Are We There Yet?

Family Pictures - Long Overdue

2009-11-24T22:02:00.001-08:00

We haven't really had a good family photo taken for years. I hired a friend/neighbor who is a great photographer to take some pictures. We love how they turned out. Can't believe how grown up my kids are. I love my family so much! I am so happy that Heavenly Father blessed me with such an amazing family.

Better Late Than Never!

2009-09-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know it's been over 6 months since my last post. Now that school is back in session it's my goal to post more often - hopefully at least once a month.

We had a great summer that included many camps for the kids, EFY for Sierra, a trip to Colorado for the boys and a family trip to Utah.

Sierra is in 9th grade now and even though she is still at the Jr. High, claims that she's a freshman in High School. She is in her first year in Seminary and is loving it- not one complaint about getting up at 5 am every morning. Dylan is in 6th and just started middle school which he loves. He says he likes having more responsibility. Alex is in 1st grade so he's in school all day now. It was an adjustment at first, but he's gotten used to it.

Trent's company - Screaming Flea Productions has been doing very well and recently debuted a critically acclaimed show called "Hoarders" on A&E that has become very popular. They are the "popular kid on the block" now and are getting alot of interest from other networks to do shows for them. Trent is still High Priest Group Leader and that keeps him very busy too.

I am enjoying a new sense of freedom not that I have all of the kids in school all day now. I pictured myself lying around with nothing to do (was excited about this) but nothing has slowed down -- just wishful thinking I guess. My calling as RS Education Counselor and and my volunteering at school have kept me busy.

Last weekend we enjoyed one last family getaway to Seaside, OR. We went with our long-time friends the Larsons. The weather was great and we enjoyed hanging out at the beach one last time before winter. Here's some pictures from our trip.

These 5 have grown up knowing each other and are more like cousins than friends. Sierra and Trevor have been close friends since they were 6 months old. Sabrina and Dylan were born 9 days apart.

Happy Birthday Dylan!

2009-03-04T10:59:00.000-08:00

We love this boy! I can't believe he's already 11 years old. He grew up way too fast! He's the coolest kid I know. He loves soccer, baseball, skateboarding, building and collecting starwars lego aircrafts,video games, and hanging with friends. Happy Birthday dude! (Oh yah, he uses the word "dude" in most sentences when talking to his friends;)

He's so grown up, and way too cool to ever admit it, but I love that he still sleeps with his beenie baby dog named Tracker that he's had since he was two. It reminds me that no matter how old he gets, he's always my little boy.

2009-02-23T21:59:00.000-08:00

So I started a post way back on December 17th and never actually published it. In that post I was writing about my wonderful husband as it was our 20th anniversary. Life got in the way and now it's February 24th and I am just now getting around to posting again. I really need to schedule more time for this. Anyway, here are a few of the happenings around here lately.

Trent and I went to Cabo in early February with our close friends, Aaron & Heidi Nelson. The week flew by... relaxing is hard work! We ate alot, swam alot, layed in the sun alot, and did I mention we ate alot? We got to see some humpback whales up close and personal. One breached a few yards away from us and another couple of them came right up to the edge of the boat. They were huge! They were so close that we got whale snot on us when their blowholes blew. We plan to go back soon and take the kids. I know you can't wait to see the pictures, so here's a few. lol

Here's a picture of the resort we stayed at. It's just a part of it -- too big to fit in one picture. 5 pools, 5 restaurants, 31 buildings. The architecture was beautiful. We loved this place!

Here's a view from our balcony. We ate breakfast out here almost
every morning. We could see whales in the distance.

Here's one of the whales that came right up to our boat. It was so big we

could only get the back end and tale of it in one picture.

Watching the sunset from our boat.

The days were warm, but the nights were a little chilly.

This is us drinking our hot cocoa to keep us warm.

Heidi and Suzanne enjoying a little room service breakfast. We had to fortify ourselves

for the long day of swimming and sunning we had in front of us. ;)

They clean up well. We love hanging out with them.

Breakfast by the beach pool.

Heidi & Suzanne getting on the plane to go home. Definitely not the highlight of the trip!

While we were in Cabo, my mom came to watch the kids. Thanks Mom! She took them back to Colorado for their winter break from school and my parents took them up skiing in Breckenridge with my brother and his kids. They had the best time and worked on their skiing/snowboarding skills. I wish I had pictures to show you, but I guess it was too cold to bring the camera out on the slopes. They left on a Thursday, I got home the following Sunday and they were in CO through the rest of the week. I got two vacations in one. It was kind of nice being alone in my own house for a week. It stayed clean and was oh so quiet. Too quiet... I missed the kids after a couple of days.

