Arise & Shine Forth

The YW/YM theme for this year is "Arise and Shine Forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations."  We're focusing on service and temple work this year, so I made this up to give to our youth.  Feel free to copy if you'd like.

Thanksgiving 2011

We got to go home to Oregon for Thanksgiving this year.  It has been a LONG time since we've celebrated Thanksgiving with my Oregon family.  We had to meet at the church because we had too many people! I love these guys.

We had our Second Annual Heber Valley Campout this year. It is always so fun up there.   Lots of fun cousin time, and it is so beautiful up in the Mountains.

The boys making weapons out of anything they can find.

Cousin Seth protecting us from something.

 

Play-doh is always fun.

 

Ty's goal was to catch a chipmunk in his bug collector.  I'm so surprised it didn't work!

 

Lauren and Trey dumping woodchips into the fire water.

 

Uncle Georg taking the boys on a chipmunk hunt.

 

Of course, camping isn't camping without s'mores.

 

The favorite activity of all: Uncle John hanging the kids on the flag pole by their pants.  Seriously, the kids could not get enough of this, wedgies and all!

Family Pics

We took pictures with family this summer. Here are some of them:

All the girl cousins (except one) on my side

The four boy cousins.

All of them together.

Tyler and Lauren

Some of the boy cousins on Brad's side.

 

Ty and LaLa again.

It was a very stormy day on the Salt Lake! We kept running out to take pictures inbetween cloudbursts! What you can't see are my muddy jeans from totally slipping and falling. It was a crazy day.

Oregon, Part Two

Well, I'm finally finishing the Oregon Trip posts.

It's only been three months since we went. :)

Here's Grandpa giving Brad the low-down on getting a fishing pole ready.

Lauren plays on Grandma's new baby grand piano.

We went to the coast for a day with SuzyQ and the girls.

The kids sure love Montana...





...and JJ and SuzyQ too!

Can we say sand in everything?

JJ and Tyler in the canoe

Brad hoping he remembered everything Grandpa taught him.

Tractor fun for all! You can't go to Grandpa and Grandma's without driving the John Deere.

And finally, a trip to Fern Ridge with cousin Reed.

He's getting so big his parents let him take the boat out by himself. So cool!

Oregon Trip, Part One

Last month we made our way back to Oregon to celebrate my parents' 50th Wedding Anniversary. 50 years! Can you believe it?! All of us except my oldest niece (who had to work) met at SunRiver Resort near Bend and had a great time swimming, rock climbing, shopping, biking, playing, chatting, working out, cooking, and celebrating.

The kids had a great time rockclimbing.

Tyler and Carter near the river, picking flowers for their mamas.

The Schultz Clan

Fourth of July Fun

We had a great Fourth of July celebration this year. It started off at Temple Square on Saturday. We were supposed to meet our dear friends and cousins from Texas--Spencer and Sara--but they never quite made it! Instead we just met them at the restaurant. That's okay...if you're waiting for someone, Temple Square is a nice place to be!

Even though we live in the Salt Lake Temple district, and I also frequently take the youth there, I sometimes forget that our kids don't make it down there all that often, so it was fun to explore with them.

After Spencer's Birthday lunch, we made our way to Jump Around Utah, one of my favorite places for the kids (and Brad) to jump to their hearts' content. Of course, popsicles help cool them off, too. Ty was so excited to see his best friend Adelaide again. They were tied at the hip when we lived in Texas.

All the kids. Lauren did NOT want to be taking pictures. She wanted to be jumping!

From Jump Around Utah we headed down to Utah County. We were supposed to meet Brad's sister and family at the MTC field to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks, but they couldn't make it last minute. We decided to still go and hang out. This was such a tradition for me during my BYU days. I love the atmosphere and fun. I don't love the traffic jam afterward. It took us an hour and a half just to get to the freeway! Needless to say, it was a late night!

Monday the Fourth started a new round of fun. We BBQ'd with friends and then watched the Grantsvilled fireworks.

I'm so impressed with this little town's fireworks show. It's a little shorter than other shows I've been to, but what you get is way more spectacular. It's like fireworks on steroids!