Fishing

We went to our favorite fishing spot this morning to do some fishing. We went to Vivian Park in Provo Canyon. There's a pond for kids under 12 years old. It's great. We always catch fish when we come there. Alex was the one who caught the first fish. I love how you can see how squirmy the fish was while he was holding it.
Leah was having a really good fishing day. She ended up catching 4 fish! I was helping her cast the line out into the "sweet spot" of the pond. She loved that she caught 4 fish, but didn't want anything to do with them once they were out of the pond. She had a hard time staying close enough to the fish to get a picture.
Once Daddy took hold of the fish so it wasn't wiggling all over the place (splashing everyone around) she got a good picture.
When it was time to go, Caleb still hadn't caught a fish. So, he came over by me and Leah and I cast his line out into the "sweet spot" that I had found. He caught a fish right away and enjoyed reeling it in. Everyone was able to catch a fish and we had a good time.Daddy and Alex cooked the fish for lunch. Caleb even wanted to try it this time. After he took a bite he said, "Yum! That taste's like chicken!"

Tonight before bed Leah was saying her prayer. It was so funny what she said, so I thought I'd share. "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you that we could go fishing, and that I could catch 4 fish, and that Alex caught 2 fish, and that Caleb caught 1 fish. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Fishing together as a family is such a simple activity, but it's so nice to know that it makes such a big impression in our kid's lives. They always love telling their fishing stories and I'm sure they'll remember them for a lifetime.

The Water Park

My kids have been asking "When are we going to go to the water park" ever since it opened on Memorial Day. In fact, even before it was open they would ask, "When is the water park going to open?" They had a count down going to count down the days until the water park opened. So, here it is...JUNE 20th and we're just barely making it there for the first time! The kids were really excited. My parents got back from vacation just in time to take us all to the water park today. Jon met us there after he got off of work. They loved going down the big slides. When Papa took Leah down the slide they got going really fast. The look on her face was sheer terror as she came out of the slide! The kid area is always so much fun. It's such a nice water park. I'm so glad we live close by. I wish I could have gotten a few pictures, but I left my camera at home this time.

We had an emergency communication's dinner tonight too. Three people in our ward recently became licensed ham radio operators. We're excited to have them be a part of the committee. Tomorrow we're all going fishing, so I'll put pictures of that on here when I get a chance.

For Family Home Evening this week we went to Fat Cats for dinner and bowling. The dinner was tacos, rice, and beans from Costa Vida (Yum). We ate while we bowled. It was our kids very first time bowling. They did pretty good for their first time. This was not my first time, but just to let you know how bad I am at bowling...I came in dead last! I won't embarass myself by telling what the scores were. In my own defense, the kids had bumpers and I did not. Jon won. Then came Caleb, Alex, Leah and finally me. They all had a good time. Enjoy the funny videos!

Father's Day

I made pancakes for breakfast today. Jon's order was egg tortillas, so I obliged. After breakfast we gave Jon his Father's Day present. I had made a little book with pictures of him and the kids. Each page has a line to "I'm so Glad When Daddy Come's Home" and "My Daddy is My Favorite Pal." It turned out really cute.
The kids in our ward did a great job singing for Father's Day. We sang 3 songs. I felt like I was playing the piano too loudly that they couldn't be heard (such a small primary), but I guess they did alright and people could actually hear them sing.

After church we went to Salt Lake to see Jon's brother. It was his birthday today. So, our sister-in-law, Debi, planned a birthday/fathers day party for everyone. We had navajo tacos. They were yummy. We also had some good brownies and a big raspberry cookie. We played "Greed", which is another version of "Farkle" only it's played with 5 dice. That was fun, and Lorraine killed us! Caleb was in the lead for the first part of the game...until he got bored and dropped out.
This is a picture of Jon trying to give all 5 kids a piggy back at the same time. It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. His idea didn't work out so well and some kids got squished more than they wanted.
There was a dog named Thomas there. Leah loved to watch the dog--from a distance. Once it got close to her she would get a funny look on her face and start running. The whole thing was kind of funny because everytime she would start running Thomas would think she was playing with him and he'd start running with her!
The boys LOVED playing with the dog. They're turning into quite the animal lovers. We had a stray cat in our backyard one day and they played with it all day. I'm glad they're not as scared of animals anymore. This is Alex, Caleb and Darwin playing with Thomas.
Happy Birthday David! David coloring with his daughter, Aylora.Thanks for putting on such a great party, Debi.

10 Year Class Reunion

We went to my 10 year class reunion this weekend. It was pretty fun. They had a huge turn out. Tons of people were there. It was great to see so many people, but the room was too crowded and hot to mingle much. We could hardly move between tables.

On the big map in the background behind Clay and Sara Kappas they had written "A Big Thanks to Our Sponsors" and Creative Cakes by Angela was on that poster! I made 3 cakes for my reunion. They were really yummy and looked pretty cool too.

Darwin and Kiara Deming
Jon and I
Hooray that high school is over. It's fun to see what everyone has done with their life and hear about their families.

Meet our newest niece

Christel and Alan (Jon's sister and our brother-in-law) had their little miracle baby on June 10th. We are so glad that everything went well. It was a long 9 months for them and we're glad they can breath a sigh of relief now that she's here and well...and Christel is doing well too. The baby measured in at 7lbs 3oz and is 19" long. She spent part of her first day in NICU needing the help of breathing machines, but she quickly was breathing on her own just fine.

Eliza Powers is a miracle baby because she has beat the odds at everything so far. Conception was a miracle, and the fact that she was able to go full term (she made it to 37 weeks!) was a miracle. The doctors had never seen a case like Christel's pregnancy make it to full term and they were worried about delivery. Among the other existing problems she also had placenta previa really bad. They didn't want her to go into labor on her own, so they scheduled her c-section for Tuesday, June 10th. Once they had Eliza out they checked Christel out really well and she had NO other problems. What a huge blessing. She did have to have a blood transfusion and has some water retention that we hope will go away soon for her.

Eliza is such a cute baby. Her hair reminds me a lot of what Leah's looked like when she was born. I loved holding her and cuddling her. The smell of a newborn baby is the most wonderful scent in the world.
I think she looks a lot like Christel in this picture. What a cute little round face! Congratulations Christel and Alan (along with big sisters Eve and Eden, and big brother Ezra).

High On The Mountain Top

We've been in the habit of doing FHE on Sunday rather than Monday because Jon used to have his welding classes on Monday night. So, this was our Family Home Evening activity that Caleb picked. We went hiking on Y Mount.

Alex, Caleb and Leah with the Y behind them

Leah

Caleb

Alex

Alex took this picture of me and Jon

Caleb, Leah and Alex are hiking

It was pretty late in the day and we didn't want to be climbing down the trail in the dark, so we didn't make it all the way to the Y this time. Plus, we didn't bring water bottles. The kids really wanted to go all the way to the Y, but we told them we would have to come back and hike to the Y when we were more prepared with water bottles and snacks.

They were content to stay at the trail head to watch the sunset. Alex said, "This is more romantic than the Grand Canyon." Caleb said, "Yeah, because there's a Y here." We asked them what romantic meant. They couldn't explain it. So, Jon told them romantic is when you cuddle up with someone you love.

What a pretty sunset!