O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Four years ago, Romney and I along with my sisters and nieces decided to decorate a tree for the Festival of Trees. It is a fundraising event for Primary Children's Medical Center. People decorate trees and they are auctioned off with all of the funds going to the medical center to help the children. This year we did it again and I promised Jessica and Romney, who weren't there, that I would blog about it so they could see the pictures! Fortunately, they were around for a "practice" run a few weeks ago and gave us some tips for decorating...we took a look at things right before Thanksgiving...

We were glad for the help and felt more ready to tackle the decorating at the actual festival. The day arrived and we met at the exposition center to decorate our tree...

We set the tree in our spot and were ready to decorate. We got started and then hit a little snag...

The lovely star on the top was very unstable! You see, there are lots of rules about how to reinforce your tree which we had done. We (actually, me, because I forgot to fix it before I brought the tree) hadn't made the top of the tree sturdy enough to handle the weight of the topper. Fortunately, we are resourceful and after a lengthy amount of time we acquired the necessary parts and were on our way again.

We all worked together until the tree was full and beautiful. We called it "Santa Mouse" and had some accessories around the tree, too.

And here is our finished tree!

We have lots of fun working together and being able to contribute to a great cause. And best of all, our tree did sell for $450, so it was well worth the time and effort!

Family Blessings

It is fall and I finally am getting around to changing my page for the season! Unfortunately, it will last about 2 days and need to be changed again! Oh well! Obviously it is Thanksgiving and I have so much to be thankful for! In fact, Romney gave me the idea, and so our pictures of the day for November are all about things we are grateful for! It is not hard to be grateful, just hard to always figure out the best way to photograph it! I've tried to be creative, especially since my family still runs when I pull out the camera so I can't just be thankful for family members! Anyway, here is one new family member that isn't camera shy!

This is Brynlee Jean Summers who was born on 11/22/11 just before 5 pm. She is 6lbs. 13 oz.

Jocelyn is loving being a big sister! She takes her job seriously and is doing great!

It has been fun to call our parents and report on their newest great-granddaughter! They all know much more about the posterity thing...Clark's parents have 33 grandchildren and this is the 3rd great grandchild and my parents have 27 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren! Even though we are just getting started, I am continuing to enjoy the promise of finding joy in my posterity. Thanks, Scott and Romney, we love our little girls!

Finally! My New Favorite Room

We finally finished the room off of my kitchen! When we moved in it was a good place for the tv/entertainment center, but we never decorated it too much. We added a couch and I kept planning on making it a theater room. We found a great deal on theater chairs and bought those with plans to make the theater. Then we finished the basement with couches and a flat screen and no one ever even watched tv upstairs anymore. Then I wondered why we even needed a tv in there. I tried to sell the furniture on KSL..everyone tells me it is easy and quick...well, no one wants entertainment centers anymore so we gave ours away to a grateful family who had just moved here from another country and had an offer on the chairs. After much drama and a near miss at being scammed thru KSL, we still have the chairs, but we moved them to another room! Now I could move on to my better idea for the space...a computer/office/study area. I cleaned it out and had it painted while we were in New Zealand and now here it is!

We bought the furniture from IKEA so we gave the boys 63 boxes and put them to work. Seven hours later, Josh and Caleb had assembled our furniture! Hey, all those years of legos paid off!

Now I needed to add some color and decoration! I found our Atlas and a globe and added things we have gathered from our travels...

Romney found a cool idea online...an alphabet wall. We loved it and started gathering letters and things that looked like letters...

We collected all the letters and painted and papered them to add color and fun and then Clark painstakingly hung them on the wall. Really, he measured every letter and spacing until they were just right! My favorite letter is the X--a scrabble tile, and we even paid tribute to our two in town universities--Utah Valley and BYU!

And now my office is done! Everyone loves it, no more books on my fireplace and I have an extra closet in the kitchen I can use for storage!

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

Tomorrow is Charlie's birthday. Charlie is my niece and I just want her to know I love her and think she is amazing! Here are at least 10 things I love about her...
1. She is beautiful
2. She is happy...all the time!
3. She is smart! Like really, really smart...I think she has almost a perfect 4.0 in college!
4. She is crafty...as in creative, not sneaky! She spends her vacations from school making beautiful things, sometimes for herself, but usually she gifts them to someone else!
5. She is funny...
6. She is good...she makes good decisions and makes it look easy even when it's not!
7. She is smart with her money and supports herself.
8. She is loyal and faithful to her friends and family.
9. She is kind...
10. She is generous and will give you anything she has!

Happy Birthday, Charlie! I love you!

It's Another Girl!!

It was a lot of fun to pick up Jordan from his mission and to have him to ourselves for a couple of weeks. We did lots of fun things and had some great experiences. But I was always looking forward to getting home and having all of my children together for the first time in four years. After the excitement of meeting at the airport and getting home, the first thing I wanted was a picture of all of them together. Of course, they had to be goofy but I eventually got what I wanted!

