FHE

Family Home Evening....

We spent the evening with Mike, Manda and Dex painting their awesome fence that Mike built.

Janna, I want credit for posting 3 days in a row!

He said she said "yes"!

Braden and Hanna!

Another great week

Our friends, the Todds, invited us to go to Lake Powell with them. 

Not going to turn that down!

It was awesome!  The weather was great. The company was awesome. Boats ran great.  Fishing was going great. 

 Here is Brent skiing.  He always skis in this hat.  Don't ask me how it stays on!

 Brent and his brother-in-law Jeff.

Dean took a bad spill waterskiing and hurt his leg.  He decided he better give it a rest for a day or so, so I didn't get a picture of him skiing yet.  Dean had a feeling that he needed to go on a boat ride and check his messages...

He was  right.  A baby was born early for one of his adoptions.  Dean had to rush home.  Had to go home 4 days early!  'Bout killed me!

There was no way around it.

Still glad we went down, and glad we came back.

Dean spent Thursday and Friday at the hospital and the courthouse getting everything in order for the adoption.

Saturday, we decided to head to the lake....not quite Lake Powell, but it would do!

 Dex is helping Grandpa Deaner get the boat ready! 

Once again, the boat ran great, the company was awesome, the weather was perfect.  

(no fishing on this outing)

 Chenelle decided she was going to learn how to slalom ski....and that she did!  Good job Chenelle! 

 Jordan and Chenelle came with us.  Too hard to explain this picture...but believe me, it really was funny!

 It so fun to have Manda and Dex come with us.  Dex is not intimidated by the water or the boat.

 Caitlyn also came with us.  Dex prefers Grandma Ej, unless Caitlyn is around...Caitlyn "trumps" everyone one when it comes to who Dex lets hold him.

Not sure how many more trips Manda and the twins are going to be willing to go on with us...the babies didn't really like it when the boat ride got bumpy.

 It was a great day at the lake!

Came home and got cleaned up and headed up to Grandma and Grandpa Ellis' surprise birthday party.  Grandma and Grandpa are 83!

All of their 10 kids and their kids' spouses were there.

(Thanks Chris for letting me use your picture!)

(Kristi took this picture)

But the best part of the whole day, was when I got the text that Hanna said "YES"!  

Today Braden asked Hanna Rushton to marry him.

We are so happy for them.

Sorry you missed it Braden

Saturday, July 21, Dean and I went up to Honeyville to run a triathlon.

We both got a PR...Dean improved his time by 2.5 minutes, and I haven't ever done one before, so this is my best time.  I went really slow just to make sure that next time I will be able to get a PR too.  (Just kidding, I did my best, and found out the areas I could use some serious improvement in!)

Straight from the triathlon we went up to East Canyon where Dean's family was gathering.  It was great visiting with some of his siblings and his parents.

Rushed home from East Canyon to head up to Kamas with Caitlyn, Janna and Dan.

They had tickets to the Demolition Derby, and invited us to go along.

Yes, we are officially "White Trash"!

Front row seats...

Really, does it get any better?!

These guys on motorcross bikes were awesome!

Kind of a funny/sick story here....a guy in one of the cars got hurt.  We had front row seats, so we could see him trying to tell the officials he needed help, but it was so loud, and so crazy, nobody could hear him.  From where we were sitting, all of us could see the situation.  Finally, they were able to stop the other cars.  They had to bring in the "jaws of life" to cut the car.  When the ambulance came into the arena, and stopped so they could load the guy in, the crowd boo-ed because the ambulance totally blocked their view of the emergency.  Really?!  Come on guys.  What a warped society we live in.....just glad they didn't block our view....we got to watch the whole thing!

Fishing at Deer Creek

Mom and Dad

Fishin' at Deer Creek

We even got Dean to come this time!

I am officially giving up on a once a day picture, and going to aim for at least once a week post.

Our friend in Australia, Aileen, sent Dex this book so he can learn all about Australian animals...and tell his little brother and sister all about them.

Thanks so much Aileen!

 We had this great idea...take Dex to the preview of the floats for the 24th of July parade.  That's much better than sitting through the parade itself.

 He LOVED the marching band

  

Dex had a love hate relationship with this lion.  He thought it was awesome....from a distance.

As soon as he got up close to the lion Dex was sacred to death.  He kept saying "that lion scared of me".

When Dex gets nervous, scared, or excited he grabs earlobes...something he has done since he was a tiny baby.   This lion was a "double lober"!  I think Dex was feeling nervous, scared and excited all at once!

  Check out the death grip Dex has on Grandpa Deaner as they got close to the lion.

