Kristi and Chase.....

August 20, 2011, my niece Kristi Lin and Chase Kerr were married and sealed for time and all eternity in the San Diego, California Temple. Jeff and I had the privilege of being able to be there with them to celebrate this special time. Jeff and I were sealed in the San Diego temple almost 11 years ago and it was such a treat for us to be able to go back and celebrate with them. They had a great turnout and my sister did an amazing job with a luncheon on the bay for everyone after. We left the kids at home with Hannah the babysitter and it was a great little get a way.



Then this past Friday, August 26th they had a reception in there honor that we were also able to attend. Once again my sister out did herself with the help of my parents for food. It was a beautiful evening with GREAT food.

John and Jonna did a great job with the yard decorations it really was a beautiful evening.






They are such a great couple. Chayne thought they didn't make enough of a mess on each other with the cake so he
thought it would be fun to get his sister with a face full of cake and the cake went from THIS.....


TO THIS......


THEN THIS.......

AND FINALLY THIS..........
I have to say I was a little worried about Kristi and went to check on her and she said "that was so awesome I can tell people my brother put my wedding cake in my face". She is such a good sport and is always happy, she did have an issue the next day, she couldn't figure out why her nose was sore, I can only guess why.

A few of us that were at the reception

Rocki and Brett, Brinlee and Brikelle with a third on the way.


Teonna and Luke, Bentlee, Marshall, Brigham, and TWO more on the way.

My little family

The "little" grandkids that were there, Calissa was not happy and went to bed shortly after and slept until everything was cleaned up.

Mom and Dad (happy that the food was all cooked and they didn't run out)

Me and my cute sister Rocki

Me with my AMAZING dad! (Jeff was the photographer so more of me than I would have liked, there are a few with me giving him a dirty look)

Congrats Kristi and Chase we are so happy for you as you begin this new stage in your life. So glad we were able to celebrate with you! We love you both!

A Few Happenings.....

A new Haircut!!!

Well my big news is I cut my hair and it is short and such a drastic change, but I love it and Jeff loves it so that is all that matters. However, I have gotten many compliments so I think I will stay with it the short for a while. I cut about 8 inches off the back, holy cow it was a lot of hair. I use half the shampoo/conditioner, half the gel, and takes half the time. What could be better than that.

More Progress on the Yard!

We borrowed a big tractor and buried the pile of mess in the corner of the yard. Eventually we want to put the trampoline and a play area over there.


BEFORE!!!


DURING!!!


AFTER!!!

Home Visits!!!

Caelin and Jace love the home visits the teachers here at Sycamore do and they both had a visit yesterday. Caelin has Ms. Condley and Jace has Mrs. Irvin. They are sisters and it was fun for the kids to have a little sibling rivalry together at a couple of games in the backyard.

The four of them a little sweaty from games in the yard.


Jace and Mrs. Sarah Irvin




Caelin and Ms. Ashley Condley

Both are great teachers and can tell they enjoy Caelin and Jace. They are off on another great year!

On another note, even though I have always loved Sycamore and still do, I applied to have the kids go to Vail Academy and High School (a Charter school within the Vail School District). I am a little worried about class sizes getting too big at Sycamore, and Vail Academy is more a math and science centered which both do fabulous in. It is one of those things that if they get in that is great and if they don't then it wasn't meant to be.

A Weekend Getaway

This past weekend we went to Luna, NM for a three day weekend to enjoy some quiet family time and of course soak up some much cooler weather. We all had a great time, the kids were happy and content all weekend long. Calissa even would sing to us at night after she was tucked into bed.

This truly is BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY and it is sad to see all the devastation from the wild fire. However you can't see the damage from these two pictures. They have had so much rain that the ground where it had burned is all green and actually looks better than the part that didn't burn, now the trees is a much different story.A view of part of the "Luna Valley" from in the valley.
A view of the "Luna Valley" from up above.

We had a couple of good rides to see what was left or how bad things were and some areas were not bad at all some not even burned and then others a whole hillside was charred.

Not far from where we camped one side of the road was closed off and burned and the other open and green.
The whole hillside charred!

We had a LOT of rain and had to move our camp out of rushing waters. We camped at the Luna Rodeo Grounds, a favorite spot of mine as a kid where we practiced soccer and would just play. Our usual camp spot at the Head of the Ditch was closed due to the fire that went through it and came close to Luna itself, (from an early post). The kids loved the new scenery to explore and to ride. Jett keeps asking when we are going camping again, I think he enjoyed it.

A view of our 2nd camp all set up (good thing it doesn't take too much to move things.



We had rain when we got up there on Friday night. It rained quite a bit on Saturday so that we stayed inside and watched a movie for a couple of hours. Sunday it was nice and after church went for a little ride and when we got back it started raining again so we decided on a game of cards. Jeff got up to take a peek outside and saw rushing water that had come over the bank of the creek we were camped not too far from. So as fast as we could loaded everything and pulled the trailer to higher grounds. I must admit it was a little scary not knowing if the water would make it up to us before we got moved. The bigger problem was that the rushing water was in the pathway out in all directions. So after the water had receded Jeff took the truck to see how it would be to get the trailers out. He thought he could drive over it a few times and get it so he wouldn't get stuck. (I have a video of him sliding and spinning with just the truck but couldn't get in uploaded). I have to admit I was a little uncertain, but I have learned to totally trust Jeff when it comes to things like that. We made it out Monday before the rains started again. Slipping and sliding with the trailer was not fun, but I do know it could have been much worse.

The road to get back out

The creek rushing and how far the water had come up (the water had receded some before this picture was taken). We were not too far from where the water had made it to. A little scary.

Jett tried out the bigger quad (the one that was Jace's) he now calls it "his quad". He did pretty good on it and he looked so big and grown up riding it around

These two were so cute walking around together like they are the best friends in the world!
We made a stop to see the brothers and make sure things were ok there.

With all the rain we also found plenty of mud as you can see from the RZR and the truck.