The Nolden Family

Here’s ANOTHER hodge-podge of summer fun…there was too much fun to fit in just one post!

The first several pictures are from the first day of school…we can put that in the Summer post, since school starts the first week of August where we live in GA!

Mikayla and Megan on the first day of school 2011!

Mikayla & Megan - Posers!

Mikayla and Megan headed off to High School.

Ashley (7th), Donovan (6th) and PJ (8th) ready for the first day of Middle School.

Ashley (7th), Donovan (6th) and PJ (8th) ready for the first day of Middle School.

Ashley and Don headed up the driveway...to the school bus...

 

Sophie, the dog (she is a 2-years-old now)

Sophie, the dog (she is a 2-years-old now)

We got to go to 6 Flags a few times again this summer. It's always fun to go with cousins: Seth, Hannah, Mikayla & Donovan.

Donovan, Ashley, Hannah (front), Mikayla & Seth.

Seth, Ashley, Mikayla, Hannah & Don

Seth, Don, Mikayla

PJ riding the 4-wheeler

Ashley & Donovan out in the forest...

Megan and PJ Posing

This is Elder Dowdle's last dinner with us before being transferred out...

This is Elder Dowdle's last dinner with us before being transferred out...

PJ and his Georgia (cookie) project

Yeah, that's a gecko...and Megan. The poor thing lost it's tail that night :-(...

Megan and the gecko

This is a group of our youth at a Stake Dance...you can see Mikayla and Megan on the right...

This is Liz's first day of College...she immediately started in on her Cosmetology homework!

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.

We were forced, to a certain extent, to finally do a remodel of our basement.  We were in Utah for Cody & Whitney’s graduation when we got a call at 5:00 am (Utah time) from our kids who were at the house.  There was water spraying from the water heater closet in the basement and flooding the floor.  We had to catch an early flight home that day.

We turned our purple carpet and blue walls (it was like that when we bought the house) into a thing of beauty.  OK, actually “we” didn’t – our contractor, Ken Avery did.  We were very pleased with it.  It’s a much more pleasant place to be now.

This is the best "Before" picture I could find - where you can see the walls (blue) and the carpet (purple) together. This was Ashley and her buddy from school working on a school project and was taken in 2009. Notice the open doorway on the left. We actually had doors put on there prior to the remodel. But during the remodel that double door was removed and a single door, further to the left, was put in.

This is Ken Avery hard at work transforming the dungeon into a thing of beauty.

 

 

 

 

One of the rooms downstairs didn't have a closet - we added one and now can officially call it a bedroom.

The closet...

Getting closer

Yeah! Paint...but no carpet yet...

Yeah! Paint...but no carpet yet...the new closet...

 

The family room...

Carpet in the bedroom!

Carpet in the family room!

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!

Liz and Jordan before the Prom - Photo ops!

Liz and Jordan before the Prom - Photo ops!

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

On April 30th, 2011, 2700 youth from the Atlanta LDS Temple District performed in a “Cultural Celebration.” This was in conjunction with the rededication of the Atlanta Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The temple had been closed for almost 2 years for a complete remodel.

Twenty-eight youth from our ward (along with other youth from the Roswell Stake) performed a dance called “The Cake Walk” from the early 1900s.  They got to perform for our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson.  Megan, Mikayla & Ashley were able to participate.  Liz didn’t participate because it was the night of her Senior Prom, which was held at the Fox Theater in Atlanta.  PJ absolutely refused to participate…which was sad.  But he would’ve rather died.

Our youth did such a superb job on their dance. I am so proud of them all.

These are our beautiful youth from our ward. They did such an amazing job of preparing - they only had 2 months to get it all together - and performing.

This is the Atlanta Civic Center where the Celebration took place.

This was rehearsal for the opening number where all of the dances were represented by a couple of dancers. There was also a youth choir (front).

This was a dress rehearsal for the The Cake Walk - our youth are on the right.

More Dress Rehearsal

The Actual Performance

The Actual Performance

Mikayla, Ashley & Mikayla

Mikayla & Megan

Mikayla (right) with some of the other youth (Bebe, Eileen & Angel)...

Ashley and her friends that performed with her (Tajheeta & Bebe)...

Megan killing time during the many hours of waiting.

Ashley and the some of the other youth killing time during the many hours of waiting.

We did a lot of waiting in our tiny corner...but the youth were great about it.

 

Megan

Mikayla...

...and Mikayla

Above:  This is a video I took during the final dress rehearsal for the dance.

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

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.

We just took a FUN trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee!!!  We just stayed one night, but we fit a lot in and were surprised how much fun you can have there.  It is only about 2.5 hours from our home and we heard about a few fun things to do there.  So, we decided to go check it out during our Fall Break.  Unfortunately, Liz had work and school, so she wasn’t able to go with us.

