The first night of our vacation, we stayed in a cabin near Dolores, CO (Priest Gulch).  Erin & Tony, Ben & Shanae, Tracy & the girls all stayed in the cabin with us.  We put up the air mattress  and had enough room for everyone.  It was right on the Dolores River and the kiddos had fun playing in the water.  There was a nice porch area over the creek that ran into the river with swings.  We all enjoyed the beginning of our family reunion in Colorado!

We just returned from our family reunion vacation in Colorado.  Gary and Linda met us there with some of their family.  We had 5 our children and families with us.  It was wonderful to be together and enjoy the cool, mountain air and enjoy sharing time with each other.  This picture was taken the day that Gary & Linda left.  They had a long 3 day ride ahead of them.  We sure appreciate that they made the trip from Alabama to spent time together.    More pictures to come!

Catch Up Time!

Oh my, I didn't realize it has been so long since I have updated our blog!  So much busyness going on in our lives these days.  I will try to make a brief outline of what things have been going on for us and then I will try to keep up a little better.

Since Carl has been called to be the Bishop of the Singles Ward (Rio Vista Ward) our lives are so busy with activities with them.  We have FHE as a ward every Monday.  The activities have been so fun for the kids.  Things like fingerpainting your favorite scripture story, water kick ball on the slip & slide, latin and country dancing, etiquette dinner, Battleship volleyball, hiking and a Ward Campout.  We are impressed with the enthusiasm and energy of these young people and really enjoy watching them together.  They are great kids and we are loving our calling.

I don't see Carl much during the evening on the rest of the week.  He usually is gone every night except Friday and sometimes Saturday.  We have had a couple of weddings in the ward and have 3 more coming up before the year is out.  That's the purpose of the Singles Ward!

This year in school was a great one for me.  Things went along very well and the year ended on a great note!  We have a new Director coming in for the next school year and I know her already.  I look forward to an awesome year.  This may be my last year teaching as retirement is becoming a strong option for me since some changes will be made in the retirement policies of the District after this year.  That will be an interesting concept to adjust to but Carl and I look forward to the change in our life.

This summer has been full of activities for us.  First, we celebrated our 38th Wedding Anniversary with a trip to Laguna Beach!  A surprise for me!  Carl is still full of surprises!  We had a lovely time exploring the California Coast. We attended the San Diego Temple on our last day there.  What a beautiful Temple!  (One of our couples in our ward are getting married there in a couple weeks and we are going back there.)  We look forward to it!


I was 1st Year Girls Camp Certification Leader again this year and Carl was over the archery and canoeing activities.  This year camp was just 3 days on the end of the 4th of July week.  We were very busy getting all of our certification in but we did just fine.  We really enjoy being with the girls at camp and hope that we will be able to continue to go.





 

Wow! It is February already and I haven't posted all the cool things that have happened in our lives!  OOPS!  Well, here's an update.  We had a lovely Christmas Season with our family.  We had all of our children together for Christmas Eve this year!  The first time in several years.  That's what happens when they all grow up and have families of their own.  We had a few of them on Christmas Day which was awesome and we enjoyed a family game with Uncle Kent and Aunt Jeanne with Grace and Jennan.  It was rather nice that I had the following two weeks off from work to relax and enjoy being with my hubby!  We sure loved spending that time together.  He was a little busy for a few days with work but we managed to spend a good portion of our free time together.

On to the new year!  I think we are getting over the hill a bit.  We didn't do anything this year for New Years.  We kind of just hung out at home and had a little sparkling cider to ring in the new year before crashing for the night.  Our church schedule changed with the new year, so Carl had early Bishopric Meetings!  Hence the reason for not celebrating too late.  Well then the New Year was afoot!

We had a visit from our Stake President early in the first week of the year extending a new calling to Carl.  He has been called to be the Bishop of our Stake's Singles Ward!  Whoa Nelly!  We were in shock and awe for the next few weeks until that was officially announced!  Carl has hardly slept since the call.  I wake up in the night with the IPad light shining as he is reading and studying scriptures, handbooks, scriptures and handbooks, over and over again!  He has been overwhelmed and a little sad to leave his Bishopric Counselor post.  He has been over the Young Men and Young Women for 4 years and has loved every single minute of it!  On the week that he knew that he was being officially released, he wrote individual letters to each of the young men and women expressing his love, appreciation for them and his testimony.  Is my man awesome or what?!!!  That was the saddest part for him!  He truly loved them and enjoyed every second he spent with them.

