New Mexico

We have lived in New Mexico for over 2 years now and we decided that we were going to become true New Mexicans, and get our own ginormous bag or roasted green chilies this year.

Lake Powell

Because we had an excellent summer with Lance, his kind family invited us to join them for a fun Lake Powell vacation.  We had a great time. 

Lance preparing Scotty for some fun ski-boarding

Scotty on the ski-board- next year waterskis.

James watching from the boat

Lance and James

Grant enjoying a boat ride

Walter dragging Hyrum on the slalom ski

Hyrum speared his first fish

Scotty enjoying the water

View from our campsite at dawn

Nathan's finding Nemo turtle

 

Thanks Adamson's!  We had a great time!  Despite the lack of photographic evidence, Dallan, Becky, and I were also there.

Twin Lakes 2012

Twin Lakes was an awesome adventure as always!  For those of you not in the know, Twin Lakes is located on the Colville Indian Reservation in Northeastern Washington.  Our family, on my dad’s side, has been going there since my dad was a baby.  We stay in a mixture of the “trabin” (single wide trailer built onto like a cabin), and some campers, and tents.  We play with the cousins, share meals, swim, waterski, tube, wake board, canoe, fish, ride bikes, and generally have an amazing time.  Despite a few cases of of strep throat, and hand foot and mouth (post Twin Lakes), and my Dad breaking his ankle, it went off fairly flawlessly this year.  My Dad is awesome though, I mean what other almost 70 year old wake boards on a regular basis?  And has a seasons pass at a ski resort?

Hyrum paddling the cousins around

James jumping off the dock

Cousins jumping off the dock

Underwater Eric

Hyrum trying out my marshmallow roasting invention

Grant--too sleepy to wait to take off his life-jacket

Hula Hoop-Diving a 2012 addition

Jimmy showing off the "spear" Hyrum made
They speared a bass but he escaped, minus a couple of scales

Hyrum ready to spear fish--seriously, do you even have to ask why I married this man?  Hubba Hubba.

Nicole waterskiing

Mark Gardner--another 2012 addition.  Be there in 2013 Mark!

Our family tubing--James didn't want to come so we added Lukey instead.

The MEN ready to spear a fish in the channel

The last day we had to get in one more ski, and ran out of gas on the other side of the lake.
Thanks to the anonymous wake board boat who towed us home!

Bear Canyon Academy

Our church group (ward) has a really cool program a couple of moms started last year.  We call it the Bear Canyon Academy, named after the local, fancy, expensive, private school Albuquerque Academy, and their summer program.  Any school age kids can participate if one of their parents are willing to teach a class for 6+ kids of the age group of their choice.  Scottie got to participate in some really fun classes: swimming, one about the weather, and one where they did water play.  Hyrum and I taught a class for older kids ages 10-13.  We, mostly Hyrum,  taught a class “Build your own electronic gadget.”  It was a lot of fun.  The boys (no girls signed up for our class), made Franklin’s Bells but instead of lightning we harvested electrons from our old-school television.  We also made our own motors using magnets, and a little canon that shoots b-b’s that uses the circuit out of disposable cameras.  It was actually really cool and the boys loved it. 






Our homemade motor—it uses the magnet from a speaker
A boy wrapping wire for his gun.

Father’s Day 2012

Yeah, I know that Father’s Day was F'OREVER ago, but this is for me, and the Grandma’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hyrum requested a pomegranate cheesecake, which though it doesn’t look amazing, tasted amazing.  We sure love our Dad.

Fathers & Sons camping/fishing in Jemez mountains

Hyrum, Lance and the older boys extended their fathers-and-sons overnight campout to do a little fishing in the Jemez watershed.

James reeled in the first catch at the 12-and-under pond at the nearby hatchery, a pretty decent rainbow, and again was surprised and a little terrified at the beast on the end of his line.  That was lunch.  While Hyrum was cooking it up, Lance and Scott ventured to a nearby creek where they reeled in 4 more rainbows—two each.

On the drive home, we stopped for several hours at our new favorite fishing hole on the Guadalupe river.  Somehow, we managed to find a way with our gear and small kids down the cliff face to the water’s edge.  Lance reeled in a brookie on his first cast, then another later on.  Hyrum finally absolved himself from becoming the weak fishing link, and reeled in the last—and not smallest—catch of the day: another brook trout.  (Obviously, as facilitator of this expedition, Hyrum was always busy taking care of the kids, setting up camp, cooking, taking photos, etc.; otherwise, he naturally would have brought home a lot more.)

Total fish count: Lance (2 rainbows, 2 brookies); Scott (2 rainbows); James (1 rainbow); Hyrum (1 brookie, which, although not the largest, turned out to be the fish with the most “intangibles”)

Besides the fish, the location was beautiful, sporting waterfalls, sheer cliffs, large boulders, and cool running, refreshing water.

And this is how you know that you’ve had a great trip:

Mother’s Day and Grant’s Birthday

Last year on Friday the 13th, Grant came into the world.  This year due to leap year, Grant and I got to share our special days.  It was a beautiful day.  Hyrum and Scott were up early making the table pretty and Hyrum and James made pancakes for breakfast.  Lance and Hyrum had a pancake eating competition which Hyrum would say he won, and Lance would say that was only because there were no more pancakes.  We went to church, flew kites, and ate birthday cake.  All in all, a great day!

Scottie in front of the breakfast table.  The boys picked out two lovely kites for my Mother’s Day gift, Transformers and Spiderman.  How did they know that I am a huge fan?  I picked out a nice cake platter for myself since I don’t have one and have wanted one.  They picked some beautiful flowers from our garden too.

Grant enjoying his cake.

Lance--interning at Sandia National Labs for the summer--is a lot of fun and the boys LOVE having him at our home.  While kite flying, he came up with the ingenius idea of connecting the kite to his fishing pole so that Hyrum could stand at one end of the cul-de-sac with the kite and he at the other end, and then reel real fast and the kite is in the air.  It may be the lazy man way (no running required) but it was super funny and worked like a charm.

Scottie’s first primary talk

Living Prophets Teach me to Choose the Right

I am thankful for President Monson who is our prophet today.

I read a story where President Monson told us that we can decide right now to keep the commandments

I have decided that:

I will never play soccer games on Sunday

I will obey the word of wisdom

I will help my brothers and serve others

And I will be worthy to be baptized when I am 8, to get the Priesthood when I am 12, and to go to the temple and to be a missionary.

I am thankful for our prophet who teaches me to choose the right.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.