school's out!

The above picture is what happens when a little boy comes home and asks with tears in his big brown eyes, "Mom why weren't you at my first grade play?" Meet "Guilt," the teddy bear hamster. Who says you can't buy a child's love, or at least their forgiveness.



I was first one in my seat for the next day's play--cute little caveman that he was.




We changed tradition this year from the pig out to the world's biggest banana split. It was awesome and I think we have a winner for next year.

summer arrives

In years past we have had our first ski of the summer on Tony's birthday in April. This year's weather was very uncooperative, but we did have the first ski on the first day of Summer. Tuesday was a perfect day. Rather spontaneouly we found ourselves at Cam and Jill's with a couple of rotissere chickens and cheese. Jill brought the bread and the watermelon and we spent a lovely evening watching the kids eat sand on the beach.

Yesterday I took the kids to the Delong's pool where they collected 170 tadpoles. I'm not sure what we are going to do with them, but it sure was fun to catch them.



Wilson was off to Youth Conference this morning bright and early. We helped the Winter's family pack the last of their things and sadly said goodbye. I envy their grand adventure, but not their cross country drive in a Penske truck.



My goal this summer is to do more of nothing. So far I'm doing pretty well. I spent an entire hour today playing foursquare with the kids. The garden is full of weeds and the floor is disgusting, but we sure had fun.

bishop

We sat across the desk from our Stake President two Sundays ago and were told that although there were more than five men in our ward more qualified to be the Bishop, the Lord wanted Tony. We hadn't seen that one coming. I have thought a million times how much I don't want to do this. Each time an even stronger emotion of wanting to do Heavenly Father's will squelches my insecurities and fears. It's not like we haven't been blessed beyond words. It's not like I don't know how to keep the family going without Tony around very much. It's not like I haven't had the example of my Grandpa, Uncles, brothers and Father to show me that it is possible to strike a balance between family, work and church.

Tony's parents drove all the way from Idaho Falls to be here for his setting apart. It meant a lot to us to have them here. In his blessing, Tony was specifically blessed to know and love the people he serves. He was told that teachings and rememberences from his past would come to his mind at necessary times. He was counseled to pay special attention to the Young women as they are under particular attack. He was blessed to be able to counsel people to become self reliant as he dealt with welfare needs. He was instructed to prioritize his duties as a father and husband. His counselors were given equally powerful blessings.
Tony has had two call-days this week, is 100 charts behind, was out late with interviews last night and up at 5:00 this morning to see kids off to youth conference with donuts. I guess my primary role is to see how seamlessly I can make things run and to be a voice of reason. Tony said the best advice he got was to be a Bishop like he plays racquetball. With ferocity when he's on the court and without too much thought when he's off. The best advice I think we got was from the previous Bishop. When we asked him how we could possibly do this he said simply, "do what your doing, just do it better." That didn't seem so daunting.

In the last two weeks Tony and I have felt very united and cohesive. If this is a compensatory blessing of church service it is awfully nice.

yellowstone

I declare Yellowstone National Park to be the best entertainment $25.00 can buy. Of course any vacation that includes a night at the C'mon Inn and another at the Starlite Skate is a guarenteed success. It was especially fun to see Callie and her sweetheart Luis. They drove down from Rexburg to join us at the skating rink. We stayed a night with Grandma and Grandpa Lundberg in Idaho Falls and went to church with them. One of the highlights of the trip for me was being able to hear Mom give a wonderful Relief Society lesson on tithing. It was so good I had her repeat it for the kids after church. We also had the pleasure of spending a little time with Bill and Juanita before their move back to Hawaii. After big plates of Grandma's yummy spaghetti and we then drove to West Yellowstone with the Winwards.


Monday we got off to an early start (Aunt Debbie was too excited to sleep) and we headed for Mystic Falls. We were very disappointed to discover the trail closed due to bear activity. Instead we hiked the loop to Old Faithful geyser, arriving just in time to see it blow. It is really awesome--no kidding. We ducked inside the old lodge to eat our lunch as it poured rain and finished just in time to see it blow again. This time, there was a double helping of licorice for the person who predicted the blast to the minute. After a morning of hiking we were tuckered out and spent the rest of the evening snuggled up watching movies and eating Aunt Debbie's delicious oreo bon bons. We took a moment to walk around the little town of West Yellowstone and found it delightfully unadulterated by strip malls or walmarts.

Tuesday we went North. The guidebook I had purchased promised a beautiful, scenic hike, but within a mile we were wet, muddy and freezing cold. Several children were in tears and there didn't seem to be anything enjoyable about it. I felt terrible, since I was the one leading the expedition. We were just about to give up when the wind died down a little and we started to smell that stinky rotten egg smell that signaled things were going to get interesting. Suddenly, great puffs of steam exploded right by our feet as we gingerly walked through what looked like the surface of the moon. At the end of the geyser field we came upon a beautiful sapphire colored lake bubbling with warm water and covered with lily pads. It was gorgeous. About a mile past the lake, the path led us to an incredible view of Yellowstone Canyon. It was more colorful that the Grand Canyon and every bit as breathtaking. We hiked all along the canyon with each view more beautiful than the last. Finally we ended up at the head of a mighty waterfall at least 100 feet taller than Palouse Falls. All of a sudden what had started out as a horrible hike turned out to be the most amazing journey. You can bet there were gospel parallels made that night! On the way home we stopped to check out the world's biggest geyser as well as the mudpots and then headed home to sing happy birthday to Aunt Debbie.

Wednesday the Dad's made us a big ol pancake breakfast. I went for a great run in a beautiful place, and after a rousing soccer game in the park, we said goodbye to our cousins and headed home.