I TOLD YOU SO!!













I told you there was more to come!! When we went to visit Catherine, we went to a really fun park with an s shaped climbing wall. We have more pictures, but not on the blog :(.
Do you see Alice standing in front of a gray "thing" in Connor's picture? Well, I climbed that "thing" and since it went 7 feet high, I almost met my doom. (I was climing over the top!) Well, enough about me! Catherine liked the climbing wall a lot, because she climbed over and around it. Since there was a little kid playground, Brenna spent a lot of time on there, with the mini slides and such, and of course Connor loved the diggers!!! Notice the precision of the cut sand as it is pulled up from the ground!

(P.S., THE FAMILY WILL PUBLISH MORE I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE HERE!!!)

We played in a band..................


When the family went to Navuoo, Illinous, we got to see Deborah and her
bluegrass band. Did I mention Alice and I got to play in front of a crowd of about 600 people? While the band backed me up, I played on the viola, and Alice played the wooden spoons. She had been playing for only half an hour, but of course, she pulled through!
More to come,
Elle

Do We Look Alike?? Taken by Mom like, 2 weeks ago.........................

Correction!




Whoops, I meant I have no school on FRIDAY, so the Bishop is taking the Young Women on a hike in Backbone State Park. --Elle

Elle's contribution
Hey,it's Elle, the second youngest in the family. I recently turned 12, meaning I started young women on Sunday, and this Wednesday I have an activity, and since there's no school on Saturday, were going on a 1/2 day hike.

And Jamie, you can be proud of your 12 year old sister in-law who has recently taken up the facination of photography. In fact, this picture and the one with Connor and Brenna in the chair on this blog have been taken by ME! :)
Alice and her beloved bike, taken by Elle Bailey sometime last month.

Hello it's Alice, the youngest in the family. I have been waiting to contribute to the blog. I am going to introduce myself . I'm 9 years old and I have 3 sisters and 2 brothers, but of course, you all know that!

I'm in 4th grade and have the strictest teacher in the school, Mr. Young, but he is still nice. I am running for school treasurer, along with about 30 other 4th graders. We have a first round of voting, with just 4th graders voting, to narrow the choices down to three. I have to give a speech tomorrow, and then we'll see!

I love to ride my bike--I ride almost everywhere. To school each day, and have even ridden to the library when Deborah was still home. She said it was a scary experience with me. Of course, I'm still learning about riding on the right side of the road and crossing the street when Deborah said to cross. (It was a busy street). I'm getting better!

Watch for my picture in a future posting!

Where is my blog today? This is just a test...

Elizabeth turning 12 already??? We had an early birthday party while at Catherine's, just before Deborah returned to Utah. (All four of our daughters together!) Actually, Elizabeth turns12 tomorrow--goodbye Primary, hello Young Women! She's ready for the change. So what does she want for her birthday? Money--so she can go shopping. Of course, along with the money goes an adult to drive her to the stores she wants to go to.
* * * * *
Since it had only been two weeks since we last visited, Brenna needed no "warming-up" time and was happy to see us. She let us hold her, read stories to her, and take her to the park, but her favorite thing to do was play "ring around the rosie". She giggled as we all fell down, then jumped up and said "next!" (her version of "Again!"). An interesting sight, Grandma AND Grandpa, with Ellie and Alice, going round and round in circles in Catherine's dining room. I got dizzy!

While at the park, Brenna was absolutely fearless (sometimes, in a scary way!). She would climb the equipment until she was at the top of the tall slide, and go down all by herself (ready or not here she comes!). Connor, on the other hand, has a healthy respect for heights and things that can possible hurt you (gained mostly through experience).

He would put different toys together to make fantastic "guns" (ever seen a recorder and an empty flashlight stuck together?). He also played baseball in the back yard with Alice and Ellie. He loves to listen to stories as well. And of course, he helped Grandpa whenever something fun was happening (see previous post!)

Ah! A quiet morning after Alice and Elizabeth are off to school. Alice had school pictures to get ready for, and there was some "forgotten" homework by both girls. But by 8:45 a.m., quiet reigns. It must be time to accomplish my long-promised action of creating our blog!

We spent the weekend in Wisconsin, making memories with grandchildren and enjoying our adult children--a reminder that life is short since surely it was only a couple of years ago that Catherine was the age of Brenna or Connor. And Aaron is a delightful son-in-law. (We can still call him our favorite son-in-law since he is our only son-in-law).

And as is usual, Kevin found a project to fill his time--two in fact: 1) digging out some unwanted bushes, with Connor and Alice helping; 2) cutting off some dead branches in their trees. With the second project, Aaron had to remind Kevin that they didn't want a dead father as he climbed trees and sawed in precarious positions. But, mission accomplished, with a large pile of limbs (all wood, not human) at the end.