Photos

I give up on waiting for Craig to download his photos. Here are a few from Lynette's camera. This is Rachel in her rhythmic gymnastics class. She's twirling a hula hoop on her arm. Eventually, she should twirl it on just her hand.
James' graduation. I hope Craig got better photos. The gown is purple, but it comes out rather blue in the photos. Which is fine with James. He wasn't crazy about wearing purple.


This is Lynette and Alex entering the arena for their team event. They placed fourth out of about eight teams. They are both on the advanced horses now. Lynette actually got thrown once. Her teacher told her she did a perfect "emergency dismount." She still loves to ride and talks about it a lot!

May 24 snow

I'm looking out my office window at about three inches of snow. There wasn't any here when I arrived, but there was an inch at home. So I'm afraid we might have three or four inches there. I hope it doesn't wipe out the tomatoes. I'm worried that it will break branches on the apricot trees because they are loaded with green apricots.

I'm not happy about it, but apparently I am not in charge.

We are traveling to Cody, Wyoming this weekend to see Jake and Lindsay. We will also be going to the Billings Montana temple for Anette's niece's wedding. We hope the weather improves dramatically before then.

Update: A snowplow just went by and I can hear people shoveling their office stairways. This is the latest date ever for measurable snowfall in Salt Lake City. The latest previous date was May 18.

Thank goodness for global warming. Otherwise I'd be concerned about the start of a new ice age.

James' Graduation!

We went to James' Graduation ceremony last night. Wow. It's hard to believe he's almost done. He still has to finish his high school hours, so he is in a government class for the next couple of weeks. Then we will head to the East Coast for our vacation. (This is the vacation that got postponed because of 9-11 back in '01. We are excited to finally be able to get to go!)
When we get back, James will look for a job and work until time to go on his mission.

My kids can't compete with Isaac, but Elaine did get recognized for her grades in Algebra. I think she must have been switched at birth, (or at least got Craig's brains!) because I certainly never did that well in Algebra!

I'll post some pictures as soon as I can get Craig to download them from his calendar.

Academic Banquet and Taekwondo demonstration

We all attended Isaac's Academic Awards banquet tonight.  Isaac came home with a pile of certificates from the Science Olympiad Team, the Spell Bowl, the Knowledge Master Open, and the Math Super Bowl.  He also got the Multi-Tasker Award for being able to do anything while reading a book, and his big award was the Science Olympiad Key Player award.

Last Night, Isaac, Mariana, and I participated in a taekwondo demonstration for my work charitable club.  These two pictures demonstrate what happens if you try to grab Mariana from behind.

Big moves completed

The past weekend was moving one for us. Jake, Lindsay and their children moved from Rawlins, WY to Cody, Wy. Brandon and Jenine moved from the home they were renting in Eagle Mountain back into our basement in Highland.

Jake and Lindsay bought a house in Cody that has two acres of land. It is all in pasture. They also have a nice barn and corrals for horses. They are about a half hour from the east entrance of Yellowstone. We hope to get up to visit them sometime in the next few weeks.

Brandon and Jenine's lease was up so they moved in with us until they move to Las Vegas in August so Brandon can begin dental school. Having Laila at our house is already making it hard for me to get my work done. She is so cute it is tempting just to hold her and watch her smile.

We get to talk to Creed on Sunday for mother's day. We are all very excited about that.

I'm home!

So, I'm back in Indiana after a grueling year at BYU. Currently I'm just planning on finding some work for the summer and taking advantage of the opprotunity to spend some time with my family before I head back out in the fall.

Other than that... I can't remember if I'd mentioned my story that I'm writing at http://draezoln.blogspot.com or not. I update it pretty irregularly, but I'm having fun with it. I'll probably be writing a bit more over the summer until I get a job.

Samuel Stephens

Catch up

Here's a few photos from our spring. Lynette and Red. Lynette still takes lessons once a week, weather permitting. She wishes she could be at the stables everyday, riding or not. Still think I ought to send her to Flint so she could get her fill of mucking out stalls!

Elaine's 15th birthday cake. She doesn't eat sugar these days, so I made her a watermelon cake.

James and his date for the LDS prom. That's Katie Giberson. She and James have been friends ever since her family moved into the ward when James was 3. She now lives about an hour away, but agreed to come to the prom anyway!

And Rachel lost her first tooth not long ago. You can see a picture of her on my blog!