Scouts Rocket Car Derby

This is what being a scout master (asst) is all about! This combined the kids having fun, us playing with explosives, and the families all enjoying the evening together.

Project: A normal pinewood derby car kit was given to each boy. In the back end we had drilled a hole that would fit a model rocket engine. There weren't a whole lot of rules or limitations, some boys (let's be honest, some dads) went all out and others didn't do a thing except put on the wheels (this design actually took 3rd place and was a fraction of a second from being in the championship run).

We then got 200 feet of wire for a guideline and set up the track. Some pads were put in place about 20 feet from the end to slow/stop/derail the cars. It was a lot of fun and we plan to do this every year if we can! Here are a couple runs:

Happy Belated "Chosen" Week!

For Sam

Each summer for the past several years I have attended Core Academy. It's a fabulous 3-day-workshop for teachers filled with new ideas, great food and free stuff, held in various locations around the state. The last two years my 2nd grade team and I have made a vacation out of it.

This year we went to St. George and had a wonderful time together. We went shopping at the outlets, to the movies and Tuacahn, laughed our guts out, ate all the delicious food we could find and had an all around amazing time. Thanks ladies!

This year was a big deal - but last years' escape to Heber City brought an unexpected miracle that I will forever remember.

June 12, 2007 - I woke up bright and early, kissed Dave goodbye for 3 days, and drove to Clinton in order to meet the girls at 6:00 am so that we'd have enough time to drive up to Heber and be on time for our first Core Academy class at 8:30 sharp!

We arrived on time, I said "hello" to my cute cousin, Marcie, who was working for the Core Academy, and found my seat. We dove into the new math curriculum and started charting the differences between it and the old curriculum. About an hour later, my cell phone buzzed in my purse. Embarrassed, I clicked the silent button and ignored it. Again, my cell phone buzzed in my purse. I couldn't believe it! What could be so important? Dave KNOWS I'm in class, why is he bothering me?

I went back to concentrating on the presenter and made a mental note to check the messages at our first break. The opportunity arrived shortly and I made a bee-line for the parking lot. What I heard was Dave's happy-yet-shaky?-voice telling me something like this:

"Good morning, Love, I know you're in class, but I just got a call from our
caseworker, Brenda, and she says she needs to meet with us tomorrow.
I told her you were out of town, and she was pretty disappointed. I'm not
sure what that means exactly but call me when you get this. I love you,
call me!"

A thrill of incredulity went through me - are you serious?? No WAY! We had received our adoption approval notice only a month earlier - our profile wasn't even online yet - how could anyone even know who we were? Most adoptive couples have to wait a long time before getting "the phone call," surely this couldn't be it! I didn't dare hope as I immediately called Dave back and we laughed about the irony of the phone call. Then we talked about the seriousness of the invitation. I asked Dave to call Brenda back and see if I really needed to be there or if she just wanted us to sign paperwork.

As it turns out - she really did want me to be there. So Dave and I hatched out a plan that included him and his dad driving our two cars up to Heber later that night in order to leave one car for me to drive back the next day, so I wouldn't have to miss much of the Core Academy.

I walked back into class with a look of disbelief on my face and shared the news with my teacher friends. Of course, they freaked out. I was just so stunned that this could finally be it that I didn't even know how to respond. I was also worried that this might not be what we'd been praying for and even then there were still so many "if's." I don't really remember much of the core academy after that as my mind started focusing on the possiblity of adoption.

June 13, 2007 - The next day I sat through six hours of class, my heart beating, my hands sweating, until I could leave to meet with Dave and our case worker. The time finally rolled around and I jumped in the car and hurried to the Farmington LDSFS agency where I met Dave. We walked in to the office and sat down on the couch. Brenda came in and asked us how we were doing. "Pretty good" was our hesitant reply. And then she spoke the words I will always remember, "I have something for you!"

We stared at the envelope in unbelief. Our emotions welled up and over-flowed as we pulled out the most precious letter and gazed on a picture or our beautiful angel birthmother. She was having a little boy - and she wanted to give him us! Nothing can compare with the feelings of joy and elation and surprise and gratitude as that moment. Finally! Finally! Finally!

