Church....the new lost and found

We have learned in the last year that our church is a great lost and found. Let me tell you two very cool stories about my son Christopher.

First: Last year my son played soccer and was given a soccer ball to bring to each practice. We, of course, put his name on it so it could be easily identified. He accidentally left his ball at Ravensdale Park one practice and we could not locate it. He was extremely upset about this. A few months later we went to a primary activity at the church and his soccer ball, with his name on it, was sitting in the church foyer. How did it get there from being lost at the park? We have no idea. It pays to go to church.

Second: Christopher has a favorite zip up jacket that he loves to wear, but continually leaves places. He left this one at the school last year before summer break. He realized what he had done while we were school shopping this year. He was so upset and was hoping the school still had his jacket. First day of school he learned that they give all the lost and found items to charity and therefore his jacket was gone. He was so devastated. Not only because he lost his favorite jacket, but because I refused to buy him a new one. Need to teach him responsibility. Well strange enough, Christopher found that jacket hanging up at the church today. Wow! I didn't even believe it until he showed me the tag with his name written on it in my handwriting. So how did this jacket that was left at school months ago end up at the church today? I have no idea. Again....it pays to go to church.

Have any of you lost any items lately? My advice....go to church!

First Day of School

Jenessa started High School this morning. Yikes, I can't believe I have a child that old. As you can see, she starts the day quite early. She leaves for Seminary at 5:40 a.m. and then after school heads to swim team practice and doesn't get home until 6:00 p.m. She will have this schedule until December. Then we start Drivers Ed. She is a busy girl.

Jaycee is a 7th grader at the Middle School. She is still playing competitive soccer and has a busy schedule after school as well.

Christopher is a 5th grader. His big excitement this year was that he gets to ride at the back of the bus.

Preston is in 2nd grade and is lucky enough to have the same teacher as last year. This lady is amazing and is exactly what Preston needs.

Utah Trip

August 15th thru the 24th, we took our trip to Utah to visit family and friends. Aaron drives us down there, stays two days, and then catches a flight back to Washington for the week to work. At the end of the week, he takes a flight back to Utah, stays a couple of days, and then drives us home. Those two weekends we just pack in the activities. The first weekend, we met Adams daughter Tessa for the first time. We spent the day in Bountiful swimming. My sister Christy took the kids for two nights in a row, then my brother Scott took them on Monday night. The kids enjoyed movies and food while spending time with their Aunt and Uncle. Plus, Aunt Nicole loaded the girls up with clothes. Yeah! Monday thru Thursday we have no pictures because I don't dare touch Aarons camera. It's not that he won't let me, I just don't want to screw anything up. During those days, we spent time with friends and family. I went to lunch with my friends, Kim Olsen, Stacy Abbott, and Brooke Bone. Good to catch up. The kids spent time in Syracuse with old friends. Hard to say goodbye again. We did lots of school shopping and also went to Layton Surf n Swim with the Hatch cousins. It's always fun until someone poops in the pool and they have to close it down. The next weekend, we spent an afternoon at Layton Park with the Hatch Family feeding the ducks and visiting with each other. Then, Renee was kind enough to take us all back to her house for ice cream. Then we headed off to my parents cabin near Park City. It is one of my most favorite places to go! There is nothing like sitting on the back deck, curled up in a blanket, and watch the Provo river. I was so exhausted by the time we got to the cabin that I did this for about 6 hours on Saturday. Very relaxing. We were also able to get in some four wheeling. The kids were thrilled because we actually let the older three ride by themselves this year. Thanks to my parents who let us stay for the 10 days and fed and entertained us. Call us crazy, but we do the 13 hour marathon when we travel to and from Utah in one day. We just don't like the extra hotel costs to split it into two days. The kids did much better this year, but were thrilled when we finally pulled into the driveway. Thank goodness for modern technology with the DVD player, ipods, Nintendo DS and gameboys. How did my parents ever survive when we were younger???

