Humbled

At a time in my life when the responsibilities of mothering five kids makes me feel like I am just treading water and not making much progress and then other times it can feel like I'm almost drowning......

I got a really weird answer to my prayers..... Lately I have been praying a lot for a way to do it all better... to be a better person, better mother, and a way to better understand my children's needs...My prayers I thought were a plea to be able to simplify and focus more on just my family....but then

....I was called (appointed) to be an early morning seminary teacher! What! ?I don't think that was exactly what I was thinking of... Do I need to rephrase my prayers?

But after much thought & prayer I know this is what I need to do at this time..What a great opportunity to teach & learn from the youth & teach & study the gospel of Jesus Christ.

If this doesn't force me to be more organized, simplified and spiritual I don't know what would.

The Lord answers our prayers...just not always in the way we expect.

WaHoo!! VONTANA!

My brother Von proposed to Tana!! He asked her a week ago at Silver Creek Falls, the day after we got home from Elk Lake! We had been bugging him all week about when? when? when? I've been holding out for a picture of them with a ring but I've given up so I'm posted some of there Elk Lake shots!



They will be getting married November 17 in the Portland Temple!

We are glad that Tana said yes even after spending a week in the rough with our family!

Congratulation Von &Tana! We are soooo excited!

ELK LAKE!!!

Why do we go to a place with no running water, stinky outhouses, no cell service, lots of bugs, rain.....because it's a tradition...our favorite in fact..... ELK LAKE! Why is it our favorite you ask? Here are just a few reasons!


The Lake!
.....

.The Trees!
The blueberries for my Pancake!

"Grandpa Camp"
.........The Hammock!

Homemade Ice cream & Root beer!

... Bill taking his turn cranking the Ice cream
.....Toni making the root beer...yes we had Root beer floats!

Hiking! Really only 2miles this year!

This year everyone packed a sack lunch and hiked to the end of the Lake...This is where all the logs stack up and is really fun to play on....But then it started...rain...and didn't stop for what seemed like days!...yes it dared to RAIN on our camp trip!

So Even with all the rain we had a great time... we just broke out the rain gear...


Uncle Von ready to go swimming...

Ty and Sophie trying to stay dry by the fire!


This year we had a few bonus events.....

1.We finally took care of Von's "camping hair!

2.Who's that special guy in the red shirt?I don't know but he swam out and got the island for us?
3.Leder's preformed @ skit night!



4. Von almost needing to be taken out by lifeflight after a Rock climbing incident....Remember Von...buy a helmet... (Tana was sick of waiting for him to give her a "rock"and so she threw one at him instead! ;)


5. We had LOTS of time just sitting by the fire...does Jessi, Leah,Ellie look excited or what!


6. Dori & Bill took a decent camping picture! (a miracle)

We are so glad we had almost all our family was there!

Frank,Annie & Micki drove from UT .

Von& Tana(Vontana their celebrity name)Came from D.C!

Wygants barely made it from Eugene and again we like to say the LEDERS Beat them!!!! (if only by 10 minutes!)

cousins!

Macy!

We just hope next year more than just the rain gets to play on "the island"!

Until next year!

Proposal on the Beach!

Due to being in charge of our ward campout and then camping in the deep forest for a week this story has been a little delayed!

It all started on Friday July 6th...Josh took Sheri out for dinner....While they were driving around trying to find some place to eat Bevin & Angela, Bill &I ,& Bill Sr. went down to the beach and buried a bottle with a message in it....for Sheri's eyes only!

Then we all hid out of view of the unsuspecting Sheri...We waited and waited and waited and waited while they hung out on the beach(eating their DQ). When the beach was all clear Josh took Sheri on a innocent walk and just happened to see a bottle partially buried in the sand! :)
After reading the message in the bottle Josh got down on one knee and proposed!!!!

This is the view from the hole...really all 5 of us were in a hole! The guy behind them just showed up as soon as it all took place!!! We were so ticked he is in the pictures!



After giving them a few minutes we rushed them like paporazzi and made them pose for us! It was so exciting! Then from the beach we took pictures on our phones and sent them to all the rest of the siblings! Tiffany, Ethan& Mom back at the beach house, Keros in Denver and even Morgan in Dominican Republic!

They are getting Married on Sept 22!

We are so excited to have Sheri (& her sweet little girls) in our family!!!!!

BEACH or Bust!

We spent 2 nights at the Beach this weekend with Bill's family. It was so fun! We rented a beach house on the bay. The real reason for going was so that his brother Josh could propose to Sheri! It was so cool...I will tell the story later when I get a picture of them on the beach.

Here they are coming home from the beach the newly engaged couple....I know the reflection off her ring makes it really hard to see them...Hee hee! :)

Here is a shot of us after Josh proposed to Sheri..Mom is looking at the pics on Angelas camera...Stayed tuned cuz you'll love the story...

This is the pier that you could see from our house....Everyone was crabing off of it

Posing right before going to the beach.... Silly Grandpa you're not wearing a swimsuit!

Abbie, Macy, Atalie, Sophie...What a bunch of cute girls!!

I was trying to get a cute sister picture but I guess this just shows how things really are!

Jessi loves the Beach!!

The kids were so cold after going in the water so Bill buried them in the warm sand....amazing they stopped whining after that....good thing or else their head would have been covered next!

Uncle Bevin& Aunt Angela

Macy took a long nap under a blanket then had sooo much fun in the sand!

Grandpa, Uncle Ethan, Bill, Uncle Josh, Uncle Bevin...talking Business on the Beach..as Ellie said "they were saying...mortgage..buy..sell..build...BORING...I just got away from them"! See all their white skin....well now it's all RED!

It was so great to get away and be with family and have so much fun. I loved it. We've already talked about doing it again next year...I think that's a great idea! Only thing I would do different was put more Sunscreen on everyone...The first coat of sunscreen only went so far...now we are all Fried! It was still all worth it though!! Thanks everyone!

HAPPY FOURTH!!!!

We just love the fourth of July it's one day when we don't hold back and have as much fun as we can. Last night Bill took the big kids....Jessi, Ellie & Ty to the Rodeo and today we went to the St. Paul Parade and Carnival!!! Here are just a few of our pictures!

Ty surprised us this year by wanting to go on the "big kid" rides...It just broke my heart and his when the first one that he tried to go on he was too short for! So we settled for "The Spider"! He loved it! Go TY!!!Our last stop of the day was to check out the bulls!! Gotta love the Rodeo animals!

Macy says it's Time to go home...she was probably more full than tired ...she ate...elephant ear, snocone, Teriayki chicken, noodles, dippin dots....anything she could beg off of us!