So long summer...

One of the best ways to spend the last days of summer is at the beach with friends. It was so fun watching the kids play so carefree at the beach. The boys boogie boarded...the girls searched for sand dollars and buried each other, I finally read New Moon. There is something about the beach that makes you forget about all your worries...it must have something to do with the ocean. Ended the day at IN N OUT. Can't get much better than that.
(pictures taken on blackberry...not the best quality)

Rachel, Allyson, Natalie, Devin, Alec, and Taylor...SUMMER 2009

Manresa Beach...Santa, Cruz

Boogie Boarding Buds...not quite surfin' duds

Both the boys and girls told me this was a dead jelly fish? But, I don't' know?

Fish #3

Steve and I make fish. Alec swam by 4...Rachel...by 3 1/2 and Amy at 4 1/2. By the way, my definition of swimming isn't standing in the 3ft section and playing around. I mean swimming in the deep end...diving for rings in the 6ft section...and making a good attempt of swimming a lap. Rachel was our earliest lap swimmer. The month before she turned 4 she could swim laps over and over. Maybe not with a clear freestyle...but without touching the side or the lane lines. Alec found a life long love with swimming laps. Amy swims a 1/3 of lap then needs a short break. I think it's because she doesn't have the muscles that Rachel and Alec had at her age. I'm so happy she loves it...because it is a great sport for someone with arthritis to do.

This video (filmed on my blackberry, so the quality isn't very good) is of Amy's first try at jumping off a diving board...she did over and over and over.

Dinner with David Nixon

Ok...I didn't know who David Nixon was either until a few days ago. Evidently, he played football for BYU and now for the Raiders. So, when Kyle called with tickets to the Friends and Family Day with the Oakland Raiders, Steve couldn't resist. Steve and Alec headed up to Napa to the Raider's Pre-season Camp to watch a practice then have dinner with all the players. Alec brought his football (that had previously been signed by other players) and Steve grabbed his BYU helmet to have signed by David Nixon and Todd Watkins.

Pictures of practice
More pictures of practice

This is David Nixon. Hasn't made the cut yet...but we are hoping. Both Alec and Steve got his autograph...but no picture of it.

This is Toni Stewart. We have met him a few times. He is good friends of Kyle's and has gone on the ward father/son camp out a couple of years. He's very tall and ripped!

Jonathon Holland

Darrius Heyward-Bey. He was the Raiders first pick.

Louis Murphy

JaMarcus Russell...he was the #1 NFL draft pick 2 years ago.

Tommy Kelly

?

Sup...homey?

Todd Walkins from BYU.

Happy 10th Birthday Rachel!

Another milestone in our house...Rachel is in the 2 digits. She's 10...10!


Rachel's top 10 things she wanted for her birthday...
1. A sleepover
2. Sleep outside in the family tent
3. A scavenger hunt
3. An orange birthday cake
4. An orange scooter
5. An orange ipod case (do you see a theme here?)
6. American Girl Doll Bed
7. A watch
8. Fabric
9. A small doll house for chickity (tiny TY stuffed animal)
10.Donuts and scrambled eggs for breakfast

Steve's darling "orange birthday cake" he made for Rachel. Orange is definitely her signature color. Or as Amy would say..."it's her famous color".

The Birthday Clan...Lily, Jessica, Lindy, Cammi, Kirsten, Rachel, and Kate.


Clue # 1
For and “optimal” checkout, a treat is deserved
You must go to a “kingly” place where ice cream is served.
Order a sundae for your group of 7 to taste.
Make sure to eat it all gone, there’s no time to waste!

Lord's Ice Cream

Thank goodness Kate wanted to eat the very last spoonful and for Kirsten for spotting the clue taped to the bottom of the dish.

Clue #2
You passed your 1st test, perhaps with some luck
You must now go to a store where everything cost a “buck”.
You must buy a special balloon from the manager of the store
To give to the gatekeeper, or you won’t get passed her door.

The Dollar Store

With a little persistance we finally got the assistant manager to get the manager...the only one who knew what was going on. She even gave Rachel a little present for her birthday...a cute coin purse.

Clue #3

The gatekeeper is a person you already know
Who teaches you music and also can sew.
She has the next clue, out back where it’s wet
In a floating device that won’t be easy to get.

Felecia Disbrow's pool.

Unfortunately she had gone...and her son fished the floating bottle out for them. We were hoping the would have to figure out how to get it out of the pool.

Clue #4

The next series of clues will require some skill
They must be decoded, using your smarts and your will.

20 8 5 14 5 24 20 3 12 21 5 9 19 1 20 1 16 12 1 3 5


15 6 12 5 1 18 14 9 14 7 23 8 5 18 5 25 15 21 3 1 14


3 8 5 3 11 15 21 20 2 15 15 11 9 19 21 7 7 5 19 20


6 9 14 4 9 14 7 “5 14 3 25 3 12 15 16 5 4 9 1 15 6


2 18 9 4 7 5 19 “ 20 15 6 9 14 4 25 15 21 18


14 5 24 20 3 12 21 5.

Here are the girls working on decoding the clue...

Cammi rocked on this!
After finish decoding...the clue lead them to the library were the had to look up the book...find the book...and retrieve the next clue.

Another code...this one in wingding font...Lily rocked on this one.

Civic Center Public Library

Clue#5
This book is on bridges, an interesting clue

If you’re clever and smart, you’ll know just what to do.

