Someone has an addiction. Well, probably more than one someone in our house. But one someone in particular just can’t quite get enough …
Snow Cones
I’m just glad that I found a recipe out in blogland that is cheap and easy to help feed his addiction. I typed it up and thought that I would share it with each of you.
ENJOY!!!
Swimming over at the Berryman’s
Roller Skating with friends
Snow Cones
Late night movies outside in the dark.
Slip and Slide Fun
Visits from Family
Fun with friends.
Stephen took the older ones swimming this week at the YMCA with friends and then we had another play date with the Mason kids on Friday.
Mix in the Spring cleaning that I have been doing and then all of the laundry from camping and can I just say I AM EXHAUSTED!!!!!!!!!
Jacob is such a sweet, easy going boy. I can’t believe that he is 12!!! He loves to draw, read, play the piano, explore nature and play with his brother. He has read an incredible amount of books. He devours them just like his father does.
Did I mention that he is also very handsome! I have always loved his cute dimple.
This year for his birthday he got a BB gun. The fun part about the BB gun is that it was actually Stephen’s when he was young.
Since this is his 12th birthday, he was ordained to the office of a deacon and received the aaronic priesthood. Both sets of grandparents came for this very special occasion.
Jacob also received his Faith in God award the week before. There are quite a few requirements that you have to complete. We usually have the kids bring down their Faith in God booklets on Sunday afternoons to work on it. It is a good activity for Sunday afternoons and more important “it gets done”! We are really proud of Jacob because a boy has not received this award in our Ward for a very long time. I feel that with each program he accomplishes, it just makes him that much stronger and confident to complete another.
Yes we had a baby here today and thankfully I didn’t deliver him! He was so precious and my kids LOVED holding him. We really wanted to keep him, but Doug and Bethany wouldn’t let us.
Bethany was patient and let me do a fun photo shoot with him. I usually don’t post photo shoots but couldn’t help putting this one in because he stayed with us over night and has been quite a hot topic for all of my girls. Also, I’m so behind on Jacob’s birthday and fun things that we have done this week, but after messing around with this picture tonight, I just couldn’t resist sneaking this post in today.
I think we just might have to take a few more when I go down there next week.
Speaking of photo shoots I did another fun one yesterday, for a sweet friend. Her daughter is turning eight and will be baptized the end of this month. She is such a pretty girl.
As you can tell from my blog, I sure have fun with photography. I just love capturing all of the stages and memories of my kids. They are getting big so quickly and I HAVE to HAVE pictures to remind me of this time in my life. We are SOOO lucky to live in a day and age that picture taking is so easy!
On the last night we had a fun talent show where each family performed a little skit. Then each of Don and Brenda’s kids told stories of their childhood. Brenda talked about how we can learn from each other stories. She talked of how there are many stories found in the scriptures that we can learn from. She then gave each of the grandkids the new Gospel Picture Art Books.
She had a sweet letter in with each book. The book is filled with beautiful pictures and then the scripture reference to the story. She told the kids that for every 10 stories that they would read and learn she would pay them $5 and their favorite candy bar. They can either call or write her a letter telling the story. Well, of course Nathan is quick to add up all the stories and figure out how much money he can earn from reading all the stories. Rebecca has been wayyyy into her book doing it each day since we have been home. Ashley loves looking at the pictures in the book.
I just loved the idea. What a fun way for the kids to study the scriptures and to be rewarded by their grandparents.
We of course had a big campfire and did s’mores.
The last day we had Indian War Paint face painting by Aunt Janie and Aunt Erin. Then the kids colored reunion T-shirts for the craft. And last but not least as we headed out of the park we played balloon volleyball and did Indian leg wrestling and arm wrestling. I love the expression that Leah had on her face every time she arm wrestled.
And yes, Stephen is very glad that his turn for hosting the reunion is over. He did an awesome job!!!
Now for the water fun. The Thompson’s always have to have some type of water play scheduled into the reunion. This year Stephen had my brother Keith do a little boating fun. Keith has an incredible boat! It has huge speakers with Sandy as the DJ. He has ALL the toys you could ask for – water skis, tubes, wakeboards and even a surf board. Not to mention, that the boat is huge and comfortably seats a ton of people. Anyway, just had to brag on my side of the family a little since I’ve only been talking about Stephen’s. Here is Keith showing his tricks (I got one of him upside down in a flip but of course it was blurry!)
