Family Pictures

This last weekend we had a great time! Our cousin, Josh, came out & took family pictures for us. He's a great photographer. Check him out at http://pvmphotography.wordpress.com/
Anyways, we had tons of fun. We made Justin's fabulous homemade pizza & then went out to play. Our family picture's are still on the way, but the individual ones of the kids were incredible! Thanks Josh!!! Here's a sampling of his great work and our beautiful children!!!

Girls Camp

Whoooo! It's been a busy summer! Time to catch up on the fun summer happenings. Girls Camp was definitely a big highlight of the summer. We had 15 girls go to camp. I was lucky enough to get to stay all week long. Our theme this year was "Super Heroes". We had a great time making our outfits. We made capes with our names on them & we did head bands. We also made shields with a big gold V for our skits. Oh, and Babette & I made ourselves bandanas to hide our scary hair. We designed & then ordered the t-shirts. Oh, did I mention our value was Virtue & our color was gold? So, of course, everything we did was gold!

We made a fabulous flag to hang in our camp. Our flag:

We played games. This game seemed easy at first, but we found, it was our biggest challenge. You have to put the bricks in front of you one step at a time. Then, everyone has to pass & cross over the bricks without putting a foot on the ground. It became interesting!

We took the whole group swimming & squished them all in one car! These things make the memories!
We went repelling. Well, I didn't exactly go. The girls went several times each in my place. I was happy behind the camera! :) Maybe next year I'll go down the mountain! We'll see...
I believe the funnest thing we did was go on an adventurous little hike. We had previously found this great waterfall. So, we decided to take the girls who wanted to, on a hike to the waterfall. We had a blast! We waded, splashed & had a super time! Some definitely got wetter than others. It was fantastic! We had so much fun, we decided next year it will be required to go have fun with us, not optional!
Going through these pictures brought back all the fun memories we made. Can't wait til next year!

Packsaddle Lake

One of the big highlights of the reunion was Packsaddle Lake. It took about 2 1/2 hours to find, but it was worth every minute. The hike down to it was fine, the hike back out about killed me! The area was beautiful. The kids had so much fun playing in the water.



Grandpa enjoyed his 4 wheeler ride down & watching the kids play.

Family Reunion

Last weekend we had our Petersen reunion. It was a blast. We hiked, played games, had a talent show & went swimming. When there's 30 kids ages 15 & under you never know what's going to happen. No casualties, but lots of fun. Packsaddle Lake was a highlight for the older kids. Swimming & the waterfall hike we found, was fun for the smaller ones. It was such a fun filled weekend, it took a week to recover! So glad we have a family that loves to play together!
This is all but 3 of the grandkids!

Look how grown up our "teenagers" are!

The kids loved to hike up to the big rocks right in camp

I think everyone had a blast!

Taylor's 6th Birthday!

A couple weeks ago we celebrated Taylor's 6th birthday. It was so much fun! We went to the park, played games and had cake & ice cream. Of course, Taylor decided it was the year to decorate her own cake. She took all the decorations we had stowed away & made a very busy cake.
She had fun opening & playing with her presents.

The kids had so much fun playing & jump roping. As you can see, Justin is every bit as energetic as the kiddies.
Can't believe my baby is 6 already! Time flies when you're busy having fun. Love you my little Taylor!

Diana's Wedding

After getting Ruger from Cedar Badge, we made a mad dash for Idaho Falls to my sister Diana's wedding. We had spent the night before decorating & I was needed there to work in the kitchen, take pictures & help it all run smoothly. Her colors were black, red & white. It turned out looking really nice. I'd forgotten my camera on Friday night and was barely there in time for the ceremony on Saturday, so I didn't get a picture before hand of the whole thing. I got bits & pieces during the evening, though. I'll post just a few.

This is the happy couple ~ Mr. & Mrs. Trevor & Diana Allen

This is obviously the book signing table.
These next two are of the food table.


Here's part of the gift table. Remember those green footstools I got at that yard sale? Well, I used them to add some layers!



We had limited funds & resources to pull this off, but with a quick stop at Porter's & a few dollars I found some quick easy things. I asked Porters if they had any red beads & they had to go dig through their Christmas supplies in the back to find them for me. Thank goodness. They looked great! (and they gave them to me for a clearance price!!!) Yay! I love a good clearance! The black frames are courtesy of our Young Womens birthday gifts. We are giving the girls a sepia print of the temple for their b-days. I was able to use the ones we haven't given out yet. That gave us 2 per table, with extras around the room. The black & red napkins were rented for a few dollars. The black tablecloths were borrowed from my friend. With the help of Trevor's talented sister, we were able to make it look very nice.

Cedar Badge

Last weekend was a very full one. I'm just now catching up on everything. On Saturday, we had the great opportunity to go visit my homeland. Ruger had spent the week at Cedar Badge up at Treasure Mountain. Saturday was his final day & his graduation ceremony. For the week, he was in Troop Lincoln.



The ceremony was really nice. They called each boys name and shook each boys hand. They had a small flag program. What an appropriate thing to go to this time of year, with Independence Day right around the corner. It makes one think of what's really important in our lives.





He had a great time! He loved it so much that as soon as we were in the car he told us he was ready to go back next year, but as Staff next time. We hope that works out for him. He sang Cedar Badge songs the whole way home. It was so fun to see him, but nice to know he had been learning & growing all week. Scouting is one of my favorite things. It instills values in the boys they really don't learn anywhere else in daily life. Scouts are such a great group of boys!


We are so proud of Ruger & the man he is growing up to be!!!