I Love Photography !!!

OK... I know that it is to many pictures for one post, But I could not decide which ones to show you. I worked on these Bridals this weekend and can I say I love them. It is funny when I show pictures to different people and the ones that I like the best are not always the one's that some else likes the best. I have my 3-4 favorites in this group and was sure that Robert would love the same ones. But they were not the same ones. Let me know which ones are your favorites. And which technique is your favorite.

Corinne's wedding is this Saturday so be watching for more pictures of her and Kyle.

I just want to thank my family for always putting up with me when they see the camera come out. They are good sports.

Also thanks to Robert for being OK when I spend my little bit of spare time on my computer. Love you MORE...

I keep thinking that I am going to join the girls with there photo of the day, but I think that it will really be a problem with me, because I will not be able to decide which one to post.. LOL

CORRECTION

OK, so I stand corrected. Tyson was picked from the 160 soldiers for his awesome award that he got. His platoon however was only 40 something. Sometimes my fingers type faster than my brain works.
I will keep everyone posted as far as our get together for Tyson and Lauren before that head to Alaska.. We are still trying to work out the dates that they will be in town. I will let you know soon.
I talked to Tyson on Tuesday night and he is so far loving jump school. He said that they usually don't jump from anything in the first week or so and they do have them jumping from just about 30-40 feet. They are just waiting to jump from the sky... I think that I just wet my pants thinking about it.

We are home.... And Tyson is awesome

We got home from KY on Sunday afternoon. I have always thought that I was a patriotic person, but after what Tyson is doing and watching him at graduation the flag, the national anthem, our country and our freedom's have a whole new meaning.

I am so proud of him and what he is doing. I am so proud of how wonderful he did at boot camp. He got the top award called the Draper Leadership award. It is given to the soldier who has shown leadership skills throughout boot camp and the potential for future leadership roles. He was chosen out of 160 soldiers. I was so proud of him. But as we all know Tyson always does everything 110%. I took a ton of pictures but I have tried to keep them down to about a dozen or so.

When we got off the plane on on Wednesday we just barley had time to drive to the base for the dinner that night. They would have 5 or 6 soldiers come in at a time and everyone would clap and welcome them until they found their family. More and more kept coming and I thought, that Tyson he probably asked to be last just to make me wait the longest. Well he did not ask but he was the very last one. Because of some of his awards, he and his drill Sargent were out in the parking lot sewing on new badges. It is good that when Robert took this picture I was turned to the side or else you would see what a great big blubber head I am. He came in towards us with the biggest smile on his face. I just thought how handsome he was and what a great Man he had become.

Here is Tyson and his beautiful wife Lauren. As you can see she was as happy to see him and I was.

After all these years it is still pretty hard to get a smile out of Robert. He was a very proud Dad, even if he looks like a convict.

Tyson was the Platoon leader. He took his assignment keeping these 160 soldiers in line. After the graduation ceremony , these next 2 pictures was him getting them in line and order and going to the office to be processed.

After he was processed. He grabbed his "stuff" and was running up this hill. I probably could not even carry one of these bags and walk let alone run. He was in a hurry because he was leaving for jump school right after graduation and the sooner he got up to where the bus was meeting them and the sooner he got his clothes changed the more time we would have to visit with him. So we just ran behind him.

This is the 11 guys going to jump school getting their last instructions before the bus got there. We kept thinking that this guy was going to talk an talk and take up our little bit of time. But lucky for us the bus was late and we really did get just about 1 hour.

This is the Collette's they are from California and he and Tyson are both going to be stationed in Alaska. Lauren and his wife have become friends and it makes me fill good that they will have each other while they are so far away from home.

These two pictures are of course Tyson and Lauren saying goodbye one more time. Even though jump school is only 3 weeks it was so hard to say goodbye to him again. These last 2 was the loading of the bus and the bus and the boys leaving their mothers, wife's and girlfriends.

This next 3 weeks will not be quite and bad and Tyson will have his phone with him this time. He has been able to call each night after he gets done with his classes. It is so nice to be able to hear his voice. He of course is working hard again and trying to do his best.

He will be home for some time in October before they leave for Alaska. Because we really did not get to have a send off for him we are going to have a get together for all of Tyson and Lauren's friends and family. I have to wait to get his schedule tied down a little better but it will either be on Saturday October 11th or the following Saturday the 18th. Please mark you calendars and I will get information out as soon as possible.

Tyson we all love you and are so proud of you.

