July 4th

On the 4th, after church, we went down to visit Grandma J! It was so fun to see her! She is such a sweet woman and I am glad my kids have had a chance to know her a little bit. She kept telling us how important family is that that we need to stay close with the extended family. Wise counsel from a wise woman! That hit me pretty hard considering Corry's extended family has pretty much dispersed. Somehow we still need to stay close and I need to do a better job of staying close to my brothers and sisters too.

We love you Grandma!

Happy July 3rd!

We actually hung out with the neighbors and went to the PG fireworks show this year! July 4th should always we on Sunday or Monday so we can play with the neighbors one day and the family the other day! Other than a few people getting lit on fire when a firework went crazy it was a good show!

Scotty's Friends

These boys have been best friends since birth! They have gotten in trouble together (stories for another day), played sports together, laughed, talked, built, ate, just about everything you could think of they have done together. This summer they were baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am so glad Scotty has such great friends that although are not perfect, are trying to be like Jesus and try to follow in His ways. They are great examples for him to follow later this year when he enters the waters of baptism too. Yay for good friends!

Zits

Why zits? And even more, why zits at 35?

So I have had this it right in the center of my forehead for over a month!!!! It looks something like this...

I have decided to name her....

Susan. Let me explain because I really like the name Susan.

Monsters vs Aliens.

Suuuusssssaaaaaannnn! Oooo. I just scared myself. Susan isn't a name for a monster, we'll call you Ginormica!

Well, Ginormica is much too long to say, so I will just go with Susan.

So Susan just wouldn't go away and looked something similar to that girl's zit. I was so desperate I even tried to use windex on her. I think movies lie...

Last Day of the Reunion!

The last day of the reunion we spent at Jon's house eating, laughing, swimming and playing "Minute to Win It" (SOOO FUN). We had a great day together and then ended the night with a family night by mom and dad. We talked about what the prophet had told us at the last conference and they encouraged us to stay close to the spirit and to each other. We also saw a clip from Grandma Peterson telling a story about when she lived in Wyoming and was lost in the mountains. It was a great weekend (especially because Corry finally was able to join us)!

The Whole Peterson Clan

The Grandparents and Grandkids

The Siblings

My Family

2nd Day Reunion

Today started off with all the older grandkids going to the temple with Grammy and Grandpa to do baptisms for the dead. I love that my parents try to back up the teachings we have in our home and encourage the kids to not only study hard and be kind, but to strengthen their testimonies of Jesus Christ.

While they were gone, we went shopping! It was a quick trip, but we love going to Arizona Mills!

After that we all met back up at my parent's church for lunch, dodgeball and other games. We had a blast and once again I wondered why on earth we showered in the morning!

Kimi setting her itouch to remind her to remind me to remind Corry to bring something with him when he came the next day.

The downer of the day was that Missy stepped on a piece of glass on the stage at the church. Grandpa did a little surgery since dad wasn't there and mom doesn't do surgeries!

Kenzie giving Missy a big hug for being such a tuff girl!

Sidebar

Ok, so I am way behind in blogging but I had to write my thoughts from tonight. I had served in the Relief Society Presidency in my ward for quite sometime. After this last General Conference, we had felt very inspired to issue a challenge to all the sisters of the ward to read the entire conference issue of the Ensign before the next one in October. Along with that, we asked that everyone start a study journal to go along with it, to chose something to work on that was spoken about, to share a message with our family in a Family Home Evening and to share a message with someone not of our faith or someone who does not attend church regularly.

I just have to say that it must have all been for me! I needed this challenge so much and needed to read these words. You can access all the talks here. This morning I read the back of the issue where it tells how we can make Conference part of out lives (pg 128-129). I realized how much I under utilize this great resource in my daily life. For family night tonight we talked about one of the talks by Elder D Todd Christofferson called The Blessings of Scripture. He talked about William Tyndale who suffered much for translating the Bible into English. I got out Corry's Spanish Bible and had Fuzzy try to read John 5:39 from it. Of course it was difficult to read and she didn't really understand it. We talked about how blessed we are to have the Bible in our own language and why people like William Tyndale did the things they did. (John 5:39 talks about how the Scriptures testify of Jesus and we read it in English after.) What a beautiful thing to discuss with my family. The spirit was strong tonight as the lead up to my lesson was all about starting school again. We talked about our priorities being Heavenly Father and Jesus (the church), then family, then school, then friends and all their other activities. Then we went on to talk about how as much as I want them to learn lots at school, I want them more to learn how to learn and have a desire and a thirst for learning. I have that thirst for the words of the prophet and the apostles and those who serve with them now. I want to feast on their words. The beauty of it all is that my new calling is the Primary Chorister - LOVE IT!!!! I love being with all those beautiful children. We were able to close the night by singing the song I have been teaching in Primary called "The Scriptures Can Lead Me to Jesus." What a blessing this challenge has been in my life. I hope I have enough thirst for learning these things in me to take the challenge on myself again after the next conference.

1st Day of the Peterson Family Reunion

We had a WONDERFUL time at the Peterson Family Reunion this year. NO ONE GOT THE STOMACH FLU!!!! WHOO WHOO!!!! Seriously it was so great. We stared off the reunion with all the adults going to the temple for a session. I had a really great experience there where I felt all the anger, frustration and hurt from my family in years past melt away at the temple. We had the privilege of waiting a long time in the chapel to go in for the session and it was a time of great pondering for me... (the summer was FULL of great pondering moments). On our way down to AZ I had asked all the kids to look outside of themselves for others who were lonely at the reunion instead of whining and complaining that they were being left out of something. Missy was amazing! There have been many times at past reunions where she has felt very much left out (honestly most of the time with good reason). This reunion was no exception. There were several moments where my heart ached for my child being left out, but there was no need. She became the favorite of the little cousins. She played Polly Pockets with them, made up games at the pool for them to play and CHOSE to be happy and have a great time. Happiness really is a choice. It didn't change the situation with the older cousins, but it changed her. It was a very proud parent moment. I sure love that girl and her willingness to make the best of the situation.

