IT"S ALL ABOUT THE NAME

Of course it's all about the name. Here is one of the few pictures I have with Marnie Kiester. I was friends with her parents back at BYU-Hawaii. I love to see what a beautiful young woman she is growing in to.

Traditional family photos

It has been a tradition over the 4th of July to take family photos. We used to take pictures with all the cousins, but that has kind of faded and we take our own individual pictures. Of course it is always hard to get everyone looking and smiling. It seems like there is always someone who is grumpy. This year our pictures went pretty well. We just had a hard time getting everyone together. The kids were anxiously waiting for the parade to start.

4th of July

We were back in Eagar for the 4th of July. This has been a tradition for us for the past 14 years. Of course, I have always loved the 4th of July in Eagar. The kids have fun and seem to want to go back year after year.

KACIE - WE MISS YOU!

Kacie.... what can we say.

This past week has been an emotional week at our house. We got home Monday evening and notice that Kacie, our dog, just wasn't herself. She was way too thin and wasn't eating. We took her to the vet on Tuesday where they took x-rays and then did some blood work to rule out Valley Fever. By Thursday we got the definite news that Kacie had cancer and it had progressed to her lungs. She only had about 10% lung use by this time. The kids took the news pretty hard.

Thursday was our big emotional day. All five kids were crying while I was trying to comfort them all at the same time (not very easy when I only have one lap). It was also very emotional for me. My sister said "and you didn't even like the dog". Well, I did like the dog and grew very attached. We could not have asked for a better dog. She was Korey's best friend.

We did not expect her to live as long as she did. She really didn't eat anything all week. She laid around and slept. She was still drinking water though. The last night (Friday night) she couldn't even lay down, it hurt too bad and she couldn't breathe. She spent a good deal of the night by Tom's side of the bed just watching him. The kids got to say goodbye Saturday morning and then he had to take Kacie to the vet to be put to sleep. We couldn't watch her suffer anymore.

KACIE - WE MISS YOU. You were part of the family. We will never forget you.

Learning to Dive

Kaulin did a great job in swim lessons this summer. Actually so did Ali and Kameron.
Kaulin has really learned how to dive well. Of course he has no fear and just goes for it.

Quads are fun

Kameron has found out that riding a quad is quite fun. We were able to visit with cousins in Globe, AZ and he got to ride on their quads.

Pima Air & Space Museum

After school was out, we went to a few place in Tucson with Grandma and Grandpa before they left. They were also places that we had not been to. One place was the Pima Air & Space Museum. We all really enjoyed it. They had several planes for the kids to go in and out of. They also got to go on a space flight similator.