Thanksgiving in the Caribbean

2008-12-09T22:21:00.000-08:00

We had alot to be thankful for this year! Especially the fact that we spent Thanksgiving day on the beach in St. Thomas, USVI. We decided this might just have to become a new family tradition. No cleaning, no cooking, no clean-up... ah... heaven! We went on a cruise with my parents, brother and his kids. It was so fun to hang out together for a week and soak in the sun, sand and surf.
The whole gang coming back from our day at the beach on Thanksgiving Day.

On the beach in St. Maarten.

This is me phoning some friends from the beach on Thanksgiving Day. Just wanted to

make sure they were having a good time basting their turkeys. (I'm so evil!)

This was the first time Alex actually swam in the ocean. He's always been

too afraid to go beyond the surf.

There were many sandcastles and buried kids. Sand everywhere! I'm still finding it.

And we clean-up well too!

My parents and all their grandkids.

My brother Derek and his 3 kids.

They won!!

2008-12-09T17:39:00.001-08:00

Sierra and her cheer team have worked so hard the last few months perfecting their dances and cheers for the regional cheer championships. All that time and effort paid off big time because they won both the Spirit Award and 1st Place overall -- the two highest awards they could have won. They were amazing. Their routines were almost flawless. Unfortunately I couldn't get any good pictures inside the auditorium because the lighting was so bad.

Reliving Teenage Fantasies...

2008-12-09T16:57:00.000-08:00

Didn't we all want to be rock stars when we were younger? Thanks to Rock Band and Guitar Hero we get to live out those fantasies and have a blast doing it. Our big thing lately has been getting together for Rock Band parties that last into the wee hours of the morning. A few nights before Halloween we even got into character for the party. (Yes, we're losers but it was hilarious!) Wanna see some pictures? I was offered a lot of money not to post some of these...

Me and Trent at a Halloween Party earlier that night.

Alex is awesome on the drums and Dylan loves to play lead and sing.

The gang perfecting our performance of Boston's "More than a Feeling."

OK, this is just scary!

I tried, I failed, now I just sing.

There are no words...

Hawaii in October

2008-12-09T16:24:00.000-08:00

Sorry, kinda behind on my posting here. I'm adding some catch-up posts about this past fall.

Trent's company celebrated their 10 year anniversary by giving all the partners a week vacation on any island in Hawaii that we chose. It was wonderful!! We went to the Kohala Coast on the Big Island and rented a condo with our close friends, the Wolferts. We spent a lot of time at the amazing pool, ate at some wonderful restaurants, took a sunset sail, went snoreling at a cool local spot with enormous fish and many turtles. We drove across the island to go on a helicopter tour of the volcano but it was a rainy, foggy day and the tour was cancelled. Unfortunately, when we drove up to the volcano to hike around, all we could see was mist when we looked into the crater. We gave up and drove back our place on the sunny side.

The view from our condo Lanai.

The most amazing sunsets! This was our view at dinner one night.

Isn't he cute?

Trent with our close friends Andrew and Shauna.

What a gorgeous couple!

Relaxing on the tampoline of the catamaran. We made Andrew a very happy man!

Our men picked these flowers for our hair before we went out one night.

Hanging our before dinner one night.

Cheer, soccer and more soccer!

2008-11-11T23:29:00.000-08:00

Most nights and every Saturday these past few months have been all about sports for our family. It was three against two (the three being the kids and the two being Trent and I) and there was a lot of juggling to get everyone where they needed to be when they needed to be there. As of this Saturday, it will finally be over until March when baseball starts. Here's some highlights.

Isn't she goreous?! She lives for cheerleading. She was a Varsity cheerleader for the Maple Valley Raiders football team. She was a sidebase for her stunting team. They won the Spirit award and 1st place in cheer and dance in their regional championships last weekend.

Dylan was one of the stars of his team this year. He's got some smooth moves out on the field.

Alex scoring his very first goal in soccer! He developed an "evil plan" and told his other teammates about it and charged! Unfortunately, the evil plan included some tripping so after tripping a few of his opposing teammates, he was fouled. When we discovered that tripping was part of his plan to win, we had to set him straight. Too funny!

Don't Stop Believing...

2008-11-11T22:55:00.000-08:00

Was so excited to finally get to see Journey in concert. Better late than never I say! We went with our good friends the Elder's, Nelson's and Wolferts'and Cindy Sams. Heart and Cheap Trick were the opening bands. Great concert! Their new lead singer sounds exactly like Steve Perry, only even better. As usual, Trent provided the pre-entertainment.

Playing Catchup...

2008-11-07T13:43:00.000-08:00

It's been a crazy fall and I was hoping to have had this blog up and running long before now. Since I didn't, I'm going to play catch-up by adding a few posts with pictures of what's been going on in our family the past couple of months. Stay tuned...