Cousin Camp, August 2009

Emmett was a little young for some of the activities, but he loved having Kayleigh and Amber play with him at the Ammon pool.

Amber, Tyson and Ethan.

We had perfect weather for hanging out on the deck for picnic lunches.

For Halloween, we went through the costume boxes and found something to dress up in.  We only went to a few neighbors and we gave out candy to them instead of receiving.  It was ridiculous, but kind of fun.

Tyson & Megan and the rest out trick-or-treating.

We had our own 4th of July celebration with fireworks & sparklers.

Grandpa Kurt gave us a scripture lesson.

We decorated gingerbread houses, or shacks, as Amber called them.  They were all cute and creative, but I only have a picture of Amber.

We had our cousin camp just a few days after returning from Nigeria.  It was fairly insane because I was not even recuperated from the jet lag.  Then there was the huge adjustment to being back in our big house surrounded by so many family members.  It was exciting, but exhausting.  Nonetheless, we had cousin camp.  Kurt came up with the good idea of celebrating the different holidays that we had missed with the kids while on our mission.  I'm lacking in photos of Dylan, Cassie and Brianna.  We also dyed Easter eggs and had an egg hunt after our swimming outing.  The kids had fun entertaining themselves while I sat around in a stupor trying to figure out what to do next.  All in all, it turned out fine even though I felt so out of it.  I never would have survived without the help of Heidi, Alicia and Haylee, not to mention Kurt and Owen.  Family fun is the best.

Getting Released

We went to meet with our Stake President, Doug Wheeler, to get released from our service as missionaries. It was time to take off the name tags and try to get back into our former life as parents, grandparents, homeowners, etc. We are adjusting just fine.

Our Welcome Home

I wanted to remember this awesome sight forever. Here we have our family at the airport to greet us on our return from our mission. So I was taking a picture of them as they were taking a picture of us.
We arrived home to a beautiful, sunny summer day. Later that day however, we were reminded of our crazy Idaho weather as we got some thunder, lightning, hail along with our usual wind. But for our drive back home, it was just gorgeous.