11 August

This past weekend was interesting and very busy. Thursday, Zane and Leah came over with their family and spent the evening with us. Friday morning they were taking their little one into surgery and we watched their kids Friday and part of Saturday. Friday was Shaun’s normal Friday off so we spent most of the day running errands, fixing the cars (fuel pump, fuel filters and transmission cooler) and getting the school room and office up to date. Shaun has been completely rebuilding our home network and was able to get it finished Friday. Kelli has been working to attend all the K12 orientation classes in anticipation of school starting. Shaun was able to finish reading Breaking Dawn (Stephenie Meyer). The only thought that came to mind after finishing it was “WOW-THAT WAS AWESOME”. Friday was also the first day of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing China. We were able to watch the opening ceremonies which were incredible. It would have been really neat to be there. Chandler Kendall came over Saturday to spend a week with us in anticipation of attending EFY (Especially For Youth) with Isaac this upcoming week. Isaac and Chandler went to a stake dance Saturday which they said was great. Sunday we spent time working on our callings, getting ready for EFY, and Education Week (Isaac and Kelli will be attending at BYU) and watching the Olympics. Rachel decided, with here friend Tayler, that they would read Twilight (Stephenie Meyer) together. She started reading last week and caught the bug Friday – She could hardly put the book down. She was bothered a lot when we asked her to help with chores etc (hee, hee, hee (It’s exciting as a parent to see your children catch the reading bug)). Zachary spent the weekend helping us, playing with Isaac and Chandler, and reading. Matthew wanted to spend the entire weekend playing video games. We put the kibosh on that and encouraged him to do some reading and watching the Olympics. Incidentally, this morning there was a small miracle concerning Matthew that happened out in the street in front of the house. We picked up a little go cart from a garage sale earlier in the year. We will only let the older kids ride it as it accelerates very fast and the steering is very touchy. Dad did not feel that it would be safe for Matthew to drive it alone. Dad and Matthew have ridden it several times together – it’s a very tight and uncomfortable squeeze however. Dad was planning on taking it out in the desert and teaching Matthew how to ride it in a safe place (we just have not had time to do this). This morning the older boys went out to ride and decided that they would let Matthew ride all by himself (they apparently did not like the tight squeeze either). Matthew did okay for a minute then he tried to drive it into the driveway to put it away. Instead of hitting the brake– hit the gas. He ran over Chandler, hit the neighbor’s car, and bounced off their garbaget can, broke the front axel and flattened the tire. Luckily no one was hurt (a few scrapes) and the only damage was to the go-cart. Hopefully they have learned their lesson about being safe and listening to their dad. Bekah and Abby spent the weekend playing at home or with their friends. A few weeks ago we moved Abby from upstairs to down stars with the “big” girls. She likes to sleep upstairs in mom and dads room. Kelli was at Target and saw that they had a toddler cot on sale. The cot is exactly what we needed for Abby. When Abby saw it, she was very excited. Since then, she has insisted on sleeping on her cot in the school room. She has been very cute about it. Bekah is really excited about school and is anxious to start. Only 2 weeks to go.

This upcoming weekend, we are going to go up to Boise, Idaho to a wedding reception. One of the girls that Kelli taught while in Young Women’s in Washington, got married this past weekend and her reception will be in Boise next weekend. We decided that it would be nice to get away for a few days and hopefully see some old friends.

I have not heard anything back from Mentor Graphics on that job. I received and IM from them last Tuesday indicating that they’d call me on Wednesday but they did not call. We debated if we should all them but decided that it was in their hands. We’re just going to let it go and continue where we are and what we are doing.

We took some candid pictures of the family: