Homecoming 2010

YAY for Homecoming in Worland! So sad that it is our very last one and that it wasn't a "real" Homecoming with all my girls coming home. But for Kaytee's senior year she certainly got into the spirit of the whole thing. First was "Twin Day". Kaytee and her friend Matthew Schneider (blonde boy - so definitely very little resemblance) decided to be twins for the day and made matching shirts. They made sure to add a disclaimer regarding their "twin" status.
Matthew was "Schneeder 1" and Kaytee was "Schneeder 2".
Next came "Celebrity Day" Here we have Lil' Wayne, Eminem, Justin Beiber, Jack Sparrow and Hannah Montana. (Kaytee, Taylar, Michelle, Alyssa, Nikki, and Chantel) Quite the assortment. None of Kaytee's teachers recognized her all day.

The day of the football game was Spirit Day with everyone decked out in all the orange and black they could find. The Homecoming Assembly was really fun this year. Here are Michelle and Kaytee announcing an Ice Block Sitting contest between the Depends-wearing teachers.
And then they all got REALLY REALLY LOUD!
The principal had the entire student body on the floor of the gym playing a giant "Simon Says" game. Here Michelle and a few others just got out because they put their arms down without "Simon saying" Kaytee stayed in a few more rounds and her friend Alyssa won the whole thing. It was hilarious.
During the teacher's skit at the end of the assembly they had every student in the school dancing in the middle of the gym with them. It was pretty much pandemonium!
Then came the parade - which the entire town shut down to attend. Here is the float Kaytee helped build with the seniors - she was on it but sitting on the opposite side of where I was watching from so didn't get in the picture.
Here are Kaytee and Ashley after they got off the float.

After the parade was the football game - which they lost to Lander in the last 24 seconds of the game. And then the big dance was tonight. Here are Kaytee and her date, Tyler, before the dance.

And a close-up of her cute dress and hair and their big smiles!

Now they are home from the dance and all changed and making chocolate chip pancakes. And our last Homecoming has come to an end - I get the feeling this is just the first of lots of "lasts" this year :(

September!

Wow! What a September we have had. Kimball and I started off the month going to Las Vegas to spend Labor Day with Cassidy and their sweet family. While we were there we got to celebrate James' 2nd birthday. Since I had just had my birthday a few days before, Cassidy made us a bithday cake to share with James' new favorite activity - fishing!

James' other favorite thing to do is swimming so on the morning of his birthday I took him back to our hotel and the two of us spent the day just hanging out at the pool.
Loving the luxury of this place! James is my favorite little "Cabana Boy"

That weekend sweet little Eloise was also blessed. I love this picture of her smiling up at her Grandma Mickelsen wearing the beautiful blessing dress her grandma made her.
As we drove home, we stopped in Utah for the night and my mom had a birthday celebration planned for me and my sister, Marilee, who also shares a September birthday. Ralph had fixed some amazing bar-b-que ribs with all the fixings and my mom had decorated for the two of us.
She had pictures from both of our lives and fun facts about us. It really made us feel special (and not quite so old to have our mom do a party for us - except for the 50(!) on the birthday sign.)
My beautiful little sister - pretty special to get to share our birthdays together. We haven't got to do that since we were little (and then I hated it that my mom had us have our party together!)
Next up was Kaytee's birthday on September 12 - Can't believe that my baby is 18! We got her a way cool bike to cruise around town (and maybe next year to cruise around college.)
Everyone we saw on our first bike ride told us how much the bike looked like her! Pretty colorful! Then a bunch of her friends came over bearing gifts and here she is blowing out the candles on the strawberry chocolate icecream cake she requested. Mmmmm it was good!

Next up . . . October will be bringing Homecoming and lots and lots and lots of volleyball. Go Kaytee and the Lady Warriors!

The Greater Light- Logan 3 EFY 2010

Last week I went to Logan, Utah to go to an EFY, which was AMAZING as always, but this one seemed to be the best ever! My company had to of been the coolest one there and by the end we all became best friends. Some of us even mentioned that it seemed as if we had known each other forever instead of just for 5 days. I just want to apologize ahead of time that there might be quite a few pictures but it can get hard to pick only a couple...

This is some of the girls during pizza night. My counselor, Jazmin, is the one in the blue shirt and she was the coolest person ever! She abbreviated everything so I have picked up some of her sayings such as DPepp (Dr. Pepper) and supes awk (super awkard).

Here are all the boys and girls in my company and they were all funny and cool beyond belief! It's even crazier because there were 33 of us and by the end I knew every one's name! :)

One day we did a service project where we cut and tied blankets. This is my entire company showing off our end products.And of course by the end everyone was just having fun. The boys were trying to test each others strength and people started to make shapes out of the left over fabric.
And this is the video of our company skit. We were called the "Greater Light" and for some reason we were centered around ninjas and love. :) We ended up getting first place with our skit too!