But within a few days, the picture was already outdated...Adam announced his engagement to Merrili and now I need a new picture! But that is a good problem to have and we can't wait until it's official! Until then, here is the second girl (just after Brynlee, Romney's baby) to be added to our family this year!

The New Zealand Bungy Jumpers!

Those of you who are on Facebook have already seen the videos of "the Jump", but here is the frame by frame from MY view! Clark and Jordan successfully bungy jumped 440 feet!! We picked Jordan up on Tuesday in Auckland. On Wednesday morning, we were on a plane to Queensland. We checked into the hotel and the concierge asked about our plans for the day. Clark said we were going to bungy jump and the concierge said he could make the reservation. Twenty minutes later, we are standing in the store paying for the privilege! After being weighed and signing away all rights, we had our hands labeled...NB4 #14 is Jordan...Nevis Bungy...bus #4, #14 for pictures after the jump. Clark is NB #15 and I was NSP4...nervous spectator, bus #4! After a few more minutes, our bus arrived and we took a 45 minute ride out to the jump site. Of course, the first stop on arrival at the jump site would be the bathroom, not much comfort here!!

We all were strapped into harnesses and sent out to the jump site. But you didn't just walk to the edge of the cliff to jump. We had to ride this lovely little cart out to the jump house. You do realize that just riding this car was the equivalent of the jump for me???

And if riding in the car isn't enough, it is not a solid floor!

Look over the guy's shoulder and you can see where we are headed!

They did have us attached to a rope in the car, but it was still scary to me! But just in case you need more proof, here I am standing in the jumping house!

Well, let's get on with it! Here is Clark, all tied up and nowhere to go...but down!!

5-4-3-2-1!

I took this great picture then I forgot to keep shooting! Jordan grabbed the camera and took some more pictures! Somewhere at the end of the rope is Clark!!

What kind of wife watches her husband reach the end of his rope??!!

While Clark is swinging down there, Jordan is getting ready for his jump...

Now it is his turn!

Ready, set, GO!

Coming back up...

And asking if there is a discount for a second jump!!

Celebrating their success before Jordan went back for a 2nd jump!

They loved it and have been talking about it ever since! And I haven't spent one second wondering if I missed out!

We've Got Jordan!

I finally have my computer, my camera and the internet all at the same time! We left Salt Lake on Saturday and after a layover in Los Angeles, we had our boarding passes to New Zealand!

We boarded our plane and found our seats on this very large aircraft!

The flight was about 13 hours (not the 16 we thought it would be!). We slept most of it and arrived in Auckland at 6 in the morning. We safely drove on the wrong side of the road (for us anyway!) and arrived at our hotel...the Hilton right on the harbor...

We napped a bit and went out to find lunch and something to help pass the time! We found fish and chips and a movie! Tuesday came but we couldn't pick up Jordan until 2:00 so we just stayed in our hotel and read books! We couldn't really think of anything to do! Finally, it was time and we drove about 15 minutes to the mission home. The missionaries were loading up their luggage to head to the airport and we found Jordan!

We were only at the mission home a few minutes and then we drove a couple of hours to Hamilton to the temple. We met a pair of sister missionaries there and one of them was the daughter of one of my roommates from college! The temple was closed for cleaning, but that's ok because I left my recommend in my wallet...the wallet that I put it in over a month ago so I wouldn't forget it...at the last minute I decided I didn't need all the stuff in my wallet, so I moved my license and brought a smaller wallet! Oh well, we had Jordan! We stopped for some ice cream and then some Indian food that Jordan liked to eat in one of his areas. It was a great day and we were glad to be together again!

A Birthday Adventure!

My sister and I have birthdays 11 days apart. Mine is on August 11, Colleen's is August 22. For the last few years, my two sisters and I will have a swim party to celebrate our summer birthdays. We will have lunch and float in the pool and visit etc. This year, Cheryl called and said she had another idea. A couple of days before my birthday she shared her idea...she was giving us unlimited ride passes on the Zipline and Alpine Slide at the Olympic Park in Park City. We met up on Thursday to redeem our gift!

This year, instead of floating calmly in my little pool, we were flying down the mountain and soaring across the plains...ok, I didn't really fly, but Colleen and Cheryl would have if I wasn't in the way. By the third time down the slide, I did pretty much abandon my braking routine and pick up some speed on the way down!

There she goes!!!

And she's off, too...

Our pass also included the Zipline! Here was the description of the ride...

We thought it sounded like we could qualify, so off we went. Of course, being the brave older sisters, we let Cheryl go first!

Here is proof that I did get in the seat after Cheryl...

And here are two of us flying over the plains...I think it is Colleen and Cheryl, but it's kind of hard to tell...but it is two of us!

If you follow the cables you can find us! It is like Where's Waldo?! I should have edited the picture, but then I would have never gotten back to posting, so just squint!

I think this is just Cheryl, you can see her between the two ski runs!

We had a great time. The weather was beautiful and the company and activities were the best! Thanks, Cheryl, for thinking outside the birthday box (and the pool)!