Thomas has returned to Germany and Kandace's Birthday

Wow, we can hardly believe how quickly the last 10-months have flown by. Thomas Frahsek came to live with us on August 16th of last year, and he had to return home last Saturday. (He got to extend an extra week to go to the 311 concert with the boys) He was alot of fun to have with our family. He was quite shy and quiet at first, but he warmed up to us and showed his quick wit and fun personality, We sure are going to miss him around here. A couple of days before he left he wanted to take us all to dinner. With all the crazy schedules in our family, this is all we could round up last Wednesday.

On Thomas's last Sunday with us he picked all his favorite things to eat. Cameron's famous BBQ Ribs, sour cream potatoes, Strawberry spanich salad and Ice cream cake. After dinner Thomas brought out this cool fortune kit. It is basically a spoon that you put a piece of metal in, then you hold over a candle until the metal melts, then you drop it in a bowl of ice water. Whatever shape the metal makes, there is a fortune that goes with it. It was soo fun. We all liked our fortunes too.

This is Thomas checking or trying to check in for his flight. The counter agent had to assist because of his passport. Good thing, his flight had been changed to 1-hour earlier and he was checking in late. They were able to get him on another airline leaving just 1-hour after his flight, the time we thought he was leaving at. So all was well. Thomas, Cameron and me getting our last picture and hugs together. We are soo glad we get to go visit him in just a few short weeks. I didn't break down and cry, but know I will when we leave Germany. He is just one of the family now, and he knows he better keep in touch.

And our Kandace celebrated her 22nd Birthday yesterday. Holy cow, another kid trying to be the same age as me. Her good buddy Celeste sent her some beautiful flowers. We love you Kandace and hope you had a great birthday!

Whew....What a week its been!

Can I just say that we thought last week was crazy with Cameron getting his mission call. But this week was crazier, if you can imagine. Last Friday night Cameron and Thomas were in the "Temple Celebration" held at the conference center. What an amazing, spiritual night that was. I think I was so touched because President Monson was there, and the day before Cameron got his Mission call letter signed by President Monson. Over 7500 youth performed songs and dances to celebrate the opening of two new temples in the valley. I hope they will show the world the video that was made that night so you call can see how wonderful the night was. This is Courtney and me at Temple Square hanging out before the celebration started. One of the sister missionaries took our picture.
We all went shopping at the Gateway mall before the boys had to leave to be in the performance. We all got "HOT" new sunglasses, and one of Cameron's friends was walking by and we got her to take our picture. Don't you wish you had a cool pair of shades like ours??
Cameron graduated on Thursday, June 4th. He graduated with Honors, making the honor roll for the past three years.

So on Sunday , before he graduated from seminary, Cameron and I went out and took a few pictures in his cap and gown so we would have some good pictures. Do you think he is excited to be out of school?? He was a great sport and we had fun taking different shots.
Camerons "I'm FREE" shot!

At "Dear Ole Jordan High"

I ran up and took this picture just before he received his diploma. You couldn't wipe the smile off his face.
Cameron texted me just before graduation ended that he wanted a picture with me as soon as it was over. We found each other in the huge crowd and snapped a quick picture. Thanks Cam for letting me have a picture to remember with you!

Cameron with his best buds! Eric, Diego, Cameron and Nick. These guys will be friends for life. What a great bunch of guys!

Last night we all went up to Oakcrest Girls Camp to attend Courtneys "Friends and Family" night. Courtney and her roommate Lexi are going to be camp councilors for the entire summer. They officially start getting girls on Monday morning, but spent the week last week doing everything they will be doing with the girls each week. They will finish the first week of August, have a week off, then go back to college. Busy single girls having the best summer!

Courtney and her name sign for camp. Her name at Oakcrest is "Scrumptious" The girls will not ever know her real name. What a fun name she picked.

Here is Cameron and Thomas at the start of the obstacle course. It started out easy and got harder. Cameron is crossing the rope bridge. It was harder than it looks because the is only

1-single rope on the bottom. The picture below is Cameron trying to knock me off the log on the obstacle course. Ahh haa, he didn't win!!!

Courtney harnessing Luke for the "Zip line" The kids had a great time.
After zip lining, we tried out Archery. Courtney had to show everyone how it was done, Thomas was pretty good. You had to stay back when some of the kids were shooting the arrows. We had a fun night and all wish we could spend a week a Girls Camp play in the mountains with Courtney.

Well, that was our week.

Tomorrow we are having all Thomas's favorite food for his last Sunday dinner with us. He leaves to go back to Germany on Saturday. We will all miss him, he fit right in with our family. This coming week we have another full week. We'll up date you next week. Have a fun week!

Cameron got his Mission Call

Okay, so last night we got a call around 10 pm from one of the Stake Presidency to see if we had any exciting news to share. Ah, no, unles he was talking about the two gophers we caught, bringing the gopher total to 10. So he let us know that we might have some today. Sure enough, today when we got the mail, there was Cameron's Mission call.Here is Cameron getting the mail.Doesn't he look a little scared and excited???
Cameron thinking about where he will be going?????? We all met at 7 PM for the offical envelope opening. Watch the video below to find out where Cameron will be going! No one had guessed, so it was a surprise for all of us.

Running with Angels and Casey's B-Day

This is my very favorite race to do every year. Running with Angels, we get to run in the gardens at Thanksgiving Point. Although running up and down the hills is not my favorite thing to do, running in the gardens and seeing all the beautiful flowers is the best thing ever. Kandace was the lucky one to run with me this year. She did great, even without too much training.

Okay, so she didn't really run too much, but she can walk pretty fast. I finished and came back to find her. Can you see why this is my favorite race? Just look at the scenery. I love going back into the gardens and looking at everything in slow motion.

