Todd's Graduation

No need for words - the smile says it all!

Todd graduated from Provo College with a degree in nursing on May 31. He was selected to speak on behalf of the other nursing students at graduation. Don't know why my camera decided to act up - the pictures are kind of blurry, but they captured the gist of what was happening!

Sundance Children's Festival

We went to Sundance to the Children's Festival. They had a petting zoo, face painting, pony rides, a clown making balloon animals, and a reptile show. Branson was one of those picked to be able to help hold the 30 foot long snake.

Never say never!

I got a call one Monday at work from Kelbee. It went like this:
Nammi, can we get a trampoline – please, please, please? (And in the background I hear Yeah, Nammi, can we get a trampoline, please, please please?)
I told her I’d have to talk to Papi. On my way home from work I got a voicemail that said: Nammi, this is Kelbee. I’m calling from your bedroom phone. I’m just wondering if you’ve had a chance to talk to Papi yet about getting a trampoline. You can call me back on your bedroom phone. (When I got home I found my cell phone number written in her handwriting sitting on the night stand next to the phone.)
When Dave got home I told him about the phone calls (the grandkids were surrounding him, jumping up and down – can we Papi, can we?) (When the kids were younger we always said - no way, no how when asked if they could get a tramp. So, I just "knew" Dave would say no to her.) Imagine my surprise when he said - you want a tramp? Well, let's call Costco and see how much they are. They didn't have one but Sports Authority did, so by the end of the evening, we had a nice new big tramp in the back yard. The elders stopped by to talk to Dave about something before one of their appointments and 'just happened to have extra time before the appointment' and were quite willing to help put the tramp together. It was so funny – after they’d gotten it all put together, without looking at each other or even talking about it, they both took off their shoes and jumped on and jumped for awhile!

Are they for real?

Fish don't really get this big in real life do they? Especially if they're from a lake? For the last 3 years Dave has gone to a fishing lodge about 2 hours by plane north of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada with some of his brothers and friends in May. (Last year they attempted to get there 2 days in a row but couldn't because the weather didn't allow it - too low a ceiling.) That plane you see is on the "runway" so there are strict rules as to when they can and can't land. This year Brian was able to go along and participate in the fun. The fishing is a "catch and release" system - I think that's why the fish grow to be so big. They have a better chance of living in that lake, even with the fisherman there. They do keep some they catch and fry them up right there on the shore of the lake. Dave says there's nothing like a freshly-caught and fried fish. Yummm! It's something he really enjoys and looks forward to. There are no phones or other interruptions - they can just fish, relax, sleep, eat, etc.

Our first cruise - but definitely not our last!

Our friends Rod and Chere Iverson from Las Vegas (he's one of Dave's old missionary companions) have been trying to get us to go on a cruise with them for several years. We always had to tell them that we couldn't afford it. They fixed that when they called in 2006 and told us that they had a free cruise and we were going to be the beneficiaries of it. We certainly couldn't argue with that (and why would we want to!) We got our passports, booked our airline tickets, took vacation time, and headed to Miami to head into the Caribbean. This cruise far exceeded our expectations. We loved every minute of it and were sorry to see it come to an end. Our first stop was the Royal Caribbean private beach in Labadee, Haiti where we just relaxed on the beach. The next stop was Jamaica - where we experienced the zipline through the jungle - quite the neat experience. Then it was on to the Cayman Islands where we went snorkling, and our final stop was at Tulum - ancient Mayan ruins. On board we watched an ice skating show, attended a concert by Mickey Dolenz from the Monkees (ooh, that dates us!), and saw a couple of other shows presented by the cruise line entertainers. When traveling at sea I soaked up some rays while reading. Dave on the last day at sea tried his hand at wakeboarding (and a little surfing) onboard the ship and fell in love with it. Everyone had always talked about cruise food, and boy - they weren't exaggerating! You could have as much as you wanted and had a wide variety of choices.
After we got back and were telling the kids about it and showing them the pictures they were all enthused and indicated they'd also like to go on a cruise. Since our plans are to pick up Mitch next summer we decided we'd shoot for the spring of 2010 to take our next one. We haven't decided exactly where we'll go - it may very well be the same itinerary as this one was - but it'll be somewhere in the Caribbean. We absolutely loved the cruise scene and can't wait to do it again! It's a whole new world we didn't really even know existed!!

Our Family

This is our favorite family picture thus far (even though today we have 3 more granddaughters than are in the picture). This was taken in the Joseph Smith home in Palmyra, New York on our trip in the summer of 2006. This trip took us to Cedar Point, Gettysburg, New York City, Hill Cumorah, Niagra Falls, and Kirtland, Ohio.