Miniature Frogs

This picture was taken at the Chewelah Creek, next to the Lutheran Church. The kids participated in "Lutherhaven" a bible day camp there at the beginning of the week. It was from 9am to 3pm, with a preschool from 9am to noon. My kids went to the Catholic "VBS" bible daycamp a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I thought it was a good way for them to see their friends from school over the summer and make new friends. I thought we'd give it a try this year. I was surprised that Marianne went without too much of a fuss. She actually enjoyed it more than the older kids. I think it was just a long day for them. I really enjoyed my "week off" and got around to a lot of projects that are put off due to homeschooling and taking care of six children all the time.

Our ward campout was this weekend. We went on Thursday and returned on Saturday. The campground was on a lake and the kids enjoyed swimming. They went swimming three times on Friday.

We saw dozens of these little frogs. The kids had fun catching them. At night there were bullfrogs the size of a small fist. We weren't sure if these little frogs were just the bullfrogs babies, or another species all together. The bullfrogs only came out at night, so I didn't get a picture of them. They wimpered like little puppies when caught. We did hear normal croaking in the mornings, however.

Marianne holds a "miniature frog". 

Mindy poses in the hole that they dug.

We camped 2 miles south of the ferry, so we went across for a fun outing. There is no bridge across, so you drive your cars on the ferry which runs on the half hour. 

This is the ferry we went on. The other side has cellphone reception, but where we were camping we were "unplugged".

The ferry ride was about 5 minutes long.

Maddy read alot this weekend.

Digging the hole.

Marianne wrapped up to keep warm. It was a cool, overcast weekend. All in all, a successful campout.

Summer Activities

Barry and Avery at Salt Lake Temple for Gerald and Sharon Thomason's sealing.

Avery was trying out Barry's brother Jon's camera and took this picture.

Jon took this picture of the temple with his camera.

Gunny sack races at ward activity. See the camel in the background?

Benjamin lost his tooth this week. 

Beautiful flowers and a beautiful girl.

Go Mindy!

Marshmallow shooting game.

Barry's baby pig has a saddle and a jockey, ready to race. 

Hand games.

Barry helped at the archery station.

Ready, Set, Go!

Having a fun summer!

Tall Enough

Mackensy got her haircut. The ponytail measured 26 inches long. She said, "I didn't know my hair was this long! I think the bob cut she has now looks really cute on her.

Mackensey celebrated her 10 year old birthday! We took her on a date night to Mondo's, a new Italian restaurant in town. Maddy made her a rainbow cake. She baked 7 cakes of each color of the rainbow, then stacked them with frosting in between. She used the bright food coloring. WOW!

I took the kids to Colville to buy shoes/clothes for back to school shopping. We wanted to go swimming in the colville kiddy pool, a free pool that is about 12 inches deep. They were having problems with the pump and we were told it would be ready in 45 minutes. While we waited we played at the park (next to the pool) and I took pictures. Unfortunately they never did get the pump running, so we went home without swimming. On the way home we passed the Chewelah park and noticed that the sprinklers were on. We hopped out and the kids got all wet in the sprinklers. 

Mindy looks so grown up in this picture. Marianne looks like the monkey that she is!!

I drove a van of girls out to girls camp this year. I thought it would be a good opportunity to take a picture of Maddy at girls camp. As you can see she did not cooperate, so I had to get one while she was helping unpack. She had a wonderful camp experience:-).

We took the kids to Silverwood, using their free tickets they earned through a reading program through the school. We went on Toyota Tuesday, so the driver of our toyota sienna got a free ticket. We also took advantage of a deal where we bought $50 worth of supplies at our auto supply store and got a free ticket (we did that twice and got two tickets). So we didn't have to pay for any ticket this year! 

Is Ben behind the wheel?!?

The big kids enjoyed the kiddy rides as much as the younger ones:-)

Barry and Marianne (with Mackensey and Mindy behind) go around and around on the train ride. 

The height milestones at this amusement park are: 36 inches, 42 inches, 48 inches and 54 inches. Benjamin was past the 42 inch mark and was finally able to go on the rides outside of the kiddy part. Barry took Marianne on kiddy rides while I took Ben and the older girls on his first big roller coaster ride. He had watched this ride on a youtube video and thought he was prepared. As I sat next to him on a ride going 50 mph he said, "This is not what I expeeeeeeeected!" He was a brave boy, but didn't ask to go again. I was glad, it is a very jerky ride. Our silverwood trip was something our kids have been looking forward to. Our next thing they are looking forward to: ward campout in the middle of august.

Bit the Ghost

Singing the National Anthem at the Chataqua Parade.  As a reward for them for singing I fried up some doughnuts when we came home. The plug wasn't in fully and the oil was not getting hot. Before I discovered the problem I told them that maybe the electric fryer  had"bit the ghost."

Barry and Maddy walked in the Parade holding a sign for the Chewelah Chamber of Commerce. Barry was elected vice-president for this year.

They are wearing matching shirts that they got for doing the 5k run before the parade. Maddy wants to join the cross country team at the high school this fall and they thought this would be a good preparation.

Have a great week!

beginning summer break

Anuual Quartzite hike Memorial Day 2013 

   Maddy was voted best freshman from her band.

              

Happy Birthday Barry June 4th! Breakfast in Bed.

 Marianne showcases our freezer full of beef. We bought a cow which ended up being over 600 lbs!

  And now I will begin our roadtrip pictures. We drove to San Diego for the Dale Olsen family reunion. We took three days to drive down and two days to drive home. A total of 48 hours of driving! The kids did great - no fighting!!!  

First day we drove to Island Park, ID and spent the night at grandpa and grandma Thomason's cabin. We rode ATV's for a bit and had lots of fun.

Makayla swings on the swing.

Day 2: We stopped at BYU-I because we had never been there. We gave ourselves a five minute tour and decided it was a "mini BYU". It was very windy and cold as you can see from the picture of Mackensey and Marianne that we took at the Rexburg temple on our way out of town (look at Mackensey's ponytail.)

Day 3: After spending the night at Barry's dad's house in Kaysville, we were finally on our way to San Diego! Even though it would be 12 hours worth of driving, we still made two long, enjoyable stops. The first one was a 45min tour of Cove Fort. I named it a "mini Nauvoo".

The second stop was in St George to visit with Grandma and Grandpa McGhie. We had a wonderful time and wished we lived closer and could visit more often. Uncle David took the picture of all of us.

Finally we made it to San Diego! In San Diego we were able to see my brother Alan bless his cute new baby Ethan. We helped my parents work on their new house. All of my siblings were there with their families, a total of 40 people! This is Mackensey with her cousin Katelyn. Mackensey loved holding the babies!

Sunday afternoon we toured the Mormon Batallion Visitor center. Here is everyone panning for gold.

Every day after working on the house we went to a different activity. We played at the bay, canoed on the bay and went boogie boarding at the beach. Here is Mindy with a dead jelly fish.

Benjamin enjoys playing legos with his cousins.

Well, we made it home safe and sound! This picture was taken at our church at the fourth of July breakfast and flag raising. 

Mackensey sold her hair!

Everyone has been giving her compliments on her cute hairstyle.