My Twelve Year old Boy Eric

Eric's birthday passed without any of us around since he was at scout camp on his birthday.  We are planning a friend party for him next weekend to celebrate #12.

Being 12 brings some perks.  The first thing that he has fully taken advantage of is riding shotgun in the car.  He yells it out first nearly every time we go anywhere!  (With the airbag, I'm kind of militant in having no one under 12 sitting in the front seat.)

If I can say one thing about Eric it is that he is a great brother.  I was looking through pictures of him and he is always with a sibling.  He plays with them and just likes being with them, especially his buddy Peter.

A few years ago at The Homestead in Midway.  He is ready to be on the Love Boat with his shuffleboard skills.

Sipping sodas at the BYU Creamery 2 years ago while dropping Lauren off at Heritage Halls

Outside the Richards Building at BYU before Lucy's dance recital

Home school field trip to the fire station

Field trips are always the best when there is cotton candy at the end.

Picking pumpkins at the pumpkin patch

Eating at Rumbi's Island Grill for a reward for summer reading

Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum, I love these faces so much!

Hot Springs in Thermopolis

Our first trip to Billings Montana-Emma, Eric and Abe

Happy Birthday Eric!  I love you!

Flaming Gorge

Emma, Lucy, Peter, and I went on a quick trip to Utah.  Emma had her annual check up with her doctor at Primary Children's Hospital (she has hypo thyroid--Hashimoto's disease.  She is doing really well).  On the way back we decided to take a detour and visit my relatives in Leota Utah.  My dad is from there and his oldest sister, Iova, and youngest brother Don still live there.  Iova was just diagnosed with cancer, she is 89.  Leota is in between Vernal and Roosevelt in Eastern Utah.  It's a VERY VERY small town, if you can even call it a town.  My sister went with us and our GPS led us a little bit astray--like an hour astray!  We took the scenic route amid farms and ranches and two phone calls later to my Uncle made it to his house!  It has been a long time since I've been out there and my childhood memories didn't serve me well!  It was a very good visit, I love my relatives and I'm glad we made the extra trip to see them.  Susie turned around and went back to Orem and we went north to Wyoming.  I had never been this direction before.  It took us through Ashley National Forest and Flaming Gorge Dam.  We stopped at the Dam and got out because it's beautiful and because my dad worked on the dam before he was married, he was one of the electrical engineers.  Here are some of the pictures while we were there.

Flaming Gorge Reservoir

Emma and Pete attempting Lion King pose try #1

Try #2 is a bit more successful!

Trying to skip rocks

Outside Uncle Don and Aunt Jane's house

This trip added a number of hours to our trip home, but was worth it!  The kids were amazingly good, no complaining or whining!

Girls Camp

Emma and I got back from girls camp yesterday.  I got to go because I am on the stake girls camp board.  I was in charge of certification at camp and I taught a class to all the ward leaders during camp while the stake young women presidency had all the girls.  Both things turned out better than I thought they would, especially the certification.  Our YCL's (5th and 6th year girls-Youth Camp Leaders) led all the certification and did a great job.

We camped in Shell canyon at a private ranch.  It's owned by the Cody Stake Young Men's President and he generously let us camp there free of charge.  It's beautiful and has a resident moose and her calf that wander around.  We had about 70 young women from the 7 wards attend.  The weather was really nice, not too hot.  Our last night it really rained and hailed, so the hike that was planned for Thursday morning had to be cancelled because the mud was just too thick.

Emma and Sariah Durrant

Me and my Emma and our camp shirts

View

The ranch

Our theme was Doctrine and Covenants 6:36, "Look unto the Lord in every thought with all your heart".  We combined that with the Wizard of Oz and Glinda the good witch's statement, "you've always had the power within you."  Our YCL's were the Dorothy's of camp and the leaders were the Glinda's.  The stake leaders had to do a skit and I was elected to be Toto!  

The stake leaders, I'm the dog in the blue sweatshirt.  

All the YCL's in their Dorothy aprons.  Emma is second from the right.

It was a successful camp and I'm glad I got to go and participate.

On another note, Palmer left the MTC on Tuesday, so we won't hear from him until Monday because the P-Days in the mission field are Monday and not Thursday like they were in the MTC.  

Nebraska

Last Monday Brian was going to Torrington to spend the night.  He had a meeting at his company's headquarters first thing Tuesday morning, so they were putting him up in a hotel since it's a 5 hour drive on the other side of the state.  I decided to go along for the ride, since I hadn't had enough of the car from our trip home from Utah on Sunday.

We stopped in the big city of Casper for a late dinner--Sonic hamburger and strawberry slushie.  We arrived in Torrington around 8:30.  The next morning I dropped Brian off at his meeting and decided to drive to Nebraska.  Torrington is a small town about the same size as Worland.  Because it's on the other side of the mountains it's a lot greener, especially as you head into Nebraska.  The state line is about 10 miles away and the city of Scott's Bluff is just about a 30 minute drive.  I explored the city, which is about three times the size of Worland.  I happily stopped at Target.  I also explored a store called Menards, which is like a combination of Wal-Mart and Lowe's.   It was strange to see washer and dryers sold next to grocery items.

On the way back I stopped at the historical markers and read about the peace treaty that was signed between the Indian tribes and the white men on the banks of the Platte River.  I picked up Brian and on the way back we also stopped at Fort Laramie, which was the first settlement in Wyoming.  The original fort is still there, but was closed so we couldn't go in.

We also saw an eagle's nest and stopped to take a picture, There was an eagle in it which flew out as we were stopped!

We again stopped in Casper and went to the mall and walked around for awhile to stretch our legs. We took advantage of the frozen yogurt shop while we were there, it's been forever since I've had frozen yogurt!

It was a great itty bitty vacation!  

4th of July

We've been in Utah for the holiday weekend. It's been hot and fun!  We were able to do our fourth traditions-watch the hot air balloons that is part of Provo's Freedom Festival.  They inflates the balloons, but didn't lift off this year because of less than ideal weather conditions. After our early morning balloon watch we went to my mom's house for breakfast.

Yoda peeking out

Look, a Wyoming balloon in Utah!