Summer

I got these pictures off of Jayley's file on the computer. I don't have any of Travis from efy. I'm going through my pictures and finding out that not only have I not been blogging, but I haven't been taking pictures either.

When Travis and Jayley were in St. George this summer they went hiking with cousins to Zion.

And when they got home we had balloons and a cake for them. The kids were so excited to see them again.

Cayenne Pepper Tradition

Don't ask me how or why, but we have this cayenne pepper tradition going on at our house. For the past 3 years every single missionary that has served in Ketchikan has taken the challenge to swallow a 1/4 tsp. of African cayenne pepper....which is 10x hotter than regular cayenne. I'm not sure how it got started, but it has become a tradition. Neither my kids nor the senior companion ever forget it. Usually what happens is when the senior companion is being transferred he then makes the junior companion take the cayenne challenge before he leaves. So then when that junior companion is then the senior companion...he doesn't leave without having his junior companion take the challenge. And that is the cycle of the cayenne challenge at our house. We have some of the funniest videos of the cayenne challenge. In these pictures we have Elder Wainwright getting ready to take the challenge. Elder Offley was being transferred to the Anchorage, Samoa zone. He is way excited because he gets to serve with the samoans and also learn the language. He gets home from his mission in April and in May he is coming back to Ketchikan to work for the summer. He is going to be staying with us. We are all excited. I love having missionaries in my home so often. Their example is so good for my boys. My boys LOVE missionaries. They can't wait to be like them....which is why I welcome them so often in my home. Because they are so close in age to Travis, they also have a huge influence on him.

Elder Offley and Elder Wainwright

(yes, Elder Offley has a black eye. Elder Wainwright did it!) hahaha....they were playing raquetball with Ron and Jayley. They weren't wearing goggles and Elder Offley got hit. This picture was also taken after Elder W. took the cayenne. You can see the redness in his face and eyes.

Time to get going......

I've decided that blogging is like exercising. If you get out of the habit it is really hard to get going again. Once you're in the habit it's easy to keep it going. Hopefully, I can get through my pictures and figure out what we've been up to for the past 4 months. I'll recap on our summer since I don't have very many pictures.

Okay, let's see if I can remember it all.

Travis:

June 8th: flew to Anchorage with his basketball team to attend a team camp.

*After Anchorage he flew to Las Vegas

*caught a shuttle from Vegas to St. George

*spent a week in St. George with family

*got a ride to Provo with Taylor

*attended UVU basketball camp

*attended EFY

*flew to Las Vegas

*flew to Minnesota to meet his team for another team camp

*flew back to Vegas

*caught the shuttle again to St. George

*spent one more week in St. George

*caught shuttle back to Vegas

*spent a day with cousins in Vegas

*flew home July 23

*left for Youth Conference in Juneau July 26ish

*came back home early August.

Jayley:

*flew to Vegas end of June

*spent a few days with best friend Sara in Vegas

*took shuttle to St. George

*attended SUU basketball camp in Cedar City and stayed with Aunt Becky.

*went to Provo with Kim

*attended EFY

*spent time in Mt Pleasant with cousins

*back to St. George

*shuttled to Vegas

*spent a day with cousins

*flew home on the 23rd with Travis

*Youth Conference in Juneau

*girls camp in Juneau

The rest of us thoroughly enjoyed our summer. Having the two older ones gone for the summer totally changed the dynamics of our family. It was strange having a young family again. Ron and I had lots of fun with the 4 younger ones. We were all excited to have Travis and Jayley come back home, but we sure enjoyed our summer too.

Opposite Gender Day

These pictures are from last school year. During spirit week they had opposite day. Everyone took it as opposite gender day. Jayley and I had a great time dressing Travis and Jay D. up.

In this picture (above) we told them that they were standing like guys...which isn't a bad thing. The one below is their attempt to stand like girls. They were a crack up.

This is Jay D. and Elisha. She borrowed Jay D.'s clothes to dress up like a guy.

Jayley's Eighth Grade Graduation

I can't believe that I have 2 high schoolers now. Where does time go? I feel so blessed to have Jayley as my daughter. She is such a wonderful person. As you can see in the pictures she is full of character. That's one of the things I love about her. She is confident with who she is and she is FUN. She is a very nice person and therefore has lots of friends. Oh and I will brag a little and throw in that she maintained a 4.0 all through junior high. Not one B. I told you she is awesome!

The ceremony wasn't quite entertaining enough for these two.

Jayley has gone out of her way these past two years to be friendly to this girl. Jayley has a heart for everyone and I love that about her. This girl (I can't remember her name) wrote Jayley a note once and told her that no one has ever been as nice to her as she is and that she is the only friend she has ever had. Jayley went out of her way that night to go and take a picture with her. It really made me proud!

Prom

I am once again so far behind on my blog. I must not enjoy it enough:) I never seem to get things posted. This was a quick picture I snapped of Travis and Jevonte right before they left to pick up their dates for prom. It wasn't a big deal. He's only a sophomore. I don't know who is date was, but they were going together in a big group. I knew most of the other kids. It was a good group to be with.

Jay D. has gone home:(

I'm so sad. Jay D. flew home yesterday morning. This year has gone by so fast. I'm so glad that Dona and Corey let Jay D. come and experience Alaska for a year. We all had a great time. It was so strange at 2:50 when he didn't come home from school. I missed having him walk through the door. He was always the first one home. Travis likes to stay at school and socialize. Jay D. and I had nice conversations everyday before all the kids started filing in after school. He went back to Utah a week before school was out. I don't blame him though because by doing so he gets to go to Lake Powell with his priest group from Utah. They get out of school a week before us.

Here are some pictures from his last days in Ketchikan.

Jay D. and Jevonte (his last night in K-town).

Brittany, Jay D., and Lupe'

Two weekends ago the priests went out to Silver King Lodge as a going away party for Jay D. and Jevonte. Jevonte's family is moving on June 9 to Mississippi. We sure are going to miss them too.

Some of Jay's friends at the High School

Coach Stock and Jay

We couldn't send him home without a picture on Creek Street.

Last Saturday we had a going away BBQ out at Ward Lake. The weather was awesome. Lot's of people showed up and we had a great time.

Sam and Little Foot

Sam loves "Little Foot". We've had these Land Before Time stuffed animals for years. We've definitely gotten our monies worth. All the kids go through a "Land Before Time" phase. He was playing with them and fell asleep.

Pinewood Derby

I am so far behind on all my pictures. I am going through camera cards and there is so much stuff that I haven't blogged. This was so long ago that I don't even remember why Ron was out of town, but I do remember him being gone and saying, "sorry honey I didn't finish the cars you'll have to help them paint them and put the weights in them". Excuse me? I have to do what?!?!?! But we figured it out!!