Up River WITH a Canoe

FRIDAY ON THE SMITH-MOREHOUSE

Dad, Mom, Jeffrey, Rach & Sarah spent a few hours up at the reservoir with the canoe.

We did the traditional hot dog roast on an open fire.

And a moose said, "Hi" as it bolted across the road right in front of the car on the way out.

The below clip includes footage video'd amazing well by Mom, shooting clear across the lake (it is done with full 12 x optical zoom plus full digital zoom.) The water is down...due to some repairs being made on the dam... which exposed some rock outcroppings. Someone HAD to dive off them ... who else.... yep... Jeffrey.

GO COUGS!

First game of the season baby! It was sooo hot, but those cougar fans are always cheerful. We won bytheway. It was kind of strange to have an afternoon game {it started at 4:00} but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless especially since Marybeth and Robbie got to come! 
Despite the few silly fumbles, it was a great way to start the season!

A few outfits

These were difficult to get {taken late at night, in obscure locations.} 

The first one is from Friday, where there were a bunch of activities: 

Movie "The Color of Paradise" {foreign film that takes place

in Iran-very thought provoking}

Friday night Extravaganza {lots of people in a small space, plenty of flailing

limbs, and yes of course-soggy grass.}

The second is from last night at the NSO dance. You can probable guess where that one was taken.

And this last one was of today, my first Sunday in the BYU 17th ward. My bishopric 

is very very good. We had interviews this afternoon. 

And we've got an ice cream social tomorrow night. {And please forgive

how exhausted I look in this picture. I am currently very ready for my Sunday afternoon

nap!}

Picasso Paisley

Today we had painting day. I painted a bunch of bowling pins for an upcoming craft and Paisley painted some art for her bedroom. She loved to paint and I will have to get some water colors so we can do this more often. She enjoyed making her own bedroom decorations and is very proud of the end result. We will frame it and hang it in the next couple weeks and be sure to include a picture of my little Picasso's finished piece of art.

Lost Shirt

I have lost this shirt so if others could look for it that would be appreciated.  Thanks!

A BATTY TRIP

DRIVE TO SALT LAKE

The back (or should I say, the BAT) story to this video is this: Monday night Sarah came running in the cabin screaming that there was a bat in the van. She had gone to get something out of the vehicle and a bat had apparently flown in thru the little slit rear windows sometime earlier in the evening. By the time the family posse arrived on the scene to check things out the reported "bat" was not to be found. It was assumed that the little creature had exited thru the sliding door left wide open by the startled teenager.

The next afternoon the family took a trip to Salt Lake, mainly for Mom to drop off her scriptures on 3rd West to have them rebound. It was when were pulling out of the parking lot that there was another scream, this time from Rachel (the 2nd witness), "there's a bat in the car!!!!!"

Cougar-watch part 1

Well, here is the first of {hopefully} many posts regarding life around here. I've been rather busy {ergo the dearth of posts} but here is a dual posting project: 

1. A glimpse at my be area

2. My first scanning experience

I daresay both were successful. 

More pictures are coming, I assure you, but everything's not quite how I would like it documented, so it shall have to wait.

I have plenty to tell, and I will get it out as soon as possible.

Love to MB!

Round 2

Well here I am in the Hospital room that Marybeth was in. I have to just sit here for an hour or so while she is in surgery. I have never been in a position like this and it is a bit hard. I am guessing that this hour is not going to fly by (however when it comes to blogging everything seems to go faster) The process should take about an hour, with transportation and what not, then the worst part (at least in my comfortable position) is she has to lay completely still for 2-3 hours. She can't move at all to help with the healing process. Anyway there will be more updates and better pictures to come, this is a picture that I took off the camera with the camera phone. Hopefully it goes by fast.

ZIPPIN' FUN

A WEEK AT THE CABIN

Note: This may be the last year for the swinging bridge. The Lund cabin has been been bought and is being torn down. And one of the main cables of the bridge is snapped, anyway. (Pretty silly for us all to be on it, eh?) But maybe the new zipline will ease the pain of the bridge loss.
Note 2: The nice ladies in the photo with Grandpa C. are Grandpa's sisters... Aunt Bonnie (now from Missouri) and Aunt Margaret who came up for dinner one day.