Right after I took Kandace's picture I turned around to see this cute family ready to cross the path.
Then just ahead there was this little family, but they are bronze, I just thought it was funny. Kinda hard to tell which family is real.
Kandace and me at the finish line. This was just the starting of a very busy outside day. I went home and washed my car then spent the day outside in the yard, weeding, planting and prunning. I don't think we will ever have a yard a beautiful as the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point, but I am sure trying!

Casey's birthday was on Thursday, May 14th. We had him over on Sunday for his birthday dinner and our family's traditional "Ice Cream Cake". Thomas has really enjoyed this ice cream cake tradition and wanted to know how to make it so he can try it in Germany.

Casey is the big "24" now. Dang, he is almost as old as me. Maybe next year I will have him run with me so he can stay as young as me when he grows up. Happy Birthday Casey!

Race for the Cure.....to our Angel Jenn Jewkes

Many of you know that Monday my good friend Jenn Jewkes lost her 6 year battle with Cancer. Her funeral was on Friday. It was a wonderful funeral that celebrated her life and her wonderful family. Our ward had helped her to organize a team for Race 4 the Cure, we were "Jenn's Angels". This was the name she picked a few months ago when she got her team going. She was our angel as we joined together in her memory to walk the race.

This is Jenn last year. Her shirt is the name of her blog that she updated us on her latest news on her condition. I loved her amazing spirit as she bravley battled daily with cancer. She woke up each day, thankful that she was here another day. She was my vistiting teacher, and last month she called me and said " I feel good today, we want to visit you, do you want to garden, plant flowers, go for a walk or just sit and visit. I love to walk, and so does she. She took me on a walk down to the trail, then up some hills. We had a great walk, but a better visit. She taught me that no matter what our battles are to never give up, just keep working hard. The week after our walk, her liver started to enlarge and her condition didn't look good. She has touched my life in so many ways, I am soo lucky that she was my friend and such a caring Visiting Teacher. We met at our Relief Society Presidents house before the race. This is a big chunk of "Jenn's Angels" ready for the race.

This is Jenn's son Joe getting his bandana that says "Jenn's Angels" on his head. She was there with him every step of the race.

We all had a picture of Jenn on our back, as we walked in her memory and joined thousands of others in the walk.
This is a picture of the road to the "Gateway" mall. As far as you can see is a sea of "Race 4 the Cure" walkers. We set a record of over 18,000 walkers yesterday.
"Sista's" walking together. The weather was beautiful, and we all had a great time. These boys had pink panties on, they were having a great time for their team. I just thought they were good sports to join in the walk and be so enthusiastic.

We had a great day, and plan to make the race a ward tradition. I am soo glad I got to be there and be part of the cause. I was able to meet up with my sister Vicki, who is still in radiation and was too weak to walk the whole race. She was very touched by our team and the whole spirit of the day.

Ahh...Finally SPRING!

I love warm weather. There is something about the green grass, blue sky and colorful flowers that makes me just want to be outside all day long on my days off. Here are a few pictures of what our yard looks like in spring. The first picture was taken through a tree up the driveway looking over the front yard.And this is where I park myself everyday after work to listen to the water of the fountain and look over the beautiful yard, and valley that I can see from my front porch. I got my first rocking chair a few years ago for mother's day. We now have four rockers, and we fill them just about every Sunday when we sit out in the warm sun and just relax. This is a view of the front yard. All my tulip and daffodil bulbs that I planted last fall are in full bloom. Makes it worth going through the yucky winter to have such a beautiful spring day. A closer look of the Daffodils and tulips.

Here is a view in the back yard. It took Steve a couple of years to construct the waterfall. We enjoy BBQing and playing croquet in the backyard in the summer. Last week I went on a walk with some of my friends from work and saw this gorgeous tree with dark bark and deep maroon flowers and wished I knew what it was so we could plant one in our yard, This week I looked out back and saw that we do have one of those trees. It is small now and I didn't recognize it. It will be soo beautiful in a few years when it is bigger. We actually have two of these out back.
I love the sound of running water, and Steve has gone over the top to make sure we have plenty of running water to listen to. I guess this is the "California Girl" in me. I can't get enough of the sun and water. Hope you all are out enjoying the beautiful weather before it gets too hot.

Vegas Girl Trip

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so we took lots of pictures on our "Vegas Girl Trip". Kandace and I flew to Vegas for the day last Friday to have our hair done by my cute niece Ashley. We filled our day with lots of fun. Cheryl picked us up at the airport and took us to the Bellagio to see the spring gardens. They were amazing! Cheryl, Kandace and me in front of the Paris. Starting our FUN for the day.

Here is Kandace and me in front of the Bellagio. Loved the sunny warm day, it was a nice 77 degrees, something we hadn't enjoyed since last fall.
The Poppies in the garden.

A snail made from roses and different flowers. Soo cool.

Cheryl, Kandace and me, notice the water arches over our heads. They were real, we couldn't figure out how it worked, but people were getting all wet checking the water out.

There was a cool green house full of colorful butterflies, this one stopped to pose for us.

Quinn shows off his Daddy's new police hat. Meme Cheryl is proud of her cute and very smart grandson.

Me, Kandace, Ashley and Cheryl at Ashley's salon.
Ashely spent over 3 1/2 hours doing three heads of hair. She is my "Hair Whisperer" I think we wore her out. Thanks Ash, you are amazing!

Kandace and me at the end of the day at the airport. We had too much fun and the time went way too fast. We decided next time we will stay longer and catch a show with Cheryl. Thanks for the fun day Cheryl and Ashely, Love ya!