Air Show

The day before Father's day Rexburg does an air show. They open up their airplane museum and fly all the planes from there and bring in people to do stunts and things. We have gone for three years now, and we really look forward to it.
This is not a very good picture of the stunt plane going up for a loop. The pilot did flips side over side and end over end. He also did lots of straight up and down stuff and tons of smoke.

The wings going up after the show concluded.

This plane and two others did formational stuff to show us how attach formations look.

People from our ward that came to the show too. Tristan Campbell, Brinley Martin, Caleb Martin, Zenock, Ammon. Adults behind are Jeren Martin, Angie Martin, and my hubby. I coulnd't fit in Tristan's brother and sister and parents in this one.

This jelly bean plane is the kids favorite. The plane cut the engine and freefalled onto the truck. The pilot at one point threw out a role of toilet paper and then came back and cut it in half. Later, someone came along on a four-wheeler and threw small bags of jelly beans into the crowd.

The jelly bean plane doing tricks.

Finished

To quote Maxwell Smart in Get Smart, "I'm so happy, I'm so happy!! This is the best day of my life!!!!"

Yes, I have finally finished graduate school!! I submitted my final project on June 11th, and I do admit I was a little teary-eyed when I clicked ok to finalize my submission. I have until the first week of July to decide if I am going to graduation or not. I really want to get hooded, but it will be a very long road trip to get to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and it will be expensive. But I'll only get my Master's degree once right?

Military

This is a link to an interesting story about the SR 71 Blackbird. I thought it a great way to remember those who serve our country in the military. Enjoy!

http://www.greatdanepromilitary.com/SR-71/index.htm

Camping

We went camping with the Elders Quorum the end of May. This campsite is just half a mile from the Tablerock campground, 2 miles from Kelly Canyon ski resort, and about 30 minutes from home. I premade tin foil dinners so that when we got up there after work on Friday we could just eat and then set up camp. After we put the kids to bed the adults stayed up talking until after midnight, and it was so nice to have fun conversation around the campfire. The next morning we ate pancakes, eggs, and bacon and then broke camp. Before heading home, Brady and I drove around some more in this part of the Canyon to scout out more camp sites for later in the year. We love camping, and the kids enjoy it as well...even with me constantly telling them to stay out of the dirt and such.

We are going camping again this weekend with some friends from our ward, the Martin's. My sister is coming as well since we are "babysitting" her while my parents are out of town. Is is still called babysitting if she is 14?

This is of Josh Rankin, the EQ pres and Scott supervising the cooking.

Ammon cooking a stick. Actually, he loved cooking marshmallows for smores, and I think it's natural to want to put things in the fire, because all the kids did it at one point. The girl next to Ammon is Cheyanne, and the boy is Josh's son, Austin. Austin is Ammon and Zenock's best friend. They get together all the time, and often the first thing Zz says when he wakes up is go to Austin's house now?

Austin and Zz playing in the dirt with shovels and sticks. The kids got so dirty...we took baths when we got home, and the tub was lined with dirt. It was so gross.

Pictures

I have finally downloaded our camera. These pics show what we have been doing the last little while. These pics go from newest to oldest. I loaded them on backwards, sorry.

Appreciating the veteran's memorial in Idaho Falls on the greenbelt. Drake, my nephew, Ammon, and Zenock.

Feeding the ducks and geese at the greenbelt. Zenock chose to eat the bread instead of give it to the birds.

Ammon flying a kite he made at the kite festival. It was at Sandy Downs, the county fair grounds. We have gone every year since moving to IF, and the kids love it. This year we made lunch and had a picnic when we got there. The weather was a little chilly, but mostly perfect for kites.

This is Brady shooting his gun at some targets. We love to go shooting, and this time we took our friends, Josh and Charlee Rankin. We found a good spot just off of Bone Road, about 10-15 minutes from our house.

Zenock and Ammon not wanting to watch us from the car...from up here the gunfire wasn't too loud, but the kids still covered their ears.

Zenock and Ammon at the park near our house. We love to go there, especially since it's close and the kids can walk or ride the trike themselves and not get tired. Because it was taken the first week of April, I am pretty sure we were getting out to enjoy the nice weather, even though we had to wear pants and jackets.

I have a bunch of pictures to download from the camera to show you. We have had so much fun the last couple of weeks, even though it has rained just about every day. We went camping with the Elder's quorum last weekend, and we were going to go with friends and my sister this weekend, but we got a huge rainstorm instead.

Just a FYI... I have only 5 days left of school. This means I have 5-6 pages of literature review, abstract, and conclusion to write on my final project paper, and then I will be finished forever. We are seriously thinking about attending my graduation in August which is in Minneapolis. Hopefully we will save enough money by then to go...I really want to get hooded.

This is an email Brady's mom sent us, I thought to share it here because it's really funny.

Robert Kirby Tribune columnist - Salt Lake Tribune

Most Sunday mornings, you'll find me on a pew in the Rosecrest 1st Ward chapel. It's where I'm supposed to go to church. Lucky for me, it's also where I want to go. Technically, Mormons don't have a choice. For church, we're bound by the geography of the ward boundary. We worship where we live. The only time Mormons can switch wards without also contacting a Realtor is when we attend specialty wards.

For example, I went to a Spanish-speaking ward in West Jordan for a while. Specialty wards allow members with specific common needs to worship together and support each other in their exclusive part of the Lord's vineyard. There are (or have been) lots of LDS specialty wards, including singles wards, college wards, deaf wards, ethnic wards and nudist wards. OK, I made up that last one.

There are even seasonal "snowbird wards" in places where Mormon RV owners congregate. I talked it over with my friend (despite a restraining order) Ken Wallentine. We think the specialty-ward idea needs to be improved on in our ever-changing and increasingly divided culture.

For example, there needs to be a late ward, a ward Mormons who are perpetually late for church could attend and not feel bad about dragging their herd in 15 minutes late. The only problem with a late ward would be showing up late for a meeting that was supposed to start late in the first place. Eventually, you would end up with a ward that ran out of time before it started.. "Welcome to the Tardy 3rd Ward, brothers and sisters. We will close now by singing hymn No. 145."

Given the high birthrate among Mormons, I thought about the need for maternity wards. Except that we already have those. They're called married student wards.

A Star Trek ward might do well. The bishop would preside from "the bridge" instead of the stand. High-council Sunday would be referred to as a "Klingon Sunday."

Harley riders congregate to the exclusion of just about everyone else. Why not an LDS biker ward? White shirts and neckties go well with black leather.. Ken really wants to attend a concealed-weapons ward. He says church would be a lot more interesting if real personal risks were involved in disagreeing with a lesson.

There could be a texting ward for teenagers. Bear your testimony with your thumb. In 25 years, they'll all belong to carpal-tunnel wards.

At the less-active ward, maybe there'll be a meeting and maybe there won't.

Testimony meeting in an anger-management ward might be interesting. Nobody's going to sleep through, "HEY! I KNOW THE CHURCH IS TRUE, STUPID!"

A big hit would be the Multi Level Marketing ward, also known as a "Gadianton robber ward." With all the financial scamming that goes on in this culture, it would be nice to have them all in one place for a three-hour block weekly.

I think a Democrat ward is a good idea, although in Utah the best we could probably hope for is a Democrat branch..