Twister

What could be more fun than playing twister?

I was reluctant at first, but it really was fun.

I learned that Lauren does not play nicely:)

She pushes and tries to make everyone fall.

Jessica just laughs her head off.

The boys were very strategic.

Yep, that's me. The big 'ole bum. I have no pride.

I purposely posted this picture so that everyone can

feel better about themselves.

It's kind of like giving service.  

"Josephine"

I love to listen to Pandora Radio

(www.pandora.com) while I'm working.

It's so great! I can create my own radio stations based

 on one artist that I really like.

Here's a confession:
 one of my favorite stations is John Denver.

 I also like Glee, The Civil Wars, and Tim McGraw.

The other day I heard this song called

 "Josephine."

It's sung by an artist I had never heard of.

 Her name is Brandi Carlile. She's amazing.

I love this song, among many of her others.
 I'm such a sucker for her type of harmony.

I'm pretty sure that I have to buy some of her albums.

 Take a minute and listen and let me know if you've heard her before. I'm gonna learn this song!

Laurel Falls

Our family enjoyed a great hike in the Smokies last May. Little did we know that we would come upon a real live bear. We felt a little excited and a little anxious. Fortunately, there was a ranger  following the movement of the bear.

The "Falls" with Jess and Lauren

Colorado Mountains

Beautiful Colorado mountains! This is where I grew up. I have some of my favorite memories right here. It's a little piece of heaven. We drove Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to get here. Yay for family reunions! It was so great to see everyone.

 Jess and Ben can't wait to start fishing!

Jessica is a first time fishergirl. Grandpa gives her some step by step instruction on how to cast. Casting is my favorite part of lake fishing. I can really get it out there. It's all in the wrist.

Ben's got one! It was so very exciting to see him reel in his fish!

Mr. Stoner doesn't seem to be very excited. He's just acting casual. He was really bursting inside. 

Here it is! Ben's first catch ever. Doesn't my brother Curtis look so official fisherman in his little vest? I thought so. 

Mr. Stoner caught a rock, weeds, or something annoying like that. It's not fun to fish when all you do is get snagged on the bottom of the lake. Jessica's giving him some advice.

Circle K Ranch offers to put on a "rodeo" if there are 60 or more people in your reunion party. We qualified! Heres Matthew doing his best to go get around a barrel. It was so much fun to ride the beautiful horses.

I couldn't get these girls to take a nice "smiling" picture for me! I finally just told them all to frown...and they sure responded. This is Rachel ,Lauren, and Tara.



Matthew, Jessica, Lauren, and cousin Tara took an early morning ride. The horses were very gentle. Matthew said that his horse was stubborn and would not obey. I think that horse knew that Matthew was not the boss.

Matthew Runs!

Yesterday was Matthew's first cross country meet!(Can you see him? He's in the middle, third runner.) He was nervous...I was nervous for him. It was so exciting to see the start of the race. A mass of middle schoolers ready to take off. Me and the rest of the family headed to the half way point and didn't see him. Then we stood at the base of the hill near the finish line..waiting....here he comes! Chest heaving, legs burning, breathing hard. I had instant tears in my eyes. My boy is in pain, he's hurting. But I'm shouting, "go Matthew go." He made it. I'm so proud of him.  He felt beat and exhilerated all at the same time. He's ready to do this again next week. I'm gonna try not to get tears in my eyes.

Once Upon A Time

 This post is dedicated to girl's camp 2011.

Our theme was "Once Upon a Time..." 

Each level of was represented by a "princess." We had Pocahontas, Belle, Rapuntzel, Mulan, and Cinderella. The YW had so much fun with this. Notice that all of the princesses chosen were not girlie and pink. These girls were warrior princesses!

 

Everyday at the flag raising, we had roll call. Here we are shouting,

Bibbidy, Bobiddy, Boo!

We were the fairy godmothers, of course. 

 

 

Here I am...one of the fearless leaders wearing my toole to protect myself from the awful gnats at our Camp. I had the toole to decorate the leaders cabin. Thank goodness I had some left over. The gnats nearly drove me, and everyone else, mad.

 The gnats didn't bring us down though. We seriously had the best camp I have ever been to.

