Pinewood Derby

(This happened in April, but I'm just getting around to documenting it)  :{

This year was different from the past years because it was Sam's first time doing the derby....that meant TWO cars to make!

Tommy and Sam both picked out their designs by themselves and then went to work with Mark.

The cars looked awesome and were ready for the race!

Sam's car...

Tommy's car....  Before the race, Tommy expressed a little concern to Mark that maybe the car might have too much weight in the back.  Tommy was worried the car might flip up.  Mark told Tommy to just trust him!  Ha Ha...just wait!  :)

Derby night came and here is how it played out...

Excitement!!!!!

Smiles...

...for a while until it was Tommy's cars turn to race.

Disaster!

Every time!

Shocked!

(SO sad!)

But Tommy was strong and kept his head up!  The races continued.  It was Sam's turn!  (love the faces!)

His car was FAST!!!  It won every heat and Sam was thrilled!

So Sam won first place.

Tommy was last, but he was a good sport.  Here are the boys with their cars (Mark also helped a boy in our ward make a car).

2010 Derby cars...

Mark turned 36!!!

We celebrated the night before by going to the Carrie Underwood concert.  (I guess that was more for me, but he liked it too!)

It was late when we got home.  The two little girls were asleep, but the babysitters (Rachel, Tommy, Sam, my nieces and nephew, Tori, Chyna and Tysen, had decorated the house for Mark.

He had to break through the balloons

And they made him a birthday sign.  It was cute.  I don't know if they really didn't know his age, or they were just trying to be nice!  :)

On his birthday we had his family over for dinner and cake.  It was nice buying the candles for his cake this year.  There were 36 candles in the box.  PERFECT!   I used all of them!

He blew them out in one breath but boy was there a lot of smoke!  :)

I think he felt loved with all the people around him...

Which is good, because he is!  :)

I love you Mark.  Happy Birthday!

Bike Ride

Today might have been the last nice cool day before the summer heat settles in this valley (of course I keep thinking that and then more cool weather comes.)  So, Jessie and I decided to take advantage of it and walk to the park.  As I was getting the wagon ready to go, Jessica told me she wanted to ride her bike.  She just recently realized she is big enough to ride Megan's bike and she LOVES it!
So I put away the wagon and we started on our way....

It didn't take long until something just didn't feel right!  My hands were empty.  For the first time in over 13 years, I was walking to the park and not pushing a stroller or pulling a wagon.  It felt empty.....and strange.......and a little sad!
There are so many moments like this in my life and probably will continue to be as I accept that I'm moving on to a new stage of life without babies.  And even though it is sad, it also feels good.  I love these kids that I have and I know my hands are full as I raise them.
After a minute of focusing on my empty hands, I looked up and saw this.

Independence.  My babies are all growing up, but it is so rewarding to watch them do that.  I love being a mother to these older kids as much as I did when I was holding their little bodies in my arms.  It is so rewarding!

I love my job....it's the best job in the world!

Palmyra Ward Camp Out

A few weeks ago we went camping with our ward.

We camped at Warm Springs.
We brought my niece Tori and one of Rachel's friends, Carli.  They had their own tent.

After setting up the tents, we went swimming in the natural warm spring pool.  The water was perfect!

When it got dark, we ate dinner, enjoyed smores,

and then the older kids kept us up late playing night games!

We haven't been camping as a family for about 8 years.  Last time we went it was with the UCLA ward when we lived in LA.  This time, we had a bigger tent for more kids!  It was fun sleeping in the tent together!

I think the girls had fun in their tent too!

We enjoyed the awesome breakfast...(even though it was still freezing!)

And then the kids had fun hanging out with their friends and swimming again!

Just for fun, here we were at one of the UCLA camp outs  in 2001...

and in 2002 (the last time we went camping, I was pregnant with Sam).

And here we are in 2010!  Our family has grown a bit.

Hopefully it won't be nine years until we go camping again!  Rachel would probably be married or on a mission and Jessica would be 13, Rachel's age!  Oh, that's sad to put it that way!  We will for sure have to go again next year!