Eagle Project Part 2 (scroll down)

I'm having trouble finding the before pictures on the computer, but these will do for now. We are glad that Jon's long drawn out project is finally finished!! He began the research for it last July and then was too busy until January to get everything in motion. Jon did a great job and learned ALOT in this entire process....Good Job Jon!!

Jon's Eagle Project

Jon's project was at the cemetery in a neighboring town called Camas. They replaced bases on 3 headstones, cleaned up and redid a sitting area, and cleaned and trimmed about 60 headstones. Josh cleaning a headstone.
Jon showing the younger boys what to do.
A Before picture
I even got in on the fun!!

Dad's 75th....UM....... I mean 38th Birthday.....

On Saturday Feb. 9th we celebrated Dad's birthday. This is a very fun picture with the goodies Debi sent........We all had alot of fun playing with the toys!!
Notice the big smile on his face here with Aunt Sue and Aunt Adele. (Since HE is only 38 and they are much older)
Here he is with his most awesome children........though the OLDEST was not here. She's older than he is anyway, so it was for the best that she wasn't there to show him up:)...but we missed her!!
The highlight of the day was the entertainment. We played Dad's version of "Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader" and there were $$$$ prizes. Imagine GIVING money away on your birthday!! A First!! Happy Birthday DAD!!!!

TWO POSTS in one Day.....WOW!!!

It's amazing that I am so energetic to post 2 blogs in one day!
These are Jon's souvenirs from today. We left at 7:30 this morning and drove to Seattle for Jon to have an audition for a music talent award from BYU Idaho. He could have sent in a tape, but we found out about it less than a week before the deadline. Doing a live audition gave us some more time. Jon was a good sport, giving up a great cross country ski trip with his quorum, to spend the day with me. He was quite nervous, but I think he did a great job. Besides he got out of school for the day...... We went to see Grandpa Nash before the audition, then drove to the Institute building at the University of Washington for the audition at 3:00. I had talked to Brother Meechum on the phone and he was the one doing the audition. Weather or not Jon gets anything, he will still be in one of the bands and he didn't have anything to loose by trying. Great job Jon!!
The most harrowing part of the day was the traffic!! Besides being a Friday....all of the presidential candidates were in town just miles from where we were and all 3 of the mountain passes were completely closed going east because of the avalanches in the mountains.... which created traffic being diverted to I-5 (which was our only way home) AND it was pouring down rain the entire day. Traffic was literally bumper to bumper for 60 miles and it took us 3 hours to drive those 60 miles. All I could see out of my window was a blur of taillights because my window would not clear up. I need new windshield wipers. I stayed in the same lane for 3 hours, too scared to try and change lanes. Once we got through the worst of it it was pitch black and people were whizzing past me at 70MPH, when I could barely see the road. The trucks were splashing water so bad I couldn't see anything. It would have been a white knuckle ride for you Seester...you would have died!! By the time we got home, the usual 3 hour drive had turned into 6 hour drive..... I SURVIVED!!!!

EEks!!!.......This is Embarrassing

OKAY.........this tells it all. My life is out of control. This looks somewhat orderly, but in my purse it is a nightmare!!! Piled in back by my purse, are coupons and reciepts and deposit slips. These are what keep my purse a mess. Then, there are the usual club cards, insurance cards, etc....they are tucked into a special place so I can always find them, but never can. This was a good day....I had a few dollars stuffed into a side pocket. The little coin/zippered thingy (as Jenny would call it) usually has coins in it....but at the moment we are saving every coin we get for our church history tour this summer. A baggie with a candy cane in case I need a quick breath freshner...cell phone...movie tickets from when Jenny was home a few weeks ago. There are hand cleaners, a bus schedule for the kids from work, a partially spent gift card from Debi and Mike (thanks guys) and oh yes....does it look like I have enough writing utensils?? The negatives are from Jennys wedding/bridal shower that I need to get copied for her..... theres a red yarn necklace with scrabble tiles on it that I wore at the scrabble tourney in December. AND....I CANNOT live without AT LEAST 2 lipsticks in my purse at all times. Also very important is my basic grocery list and 2 pages of my ongoing foodstorage list I keep with me at all times too (this is very important to my salvation) as well as my Temple Reccommend which is tucked in under the lists. That about does it. Judge for yourself........hopefully you won't be too hard on me. Hee Hee!!

We're On Our Way!!!

Today I took the plunge and bought the tickets for our summer vacation. We've been planning this since last summer. I have a hard time making decisions, but I couldn't put it off any longer. Airline prices went up last week and it looked like we would have to pay alot more. BUT....I kept checking and by leaving a day earlier and staying a day later we got the bare bones price!! We will fly to Newark, NJ and spend 3 days touring New York City. As a suprise for the boys, we will see a New York Yankees game at Yankee Stadium. We'll go to Ellis Island, a must for my family history buff husband, see the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, the New York Temple and shop at Times Square. We'll ride a subway and take a tour bus around the city and see Ground Zero and the UN Building. The 4th day we will begin our Church History tour by driving to Palmyra NY. We will stop in Fayette where the church was organized and then on to Palmyra where we will go to The Sacred Grove and attend the Hill Cummorah Pageant. (I meant to blog the picture of the Sacred Grove here, but just realized this is Joseph getting the gold plates from the Angel Moroni.) OOPS!!
Day 6 will take us to Niagara Falls and on to Kirtland, Ohio.
Day 8 we will drive 10 hours to Nauvoo Ill. where we will spend 3 days seeing so many special sites and driving to Carthage. We will attend the Nauvoo Pageant. Day 11 takes us 6 hours to Council Bluffs Iowa where we will spend the night after going to Winter Quarters Nebraska.
Our final trek will be to Far West, Gallatin, and Independence MO. where we will see Libery Jail and The Community of Christ Visitors Center and the Independence Visitors Center where my brother and Sister in law served their mission. We should have some time to go to Jamesport MO an Amish community near there. In all we will be gone for 15 days, flying across the country then driving 1900 miles, flying home from Kansas City MO. It will be a wonderful preparation for the boys to serve their missions, especially Jon who will be going next year.