Here Keith is teaching them how to do the surf board. You hold on to a rope and get a feel for the boat’s waves and then toss the rope aside and just surf using the boat’s waves. Keith made everything seem so easy, but after watching others you could tell it was quite difficult. Janie however was quite quick to catch on to the surfing. Yeahhh Janie!
Tubes are always fun for ALL ages. The older ones do tube fights to see who can stay on the longest and the younger ones can just enjoy the water.
They have the same smile in the above picture, don’t they!?! Below is Grandpa Don. He is 73! He fought with Paul in the tubes and then even tried to water ski. Grandma Brenda water skiied and got up!
This next one is my favorite! Ashley LOVED the tubes. She LOVES water. I love her expression. I love Steve’s expression as he talks to his brother on the other tube. And then I love seeing their feet!
Now for the wakeboarding pictures. I wakeboarded and got up. Did Stephen take a picture of me? NO he didn’t and I wasn’t happy about that!! I took a picture of HIM!!!
Once again I took a lot of pictures but I will share just a couple.
Thanks again Keith! You about have me convinced that Stephen needs to buy a boat!
We woke up early and headed out to Mesa Verde. Here is Nathan pointing it out.
We were able to get there early enough to get tickets to BOTH the Balcony House and the Cliff Palace. I knew that we were doing an Indian reunion, SO I bought some Indian beaded necklaces for the girls off of ebay. I got quite a few in a group for only $2 a piece and I later found out that they retail for $40 a piece. In the next picture you can see the older girls necklaces.
The next photo is the Thompson group ready for the tour. EXCEPT, Stephen and Jerrica are not in the picture. Jamin was late so Stephen went looking for him. I should photoshop him in so that we can have at least one picture with everyone in it!
The rest of the pictures are just random, fun ones of the family. I took a ton of pictures, but won’t fill my blog with them now. Here is Uncle Jon with my boys. They adore him because he is always playing with them. I was trying to take a picture of just my two when Jon snuck in!
Next are the two newlyweds. I still can’t believe that Janie is married. She should still be EIGHT years old!
Grandma Brenda always had Rebecca or Ashley hanging on her. She is so patient.
Next we have Aunt Lael. She is always smiling and is always so willing to help out in any way.
Here is Jamin with their new little boy, Christopher. Not only did Jamin climb all the ladders and go through all the tunnels, but he did it with a baby on his back!
Here are two more of Stephen’s sisters. (He has SIX sisters!) Here is Erin with her beautiful smile and then Racquel with her husband Paul. Racquel is organized and keeps the family all on track.
Ashley was obsessed with the soft dirt in the cliff dwellings. She would plop down whenever the tour guide would stop to discuss something and immediately begin to play in the dirt.
As I tried to watch and control my kids up in these cliff dwellings, I thought about the little Indian children that used to play in these dwellings. What a nightmare to keep your kids from falling down the cliff!
While we were there, the tour guide showed us a kiva. A kiva is a place that sacred practices were performed in and was a spiritual place for the Indians. Well, of course my Jerrica decided right then to throw her water bottle down into it. The entire tour group of 50 people let out an audible gasp. I felt horrible until the tour guide pulled out his pole with a claw on the end to get it out.
We did have one pregnant one in our group. Janna braved the ladders and hiking for the tour. Here she is on her last ascent of the day.
Speaking of ladders, on the first tour we were supposed to stay right behind any toddlers and follow them up the ladder. I was a little scared of how high up we were and went a little slow. Ashley probably should have followed me up!
Jacob LOVED every minute of Mesa Verde. He was constantly trying to repeat little facts that he learned. His cousin, Lexi and him found a little wikiup at lunch time and had fun checking it out.
We were all SOOOO exhausted from the tours and hiking! We headed to a park in Durango to relax and have dinner. Stephen had ordered gourmet pizza from “Mamma’s Boys”. It was SOOOO delicious!!!