We had the very best of the best leaders. This picture doesn't even include all the of the level leaders.(Another 20) Pictured here is our Stake YW Presidency, our fearless Camp Director, and our cooks. It is so amazing to me how everything came together.

Thank you so much for all of your hard work!

These are the YCL's trying to fit onto the slide. Very tricky! Check out Daniella's face at the front! She was trying to hold everybody up. Jessica is right in the middle. These YCL's worked very hard to keep our camp on the right track. They sang their hearts out and prepared devotionals for their campers every night.

The "flour war" is one of the favorite activities at camp. It is intended to help the campers learn first aid. If you get hit with a flour bomb, you have an injury that must be treated by the 3rd and 4th years. As you can see, Lauren and Jacie were very, very injured. Near death even. The leaders suprised them with a water balloon attack afterwards. Lots of fun with a doughy mess!

Ok...I had no idea this kind of face painting was going on. It happened late at night when the priesthood was in charge of insuring that the YW stayed in their cabins. Ha Ha.

From what I heard, the girls with painted faces took the 1st years "gawking."

It's like snipe hunting. Pure foolish fun! 

This is the 3rd year group. Lauren has on the yellow bandana.

Janelle pretended to be ME in a skit. These two sweet girls put on a good show for us. It's too bad that we couldn't understand a thing they were saying!

Here are all of the YW during our beautiful hike!

 This is everyone, minus the 4th years.

Those poor girls were pushed to their limit on their

own hike and overnighter the day before.

They hiked out of camp in scorching hot weather carrying their big packs and not enough water. Oops.

They will not make that mistake again. 

Some of them got heat exhaustion. On their hike back in,

 they were soaked to the bone.

It had been raining all morning.

It was a high adventure activity that they will not soon forget. Anyway, we did not require them to go on this group hike.  

I love serving in YW so that I can be with my daughters!

A sweet shot of me and Sandra in our hats! I can't say enough good about her! I love working with Sandra. She has become one of my best friends.

 

We laughed so hard preparing for our skit. I didn't know if we would make it through the whole thing! Fun times!

A special "thank you" to Lori for helping us come up with our skit.

It was very silly and called "Is it time yet?"

See what great camp leaders we had! They even gave Lauren and Jacie piggy-back-rides!

Western NY

We had a great trip to Western NY early in the summer. All of the Stoner family met us there to have a little fun. Our main purpose for the trip was to remember Grandpa Stoner. He passed away last January. We love him and miss him. His gift to us was a great reunion with all of the family.

 

We visited Old Fort Niagara on the banks of Lake Ontario. The Lake looked like the ocean to me. It was enormous. The Fort was very cool, especially for Matthew and Benjamin. What boy doesn't want to see an old drawbridge, castle, cannons, and guns?

This is the drawbridge, and entrance to the fort. The French and British owned the fort at different times during battles for territory.

You can see Mr. Stoner with the rest of our tour walking toward the castle where all of the soldiers stayed.Lots of stone, fireplaces, and huge rooms. The most shocking tid bit of information I learned is that the soldiers washed their heavy uniforms in urine! They saved urine in a big pot until it turned to ammonia, then scrubbed and soaked their clothing in it. I'm so thankful for my delicious smelling apple mango tango gain detergent!

Benjamin, with a French soldier. He showed us how to load and shoot the musket. It was very loud and exciting!

 Matthew stands at the entrance to the castle.

 We also drove to Niagara on the Lake. It was the cutest Canadian town! There were the most beautiful flowers everywhere. This is Lauren posing for the pic outside of a very fancy restaurant.

 There were several hat shops. My girls were told to quit taking pics of the hats. Lauren felt very offended at that. I think the store owners are afraid of copy cats. They want to keep their hat creations as original as possible.

 Grandpa Stoner,took us to visit the Peter Whitmer farm in Fayette, NY. It was here that his great grandfather was the caretaker of the farm. At the time, the Stoner's were not members of the LDS church. Later, their son, Harold, worked on the Joseph Smith Farm in Palmyra. This is where Harold was eventually baptized. I really loved hearing this history.

 The crazy Stoner cousins!

 Great Grandpa Stoner is laid to rest with Great Grandma.

 Little Stoner boy cousins!

Our family standing in the Sacred Grove. Plus cousin, Max. We didn't want to wake him up just for our picture.