As my eyes fell on her picture, I knew who she was. I had seen her in a dream several weeks previous - a dream I hadn't told Dave about because I didn't want to jinx anything. I don't remember much about the dream except her height and long dark hair. But in the dream I knew she was going to give us her heart. And when I saw her - the tears flowed harder - she could easily pass as one of my sisters!

We were also thrilled to find a letter from the birth father. From what we'd learned in our adoption classes, this was rare. Most of the time the birth fathers aren't involved. We read both letters over and over and over again trying to let the words sink in. They wanted to meet with us, face-to-face!

Our son was expected to arrive in about a month - July 17th was the due date. A MONTH! There was so much to get ready, so much to do. We had nothing for the little guy - not even an empty room in our new home!

But none of that mattered - for the moment. Our prayers had been answered. The Lord, in his infinite wisdom, had provided a way for our family to begin. He knew this little spirit needed to be in our home, to be loved and cared for and brought up in His ways. He had chosen us to be parents. He had whispered His will to our sweet angel and she through her love, faith and hope was willing to sacrifice for our son. What a joy to be chosen!

Disclaimer: This is NOT the end of the story...but this post was becoming a novel and we have other things to post as well. Stay tuned!

All is Well in Zions

Okay, get ready this post is way too long. What can you do? On the weekend of May 30-June 1 we took a quick weekend vacation down to Zion's National park with Greg & Wendy, Annie and Mike (and Mike's nephew Levi), and Bruce and Joe. The ten of us crammed into two cars (gas is expensive!) and took the trip.

This was Sammy's first big road trip and of course his first trip to Zion's. We were excited. There were going to be a few firsts on this trip and we were anxious to see how the Super Sam would do. It turns out that he is quite the trooper, and lets us be at ease a bit for going to Nauvoo in a few weeks.

Uncle Joseph was a great help on the way down. Whenever I got sick of sitting in my seat, Joe was there to give me snacks and feed me and all sorts of things. He is my hero!


Here is my first big hike! I was so excited to be in Zions! Dad got this cool backpack carrier that made the hike a ton of fun. I even had big red handles to hold on to and chew on. I loved being taller than everyone! As long as Dad was moving I was happy as a peach. It was only when we stopped that I got a bit ornery. I'd yell to motivate Dad until he finally got moving. I don't see what the problem is, I'm only 25 pounds, and the trail wasn't that steep. It was the Watchman's tower hike.

We finally made it. It took us a couple hours, and then it was photoshoot time of course!




One of the big questions for the hike was what would happen if the little guy got tired. Would he sleep or just be a pill. Apparently the answer is sleep. The whole hike down Sammy took a little nap.
It was so hot that we all stopped by the river. I wasn't excited about getting in the river. My baths are never cold, so I have no idea why I would be interested in standing in freshly-melted-snow-water. I have no problem being held by Mom while she stands in the icewater though!

I'm having a great time, let's do another hike! Dad said his shoulders were pretty sore after the 5 hours of hiking. I thought for sure that he would be ready to go after a break at the river and a shuttle ride up to the trailhead for the Emerald Pools. Afterall, I had a nap and was ready to go!

Turns out, Dad is weak, so uncle Greg helped out. He is cool and huge. Look a tree!

Oh sure Dad, act like you can handle it just for a photo.
Here I am with uncle Greg and aunt Wendy
This hike was real nice. It was in the shade almost the whole time. It was great because that meant I didn't have to wear that annoying hat that Mom and Dad keep putting on me.

Well, after a full day I was hammered. So was Bruce and Joe.
We really had a great time. Mike's mom and dad were so nice to let us all stay over (as well as another family who were in town for a baptism!) and Blaine gave a nice sunday school lesson. Christina (Mike's mom) has a cool tradition. Whenever someone comes to stay the night, they sign a little traveler's log. It is neat for them to look back at those who have come through and to read their comments about the great food and fun that was had. What a great idea!

