Meagan has really enjoyed acting in a community theater these past few months. She was in the chorus for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and then she got cast as Sally in Pirates of Penzance...Goes West. She was hilarious!!! She was "the dumb one" as one of the pirates so eloquently put it. It was also quite funny because her pirate counterpart was only 12 and so she would carry him instead of him carrying her. The story is about these 7 orphan sisters that are always sending messages in bottles in hopes that the man of their dreams will find it and come for them. Some pirates come to where they live and the girls fall in love but their uncle won't have it. Through twists and turns the girls end up married to the pirates even though they are disguised as the lawmen. The play was lots of fun to watch and see how Meagan would do. She always got lots of laughs and did a fabulous job!
She wanted to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe for her birthday dinner. There they gave her a sundae and had her stand in front of the entire restaurant and have them all wish her a happy birthday.
Once we got home she was sad that hardly anyone remembered her birthday. They didn't say anything in YW and she was hurt. Her dad and I thought we should have a special dinner for her at home and we decorated her room but didn't tell her. I sent her dad to go and get some helium balloons but he didn't realize there were different sizes and picked out huge ones by accident. It was so funny!!!!! Then we put "Sweet 16" decorations all over her room. She took forever going down there and we were having a hard time waiting but when she finally did she was super surprised. 
I think overall she had a good birthday!!! 
A little side note here as to why she is holding her hair back. When she turned 12 she went to blow out her candles and her hair caught on fire so now takes extra precautions. We don't want that beautiful hair to get burned up again!!!!
There were so many girls that wanted to try out so they had 2 teams. We were so proud that Heidi was able to make the team she wanted. She started playing volleyball about a year and a half ago and has totally loved it. During volleyball season she eats and sleeps it. 
Her team did ok this year with winning about half their games but Heidi was glad she got to play and it helped her get ready for the Club tryouts. She made the 13 Silver team for Club Idaho and can hardly wait until that starts in January. Go Heidi!!!!!
I wondered how he would do and was pleasantly surprised. He had fun and in the last game he scored a goal. It was the craziest shot/goal ever. He was so far on the side and when he kicked it there was no way it was going in but the angle was just perfect. Unfortunately I was in shock as much as him and missed taking the priceless picture of his "Oh my gosh, I scored a goal" face. At the end of the season he had a pizza party and got his very cool bobble trophy. 
His team was made of both girls and boys and all were just great. 
They had a pretty good season with only 1 loss. I hope he continues to get out there and do new and fun things!!!
This is her and her beau.
This is the entire cast 
and then of course the exciting we are done pose. 
Keep breaking a leg Meagan!!! Can't wait to see you in your next show!
By far the coolest pumpkin this year was the Emma-O-Lantern.
The year the children turn 10 years old is when David carves their face into a pumpkin. It always looks so cool.
Heidi made an owl sitting on a twig.
Emma did a very surprised pumpkin. 
Meagan did HP for Harry Potter 
and Eric wanted to do a scary pumpkin. 
Overall the pumpkins all turned out very cool and fun.
We went to the patch first and it was fun to see all the kids scatter and scour the patch for just the right pumpkin. "Here is one for you mom, it is totally wierd looking!!" they all said. I just walked around deciding if I wanted one this year. Eric went running and jumping and looking for the biggest one he could find. Finally he found just the right one. It was huge!!!! He couldn't even lift it, but it was the one he wanted. His dad just rolled his eyes and looked at me with a questioning look as if to say, "Are we really going to let him get that Giant pumpkin?" I thought that none of the girls ever wanted the biggest pumpkin ever so why not let Eric? In the end Eric won and got the biggest pumpkin in the patch. 
Heidi took forever to find hers but eventually she found hers too. 
Meagan and Emma were quick and easy and loved taking the wagon around to gather everyone's pumpkins.
Then we decided to go through the corn maze. When you have an engineer dad, he likes to take things very serious sometimes so he got out the map they gave us and we followed him through the entire maze never getting lost.
The kids and I wanted to try some other turns to see where they sould lead us but dad the ever strong one led us out of the maze easily.