Slacker

I am a total slacker.. First of all we had a great weekend and I did not even get my camera out of the trailer once. What is up with that ? My family is usually running from me because I always have my camera in hand. I guess I was just taking time off. But we had a great weekend. We of course did not go far, because with Robert's High Council commitments he had to come down the canyon on Saturday morning for the State Baptism's. He was back about noon. Saturday was a great day the sun was out and it was just almost to hot. On Sunday once again we had to go down the canyon early as Robert had High Council meeting at 7:00 and I had a special speaker coming to talk to the young women so we left at 6:00 am and got back about 1:00 pm. That afternoon was still great as far as the weather. But just as we were getting ready to eat dinner it started to rain. We are use to that so we all ( about 30 of us) huddled under the 4 pop up shades that we had and enjoyed our dinner.During our dinner the wind kicked up big time, Tiffany's tent went down. Trent's tent went down. We got them back up and tied to the tree's hoping for the best. Not long after dinner was over it really got cold and started not just raining but pouring. So everyone spent the next few hours until bedtime in our own trailers playing games. When it was time to go to bed Tiffany went out to her tent and her bedding was wet. So she and her kids were staying in the trailer. Trent, Emily & Erika left to go to their tent and they were soaked by the time they got to their tent. Being the good mother I am, I sent Tiffany out in the rain to their tent to tell them to just come back, Trent said that they were fine and were going to stay out there. About an hour later when it was still pouring, I was trying morse code with my flash light to get them to come back in. After that did not work, I finally tried to sleep. At about 4:30 here they came, the rain had finally soaked them. We got everyone settled and did not even stir until 9:00 am. It took us quite awhile to get packed up on Monday because we would have to wait for it to slow down a bit, run out get something done, come back in because it was pouring, go back out.
I really don't mind weekends like this because we will always remember it. We will laugh at the craziness of it all. What can I say, I love camping.
Now my count down can really start. Tyson graduates on the 11th. So one week from today we will be on a plane to go and see him and attend the graduation. Can I tell you how excited and proud I am. He has done so well at boot camp. He has had great things happen for him. Our visit will be short as he will have to get a bus that same day to head for Georgia for 3 weeks of jump school. Then he will be home for a few weeks in October before heading for Alaska.
Robert and I will be home from Kentucky on Sunday the 14th so look for wonderful pictures then. Sorry for the long post and no pictures today.

What weekend !!!

I don't know about anyone else, but the weekends just go by way to fast. We did however have a great one. Last month I told you about our couple's Bunco group going camping. Well we went again this last weekend. Sorry no pictures. We were having so much fun I just forgot to get it out. There are 6 couple's and we are the best of friends. It was fun once again to spend the weekend together. We will not have a month off and then we are going on our annual fall retreat down in St. George which we all look so forward to also. My boss has a beautiful house down there that are group goes to twice a year. It is perfect with it's 6 bedrooms.
Back to our camping trip... It was about 10:30 Friday night and the camp host camp to our campfire and told us that there was a crime scene down in loop B. Please do not leave our camp. We asked what happened and he would not tell us anything. That was a little scary to me. Needless to say Robert slept on the outside of the bed that night, not me. I know I am a wimp. The next morning Ron the camp host told me that from what he gathered it was a drug deal gone bad. What a scary world we live in.
This next weekend is Labor Day weekend and we are going camping again. Our sister in law Cheryl and her family are big camper's and we always go with them over Memorial and Labor Day weekends and a few times in between if we can. We had great fun when our kids were little and now we love getting together with all the grand kids. We love this new campground up Spanish Fork Canyon because it really only takes us about 10 minutes to get back to town. And with both Robert's and my church callings we do have to come down each weekend. We can still enjoy the the canyon but we can still do the things we need to in town.
After this weekend is over Robert and I will be counting down the days. We are leaving on September 10th to go to Tyson's boot camp graduation in Fort Knox, KY. We are so excited to see him. As much as I did not want him to do this, I am so proud of him. Can not wait to give him a great big hug. Sorry no pictures this time but I will for sure have pictures after getting back from graduation.

