Peaches! 8/28/08

We decided to go out and pick our peaches last night before the birds got any more of them. It was a fun family outing, although Jake was at soccer practice. I was rather surprised at how many peaches there were. We had a really cool/cold spring all the way into June and were certain we wouldn't have much fruit. In fact last year we only had five peaches on the whole tree and I think the birds got 3 of them. Also, something amazing is how big they are. There are a number that are bigger than a softball and they are oh so sweet and juicy.
Needless to say I know where I am going to be spending my time for the next little bit.

-The kitchen put'n up fruit!

The help. "Please try not to bruise the fruit" was the phrase of the night.

I'm not sure why I was doing all of the ladder work?

Luke wanting up again after just wanting down.
Luke looking out the back window at our harvest.
The bounty! I took a number of pictures trying to capture the beauty of the fruit but I never was able to get quite what I was looking for. Oh well this is a pretty good shot.
A pretty view of my new cabinet and tile.
Now what??

Just kidding, anyone wan to come help??:)

School Starts 8/25/08

There are three different things that Roger and I noticed in these pictures that are indicative of our children right now.
1 Time:
Jake at 5:50am
Madisyn at 6:50 am
Sam at 7:50 am

2 Expression:
Jake "Do I have to go this early?"
Madisyn "I'm excited but scared."
Sam "I can't wait!"

3 Height:
Jake is as tall as the window
Madiyn is a little over half way up.
Sam has just past the bottom of he window.



It is Friday and we have just finished our first week of school. There is a mixture of excitement and dread. We are all excited for different reasons, I'm sure mine is obvious, but I think the kids are happy to be back into school, keeping their minds busy and seeing thier friends more regularly. They are not enjoying having to get back into a routine.
The lazy days of summer had to come to an end and they/we were not ready!

The Temple and the Reunion 8/15 -17/08

While in ID our plans for Friday were to go to the Twin Falls ID Temple open house then drop in for a mix and mingle for Roger's 20 year high school reunion and then meet the rest of the crew at the Cassia County Fair for the rodeo. That was the plan anyway but Jake, Maddy and I were sick most of the night and we ended up not getting out of bed until about 11am. Jake and Maddy were feeling better so we decided that Roger the kids and Grandpa and Grandma would go to the Temple and hopefully I would be feeling better by evening so I could participate in the other events.

I think they had a good time. I hope that it was meaningful for them. They said it was really crowded which I was not surprised because it was the last days of the open house.

I downloaded this picture from http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/ The photo is by Patricia Thorpe Gomm. It is a neat web site to get wallpapers and such from.

I was feeling well enough to go to the mix and mingle with Roger and then to the Rodeo. I really enjoyed the Rodeo. The rodeo in St.Johns is OK for a little while but it gets hot and lasts way too long. In Burley it is a PRCA Rodeo so there were very skilled contestants, there were only a few in each category, there was bull riding, it was at night and cool, and it only lasted 2 hours. Plus, it is during the County Fair so there were lots of yummy food booths to sample.

On Saturday there was a Family BBQ get together for the Reunion which Roger really enjoyed and the rest of us just tried to hang in there for after the first half hour.

Saturday night Roger and I went to a steak dinner, once again for the reunion. It was a great dinner at a nice area next to the river. We had a nice time catching up with some of the people there. Over the years I have gotten to know a few of his high school friends and their wives so it was nice to have some time to visit with them.

Sunday it was time to head home. Roger actually had to fly out for Missouri that day so Reese and Sue drove him to Boise to fly out and I went to church with the Andertons, enjoyed a nice Sunday Dinner and then headed home with the kids.

Overall it was a nice enjoyable long weekend.

Riding the Snake...river that is. 8/14/08

Somehow this is the only picture I got of us down at the River during our trip to Burley. I did get some video though. We had a great time when Doug and Stephanie's family took us out on the boat. I even rode the tube, and whoa what a ride that was. Roger kept telling Doug to go faster and to send me over the wake! -Not my idea of fun anymore. But I did have a good time just being with Maddy and hearing her laugh at me every time I squealed. It didn't help that once they really got the boat going Roger and Doug started talking about the houses along the river and forgot to look at what was happening behind them! After the river we went back to the Anderton's and had Little Ceasar's Pizza (my all time favorite) and went to bed. We were exhausted after coming in at about 1 am that morning and then spending the early afternoon in the mountains and late afternoon at the river so felt it good to lay down.