We decided to go in the mini maze and the kids took off running. I held dad back so we could go in and hide and scare the kids because what isn't fun about jumping out and scaring your kids? We got all of them pretty good and were very grateful there weren't any other kids that got caught in the cross-fire. The little kids then jumped on the giant bubble
and the older ones got into the giant rocking chair.
So did mom and dad. 
At the end we took our final pictures as the farmer and his wife. 
We had so much fun the kids kept asking if we could go and play another time. Unfortunately it was expensive (Eric's pumpkin weighed 63 lbs and cost $20) and we have been swamped with so many other things since then that we will have to go back again next year.
While she was gone I was worried about her a ton which is not usually like me. I prayed for her safety the whole time and I am glad I did. After the women's pull when she was trying to get away from the wagon so her brothers could pull it, her skirt got caught and she went down and hurt her leg pretty bad. It was quite sore for the rest of the trek but I heard she was a trooper and didn't complain or stop walking. She just kept going as much as she could. One time when it hurt too much she got into the medical cart. Some boys pulled her up a hill and then ran back down as fast as they could. She said she was so scared that she wouldn't survive and figured she could pretty much walk most of the rest of the way. She is amazing to me!!!! We so missed her but glad she was able to have this wonderful, spiritual experience. 
When she got home she was so dirty and didn't want us to take pictures. But you always have to have a before and an after!!!!!
All the girls going to camp.
Heidi in the car getting ready to leave. ( She is in the purple shirt on the right. I know not the best pic.)
I am so glad they had a great time and came home happy, tired and only a little stinky!!!!
We got to ride on the 4 wheelers,
fly kites,
fish and play lots of games!!! 
Then on the 4th we went into town and watched the fireworks. 
They really know how to have a good time in Kemmerer with fireworks.
They were going off everywhere and then the kids had fun playing with the sparklers.
We also had a few fun running races with all the adults. My sister Alicia was the one that came out on top as the fastest but I didn't do too bad. I can still be fast when I have to. My sisters and I hadn't all had a chance to ride the 4 wheelers up to the ridge yet so Dad and Ben took us up. 
The view is spectacular and it was tons of fun.
To have a little more fun we would go over the snowbanks. 
Unfortunately I gunned it a little too hard and went flying off the four wheeler and then landed back on it with a huge thump. I thought I had broken my arm but luckily I just bruised it really bad. It took a good month to be able to move it normally with out pain. All the kids loved going on the 4 wheelers. After I hurt my arm, grandma and grandpa were nice enough to take my kids on rides. 
Meagan and David had to leave early so Meagan could go to EFY in SLC at the University of Utah and David had to get back to work. Meagan loved EFY and now says she wants to go to school at the U of U. I don't think she understands that that will never happen unless she wants to be disowned!!!!! I love going to the cabin with everyone and only wish we lived closer to go more often. But for right now I will take the yearly family reunion on the 4th of July!!!!!! After we left the cabin we went back to Utah until Meagan got done with EFY. For 2 days Emma went and stayed with her cousin Ari. They got to go to the premiere showing of Sorcerer's Apprentice before it even was in the theaters and got t-shirts and hats. She had a blast hanging with Ari for so long and didn't even miss us!!! Heidi went and spent a few days with Aunt Tino in her new house and going to work with her at the Oreck Store. I think she may have worked a little but not too much. She started to miss us more after she had to go to work so much but absolutely loved getting to be the first person in the family to see Tino's new house. So that left just me and Eric. The local grocery store has a kids day every Thursday so we decided to go. The theme for the day was chickens. Eric got his chicken hat
and then got to hear chicken stories, play chicken games,
do the chicken dance and make a paper chicken. He had lots of fun. On the last day we went to the aquarium with Aunt Renee and the "cousins". 
It was fun but not very big. We are definitely used to the giant aquarium in Shanghai and this was teeny in comparison but we got be with family so that makes it more fun. The next day we picked up Meagan bright and early and headed back home. Unfortunately for us, David left that morning also for China and was gone for 2 weeks. 3 weeks is a long time to be away from each other and we definitely felt it with that trip. The good news is that he brought us home tons of fun presents from China that we loved!!!!!!!