No way was Dex going to do a thumbs up and look at the camera....he had to keep an eye on the scary lion!

Dex telling me with such excitement that the train is coming!

 Dexter's favorite float of all was the Orange Train.  This train would move back an forth along a track on the float.  Dex had to be reassured that the train would come out, but not down...right?  He loved watching it.  I thought he might enjoy having his picture taken by the orange train....this is as close as Dex would get to that float....he about climbed out of my arms when we got any closer.  Funny kid!

What a week!

I did take at least one picture everyday, but sitting down and blogging about it just didn't happen.

So here is how the week went.

Sunday, Julie, and 6 of her 7 kids arrived.  

Monday

Dean knows I love salted nut rolls, and things had been out of control here, so he was sweet and got me one.  Dex found it, and knew the only place he would have peace and quiet, (and not have to share the candy bar) was in the pool.  This is how I found him, all by himself, the candy bar was so soggy, the wrapper was filled with pool water, and he was loving it!

He is willing to share Grandma Ej...but not a candy bar!

Cristian had been set apart as a missionary before he came up, so he had to follow mission rules, which meant he was always in a white shirt and tie.....looks awesome on him!

Tuesday

Mike and Dean working on the fence again.  It looks awesome!  Mike will be glad when this is done so he doesn't have to wake up each morning to Dean tapping his foot, wanting to work on the fence!

While they were working, we noticed this big smoke cloud.  This is the beginning of the Alpine fire.  It was an awesome fire.  For several nights afterward, we watched it from our house climb up the mountains.  The glow at night was amazing!

Wednesday

Wednesday was the 4th of July, and I already posted pictures of that on a previous post, so I'll spare you having to see those again.

FYI, Savanah got to dance at the Stadium of Fire on the 4th.  We are too poor to buy tickets to that, but I heard it was awesome!

Thursday

Cristian is to report to the MTC today!

Jeff and Brandon showed up from a trip to Phoenix just before it was time for them to take Cristian to the MTC.

We got our Jenson family together for a breakfast so and everyone got to say their "good-byes".

It's been in the mid 90's everyday, so we got the yard ready for the big get-together, and of course, this is the only day for a month we get rain!  I'm sure the firefighters appreciated the rain....but I didn't!  Would have been nice if would have waited for a couple of hours to rain.

We got to have Cristian put his pin in our missionary map.

Of course, he had to sign our missionary book.

We had all my brothers and sisters here.

It was great having all this family together!

 Ok, is it just me, or in this picture does Hanna looked scared to death of this big family?!  

Hanna, you think there are a lot of Jensons.....just wait till you meet the Ellis side of the family!

 Last picture of all the "Jeff and Juiles" for a while.  Cristian will be gone for 2 years, and before he gets home Brandon will have left for his mission, and before Brandon gets home, Derek will have left for his mission.

Friday, the Jensons all wrote to Cristian and send him a care package.

Friday
Happy Birthday Grandpa Ellis!

Friday evening, we got to meet Joan, Hanna's mom.  She and Hanna came over and had a BBQ with us.  

We only got this one picture from that evening, and that was of Joan putting her pin in our map, she served her mission in Australia!

Saturday 

Saturday started at 3:45 am!  Yep, another race day.  We ran "the Hobbler Half Marathon".

Here we are at the finish line.

Julie, Ej, Deaner, Braden, and Kass.  

This was Kassidy's first half marathon, and she did awesome!

Julie finished 3rd in her age group, Dean was 4th in his, Kass was 8th in hers, Ej was 10th, and Braden was 11th. We were all happy with how this race went.....but it was a little too warm! 

Brandon and Derek were volunteers for the race. Here is Julie showing off her bling!

And of course, the photo of the race shirts and medals.  (kind of ugly shirts this time!)

We ran out of time yesterday so we didn't get to visit Grandpa Ellis, so after the race, and a shower, we ran up to visit Grandpa for his birthday.

That evening, we had the Jenson's over again, this time for dinner and a report from Chenelle on her amazing trip to India.  Krista and Chandler made Chicken and dumplings for all of us.  Chenelle gave a great slideshow presentation on her trip.  Hearing about all the service and the leprosy colonies and living conditions was so interesting. 

Sunday

Kass and Drew spoke in our church.

  

Julie and 4 of the kids left right after church.

Hanna and Braden stuck around long enough to eat hambergers with us, then they took off for Phoenix.

So sad to see them go, it was so fun spending time with them!

I think they may be back up in September!

Monday

Jeff and the rest of the Jensons left to go home.

Time for my nap!