The BIGGEST News EVER!!!

Today was a huge day for our family. We are so excited to finally be able to make this announcement! Mitchell just got his first job! He will be working for the new Little Caesar's opening up by our house. He starts next week! Yeah!!!!

Mitchell Turned 16! WOW!

Friday was Mitchell's 16th Birthday. He started off life at 8 pounds even and is now over 160 pounds and towers over me. To celebrate his birthday we went out to dinner, had a family party and then the next day, Mitchell had some friends over to celebrate with too.

Mtichell's birthday dinner was at Red Robin's. We all had huge burgers and fries. For some reason both Mitchell and Grant had an obsession with balloons while we were there and wanted to take as many balloons home as they possibly could. Teenagers can be so strange sometimes!

Mitchell really enjoyed the waiters and waitresses singing him the "Red Robin Happy Birthday" song. He got a free ice cream sundae when they were done and it was yummy!

Mitchell CHEATED this year and peeked at ALL of his presents before we opened them as a family. I couldn't believe it! One of his friends was there and witnessed it too. Mitchell did a pretty good acting job of appearing surprised and excited when he officially opened his gifts.

Mitchell now owns Guitar Hero World Tour. You are welcome to come and rock out with us. Grant loves playing the drums. Mitchell is EXPERT on the guitar and I try to carry a tune on the vocals.

We had our first jam session shortly after the package was opened. Our first family song was "Eye of the Tiger." We all scored over 85%. Not bad for our debut!

Mitchell got a purple bike rim for his back tire. It will match the front rim he already has. The next day we went to Kore Bikes to have it laced. His whole goal for his birthday weekend was to go to the bike park with his friends and ride!

Mitchell has wanted a purple tie for a long time. He was very excited that Amy and Bob got him one for his birthday. He said he was going to wear it every Sunday!

On Saturday Mitchell had some of his BMX Biker friends over for his birthday. I decorated the house just for the event. Mitchell wasn't too thrilled with that. Oh, well! How often do you turn 16? Then Mitchell was a little embarrassed that his friends and I sang "Happy Birthday" to him. Because of his embarrassment, he had trouble blowing out all of his candles on his strawberry cake and he forgot to make a wish.
What a fun birthday! Love you Mitchell!

Mitchell's Hair

I finally got a good picture of Mitchell with his short hair.

Look Who's Driving!

On Monday, August 21st, Mitchell went to the DMV and got his driver's permit. He is officially learning to drive and is very excited about it. After we left the DMV with the permit, he had his first driving lesson and did a great job. He will need to get 25 hours of daytime driving in and 5 hours of night time driving in before he can get his driver's license. Plus, he will need to have a job so he can pay for his own insurance. It's an exciting time for Mitchell! He also turns 16 on Friday!

Amy and I tried to get a picture of Mitchell last night with his new license and haircut. We chased him around the house but was only able to get the two shots you see here. He is such a funny guy!

First Day of School

Today was the first day for school for all of us!

Mitchell is a junior at Corona del Sol. Just think, in two years you could be attending his high school graduation. Pretty cool, huh? Keep encouraging him to do his homework!

Grant missed the first day of school. Bummer! He had a 100.5 degree temperature this morning and was having trouble breathing so he stayed home. When he does go to school, he will be in 7th grade at Pueblo.

I am still teaching 8th graders Algebra and Pre-Algebra at Aprende. I have a great group of new students this year. They have a lot of energy!

Fun Filled Weekend!

Our fabulous weekend started when Toni and her kids came into town. They were going to spend Friday and Saturday night at our house. All the kids were excited to see each other. There was lots of energy in the house with the kids buzzing all around. Eventually, the slumber party began...
William and Matthew bunked with Mitchell. They were fascinated by Mitchell's superior video game skills and his selection of games. It was really hard when it was time for bed, to only be allowed to play 2 more games. Somehow they all managed to go to sleep!

Grant, Brittney and Jessica took over the living room. They stayed up sooooo late talking and blinding each other with the flash of a camera. It's so much fun to have cousins spend the night!

Our Saturday fun started off at Amy and Bob's home. We hopped in their pool to stay cool from the insanely hot temperatures of the day. The kids played lots of games, did lots of poses while running and jumping into the pool and had plenty of chicken fights.

There were many chicken fights won and lost on Saturday. Here is one that seems to never end. Grant is on Brittney's shoulders and William is on Mitchell's shoulders. Which team do you think will win?

Here we have 3 kids stacked up. Mitchell is on the bottom, then Brittney is on his shoulders and Jessica is on top.

This is the ultimate pile up for the day! Mitchell is on the bottom, Grant is on him, Colby is on Grant and Cayden is on top. It was painful but VERY COOL!

When we were done swimming, we came back to Amy's apartment for a fabulous Mexican fiesta! We enjoyed enchiladas, burritos, chips and more. As the kids finished off their food, we had a bubble gum blowing contest. The first one to blow a bubble got a Snickers candy bar. The tricky part was that the gum was COLD and hard to chew. It took quite a while to get a winner. Brittney managed to get the first legitimate bubble and won first prize. Mitchell came in 2nd. Jessica tried several times to steal Mitchell's candy bar while he ate it. She almost got away with it!

Grant always gets a little irreverent when he wears his black dress shirt. We've stopped letting him wear it to church. However, this time when he wore it for the wedding, it was so funny. He decided to walk around in Brittney's white sandals and act like a girl. So Brittney scooped him up for a silly pose.

