Swimming, Kite flying attempt, Food Bank service project, new phone and Dress of the Week =)

Swimming

Neil is such a little fish.

head dipping

Jamin jumping

Gord jumping

more swimming

I thought this was so cute. The two of them sitting on the side of the pool.

We attempted some kite flying this week. It was a really windy day.

Our friend that came with us got hers up.

We were a little less successful. It got stuck in a tree. We'll try again this week. Perhaps on a little less windy day.

Our church did a huge service project this week. We put door hangers out throughout the week. Then on Saturday, we picked up the food. Our little branch collected about 1600 pounds of food for the local food banks. Everything helps this time of year.

Dress of the Week

Me taking a picture with my new iPhone. Hubby had a big optometry conference this weekend. We had a babysitter for about 20 hours this week for all the stuff that I went to as well. Thursday morning we went to a memory seminar. It was fascinating and quite entertaining. He taught us a way of remembering names and how to remember lists of things by associating them with a predetermined set of objects. We bought his set of 16 cds that are suppose to help us learn to be smarter. I have yet to look at them, but I will... eventually.

Anyway, on Friday we had a couple hours between the trade show and his class reunion dinner so Matthew asked if I wanted to go get an iPhone. He got one last month. It took a few seconds of arm twisting, but I agreed. =) It's an awesome phone. He got me the two year warranty since I tend to be hard on my phones and the most protective case they had. Actually the two previous pictures are with my phone too. The camera on the front doesn't take as high quality pictures as the camera on the back of the phone.

What is Missing at the Park? and Dress of the Week

Playing at the playground

What is missing in these pictures?

It's in the background in this picture. The giant wooden play structure! It is gone. I knew it was coming but it was a bit of a shock. They are going to replace it with a new place structure. It will be interesting to see what it will be.

Some swinging

Playing hide-and-seek in "the bushes" at the park

Dress of the Week

We also went to the zoo this week, but I couldn't find my camera at the moment. There is a ton of construction going on there. It looks like it will be awesome next year. There was a new butterfly exhibit that was interesting. There were beautiful flowers everywhere. There were mostly monarch butterflies and tons of caterpillars. There was a butterfly that flew down onto the path and before I could stop her, Tegan walked straight to it and stepped on it. We were all standing over it looking to see the damage and a lady that worked there came up and said, "Don't worry it is just sleeping. They take some time to wake up and start moving." She picked it up and set it off the path. That did appear to be true in some cases, but I don't think so in this one. =S

A Real Mess... Devastation Clean Up in Minot

Matthew along with about 100 other members of our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, travelled to Minot, North Dakota, this weekend from surrounding areas to assist with clean-up. 4000 homes were flooded.

You can see the water being pumped out of basements everywhere. And the inside of homes lining the streets.

If you click on this picture to enlarge it, you can see the where the waterline was on this house. About a third up the window. Everything up to this level had to be gutted inside the house. All the drywall, furniture, appliances,... everything was destroyed.

Everything is coated in mud, rotting, and disintegrating. These guys ripped out drywall, pulled out furniture, pretty much cleaned out everything so the frame of the house can dry out and then be rebuilt. The whole weekend Matthew worked on one house. 9 people worked there one day and 14 the next. So obviously with 4000 houses flooded, there is a lot of work to still be done.

I'm proud of these guys for the hard work they did this weekend taking the time out of from their lives to go help out a city in crisis. They were all sore, swollen, and very thankful after a long weekend of service. Our prayers are with the people of Minot. May their hearts be lifted and hope brought back into their lives.

Swimming, Boating and Another Dress of the Week

We went swimming a bunch this week, but I took some pictures here. This is kind of a cool pool. It is huge and it is kind of like a beach. There is a ring of sand around the whole pool, then a concrete walkway, and then the water very gradually gets deeper. It is perfect for little kids.

All my kids love the water.

So, we bought a boat and tried it out for the first time this week. We had a picnic out on the lake and did some fun water activities.

Gordon and Daddy on the disk.

Daddy and Neil

Jamin was riding with Daddy, but Matthew let go and Jamin started riding by himself. He was so proud of himself. He tried waterskiing too, but didn't quite make it up this time.

Matthew waterskiing

Grandma and Grandpa came with us.

Happy kids

A cute moment. =)

Dress of the Week