Allen Eagle Escadrille 2009

The annual Band Watermelon Bust is always held the night before the March-A-Thon. This is a time for the escadrille to show off a bit of what they have been practicing for the past 3 weeks. The band directors and student leaders are all introduced and the families of the band members get to try their hand (or feet) at some marching steps. (I am terribly uncoordinated!) And then watermelon is served...well, not to us because most of do NOT care for watermelon! Anyway, we have fun being on the AstroTurf with our kids...we feel kind of special...and truth be told, I think that our kids kind of like having us there too.






Every August the Allen Escadrille holds their traditional 10-mile March-A-Thon through the streets of Allen. This is our 5th year of having children participate and it is still every bit as exciting as was the first year. You can feel the pride throughout the city. High school football is big in Texas and so is high school marching band. We are thrilled to support our kids. Their hard work and dedication is obvious when they take the field during halftime at football games and when they compete in marching competitions. We love the Allen Eagle Escadrille!

Our senior Christine...loving her 4th year playing the baritone in the marching band

Our resident tuba player(aka Gare-Bear)lookin' good buddy!

The Inaugural Swim

After much anticipation, the pool is officially open! Well, for the boys anyway. I think I might swim tomorrow. There is a fair amount of plaster that needs to be swept and filtered through the pool system. One is left with a bit of a "film" on one's body after swimming for the first few days...yuck, if you ask me. But you know boys...they could care less. Anyway, we are in need of some landscaping and then the project will officially be over. I love the sound of the water cascading over the spa...something soothing about the sound of water. We should have several more weeks to enjoy the Texas summer days and lounge in and around the pool...happy campers are we...now if we could just find a job! :)

Hard at work...

I haven't said much about William lately. For whatever reason, I have really been missing him. Sometimes I just ache to give him a hug...he is THE BEST hugger in the family! He's generally the kid who knows when something is wrong and goes out of his way to make things right. No doubt, he will make some lucky girl a great husband! He's been out over 6 months now...where has the time gone? I so look forward to Mondays when we receive his emails. Most of the time he pacifies me with just enough information...last week was NOT one of those weeks, so he was kind of "on my list." But today he was full of information and he sent these awesome photos. "The work" is progressing in Cartagena. We love, love, love our missionary!

DOTS

Okay...so I have successfully changed our background but we now have some lovely DOTS that are NOT supposed to be a part of the background!!! ugh! I have been messing with this process for too long to mention! I have solicited the help of friends and family...all to no avail! I will hang up my "thinking cap"...assuming I was actually born with one, and give it a try again some other time. In the meantime, enjoy the dots!

Our busy July continues...

Christine turned 17 while she was at Theatre Camp at BYU so we had a little celebration before she left. Our summers get so crazy, EVERY year, during July and she always seems to get the short end of the deal! Sorry Sweetheart. We sure do try to make things special in spite of our busy-ness. She is not a fan of cake, so for the past couple of years she has requested a "cookie cake"...yum!


Bill is such a tropper. Grant was keeping very close watch as he saw everyone but himself coming and going on various trips. He was DYING to go to Six Flags and I had NO desire to go. But his sweet father obliged him. They were at the park when it opened and stayed until it closed! They arrived home about 11:45pm. They rode everything in the park and many things multiple times...Bill is a great dad...so glad he is around to do all of the things that I would rather not do! I stayed home and painted Christine's bedroom! Heaven!


The beautiful scenery of Southern Utah.


Park City and the Alpine Slide and Alpine Gliders...very fun.


Bill wanted to show the boys where he went to high school. It's such a contrast to see HS football stadiums outside of Texas. Our kids here play on astro turf in stadiums that rival some colleges. Grant especially enjoyed seeing where his dad used to play.

We visited the Vuyk's, William's missionary companion's parents in Riverton. What a neat thing to make that connection. Loved every minute of it!


Grant did a project on Utah in 5th grade and was interested in seeing the Great Salt Lake...so we drove out to Saltair! Kind of depressing if you ask me. We started walking out to the water's edge, but it was so gross that I voted to turn around. I had never been out there and don't think I will return.



We walked around BYU campus a bit...so much has changed since Bill and I went there. This is in the JSB.


Cousin Nathan Cottrell came up from Las Vegas to hang out and see Christine's play. Literally, the boys laughed for SIX hours straight! Fun, fun.



Papa and Grandma Casper drove up from St. George for the play as well.


Father/Daughter


Mom/Daughter


We had a great time in Utah. We did Park City,Temple Square, BYU, Seven Peaks water park, Garrett and Grant have irresponsible parents who only put sunscreen on them once! Needless to say, they got burned. That made for a fun couple of days! We visited family and friends and enjoyed the cool mornings that we don't get in Texas. We shopped, saw a movie, etc. The drive was long, but well worth it. Christine spent 2 weeks at Theatre Camp and loved every minute. She prefers this camp to EFY because of the bonds they make...lots of theatre stuff with a bunch of great kids who share her values. Money and time well spent. They performed "Into the Woods" this year. It was so fun! Christine played the wolf (halarious!!!) in one scene and Jack's mother in another. They always rotate the roles to give the kids lots of experience.
We are home now and band is in full swing for Garrett and Christine. They practice for 6 hours each day with a 1-hour lunch break in the middle. And they LOVE it! Sounds a bit torturous to me!

