Jonathan and I are getting old, a house and Just Dance fun!

Today the Primary sang "Happy Birthday" to me since we don't have regular church next week. They were amazed to hear how old I'm going to be! Then I taught sharing time on the Latter-Day Prophets and I discovered that I have been alive for half of the Latter-Day Prophets!! The last 8 of the 16! Speaking of 16; Jonathan went on his first date on Friday! And he blessed the sacrament today. When did he grow up? Just yesterday he was playing with trains!
Josh and Meg appear to have bought a house! They accepted the counter-0ffer and should be under contract any day now!
We got the fun of having Summer and the kids come over for Sunday dinner with us today! Summer is amazing at taking care of 3 little ones! Here's a great shot of Summer and Meg dancing! Grant loved the swing and later Ava loved it,too. I somehow missed the shots of Ava dancing. She had better moves than any of the adults! I couldn't resist these videos of Meg and Summer's first dance and then Josh and Richard dancing! Jonathan refuses to try it! Thanks to Amanda's great blog post that convinced me I had to have this game for my birthday! I do it every morning in-between yoga and my walk!

Happy Anniversay to the Kendalls!

I can't wait to see what the next 2 years bring!!

Sweet 16!

Don't worry! He still needs a few road drives before he gets his driver's license! You are safe for now! Unless you are an eligible young woman! He is now ready to date!

This funny "indestructable" keyboard was probably the thing he was most excited about today! He was also ordained a Priest today, accompanied Gloria as she sang at her farewell, and was asked to sing in a special number for the stake fireside on Wednesday, so he got to practice for that. He heard from all his brothers and sisters, except Joni, who was having car problems. All in all I think it was a pretty stellar birthday!

The Prebirthday Party!

So Jonathan didn't want to have a birthday party (too stressful). Nonetheless, his friends took him to see "Alice in Wonderland" and then came over for pizza! Kind of like a party, eh? Stress free though.

Ducks and Tenderfoots

These ducks were in the front yard when I started my walk this morning. I wonder if there's some eggs in one of our flower beds? Corey, Ted, and Nick all got their Tenderfoot rank advancement at the Court of Honor last night! Here's my cubs and my 11 year olds (all but Trevor) in the same picture! And here's my 11 year olds in uniform with Trevor. The Scout Master and the Young Men presidency had a huge (and long) 100 years of scouting dinner and Court of Honor. The boys all got steak and the rest of us got grilled chicken. It was very nice! The scouts served us! Then we had dutch oven apple pie for dessert! It was a very great success! I was amazed that they invited all of the cubs and their families, too. And they didn't ask the women to do any of the work!!! I'm pretty sure this is a first in my experience in the church! Thanks for a great evening men and scouts!

Poor Jonathan was the only one there not in uniform. I gave his uniform to Ted. Oops!

What a week-end!

We had an 11 year old scout camp in our back yard last night! We cooked foil dinners, had a demonstration on sharpening knives and axes by the Scout Master, had the Deacon's Quorum President come and talk to them about duties of a Deacon and what the Priesthood is, Richard had the boys make kindling and start their own fires, cook marshmellows for s'mores and made sure everyone had a great time! Luckily Jack showed up for the night and shared a tent with Richard. No Dads showed up to spend the night, so he was the required 2 deep leadership person. I cooked them a great breakfast of orange rolls, eggs, bacon, and tator tots while they packed up the tents and sleeping bags. Sucess! 3 boys ready for Tenderfoot Board of Reviews! Next on the agenda was baptisms at the Draper temple! I brought the camera, but we arrived late and then poor Stephanie's car broke down on her way, so I never got any pictures. What a beautiful temple and what kind and helpful temple workers! They let us do all of our family names!

We arrived home just as the cute kids arrived to spend a few hours while their parents went snowboarding. Again, no pictures. I was cleaning up the breakfast mess and getting the tomatillo dressing made and the seasoning for the rice and keeping the pork cooking properly for dinner.

Then we had the treat of the Wilsons and Carriers over for dinner! Cute Leah is about to leave on her mission to Guatemala (That's her in the back in Jack's swim sweatshirt and Jon's Jazz Choir sweats). It was the first time I got to hold Grant! Ava and Noah were very interested in the dog! Joni made it after work! I love this shot of her eating a marshmallow! Of course the week-end isn't over yet! I get to go hear Leah talk up at the U of U institute in the morning, teach sharing time, have a presidency meeting, key scouter meeting, choir practice, cub committee meeting and get Jonathan to his presidency meeting, appointment with the Bishop, and a practice to accompany Gloria for her performance at her farewell next week. Jon gets to teach in his teacher's quorum tomorrow, too. Day of Rest? Hmmm..

Retirement Party

We got invited to a retirement party for Richard's friend, Phil Jones at the Lone Star Steak House. This is Phil's brother Joe, his granddaughter Teagen and his wife Diane. They flew in from Texas for the party. Joe is Richard's age and went to middle and high school with him. Phil lived with Richard after he divorced his first wife. Richard helped him get active and took him to the dance where he met his wife, Vickie. Here's the 3 guys with their wives. I love this shot of Richard and his buddy laughing about old times.

Cause for Celebration!

Today I found someone I have been looking for for a long time! Richard's step-dad's great grandmother's parents!! I have searched and searched and was amazed when I did a search to day on ancestors.com and there she was on an 1850 California census; line 10 is Adelaida, with her parents; Jose Maria Ramirez and Dolores Palomares (I found her last name later on new.familysearch.com)! So here's Adelaida with her 5 sisters and 2 brothers! I'm curious about why she didn't show up sooner. Maybe someone's indexing helped me out here. I have been pretty lax in the indexing for others lately. I bought a book called "Spanish-Mexican Families of Early California:1769-1850, Vol. 1" and have been indexing everyone from it that is related to our family line and a few that could be related. Anyway, I've found a bunch of slightly related people there, but finding Adelaida was much more rewarding for some reason. Thanks to whoever indexed that Census and so I could finally find her!!
Now to find her son's wife's family! Josephine Martinez you're next!