03/18/12 Traveling kids: Disney & Grandma's houe

3/18/12

Holly & Katie love each other!

Well the week has flown by again.  The boys went to Disney and had a great time.  I don't think they spent much time actually sleeping.  They came home Friday night and both said they might have slept 2 hours on the bus. Maybe.  They got home at 7 a.m. Friday morning and went right to bed.  I think they came out about 2 p.m.  Aaaah.  Ashley Brimhall also went on the trip.  Her mom posted that she got up at 5:30 p.m. Yes, a great trip!

Bryce got put in as President of the Teachers Quorum today.  So we have 3 presidents in the house right now.

Bryce went to the Stake Dance last night.  He really enjoys those.  Especially since he gets to see that one girl from Desert Hills that he is sweet on.  He is a funny kid.

The girls spent Tuesday night and Wednesday at Grandma's house with Emma.  Far as I can tell the girls had a blast.  Emma and family have moved back down here so we should be seeing a little more of them for awhile.  Emma came over and swam with us yesterday.  Grandma had bought the girls all goggles so they were dying to swim.  Nice that it is so easy to make them happy.

Holly Dolly

Saturday morning I took the girls out to the Paul Mitchell hair school and we spent 2 hours getting our hair cut and styled.  Then I took them to Old Navy and got them so flip flops.  They saw some cover-ups that they wanted.  They were $35 each.  So I took them to D.I.  and found some for $4 each.  Score.  They are really cute.  We stopped at Artic Circle and got some burgers and shakes.  Pretty great girls day, huh?  They were pretty excited.  In between girls day and swimming we sold girl scout cookies for a couple of hours.  Kind of a overcast cool day and sales were slow.  Only sold about $500 worth of cookies. I guess there is still a pretty large stack in the garage so they have at least another weekend of sales to go.  Last weekend the troop sold about $1100 worth of cookies.

Katie

The Merritts moved out.  It was really fast.  Their house was for sale.  Then the sold sign was up and like the next day they were moving out.  And within a couple of days they were completely cleared out.  We haven't met the new neighbors yet.  I have seen cars over there.  I think they are spending a lot of time "cleaning up".  Merritts left a pretty big pile of debris outside the house and they've pulled out carpet and who knows what else.  I haven't actually seen them moving anything in yet so I think they are deep cleaning and maybe recarpeting or painting or something.  Katie says she recognizes a boy and girl 4th and 5th graders but we are not sure if they are the kids or relatives of the family moving in.

Katie playing soccer

We started planning youth conference today.  Should be fun.  We'll have the Warby cabin looks like.  Bryce said there isn't much room around the cabin to do stuff so we may have to rethink things.  We are talking about doing a warrior theme...arise and shine forth...we wanted to have a medival times type dinner on the last night and have workshops and stuff leading up to it.  Like we will make a flag for our team and make javelins out of foam pool toys and stuff.  We would make bows and arrows and while they are making that talk about the importance of being on target in our choices and stuff.  It's all pretty young in the development stage but I think it could be great.  Given lots of work!  We think we will be lucky to get 14-20 kids so it won't be super huge.  I think 14 is more likely but shooting for 20!  Hopefully they don't all flake out and only have half that.  This whole thing would probably not be that cool with less people.

We didn't go to Gma and pas today.  I guess they are having snow.  So we made potato soup and rolls and peanut butter cookies.  Pretty yummy dinner!   We'll have to play some games or go for a walk or something now.  It is pretty cold here though so not sure about walking anywhere.

One of our Monday night creations

Today Brother Whitney (ward mission leader) came around to every organization and handed out the 21 day plan I told you about several months ago.  I had already done the program back in December and it was a neat program.  Now he is challenging every member of the ward to do it.  I hope they have some success.  I told our YW that we have it easy since we have so many non-members in our group already to write down and pray for.  We still have 6 non-member girls in our ward that come on Wednesdays but never Sunday.

Friday night we went out with Ben and Laura for dinner.  Ben has been released as Bishop and they are ward mission leaders in their ward now.  They seem to be so much more relaxed now.  They actually chilled and ate with us and visited and were laid back and cool.  In recent past it seems like Ben has been exhausted and Laura stressed about the kids or whatever.  None of that!  Oh yea, and their missionaries moved out.  So it's just them at the house again.  Yes, they seem very happy with their slowed down life!

Bryce and Dallas cruising around in the Hyundai

Nick and Bree are officially done. She had him served with divorce papers within the last week or so.  Nick is a mess from what I can tell and Bree seems pretty pleased with her choice.  Sounds like Nick is trying to make some changes in his life but it is not going to be easy.  He's addicted to cigarettes and got his share of tattoos (he's not sad about those, he just got another one a couple weeks ago).  I guess he recently spoke to the youth of B&L's ward and just cautioned them to not take the path he had taken.  I hope he can get things together and be happy.

So Luke Peck's last companion was Elder Griffin from Texas.  Funny, eh?!  Luke's doing pretty good on his mission from what I can tell.  I have started sending you some of his letters throughdearelder.com.

 

I can't believe the sisters you went out with our gonna be home by Mother's day!  That is so fast!  Sounds like Sister Watkins is ready to be home.  She has really struggled from what I can tell.  I don't get Sister Martinez's letters.  Her mom quit sending me info early on.  I only see her on Pres Carlos website.  Seems like she is doing well and happy.  I guess that's the downside of going out with sisters.  They get to come home before you!

Well stay well and happy and keep up the good work!  You are amazing!  Keep taking lots of pictures.  What a great foundation you are creating for the rest of your life.  Love you!  Mom.