The main event for the weekend was Brandon and Shauna's wedding. Although my picture isn't the best quality, it shows what a great looking couple Brandon and Shauna make. They look so happy together. They had a beautiful ceremony and a super fun reception. Maybe we can get Brandon and Shauna to post some wedding pictures on the family blog!

At some point after the wedding took place, one of us realized that we had all 5 sisters together. We immediately had to take a picture! It is so great that we were all able to be together for night. Plus, the 5 of us tore up the dance floor! I think Aunt Randee needs to send us some of her video clips. I heard that we have good enough moves to be on the America's Got Talent Show!

We had a special treat at the wedding reception. Brittney played her guitar and Camber sang a song. They did a wonderful job!

Mitchell wouldn't dance with me but he would dance with his Aunt Sarah. Doesn't he look tall???

The siblings: Brent, Brenda and Dad

On Sunday we had a luncheon at my house after church for whoever was still in town after Brandon and Shauna's wedding. We had guests rotating in and out of our home from noon until 7pm. We even had a surprise visit from the Bride and Groom before they left town on their honeymoon! It was wonderful to be able to visit with everyone all Sunday afternoon. You will have to ask Amy Shupe to tell you the stories she heard from Uncle Brent about Dad. They are pretty funny and they have so much more detail than when Dad told them.!

While all of the adults chatted downstairs, many of the kiddos ventured upstairs to play. They were so quiet, we all wondered what they were up to. This is what we found! The loft upstairs was covered with kids and thousands of legos. Mitchell is on the left playing Guitar Hero, Cayden is next to him with his lego plane, then there is Joseph, Kayla, Camber, Jacob (yes, Jacob is playing legos!), Joshua, Samantha, Grant in the middle searching for the perfect piece, and Colby is in the front on the left working on an army tank. To my shock, when they were done, they cleaned them all up!!!!

Cayden and Colby visited Brent's office Monday morning and were fascinated by the abundance of computer supplies he has. Brent had two defective hard drives that they could take apart and learn about all the makings. The best part about opening the hard drive was finding a SUPER STRONG magnet inside. When you put Cayden's magnet with Colby's magnet, you cannot pull them apart. After everything was taken apart, Brent asked Cayden to put his back together. Cayden replied that he had no idea how to put it back together. So we packaged all the parts and sent it home with him in a ziplock back. His assignment is to reassemble it by Thanksgiving!

What a busy weekend! I'm glad the excitement is over for now but I can hardly wait for the next family event!

Weekend Campout

On Friday we left the extreme heat of the valley to go camping up in the mountains. Our ward campout was near Clint's Well. This is about 30 miles north of Payson past Pine and Strawberry. We camped in an undeveloped camp area and tons of fun. Mitchell left to go camping with the boys his age on Monday and met up with us on Friday at the campsite. So while I set up camp, he was off shooting rifles with Brent and others.

Grant brought his buddy, Jordan, on the campout. These two boys are pretty funny together. They had no problem setting up a tent.

Once their tent was set up, they gave me a hand in setting up my tent. Yes, this is Max's first campout too. This little dog had so much fun sniffing everything on the trip. He loves the great outdoors!

After we set up camp and had sub sandwiches for lunch, Grant, Jordan and I headed off on a hike to a cave we heard was in the area. Unfortunately, we did not get the complete set of directions so we never found the cave. We did find this large rock formation in the middle of a canyon with trees growing on it. We also found some cows grazing along a creek. Grant tried to go and talk to them but they ran off.

Later that day, we went with another group to the cave since they actually knew where it was. The cave was awesome! You had to have your own flashlight to get around. Inside the cave is where a natural spring is that pumps water down into a creek. It's a challenge to crawl into the cave without slipping off a rock into the water. Once you get past the opening of the cave, you can stand up. Brent was near the front of our group that went into the cave. I was at the end. So by the time I got inside the cave, he and the group had disappeared.

This left Matt and I to find them and the rest of the cave on our own. We did find an opening on the side of the cave but neither of us wanted to try to climb through it.

We crawled through another tight spot and then made it to this crack where the water was coming from. Brent and his group were no where around so we assumed that they must of crawled through this small opening. Matt didn't mind getting wet so he started to army crawl through the area. But it was too tight and he came back out. We couldn't figure out how Brent and his group did it. So we turned around and made our way back through the cave.

When I crawled out of the cave, I found Brent, Grant, Jordan and all of the others. When Matt and I were trying to find a way through the small area, the rest of the group had looked up and found a hole in the ceiling which led to another cave. They crawled through the 2nd cave which was dry, until they got outside. Pretty tricky! The best thing about the cave is that it felt like an air conditioned room. It was fabulous!

One of Max's favorite things to do on the campout was to find food people had dropped. But what was better than food was bacon grease. In this picture Max is licking up bacon grease off of the ground. He had been at it for a couple of minutes when a couple of teenage boys came by. They both went down by Max and put their heads next to his to pretend to want to get some bacon grease too. Surprisingly, Max growled at them. He wasn't going to share his bacon grease with anyone!

When Mitchell got back from shooting guns, he started playing the game Apples to Apples. He played this game all day Friday and part of Saturday. He was the ringleader of the group and had a ton of fun. I played a few rounds with him too. He kept telling me I talk too much during the game. Imagine, me talking too much compared to Mitchell!!! Hard to imagine. There were lots of laughs during the game.

It was a fun overnight campout. We are looking forward to going again next year! Maybe you can come too!