Summertime

So much has been going on...I am such a dork when it comes to adding pictures and placing the writing in the correct places, so I will write and then throw some photos in...they will be self-explanatory, hopefully.

About 3 weeks ago we started construction on a pool! It is a long process when it's summertime and everyone is here wondering when the workers in the backyard will be done. The last time we did this Bill was a work all day and the kids were in school. Now everyone is witnessing the entire process. They should be done in 2-3 more weeks. Plenty of time to still get some use out of it this summer. In the 5 years we had our other pool, we didn't use the spa much at all in the winter. I have a feeling this spa will get some wintertime use. The kids are older and we will have a remote, plus a button that we can push on the spa. Our last pool was very basic and all manual...turn this and that and before you knew it the spa would be draining and the pool would be full to the brim...we are the CLAMPETTS!!!!






Christine and I had a blast over the 4Th of July weekend! Months ago (pre "unemployment"), we planned a trip to see one of her favorite bands, The Jonas Brothers, in the Stadium of Fire in Provo. It truly was a blast! We shopped a bit and ate "out". She spent some time with a friend from Theatre Camp, and I had dinner with some old friends, Dave and Cindy Gaddis. We were fortunate to get tickets for the Pre-Show gathering in the Cougar Room at the stadium. All the performers as well as the host, Glenn Beck, came in to say a few words. It was pretty cool for Christine to be so close to some of her heart throbs! Come on ladies, we aren't too old to remember how we would have felt! For me, at 16 it would have been James Taylor or Bread or Air Supply...a little younger and it would have been Donny Osmond. (Allan was at the Pre-show gathering too...fun to be so close.) The concert was way fun and the weather could NOT have been better! I LOVE being in the stadium with the mountains in the background. I think our time there was some of the sweetest we have had together. We also hiked up "Y" Mountain and sucked major wind! Was it the altitude, or age?! I'll blame it on the altitude! We made it though and were glad we did. The view was awesome! So was the feeling of accomplishment.






Our whole family ventured to Washington DC a week ago. It was a vacation unlike those we have recently taken. Frankly, I am partial to the sun, beach and lounging types of vacations. But this was fun too. We did ALL of the tourist stuff... Washington DC LDS Temple, the Capitol, Lincoln and Washington Memorials, Holocaust, American History, Natural History, Air and Space and International Spy Museums, National Cathedral, Embassy Row, The White House, Mt. Vernon, The Old Post Office and much more! In the Capitol we ran into Dan Rather and being the person that I am, I introduced myself, Bill and Christine to him...like we were old friends or something :) He was super nice and we visited for a little while. I even got a picture with he and Christine...too bad the quality stinks. I didn't have my flash on and I wasn't about to say, "hey, I have already monopolized a ton of your time and because I am an idiot and can't operate my camera, can I take just one more picture?" Anyway, we did have a great time and were tired at the end of each day. The highlight for me was Mt. Vernon. What a wonderfully restored piece of history. George Washington was an amazing man. I loved every minute we were there.



So...back to real life. We are figuring out that we need to start facing the fact that we are unemployed! The reality stinks. We've had our time of denial and now all hands are "on deck." At times I feel like we are living the lives of retired folks...eating out, vacationing, etc. But really, Bill is actively looking for work. Our challenge is 3-fold. 1) The economy stinks 2) The Dallas market is slow 3) At Bill's level, there are much fewer jobs available. At some point, if nothing looks promising around the Dallas area, he will start looking all over the nation...or world ( I would still love to go international!) So keep us in your prayers...we would really appreciate it.

William continues to do well. He's still in the vicinity of Cartagena. He continues to eat lots of fruit, teach a lot, and enjoy seeing people accept the blessings of the Gospel in their lives. I miss him so much sometimes that it hurts. I wonder, who is growing more through this whole time of separation? Is it William or me?

Grant has started football already. Bill has been asked to help coach the centers and linemen. That makes Grant happy, he plays line, and it gives Bill a little something to help fill his time.

Garrett is gearing up for high school marching band. He and Grant run every morning in preparation for the up-coming 2-a-days in band. He and Christine start on August
3rd!

Hot and Sweaty

Holy Cow! Who the heck dreamed up camping in Oklahoma in the heat of the summer! Whoever did...needed their head examined! Christine and I returned today from 5 days of Church Girl's Camp. We were dripping wet all week long. I was in charge of doing the crafts for the week...thank goodness I got to hold class in the air conditioned mess hall. That was a good thing. Unfortunately, I still spent most of my time out in the heat. Christine and I were also involved in the WOW (Word of Wisdom) Bootcamp...Christine much more heavily than I. We started each day running with a different group of girls...Christine was the youth leader and did a fantastic job. I know the men in our family think we weren't really "roughing" it because we did sleep in air conditioned "cabins". Believe me though...it WAS rough living. We took about 35 girls and really did enjoy ourselves, although I am hopeful to NEVER have to camp in Texas or Oklahoma again in my LIFE!!! It was NOT my idea of a good time. Being with Christine was awesome...she made it all worth the discomfort. I was also fortunate to hang out with some of the best ladies around. We laughed a lot and drank a bit of Diet Coke to ease the "pain' and "drama" of being there...seriously though...it was worth the effort, time and sacrifice...no more camping for the summer !!!