Anyway, Sunday came quick and it was time to come home. Halfway home we stopped at Fillmore for a break. They had a little play place at the Maverick outside and we had Sammy try a slide for the first time. At first he wasn't exactly sure what was going on but caught on quick and actually quite enjoyed himself.


The Tiger Woods' fist pump sums up the whole little trip. We had a great time and it was a total success. Sammy was awesome, the weather was awesome, and it was awesome to have a good time with the family.

All-star in training

It's been a little while since we put some movies up, so I thought I'd share some of Super Sam's athletic accomplishments. :-)

Improvised basektball: I suppose he sees us putting clothes into the laundry basket. Samuel has decided that every time he gets a chance, he will help out. Michelle has given up on her shelf of socks because it gets cleaned off a few times a day. We just have to be careful when doing the laundry that we don't wash 10 pair of dark socks that have been tossed in. Anyway, Sammy's field goal percentage isn't super high (note all the pair on the floor), but I think he is improving which is all that matters. I'm just so proud of his work ethic for always wanting to practice!

Playing Frisbee: Don't you love how the simplist things make great toys? Case in point. A simple rubber coaster. Not all that impressive. But to Sammy it is a great little toy. Here we are playing catch on the couch. It isn't too surprising to see him carrying this little coaster around. It's nearly as cool as a pen or a highlighter!

Wild Animal Trainer: A favorite game of Sammy's is to play the wild animal trainer. You get behind the bars and jump at him like a wild animal. He absolutely loves it!

Monster Tag: He is a great little roamer and loves to have fun! We chase him around all the time and he absolutely loves it! Here we had just thrown some laundry on the bed and let him romp and play.

Real Basketball: Well okay it's not real basketball, but it actually has a hoop and ball.

Well there you go. Hope you enjoy these videos. Sammy just turned 11 months, and we can't believe how much he has grown. We love him.

Bikes Ducks & Barbed-wire

I know it seems like an odd combination, but we managed to fit all three into one afternoon last Saturday.

Bikes & Ducks:
With how beautiful the weather has been, we decided that we need to do some more bike riding. Usually when we go for exercise we go over to Jensen Park a couple blocks away. They have a big cement walkway that is about a mile and half around. There is a big lake in it as well that has ducks and fish and other animals. Sammy absolutely loves his little ducks, so we thought we'd go feed the ducks and then go for a bike ride a couple times around the loop.

Sammy all bundled up in his little buggy.
Tuppins a bag!

Well that was fun, though it turns out that when you go to feed the ducks, you are actually going to feed the seagulls. They are a lot more aggressive! I guess it wouldn't have been so bad if we had decided to go feed the seagulls, but we wanted to specifically feed the ducks, so we were annoyed. We had to do some diversionary tactics and threw one piece high and far to the side so the little vultures would run after it and then we could quickly toss some pieces to our fine web footed friends. It was pretty fun. A little group of pelicans even came pretty close, so it was a good time.

Barbed Wire:

This ends the happy portion of our happy little field trip. :-) After our bread was out we decided to finish that bike ride. The first lap was just great, and most of the second was too. We were just enjoying ourselves, chatting away as we did a light ride around the park.

This park is not complete, Syracuse ran out of money and wasn't able to purchase and develop the last half of the land which is currently a field with a barbed wire fence around it. Yep you guessed it, one of us introduced ourselves to said fence.

My (Dave's) bike had Sammy's trailer attached, which causes me to make wide turns. At one point there is a little part that turns right and then 10 feet later turns left. I took the first turn a bit wide and then didn't have much room on the second turn. Michelle hit her front tire into one of the tires of the trailers causing her to swerve off the cement path. I heard and felt the collision and looked back to see her riding along the dirt off to the side trying to regain balance. Then I heard a crunch and turned to see her plant herself into a barbed wire fence. I stopped and asked if she was okay, but she was stuck so I kind of had to lift her up off the fence. She had poke marks every 8 inches or so on the left side of her body and ripped holes in her BYU sweater and jeans. All the puncture wounds made us a little nervous (since her Tetanus was overdue) so we got her home and to the doctor for some Tetanis shots. It was quite the little adventure. We laugh at it now, well half of us do... We also couldn't decide who's fault it was. I said she should have been riding single file, and she says I forced her off the road. Sammy is undecided on who is to blame and thus it may never be resolved. :-)

