Dusting the Cobwebs part 3

I was hoping to get this done in August, but typing is just not feeling good at all.  I've done a little bit here and there and I'm finally caught up!  I'm not sure what the future holds for this blog.  But I'm going to do my best to keep up on my family story in some fashion.

May-August 2016

Mark, Paul, Jane and I went to Burley Idaho to visit my brother and his family.  We had a great visit.  It is strange to see my boys as the tallest ones in this group.  I'm sure that Tyler will grow though!

 I made a quilt that reminded me of my nephew Ryan.  He died 2 1/2 years ago.  He loved cars and this pattern looks like a tire track to me.  The quilt is named "Here and There". I gave it to Jenn and Kelly to enjoy.

 These are not in order, but I'm not fixing it.

May 24 Jane turned 6.  She had a Halloween Costume party again this year for her friend party.  She really likes dressing up!

Paul made this awesome card for Jane.  They call each other billy goats (not sure how it started), so this is just perfect!

 Jane had a dance performance. They danced to Spoonfull of Sugar from Mary Poppins.  Her school teacher, Mrs. Elder came to see her perform!

 Jane with Ms Julie, her dance teacher.

 May 21 Mark turned 16!  We had family over for ice cream and cinnamon rolls.  He got his driver's license a few days after his birthday.  He is a good driver!  It has been really nice to not have to take him to work 3x a week.  He is working at the taekwondo studio.

 Sometimes Mark will sleep in the clothes he wore that day. It drives Daniel crazy that Mark will sleep in his jeans.  We found some pajama pants that are printed to look like denim jeans.  He is holding them up here.  It was pretty funny!

 June
I went to Thanksgiving Point Gardens with my sisters and parents

 We went to Antelope Island and played in the Great Salt Lake.  It was really a neat experience!

 I did a marathon finish to get a quilt made before leaving to go to California.  I made this quilt for Daniel's parents.  This year marks their 50th wedding anniversary!  I learned a lot of new skills making this quilt and I really like it!

 Willes family camping trip at Strawberry Reservoir. This was the view from my tent.  It was hot, but beautiful!

 The kids found a lean-to to play in.

 Denise had a birthday while we were there, so we made sure to celebrate with a dutch oven cake!

I went on a hike with Paul

 and Randy and Wendy

 I am anxious to do this hike in the fall when the leaves have turned colors!

Jane and her cute friend Hailey Martin.  

July 

We drove to California (13 hour drive) to celebrate Les and Janet's wedding anniversary.  The oldest, middle, and youngest children didn't come, but I still think that we did pretty good to get 11 families to come to California on the same weekend!  

August

Paul turned 15!  15!? Wow!  He requested a raspberry cobbler for dessert and we went out for a Mexican dinner.  He still can't finish eating the burrito that is about 12 inches long, but he keeps trying!

Camping!

My friend Shelley and I have taken our boys camping together for the last 5 years.  Our numbers have changed a bit- Mark and Paul don't join us, but Jane comes with now.  My parents were camping just across the street from us, so after the first night with Shelley, we moved to the campsite with my parents and stayed for the week.

On our hike we found a little area set up for a wedding.  It was a great place to take a picture!

Kresser Girls Night Out  My sister Debbie was in town (she lives in Minnesota) so we got together at my parent's house for dinner and some lawn games (and visiting!).

First day of school
Paul 10th grade
Mark 11th grade

Seth 6th grade

Jane 1st grade

Dusting the Cobwebs part 2

I know that I'm leaving a lot of things out, but here is a summary of January-April

January

Paul advanced in Taekwondo

 Daniel turned 43
We celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary

February

Daniel and Jane played with sidewalk chalk on a nice, warm afternoon.

My roommate from college and her family came for a visit. Michele has 5 kids and it was a full house, but so good to catch up with her.  They live in Washington.

Her daughter Lyla is the same age as Jane and they were two peas in a pod!

I made a quilt for my sister-in-law's mom.  Mary has brain cancer that has spread to her other organs.  She has lived a lot longer than they predicted, but her health is very temperamental. She was complaining about the winter, so I made her a quilt to bring an early spring into her cold winter. Mother Nature complied and brought some warmer weather as well! 

Jane picked out a new Easter dress from Costco and we had a "drop the egg from the roof" contest at my parent's house.  

The 5 of us won with our eggs surviving two throws off of the roof.  My egg was just in a ziplock bag of Cheerios and put into a mailing envelope.  Simple (last minute) and effective!

March

I went to the Hogle Zoo with my cousin JaNean.  Her daughter Allison and Jane are the same age.  Jane got scared on the carousel and Alli held her hand to comfort her.  So cute!

Ryan Allison Jane Seth

Sherron JaNean

Seth and Brandon went skiing. We used the coupon in their passport to get lessons.  They did great and had a wonderful time on the slopes!

We went to Thanksgiving Point museums with my parents.  Jane really was terrified of this shark. Seth loved it!  

My parent's celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in January, but we had a party for them in March (when roads were more likely to be free of snow for our traveling family and friends) We had a lovely time catching up with neighbors, family, and friends.  It was a lot of work to put together, but I'm so glad that we did it!

 Kaye (my dad's sister) Ron, LuJane, Leland (Kaye's husband)

Me and Vicky Paul (she lived in my parent's neighborhood)

In a bit of sad news for our family, Master Kim from Taekwondo had to move to California to take care of family issues.  He has been deeply missed by my boys, especially Daniel.  Master Kim had an infectiously happy attitude. The boys would come home from a hard workout feeling amazing.  Things are a bit different now and it has been really tough to not have him around.  He was a great teacher for Mark to learn from.  

April

Taekwondo had their annual tournament.  The guys did a group form and took first place.  They all did really well in their competitions and I'm proud of them for going out there and working hard.

 Brandon came to watch.  He is in Seth's class at school and two of their other classmates were competing in the tournament. It was fun to see the boys cheer each other on!  

(Jane might have a bit of a crush on Brandon)