Johnson Park

Johnson Park is less than 5 minutes from our house...we visit it several times during the summer....Kraig loves it. There is a playground with sand, and a sprinkler park. There are also several ball fields and a nature walk. It's actually pretty cool. There is also a lake with a couple of fountains and a walking path around it. There are often a few people fishing, and also ducks and geese around. The pictures below are from the sprinkler park.

And one of the times we went, we saw this deer, just walking along near the street.

The Fourth of July

Anyone who has visited my blog knows I am behind...so yes, it is August, and I am posting 4th of July.....better late than never, right?

Due to the delay on my camera, and the angle at which I saw most of the fireworks I didn't get many good pictures....

The best part of our fireworks display is we didn't have to leave our house. The fireworks in Collierville are done from the park at the opposite end of our street. So, we just walked outside, and sat/stood in our driveway. We did have to move around some trees to improve the view, but otherwise it was great. And we didn't have to fight crowds or traffic when it was over.

Trek

Nina's Pioneer Family

Every few years, the church offers the opportunity for the youth to participate in Trek....it is a simulation of the Mormon Pioneer trek west in the early days of the church. Nina decided to go this year. One of the leaders shared her pictures with me, and a CD was made and given to all who participated. It looks like an awesome and humbling experience.

Left to Right: Dede, Madison, Nina


Empty Handcart...I guess unloaded Handcart is probably more appropriate. They took pictures of many of the youth (and leaders), both in color and then converted to black and white next to this handcart, but there was not one of Nina. I looked through 1700+ pictures before I saw her to ask if there was one of her taken...there was not.

Loaded handcarts.....ready and waiting!

Nina with her family....not sure what they were doing, though. They look enthused, don't they?


Heading out..

Down hill...

Notice the "baby" Nina is now toting.

More walking....

And walking, again with the baby.

Camp Thursday night (the first day)...

I love campfires.....

Dancing Thursday night

Pioneer line dance?

Breakfast Friday morning....oatmeal...YUM....


Snack maybe...or lunch....not sure.

Pot of stew.....

Not sure what they were doing or making.....

Left to Right: Abby, Rose, Nina....not sure what they were doing...

They left on Thursday morning, and should have come home on Saturday, but due to severe storms, they came home early on Friday night. The storms brought tornadoes and very strong winds with them....(we spent about 40 minutes or so in the closet due to the sirens going off). They lost a few tents and had to run to a cabin. All of their stuff got wet, so the stake president decided to send everyone home. Going to pick them up, we noticed the street seemed awfully dark....the street lights were out, as was the power in that section of town. Lights were on at church however.

Dinner Friday night, after the great escape from the storms.

Tent stake....minus the tent, after the storms.

Tent stake with the tie attached, but still no tent.

Detached tent....

Flattened tent....

Blown away hat

Someone lost the baby.....

After the complaints about the heat and the mosquitoe bites and chiggers she brought home with her, I think Nina has a new appreciation not only for church history and the pioneers, but for the young men as well. On Friday, part of the trek was to simulate the time when many of the men were gone or killed....so the young men were not able to assist the girls. They had to do pretty much everything themselves, to include push/pull the handcarts. She said many of them wanted so badly to help, but had been instructed not to.

Coming up the hill

Snack after coming up the hill.....

Sleep after coming up the hill....she looks pretty zonked.

They got these T shirts at the Trek Reunion....I think it was a pretty clever idea.

Happy Anniversary!

Chris and I celebrated 18 years of marriage on June 15th! Our gift to each other was a swimming pool for the backyard. We love it.....it's so nice to be able to go swimming when we want....no travel, no crowds. It's awesome.

Kriag was ready before we even got to get it up. We bought it on Friday, June 12. We got home just as the rain started.....we had terrible storms that night. Wind damage, power lines out, the whole deal. So the pool sat in the kitchen Friday night until Sat when we were able to get it outside.






The kids LOVE it too!

You'll notice in the picture below, I am a bit red.....when we set it up Sat, it wasn't filling right...it is supposed to be a circle, but was taking on an oval shape. The sides were bulging, and the water was overflowing on one side. So....we drained it, and planned to move it to another part of the yard. We knew the place we chose had a very slight slope, but didn't expect it to affect it so much. Well, as we were draining it, I suggested that we try to get the wrinkles out of the bottom....there weren' t many, but there were a couple of good sized ones (this is what happens when you leave a "responsible" teenager in charge...aka Nina). So we did that Sat night....but didn't want to spend our Saturday night watching the pool fill. So we covered it and finished on Sun. Silly me...I thought we waited till later enough in the day to go out....apparently not. I burned terribly.....

Happy Birthday to ME

I turned.......37 this year. It was a pretty low key birthday. Chris took me to breakfast at the Dixie Plate Cafe. It was awesome! While we were gone, the children made birthday cards for me.

The weekend before my birthday....Chris bought me flowers. Astromeria Lillies are my absolute favorite, doesn't matter what color.....Kraig picked these...can't you tell....they are yellow!

Mom made me a cake....with Kraig's "help" of course. He picked the colors...again, yellow. Don't know where the green came from (it is definitely NOT a Baylor thing!)



I was off on my actual birthday, so the next day I had my birthday lunch with the HIM management team....from left to right: Jace (my boss), Colby (fellow scrapbooker and a supervisor), Me, Jackie (coding manager). We ate at BeniHanas, which is a Japanese style restuarant where they cook the entire meal in front of you.....the table surrounds the grill. It is awesome and so good! I even got free ice cream and the picture!