Happy Birthday Mason & Happy Father's Day - Matt

Happy Birthday Mason

This morning, I woke up early to help the kids make breakfast for their Daddy for Father's Day.  When I woke up Mason first, I told him "Happy Birthday Mason!"  He sat right up with a smile and said, "Am I six (6) already?"  I agreed he was.  Then he said, "I don't feel six."  I reassured him he looked six because he seemed to have grown over night.  He jumped out of bed and looked in the mirror.  He said, "Yep, I am six!  Because when I was five (5) I only looked like this..." and he bent his knees to make himself a little shorter.  Even when we went into the kitchen he compared himself to the counter.  He said, "Yesterday I only came up this high to the counter and now I am this high." 

Yeah for our big 6 year old! 

Josie drew this beautiful picture on her present for Mason.  The big person is Mason and the little one is Josie.  She has really developed  her people drawings.  We love it!

Chloe and Josie went in together to buy Mason a little castle tower to store his knights in.  He was so excited about it.

Carter gave Mason a blow up water whale to ride on in the swimming pool.

Mason wanted homemade pizza for lunch.  Daddy makes the best pizza!  Mason was so happy he got to help.

Pepperoni and Jalapeno

Pepperoni and Sausage

Ham and Pineapple

Cartwheels while waiting for the pizza to cook...

The Birthday boy takes the first bite.

Carter looking through the catalog making a mental list of what he wants for his birthday in November.

Mason wanted a football cake.  I asked many questions about how he wanted it to look.  He finally told me he would draw me a picture. 

I think we got it right...at least he said he liked it.  The players are candy.  Orange against Yellow.

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Happy Father's Day Matt

We woke up early and made Whole Wheat Waffles in Dad's new waffle maker!  We were so excited to surprise him with it by showing him how fabulously it cooked homemade waffles! 
They really were delicious!!!

We then rushed off to our 8 a.m. church meetings and then returned home for the rest of the party.

This is a cute candy bar card the kids made.  You can't see it very well but is says...

Dad, we were going to give you a WHOP-ping 100 GRAND for Father's Day, but the money slipped through our BUTTERFINGERS.  We didn't have an EXTRA WHATCHAMACALLIT to sell and it wasn't PAYDAY.  We didn't think a pet KIT KAT, a trip to New YORK, or an ORBIT around the MILKY WAY would be appropriate.  We do want to wish you MOUNDS of ALMOND JOY both NOW & LATER as you eat this card.  We hope it doesn't make you ROLO-ver and get sick.  If it does we promise we won't SNICKER.  Love your favorite SWEETARTS:  Carter, Chloe, Mason and Jo-Jo-Binks.

Thanks to Pinterest for the many ideas!

Chloe made a sweet card for her Daddy.

Another candy gift that says,

"Dad, We LOVE you to Pieces!"

Much LOVE and many

HUGS & KISSES

This was everyone's favorite card...

Each of the kids answered the following questions and I wrote down their first answer.  It was so cute!

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All About My DAD



My Dad is _________years old.

Carter - 36

Chloe - 36

Mason - 35 (He was the only one correct)

Josie - 55

MY Dad is really strong, he could lift a ___.

Carter - computer desk

Chloe - dresser

Mason - car

Josie - house

My Dad's favorite color is__________.

Carter - blue

Chloe - blue

Mason - blue

Josie - black

My Dad's favorite food is__________.

Carter - nachos

Chloe - Chinese

Mason - vegetables

Josie - vegetables

My Dad always says, "__________."

Carter - "Good hell-a-mighty."  (I've never heard Matt say this???)

Chloe - "I love you."

Mason - "Thank you."

Josie - "Go to bed."

My Dad is the best at__________.

Carter - Wrestling

Chloe - Drawing

Mason - Coloring.  He IS the best at coloring.

Josie - All.  Everyday.

My Dad's job is__________.

Carter - at CH2MHILL

Chloe - CH2MHILL

Mason - working in the canyon.

Josie - working the canyon.

My Dad laughs when__________.

Carter - I say "I could have ripped your throats out!  But I didn't....but I coulda."

Chloe - he calls Josie Jo-Jo Binks.

Mason - he talks.

Josie - ever I cross my eyes.

My Dad's favorite scripture hero is__________.

Carter - Nephi

Chloe - Nephi

Mason - Captain Moroni

Josie - Samuel the Lamanite

If my Dad had time, he would love to______.

Carter - Wrestle

Chloe - Play games with us.

Mason - Color

Josie - Watch a movie with everyone.

My Dad and I like to__________.

Carter - Play catch

Chloe -go to Chinese.

Mason - play games. A LOT!

Josie - have a bike ride.

My dad really loves__________.

Carter - Wrestling

Chloe - Me

Mason - Mommy

Josie - Me

I LOVE my dad because__________.

Carter - he is the best dad ever.

Chloe - he does stuff for me.

Mason - he's my dad.

Josie - I love him.

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Happy Father's Day - Papa Bob

We spent the rest of the evening picking flowers from around the house and taking them to my dad's grave.  We walked around the cemetery for a little while looking at other relatives and friends headstones.

We sure miss you Dad!

What a great day for some great men!

Camp Manapu Service Project

Friday evening we jumped in the Suburban with our camping gear and headed north to go camping.  Our Stake was in charge of heading up a service project for one of the church camps.  There were a lot of projects to help upgrade and improve the camp. 

We took advantage of the

camping trip included in the service package. 

The kids think this camp has a funny name...

Camp Manapu. 

Since we knew we would be traveling through Shoshone, Idaho on our way to Camp Manapu, we decided to save ourselves a little time (and mess) and stop at the Snack Bar for dinner.  We ate their "world famous" grilled hot dogs and didn't even take the time to snap a picture.  We just slopped them right down. 

They were delicious! 

Then we headed on down the road to our camp.  We arrived in time to set up camp and build a campfire for s'mores. 

S'mores are always a perfect treat for camping!

We came prepared for a very cold night.  We snuggled right in to our sleeping bags and slept very well.  Some of the kids said they were so warm, they were almost sweating.  I believe we had plenty of blankets...thank goodness!

We had a yummy breakfast the next morning...Matt always pulls through with something tasty to eat!

We decided to leave our tent up until the sun came out to dry the dew and condensation from the tops of our sleeping bags and tent. 

Then it was time to gear up and go for a morning bike ride. 

We LOVE to ride bikes!

At the end of our bike ride, a few snowflakes started to fall.

One of the service projects we helped with was scraping and re-painging the picnic benches.  We are a paint-magnet family.  It didn't take long for everyone to have new "painting clothes."  Mason got some on his jacket and I tried not to get angry...then he cheerfully said, "That's okay, now I have a painting jacket!"  These are the Swensen's.  Uncle Travis was good friends with Ben growing up.  It was fun meeting his wife and kids and doing service together.  We were the only families with little kids. 

It is fun to do service.

Right as we started to prepare lunch for the group, some little snow balls (kind of like hail) started to drop.  Then they became medium snow balls, then large snow balls, and eventually huge snowflakes that were coming down very thick.  After eating lunch and helping clean it all up, we decided to go take our tent down, since the sun took the day off and

didn't show up to dry out our things. 

It was kind of fun to see the snow coming down like it should have in December!

Then we got to thinking...

Hey!  We are camping, in the snow, in JUNE!

You gotta be tough to live out west...

that's why we do, that's why we do!