Catch Up

Time to clean up pictures from my phone.  One of the last things we did this summer was have an awesome weekend with the Toone family.  Cora and Leah had been trying all summer to get together with Emily and Maycie to go tubing and bridge jumping.  Between everyone's summer camps and reunions it took forever.  Finally a day was found.  We invited the rest of their family to meet us at our house for a BBQ after.  I had so much fun.  They are such a wonderful family and it was fantastic.  Just what I needed.  

They ended up inviting us back to their place a few days later.  We went up to what they call 'The Hills'. It is a beautiful spot.  Dave had been there lots as a kid, but it was my first trip.

Our strong husbands.

Toone and Puzey girls.

Blake testing out the new bridge.

Love these girls.

Blake and Avery.

Those dots on top of the ridge are the girls.  They came down a different way and we couldn't find them for awhile.  But here they come.

When we showed up at their house, Natalie said she had a gift for me.  She surprised me with a flyswatter.  It was perfect and funny.  She thought I might need it after we had so many flies get in during our BBQ.

Blake enjoyed going with the 11 yr old scouts this year on the day camp.  He took a friend with him and they loved the zipline.  Thanks Amber for the pictures.

Cora got one more ski in with the youth activity.  She has been helping Dave out with some project, trying to get money for school and mission. 

Dave's work party this year was at the Corn Maze.  Always love the corn maze.  This was my favorite party so far.  Barely had to talk to anyone.  :)

My kids tease me about making them pose, so they decided to really pose for this one.

We have been switching phones around.  I thought I had everything off my old phone that I gave to Leah.  But I did not.  I forgot to upload their first day of school pictures. She asked if I was ready for her to reset it.  I said yes.  Whoops!!  I made sure to get some today, as it is picture day at school.  That's close enough right?

Leah is doing fantastic with seminary.  No complaints, no lateness.  Not what we expected at all.  Hope it lasts, especially once basketball starts.

Grade 9 here they come.

Leah had a back to school Grade 9 party yesterday.  We had planned a wiener roast and some games,  but forgot to tell her friends that we were feeding them.  Everyone had just eaten.  They played Heads Up while waiting for everyone get arrive.  When all got here they went out side to play Poisonous Stump.  We do this a lot with kids since my sister and brother-in-law taught it to us.  Always a hit.

Then we built a fire.  Kinda munched but still not hungry.  I had a lot of left overs.  We had made a S'more bar with different types of cookies.

They played outside for a while and sat around the fire talking about up coming school and what they did for the summer.  Next we played the candy ball game.  Another that is a no-fail fun one.

We were waiting for it to get dark to play some night games.  In the mean time they went down and played Mario Kart and Foosball.  We tried playing some Dutch Blitz, but it takes a couple rounds to get into.

I had them all sit on the same couch for a picture.  Minus two (Sadly Gerri was not able to come, she was away with family.)  This is the 2017 Grade Nine class.

Finally is was dark enough.  Dave got a big spot light and we played a watch tower game.  They all had to start at the end of the yard and then run in under our deck to safety.  Dave swung the light around.  If you got caught in the light you had to stop with your hands up.  If you moved, back to the beginning.  It was a lot of fun.  They played quite a few rounds of that.  Lastly, I had bought a ton of glow-sticks.  They all took some and wrapped around necks, arms, legs,  and played tag. It was cool to see all the lights moving around.  I hope everyone had fun.  Leah really enjoyed it and it was fun to see everyone after summer.  Back to school soon!  Last year in Junior High.  I hope they have a great year.

Organized

I love the way Dave works.  He takes some time before the job to do some prep work that makes the rest of it so organized, easy and efficient.  It is how he built our house, how he writes a talk, how he does his job, everything.  We have been pressing hard to get the last few things that need to be done on our house.  A few weeks ago he got up early and spent almost 2 hours getting some jigs made.  We were getting our railings done.  After breakfast he took us all out to the garage and walked us through the whole process.

He had a stopper on the end of the saw so all the boards were the exact length with out needing to measure each time.  Really speed that up.

There was a box with a nail in the correct spot so we could just tap and make a nail hole.

A sanding station that held the boards in.

For the top and bottom rail he marked the first one, then we slid it over to a nail and kept drilling.  Slid to nail and drilled.  They were all perfectly measured.

We zipped through all of it so quickly.  By 11 we were ready to start putting it all together and painting.

We had a blast and traded jobs so we could try everything. 

Dave worked on routering the top railing and Blake set in all the screws.

After lunch it was a two man job.  Cora took the kids in to swim as Dave and I finished.  He had it all fit and painted by night fall.  We let it dry Sunday and hung it Monday after work.  It was awesome.  He had such a good system set up that early Monday before work, he moved a few jigs and rearranged just a few things.  Our back deck was a little different design.  The kids and I did it all and stained them while he was at work.  When he got home we put up the front and started on the back.  By Wednesday it was all done.  We are pretty proud of ourselves.  It looks fantastic.  My lawn is coming along nicely also.  There is still a lot of bare patches and some weeds, but we will keep spraying and it will fill in.  Nice to have a sorta lawn.

And the front railings.  I love it.  Can anyone spy Leah.  :)

Puzey Reunion

Last week was our Puzey Reunion.  Sadly I did not get many pictures.  We had a good time.  Dave wasn't able to be there for some of it, but everyone else came.  I had dinner for those coming in Wednesday night.  I didn't want those travelling in to have to worry about cooking.  Thursday was rainy all day.  They kids played games and we hung out in the house where it was dry.  Friday was a little nicer.  Cora took all old enough to the temple for baptisms and milkshakes.  They later meet us at the pool.

Good job taking those pictures girls.  :)

Blake and Dave racing.

Hanging out in the sun.  Poor Myrna broke her knee and is in a wheel chair.  I love this picture of her trying to help out.

Saturday the kids painted some treasure boxes Grandma had bought.  We packed a lunch and went to the beach.

Cora loves to water ski.  She is so good at it also.  Her arm strength from gymnastics is amazing and she can stay up forever.

Blake dug a big hole.  Cadence got right in and played with him.  This is another favorite picture of mine.

After the beach we had Jason's famous ribs and steak.  It was all so good.  The kids decorated their boxes, made kites, and had a silly string war.  To end it all we had a special program.  Myrna told some stories from our family history and some talents were displayed.  

During the week, Dave, Cora, Amber and I were all working on talks.  Amber was speaking here in our ward and we were going on assignment with Dave.  Myrna, Rachel, and Lalainia practiced singing the song that they were performing in our ward also.  So that was all kinda fun.  We came home after the program to put the finishing touches on our talks and get to bed early.  We left at 6 the next morning.  It was another fun get together.  Poor Myrna with her knee and Armin not feeling well and had a couple trips to the emergency room.  But we made, built some memories and cousins got to be together.  Hopefully all will be well for next year.