A couple days later we noticed that the one big spot had bruised up nicely so we got a shot of it. Turns out we should have waited another day because it doubled in size and went super dark. Luckily all the other spots cleared up and didn't bruise as bad, so it's only emotional wounds to worry about now. :-)

Shave and a Hair Cut....

The Shave

We love Simba. He is the best cat-who-thinks-he's-a-dog in the world. He answers to us calling his name, he takes care of himself, he likes to play fetch, he's great with Sammy, he has the sweetest personality. In my book, having a long-haired cat has only one disadvantage...the HAIR!

I can keep up with his shedding, but I didn't realize long-haired cats need to be routinely brushed. Yep, routinely. Our routine has been - whenever we feel like giving Simba some extra attention. Not to mention his reactions to being brushed sound a lot like, "Ooowwwww." Seriously. Sometimes he'd even add a hiss for some extra flair.

Unfortnately, due to our grooming neglect, Simba has developed some very large matted patches. We tried cutting them out, a few successfully, but one snip of his skin...oops! and he wouldn't let us touch him for days. I couldn't really blame him.

After reading several online sights about matted fur and the detriments to the cats health (skin irritations, claws getting caught, worms making matts their homes - yes, worms!) we decided Simba was in need of a shave. Now he really fits his name.

Before


After

The Haircut

I'm not a fan of getting my haircut - mostly because I have a hard time finding a stylist that "gets" me. And, honestly, I'm pretty cheap when it comes to hair. However, I realize it's a necessary evil, especially with my thick and heavy mop. So a couple Saturdays ago, I went - spur-of-the-moment to get a haircut.

Long story short - I walked out feeling butchered. I really don't like it, I even cried a little. Luckily, my husband and friends pretend to like it. Plus, hair grows and there's nothing I can do about it now, although I hope stimulating my roots with pulling and scratching my scalp helps!

(Sorry, I neglected to take actual before and after pictures! Drat!)

Before

After

My Road to Motherhood

With the passing of my first true mothers day, I have had a lot of thoughts, feelings and emotions pass through my mind and heart.

I love my mother. I love her guidance and kindness and friendship and closeness to the spirit. I love my mother-in-law. I love her faith and sacrifice and the amazing man she raised for me. I am SO glad to be a mother. I love it. I love him. I love to see him giggle and learn new things. I love to hold him and smell him and rock him. There were days I thought I would never enjoy this sweet privilege. Days where it seemed only an unattainable dream.

All growing up I wanted to be a mother. For the longest time I thought that was all there was for grown women to do – we grow up, get married and become mommies. My friend and I played house at recess and at home constantly. It was our favorite past time – to pretend to have children, name them and take care of them in our ideal-made-up world. I know this mindset was influenced by my mother, whom I admire and adore. She was lucky enough to be able to stay home with me and my sisters and doted on each and every one of us. I wanted to grow up and be just like her.

Well, I grew up and I went to college. My intention was to major in Marriage, Family and Human Development – the perfect major for my career aspirations. I declared it as my major and began taking courses on family finance and marriage prep. Later, I shared my decision with my mother but was surprised to hear her immediate response, “What do you do with an MFHD major? You need to choose something that is marketable.” I was confused. Why did I need to be marketable? I was going to spend my career days changing diapers, reading bedtime stories and driving carpool! Little did I know how inspired my mother was in giving me that counsel. I’m convinced she knew, as all mothers seem to know, what was in store for me. I picked a new major – elementary education – another suitable pick for learning how to be a good mother and something I’d fallen in love with during my semester teaching English in China. And since my mother had majored in education, I knew she’d be pleased.

