The Nolden Family » General

2011 Fall MISC

Shayne — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:36:27 +0000

Fun in the Fall of 2011:

Mikayla ran Cross Country again this year and continued to improve.

Mikayla and her Cross Country/Church buddies: Janna & Ferre

Mikayla and her Cross Country/Church buddies: Janna & Ferre - plus their coach

Cross Country Banquet (actually in Jan of 2012)

Ferree, Janna & Mikayla at the Cross Country Banquet

I took Liz and Megan to see the play "WICKED" at the Fox Theater in downtown Atlanta for their 19th and 17th birthdays. This picture was taken at Mary Mac's Tea Room in ATL where we had dinner before the play.

Megan and Liz at "Wicked" at the Fox Theater

Wicked about to start (Fox Theater, Atlanta)

Frank's father passed away this Fall. This is Frank with his siblings and mother at the funeral.

Frank, his siblings, and his mother at the funeral of Frank's father.

The Nolden Grandkids 1

The Nolden Grandkids 2

...at the graveside for Frank's father who was a Vietnam Veteran

Seth, Donovan, Frank and Ashley at the Funeral

Megan

Christie visited us this Fall and we were able to enjoy a few activities with her...including a visit to Coke World.

...and we hiked Stone Mountain with Christie!

This was the annual Turkey Bowl on Thanksgiving Day at our church...it was mostly the Nolden Clan, the missionaries and one other person...but we weren't complaining. It was a beautiful day and lots of fun!

Frank and his brother, Marc

Lynn and Megan

Ashley & Mikayla

Jessee

PJ and Donovan

Liz and her boyfriend, Jordan

Liz has only begun beauty school, but she is already proficient at many things. She gave both Ashley and Mikayla highlights recently (with Donovan looking on).

Ashley getting highlights...

Mikayla getting highlights...

I forgot to get "after" pics...but they both turned out well.

Above: Mikayla running at a Cross Country Meet

Liz – High School Graduation (5/2011)

Shayne — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 04:01:22 +0000

Liz graduated from High School with Honors in May of this year. By the time I finally got this posted, she has already started her first semester of Cosmetology School. Hair is her passion. Here are some pics from Graduation Night:

That's a blur of Liz walking by as the graduates entered...I wasn't quick enough.

Liz after graduation...

Liz with her friends, Spencer & Garrett

Liz with her friend, Jordan...

Liz with Ms./Sis Kimble...her high school teacher and Young Women's leader...

Liz with her friend, Alycia...

Liz with her sister, Megan...

Liz and her Dad

Liz and her Mom

Liz and her friend, David...

Liz and her friend, Morgan...

That's my Liz!

Liz and Alycia

Above: Liz “walking” during graduation.

Liz – Senior Prom (4/2011)

Shayne — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 04:00:38 +0000

Liz had a lot of fun at her Senior Prom. She went with Jordan. It was held at the famous Fox Theater in downtown Atlanta, Georgia.

Liz & Jordan at the Prom

Liz and Jordan before the Prom - Photo ops!

Jordan

...on the way to the Prom...

Liz with her friends...Morgan and Alycia...before the Prom

Cody & Whitney: BYU Graduates (4/2011)

Shayne — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 03:59:54 +0000

Cody (son) and Whitney (daughter-in-law) both graduated from BYU in April of 2011!! We are so proud of them!

Cody got a Masters Degree in Information Systems (Cum Laude) and Whitney graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Humanities with an emphasis in Music.

Cody had a job lined up with a large corporation before they graduated and they have already started their new life in Houston, TX.

Cody

Whitney

Cody

Whitney

The Graduation Ceremony

Cody

Cody & Whitney

Whitney

It was late April when they graduated, but there was a light snow falling the morning we got up to attend the ceremony. The mountains in Provo are so beautiful!

The Wasatch Mountains in Provo, Utah.

CHATTANOOGA (3) – Rock City!!

Shayne — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 02:45:41 +0000

The last part of quick trip was a visit to Rock City…which is actually right across the border in Georgia. We really had NO idea what to expect there…we just knew it was one of the main attractions in the area. We were so pleasantly surprised. It is just a beautiful garden area with cool rock formations, beautiful lookouts (supposedly you can see seven states from the main lookout), and lots of gnomes. I almost felt like I was back home in Utah with all the rocks. We all had a lot of fun there.

Getting ready to enter Rock City...

Ashley, Megan, PJ, Mikayla & Donovan

Frank and Shayne

Ashley, Donovan, Mikayla & PJ

Ashley, Megan & Mikayla

The swinging bridge

Beautiful view from the top looking down toward Chattanooga...

PJ on the lookout...

That's Megan, PJ & Donovan on the corner of the lookout.

Megan, "I'm on top of the world!"

