Exciting Day

July 12th 2013 turned into a very exciting day for us.  

At 7:00pm we went to Randy's "pinning" ceremony as he finished the LPN program at EITC. We are very proud of you Randy!

Then about 10:00pm we learned that Jared had become engaged to Nikelle Bair! We are so excited to welcome Nikelle into our family in the near future!

What have we been up to lately?

TENNIS!  As soon as Jared was released, and we had eaten we went over to Matsuura's to play tennis. 

Cindy, Blake, Randy and Jared all played for a little while.  We had signed Jared up to play in a league, so he needed a little practice because they had a match that night!

Here he is playing doubles with Randy the very night he got home. He was a little rusty, but did ok.

PHONE…

We got Jared a new phone so he could be part of our family group texts and pictures. 

ANIMALS…while Cindy was here we went to cousin Becky's little petting zoo, or at least that's what Cindy acted like!

Cindy loves kittens and caught the wild little ones to hug. They got to help milk the cow and feed the calves. 

WORK…five days after Jared got home, he was offered a job with his  Uncle Terry ,  wiring  houses and buildings.  We are very grateful for this opportunity!  He has decided to make this his career.  He now has his apprentice license and will start school at EITC in the fall.

Jared bought his own tools so he didn't have to borrow them.

TENNIS IN BOISE..Blake's spring mixed doubles team qualified to go to Boise and play in the regional section.  We went the first weekend of June. They even won a few matches!

Playing at the Boise Swim and Racquet Club. 

FOUR WHEELING.…Blake, Jared and Courtney (Randy was sad he had to work) went 4wheeling near Swan Valley one Saturday. 

The wild flowers were in full bloom!

TRIMMING TREES…most of our pine trees were getting out of control, so Blake and Jared trimmed them up . 

They took many loads to the dump.  They also disturbed some birds and nests. 

MORE TENNIS…Blake, Randy and Jared were all playing on the same 18 and over team, and Blake also played on a 55 and over team. There were a lot of matches! Jared had a hard time making it on time because he was working so late. Blake and Jared also played in Yuki's invitational tournament. 

The top 5 pictures are of the league matches. The bottom 3 even include Courtney in some just for fun tennis. 

FIXING THE WELL…we had been having the pump to our well turn on all the time even when no water was running. Finally, Blake decided that there was a leak between the well and the pressure tank. He decided that it was in the pipe that was under the patio.  

He dug up around the well to see where the pipes were. Then he took apart the wall in the basement.  Clem Yancey came with his little tractor/backhoe and dug the trench to the house.  They had to reroute the pipe through the basement wall, drilling the hole in the cement was very difficult. 

They got the pipe rerouted, rewired the well, fixed the sprinkler line they had cut, then used Clem's tractor to fill in the trench. Yay water!  Really appreciate water after two days without it!

Next came the job of filling in with some top soil and planting new grass. 

JULY 4th…we did something a little different this year. Blake, Randy, Courtney and I went to Island Park and floated down Mack's River. It was very peaceful and beautiful. 

It was a beautiful day! We also drove over to Henry's Lake. 

YELLOWSTONE BEAR WORLD... July 13th, Blake, Courtney, (once again Randy had to work) Jared, Nikelle and I went to Yellowstone Bear World. It's really a fun place to go.

We found the three bears!  Then, one just about ate Jared. They loved feeling the velvet on this deer. 

He's Home!

Jared was scheduled to come home on May 23rd at 12:22 pm!

Cindy flew in the day before.  So glad she could come!

On Thursday morning we started tracking Jared's flights. He flew from St. Louis to Salt Lake and that flight went just as planned. He was supposed to have about an hour layover in Salt Lake.  About 11:00am we started to see on our flight trackers that he was going to be delayed. I was going crazy, didn't know what to do!  Courtney tried to have jared paged at the SLC airport, but he didn't answer. Finally, about noon, I couldn't take it any more, so we left for the airport. We waited at the airport until 2:15!

We were so excited to see that he had left St. Louis! There's his plane, he's here!

I can see him!  There he is with Elder Perkes and Elder Lauk!  Love that smile!

There is nothing like that first hug!

Hugs all around! Smiles too!

Greetings for Cindy, Randy and Courtney! Then facetiming with Brian, Celia, Maden and Annie!

Grandparents!

We are so glad to have Jared home! We are so proud of him!

A visit from the Erie Purcell's!

