New mission--same darling missionary

In July part of David's mission was split off to form a new mission, Missao Brasil Teresina. We just received this photo of David with his new mission president and his wife, President and Sister Dias. David seems to be thriving on mission life.

Starting another school year

Another school year is starting--summer always goes by too quickly. Sarah doesn't really start fall semester for another week but I won't be there to take a picture of her at BYU. Brad is a Junior. Betsy is in 9th grad. Michael is in 7th grade. This is the first time in 15 years we haven't had a child in elementary school. They are all growing up too quickly.

Cookies and Engine Fires

A few years ago our niece, Lisa, taught us how to flood cookies. We think they are cute to look at and fun to make but a little time intensive.

This year we decided it would be fun to go to the demolition derby. It was a cultural experience. We had a ton of fun. One of the highlights was the firemen cutting the top off of a truck to remove an injured driver.

Gardening

For years we have had a vegetable garden in our backyard.

Some years have been more successful than others.

This year we have had a lot of fun and grown lots of fun things to eat.

Green beans and turnips are some of the new things we tried this year. We have loved the green beans (easy to grow and delicious) and we won't be growing turnips again (easy to grow and not so delicious).

We planted some fruit trees last fall. We are anticipating great things in years to come. This year our harvest will consist of one peach and one apple.

Adam's Canyon Scout Camp

The boys went camping with the scouts this weekend.

There was a beautiful waterfall in Adam's Canyon

They had to backpack in so cooking was an adventure on the little backpacking stoves.

They slept under the stars.

Brotherly Love

They came home with a lot of extra dirt, but they had a great time.

Missionary Pictures--Narrated by Elder Stephenson

The first one is of me with guaraná Jesus. A really good soda pop. That I like a lot. Which is why  I´m happy. Maybe I´ll send some to you someday.

This is me and Tiago being gangsta, because he´s pretty tough, so I liked to be tough with him.

This is a picture of me with a guy who was awesome. He was kinda crazy, but he laughed all the time, and made me happy. His name was José Carlos. I liked him.

This is me hungry and waiting for lunch at a restaurant. With beer bottles behind me.

Birthday Fun

Michael turned 12 in April! I can't believe my baby is passing the sacrament.

Instead of cake he wanted Rugelach... which in our opinion is 10 times better than cake anyways.

He is such a sweet kid and is always keeping us laughing.

Betsy turned 14 last week!

She decided to have homemade lemon ice-cream instead of cake (we aren't cake people).

Bets is hilarious--always making the silliest faces and strangest noises. We love her a lot.