Fun in Billings

So, every summer we go to Billings for doctor's appointments but this time we made it into a 2-day mini-vacation. The hotel we stayed at had a water park and Jackson was so excited we had to go check it out the second we got to our room. Here he is hamming it up for the camera on the way over to the pools.

Besides lots of awesome water slides for the big kids, the stuff for those "under 48 inches" was absolutely amazing. Here J and his grandpa check out all the water type things to do. There were water cannons to shoot and buckets to dump on people and all sorts of fun slides.

There were lots of different pools.
This one had lily pads that Jackson could use to jump from one side of the pool to the other.

His favorite place to hang out was in the big wave pool. The first day he wanted one of us pretty close by his side. By the second day he was grabbing a tube all by himself, jumping into it and kicking all the way out to the middle of the pool.

Another of Jackson's favorites was the big bucket on top of the play center. It would gradually fill with water and when it was full dump a giant wave down on top of everyone.

At first he liked to watch at the edge of the "splash zone."

Then he discovered this tunnel where he could sit and wait for the water to come pouring down all around him. Look at that smile! He so did not want to leave when it came time to go this afternoon. We'd better make this place an annual tradition!

What a Wonderful Weekend!

So much fun having Jackson here visiting. He loves to help outside (in short little bursts of energy!) Watering has been a favorite chore since the first summer he came to visit when he was only 1 1/2. Only then he just loved holding the hose and now he can turn the hose on and off and fill up the watering can and actually hit the flowers that need watering. He thought it was cool to see the stepping stone he and Nolan had made me for Christmas in the flower garden.

Of course anything that involves a BIG SHARP TOOL is what he is begging to do. Only got to do this for a short time because, even though he was very careful, it was scaring Kaytee and I.

Once the work was done we got in Grandpa's truck and headed up to the cabin. Jackson found this cap and wore it most of the time we were there.

J discovered something interesting along the road on our walk.

His reaction when I told him it was Moose Poop!

J was pretty impressed with the size of this moose print. He also liked the moose he saw walking past the cabin the next morning - of course we didn't have the camera out then.

Now that he is older and can climb he loved exploring every rock and nook and cranny on the mountain. This is in the outcropping of rock behind the Horsley cabin.

Going potty at the cabin was a new experience as well since the water pipes were still frozen and he had to use the outhouse. Probably getting his picture taken while he was going potty was a new experience too. Sorry J.

The snowdrift behind the cabin was pretty cool to play in too - Just not very clean or good for snowballs.

Back home to a lot warmer weather. It will be so nice to get back up on the mountain when Jami and Tim and Nolan come at the end of the week. J loves playing outside in the cool of the evening. Tonight he was drawing pictures with sidewalk chalk and then explaining to grandpa who they were by drawing arrows pointing to each of them. These are all his family and right now he is pointing to his cousin, Janelle's Preston, who he really wants to have come play with him at grandma's house.

My Crazy Grandson

So, 5:oo AM (!) this morning this is what tiptoes in my bedroom to wake me up "What are we doing today Grandma?" Don't know why he thought the goggles might play a big part in our plans but he was definitely ready for anything.

Well, maybe not this! First order of business after breakfast - clean the last bird nest off the decorative vines above the window. These little birds were sure cute, but left an awful lot of mess behind. J wasn't quite sure what to do when I told him to take the nest off so he could put it in the garbage. Ewwwww!

Then we went to pick up branches where Kaytee had been doing her tree trimming. Jackson loved sitting on the bench because it was "like a forest!"

Then this afternoon we went over to the church for a kid's Bike Rodeo. J sat and watched for a while to scope it all out.

Then he had to carefully adjust the wheels on his scooter to get them just right. He really wanted and needed to wear a helmet - this one was a "tad" big because it used to be Kaytee's. We also had to assure him that the blue meant it was a "boy" helmet and not a "girl" one.

Then he was off and riding (scooting?). He had so much fun and was so proud of how fast he could go.

Then we had a "kids choice" ward dinner outside at the pavilion. I put one of everything I thought J would eat on his plate and here he is showing off his pizza. Then he ate most of the spaghetti. Then the cookie. We brought the sandwiches home to eat tomorrow.

He made lots of new friends and was so excited to have the big grassy area behind the church to run around in. I think in this picture Jackson had just been tagged by Lacy (in the dress) and he is off and running to get someone else. Lacy is coming over to play tomorrow. Jackson is very excited!


Then back home for a little relaxin' Just loving his own little computer to play games on. Looks like one tired boy - we are off to bed and ready for another adventure tomorrow. Hopefully it won't start quite so early!