International Day at Elementary School

I guess this is the 20th year that our Elementary School has held an “International Day.” It was very cool. Donovan’s class had Mexico, Ashley’s class had England and PJ’s class had New Zealand.

Above: Donovan was lucky enough to get the largest sombrero…which he loved, of course .

Above: Donovan and his class lined up and ready for the parade to start.

Above: Donovan’s class representing Mexico in the parade.

Above: I think Nayali (left) was the only true Mexican in the group.

Above: Ms. Ferry!!!

Above: You can see Donovan on the Left.

Above: Some of Donovan’s friends (you might remember them from the Aquarium field trip).

Above: I didn’t have any kids in this class…it’s just an example of the other colorful countries represented.

Above: This is Ashley’s class in the parade.

Above: Ashley got to be Queen Elizabeth….she felt very important.

Above: Her Royal Highness.

Above: Nkemji and Willow.

Above: Ms. Simpson as Elizabeth the Great.

Above: I don’t know how he did it but PJ managed to do the parade without a costume. Here he is trying to hide behind his friend Tahmeed.

Above: More of PJ’s class representing New Zealand.

Above: All of the countries were represented by their flags.

Above: PJ’s New Zealand class after the parade…you can see him hiding in the background.

Above: Part of Ashley’s class.

Above: Ashley with her friends Nkemji and Kha.

Above: The “English.”

Memorial Day BBQ at Hard Labor Creek

We had another fun day thanks to the threat of rain.

Above: Bishop and Sister Buck. The Bishop was in the middle of a water balloon fight with some of the Young Men…I’m not sure who was winning.

Above: They have a really nice beach there! I was surprised. The next three pictures can be put together to give you a panoramic view. This is the Left.

Above: This is the center.

Above: And this is the Right…. behind where I was sitting was a building where there was an outdoor shower, bathrooms, a snack shack…and they even had a scavenger hunt and a magic show (because of the holiday weekend, I guess).

Above: Donovan, PJ & Megan (and Ashley is out there somewhere).

Above: This is why I didn’t get in the lake. It looked fun…but, uh…yeah…lake swimming is a little dirty.

Above: Elorah…she is such a cutie!!!

Above: Michelle, Hitomi, Yukiko, Shayne & Ula. Ula is our Activity Chairperson and put on a great party.

Above: Ula and Hitomi.

Above: Janna and Mikayla after paddleboating.

Above: Liz, Megan and other ward members in the middle of a sand volleyball game.

Above: PJ (center) on the opposing team.

I had a great video of the volleyball game…but every time I try to upload a video to Blogspot these days my whole browser (and sometimes computer) freezes!!! Bummer!!!

Six Flags for Mikayla’s Birthday

We all went to Six Flags over Georgia for the first time at the end of May. We went in celebration of Mikayla’s birthday.

It was Memorial Day weekend and we thought it would be really crowded. Lucky for us, however, there was a threat of rain that day…the traffic was REALLY light. It did rain once for about 20 minutes in the afternoon…but that was it. The rest of the day was overcast and in the upper 70′s….perfect! AND the lines were short! We couldn’t have asked for a better day.

Well…except for the fact that on the very first ride…the Cyclone, which is an ancient wooden coaster….I put my cell phone in my pocket for the ride…and when we were done it was gone! That darn ride threw me around like a rag doll. The bar wasn’t very tight and I felt like I was going to fall out at times…crazy!!! AND it hurt my back in 2 places.

The sad thing was that it was a brand new COOL phone that I had only had for 2 days!!!! I was crushed!!! The happy news is that the guy that sold us the phones put insurance on all 7 of our lines (unbenownst to us)…so, even though I have gotten rid of the insurance now, it did allow me to replace my very COOL phone for not much money .

So…back to the story of Six Flags:

Above: Yeah, they mean it.

Above: Yep, more photos of us waiting in line (Liz, Megan & Frank).

Above: PJ….”I’m da man.”

Above: More waiting in line (Seth, Donovan, Ashley, Sandi, Larry, Hannah, PJ & Liz)….the lines were short…but there were still lines. They had good music playing throughout the park all day…and good TV “stuff” to watch while you wait…which was nice. This Six Flags is way cleaner and nicer than the one in Southern California too.

Above: This is the newly opened “Monster Mansion” ride. It was supposed to be “It’s a Small World” meets “Pirates of the Caribbean.” But it was more like yawn meets “get me out of here.”

Above: Frank, Shayne and Megan…happy they didn’t fall asleep during the Monster Mansion.

Above: PJ and HIS new COOL Phone…which he didn’t lose (yet). He just wishes he had more people to text.

Above: Megan and Liz always hamming it up…and PJ trying to get in on the action.

Above: More hamming it up and Shayne trying to catch it on camera.

Above: More hams (Donovan, Seth & Ashley).

Above: Seth and Donovan.

Above: PJ, Frank and Liz.

Above: Shayne and Megan waiting to ride the “vintage” cars.

Above: Sandi being driven by Hannah…why was Sandi shaking after the ride .

Above: Ashley driving Frank.

Above: PJ driving Liz.

