptisms for the dead at the Jordan River Temple. It was such a good experience. Uncle Mark was able to do the baptisms. After we took a couple of pictures in front of the temple.

All I can say is what a great bunch of kids!

The Maturity of a Scout

Zach has enjoyed being in the scouts with the deacons. As you can see he is not afraid to participate in the scout skits. He loves scouting and is advanding quickly. He is hoping to get his Eagle by the time he is 14.

This is Zach giving me my pins for his second and first class scout awards.

New Callings

I haven't written for awhile and this happened a couple of months ago but I thought that anyone who knows me would at least give me their sympathy. I have been a Sunday School teacher for the 15 and 16 year olds in my ward for the last year. In the fall I received another calling which was the Young Women's sports director.....well I was fine with this calling...I am at the games already because Anna plays and I always go to her games....and now I can yell stuff as the coach and not as an annoying mom trying to coach from the side. So this felt like a good fit for me. About a month later I was called to meet with the Bishop again...well I already had 2 callings so I wasn't sure what it would be for. So when I went to meet with the Bishop he asked if I would be the Young Women's Camp director. My response was to start to laugh. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't camp....nothing good ever comes with me camping. I did not come from a camping family....we went to Disneyland and stayed in hotels with pools and hot tubs....we ate out. I really didn't camp at all until I was married. Craig is from Ephriam and his family camped all the time. So early in our marriage we went to a few family campouts with Craig's family...None of these campouts ended well. We have had snow, wind, pouring rain so much so that our mattress was floating in the tent. Then there was the time that I ended up in the hospital dehydrated..7 months pregnant...and that time we just went for a day.

Of course we can't forget the ward campout. Craig was at scout camp and my friends in the ward talked me into coming to the ward camp out. The plan was they would help set up and Craig would come on his way home from scout camp and help me take down and pack up. So I went. Kayla was 1, Zach 3 and Anna 4. Things went pretty smoothly until about 1 am in the morning when Zach threw up all over the tent. I mean all over. So I woke up my friend to tell her I was going home and to have Craig bring all the stuff home the next day. I grabbed a diet coke loaded the kids in the car and drove 2 hours home.

Besides not having a clue how to camp let alone cook while camping (can you have hotdogs for every meal?) I am getting excited. I have no idea how to plan a girls camp. They gave me a ward color....what do I do with that? I do know that we have some great girls in our ward and I am lucky that I already know most of them pretty well....either because of Anna (18 beehives at last count and more coming in before summer)or my Sunday school class which I miss. So I will keep you updated on the progress....right now it is basketball season and I do know how to play basketball.

Happy Birthday Amanda

Since Amanda's birthday is so close to Christmas her birthday is usually celebrated with our Family Christmas party. She doesn't seem to mind....yet. She thinks it is great that she gets to open presents three days in a row. Hopefully she still feels that way when she is a teenager.

Zach is 12!

I am not a big party person....but for our kids 12th birthday we try to make it special. So they get to have a birthday party. Zach wanted to go rock climbing. So we took him and a couple of his friends rock climbing at rockreation. They had an instructor and they were able to climb on several different walls. After about 2 hours they were all very tired but had a lot of fun.

Happy Birthday Zach!

It all about the Water

This year for our family vacation we went to visit my sister in Spokane. We usually go about every other year. This time is rained most of the time but we were able to have some fun anyway. The plan was to go to Silverwood which is a amusement park in Idaho but it was about 50 degrees and pouring so we went to this indoor water park at a Ski Resort called Silver Mountain in Wallace Idaho. It was a really nice park and just the right temperature. The kids had a ball. There were Three big tube slides and then the lazy river....but the kids had the most fun on the surf machine.

Most of the kids just tried the boogie board but Zach wanted to surf and managed to get up a couple of times.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip. This is Anna's most awesome fall. Sometimes you just get lucky and are clicking when something happens.

This is Kayla on the boogie board. Even Amanda was able to do it....I was just content taking pictures of the action.

This is at lake Cour de Laine (spelling?) We manage to make it to the lake before the rain came....and it came. There was a dark wall of rain coming across the lake and we started to run to the car but didn't make it and all of us ended up soaked. Zach is alway good for a pose.

Anna and Kayla just sitting looking out at the lake.

This is the kids having fun on the trampoline. I am not sure what game they are playing.

Once again we had a great time! Thanks Jensens!!!

The Half Marathon

So Craig decided that this year he was going to run a 1/2 marathon. I think he would have run a full if he thought his knee would have made it. It seems to be the thing to do around here. I think it is a form of a mid-life crisis. Nothing you would ever care to do when you were young but knowing that your are hitting "middle age" you want to prove that you still can do it. I at this point was not 40 yet so I didn't feel the need to try...maybe next year. This one was up in Logan. Craig ran with his sister Cathy and her husband Guy and My friend Lisa's husband Scott. Craig's whole goal was to make it under 2 hours....which he did!!

The kids watching for Craig at the finish line.

Craig as he ran past....almost there.


Kayla running with Aunt Cathy to the finish line.

Just Happy to Be Done....Now lets find some food. Good job guys!!