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Girls Camp... Ally and her Dad
What's really hard to believe is that Taylor will be going to girls camp next year!

Utah Trip

Kaden and EJ had a great week at BYU Lacrosse Camp...and next up is Jimmer Basketball Camp. Yes, Kaden is VERY excited about that one. For a mother of five daughters, I'm sure doing lots of boy stuff. (And I love it!)
Right now, there are 10 football players swimming in the pool after practicing some football at the school a block away... and I decided to leave Coach Jamie in charge.

Kaden and Ethan also had lots of fun with Aunt Amy, who took them to Seven Peaks & Trafalga for lazer fighting and miniture golf...I think she rather enjoys spoiling them!

Costa Rica

Our world traveling daughter Amy, recently took a group of high school students to Costa Rica for a service trip. They worked at a school... painting, teaching and interacting with the kids and cleaned a conservation site in the rain forest. They also found time for zip-lining in the rain forest, a river boat tour, canoeing in a lake right below the volcano "Arenol" , swimming in wonderful hot springs, etc. etc. etc. Oh, and Amy also found time to teach her students a little salsa dancing. I sure wish I could be one of her students!

"Bamawinda"

How can I ever say no to this boy? Especially when he calls me "Bamawinda" like it's all one syllable...
10 packages of fruit snacks, sure. another ice cream cone, yeah. a bucket to dunk his head in, of course.

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The 5th Ward Bishopric about 1960
Jack Huntington, Fred Ficklin and Kendall Jones

These three wonderful men have remained friends throughout their lives. And their friendship has impacted all of our lives. Last Monday Fred Ficklin, whom I have always lovingly called Uncle Fred, passed away. We were able to go to the funeral and be with the wonderful Ficklin family, who I have always felt like I was a part of, and will love forever. They are amazing.
My heart is filled with gratitude for the Plan of Salvation and knowing that we will be with "Uncle Fred" and all of our loved ones again someday.

My dad and I were driving home after the funeral and I looked at my phone and Aunt LaRae was calling. I couldn't believe it. She called just to tell us how much she loved us and how grateful she was that we came. Aunt LaRae is one of the most Christ-like people I have ever known. Oh, I love her. She and mom were the very best of friends...for over 55 years.

Dad spoils us!

Dad, aka Grandpa...aka Papa Jack, loves to spoil us girls...

And we sure love him and every minute we get to spend with him. One of his favorite things to say is "Have I told you lately how much I love and appreciate you?" Well Dad, we are the ones who love and appreciate you... You are amazing!!! Thank YOU for being you, and spoiling us with your love and goodness. When I grow up, I want to be just like you.

Olivia

Olivia was the cutest little piggy in her school play and Kindergarten graduation last month.
I can hardly believe she is 6 and going into 1st grade.

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More Memory Monday pics from summer fun at Grami and Grandpa's...

Updates from Texas (June 2011)

Allyson is doing great on her mission in Texas. We love getting her emails every Monday.
She is such a blessing and a joy! Only 3 months, 4 weeks and 2 days until she comes home...but, who's counting!!

Sister Fonua and Ally (aka Sister Schlauder)

6/6/11

"Wow. This week was another full of great blessings and miracles. I am in awe every week at the way the Lord's hand is made so apparent to me in this work and in my family at home. The Lord is at work in each one of our lives and oh how He loves us so much."

6/13/11

Family!

"This week was a good one. I had what I like to think of as a classic missionary experience. We were knocking doors, which can become pretty routine after a while. You walk to the next house, up on the porch, ring the doorbell, wait, knock, wait... and then what happens from there varies. So, we had gotten like 3 no answers in a row and were just in the routine of things. I noticed the darker shade of the porch step up to the door and even admired it. Sister Fonua got both feet up and I got one. We sunk into the freshly laid cement square. It took longer than you'd think for us to realize what had just occurred. I blame the Houston Heat and Humidity. But what ever the reason, we left three deep footprints in someone's front step. We wanted to laugh and then wanted to cry and then wanted to just fix it somehow, but we knew we couldn't and we used a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet to reach across the wet cement to the doorbell and we rang and nervously waited. The woman opened the door. To make a long story short, I'll just say that she wasn't too happy. We tried to apologize and asked if we could replace it or pay for it. We tried to give her our number so she could call us when she calmed down to have us repair the damage somehow. But all she could say was 'are you blind?' And 'go away.' We walked away and she got one of the workers who was laying cement in her back yard to come look at it. He fixed it in about 3 minutes. It got me thinking a lot about our reactions to trials and problems. It got me thinking about how well my Dad responds to unexpected trouble or problems, like the famous story of Jennie and the truck through that man's house. Thank you for your incredible example, Dad. It also got me thinking about how we have total choice and agency over the way we choose to react to any and every situation. We have a choice and I am so thankful for that precious gift of agency we have to choose to be happy regardless of what situation we are faced with. And when it's hard to exercise that agency to be happy when someone steps in our cement, we can rely fully on prayer and upon our God. Sister Fonua and I both immediately began praying in our heart from the moment we realized we had created such a problem and our prayers were quickly answered as a man was able to come fix it in less time than it took for us to figure out how to ring her doorbell and tell her what we had done. Anyways. Just thought I'd share my thoughts on that. I am glad all ended well. God hears and answers prayers:)."

"I truly have felt immense joys in doing the Lord's work as a missionary. I know these types of experiences are available to us all as we strive faithfully to endure to the end and just share this great joy that we have with all who will hear it. The gospel is a part of who I am. It is a part of everything I talk about. It is everything to me. And I am so grateful for it."

Fury Football

Last week we went to San Diego to see Kaden and his Fury football team in the NYS National Championship Tournament. It was so cool. Kaden's team, The Fury, played awesome and beat the three time defending champions of the tournament, along with another good team, the Hoyas, and made it all the way to the semi-finals before playing a 4 year undefeated club football team from Arizona. Kaden scored the first touchdown of the game, but we missed the extra point. Then the Blackhawks scored two touchdowns and one extra point so the score was 13-6. There was only a couple of minutes left in the game and we moved the ball all the way down to the 2 yard line. With 1 second left in the game, our quarterback Greg kept the ball and jumped over the defensive players and clearly scored...(we have video that shows his whole body crossing the goal line) but, the line ref said that he couldn't see, and so the three referees huddled and the ref that stood behind all of our players called it and said that our player didn't cross the line, "game over." What?! Our kids and the coaches were so upset!! I wish we could have thrown a challenge flag or that they would've reviewed the play and looked at the video...but no, the refs just hurried off the field. We still would have had to score the extra point to tie the game or a 2 point conversion to win, but they should have at least given the kids the chance to win or lose and not determine the game by a very, very bad call. Oh well, I'm certain it won't be the last bad call of Kaden's sports career...but wow, these kids can all really hold their heads high, they played GREAT!

Way to go FURY!

It sure looked like Kaden scored on this play, even though the ref didn't think he got the ball over... oh well, we scored on the next play anyway!