Sunday, November 13, 2011

Shem's Mission Call

Shem had filled out his mission papers but by his calculations he would receive his call while he was at Philmont for 10 days of hiking with his dad. He asked me not to open it, which I promised not to but I told him we would probably think of some fun way for him to find it.
Well the girls and I did a little searching for ideas when we decided to make a fake mission call. It was a little tricky but with the creative ideas flowing the girls got it done. It looked pretty convincing. They sent him on a scavenger hunt to find it, which made it more convincing since we told him that that was probably what we would do.
After he found it he was told to read it all the way through out loud. Shaun was looking over his shoulder and started mentioning mistakes that he noticed, we had to shush him with sign language. Luckily Shem was to excited to notice. The girls sent him to Madagascar. They sealed it before I could see where they sent him, they were supposed to send him somewhere close to home. So he was pretty excited until he got to the end where it said "and please forgive your family for playing this cruel joke on you."
Here he is with a sad face and the fake mission call.
We then gave him his real mission call and we were all anxious to see where he was going.
A much happier face.
Dnipropetrovs'ko, Ukraine Mission
All the tabs on the map are all the places everyone guessed he would go. Only one person got close by saying Eastern Europe. He leaves Dec. 21st. We are all so excited for him, he will learn and grow so much.

Andy & Rachel Come for a Visit

Andy & Rachel came out to see us for the Fourth of July. So of course we went to the lake.
Aaron & Caitlin got up on skis for the first time. Grandpa even got in on the fun.
On Sunday we had a piano recital, they all did such a good job.
On the Fourth, The Engles' came over. We played corn hole.
Eric is already for the noisy fireworks.
Here are all the kiddos waiting for the fireworks to begin.
Having fun with sparklers.
Isabelle has the best seat in the house.
We took all the kids hiking
Even Samuel enjoyed the hike.
It was a hot day but all the kids had fun anyway.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Sarah's Hawaii Trip

Look at the beautiful ocean!
Uncle Mike is refreshing me on how to boogie board. (This is close to their house.)
Snorkling place surrounded by huge, sharp lava rocks. I touched a sea turtle and found out afterwards that you get find $2,ooo or something if you touch a sea turtle. Opps.
Flowers around the temple.
Beautiful Hawaii temple!
Monkey see, monkey do!
As a side note: Sarah worked hard and paid for this trip all by herself. I was so proud of her.