Thanks Idaho Family for showing us such a great time!

This probably seems silly to the Idaho crowd but I always catch myself pondering why the river runs the direction it does ? It always seems to me like it is running backwards. I need to look at a map and see where the Snake River actually flows off to so I can set my mind at ease when we are there. I also am always surprised by the current. I guess having always been a lake skier I am just not used to the water moving so much! I guess also being an Arizona girl it just seems so foreign to me that we are skiing on a river. We have rivers in AZ, or at least what we call rivers, to many people I suppose they are just streams. They certainly are not big enough to go water skiing on! Anyway, these are some fun short videos of the kids tubing, Roger convincing Jake to jump in to the river, which was actually quite warm, and of Roger taking Luke down the current to the end of the docks. That was something the kids loved. They would run up to the top of the dock and jump in and float down to the end. Technically there is no swimming off the docks but while we were the only boat tied up we let them. It didn't last very long though because the river really got busy. It is kind of crazy how people run their boats down to the river for a couple of hour of skiing or wake boarding after work. Doug thinks that is one of the prime perks of living in Burley and his house just being a couple of miles from the docks.

Bennett Springs 8/14/08

On Thursday, our first day in Idaho we went up to Mt Harrison and stopped at Bennett Springs. It was very beautiful and cool up there. Grandpa and Grandma had prepared a great steak dinner with Dutch oven potato's and cobbler. Yum Yum. Madisyn took the camera and went down by the stream and and took some really great pictures of the kids and the scenery.

Wild Island 8/11/08

As a reward for meeting their AR reading goal at school the kids are given a trip to Wild Island Water Park in Sparks. This year the weather was so cold in May that the trip had to be postponed and eventually was cancelled all together.The kids were given tickets to go whenever they chose over the summer. Since the summer was coming to a close we decided we had better get in and use Jake and Maddy's tickets. We took Jessica Henson with us and brought Sam too. Luke stayed home with a babysitter though. I think we all had a really good time.

Sam really enjoyed himself.
Maddy and Jess ready to go!
Sam in the Wave Pool.
Jake in the Wave Pool. He is smack in the center of the photo.

Sam really liked the little kids slides.
It is hard to see but Maddy and Jessica are just going over the very tip of this slide. I could not believe that they had the courage to do it!
Here they are at the end after coming down and then back up the other side and down again.
This is a good picture of the slides that Sam and I did. We did all three, the tan ,blue and red. We didn't like the red one very well though. Maddy and Jessica are in the picture coming out of the tan slide.
Jake resting after spending about an hour to an hour and a half treading water in the wave pool. I guess he was trying to keep in shape for soccer try outs.

Utah Aug 1-4 2008

Believe it or not I do not have any pictures for this post! I know tisk tisk tisk. Shock and dismay. That is how I feel anyway. But I know I need to get the memories down so we know that the trip really did happen. As I told Stephanie Kunzler at the Kunzler reunion. "If there are no pictures then the event didn't really happen." Because with my terrible memory these days if I don't have a picture to trigger my mind I will probably not remember the event.


We started by leaving Fernley late Thursday evening. We took the motor home so we were able to sleep while driving which is nice but it makes for a longer and more expensive drive. Roger drove until 2am and then I took over for a few hours. I pulled over about 4 and then was up at 7, we drove into Lehi around 8 I think. We pulled into Allison's to say hello and clean up for the day. Friday we went to Thanksgiving Point first off. The highlight was the Dinosaur Museum. We watched a 3-D IMAX film and enjoyed the fun museum. By afternoon we headed up to the Crystal Springs Hot Springs where we could camp for the night and attend the Kunzler Reunion.


It was an enjoyable time although the Hot Springs pool area was in need of a lot of TLC. We enjoyed seeing extended family we had not seen in quite some time. Saturday after the Reunion we headed down to Willard UT to visit the cemetery where many of the Kunzler's are buried. On the way we stopped at the Brigham City Tabernacle which was just beautiful. We were also able to see the original homestead cabin built by the first Kunzler to come to America. That was really neat. We drove by many sites while Grandpa Kunzler's told of their significance. We were then able to have dinner with them before they headed home to ID and we went south to spend Sunday with Allison.