PJ, Ashley & Mikayla

PJ, Donovan, Shayne, Frank and Mikayla

Frank and Shayne

Just like Utah rocks, right?!

Can you see Donovan laying down on the ledge that has no supports under it?

PJ, Megan, Mikayla, Ashley & Don on the ledge with no supports under it...

Beautiful!!!

Mikayla

Ashley & Frank

Donovan

Ashley

Mikayla

Don and PJ (getting along??!!)

The crazy Nolden clan

At the end there is this huge room with tons of fairy tale characters portrayed until black lights. It was a littel freaky...but, hey...what do you do?

Ashley (12)

Donovan (11)

Megan (16)

Mikayla (15)

PJ (13 - just about to turn 14)

FIRE PIT!!! 1 – The Work (9/2011)

Shayne — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 03:55:14 +0000

We just completed a fun project in our backyard! We love to have fires in the backyard and just sit around and roast marshmallows and such. Well, before we had just a hole in the ground and we would throw some chairs around it. Now we have an awesome brick area to hang out on. Check out the process:

BEFORE SHOT....this is what the ground looked like before we started manipulating it. We got rid of the play structure and decided that would be a good time to upgrade the fire pit area (the hole we used to use was right behind the play thing).

A friend from church, Bro. Rasmussen, let us borrow his tractor (grader/blade??). PJ and I did all of the grading for the area. We thought it was tons of fun...PJ couldn't get enough of it.

That's me as we were just starting to rip up the ground.

That's PJ working on the dirt....

Ashley trying out the tractor...

Donovan trying out the tractor...

PJ having WAY too much fun on the tractor...

And PJ :-)

I missed a few pictures in between...but this is soon after the work on the area started. We hired someone from church to do the work. We knew we were in way over our heads after the ground was leveled :-). That's Donovan hiding in the fire pit. I got to dig the hole with the bucket part of the tractor...it was way fun. PJ was jealous because I did it while he was at school.

Donovan loved the whole process.

Bro. Leon and his worker putting it all together....

This is looking from the back of the fire pit up to the house (Donovan and Megan)..

Looking out a window at the work going on...

Leveling everything off....it only took them about 3 days to get everything done.

Starting to lay the pavers... See the next entry for the finished product...

Above: Ashley learning to work the tractor.

Above: Donovan learning to work the tractor.

Above: PJ learning to work the tractor.

Above: More of PJ – he got pretty good at it. He loved it more than the other kids and got to do a lot of the work.

Above: This video shows the fire pit while the work was going on…but it mostly shows Frank playing catch with Donovan – priceless…

*****Be sure to go to the second part of this post to see the final product: http://nolden9.com/2011/09/fire-pit-2-the-fun-92011/

FIRE PIT!!! 2 – The Fun (9/2011)

Shayne — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 03:55:02 +0000

Yeah!! The Fire Pit is finished. We had our first cookout at “The Pit” tonight. We did Hobo Dinners and made dutch oven cobbler (for the first time ever). The weather was PERFECT and we had a lot of fun!

So, this is what it looked like right after the work was completed.

Another angle after the work was completed....

Frank and I worked feverishly the next day to smooth out the ground around it...and then we went to the recycling center and got a truck load of compost to make the dark path around it and make it look tidy and "finished." We were very proud of how it looked...and we were pretty tired afterward!

Another angle after it was done...

Looking up at the house from the pit...

Isn't the actual fire pit pretty??

Donovan...he loves the hole for some reason!

Liz helped a little bit with the speading of the compost...this is her tired look...

Sophie got to play outside all day...she was pooped too!

Frank - "I've fallen and I can't get up!" :-)

Yeah!! The work is done...now it's time to have fun!! This was actually the day after we did the mulch around it. Sandi, Larry, Seth and Hannah were there too...but I only got video while they were there...no pictures :-(.

Sophie is SO funny. She thinks she is a lap dog. And she LOVES Frank.

Sophie had been outside ALL day playing while the kids were playing and she was exhausted from running around...she actually fell asleep like this and started snoring!

PJ lounging by the fire...

Mikayla and Megan

Ashley

Donovan got to do a little bit of video-ing. Uhm...yeah...he's a bit on the dirty side :-)....

Spring 2011 – Misc.

Shayne — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 02:09:29 +0000

So, I am a little behind…but here are some of our adventures from Spring 2011:

My niece, Tristan, was married at the end of April. It just happened to be on the same day that Cody and Whitney graduated from BYU. It was a great and busy trip to Utah! So fun to be able to see the family there!

LtoR: Corey, Sam (my sister), Tristan, Steven, Sandra (my mom), and Pard (my dad).

Grandma hanging out with the grandkids: Colton, Heather, Ashton, Grandma, Bronson and Beano.

Grandpa and Grandma Slade looking stylish for the Wedding.