We are now on the ride of our lives!  I'm kind of lonely already!  The first week, he had meetings literally every night but Friday!  I hope that Friday nights will be reserved for our Date Nights still but I know that from time to time there will be events with the Singles.  I've been privileged to be over the Singles Ward in my capacity as the Counselor in the Stake Relief Society so I already know a lot of them.  It will be an awesome journey and growing experience for us.  This week has settled down a little for Carl but I am busy as heck  with our Stake Relief Society Meeting.  This week I have something everyday!  I guess we will survive!  Carl is so supportive of me and has been able to be a big help this week since I was under the  weather early in the week.  I guess we will be support for each other through these next years!

On January 7th, I pulled it OFF!  A SURPRISE PARTY FOR CARL'S 60TH BIRTHDAY!!!!!  He really was surprised!  Woo Hoo for me!  I sent out 50 invitations and even sent out an email through our ward Relief Society to make sure no one felt left out.    We had a great turn out!  About 50 people showed up!  All of our children were there with their families helping me.  We had everyone write notes with their favorite memory of Carl.  The idea was to have 60 letters for him to read.  We are pretty close.  They were awesome to read.  Erin made a great slide show of him and also put together a slide show of scanned pictures of him over the years.  All in all it was a great event.  Several people commented on how great it was to just visit and enjoy each others company.

I will find pictures to post of some of these events and try to keep up a little better.  In the meantime, I am on Facebook now so you can check up on us that way too.  I am hooked on Words with Friends too so look for me there too.  My IPhone is my new friend these days!  LOL

My Classroom Door Decorations are a Winner!

Our High School always does a holiday door decorating contest. I always decorate my door but this year I wanted to win! So I went all out. I started with the wall outside the door and made a giant bed with all the kids faces (paper plate drawings by the kids) then Santa's sleigh with pictures of toys that the kids colored and the finale! - the door with my giant Santa Claus. The reindeer in the windows were made by some of the children. Aren't you impressed? We won 2nd place and a donut party for our class! Yes all I needed right now with my preschoolers was more SUGAR!!! It's amazing what you can do with construction paper!

Our Ward Christmas Party!

We got to take Liam to the ward Christmas Party this year! He had a great time and enjoyed just running around everywhere! He wasn't afraid of Santa Claus and was excited to sit on his lap! Fun times:)

Pictures of Nikki and Jared!

Nikki's Wedding

Carl and I drove up to Utah for my niece, Nikki's, wedding. It was a fun trip. You know how Carl and I are loving road trips these days:)
We look for any excuse to go on a road trip! Well, it was colddddd there! We were prepared, sort of, for Arizonans. The day of the wedding, it was so windy as you can see from the pictures. You can almost see the goose bumps on Nikki! But you can also see just how very, very happy and excited she was to be married to Jared. He seems like a great guy and we wish them all the happiness in the world! The first picture is of Uncle Gary with grandson, Caius, trying to keep him warm. Carl and I took a few moments in front of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple for our own picture. The last one is of Nikki and Jared as they came out of the Temple. (They are prepared for cold weather there and had capes for the brides to wear - I thought that was nice). I will post a few more pictures of our trip here.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Carl came up with this costume idea this year. Usually he wants me to think of something and do it all. Well, this year he came home one day and said "I have the perfect costumes for us this year!" Well he was a flyfisherman and I was his catch! I searched and came up with this. What do you think? I'm a Rainbow Trout - thus the pink stripe down the side. It was pretty fun and we got lots of compliments and laughs! Hope your Halloween was fun:)

Celebrating October Birthdays!

We have two family birthdays in October so we had a family dinner to celebrate Doug and Hannah's Birthdays. My baby is 22! Yikes! How did that happen? We had a great time together. The grandkids enjoyed being with everyone and we loved the happy spirit we all felt. Love our family so much!

Date Night with Liam!

Friday evening Erin had a GNO (Girls Night Out) Party so Papa and Grandma Lee had a special date night with Liam. We went to Freddy's Burger Shop and then walked around the Car Show. Liam loves cars so he was really into it. His favorite was the BIG MONSTER TRUCK! We had fun with Liam. He is such a busy guy and a very happy fellow. We love him so!

Carl's Dental Ordeal!

On Friday, Carl had some oral surgery.  He needed a tooth extracted and the prep work for an implant.  He really does not like to go to the dentist therefore, this drastic measure!  Well the surgery was supposed to be a couple of hours.  It turned into 4 hours in the torture chair!  He was not asleep either.  He opted to just have the local stuff and also opted not to have the prop for his mouth.  He is a stud, you know!  Well,  I was prepared for a real baby to deal with but he has been amazingly tough!  That's my superman for you! 

