Overcoming Fears....and a Sunday afternoon bike ride to Celebrate!

 Delaney has had a "bucket list" of sorts...only it's a "get over my fears" list. (Swimming and riding a horse at camp have been accomplished!)  Learning to ride a bike has also been on it.  She's been wanting to learn for a couple of summers now, but never seemed to get the nerve to really tackle this fear.  Grandpa Stumm came for a few days and he fixed many of the bikes....now there were no more excuses...it's time to get on that two wheeled metal thing and ride.  It took two nights in the yard and one day at the old school close to home for her to get the hang of balance, take off and speed.  I really think letting her just work on it, on her own for about 1.5 hours was the best thing for her.  I tried to help her by holding the seat while she rode, but sheer grit and determination is what was needed and she did it!  By the end of our time at the school she had it down....all she needed was time to practice.  Delaney, Cailin and Liam now take off most mornings before school work begins for a bike ride.

 On Sunday, Barry was home from work and we all were getting a bit stir crazy so we loaded the bikes into the truck and had a wonderful walk/bike ride.  Connor, Cailin and Ryan split the time between the two adult sized bikes available.  Delaney has lots of practice time.  In the end, she rode her bike for 3 miles!

I'm not sure what her fascination with little rocks or other such objects sifting through her hands is, but she loves it.

I can't believe Connor escaped me without getting a solo picture of him. 

What a smile!  That girl has done it!  Way to go Laney!!

Liam is also doing great at learning to ride his bike.  He needs one that is a bit bigger, I think that once he gets one that better fits him he'll be able to ride like a pro....hummm, I think I know a gift Santa could bring this year!

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Happy Birthday Liam!! Now you're 7!!

A SUPER HERO invasion has occurred at our home.....all these amazing superheros have converged to help Liam celebrate his special day!! Liam couldn't wait  (what kid can?) for his birthday to come...this year he got a 'party year" and he's spent many weeks pondering and planning for his special day.  We considered many different themes but this one won out.  One day before the party he told me that he was excited for everyone to have capes.....What?  What are you talking about?  But, he was quite sure there couldn't be any superhero party without capes.  I planned to stay up much of the night making fabric capes, but this idea of using T-shirts from Pintrest (Jen told me about them) was super quick and easy....and cute!   She even had the excess tshirts from a soccer season that Chris coached.  Perfect!  They had fun decorating their capes, and going on a treasure hunt that Delaney and her friends had put together.  (that is the ticket to giving parties I've found,  just let the older kids lead and all is well with little stress for me!)

Here are the party leaders....Krystal, Delaney, Grace and Eliza.  They did great!  All the party goers made their own pizzas and the skittles group was quite happy!

Presents time....he got quite a few fun and wonderful gifts.  Play figures of heros, book bag and lunch box (which he needed for CC this year.) a new soccer ball

Pinata time!  This was also a MUST for his party!

Cailin decorated the cake.....can you see the "L" superheros logo?

Happy Birthday sweet guy!!  You are my treasure!!

The Stake Youth Trip to the DC Temple--August 2, 2014

This summer has been quite full of stake youth activities for Connor and Cailin.  Here is #3 of 4 big events.  (They both had a camp to attend and the Pioneer Trek--Connor has one more big event--MTC, or Mountain Training Camp in a few weeks.

They both slept overnight with their youth leaders--Connor at Bro. Mo's house (Br. Morgan) and Cailin at the Mattson's home.  They probably didn't get much sleep due to talking with friends and watching movies.  They all had to meet in Christiansburg at 4:30 am to board a bus for the 5 hour drive to Washington DC.
They were asked to bring at least one family name--I found 3 for both of them.  I was thrilled to be helping with our family history work.  Barry and I now get to have some fun finishing these 6 family members work with future temple trips of our own.

Barry, Delaney, Liam, Brianne and I took the day off and drove to visit with Brian, Risa and the boys--Brennen and Logan.  We had a great time too.  I love shopping at Sharp Shopper and I filled our food storage shelves with good things from SS and Costco.  We spent the afternoon swimming at the local pool, which was greatly enjoyed by all!  Ryan had fun with the McGrady's working on creating his characters for a game that he and Connor enjoy playing.


Connor here. The temple trip was an excellent experience. There was a distinct difference between doing temple names and names from my own family. It was also good to see several of the friends I made on trek. While I didn't enjoy having to get up at three and go to bed at midnight, I still enjoyed the experience.

It's Cailin. The temple trip was good, even if I hated being so tired. It was really fun doing family names because I knew that I was related to those people instead of having absolutely no connection to them at all. It made it more meaningful to me.