Three semesters before graduation – I got married. Again, my intention was to finish up my education, which included an internship teaching 4th grade, and then stay at home with my babies. The end of the school year came near. The pregnancy tests remained negative. I tentatively began looking for a real teaching position to keep myself busy and found one teaching 2nd grade. I took the job thinking, “I’ll just teach one more year and then I’ll get to stay home.”

My intention was to teach one more year. Surely in a year a pregnancy was possible. I began reading about fertility. I began charting and tracking cycles, seeing the doctor, taking fertility medications. We began praying every night and morning for our family to arrive. We hoped and hoped and HOPED.

Three years later – after countless doctors visits, prescriptions, and a diagnosis called PCOS, we still had no answers and no children. We knew it would take a lot more money and doctors visits to attempt a pregnancy. I began to question myself and my role as a woman. The road through infertility (a completely different post) is not one I would have picked, but also not one I would have traded for the world. We started thinking about trying the adoption route.

As I look back, the Lord placed people in my life as examples of adoption and infertility as a way to encourage and guide me toward adoption. I started teaching at a new school after we moved to Davis County. One of the teachers at the school had just adopted a little girl through LDSFS. Another of the teachers had placed her first child for adoption several years previous. We met another couple in our ward, the very first Sunday in church, that we had uncanny similarities with (again, a completely different post) and became best friends with them. The Lord knew me and he knew my heart and he wanted to answer my prayers. He wanted me to be a mother, but he had a different plan for me. One that took four years for me to realize and act upon. One that required a lot more humility and patience than I thought I possessed.

One that was really His whole plan in the first place.

Eight months after we entered LDSFS for the first time to talk with a case worker, our darling boy was placed in our arms. Finally! Our prayers were answered by the sweetest angel on Earth. She made me a mother. I love her so much, there are absolutely no words to describe it. I love her for sacrificing herself – her desires – her heart – for our little boy.

I never would have imagined that I would share my first real Mothers Day with such an admirable woman, and I couldn’t be more honored.

Adoption is such a privilege and because of it, I am a Mother.

p.s.
Several months ago, while blog-surfing through the adoption community I came across this music video on this pro-adoption blog (which quickly became my favorite daily read!). I think it sums these feelings all up. Enjoy.

I Would Die For That

Kellie Coffee

(Sorry to skip all the gritty and fabulous details but I’d like to do them justice, so stay tuned for more on these precious subjects.)

A Train to California!

The Frontrunner commuter rail opened up this last week, and as many of you may know it was free to the public until May 1st. We decided it would be fun to go for an adventure. It was Jazz game night, but our friends either had better offers (Mutual of course) or were laying on death beds with horrible sicknesses, so we would be watching alone. I also had the inkling that it wasn't going to be a good night for the Jazz, so we decided to take the risk of missing part of the game to go for a trainride. We decided to hop on the train at our Layton stop (we should call it the Sill's stop -- its right across the street and right behind Doug and Emmy's) and cruise into downtown, go out to eat, and then come on back to hopefully catch most of the game.

Here is Sammy and I as one of the trains are pulling away from the station

Okay, let's be honest here -- the trainride wasn't all THAT exciting, once you are on, its just like taking the bus or a tram anywhere else. However, it was pretty cool to see how fast we got going, in fact we could see the freeway traffic and we were going a bit faster than them most times. Also, because of the fact that the fare was free, there were a zillion people on board, so we didn't get a seat. I would assume that would change once you have to pay some money to go for a ride! And sitting down did seem to be much more enjoyable than standing.

The Frontrunner takes you to the Salt Lake Central station which is just a couple blocks from the Gateway. I guess you could just walk it, but there is a Trax station right there that will take you to the planetarium. We rode it for free as well, not sure if that will always be the case either... Anyway, we ended up in Gateway and decided to eat at the California Pizza Kitchen. We had eaten at the Orem one and the Vegas one, and we weren't disappointed. It was great!

