Schmid Happens - Prologue

The fun began on June 25th and lasted until July 17th!  Steve's family came from Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky to visit.  We had different groups of people at different times, but for one fantastic week, we had 19 people staying in our house.  We had a blast!  The only people missing were our niece Samantha, Steve's sister Heather, her husband Steve, their 3 kids and Steve's sister Heidi who lives with them.  Most of them will be coming next week to spend time with us!  I have been dying to post these pictures and stories, but we have had internet and computer problems galore here.  I finally have the ability restored to be able to post!  Get ready, cause it here goes!!!!

 Mike and Sheila and their family arrived late on the night of June 25th.  The next morning, Thursday, I took Aubrey and Addy to their last day of Archery class and Reagan accompanied us.  At the end of class the instructor let Reagan  hit a few targets.

After Archery, we met Sheila, Spencer and Emily for lunch.  After lunch Sheila, Spencer and Reagan left for Idaho to visit some friends.

And that same day Steve, Zac, Mike and Asher left for an adventure of a life time.  They loaded up the wheelers and headed south for a 4 day, on the trail wheeler trip.  According to them, this is now an annual tradition.

I hear the pizza was good as long as you didn't eat the bottom of the crust.  See that man in the red underwear?  He's all mine ladies, he's all mine.  This is his standard camping attire.

 Where they camped the first night.

 Steve and Zac might have forgotten to pack the tent poles.  By the last night I hear they had all the kinks worked out.

Saturday afternoon the Dulaneys arrived from Missouri, along with Amanda from Illinois.  They drove straight through, so they used this day as a day of rest.  I was still trying to get everything ready for the major convergence.  I went to Sam's Club for a whopper of a  shopping trip.  I had one of those big flat bed carts completely full of food.  I was only half way through with my list.  I took the cart up front and asked an employee if it was OK to leave it there while I got another huge flat bed cart and filled it up.  She said that would be find and she would watch it.  When I finished with my second cart, I went up front to pay to find my first cart MIA.  I asked the lady where it was and she said they have a policy that carts can only be left for 15 minutes and then they have to put it all back.  I informed her that that would have been handy information for me to have before  she told me my cart would be fine if I left it.  I had no idea what was even on the first cart!  She gave me some crazy way I would have to accomplish the task of refilling my cart, which included moving all the refrigerated items to another cart, letting her restock them, and then I would have to go try to remember all the stuff I had on the first cart, get it, then get the refrigerated stuff again, then check out.  What.  The.  Heck.  So I went straight to customer service, explained my situation, they found the first cart which was in the process of being reshelved but still had about half the items on it.  Somehow we put it all back together, they sent someone to help me completely load up my van, and I finally made it home!

Meagan and Emily went to Emily's friend Kelsely's house to swim.  They wanted to ride the lawn mower there.  I wouldn't let them.  So they wanted to scoot on the office chairs over there.  I wouldn't let them.

So this was the only way they would accept transport.  If we drove this way:

 Back at home, Aubrey and Addy attacked Josh.  Or Joshica as the girls called him all week.  

 On Sunday they Dulaney's went to the Air Force Base to see the air show.  These lovely ladies accompanied me to church.

And that afternoon, the grand convergence began.  Steve's dad Roy, his wife Rhonda and Steve's brother David arrived from Missouri.  Sheila and her kids returned from Idaho.  And around 11 PM the great adventurers returned from the trail.  Ed and Addy and I made breakfast for dinner that evening.  Amanda and Emily were the official egg tasters.  They had to have quite a few tastes before them deemed them suitable for general consumption.

A friendly game of kickball.

 Addy and Uncle David attacked everyone with Nerf guns.

Home at last and in great need of a shower.   Or two.

 Emily gave me a forced piggy back ride in which I almost lost my life.

 These lovely ladies sat with Grandpa and looked at scrapbooks for a couple of hours.  He told them stories about their parents and their growing up years.

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Father's Day 2014

Steve had been out of town and just barely made it home in time for Father's Day.  The kids were so excited to wake up Sunday morning and find him home.  After church on Sunday (you can tell it's after church because Steve is sporting his usual post church attire-black dress socks and shorts) Addy sent him on a scavenger hunt around the house to find the present she made for him.  Not only did she make him his own board game, she also made him twelve thousand pictures.

Who's your daddy?

No butty is better than you

After lunch we headed up the canyon and found a lovely place to "relax".  Only this wasn't quite as relaxing as when we did this a few weeks before without any children.  Despite the 7 year old that kept jumping on my back saying she was bored, I managed to read a few chapters to Steve out of the book we are reading.

We came home and had a delicious dinner.  I am so thankful for this man.  I am thankful for the kind of father he is to our children.  I am thankful for the example he sets for them and for me.  I am thankful for his unwavering testimony of the gospel and of Jesus Christ.  I am thankful he works so hard everyday for us.  I am so thankful that he is my best friend.  I am so thankful we get to spend eternity together.  I love you Stephen with a ph: Phsteven!  Thank you for loving me back!

Last Weekend - Camp Helaman, Special Olympics, and the Day I Kicked Everyone Out of the House

 Last Thursday, Friday and Saturday Zac had the opportunity to go to Camp Helaman.  It is a missionary prep for young men ages 16-18.  They are divided into districts and each person has a companion, just like in the mission field.  We loved hearing all of Zac's fun stories of the adventures he had while he was there.  He had a great time with the boys in his district and with his district leader and companion.  They gave all the boys who participated at tie and handkerchief and a coin like the one below.  It was a great experience for him and I am so thankful to our stake for providing it.

We got to hear all about their arm wrestling matches at camp Helaman.  With all the talk of arm wrestling, Steve couldn't help it and he challenged Zac to an arm wrestling match.  In order not to embarrass the old man, I won't tell you who won.  I'm sure though that he was weakened by the otter pop in his other hand (and possibly the 7 he ate before the match).

On Friday and Saturday, my sister Lauren participated in the Utah Special Olympics.  On Sunday we had an Olympic Champion Dinner in her honor.  She showed us all the medals she won and also told us all about her adventures at the Olympics.

Zac told us about Camp Helaman.

We managed to get a few games of Speed Rumikub in.

That night I announced to everyone it was time to get up off their boo-tays and get outside and appreciate and enjoy the fantastic weather and scenery we are so blessed with.  Everyone complained because they were perfectly content sitting right where they were.  I didn't give in though.  I kicked them all out of the house.  Once we were outside, they got into the spirit of the whole thing and we had a lovely walk.  "Our" horses were happy to see us again.  They used to be in the pasture right behind our house and would always come over to talk to us when we were outside.  A few weeks ago they were moved to the next pasture over and we have missed them.

I pointed out the lone cow stuck in the pasture with the horses (that explains the mooing we hear at night).  Steve and Zac paused to check the poor lonely cow out, and I had to take a picture since they not only look exactly alike, but they were also standing exactly alike as well.

Every.  Time.  I.  Go.  Walking.

I wanted a cute picture of the girls on the bench.  They would not cooperate.  I took about 20 pictures of them acting like this, until they finally complied and I got one good picture.

Zac, giving Emily a lift back home.

We were able to watch the sun set on our way home and it was absolutely gorgeous.