The coolest part of our trip was being on the local Fox station.  We were checking out a park by the waterfront (Tennessee River flows through town), and we just happened to come across a news crew that was getting info about a BLUE RHINOCEROS (of all things).  The city of Chattanooga had made a deal 2 years prior that they would, in 2 years, pay $32,500 for this piece of artwork that has been on display for about 18 months.  It was a huge controversy in town that the government would spend that much money on a BLUE RHINOCEROS…so the film crew was getting opinions prior to the meeting of the city council that evening.  The story was on the 10:00 news that night…the top story.  We were so excited to see ourselves on the news…it was a highlight of the trip .  Check out the video (there is a commercial first):

Above: Noldens on the news (notice…they spelled our name incorrectly)…

Other than being on the news, we were able to check out Ruby Falls and Rock City…both come highly recommended by our family.

Below you will see some pictures of our adventures at Ruby Falls.  This is a waterfall in the middle of Lookout Mountain.  There is no natural path into the waterfall…it simply existed inside this huge rock.    It was discovered when some people digging access to an existing cave felt a rush of air come from a hole they had just made.  Some explorers went in and didn’t emerge for 17 hours…when they came back they told everyone about this amazing waterfall inside the rock.  See the history HERE.

 

Ready to check out Ruby Falls...

Donovan and Megan pointing out the city of Chattanooga down below where we were.

Megan and Donovan holding up the rocks so we could get through ;-).

We went single file down this cave for about a mile and a half.

This was our tour guide. He had been doing tours for 18 YEARS!!!!! I couldn't imagine doing that tour more than once...1 week....but 18 years??!!! I had a hard time breathing down there too.

 

...at a stopping point in the tour...

Ashley and Don taking a brief rest...

Ashley, who is a Beehive, standing by a rock beehive...

Ashley and Mikayla standing in front of the huge waterfall at the end of the .5 mile hike...

This is the beautiful waterfall when you get to the end of the hike...and then you take the same path back out again.

 

PJ and Donovan after the tour...there was a place to look down on Chattanooga.

Mikayla and Megan

Ashley and Donovan enjoying the gift shop at the end of the tour.

Be sure to go to the next two entries to see the rest of our trip to Chattanooga…  CHATTANOOGA CITY and ROCK CITY

After we went to Ruby Falls, we checked out our hotel in downtown Chattanooga.  We really liked the little city…it was clean and very pleasant.

This was the hotel we stayed in. It just opened in April of this year and was within walking distance of the riverfront, the children's museum, the Tennessee Aquarium, etc. Thank heaven for Hilton Points - luckily there is one perk to having a husband that travels a lot.

That's us with the reporter and the Cameraman...they were talking to us about the BLUE RHINCEROS the city purchased for $32,500.

Megan looking all stylish...

Can you see Ashley & Donovan on the riverfront down below?

Frank, Megan, Mikayla and PJ on the Riverfront.

That's the Tennessee Aquarium in the background.

The boat to the left does river tours...on some of them you can get lunch or dinner. We called to get the pricing - $197 for our family...uh...I think we will pass. The other smaller boat is one of those land/water boats...it looked fun.

PJ and Donovan finding their own fun on the handrail.

We got to try the "5 Guys" hamburger joint for the first time ever...well, everyone except for Frank - he has done everything. He was excited for us to try it. We literally had a BAG full of yummy fries after we were done. They give you SO many.

Hahahaha...no worries...it was all staged....Frank's idea!

What a good dad!

Ahhhhhh.....

Megan hanging out beside the pool with a little "light" reading...what was it, String Theory? She was smart - the water was FREEZING!!!!

Frank psyching himself out to get into the freezing water.

Megan

Mikayla

Donovan....hahahahahaha

Donovan and PJ on the "inside" part of the pool. It was only slightly warmer in there.

Donovan...

...and Donovan...

Ashley and Mikayla

Ashley is a water kid...

More of Megan

Ashley and Mikayla having fun...

Megan....for some reason she was excited about the cubicles in the window behind her...they didn't show up so well...

We took a walk down by the Tennessee Aquarium later in the evening...there was some cool artwork outside to have fun on.

Ashley

Frank

Donovan and PJ

Ashley

Ashley & Mikayla

PJ

Don, PJ & Ashley

Above: We were mesmerized by flocks of birds going crazy outside our window. At first we thought they were bats since it was dusk and that is usually when they come out to eat insects…be we realized they were birds. It was quite a sight. I tried to go outside to keep taping, but it was over by the time I got downstairs.

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)

 

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/