He has, however, not recovered as quickly as he would like.  He tried to go hiking yesterday.  Got up and ready to go.  Fortunately his truck was in the shop so my car was the only vehicle around.  I hid the keys because he is supposed to rest at least through the weekend.  Well after much consternation and whining he finally relented and went back to the bedroom to change.  In a short time, he was out staggering down the hallway asking why the house was spinning!  I knew I was smart for not giving in to him!  Well,  he has been more tired than anything and takes several naps a day.  He did go to church today and lasted longer than I expected.  We came home after Sacrament Meeting and he took a long nap.  He is not even swollen up either.  I would have expected for all that long work in his mouth and the fact that they had to cut the tooth apart in several pieces to remove it that he would really be puffy.  Not so!  He looks pretty normal to me and everyone else.

Well, on to recovery.  Hope it goes as well as he hopes for the rest of the week until he gets his stitiches out on Thursday.  Love you, my Superman!

Fall Decorations!

I love to decorate for the seasons and holidays! Since we moved I have had trouble figuring out where everything is stored. I finally found my fall stash on Saturday so I could complete my decorating. This is just the table decor. There are a lot of things throughout the house and outside. I love the way this turned out though. Happy Fall and Happy Halloween!

Granddaughters in Greer with Us!

Columbus Day Weekend

For Columbus Day, I had Monday off from school so we when up to the White Mountains to see the fall leaves and enjoy some cooler weather. It actually snowed on us on Friday evening as we were driving up! There was snow on the ground for the next morning for a bit but it all soon melted. The weather was definitely nippy! We stopped in Show Low for some bread (which I forgot to bring) and I picked up a nice warm coat. Good thing I did! It was beautiful there. Ben and Shanae joined us for the weekend as well. We enjoyed playing with the girls and eating out. I've noticed that the last few times we have been to the mountains, that it takes a day to adjust to the altitude. Carl and I both spent a good part of Saturday taking naps. We did not see as many colorful trees though. There was a terrible fire, the Wallow Fire, that destroyed thousands of acres of trees so the middle picture shows what we mostly saw on our drive through the mountain roads. It got very close to Greer, where we stayed. Several mountain homes were destroyed. It will take a long time to recover. Even the streams were badly damaged. The fish dyed from the ash that got in the streams so the fishing is gone for some time now. Carl is especially sad about that:(

Pickin in the Pines

We took advantage of the weekend and went to Flagtaff for the Bluegrass Festival called "Pickin in the Pines". Erin and Liam tagged along. Erin's favorite guy was playing and she was so excited to see him. (Sam Bush) It was a lovely day in Flag. Nice and cool! A real relief from the heat of Phoenix. I wore my purple cowboy hat to get into the swing of things. Although I think tie dye is the real thing to wear for these events! There was an overload of tie dye there. Liam loved dancing. There was a section set up for dancing on either side of the stage so it was fun for him to be included with the other kids and people. Nice getaway!

The fruits of my Labor!

I decided that I really wanted to learn to make jam. I acquired all of the supplies last year but was too scared to try it on my own. Well, this year I bit the bullet and went for it! This is my second batch of raspberry jam and it is so cool! I was so surprised that it wasn't as hard as I thought and I didn't even burn myself or break anything. I'm excited that I can do it! I am anxious to do peaches next! Woohoo! for me!

Labor Day Weekend!

We enjoyed a nice Labor Day weekend with some of our Ward families in the cool pines of Pivot Rock Canyon camping. There were about 10 families who came and we all enjoyed playing and visiting in the coolness of northern Arizona. It did get a little warm in the afternoons but at least it was not 110! We took two tents. Why you ask? Well it was just by chance that Carl threw the backpack tent in the truck at the last minute. Good Thing! We started to set up the full size tent that sleeps 3 or 4 people when we discovered that the ring for staking the poles was missing. That's what happens when you loan out your camping stuff to your kids! Carl was aware that it was loose the last time he used it but I guess when Doug took it last it came completely off and he forgot to tell us. I'm glad that Carl had the thought to throw in the smaller tent. We had a nice air mattress that filled the whole inside but it was the most comfortable night's sleep that I've had in a tent! Yes I did take a nap in my nice recliner camp chair. How can you resist grabbing a snooze with the nice cool breeze and the sound of birds. It was so fun to share the area with our Ward friends. We shared movies, treats and even had our own Testimony Meeting on Sunday morning. It was wonderful! We really hate to get back to the heat and back to work. At least it is a short work week!