Mariners Game

Since moving to Washington, we have tried to explore all we can. That includes going to see the Mariners play. We thought this would be fun for Preston since he started playing baseball this year. Well....I can say that I did it. I never really have been a baseball fan. The game just moves way to slow for my taste. After sitting through hours of this game, I decided I didn't want to do another unless one of my children was actually playing. Aaron has been to 3 major league games now and I asked him if they were funner if the teams who played were actually good. He just kind of nodded no. Sorry to all baseball fans out there, I just would rather watch football. On a positive note, we did enjoy spending time together as a family. They gave out Mariner baseball cards and Preston loved to go through his pile and find the one that was up to bat. He really did enjoy it, so it made the trip worthwhile. Funnest part of the night was watching the guy sitting next to Aaron. He was as excited about the game as I was. He couldn't stay awake and kept leaning in toward Aaron. Aaron posed next to him and has a weird face because he was trying so hard not to laugh. Ahh..good times.

Girls Camp!

This past week, Jenessa, Jaycee and myself spent a week at girls camp. I was called to be a girls camp leader about 3 weeks ago, so missed all the planning and just got to go and have fun! This was Jaycee's first camp, so it was fun to watch her experience it for the first time. Jenessa was a 4th year, so she got to leave a day earlier and do the overnight backpack hike. We went to Camp Zarahemla which is about 2 1/2 hours from us. Clear Lake was beautiful, but absolutely freezing!! The girls were not allowed to be in the water for longer than 8 minutes. There were over 200 girls at this camp and only a handful stayed in that long. Even though Jenessa is a swimmer, she was in for only about 30 seconds. Jaycee actually did the polar bear dip, which is where you jump in then jump right out at 7:00 a.m. She did this two mornings in a row. Got to love the excitement of a Beehive. Ness slept through it all! I actually tried knife and tomahawk throwing and got a bulls eye in both. Who would have thought? Overall, it was a fun week and the girls didn't mind too much that I was there. Or at least, that is what they tell me.

A Good Read

I have recently started to ride the bus to work. It has been over 18 years since I rode a bus on my mission. I was a bit reluctant at first, but the combination of my new longer commute along with higher gas prices has convinced me that it is a great way to get from here to there. The bus has turned out to be a great thing. Not only has my travel expenses gone from over $250 to $25 per month, but I love the time to read, do emails, prep for meetings and just think. It is also a perfect place to do some people watching. There are all types that commute on the bus.
The other day I had some very early calls so I missed my regular bus that goes directly into Seattle. Due to the later hour, I had to make a transfer in Renton to another bus that went through a more diverse part of town. The further we went, the more diverse the ride got. I heard no fewer than 5 languages.

I told you that story so I could tell you this story. :)

During this ride, a young girl from some oriental country sat next to me. At the time, I was reading a book called "The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible"

At times this book is very funny...I mean laugh out loud funny. I am sure the girl I was sitting next to thought I was a bit strange.
Anyway, I just finished reading the book and loved it. I needed a good read too. I had just finished "The Catcher in The Rye" and did not like it at all. I didn't read the book while growing up and thought I would see what it was all about. Rather than give a review, let me just say that I do not recommend it. It was a drag.

I was not surprised that the living biblically book would be funny given the Moses like pose of the author holding some tablets that look like the 10 commandments in one hand and a Starbucks like cup of coffee in the other hand. I was surprised though, at how much it made me reflect on my life and what I am doing with it. In short, I recommend it.

Salt Creek

Over the 4th we went camping in the Port Angeles area. For those of you that do not live here it is just north of the Olympic National Park. We stayed in a campground called the Salt Creek Recreation Area. It is a county run park and is a great place for families to camp. It is located on the Strait of Juan De Fuca.
Again, we are amazed at the beauty that surrounds us!

This camp trip was scheduled pretty close to our last one and we were having a hard time feeling motivated; even on the morning we were set to leave. Once we got on the road though we were feeling good about being able to get out and away for the holiday.

I don't know how you all feel but when we are away from all the distractions of life (myspace, tv, work, blogs, chores) we find it easier to love being a family. We play more games together. We find more things to laugh about. We just enjoy each other's company more. Makes me wonder why we jump right back into the distractions when we get home. Like right now everyone is off doing their own thing. I guess that is why you need to schedule "together" activities so that you have time to reconnect and remain close as a family. It is even more important now as our kids get older. They are becoming more and more independent and before we know it, they will be out on their own starting their own lives. We were taken back when we thought about the fact that we will probably only have three more full summers with Jenessa before she is on her own. Excuse me, I need to dry my eye.............................Okay I am back.

Here are some pics...

The favorite part of the trip for everyone was the hike to Sol Duc Falls. It is one of the most amazing waterfalls we have seen. The pictures we took really do not do it justice. Here is a view from a different angle.