SHAKES and FRY SAUCE

MONDAY the 18th
toot - toot...

Heber, Utah's DAIRY KEEN had to be one of our first (and not the only) stop for the seasonal favorite Fresh Peach & Rasberry Shake plus a new hit Brownie.

HODGKINSON COUSINS

1ST STOP
We imposed ourselves at Uncle Clark & Aunt Wendy's home in Bountiful.

The Provo kids came up...

... and had dinner with their Hodgkinson cousins.

The newlyweds, Haylee and Darin
(holding their first new baby gift from Aunt Sue for the little boy they are expecting)

Heather & Rick & Annie

Greg & Heather (w/bachelor cousin Ben)
& Becca, Ellie, Rachel & Sarah

Oh, we love the Hogdkinsons AND they are always soooo fun!

Rachel Going To BYU

We arrived in Provo on Aug. 16 with Rachel's belongings.... only the important ones.

After a week at 'Up The Weber' (etc... etc...) Rachel moved in to her new home... for her freshman year at college. I am sure Rachel will want to post the DONE photos of her pad. Let's see how that MAC does with posting up a storm, 'eh Rach?

Additional posts will follow, kind of like flashbacks to the fun family time we had this past 10 days.

Waffle Girl

On Monday's and Thursday's I make a big breakfast for Dallin because he comes home from basketball hungry. Waffles is a favorite especially of Miss Elizabeth. She loves to walk around the apartment eating her waffle.

Amanda, Brian, and Elizabeth
The hammock was a popular place to be.

Right after boating we went to camping with the Nelsons in our ward. We made tin foil dinners and they were so good. Thanks Dallin!!! We sat around the campfire and roasted marshmallows. We then put Elizabeth, Amanda, and Brian to bed and we all stayed up till midnight talking. It was so fun. We were up early and had a yummy dutch oven breakfast casserole along with peach blueberry cobbler. We went on a nature walk and raced sticks down the creek that was 15 feet from our campsite. It was so fun and we can't wait to do it again.

Boating

Dallin
Aubrey and Kevin

Me and Dallin

Elizabeth and Brother B. driving the boat.

Aubrey is offically engaged to Kevin B. from nearby Oregon. Kevin and Aubrey came up to Oregon for a week so we were able to spend some time with them.Friday August 22 we then went boating on Hebb Lake. Kevin went first on one ski and was amazing. Dallin went and he got up on his second round of skiing. I went and was close to getting up but didn't quite make it. Aubrey did amazing for her first time. Then we all took turns on the tube. Elizabeth was scared of the boat at first but she settled down and really enjoyed the afternoon, especially driving the boat with Brother B. The river was lined with trees and was a beautiful sight to see.

My Spaghetti Girl

After church on Sunday we had the missionaries over for lunch. We had spaghetti and Elizabeth really enjoyed it but only after a four hour nap. It was a great quiet afternoon.

Before and Afters

For those of you that don't get to see our place in person we wanted to give a little teaser before we do a video of our apartment, we have some before and after pictures. This is a dresser we got at DI. It wasn't in very good condition, but it was cheap and had a lot of drawers
We made a few repairs on it with the help of Jeff, and it was starting to look like we would keep it and look good.
The we started to paint it with some spray paint and I was impressed with how spray paint looked when it wasn't on an overpass marking someones territory.
This is the finished product, and it is still a little small but we were excited on how it turned out.
Some friends in the ward were moving and they couldn't take this futon with them, Without seeing it Marybeth told them we would take it. We had no idea that it would be so nice.
It was in really good condition but we wanted to spice it up a bit so we bought this cover that we saw in an advertisement and we are very happy with the outcome. It fits and looks great, in fact Sarah slept on it last night and said it was comfy.

This was Marybeth's "baby" She liked it from the moment she saw it, I thought it was nice but didn't think it had any good use for us at this stage. But I have since changed my mind. We did some work on it and sanded a bit and this is how it turned out.
For a couple of people without much experience I thought is was pretty good. We found two baskets at two different Walmarts and are looking for more, but we shall see. It is currently in our bedroom and fits just right.