(this is what it said)
YOULL GO TO A BRIDGE THAT YOUVE BEEN TO BEFORE WHERE YOU LIKE TO THROW ROCKS RIDE YOUR BIKE AND MUCH MORE. LOOK ALL OVER THE BRIDGE FROM BENEATH AND ON TOP OR YOU WONT FIND THE CLUE AND YOUR QUEST WILL THEN STOP

Looking for the clue...

Lily finding the clue...

Reading the clue...

Clue #6

You’re now getting much closer to finding the prize
But, the clues now get tougher you’ll soon realize.
Go to a place of worship with a ball field out back
Find a bench where the ballplayers can watch the game like “Safety Jack”.

Ball field behind the church. Lindy was the luck finder on this one.

Clue #7

You’re now at the end this is the very last clue
If you can decode the message below, cool things will be coming to you.

G R S M D E R
O U E A T D E
T S U P H T
O S S T E R
T O E O B E
H H T F U A
E O H I R S
P U E N I U

Diggin' for treasure at Emily's sand pit. The girls had blast...and the treasure was found.

(party goodies with a giant magnifying glass for looking for future clues)

Home for presents and cake. Oh, and a cake eating contest.

Singing happy birthday to Rachel and Chickety.

Yes, that's the famous Chickity in front of Lindy..and a cake Rachel made for her to left of Rachel's cake.

The Cake Eating Contest...I think Lindy took first and Rachel took second.

Rachel being woke up before Dad leaves for work. The tradition of dad singing "Happy Birthday" in Spanish the morning of your birthday...something everyone looks forward to. I think it's a birthday tradition as important as cake around our house.

The clan outside the family tent they all slept in.

Cammi got sick the night before and went home.

The end to the a great birthday party...now family birthday stuff.

Grandma and Grandpa gave Rachel American Girl Doll stuff. A bed, a pet, an outfit and chair.

A watch from Amy and Alec.

The long awaited ORANGE scooter. A few months ago Rachel started riding Alec's old scooter and feel in love with it. The scooter wasn't easy to find. Razor stopped making the orange ones awhile ago. Luckily, Ebay had replacement parts...I bought the black scooter and just changed out the hand pads and wheels.

The look on Rachel's face when she opened up her eyes and found a very simple wood doll house for her "Chickety". I might be wrong...but I think it was her favorite.

"What a day!"

So close!

This is a video of Alec swimming individual backstoke at Championships. He missed 1st by .3 seconds. But, he did better his time by 2.84 seconds...which he was really happy about.

WARNING! I get a little excited and forget I am filming on my blackberry.

Ahhh...Tahoe!

There is something about Lake Tahoe that I just love. The mountains...the lake...the air. Most of all it reminds me of McCall, Idaho...a personal favorite vacation spot. And because we weren't going to McCall this summer because of our trip to Canada, I had to soak in every moment. As usual we headed up on Thursday afternoon, it should have been morning, but that is another story. We camped, we ate, we cooked, we swam, we jumped, we played, we golfed, we sang, we laughed, we cried...all with some of our closest friends. It's a family tradition I hope we never stop doing.

Camp Shelly in Lake Tahoe...it's the best!
Sitting at our campsite around a blazing fire Alec so joyfully built.

It was Steve's birthday while we were camping. I so carefully and secretly packed up ice cream, Ann Harker's famous carmel sauce (which is one thing Steve did ask for his birthday), whip cream, candles, and ingredients to cook apple crisp in the dutch oven for his birthday treat. He was one happy 41 year old.

Amy in front of our very functional family tent. However, it really only sleeps Steve, me, and Amy. The kids love to set up their own tents. It's fine by us...more room in our tent. Only down fall...more tents to put up and take down.

Prusso's always have something up their sleeves...Jeremy put together a mini zip line for the kids...Amy had a blast just zipping down the hill.

Alec had a blast this year because his best buddy Taylor and family came up this year. He usually is the only "older" boy around. The played a lot of ping pong, jumped off the poll many times, when rock jumping, and hiked.

The girls (Lily, Natalie, Kaya, Rachel and Cammi) in their pink camouflage Deharo shirts given to them by Dustin. They were trying to catch crawdads (sp?) to cook and eat at camp. Unfortunately, so many were caught the night before by the boys, there were none left for the girls to catch.

This year the girls found a spot behind the Harwood's camp site and had a blast playing store at "Stump City" with rocks, wood , etc. Oh...how dirty they got.

Alec jumping for the post about 75-100 yards (the actually yardage is still being debated between Steve and Emily) from beach...it's a favorite to do over and over every summer. This year the task of climbing it was difficult...the rungs and rope holes were a little hard to manage. But, as Emily and I decided...it wouldn't be so rewarding to jump off it, if it wasn't a little dangerous to climb up.

Yes...that's me.

Amy loving the beach. Didn't play as much in the water this year. Rachel and her both canoed with dad. Rachel snorkeled for buried crawdads the whole day.

Alec and Taylor found a large piece of drift wood. They tried to climb on and sit together on it. It never worked.

Last minute I threw in some markers and coloring books for the little ones. Good thing I did because it was a hit with them all. The glitter lip gloss Amy snuck up there was also a hit. What's camping without a little dress up make up?

Rachel's new found love is scootering. This is her on our last morning refusing to get packed up. She loves Camp Shelly.

The annual trip up to Emerald Bay look out before heading home. It is very beautiful...but do we really have to do it every year Steve?

Amy actually looking at the camera.