Snowflake Cousins and Horses

Here are some pictures of hangin' out in Snowflake. I love it when my kids get to go there and hang out with their cousins.

Mindy's son Briant rides Thunnnnnnnder Bolt with Uncle Travis helping

Doug helps Ryan ride Dana - it's only right, they have the same color hair

Cooper loves to ride Business - he was a bit sore after going riding for a couple of hours with his Uncles Doug, Wynn, And Travis and his cousins Jake and Tori. He got to ride Grandpa's horse Chester on the ride.

Trav and Teresa's son Trevan poses
Josh and Trevan 2 cute cousins

Shelby relaxes on the floor

Cooper's trying to strike a Heisman pose

Kari and Alden's Wedding Reception

Kari and Alden show up at the luncheon
Kari and Crystal at the Luncheon
Kari Sings to Alden "I cross my Heart"

I took a few pictures of Kari's wedding reception. Most of my time was spent in the kitchen serving refreshments and Jeff mixed about 20 batches of Frappe. All of the girls in the family were working to keep the chocolate fountain flowing, the cake served, and the frappe cups filled. Darrell and Crystal had to make an executive decision about 2 1/2 hours before the reception to move it to the Pioneeer Park chapel from the lawn by the James M. Flake home because it started blowing and raining as we were setting up. I've got to say, the kitchen help was pretty relieved about that because it would have been tough to keep up with the fountain and the frappe without a kitchen.

Kari looked like a Princess in her wedding dress and the kids had a great time dancing at the reception. I wish I had my camera when Kari danced with her Dad. They did a great swing and Kari's dress flowed just beautifully. I did get some good cutting the cake pictures and the throwing of rice when they left.

Wedding Cake
Wedding Cake Again

Posing at the cake table

Cutting the cake

Delicately feeding each other cake

A messy kiss

Nice wedding MakeupHappy couple Kari and Alden Whipple

This is what happens when you have a bunch of brothers

Kari and Crystal

Darrell - the proud Dad

Mannaseh clears out before Kari throws the bouquet

Daliah Scores

Alright already Alden - get the Garter

There it goes

Getting ready to leave

Rend and Crystal

I had to get a least one of my kids in here

Daliah and her prize

Avoiding little missles of rice

They play the ole swithcheroo and take Kari's truck instead of Alden's ha ha brothers

Cooper and Shelby Perform

On Friday night our kids had their piano recital. My cousin Rob Solomon is their teacher and had scheduled a recital, and I really wanted the kids to participate even though we were planning a trip to Snowflake for Kari's wedding. The recital was at 6pm so I asked Rob if my kids could be at the first of the program so we could sneak out after they played. He obliged. They both played really well and I have video of them playing, but they've both refused to let me post it on the blog, so I'll comply with their wishes. Cooper played "Cossack Ride" and played it great. Shelby played the accompaniment for "Only Hope" from the movie "A Walk to Remember". Since it is an accompaniment part, she asked a neighbor girl to sing it while she played. They both did really well, and I'm proud of Shelby for all of the work she put into learning that song. She's worked on it for about 6 months now.

Cooper Got His Bear Badge on Thursday Night

Kari's Shower Slide show

Nephew and Niece

This week I guess you could say I put some focus on my Nephew and my Niece. I babysat Josh -Amy's son on Monday while she went to the dentist. He loved hangin out in Dicey's cage and he really loved wandering around the backyard.

Kari went through the temple Saturday morning and we had several family members there with her. Jeff took Cooper to his first Flag football game. It was a looooonnnnggg game as they had to be there an hour early and then the game didn't start until 45 minutes late. After I got back from the temple I got the house ready for the shower and put together my fruit salad.

There was a nice turnout for the shower and Kari got a lot of nice gifts. We had lots of food and I ate way too much of it. If the pictures will ever finish uploading I'll add a slide show of the pics from the shower.

Last night I crashed on the couch and finished reading a book called "Killing Sacred Cows". I'll recommend it as a good financial book with a lot of ideas that I want to implement. Alden (Kari's fiance) hung out here with me while Kari went to a "bachelorette party" with her friends. Shelby and her friends went around the neighborhood playing bigger and better and somehow ended up with a tube of chapstick (after starting with a clown doll). I'm still trying to figure out how that's bigger or better than nearly anything, but they had a great time. Jeff took Jackson and Cooper to the football game and watched ASU get beat by Georgia.

Today Shelby got to play a viola obilgato part while the choir sang in sacrament meeting. I got to substitute the Sunbeam/CTR 5 class and had a few laughs there. I'd say I'm glad I don't have that calling, but then I'd probably get it - but it does make me really grateful for all of my kids primary teachers. This afternoon we had home teachers, got a nap, I made rolls, then fixed dinner and we fed the missionaries. It's been a full week.

Big Brother

I had a story about getting stopped last week and asking if I could not get written up if I mentioned one of the members of the force. I am deliberately using ambiguous language because after posting that story I got a call from my husband telling me that someone had called and said that the powers that be in his city called him and told him that the story was posted on my blog and that he could get into trouble if his superiors found out that his name was used to get out of a citation. If you read the story before I had to take it off, you know that it was very mild and not really interesting at all, but apperantly there is a Big Brother who watches what is posted on the internet.