Brian is attending Anesthesia school in Erie, Pennsylvania. He had semester break starting on Friday, May 10th, so they came to visit.  Maden let us know it took 2 cars and 2 planes to get here. We picked them up in Salt Lake at 9:00pm on Friday.

Maden and Annie got tired waiting to board the plane. They made it to Salt Lake! In the pickup on the way to Idaho. Maden stayed awake almost to Malad! He and I had a nice visit.

Saturday's activities included finding the IPad, playing games with Courtney, and Annie learning to like the "jump suit" and playing pool.

Saturday also included swinging and playing some ball games.

Annie got to meet her Great Grandma Beth, and Grandpa Chin Chopper.

Maden got to help dig in the dirt and replant a plant.

We did a "photo shoot" with Annie. (We were not too successful on getting the perfect picture though. But it doesn't matter, she's so cute!)

Sunday, we went to church. Maden went to the Sunbeams, it was fun for me to sit behind him in Sharing time. He participated very well and sang the songs. After church we got to talk to Jared on the phone. It was fun for Brian and Celia to actually be here for the phone call. We did a conference call with Cindy, so we were all in on the conversation. 

Here we are all gathered around the speaker phone talking to Jared. Maden sang him a couple of songs, one was Popcorn Popping, he even did the actions, Jared and Cindy couldn't see the actions, but the rest of us sure enjoyed it. Just couldn't get enough of hugging those babies!

On Monday, Maden figured out that he could play with a puppet and not be scared, he did some hopscotching and chasing bubbles.

Monday afternoon we went to Idaho Falls to help Grandma Purcell plant some flowers and mow her lawn. Maden loved digging and riding on the lawn mower with Randy. Annie met her Grandma Great. 

Happy girl in the morning!

Blake had to work on Tuesday, so Brian went to observe. We took the kids in to see Daddy and Grandpa and meet the people at Parkway.

I found the old light bright. Maden really enjoyed playing with it.

It was quite windy and not so warm outside, but we went out to blow some bubbles anyway.  Then the kids snuggled with Mommy to get warm.

Blake and I took Maden to Courtney's school. He wanted to get on the big tires first thing.  Courtney's "kids' were very cute with Maden.

Courtney and Maden went down the big slide.

Inside the classroom, Maden got to sit at the big table and write his name. Then "Mrs. Purcell" took him around and introduced him to all the kids. He liked 9 year old school.

Wednesday morning we went and played air hockey with Grandpa Chin Chopper.

Then Maden went to Idaho Falls to get "Blue" out of the shop and help Randy fix it.

Then we went bowling at Skyline lanes.

Annie enjoyed the attention and watching everyone bowl. I love spending time with these two!

Back at home we went outside for awhile. These are the many faces of Annie girl.

Maden blew some more bubbles.

And played some more ball games.

Maden decided he wanted to climb our big tree, when he couldn't do it by himself, he asked for Celia's help. They decided the tree was just too big.

Thursday while Blake and Brian were back at Parkway, we took the kids to Jensen's Grove to play. It was very windy and not very warm, but Maden had a good time playing on the slides. He plays so good with even stranger kids.

During their stay here, Blake, Brian, Celia and Randy got to play a lot of tennis, but I didn't go take any pictures. 

There were a lot of stories read every night.

We played a lot of games. Maden is very good at following the rules and catches on to the games very quickly.

Friday, we headed for Utah. We stopped in Ogden for lunch at Iggy's. The we went to the Treehouse Children's Museum.

There was a huge map, with questions for you to find the right place. Annie just hung out in her "home state".

Maden was President for a few minutes, I guess Annie was the VP. She learned to sit up really well during her time in Idaho. The Ogden temple is next to the museum, so you can see the construction going on. Maden loved the big "chest" game. Brian built an arch and dared to put Annie under it.

Dr. Maden putting a skeleton puzzle together and taking care of the babies in the nursery. 

Attending school like Little House on the Prairie.

We stayed at a Residence Inn near the Airport in Salt Lake. I just couldn't get enough of hugging my Annie girl, and talking and reading to Maden.  Blake bought him some ice cream and he even got some on his legs!

The week went by way to fast! We are so glad they came to Idaho. Maden told me on Saturday morning that he was sad because he wanted to stay at my house in Idaho for 100 days, not just 8. It's always hard to say goodbye. Love you all not just tons, but 100 tons!