We enjoyed Church with Allison and of course thoroughly loved her Sunday Dinner. Later that night we picked Eric up from the airport so he and Jake could go to EFY Monday morning.



Monday we checked the boys into EFY at BYU in Provo and then headed home. On the way we stopped at the IKEA store which was not fun and then we were on our way. We arrived home about midnight Tuesday morning and poor Roger had to go to work the next day.

Sam turns 6! 7/27/08

If these kids look worn out it is because they are. It had been a busy week and an even busier day. Claryce and Carson had been called by the Stake to be in charge of the Steak Dinner on Saturday night. Most of the adults spent a lot of the day helping prepare, serve and clean up to feed about 500 people. We had planned on having Sam's birthday party Friday night because we knew Saturday we would be super busy and Sunday his actual birthday we would be traveling to Teresa's, but we were unable to. So at about 9 Saturday night we rounded up all the cousins from all over town to have a quick party for him. Although everyone was very tried it was still fun. We had cake and ice cream and of course presents! Thanks everyone for taking the time after a long long day to show Sam how special he is.

This was our last memory of St.Johns for this 24th of July trip because we got up super early and left for Teresa's trying to make the 6.5 hour trip to Las Vegas so we could go to Church at 1. We didn't quite make it by 1 but Teresa's ward has Sacrament meeting last so we were able to attend Sacrament meeting at least.

We look forward to Thanksgiving when we will hopefully get to see everyone again.

Love you all!

The 24th Events

OK, so not the greatest shot unless you want proof that yoga is great to keep you looking good even at five months pregnant! Anyway, this is the best of the two pictures I have of when Grandma gathered all of the grand kids and had them make concrete stepping stones with their hand prints and names. -I think I will go out to my flower bed and take a picture of my kids stones to replace Claryce's cute back side.

This is a great shot of the St. Johns Stake Center.

Carson called and asked if Aaron, his boys and Jake could come help bale hay. He had cut it but had not been able to get it baled and was concerned it was going to get rained on. Aaron had been on the way out to the lake but they all stopped and helped for a few hours 'till it was done and then went out and spent a few hours on the boat. It was a great experience for Jake to have, for one he learned how tough bucking hay is but he also learned what it means to step in and help your family out when you are needed. Living far from family we don't get those opportunities very often. For our kids spending time with extended family is almost always about having lots of fun.- Dad and Travis were also there helping when they heard what was going on.

Claryce out running the baler 5 months pregnant!
Hanging out watching the parade. The umbrella's are for the sun as well as the water from the firetrucks. There were two ambulances called out during the parade. One stopped right by us for my friend Tina Platt. She is a mentally disabled women in her 50's that has dressed up as a clown and ridden in the parade since she was big enough to ride a bike. (according to Dad) It turns out that she had fallen and broke her arm. I didn't hear what the other ambulance had been for.
Luke enjoying the candy.

This is a video of Sam in the Junior Rodeo riding the Mutton Busting. He did awesome!

Here is a video of Jake bucking hay.

AZ Babies

Mom (Grandma Sherwood) with two of her newest little grand babies. On the left is little Kayla Casey and on the right is Chase Price. I think that Kayla made 19 grandchildren.

Twins anyone???
I always wanted twins so I thought I would give it a try for just a moment. I think I could handle it just fine!! :)
Kayla was missing out on her Billi lights so I gave her something even better. She wasn't yellow for the rest of the week.
Little Chase is just so cute. He was needing a little sun too Aunt Shawna decided, but it stressed his mama out too much so he wasn't there long.
Little Kamryn is just soo cute!Here are the four sisters and there youngest ones. We kept trying to get one with Tracy and Kamryn but I never got one with my camera. -Left to Right Rashelle and Chase, Shawna and Luke, Shurell and Kayla and Claryce and Grant with new baby boy in her tummy.

Me enjoying little Kayla in one of the cute new outfits that was

in the bags of baby clothes Teresa sent down to all the new babies.

It was so neat to get to spend so much time with these brand new babies. I feel like I miss so much living so far away. I was very blessed to get to visit when they were still so small. The next time I will see them they will all be up crawling or maybe even walking around. And contrary to popular belief all these sweet new babies did not make me baby hungry. If anything I came home feeling even more content than I had been.