Bugs

It seems in the last month or so that I have had a lot to do with Bugs!

First when we went to Virginia to visit Ben & Alyse
we were confronted with this beauty:

I know this looks like a spider,
but it is a Camel Cricket or Spider Cricket.
There was community of them living in Ben & Alyse's Apartment.
Each morning were were greeted by several.
We worked on keeping the bugs from coming into the apartment
and I killed my share each day.
They were huge, but the worst part was that they jumped!!!My bug adventures continued this week
when Blake had to collect 25 insects for his science class.
He would catch them in a Cool Whip container
and put them in the freezer to die
before pinning them to his board.Who knew we had so many bugs living around our home!

MNT at the MTC

Today Brandon became

Missionary Number Three to go to
the Missionary Training Center.Sunday was his Farewell and he did a great job on his talk.
He spoke about the 13th Article of Faith.He got very tired of taking pictures!!
Last night Brandon was set apart as a Full Time Missionary.
He said his good-byes to his siblings.Harold and I drove him down to Provo and the MTC.
(You can see it in the background
and there is lots of construction going on.)
This new stop and drop was very different
(but I think it is better.)
There were missionaries there to help him . . .
and within a few seconds he was part of the crowd.

I know Brandon will make a great missionary.
I love him very much.

MHS Homecoming

A few weeks ago, Brad asked Mandi to the Homecoming Dance.

I thought her answer was one of the
most clever my boys have ever received.
Brad came home from school wearing this shirt.It was covered with "Yes" and "No"
The instructions were to wash it to get the correct answer.
Which we did!
(Brad is almost as cute as Clark Gable
who spends lots of time with me since I live in the laundry room!)

You can see the answer was "YES"
Here is Mandi and Brad before the Dance was last Saturday.
(Her dress was purple, but my camera made it look blue.)
I think Brad had a better time this night
than the night before when the football team lost 57 to 0!

Summer Adventures and UTIs

At the beginning of August I took Brad, Blake, Gwen & Maddie

to Seven Peaks Water Park in Provo.
It was IHC Day and very crowded,
but we were determined to go on some waterslides.

The kids talked me into going on the one called "Free Fall"
which is the blue slide in the background.
All four kids went down and then it was my turn.
The lifeguard girl instructed me to not push off,
but just put my hands behind my head and cross my legs.

I did as I was instructed and promptly got stuck
in the tube portion of the slide.
I couldn't go back to the start and all I could see
was an hole at the end with sky showing --
and I knew it dropped off at 90 degrees!
My only option was to keep trying to
push myself forward to the drop off!
This process took forever and I dreaded what was ahead.
Finally I made it to the hole and fell!
The only problem was when I hit the water at the bottom
my modest one piece suit became a thong!
This mortified my children who instructed me later
that I was supposed to pull it out of my "crack" before standing up!

Who Knew!?!

Temple Trip (to one temple!)

Before Bryan left on his mission four years ago

he and I took a Temple Trip to Chicago, Nauvoo & St. Louis.
Brandon desired to do the same thing,
but didn't care which temples we went to.
We decided because of work schedules and time constraints
to do a Utah Temple Trip.
The original plan was to go to Vernal, Manti and Oquirrh Mountain.
We arrived in Vernal late Monday night only to
discover the next morning that the temple was closed for cleaning.
We did get a picture of Brandon in front of
the dinosaurs before leaving Vernal.
After a 3-1/2 hour drive to Manti
we finally were able to do some temple work.
When we finished in the early evening,
we decided to cut our trip short and head home.
One temple is better than none!

This Summer Brandon has been to several temples
Washington, D.C. with Ben & Alyse
Rexburg and Mt. Timpanogos with Elizabeth
and Salt Lake, Jordan River and Draper with his friends
(This is Brandon, Dylan Payne and Andrew Abeyta
who are both in the MTC now)

White Coat Ceremony

I have been slow in blogging because life got in the way!
A couple of weeks ago Harold and I went to
Richmond Virginia for Ben's White Coat Ceremony
at the Medical School at Virginia Commonwealth UniversityThis the Egyptian Building where the Parents Meeting
was held and Ben has his classes.The White Coat Ceremony was great.
Each medical student walked in carrying their white coat.
As each student's name was announced
one of the medical staff placed the white coat on.
Ben had Dr. DiGiovanni who had interviewed him
help him with his white coat.
The Medical Students then took the Hippocratic Oath.

It was an amazing opportunity to be there and

we are so pleased with Ben & Alyse and the things they are doing.

Fall Sports

With school starting that also means

SPORTS!
I love watching my children play
even if it means driving them to practice after practice!
Gwen is playing Soccer
and so is Blake.
Brad is playing football for Murray.
Brad is one of the captains for the team.
They won their first game against Ogden.
Friday they played in at the Rio Tinto Stadium, but sadly lost.

But there are many more games to come this fall!