Summer

Here is a brief recap of summer so far...


Matthew went to Scout Camp at Camp Raymond from June 20-25th. ET drove the boys up and was able to spend a couple of days with Matthew.


Matthew earned 8 merit badges.

Katie got her SENIOR picture taken for the year book - I forgot what a shock it was to get that reminder in the mail only a couple of days into summer!


Matthew went to basketball camp in Prescott with a bunch of great friends for a week (June 27- July1) and loved it. Here they are with their dads.


Grandpa Joe and Grandma Jeanne returned from their mission to Chile on June 30, 2011in preparation for their assignment in Ecuador. We LOVE having them home!




Katie and Cassidy hitched a ride to Provo with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Virginia and spent a fun week in Provo with Grandma, Grandpa, Kimberly, and the Snows and Esteses.





After spending an extra month in Provo for her internship at the BYU speech clinic, Kimberly made her first drive from Provo to Mesa and did great. It is so much fun to have everyone home - finally! It was extra fun because Grandma Jeanne drove down with the girls and spent a few days here in Mesa.



Kimberly is busy studying for the GRE. Katie and Carie get up each morning and run cross country,and Matthew & Courtney are still swimming in the morning. Carie and Katie work most afternoons at ET's office and that pretty much sums up our summer so far!

Freestyle Meet - June 9, 2011

Courtney and Matthew both did great at the free-style swim meets yesterday. Courtney swam with the younger group at 6:00pm and Matthew and Bennett swam with the older group at 7:30pm. It was fun to watch them all swim. The weather was perfect!

The Trek June 2-4,2011

E.T., Katie, and Carie left for our stake Pioneer Trek at 7am on Thursday morning. They looked so cute and CLEAN as they joined the rest of the trekers at the stake center. I have to admit that I was feeling just a little left out - Curt, Alison, Haley, Cassidy, and Clark along with most of our neighbors were all there! David, Robin, Samantha, and Max and Sean, Anna, and Haley Glenn were all going to their stake trek as well.

Courtney, Matthew, and I got to stay home and have Brittany, Emily, Abby, and Joey stay with us for a few days. We had fun grilling, swimming, watching movies and just being together.



I loved getting ET's texts at night updating me on how everyone was doing. Carie was in Tracy & Diane Skousen's family, and Katie was in Kim and Sharon Rogers' family so I knew that they were in good hands!

We were so excited to have them arrive home around 5:30pm on Saturday evening - safe and happy. They were all a little tired and not quite as clean, but they made it!


This is the photo we took right before they walked in the door - I was hoping they would have taken pictures on the trek, but Carie's camera broke on the last day of school and Katie said hers broke on the trek because of all the dust - so we settled for hearing all about the trek over dinner. They told about pulling together, helping each other and doing hard things.

Carie said she woke up one morning and felt something in her mouth. She wondered what it could be as she had thouroghly brushed her teeth the night before -- she was horrified to find out that it was a fly stuck to her braces! Katie told about the Maggots, and ET about the dust, and after hearing all of their stories, I suddenly felt OK about missing the adventure and staying home and sleeping in my nice clean, comfortable bed.

School's Out!

The school year ended today! Yea!!! No more homework or tests (until Summer School starts)!

It was fun to go to all the end of the year programs. Carie and Clark both won awards at the Poston Awards Assembly and Grandma and Grandpa were there to cheer them on.


Matthew completed sixth grade with honors...

and Courtney was voted "Most Likely to Become the First Woman President!"

Katie and Cassidy are off to help with MVHS graduation.

And our awesome neighbors threw their traditional end of the year party for all the kids in the neighborhood!




We are excited for summer!

Happy Birthday E.T.

E.T. turned 45 yesterday! Thanks to our wonderful family who helped him celebrate!

He said the best part of his birthday was having Kimberly here and the whole family being together!

The occasion was Tia and Brett's wedding on May 13 in the Mesa, AZ Temple.



The wedding was beautiful and perfect in every way.




The cousins LOVED the dance floor and it was great to be together for the weekend! Thank you Browns for letting us be a part of this special occasion!

Prom 2011

Katie went to Prom tonight and looked beautiful.


She and Corbin made a handsome couple.


Courtney had her final tumbling recital this evening and did a fantastic job - we were glad we got to see her perform before we hurried home to see Katie off.

Thanksgiving Point

One of Kimberly's New Year's resolutions was to run a half marathon, so we picked the prettiest, most convenient one we could find that was held on a Saturday - The Thanksgiving Point Half through the tulip festival on April 30!

After spending the night at the Estes home (thank you so much!), this was what it looked like when we arrived at 7 am!


However, it turned out to be a beautiful run and the good thing is that we never even broke a sweat in the 30 degree weather!




The sun soon melted the snow and we had a fun time running through the beautiful tulip gardens. We both highly recommend this event for anyone that wants a beautiful run, a new t-shirt, and free Creamies!



We were able to visit the Odidas for a few minutes before returning home!
We had so much fun!