Pinewood Derby!

Elden participated in his first Pinewood Derby!  He had fun designing his car and working on it with Lee. Lee gets pretty nervous at this event, but I just enjoy it. 


There were fun snacks there!




Elden was awarded 1st place in the Wolf pack with his car!




Shanna bought a Polaroid camera (off brand) and took different photos.  One was of the living room.  She arranged everything just so before snapping a picture.


Here is the result!


One Friday I went to the temple, then after watched Rhett and Luke so Lois could attend.




Clark and/or Cal have quite the fleet going on.  I love when they play with Legos!


One Saturday while Shanna and Haley were working on a school project and Clark and Cal were at a Merit Badge University, Elden and I hung out at a park.




We had Family Home Evening with our friends the Peterson's one night.  He showed us this curved piece of plastic.  It can balance on your finger, but not by itself.  After you put a weighted object on it's end, then there is enough balance to set it on your finger.  Very fun object lesson.  David Peterson received this from his mission president I think.


Clark and Lee are acquiring musical instruments!  I think the flugelhorn belongs to the high school, but Lee now has the pocket trumpet and the largest brass one. And the silver-ish one is my deceased Uncle Roger's trumpet.






So fun seeing these two books at the library up the road from us!


We've had lots of snow days this new year.  Like many of those days, my kids spent lots of time playing with slime.

Living in the New Year

Happy New Year!!!  How is your year going?  It's well past January, but the year is still fresh!

One night for a date Lee and I were on the hunt for some dessert.  We have never been to O'Charley's, but went on a whim after Olive Garden was super packed.  We loved their peanut butter dessert! Yum!


We traveled up to Pennsylvania and met our new niece, Serena! 


A cute sign that my brother owns.  My sister Lena made it for him years ago.


While in Pennsylvania we stopped at my mom's house.  She showed us some fun things like this kimono my grandpa bought during WWII.




Here is a teapot that a great-great grandma (?) brought over from England and across the plains and mountains to Utah.






We made this trip without Lee and he made himself a fun dinner.


When we arrived back from PA Shanna was sound asleep, toothbrush in hand.  Hopefully she used it that night!


Lee dropped a little key down the sink on accident one day at work.


He got it out!


One of our snow days.....lots of snow, right?  Haha. Sledding was still successful!


Clark and Cal arrived back from a campout and went straight to standards night in Waynesboro. 


We love making cookies around here!


We did pixies one week in January.  We need to do it more often.  Pixies go about doing service, but secretly. We did this growing up and I think it's so fun. 




I finally went through my files.  I think I will start doing this just once a year.  See the stacks?  I just pile stuff up through the year, and then go through them when I get to it.  I decided to go through all of my files and do a major purge.  I adopted Marie Kondo's method for files...which is basically to not have files.  I kept a couple of things separate like taxes. 


While going through my files it was a trip down memory lane!  I found Lee's optometry graduation program and invitation.  And for the record, he was Magnum Cum Laude. He was on the boarder and they didn't know for sure if he would be on it or not before the program was printed.




Lena had the girls make these when she watched them for two months for me while I was in the hospital, and then when Elden was in the hospital when he was born.




The twins birth cards and Elden's as well.


Also, I forgot but Lena and Mike gave us $300 for the twins.  Wow, so fun and generous!




Years and years ago when we went to Nutty Putty one time...a underground cave in Utah.




And look what was left!  ONE file cabinet and lots of stuff to throw out.  YAY!


In January the paper got a photo of the kids about an article of having safe routes to school.  It was in our local paper and the Harisonburg one.  So fun!  They rode their bikes all winter long, unless it was raining. 

Nicaragua 2018!

The new year, as always, started off busy!  Lee took his annual trip to Nicaragua with VOSH Connecticut.  He went by himself this time and enjoyed it.  Though I think we both agree it would have been more fun having both of us there!