I was so surprised that my little blog with a total of 52 hits as of yesterday, caught the attention of big city authorities. So - Watch what you post on the WEB - Big Brother is Watching!!!

This Exciting Week

Our stake Young Women played Volleyball on Tuesday night. It was really fun except for the fact that the Inter Stake center was a complete sauna. I don't remember ever being that hot in there. Luckily each group of girls is only there for an hour, but I certainly didn't want to stay and play with the RS women after staying through both hours with the girls.



Saturday we had a good work morning for our family. We got Shelby and Cooper out by the pool and trimmed up all of the plants in the landscaping. My hands and arms are scratched and poked all over and I felt like I had arthritis in my right hand from the pruning shears yesterday, but after a few hours our weeds are all cleared out and the plants are trimmed up so they can flourish this winter. Cooper and Shelby worked hard. I know that it doesn't seem fun for them, but it's such a great feeling when you're done with a project like that.



Last night Jeff and Cooper went to the ASU game and came home very disappointed that the Sun Devils lost to UNLV. Shelby and I hung out and watched "A Knight's Tale".



Today I left during Jeff's Sunday School lesson to go to Mindy's ward. This evening after dinner I oriented Ridge ward's new YW presidency, then we had our second Youth Committee meeting. I'm really excited to work with this group of kids this year. I think they'll be a lot of fun!!

We Caught The Mouse

This hasn't been my most event filled week. Last Sunday I started getting a sore throat, and was worried that I was going to feel badly for our Labor Day ride. Luckily - I got a break that day and my throat wasn't bad at all. But - Tuesday it came back full bore. I don't think I've had one that bad in years. I didn't go to Notations, but stayed home and rested (I did still walk on the treadmill). Wednesday it was still kind of bad, so I stayed home and cleaned out my linen closet. Exciting - I know, but it feels great to have it clean and organized (at least util the kids get a towel out).

Well I was reminded that my cleaning ladies had pointed out some mouse "tracks" in my window and in Shelby's window when they were last here when I found them on the floor of the linen closet as well. I just don't like knowing that mice are running around my house at night! Well I got some mouse traps and set one in my window and one in Shelby's window. I woke up the next morning to find that the mouse had stolen the graham cracker spread with peanut butter from the trap and left a few tracks to taunt me.

Then I got sneaky. I pushed cheese farther onto the trap and spread peaunut butter on top of the cheese. Then I pulled out my garbage from under my kitchen sink to find that there had been some Mouse extravaganza going on under there. So - I put one trap under sink, one in Cooper's window (yes he'd been there too) one in the linen closet, one in Shelby's room and one in my room.

Friday morning showed success - the nasty little rodent was caught under my sink and will no longer be taunting me with his poop all over the house.

We have another trap under the sink now - both Jeff and I are just sure that one mouse couldn't have left such a mess - but nothing since then. Hopefully we've taught them all a lesson. You don't mess with the Danas.

The rest of the week was not near as glamorous as catching a mouse. Friday I went to the temple. Cooper spent the night at Jackson's house, Shelby was embarrassed by going out to dinner on a Friday night with her parents (according to her she "has no life"). We watched a movie downstairs that night. Saturday was quite busy. I went to a baby shower for one of my former Young Women Camie Brown (I don't remember her married name), then Jeff and I shlepped over to West Phoenix for a lunch for his former roommate - Hudson Johnston's 40th birthday. It was good to see he and his wife Leilani and Tom and Susan Allen. We stopped by Jeff's parents afterward to pick up the tickets to the Sun Devils game then picked up Cooper and Jackson so they could go to the game with Jeff.

I'm still fighting a bit of this sore throat, but I think it's improving. I hope I won't have to take an antibiotic.

Labor Day ATV Ride

Isn't that a georgeous view behind us? This Monday instead of Laboring for Labor Day, we went on an ATV ride with a couple of other families, the Hunsakers and the McClaws. We had a great ride on the Roger's Trough loop just North East of Florence Junction off Highway 60. It was a beautiful ride. The Desert is so green and the rivers were running - that made riding through them a lot more fun. We came home flecked with mud, and worn out from the 32 miles we rode.

Shelby, Conner Hunsaker, Trevor McClaws, Megan Hunsaker, Haley McClaws, and Cooper

Shelby and Cooper by Cooper's quad

Every time we ride Cooper is the Die Hard of the group. When the rest of us were sore from the 3 1/2 hour ride and ready to load up the ATVs Cooper wanted to ride around the parking area first. Then after we came home he was asking to ride his motor bike. We're sure that his ATVs will always have the most miles on them, but he loves every minute of it. He's been a natural since his first ride.

After we got home Jeff went to work cleaning the quads and mowing the lawns while I took a great nap. Then for FHE that night the Hunsakers and McClaws came over and the kids swam and we made homemade pizza and icecream. It was a nice break from school for the kids.