Sisters' Week(end)

To all the ladies of the family:

We just want to get a feel for who is planning to show up at Grandma & Grandpa's in California for the quilt show and other girly festivities (tba) at the end of the July. The quilt show starts July 23rd, a Wednesday,(think it lasts 3 days) and as far as I know nothing else is really planned yet. The women of the family are welcome whenever they can show up, whether in time for the quilt show or not until the weekend. So please post a comment and let us know what you are thinking! Hopefully this is not the first time you are hearing about this; if it is please speak to your mother/mother-in-law or sister/sister-in-law to get filled in on the details :)

Family Pictures

It only took almost five years since getting married to finally get family pictures taken. We just did these yesterday - my friend Amy Furstenau took them and she was great! We took some behind our house but most of the ones posted here were taken up at an orchard in Orem. Now if I can just get some ordered and framed and put up in the house, I will feel like such a go-getter because I still haven't even done that with our wedding pictures. Pathetic, I know. Anyway, here are some of the samples, we are very excited to see all of them!

Mother Nature

Here are some long awaited pictures of Mother Nature at Girl's Camp. From what I've heard her evening costume is a little more elaborate, but I wasn't able to get a picture of that. The Mother Nature sign was created by one of the priesthood holders at camp (who apologized profusely for misspelling her name) - he made one for the other stake leaders as well. Papa, Paige and I drove to camp yesterday so I could give a workshop for the girls. It looked like Honey, I mean Mother Nature, was having fun!

babes

boy cousins, what a cute bunch
Lily and Kru, cute little bums. I bet you can't guess who is who- neither can I!

Largest Shipment of Care Packages Ever

Move America Forward is sponsoring a drive to do the largest shipment of care packages to the troops ever. It's a really cool thing they are trying to do, and you can sponsor a care package starting at as little as $15.99. After reading what the care packages contain it reminded me how miserable it must be for them in their gear in the blazing heat so I bought the "Personal Comfort Large Pack" which will go to four servicemen and includes the following:

Containers of SPF30 Ultra-Sweatproof Sport Sunblock
Sticks of Delon Intense XL Deodorant
ChapX Lip Balms
Packs of 100ct. Baby Wipes with Aloe and Lanolin
Insect Repelling BugButtons
Maxi Mini Fans with belt clip and break-away neck rope

It also reminded me I need to send a package to Ben! If anyone would like to contribute, go here or cut and paste this link into your browser: www.thecampaignstore.com/store/itemdetail.asp?id=414

From OC_Photography - "$65K Worth of Toys"

I thought I would share this post with you all because of our shared history with sand dunes and everything motorcycle. These are pictures from our trip to America last March/April and were taken at Glamis. It was originally posted here on my normal blog.


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"Back when I was young" a dune buggy was a simple affair, a VW motor, some seats, and a tubular frame to hold it all together. Some of the more impressive ones had beefed up motors perhaps with a turbo kit. Today things are somewhat different and if you invest sixty five thousand dollars into your buggy your friends probably won't even be impressed. The one in the photo above had close to three hundred horse power not to mention the "freedom" paint job and was for sale for $65,000! Sixty five thousand dollars? Sure, I'll take two.


One red and one gray please. Now some of you may ask "Why do you need a sixty five thousand dollar toy?" And thats a good question. The answer is quite simple though, utility. Say your buddy needs a beer but is on the other side of the canal. Do you A) walk around and take the chance that the beer is warm when you give it to him or do you B) just jump the mother f****r and hand him an ice cold frosty one? Simple as you can see in this video:



Your buddy gets a cold beer and you get all the chicks (even though they know you are compensating for a small penis - hey, you got money so why not!). The other aspect of dirt madness is in the form of motorcycles, both two wheelers and quads. Just put on a fat sand tire and you are good to go. Below we can see a troop of bikers hunting for a bargain or getting some refreshments at one of the desert oasses. I love it when random people smile or wave to the camera (like the guy in this photo).

Mail

I just sent a package to Ben today, and it occured to me that maybe others would be interested in sending some mail his way. It's not expensive, and it gets there super fast. The last package I sent got there in 4 days! Here's his address:

SSG Benjamin Reed

D.Co. 142nd MI BN / TF Wasatch

Bagram AF

APO AE 09354

BTW, I'm not trying to solicit letters for Ben, I just wanted people to know how to send him something if they wanted to.

happy father's day to me!!!

on sunday after church i was sitting with anna on the couch while she crawled around exploring every pillow and couch cushion. she started veering dangerously close to the edge and started to slide off when i lunged at her to prevent her from falling. i pushed off hard with my left leg in order to grab her and as i did so both heard and felt a POP!!! in my knee. (she still fell off the couch, and there we both were, laying on the floor crying).

for a short time (like 15 minutes) i was hopeful that i had just loosened up some scar tissue in my knee, but then i couldn't walk and still two days later it's still sore and i'm still limping. knowing that i was probably being too optimistic, my father-in-law called a knee doctor friend of his in vail and he and i chatted about what happened and my surgical history. i told him i'd like to get in to see dr. rosenberg in park city since the last guy who operated on my knee told me to he didn't ever want to see me again because he wasn't totally sure how he would help me if i busted up my knee anew. dr. feagin (quent's friend) told me that was a good choice because rosenberg is "the best" and they knew each other and he would put a call in to him the next morning.

so i called dr. rosenberg's office the next morning and the nurse said, "we just heard about you!" and then happily informed me they could get me in on august 12th. as in the august 12th that is two months from now. apparently he is taking vacation for three weeks and then has a month of surgeries and existing patients to see when he gets back, so i replied, "ooookaaaayyyyyyy?" and proceed to have a momentary dilemna. on one hand, i don't want to have to stress out every time i make a move that my knee is going to give out for the next eight weeks, and on the other, this might be my last shot at having a knee that actually works. and then i figured, if he's good enough for tiger woods he's good enough for me, so to make a long story short, i have an appointment on august 12th that i will not miss come hell or high water and at that time will let you know what surgical horror awaits me.

the end.

Happy Father's Day, Papa!

Thanks for everything you do for us! We love you!

More River Fun - Water Wheel Style

Here's a short video of our river trip. The highlight of the video is a clip at the end of Kate and Parker skiing at the SAME time :) Thank you Honey & Papa for such a great trip!

fun river trip AS USUAL

To all of you who couldn't be there: better luck next year:)

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Mom.  We love you!