Red to Red Bike Race

Andy competed this year in the Red to Red bike race in Echo Oregon. It is a 27 mile mountain bike race. They have two different races. 20 miles, or 27 miles. In order to race in the 27 mile ride they had to register as a Category 1 racer, which he had never done before. It was such a beautiful day for a race in March, sun was shining and it was fairly warm out. The poor little town of Echo is just tiny, and then has 300 bikers and family members bombard the quiet town! Andy did so well and finished in less time than his goal! I was so proud of how well he did! He actally finished faster than he had told me, so I missed his finish line picture since I thought I had another half hour! I really love watching him compete, he does such a great job on his bike, and has fun doing it!

Hearts in Motion Competition

We love going to the Hearts in Motions Competition in Pendleton! They really know how to put on a show over there! Kyndalls group was so ready for the competition, and they are old enough now that they have a fun time together and can be pretty independant. The younger groups always are more like babysitting, but as helper moms this year, it was SO much fun! The girls did a great job and won 2nd place in their Junior Large Group division. In reality they competed against girls much older than them, so we were so proud of them! They dance to a cut of the new version of FAME! Such a fun dance to watch:) And of course it's just so fun to watch all of the other groups dance. Fun to see the diversity and talent in the state.

Sleeping in the snow!

February always marks the month when the boys sleep in snow caves for the Boy Scout Klondike Derby. They look forward to it so much! It begins on Presidents day, spending the day at Anthony Lakes digging the snow caves and making camp. Then they go back that following Friday and stay over night! They cook dinner in the snow, try to avoid their clothing and food from freezing in the horrible cold weather. Spencer ended up getting horribly sick on the Thursday of the week and ended up not getting to go camping. But he had so much fun digging the caves. They built their camp so that all of the cave were built kind of in a bowl. Their 7 caves opened to the middle where they all spent their evening eating and visiting. This ended up working rreally well due to the face that the wind was super strong and being inside of the bowl, they were protected from the wind. Wyatt had a great time on the Saturday day activity. The boys got to cross country ski. Wyatt had a great time skiing. I think he is now hooked on cross country skiing, but then again, Wyatt loves anything outside!
As mom, I am always so relieved when they get home safe! But it is always a bonus when they had a great time as well. Not many people can have a WONDERFUL time in 10 degree weather:)

Surfin in the USA

Grace's dance team danced at the EOU game this month! They are all so cute! Her class is full of little 5 to 7 year olds. Her dance teacher is seriously my hero! That is a lot of work to keep them working hard and doing such a great job! They danced to the Beach Boys - Surfin in the USA, which is so funny, cuz they had never heard the song and don't LOVE this dance, but the audience so loves it! The outfits were not foofy enough for Miss Grace! But I think they were super cute and fit the dance so well!!! She has so many fun friends in this group of girls, makes it really fun for her to be involved in dance.

Valentines Day!

What a busy weekend we had for Valentines Day! Because it was on a Sunday, we spent our weekend celebrating! On Saturday we took a day trip to Boise!!! Shopping at the mall of course:) Then we got to eat lunch at our favorite restaurant, Tucanos! We had the most wonderful lunch of meat and salad bar, with chocolate covered strawberries and roses! It was such a fun lunch! At the end of the day we went to the theater and watched the new movie Percy Jackson.... It was a lot of fun spending the day together!


Valentines day was so incredible! We really had such a fun weekend! We woke up to a visit from cupid... for some reason he always visits in the night and leaves red, white and pink streamers in the our bedroom doorways! We LOVE waking up to them:) After our day at church, we hhad a formal dinner of salad, prime rib, lobster, veggies, and desert! I thought I would be so fun and serve everyone individually... My memories always work better in my mind then in reality! Everyone had me running, trying to keep up with them each as they ate. Finally at one point I turned to bring something to the table and the entire place setting where Dallin was sitting was on fire!!! Lol! It was the funniest thing, (after we got the fire out!). No one at the table had even noticed this HUGE fire in the middle of the table! Dallin had thrown his napkin up on the table, landing it into his individual candle at his spot, thus catching the napkin and candle holder on fire. Those napkins are EXTREMELY flamable! So, my lesson learned, candles + a 4 year old = chaos! It definately added some flare to dinner!!! what a weekend of love with our kiddos! So much fun!!

Dancing at EOU

Wow! I was going to get better at this blogging thing, and have really not done so hot! I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I blogged.
This weekend was wonderful! Andy and I were able to go for a bike ride with some friends on Saturday morning. I was so needing to get on my bike and remember how fun it is, spin class hasn't done that for me:) The weather wasn't wonderful, but the roads were dry, and that's all we needed! So the guys took on the head wind and I drafted as much as possible and got close to 40 miles in. It was further than I had planned, but was happy to know I could still do it... now to get strong enough to do it well:) We were so glad we got out when we did, because that night it started snowing! Of course, it hasn't stayed, but the ground is wet again! Back to running for a while! We are signed up to do a run in March, so I suppose that is appropriate anyways!