PJ had to have surgery on his nose again. Several years ago he was hit in the face with a fast-pitch baseball...and had to have surgery then. It is all messed up again inside and he had to have it fixed...it didn't really solve the problem though...he still can't breathe well.

Donovan and his buddy, Taki, at church.

These are the beautiful Young Women from our ward (church congregation). Ashley had just come into Young Women at that point and hadn't graduated from High School yet...so I had four of my daughters in the Young Women Program at one time (Liz, Megan, Mikayla & Ashley).

Cody and Whitney had a month in between BYU graduation and when he had to report to his job in Houston. So, they were able to get in a huge road trip in that time. We were so lucky that they came to visit us and stay for a little while before they headed on up the coast. We took them to see the CNN Center in downtown Atlanta.

We also took them out to a Strawberry patch....mmmmmm. (Cody)

Whitney picking strawberries....

Frank and Megan picking strawberries....

This was an awards program at the high school. This is Megan picking up one of her many awards! (first from left).

Above: Donovan has what we call “Justin Bieber Hair.” So, we wanted him to lip sync a JB song. He did it but was too self-conscious to get too animated….but he has a few animated moments throughout (see the end)…LOVE it . FYI…I cut his hair…thank you, thank you very much .

Above: So…Big Sister Liz stepped in to show him how it is done…as a backup singer….

Above: Liz showing Don how it is done – Justin Bieber style…

Mikayla – Spring Track 2011

Shayne — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 02:00:50 +0000

Mikayla is the runner of the family. She is one of the unique individuals who likes to push herself to the utter limits of physical exertion. She is amazing.

We knew she had a talent for it, so we encouraged her to go out for Cross Country at the beginning of the 2010-11 School Year. It was her first attempt at anything like that. She improved so much over the season and got an award for Most Improved. Then, last Winter/Spring she did Track for the first time ever – as a distance runner.

Here is a picture and a few videos from her Track Days:

Mikayla in the middle...

Above: Mikayla sprinting in a relay.

Above: Mikayla doing a longer-distance run.

Hilton Head Island and Savannah, GA – 7/2011

Shayne — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 03:34:11 +0000

We were able to get out of town for the 4th of July Weekend!! It was so good to leave town and see something new – none of us had ever been there before. Everyone but Liz went – she was on a road trip with her 2 friends in Gatlinburg, TN. It was very strange to only have 5 kids with us….I kept counting and it just didn’t seem right.

We went to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. It is just over the Georgia/SC border…about 30 minutes from Savannah. It was a last minute thing…so we didn’t much planned, just some beach time and site-seeing…but it was still a LOT of fun.

The beach was beautiful and we even got some decent waves for our boogie-boards.

We went to church there on Sunday. It was like a mini meetinghouse. They had one of the meetinghouse styles where the chapel and gym are in the middle and all of the offices and classrooms, etc. are in a ring on the outside of that. The only thing was that the chapel and the gym were one and the same…they set up chairs every Sunday. We sat down…we were really early (thanks, Frank ).and no one really talked to us. We were a little surprised until we found out that the majority of the attendees were visitors just like us. I guess it happens to them every summer…tourist town…and most of the regular ward members were out of town for the 4th of July weekend. Everyone ended up being very nice and it was a great visit.

This was a baby alligator that lived in a small pond behind our hotel where we parked.

There were tons of sand dollars...Ashley gathered about 20 of them..

A for Ashley

Ashley and Mikayla with their treasures...

We found starfish too...

Ashley, Don & Mikayla on the beach.

PJ and I had a hole digging contest. His was deeper, but mine was cooler :-).

Ashley with the hole that I dug and the creation she made out of the dirt.

My hole...it was cavernous!

All Don thinks about is Baseball...he brought his glove and Frank played catch with him for a while.

PJ - "I am THE man!"

We drove from Hilton Head Island down to Savannah, GA (about a 30 minute drive),for a quick tour. Savannah is beautiful!

On the Riverfront in Savannah...

Donovan

Ashley

Mikayla

Megan

We thought Ebay street was cool...

There were a lot of old buildings like this...

Walking along the riverfront

Ghost tours in a hearse...perfect...

We stopped at the Harbor Town Lighthouse for a quick tour. First...we had to climb on the trees...

L to R: Ashley, Mikayla, Donovan, Megan and PJ

Mikayla

Megan

PJ & Ashley

Donovan

Mikayla

Don needed a picture posing by the yacht.

Harbor Town...

Frank patiently waiting while we shopped in the gift shop...

Can you see the parasailing going on behind us?

I don't know these people...I just thought it was a good picture.

Don and Ashley throwing seashells back into the water...

Don, Mikayla & Ashley

Ashley

Frank

Don and Mikayla had to get a little play out of their systems...

Above: Check out the bull at this petting zoo next to a C-store in rural Georgia…he knows how to get the goodies. This was on our drive to Hilton Head Island.