Back to School 2011

The first day of school for Alecia as a Junior and Alex as a 6th grader!

Boys-only camping trip

Before school started, Bill decided to take the boys camping.  They headed up to Idaho to Perkins Lake.  They were able to do some fishing and meet up with Bill's brother, David, and his daughters.  I'm glad they were able to go spend some time together before the school craziness set in.

 Bill was taking pictures of their fire and though it would be funny to stick his big old foot in the picture.  That's a knee-slapper...not!

 Bill wrote my name on the frost-covered picnic table.

Putting out the fire.

 Fish hatchery in Stanley

 Sawtooth Mountains

 Playing in the freezing lake

 Catching itty bitty fish

 The truly brave fishermen/woman

 Success!

My fish!  Get your own!

Happy Birthday, Great-Grandma Ward!

Bill's grandma, Estelle Ward, turned 90 today!  She is one of the sweetest women you will ever meet.  She raised 5 children and has oodles of grandchildren and oodles times 10 great grandchildren.  She even has 2 great-great grandchildren!  We had an open house for her at her ward building.  We decorated with her favorite colors and served some of her favorite things.  I'm glad my kids have been able to get to know her.

A centerpiece for the party

Fun in the Sun

Rexburg has a new water park!  The Rexburg Rapids has a kiddie area, lazy river, rock climbing wall, and two water slides.  One of the slides was too fast, so they closed it down and were in the final stages of rebuilding it when we were there.  Some of the grandkids were able to make it to the top of the rock climbing wall.  It was impressive.  Should have taken more pictures!

 Our fearless teenage girls and their little brothers

 And the boys

 Kayla and Patrick on the lazy river

Reunion teaching moment

Grandpa Southwick always has an interesting teaching moment for the grandkids.  Here he is showing them how to grind the corn for the chickens to eat. 

First we shuck the corn that has dried.

Then we put it through the grinder powered by hand.

Southwick Family Reunion 2011

This year the Southwick reunion was held in Rexburg, Idaho.  Mom and Dad Southwick live there.  They cleared a large space for putting up tents, hauled in a portable toilet, and were kind enough to let us shower and use the facilities.  We did some outdoor cooking and a lot of food prep and cooking in the kitchens (they have two).  We had some fantastic storms and ate most dinners in the garage, but the days were gorgeous!

Here are the grandkids waiting around for the uncles to finish digging and building a fire pit.  We had to accomplish this chore before we could go to the Rexburg Nature Park.

 The menfolk working hard, or hardly working.

 Lunch was at the Nature Park.  Becky had some wedding sign-in books that the kids were able to doodle in.  The girl cousins made a future wedding book for Karl.  It had pictures, the many adventures he and his wife would share, and the birth of each child.  It was a creative book done by these funny girls.

 

Teenage boys bonding over fishing.  I think they mostly talked about video and computer games.

  And while Jeff did the cooking, the others stood around shooting the breeze.

KFC

Bill and I helped Kayla and Patrick move their things into a storage unit in Salt Lake until they can find a place to live.  In order to find a place to live, they really need to know Kayla's placement as a student teacher.  There have been all sorts of problems getting this figured out.  She is learning how to have patience.  Meanwhile, they are living with Patrick's grandparents near Lehi.

I think it was the hottest day of the summer, and we were inside this huge storage building.  The big garage door would open for awhile to let people in and out, but once it closed, there was no breeze or air circulation whatsoever.  My cleavage was sweating! 

 When we were done unloading, we went right next door to cool off and have dinner at the very first KFC.  It was like a museum inside with Colonel Sanders' little white suit on display with some other fun things to look at and quotes on the wall.  We all thought Colonel Sanders looked pretty short, so I thought I would go stand next to his statue.  Hmmm, I guess he was taller than he looks.