Kyndall danced Saturday night with her team and they did so well. This is a dance that they will be performing in Pendleton in a competition. They are dancing to the song "Fame" from the new movie, it moves a little faster than they have danced before, and they are doing a great job with it! I love watching them dance and love the team she is on. So many wonderful girls from wonderful families. I love when my kids are surrounded by people who are so positive and supportive! So here are a few of my favorite pictures from the night! (I really dislike shooting in the gym and the background is horrible, but the pics were fun!)






This picture made me laugh. No, she is not looking at some mans crotch, but of course he had to be in the background at that very moment... I seem to have many of those moments in photography!

I guess it's back to homework for me now! Maybe I would be a better blogger if I just posted my assignments:)

IN MEMORY OF HELEN LUCILLE PERRY

In an attempt to better record our year as a family, I am determined to post more often on this blog! Fortunately for me, I don’t think there is more than one reader, so it takes the fear out a little bit!!

The year 2010 has started out in a rush as usual. It seems life never slows down around here. In 3 weeks andy has built a new entertainment center and has started the finish work in our bonus room and finished the laundry room. Michelle has started a new term of school including 15 credits this term, and as a family we have taken an impromptu trip to Portland for shopping, eating, swimming and time with Aunt Shelly and Uncle Wayne. I love my time with my Beautiful big sister... it's just never enough!!




Andy’s dear Grandmother, Helen Lucille Bywater Perry, passed away on Sunday January 10, 2010. She was so dearly loved and adored. We have missed her so already, but have loved the time it has given us to spend with family and to reflect on her life and love. Helen was an incredible woman who truly was a caregiver. She loved her family more than anything, and loved spending time with all of the many members. She knew each member individually and for a very long time, could remember the names of each of the 37 Grandchildren, their spouses names, and even most of the great grandchildrens names. There were a total of 76 of them. Helen was a quiet presence in a room, but always so gracious and thoughtful of others. She had a talent of making others feel welcome and loved in her presence and truly enjoyed meeting new people. I always admired Helens ability to move to small town Eastern Oregon from her big city Salt Lake City upbringing. She made it look so easy, and I never once heard her complain about it or say she had wished they hadn’t made the move. In fact, as Andy and I have reflected on her life, I don’t ever remember a time when Helen was in a bad mood or grumpy about anything. I have fond memories of her in her later years. Helen was in the nursing home after she broke her hip at the same time that my Grandma Lester was there, where she passed away. I remember going to see Grandma Lester and feeling down about how quickly she was going, when I would then go see Helen and she just brought so much comfort to me. She LOVED her lemon meringue pie. She once told me that when she was a young girl and would get sick, her mother would make her lemon pie. She said it was always such a treat to her as she got older. I will always remember how Elmer had made good friends with the chef at the retirement home and he was always happy to make the food that would make Helen happy. He loved making her lemon meringue pie!
I feel so blessed that my children are all old enough to have met her. I feel especially blessed that my oldest 3 children are old enough to have memories of her. That they were old enough at her service to hear the words of love and admiration that her children shared of her so that they can hold the heritage of this dear woman in their hearts as they get older. I am ever grateful to have been blessed enough to be able to call her family. My life has been deeply enriched by the example and love of a dear, tiny woman who loved her family and most of all her Savior.
In trying to capture moments on Saturday, I unfortunately did not get a lot of pictures of my own family. But I am excited about the moments that I did catch.
Keep in mind that a photographer I am not, but I love catching moments!!

Andy was blessed with the ability to be a pallbearer as one the oldest son of his family. He was excited to be one of 2 that still had all of his hair… made me giggle!

We wanted the children to have a moment that would help them remember this special day. In the story of Wizard of Oz, the Tin Man is given his heart from the wizard. The wizard tells him that the measure of ones heart is not how much love one gives, but how much they are loved. I wanted my children to SEE how much this woman was loved. Out of 37 grand children, only 5 could not make it. So we 'sent' our love to Grandma by letting go of 70 balloons at the gravesite. It was an incredible sight. It was hard to photograph because of the white balloons in the grey ski, but the balloons went up fast, then just sat up high in the sky looking down at us. It was as if the angels in the heavens grabbed them and held on to them for a while. It was beautiful!






I love the picture where everyone is looking up to the sky. One of the little ones kept saying "We sent balloons to Grandma!"




This is not the final edit of the group picture, I still need to add Brent into it, but wanted to share the impact this woman had one peoples lives. This is the family picture at the dinner. Such a legacy for one little woman:)