Splash Pad Activities

Our Splash Pad outing went much better this time than last time.  Not only was it cloudy with a light breeze making it quite comfortable outside, but there was a local church group doing all sorts of fun activities -- all for absolutely free!  They had free snow cones (I think each of my kids had about 8 cones each), face painting, hockey with swim noodles, and arts and crafts.  The kids had a great time.  They actually only spent a small portion of their time in the water -- most of their time was spent in the other activities and just playing around.    I also came prepared this time with sandwiches, chips, and fruit so that the kids couldn't complain about being famished the minute we arrived.  

Play Group!

Play group was at our house today.  The kids had a blast!  I was grateful for my older kids that could help keep the kids happy.  Jase played the Wii with some of the older kids, Janika made flubber for the younger ones (and Jase taught them how to blow bubbles in it) and Jared let them ALL attack him with swords and guns (okay that one got a little wild!)

Splash Pad!

Friday I brought the kids to the splash pad.  It was crowded!!  Jared was still feeling a little sick.  Thursday night his Scout leader called me and said he was at Scouts when all of a sudden he started feeling sick to his stomach.  I brought him home and sure enough he started throwing up.  He continued throughout the evening -- poor kid!  Luckily no one else got it! Maybe it was from something he ate.

An Eternal Perspective

Within the past three days, Rick and I have attended two viewings.  They were both former seminary students of his and amazing young men.   Taylor Bytheway passed away at the age of 24 of brain cancer and Nolan Ryan Anderson, age 18, passed away peacefully in his sleep when taking a nap.  There was no known reason for his death but he did have health challenges his entire life caused by complications from spinal meningitis, including a stroke, at the age of one.  Here is his obituary for more information:

Nolan Ryan Anderson

It has been so humbling to hear about the lives of these wonderful young men and to witness how strong and amazing their parents have been throughout all of their challenges.  It sure makes me ponder the mortality of myself and my loved ones.  These events have led to many sweet and somber discussions between Rick and I.  We just never know what the future holds and what Heavenly Father has in store for us.  It is obvious that the parents of these two young men are firmly rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  They are an amazing example of faith, love, and courage.  

Girl's Camp

Janika arrived home from Girl's camp today.  She left last Tuesday morning going up a day early for the 4th year hike.  She had a good time at camp and had lots of funny stories to share when she got home.  But she  also expressed some frustrations.  There were only a few older girls and a ton of new Beehives in the ward this year.  She said that many of them were very immature and that the testimony meeting was a disaster -- with girls getting up over and over again telling random stories that had absolutely nothing to do with a testimony.  At EFY the counselors meet with their company and specifically talk about what a testimony is and what a testimony meeting should entail.  This is done in a spiritual setting before the testimony meeting begins.  Perhaps this is something that could be incorporated at camp in future years.  Since it was Stake camp, Janika was able to hang out with some of her good friends from other wards as well as this one.  She didn't take many pictures, but here are a few...

Jessica Bryan, Tirsa Snyder, and Ashlee Prows at the Grand Canyon

The 4th years beginning their hike.

 Janika and Ashlee Prows

When I came to the church to pick up Janika, she and the other girls were wearing several layers of clothes.  It took them a few minutes to realize that now that they were back home it was close to 100 degrees out -- time to start shedding those layers and jump in the swimming pool!

Swimming Lessons

The kids just finished up their two weeks of swimming lessons.  This was Josh's first year and he ended up in the same class as his play-group friends, Kate and Lizzie.  I was glad he knew someone so he wouldn't be so nervous.  Last year he was so afraid of the water that I waited until this year to enroll him.  He did pretty good and ended up liking it but he was still pretty timid about going under the water.  So he may need to re-take this class again next year.  Jared, Janelle, and Jaiden all passed their classes with flying colors.  Jared is a really good swimmer.  He was even told by a couple of the teachers there that he should consider signing up for the competitive swim team.  Jared is now finished with swimming lessons unless he decides to  try out for the swim team, which is something we may want to consider.  Janelle will take level four next year and Jaiden will take level three next year.

  I got Jared starting to do a flip here but then my camera battery died so I couldn't get any more shots.

Longest Day of the Year Party

Our neighbors, the Bassos, have a "Longest Day of the Year" party every year.  Everyone is invited.  It is a potluck and BBQ.  They are from Hawaii and are also caterers, so the food was AWESOME!  Pulled Pork, Chicken, Beef, Shish Kabobs, barbecued pineapple, sticky rice, and on and on.  They even had a nacho cheese machine.  Our kids were in heaven.  Plus, people kept coming throughout the evening bringing more and more food and so we had to keep checking back to see what other new surprises had arrived.   They have the perfect backyard for parties.  There is a big volleyball court surrounded by beautiful trees and bushes -- a hammock, and tree house.  They had set up a big tub filled with water with water toys and guns (huge ones too) and so all of the kids were running around squirting each other until my boys were completely soaked from head to toe.  It was so fun to visit with our neighbors.  Since we left our hearing ward to serve in the Deaf Branch, we almost never see some of them any more!  So it was fun to chat. Our kids didn't want to leave, we had to drag them back home!

Father's Day

I sent our dads a card and the new photos we got taken of each of the kids for Father's Day. We weren't able to attend the celebrations up North but we had our own family party here and it was a lot of fun.

I thought it was really sweet that Janika got up early and made Rick breakfast in bed -- especially since she had been out late last night for the Stake Dance. Rick cancelled his morning meetings and so we actually got him home for once!  Our kids all decorated posterboard ties for their Dads during Primary and so Rick got to wear four of them during Sacrament meeting.  Our kids sang, "I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home," as a musical number.

We stayed after church so that Janika and Jase could renew their temple recommends before Youth Conference. Then we all pitched in to make a delicious Father's Day meal of barbecued Salmon and Steak, rice, corn on the cob, salad, and vegies.  Everything tasted so delicious. After naps Rick taught a family home evening lesson on "Fathers" from our past.  He showed pictures from our Jensen history book and told stories about his Grandpa Jensen.  The kids were very inquisitive and had a lot to share.

Following in his family tradition, we all had rootbeer floats for dessert.  Rick and the kids took advantage of the beautiful and unseasonably cool June weather to play outside on the tramp. We also watched a Hallmark Father's Day movie. I should have taken some pictures of Rick with all of the kids.  I have been working busily on my blog book from January to June of this year and so I have slacked off on blogging and picture taking! But it was a lovely day and I feel so grateful for my own wonderful Dad and also to be married to such an incredible Dad to our children.  I feel very blessed indeed! 

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I borrowed Jen's post on the annual Father's Day Party and will include it here (even though we weren't there!) 

It was out to Scott and Amy's for the annual Westra Father's Day BBQ.  There was rain, which continued all through the day keeping us mostly indoors or under the canopy. That was perfect for paracord projects, and Gray had brought a handy portable paracord kit. The rain did stop enough for the kids to peek at the toads under the tramp. 

The paracord was a bit hit, and the cousins all ended up with new bracelets. 

Looks like we tired some of the guys out!

Then it was TOAD time ...

WHO let the toads out? 

According to this video, Callahan grabbed one of them ...

Some never before seen (before this blog post) footage of the family party!

Swimming Pool Up!

We were SO late getting our pool up this year!  But that is okay because this Spring/Summer has been even cooler than last year (which was already unseasonably cool) and so I am NOT complaining!  It has been wonderful!  Many years we had it up in May before school was even out, but this year we knew we were going of town right after school got out and so we didn't want to put it up right before we left.  Then when we got home and ready to put it up we realized we needed a new pad to put underneath it.  No stores had it and so we had to order it online and wait another week for it to arrive.  But it finally did and Rick and the kids got the pool up Friday night without any problems (even without Jase's help since he was gone to Scout Camp) and then it filled all night.  Saturday the kids went swimming -- but it was COLD!!  We put the cover on over Sunday and it was a perfect temperature by our Monday swim.  I didn't know if it would warm up that much since Sunday was so cool, but it still did and now the temperature is perfect -- even for a wimp like me!  I couldn't get any good pictures because the kids were splashing so much I was paranoid with my camera.  But I am sure I will get plenty more throughout the summer!

Scout Camp

Jase arrived home filthy and stinky from his five day/night Scout Camp this morning bringing home his energy, enthusiasm and loud volume.  I don't think he washed up or brushed his teeth all week (gross I know!).  Janika ordered him to the shower and to his toothbrush.  But I thought it was cute that the first thing he did when he walked in the door was start passing out little treats and surprises to the rest of the kids.  He had lots to talk about and was excited to earn a couple more merit badges.  It sounds like he had a great time!   I tried to get him to take up Janika's camera but he didn't want to so hopefully his scout leaders will send me some pictures!

Just for fun!

Jared's Photo Shoot

When we were up at Park City, we decided to update the kids' pictures in our front room by doing a photo shoot of each of them.  The only problem was we the boys hadn't brought any nice shirts.  So we had them borrow the EFY polos we had used the week before.  It was too big on Jared but we figured it would work since we were mostly doing head shots anyway and Rick could edit out the logo on the final pictures.  Here are some of Jared's (before editing).