OK, back to the reunion. Next we went to Pump it Up (my kids couldn't remember the name and kept calling it Blow it UP). We had the whole place to ourselves and had a blast! It is so much fun to play on those bouncy toys with the kids, it is just a shame any of us took a shower first. Luckily it was off to dinner and then a trip to Grammy and Grandpa's pool after that and then Christina and Kimi came so we had to make a SONIC RUN - tradition you know!

Alli was determined to hit the ball. She spent a lot of time there at the plate! Made me feel a little bit guilty for not signing her up for t-ball this year!

This was probably one of my favorite toys. You had to climb that thing (it was SLICK) and stick a velcro flag to one of the spots or try to get one down from there. See that little tiny spot at the top - Kori and Nichole got it up there. They were crazy spider girls!

Grandpa and Christina didn't want to be left out of the late night (it was only 9:30) sonic run this time!

I love my family. It was an exhausting, fantastic, great day!

Day 2 - Bryce

The next day we went to Bryce Canyon. Can I just say breathtaking views! There is only one MAJOR problem with Bryce Canyon... You start at the top of the canyon, hike down and then hike back up in the blazing sun. But we did it. It was about a 5 mile round trip hike and I didn't carry a kid for ANY part of it!!!! It was amazing. On the way back up, there where these amazing switchbacks that we pretty steep and had little shade. So we started going up and resting every 5 shady spots. It got us up the hill!

After we finished that one, we drove to the trail head (which was NOT marked and I past it the first time) to a cave and a waterfall. We ate lunch here and hiked around. I love that my kids love hiking with me and see so much of the beauty God created.

After our hikes it was back to the hotel for more swimming and then to the Western Hollywood Museum. It was so fun, but I forgot to take my camera so no pictures. There was an old west town set up - even dummies in the jail which freaked the kids out.

After that Cassie and her family arrived and it was dinner and hang out with them. Good times!

First Day of the reunion trip - Zions

I have always loved Zion's National Park and wanted to take my kids there to hike so this year I decided why wait and took them! We were already going to Kanab on our way to Mesa, so we just decided to spend a few days and do some hiking.

Zion's is so incredibly beautiful. It is my favorite park I think so far. There is some of everything there - plus I always love a hike that has to do with water!

We saw what we thought was a deer super close to us. It didn't run away, just posed for pictures. I think it is an elk though.

Striking a pose on a rock
Wow Alli! You can lift that rock without even touching it!
It was so beautiful and cool on the hike - it was perfect, although Corry wasn't there, so it was ALMOST perfect!
There were tons of baby waterfalls along the way. By the way, check out Alli and Fuzzy's hair cuts - locks for love just before we drove down here.

It was a fabulous day complete with swimming at the hotel pool and chatting with Kris in the evening.

Father's Day

I love father's day! This year for father's day we all wrote why we loved dad and grandpa. Sadly we gave them to them and never wrote down for me what everyone said. Bottom line is that we love these great men in our lives. I am so grateful for a wonderful husband who is a great father to our children and to a fantastic father to whom I will always be daddy's little girl and to a father-in-law who has always treated me as his own. i love you great men in my life!

Scotty was so excited to give this Popeye shirt to his dad so that he could wear his Goofy shirt with him.
But the head massager was the hit of the day. We had to stop by and get Grandpa one before we went to visit them.
Grandpa with all the grandkids that live close... what a small little group that is. :(

Dance Recital

The dance recitals gave me a BIG thrill this year. It was so fun to see how far my daughters had come and what amazing dancers they are, but it was also fun to watch the process start to finish with the girls I taught. They were amazing - especially Alli's class. 6 girls from that class sat on stage very still for the first 15 or so minutes of the second act. We did the ballet Coppelia and in it there are dolls that have to be wound up. These girls sat on stage until they were wound up and then the rest of the class joined them to dance. THEY WERE AMAZING!!! They are only 4-6 year olds and they knew their dance so well and had no help on or off stage during the show. Sadly my other classes didn't do as well. My oldest girls performed perfectly in rehearsal and messed up a lot in the show. Oh well. I saw what they were capable of and they are amazing. My little girls' dance was a bit of a fiasco. The music was wrong for them so it was hard for Missy and Fuzzy to know what to do when since it wasn't like we practiced. Oh, well, they were adorable anyway.

Back to Missy and Fuzzy - they were amazing. Missy's dance called Fire and Ice was my favorite of the whole Jazz show. They worked so hard all year and that group of girls improved so much! Missy had this one lift on this other girls shoulders and it was the best! She was so high and straight! Fuzzy had her first ever solo in the ballet show. She is a beautiful ballet dancer and had an 8 count solo in one of her classes. It is a joy to watch my girls dance. I love that they love it and I love it is something we can love together.

By the look on dad's face it is not something he loves as much as the rest of us - JK, I just can't get him to really smile in pictures. He was so amazed by the girls this year too and how much they had improved.

It was so fun to have Grammy and Grandpa here for the shows this year. They have never seen the girls dance and they made a special trip just to come up and see them. It meant so much to the girls and it was so much fun to spend that time with them.

Grandma and Grandpa always come to their shows and we love that we live so close to them that they can! They are great at supporting the girls in their dancing and we love having them around!