Above: And Seth driving Miss Daisy…er, I mean Megan.

Above: Liz is never far from her music… This was in the afternoon and we were pretty pooped by this time.

Above: Hannah loves her Liz.

Above: The end of a very full day….

Above: Two seconds later….

Mikayla’s 13th Birthday

Luckily, they are all pretty good kids .

Above: Liz, Mikayla & Brionna.

Above: Mikayla mesmerized by the magical glitter ball.

Above: Frank coming to grips with having 3 teenagers….

Above: Megan practicing her videography skills…while eating pizza.

Above: Special Horse Card from Grandma and Grandpa Slade.

Above: PJ had a little icing mishap (thanks to Dad).

Above: After cake and ice cream we took Mikayla to BJ’s (like Costco…only not quite as cool) so she she could pick out her new cell phone…which was her birthday present.

Above: PJ admiring Liz’s new swimsuit from BJ’s.

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Outdoor Festival at Charlie Elliott

We attended the 13th annual JAKES Day at the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center this past weekend. JAKES stands for: Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics, & Sportsmanship. It was a free event for kids and they had a bunch of fun activities. They even fed us lunch. For those of you that live in the area and have kids, I would highly recommend it for next year. Our kids had a GREAT time!!

Larry, Sandi, Seth and Hannah joined us for the adventure. Liz and Megan didn’t think they wanted to get up early on a Saturday to go with us….but now they wish they had gone!

Above: Hannah and Mikayla. They gave all the kids a free T-shirt.

Above: The kids all got to hold a live, slimy snake. I think Seth liked it .

Above: PJ and the snake.

Above: Ashley and the snake.

Above: Two Braves fans (Larry and Frank) and Sandi.

Above: They had several hawks that you could get up close and personal with.

Above: The kids were impressed.

Above: Seth, “Why am I taking a picture with this bird?”

Above: Donovan, “Yeah, I’m with Seth.”

Above: More Snakes.

Above: They had a firing range where the kids could do some target practice. That’s PJ in the cool glasses getting instruction. We discovered that, for some reason, he can’t close JUST his left eye.

Above: Mikayla, Hannah and Donovan taking a turn.

Above: Ashley and Seth decided to try their hand at archery instead. (that’s not Seth in the yellow though…I couldn’t get a good shot of him)

Above: …after our lunch of hotdogs, chips, pop AND a giant Rice Krispie Treat….a child’s dream lunch.

Above: Probably the best part of the festival was the fishing. They provided all of the equipment and even live bait for everyone to fish that wanted to. The kids loved it. Unfortunately, only one fish was caught…by PJ. All the people around us seemed to be catching fish, but we weren’t so lucky. I think we should’ve gone with the crickets instead of the nightcrawlers!

Above: Me showing off my secret tree-catching throw. It worked…I caught a tree!

Above: I believe Sandi was also successful at catching a tree…

Above: When PJ caught our one and only fish…and we were all standing around not really wanting to unhook it…we were very lucky that this girl came walking by at that very moment and said, “Do you want some help?” She actually liked doing it….so we let her .

Liz at Prom ’09

Liz got to go to her first Prom recently….a Church Prom. It was held at Georgia Tech in downtown Atlanta…several stakes in the area were invited. (For those of you that don’t know what a stake is…it is a congregation comprising several smaller congregations – wards – in a specific geographic area.)

Liz went to one dance at her high school earlier this year and decided she didn’t want to go to them any more. It was pretty scary, I guess. The dancing was disgusting, as was the music. So, we were pretty excited when we heard that the Church was going to put on a Prom with an environment where she would feel comfortable.

Liz looked absolutely beautiful. She did her hair herself and also did a friend’s hair too…she has a talent for hair.

Above: Liz’s Date, John, putting on the wrist corsage.

Above: John is a pretty cool guy…

Above: The handsome couple…

Above: They doubled with Ben and Barbie. They didn’t plan the color scheme…it just worked out that way.

Above: Let the fun begin….

Above: More Photo Ops for parents…

Above: Liz had a great time!

Megan’s 8th Grade (Semi-formal) Dance

Megan had her first “Big” Dance in May. Her middle school had a Semi-formal dance for just the 8th graders. Unfortunately, she thought it was incredibly lame…especially compared to the church dances she is used to going to. But she looked beautiful and got to hang out with her friends for a while.

Liz did her hair for her…

Above: Some of Megan’s friends before the dance.

Above: Some of Megan’s friends at the dance.

Annual Father Son Campout

Above: Seth

Above: Frank and Donovan (far Right) and some of the other ward members at the campout.

Above: It’s so pretty and green in Georgia.

Above: PJ and his mighty catch!

Above: Seth checking out the live bait.

Pinewood Derby 2009

So, we had a Pinewood Derby in April. I had been to a few but never been in charge of one…so it was a learning experience. We only have a handful of Cub Scouts, so we invited our two 11-year-old Scouts (PJ is one of them) to participate as well. PJ won overall in the bracket that included the 11-year-olds, and Donovan took 2nd in the bracket that just had the Cub Scouts. I didn’t get that many great pictures since I was busy doing other things most of the night. But it was fun…