STATE TOURNAMENT

Yesterday was the first day of Kaiden's State Tournament for baseball. The Giants had two games, right in the middle of the sweltering heat but they did great!!! They won both games!! The scores were 9-2 and 11-1. Today they have two more games and one of them is against one of the first place teams. I know they will do great and that Kaiden will do great!!! Way To go Giants!!! I have lots of pics and video but will add them later. (Hopefully soon, when I am updating everything ;)

Carry on.....2009 Stake Trek

Sometime in February, Paul and I met with the 1st Counselor in our Stake Presidency. I was really nervous because I knew that I was being released from the Relief Society Presidency and wondered what calling I was going to get. (Stake Conference was a few weeks away and I prayed we weren't being called in for something to do with that) I was relieved when President W asked us to accept the calling to be Mas and Pas during our stake Trek in June/July. As embarrassed as I am to admit it now, my first question was, "What am I going to do with my hair?"(Yes, President W heard me say it and hopefully forgot it right after.)

I was actually really excited, because I have heard SO many great stories from those that have been on past Treks. Paul knew that it would hit me eventually what I was REALLY in for, and he was right.... I am NOT the best outdoorsy girl out there and REALLy having to rough it like the pioneers, started to worry me a little. The thing that made me worry even more though, was the idea of 6-10 teenagers that would be part of our "family." This might seem a little dumb to some, but I haven't served with the Young Women for almost 10 years and that was for only a little while, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Brayden is a great teenager so I don't know what it's like to deal with REAL teenagers. I had dreams of bratty teenage girls and cocky teenage boys, talking back, sneaking out of their tents and running all over the place. Needless to say, I did A LOT of praying before we went on the Trek.....

The Stake leaders that were in charge of getting everything ready were SO great. We had several meetings before to answer questions and let us know what to expect. My mom and mother-in-law were great to help me round up clothes for Paul, Brayden and I. My mom sewed a lot of my stuff and they turned out pretty cute (for pioneer clothes)

Finally the big day came! At 5:30 a.m. on July 30th Paul and I headed to the stake Center with all the other Mas and Pas and our Big Siblings (They were older kids that would help us out and be a leader to the other's in our family) The person in charge was calling out the Big Siblings and matching them with their Ma and Pa. There was one kid with a HuGE sombrero-looking hat that kept yelling out every time one of his friend's names were called. He would yell, "YAY! you have a family!" Oh man!! That's not my family!" and just kept yelling things out....I kept thinking, "That kid would be fun to have as our Big Sibling. He seemed really fun and crazy.

When mine and Paul's names were called, so was sombrero boy's. He ran up to us and gave us a hug and said, "I have a Ma and Pa!" Paul's first thought was, "Great we get some punk kid." As we were walking to the cars to drive up the canyon, Zach said' "I'm really not handicapped, I was just being funny." We had a good talk on the way up to wait for the rest of our family. Zach seemed like a really great kid and even proved to be so much more than that, the rest of the Trek...

Oh! I have sooo much to write about the Trek but I am going to have to finish it later.... If I would have known before how it was going to turn out, I wouldn't have worried at all. We had the BEST kids in our family!! Everyone of them pitched in pulling the handcart, helping around camp and were SO strong in the Gospel. I think I came out of the Trek with a stronger testimony of Prayer...I know that God was watching out for us (especially me because I was seriously terrified that we would have these unruly teenagers that really didn't want to be there and I wouldn't know how to deal with them.) I have tons more to write but I will stop for now. Here are few fun pics we got while we were there.....

All of the girls on Faith Hill during the Women's Pull. All of the girls were AMaZinG!! The boys were so great to walk right beside us the whole time. Two of the cute boys even carried HUGE boulders up the whole way, to put under our wheels while we stopped to take breaks. (I was there too, just in the back in this pic. All of us took turns pulling and pushing)

This is after the Women's Pull (Notice how cute I look. Hahaha.) It was really hard with just the girls but it just made me realize a little of what the real pioneer women had to go through when they had to go days, weeks and months without their husbands.

Paul and Zach doing the stick pull. I think they broke every long stick we had

Zach split his pants during the second day and thought our table clothe would work to cover it....It didn't work so great.

BIG 8!!!

Akoy turned 8 on June 5th!! YAY!!! Being 8 is such a fun age!! We celebrated his birthday the day after, with cake and ice cream and all of our family.

LAGOON

The second weekend in June all of us (minus Brayden, because he had to work) went to Lagoon for my companies Lagoon Day. They were so great to schedule it when we had all of our boys! Yes, they love me at work so they did it just for me. Just teasing, I helped a tiny bit with the planning. Well really just reminded the guys in charge that we should probably start planning something soon, so everyone would have time to figure out their schedules. So they asked me what weekend they should do it and I said the 13th would be a great weekend. So that's how it worked out that we had all of the boys...

Since the weather has been so weird this summer it just so happened that rain was predicted for that Saturday. I felt soooo bad because I chose the date. It all worked out perfectly though, the weather was just a little overcast and it didn't end up raining until around 4. Most people got a good days worth of rides in before it rained.

All of us had a really fun time! Paul talked Akoy into going on the Colossus but couldn't talk Kaiden into going on Wicked. Just like I thought, as soon as we got home, Kaiden regretted not going on Wicked. Maybe next year.... Next year I am going to take Dramamine before we go. I don't do as well on all the crazy rides like I did when I was younger. After riding Wicked, I seriously wanted to puke but didn't think that the Lagoon workers would be too happy about that so I rode a few safe rides like the train until I felt better. (man it sucks to get old)

Kids say the funniest things.....

Paul and I teach the 6 and 7 year old kids in Primary. I haven't been in Primary for such a long time, I forgot how funny the kids can be. I've heard some pretty funny things since I have been back in there:

They were doing a spotlight and the counselor in the Presidency said "This person loves helping their sister clean her room."

The room was pretty quiet until one of the little boys, with a disgusted look on his face said, "THAT is NOT me."
All the adults in the room burst out laughing because you could tell that the little boy thought that was the dumbest thing ever,


One of the little boys whose class is right in front of us, loudly said to his teacher,"Teacher I don't want to sit by him. (again with disgusted look on his face) He told me that he didn't brush his teeth today so I don't want to sit by him." (As he is scooting to the edge of his seat)

As we were driving home from church one of our boys asked Kove where he got his sucker. He said, "The Prophet told me that I could have it." When one of them asked, "Are you sure it was the Prophet?" Kove answered, "Yeah, I was in the Prophet's office and he said I could have it."

After all of us teased him for a few minutes about the Prophet REALLY being at our church, he realized that he meant the bishop. It was pretty cute.

Slacking.....

I have sooo many posts to do, so stay tuned for our Lagoon day, Akoy's baptism, Paul, Brayden and I on our stake Trek and Fourth of July. You don't want to miss out on these........