First off, before Nicaragua pictures, I bought some rock salt lamps for our nightstands.  They're great!  We don't use them much, but I still like them.


We've had our share of crazy weather this winter!  60 one day, 30 the next.  Snow skiffs here and there.  It's been a little weird.  But it's always nice having hot cocoa!


It was pretty cold for several days that part of the river froze.




One day school was canceled...lots of snow, right?  We were in Harrisonburg and went to a park.  Surprisingly (not really) no one was there but us.  Clark had a run down the hill with the sled.




Lee's sister Lynn sent us a fun Christmas gift, a Robertson blanket.  Elden's birth month isn't correct, but who will notice but us? 


Yes, we generally keep our Christmas decorations up a couple weeks into the new year.  And Elden missed Santa Claus I guess, and had to bring him back.


Clark and Cal did lots of cooking in January and February for the cooking merit badge.  We found an awesome merit badge counselor in Harrisonburg! 




Lee made it to Nicaragua!  He took a chance this year (saving a few hundred dollars) and flew down there with Spirit Airlines.  The downside is that the plane arrived at the airport at 1am or so.  He slept in the airport for a little while, got a cab and went straight to church.  While at church in one of the meetings the teacher was talking about sacrifice.  He looked over at Lee and said something about Lee sacrificing and being at church that day.  Lee didn't think much of being at church, because that is just what we do on Sundays.  He was there at church, suitcase and all.  God comes first!

Here is a Catholic church (I am guessing?) in San Juan Del Sur.


After church Lee helped set up the clinic at the school there.  Then they started seeing patients Monday morning, giving them free eye exams, and free glasses (if needed).


This is Lee's security guard/helper.


This looks like a new ice cream place in San Juan.  I don't remember seeing it last year.  I'm hoping it was good!


You can buy crazy big water bottles there.  They are huge!


Monday evening he took a run up to the Christ Statue.








Lots of people came everyday!


Back at the ranch, we had a rousing game of Monopoly that we left out for a few days.


And Haley made and left this sweet thank you note on our dresser.  Thank you Haley!  It was so thoughtful.  Disney World was tons of fun and I'm so glad she had a great time....and said thank you!




There was some Pokemon creating going on as well with an egg.  I think Cal did this.


Lee's mom and a few of her friends and volunteers made thousands of eye glass cases.  The VOSH people were so grateful!  She sewed most of them and did a wonderful job! 


Lee's dinner that night.  One fun thing about going to Nicaragua is eating out all the time.  Though I can't stand that diet all the time (we love eating at home too much!) it is fun for one week!


Breakfast at the Barrio Cafe.  Something he got every morning included in his stay.  The cafe has about 4 or 5 "hotel" rooms.  It's a cute place to stay.


And a random picture of us in the Virginia cold.  So thankful for warm houses!


Patient numbers for the first two days in San Juan.


Lee's optometry students that came.  Hyder, the one kneeling, was with Lee last year and this year.  Too bad he can't come a third year!  We really like him.








It's tradition for the doctors to treat their students to dinner one night.  It's a fun evening of talking and giving some advice.  The younger "security guards" that are local young men come as well.


Yum Lee.  I'm glad you enjoyed that because I wouldn't have, haha.










Finally done!






One night there is also a fancy dinner for the whole group at the Pelican...a nice resort hotel in San Juan. 


They spelled VOSH wrong, but did get Connecticut correct!








Lee had a free day Friday and went to island with the two volcanoes, Ometepe. He served the last three months of his mission on this island.




Lee thought it was funny seeing these two boys playing a game on the dirty floor.


Cars packed in tight on the boat!




Lee discovered a new place on the island, a natural water reserve.  It's very pretty and I want to go there!












Some infestation on a tree....maybe a termite hill?














Lee made it home safely!  And random, but sometimes Shanna likes to play "restaurant" on the weekend and will make Elden and Cal "Carolina Reaper" eggs.  She dumps TONS of pepper on them.