Yes, we are still alive

It was the Davies Family reunion on Saturday the 2nd. It was over in American Fork and it was very well attended. Note to self. We need to get better at getting more of Robert's 15 other siblings to attend these reunions. There were only 5 of John's 16 children there. I love going to these even if is is only for a couple of hours. Here is a picture of Robert's dad and 4 of his 5 living siblings. John is the happy camper sitting next to his sister. He turned 82 this past February. Did I tell you I LOVE reunions.. My Dad's family reunion have kind of disappeared. So my family is in charge of the 1st annual Gaylen Garbe family reunion. ( Thanks Trent) just kidding we are so excited. We are going camping August 15th-17th. My kids have been so busy, we have so many things planned, my family is going to need a vacation after the reunion. We don't want to let to much out of the bag but our theme is Survivor. Be watching for pictures and post when it is over.
On Friday August 1st Robert was called out to a fire at about 4:00. They needed Spanish Fork to help out over in Payson. Well when he was not home at 9:00 I decided to do what Robert really hates. And I mean hates. Tiffany, Harley, Oakley and myself got in the car to go and check out what was going on. This fire started in Spring Lake and went across the mountain north over into Payson. It was very close to homes. In Spring Lake I had a couple of my insured's that were evacuated from their homes. Luckily they were saved. Robert was over in Spring Lake and when they felt the houses were safe there, they were headed over to Payson. He said that the house he was at the fire was like 100 feet away. It was pretty scary. Not that the fireman want there to be house's burning down, but these are the things that they train so hard for. This is there reward when they can do their job and save someone's house. It was a long night. The second crew from Spanish Fork releave them at about 3:30 a.m.
Just a funny side note. Remember I told you how much he hates chasers.. Well we were parked down by a school about half way between Spring Lake and Payson and while we were watching, the Spanish Fork crew was moving from Spring Lake to Payson.. Of all the places we could have parked we had to be on the road that they would come right next to us. We had to turn our heads and hope that he did not see us.

Kadee just so you know I had to give you a hard time about updating.. But let me tell you the other day Robert came to me and told me that it had been awhile since a blog. He told me that I needed to keep it up so he knew what he had been doing or what he was going to be doing. He is such a dork. But he is my dork and I love him.

Youth Conference

We left Spanish Fork at 5:00 a.m. on Thursday morning. We were about 45 minutes into our 6 plus hour drive when our bus got a flat tire. We were really lucky because we were by Deer Creek and we were going up a hill when this happened. We could have been on the freeway going 70 mph and really been in trouble.
Just as we were getting into camp the first day, One of our leaders got her foot ran over by one of the wheels on the hand cart. She stayed off it the rest of the night , and even though bruised and sore, she was a trooper the rest of the time. She did not want to miss out on anything.Our ma for the ward was Melanie Hamilton. Here she is telling the Bishop and the 2nd councilor what to do, where to put it. etc. After our walk into camp she was trying to save her energy. She really played her part well.

On Friday morning the 4th of July they had a beautiful program. These kind of things have always touched my heart, but they really take on a new meaning with Tyson serving our country. So you guessed it I was a big blubber head. It is good that everyone forgot their camera. After the program we all got lined up for our walk into Martin's Cove. It was already blazing hot.
Getting to Martin's Cove was so hard but so rewarding. As I was in the cove and looking over the ground where the pioneers bury their loved ones, while the wolves were waiting for them to leave made me realize how grateful I am that they were so strong and so faithful.

This picture is when they came and took all the men to join the Mormon Battalion. It did not really hit the girls until they told us we had to get back on our own. Our ward was really small and now with the men gone we had 3 hand carts and only 2 women and 2 girls for each one. That was all fine and good until we got to sandy hill. I don't have a picture but as we got there the men were lined up on both sides of the hill and the sand was deep, the rocks were many and they were told that they could not talk to us, help us nothing. Let me tell you there is NO way physically we were going to make it up that hill. We did not have enough help. But, with a prayer at the bottom of the hill , the help of our Heavenly Father and everything we had.. We made it.

When we got back to camp the men and boys told us that was also the hardest thing for them. They just had to watch and hope and pray that we would not fall or stop. They were praying as hard as us for us to get to the top.

As we got back into camp the stake gave each one of us 2 oz of flour and told us we could cook it however we wanted. ENJOY.

We had some that put enough water and made a pancake. Some of them put just a little and had kind of a roll. They were good sports even though they were starving after a very hard and hot day. When they were just about ready to call it quits and get some sleep they brought us over some chicken and potatoes. It was the most appreciated meal we had.

When I got home I thought, I do not ever have to do that again. Now that I have been able to catch up on my sleep I have decided that I could go again. I would love to have my whole family go and fill the spirit that is there. And have their testimony grow by leaps and bounds. I am so thankful for my membership in the church and I am especially grateful for those saints that were so strong and so willing to give up everything they had to be in Zion .