Em's 14th Birthday Trip to Arizona

Here is Em and Kristi at Slide Rock near Sadona as we celebrated Em's 14th birthday. It was a nice day and these two had lots of fun sliding down the river.In fact fun was had by all during the her birthday stay including the Arizona cousins as we got together for a nice dinner.

Welcome Jaylin Rosario Anderson

This is one of the first pictures we have of Baby Jaylin. She was born on her due date of October 6th, 2007 at 16:58. She weighted in at 6 lbs. 12 ounces and is 18 inches tall. We were all very excited to see the brith of Jayson and Jaqui's first child and sure enough she was worth the long drive and wait.

Fonzie

I went hiking again last night with one of the nurses I work with. She has a bull dog named Fonzie who is an amazing rock climber, especially considering how short his legs are. I took some pictures of him that I thought that you all might enjoy. He is a very delightful dog.

This is the view from the "mountain" that we hiked. You can see several of the off shore islands. I think that the Cranberry Islands are out there on the right of the image.

This is Em and i made this picture by folding each jersey in half and editing the background. I have a "A" in honors history and a 3.0 average overall. No one believes I'm related to any of my brothers. I'd take a guess and say its because I'm quiet and work hard to keep up in school and still have energy for football afterwards. I don't leave the school until 6 o'clock on some nights and wake up at 6 o'clock Saturday mornings for the games. One thing that helps me when i want to quit is a Vince Lombardi quote, "If you can accept losing, you can't win. If you can walk you can run. No one is hurt, hurt is in you mind." Another one is one my coach got from his coach, "Good, Better, Best. I will not rest, 'till my good is my better and my better is my best."

Original Pig Birthday

Today is Dad's 69th birthday if my math is correct. Happy birthday to the original pig!!!!

Baby's First stitches.

Liberty had a small fall out of her stroller. The blanket she was wrapped up in got caught in the wheals and she held on. It puller her out of her stroller and she landed on her head. We took her to urgent care. She was a very brave girl and held still while they worked on her. She ended up with 5 stitches. She is doing good now and should have them out in a week. I also included a photo early that day before she fell.

Crazy Days

Today was "Crazy Hat Day" at school. It is a United Way fundraiser where the kids can donate a dollar and wear a hat to school. In the past, Dan and I have always paid the kids' dollar but this year each kid made the choice to dip into their own piggy banks to give for a good cause. I must say they are adorable! I do pity the Kindergarten teachers,though. Imagine 200 Kindergarteners in hats. Whew!

Also in the category of "Crazy" goes the apple canning season at the GA Wards. We had a lot of fun with Ma and Pa Pig in GA apple country.(That sounds like a Richard Scarry book) But I think we have known each other long enough now that someone could have said "Crystal, Are you losing your mind? Why are you buying 9 huge bags of apples?!" Luckily, I hurt my back early into the canning adventure and Dan the Man has been very busy canning pie filling, baked apples, amazing applesauce and apple butter.(He loves his new canner!) Dan just finished boiling apple butter late late last night and my back is feeling much better today!

Happy Birthday!

To Chas or as I call him Chester McFester or Chester Cheesepuff. He is six today. He woke up pretty excited for his birthday.

He is getting a new bike, a flashlight that doesn't require batteries (you just shake it which is perfect for him) and a glow in the dark shirt.

Where is the water?

Michael and I were chatting today, talking about his fishing trip. He sent me a link that had this picture. I was astounded to see the reservoirs are this low in the Snake River basin. I don't know if it is normal for the lakes to draw down this low in the winter. It is amazing how we depend on dams and the resulting reservoirs in our daily lives. All of the water in my house comes from Lake Lanier which is a huge reservoir north of Atlanta. I know mom and dad get their water from the colorado river in arizona via lake powell. Do any of you know if you are dependent on reservoirs for your water?

Scouts

This weekend I took the scouts out on a campout. I am the assistant scoutmaster in charge of the 11 year scouts. The boys wanted to go shoot rifles so I took them to a wildlife management area that has a rifle range. The campout was fun with nice cool weather for camping. I taught the boys how to make tin foil dinners and then made them cook their own breakfast in the morning.

They had a ton of fun shooting rifles but I am exhausted from the experience. We had two rifles and I was continually watching them making sure they kept the guns pointed down range, didn't walk in front of the weapons etc. By the time two hours of shooting were over I was spent and I still feel tired today.

I didn't have a target to shoot at so I shot at the wood post that the boy's targets were hanging on. My old .22 still shoots pretty straight as I was able to walk a line of bullets up the 2 inch post. I don't know if Dad remembers or not but I bought this rifle at a gun show in Idaho Falls with him I must have only been 12 years old. I was always one of the best shots in my scout troop with that rifle. It is so old that it weighs a lot more than other guns but I would never trade it in for a new model.

I now have a newfound respect for my scout leaders that took us out shooting when I was a kid. It can be downright terrifying to hand a firearm to an 11 year old boy. My motto about scouting is "scouts are dumb. I should know, I was one" so I am glad we all made it home alive!

Matthew at bat

Matthew and I got a chance to go on to the local baseball teams field and hit a few balls. I was lots of fun. Matt did great and I can still hit them into the outfield.