And yes Michelle came with us, here is finally some proof! Sorry babe, I'll try to take more of the pictures next adventure. :-)

Time to hit the road to get back home! In the evening the trains are spaced out longer (an hour between each one) so there were TONS of people waiting to get on. Luckily we got there a bit early so we were close to the front for getting on the train. Here are a few pictures of Sammy on my shoulders while we were waiting for the train to come back.

We thought that the Plumber T-shirt and the plumber baby went well together. :-)

We had a good time, though the train took a lot longer than we thought it would. It was about an hour from the Layton stop to the gateway. You can usually drive that in half the time. It did seem to be a bit bogged down by the sheer number of people that were using the trains due to the freeness of the ride, so it would be interesting to take it for a spin when there weren't so many people clogging up the time. It was fun to go for a train ride while it is still a novelty though, and it turns out the Jazz decided to not even play (beat by 26 points!! ouch) so it was time well spent!

Go Jazz!

We sure are enjoying Jazz playoff season, isn't everybody?!

This time of year just makes it so exciting with how intense each game is and how important every minute is. They haven't played super well, but good enough to win 3-1. Last year we got tickets to a playoff game and had a blast so we decided to do it again.

I've followed them fairly well this season and we've watched a number of the games, so it was so exciting to go to the game. We got some tickets through Jon's work and got a steal of a deal for some pretty good seats. Upper bowl but on the bottom. Anyway we went to game 3. It was so much fun and loud and exciting, but finally frustrating when the game slipped away.
Here's a couple pictures of us at the game.

Everyone getting ready to go

Jon, Carrie, Michelle. They gave us all T-shirts that say "One Team, one Dream"

Jon and Carrie -- what great friends

Here we are!

Let's finish them off boys, bring on the Lakers!

Go JAZZ!!

Cousins

I know, I know -- 2 posts in one day after a week of nothing, its feast or famine around here!

Sammy's little cousin Nathan came to play today. It was fun to watch Sammy, especially with his curiousity of this cute little guy. Obviously there wasn't a whole lot of interaction quite yet, but it makes me excited for the years to come when these guys are going to be all over the place together. I'm excited for this summer when Sammy will get to meet his older two cousins as well, and then two more are coming this fall from the Baum's!

So this picture reminds me of pictures with my cousins Blake or James, where one of us is crying. Yeah, Sam was in no mood for a photo shoot. In fact he wanted to pout and flail his arms everywhere! Thus in order for the picture to take place, and Nathan to remain bruiseless, restraints had to be applied! :-) I also wonder how similar this picture is to the baby pictures of Legolas the elf next to Hagrid?

Cute cousins! Note: no Nathan's were trampled under knee during this photo shoot.

Thanks for coming to Play!

No nap, thanks!

I'm sure all of you parents have experienced this at one time or another. Sammy recently has decided that naps are not cool. There is so much to investigate and so many places to go, that really who has time for sleep?! So he has to cry himself to sleep. We've found him in some crazy positions.

Obviously he isn't asleep here, quite the opposite. This is one of his ways to battle the sleep monster -- pull yourself up in the crib so that it is impossible for the dreaded sleep monster to get you!

A common result of car rides is the classic dead Sammy look

This is our all-time favorite. One option to fight the sleep monster is to sit up. but of course when that sleep monster comes at you full steam, what do you do? Collapse right in half. Now that's a nice relaxing nap! We usually have to let him cry to sleep, and then rescue him from whatever unfortunate position he finds himself in. I think this photo also shows he is a Plumber's grandson!

Sweet Dreams!

From 10 to 13 in 6

28 years ago R. Pond family began with 2.

Over 8 years they brought 5 daughters into the world making their family 7 in all.

5 years ago, the family of 7 grew to 9.

10 months ago, this family of 9 grew to 10.

And in the next 6 months R. Pond family is growing again!

In August, 10 will become 11.

Congrats Jen and Cody, Sammy's pretty excited to have another Uncle!

And in October, 11 will become 13.

Yes, 13.

Thus, these faces...

And these thrilled faces!

Congrats K & B! Sammy's pretty excited to have some Pond (Baum) cousins!