Father's Day Flowers

For Mother's Day the year after we moved into our house Barry bought me two rose bushes from Costco. They never grew, and the following spring I called Costco to see if they would exchange them. They said that they did not get rose bushes that year, but I could return my dead rose bushes for a refund. So I dug them up and did. This year I heard on the radio that Home Depot had rose bushes on sale for Mother's Day. We didn't have a trip planned to Spokane at the time, and we missed out on the sale. In June Barry came home from a trip to Spokane with two rose bushes! Home Depot still had good prices and he bought me two of my favorite color roses. He planted them on a Saturday, which happened to be the day before Father's Day, so I call them my Father's Day rose bushes. They have just thrived and here is a picture of Marianne sitting behind one of them.

I was at the high school with Ben and Makayla when the Medistar helicopter landed at the hospital. Ben asked if we could walk over and watch it take off. I told him that we could go look at it, but we may not see if take off, depending on how long it would be there. We walked the one block to the hospital and I took their picture in front of the helicopter. A few minutes later we were able to watch the medics load up the patient and take off while we were standing just 50 yards away. It was SO cool to watch a helicopter take off while being so close.

Makayla likes to help take the meat off the bones of the turkey.

Barry took me to see the Spokane Symphony play at the Chewelah Peak learning center. Maddy got to get in free by helping set up and take down with the band. She was tickled to see that one of the pieces they played was the same music that they had played in band last spring (Sound of Music medley).

Maddy celebrated her 16th birthday. What a beautiful teenager. She was excited to get her driver's license on her birthday and drove herself to seminary and school the next day. When she came home she walked in the door and said, "Ummm, Mom?!?" I said, "What did you do?!?" Her response, "Oh, no, it's not that. The car is fine. I just had a problem in one of my classes." Whew!

Marianne poses for me. Silly girl!

And they're off! Cross country has begun! Here is Mindy's first race. She beat her time by 2 minutes!

Mackensey smiles as she runs down the hill. She did well on her first race

This picture of Maddy's race was taken at the beginning. By the end she was hot and tired. It was 86 degrees for her race!

Sisters sit in the shade during Maddy's race.

The Monkeys climb trees while they wait.

Barry, Kensey and I watching the BYU game at our friends house.

Barry took his Dad to the BYU game on Sept 11th to celebrate Gerald's birthday. Barry was in Utah for business.

Mackensey won a tablet for getting third place for our school district's summer math marathon using Khan Academy. She worked really hard all summer (the other kids did it to, but weren't as committed.). Here was the picture that was on the front page of our newspaper. She is nice and lets me borrow her tablet every Sunday to use when I teach gospel doctrine. As payment I helped her make a cover from a pinterest tutorial.

 

Have a great week!

Future Missionaries

Last Sunday we went to church with the Jensen family to watch Victoria speak in church. She will be leaving for her mission soon, and she did a good job on her talk. It will be fun to hear about the experiences she will have over the next 18 months. Here is a picture of the Jensens and the Thomasons. 

Becca took our family picture. 

We stayed after church for lunch with the Jensens and to play with cousins. Mindy and Marianne fell asleep on the way home. When Marianne woke up she started crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "I miss Sam!"

driving home

Since Maddy drove and Barry sat in the passenger seat, I got to sit in the middle row with Mackensey and Makayla. 

Have a great week!