Happy Birthday Dad

I just wanted to take a little time to stop and say Happy Birthday Dad. I love you and I miss you.

Sean

Football Saturday

(Dallin is the one looking at you)

Dallin is on a Nampa Pal football team. This is his first year of organized football. It has been fun to watch the process and watch Dallin change from his first practice to this last game. He plays on the offensive line and outside linebacker. He has also played on the defensive line. If things go well his team could be playing for the championship in 2 weeks. The team just has to win this Saturday. I have included a video and some pictures. Dallin is #59. it is hard to tell, but he is usually in the middle of the picture. On the video the middle opens up wide for him to go get the quarteback, but he dropped into coverage. It's a learning process.

(Dallin is in the center of the pictures)

Other update: Camille participated in her first choir concert of the year. It was held at Columbia High School last Tuesday. She is enjoying singing. Braden finished up Cross Country. he did not do as well as he wanted to at Districts, but had a blast throughout the season and is going to run in High School. He is now trying out Wrestling. He seems to like it. We will keep you posted.

The Smiths

Halloween Party

Nat and I were invited to a Grand Witches Ball. It was a blast. It was a cross between a scavanger hunt and The Amazing Race. We borrowed costumes from a good friend. I dressed as Two Face and Nat went as Poison Ivy. Both characters are from Batman. Everyone was divided up on teams prior to the event. Jeff and Melissa Wadsworth were on our team. We started off at the church building and recieved our first clue. It took us to Blockbuster to find the movie The Shining. We then gave the movie to one of the workers and they gave us our next clue. it was a head of cauliflower in a bag of a red gelatin and then a spider was attached to the bag. We were clueless. After 20 minutes you are allowed to open up an emergency clue. It said, Lakeview Park Bat. Off we went to Lakeview and to what we thought would be where we would find our next clue, the softball diamond by the swimming pool. We were wrong. In fact, we were wrong for 45 minutes. At one point Jeff broke the cauliflower apart to see if the clue was inside. We found nothing. Eventually other teams showed up and we followed them to the Locomotive. We found our next clue. it was a maze. (We went back to the van and looked in the cauliflower again and sure enough, a clue was found. Too bad is was found 45 minutes later.) As you found your way through the maze you passed letters. The letters spelled 40th president of the US. Off we went to Ronald Reagan Elementary. There we found a bag of Peanut M&M's. Now, one of the rules was that you were docked points for every emergency clue you had to OPEN. It didn't say anything about holding them up to the light. :) So, Melissa held up the clue and we were off to the cemetery at the corner of Greenhurst and Powerline. (The real clue was actually in one of the M&M's. I found it when I was eating them.) There we found a clue that sent us to Linder Farms. At Linder Farms we had to go find our designated pumpkin. A kind hearted young lady pointed us in the right direction and we found our pumpkin quickly. We then were given the clue that led us to the final stop, the location of the council. To this point the identities of the those who organized this were a mystery. We wound up being the last ones to the house so I guess it is true, cheaters really never prosper. We then visited with everyone involved for a while. It was a fun evening. I was awared the best costume (thanks Deb).

I Love to See the Temple

I thought I would share with you all the cutest rendition of "I Love to See the Temple" ever. Enjoy.

The Shucks are Eli's nursery leaders. Eli learned the song in nursery.

Running Like the Wind

Well,


Braden is turning out to be a great runner. He has improved his time in every race. In fact, today, he took 45 seconds off of his time. Braden won the Sage Valley meet. Yes, he ran against the school I work at and won. I couldn't be more proud to lose. Here are some pictures, and if I can get it to work, some video.

Above: This is the start to the Lake Lowell Invitational Sept. 18th. There were 180 runners.

Above: This is Braden finishing at the Lake Lowell Invitational. He placed 7th.

Here are some pictures.

Catching Up

Well, it's been a while since I wrote last. I will try to catch everyone up on the fam.

Braden: 8th Grader, running cross country and being a teenager.
Camille: 6th Grader, starting middle school, in choir, GT, doing well.
Dallin: 4th Grader, playing tackle football,
Malynn: 1st Grade, full day of school, has no problem falling asleep at night.
Eli: just turned 3. Keeps Nat busy during the day. Is quite the character and all boy.
Natalie: Mother of 5. Is there really much more I can say about that. Needless to say, she is busy and is an excellent wife and mother.
Sean: Still in middle school fitting right in.

We are all well and doing fine.

Sean

What a July

Twin Falls Temple


Eli wanted to see a Giraffe


Hmm, evolution?


Just plain cute!!


What a place


Watch out red baron!


There's always time for ice cream


Watch Out World!!






Well, It has been a while since I posted. I haven't really had a chance to since we have been on the go for a while. On the 17th we took off on a family vacation to SLC. We had a blast. Here a brief rundown of activities.

• 17th: Stopped in Twin Falls and toured the temple. What a beautiful building and more importantly, a beautiful spirit. We all enjoyed it. If you haven't gone yet and are thinking about it, I highly recommend it.




• 18th: Tour at the LDS Humanitarian Center. What an amazing place. If you haven't toured that sight I recommend it also. It helps bring to light the immense humanitarian effort taken on by the church.




• 18th: LAGOON!! What a blast. The kids loved it. Malynn even got to ride Colossus. (Jeff, She even loved the flying aces) We had a blast.




• 19th: This is the Place Monument and Hogle Zoo. We saw elephants, rhino, giraffe, tigers, bears, lizards, alligators, gorillas, camels etc. It is a zoo, what do you expect. The kids had a blast.




• 19th: Family reunion on Natalie's mom's side. Good company, good conversation, beautiful weather. Overall good time.




• 20th: We visited Nat's cousin Lahni and her husband in the morning and then sent Grandma and Grandpa Curtis home with all the kids but Camille. We had business to tend to.




• 21st: Visit to Primary Children's Hospital for a Liver evaluation for Camille. This lasted almost the entire day. It was very informational and very overwhelming. Camille is a trooper and still my hero.




• 22nd: Back to Primary Children's for more appointments. End result, Camille will be listed on the liver transplant list. I will send emails with more info. We then headed back home.

Braden left for scout camp on Monday the 21st and spent the week up there. I went up on Thursday and came home today. What a great camp. It brought back memories. I started up the Friday night campfire and ice cream tradition to carry it on from the days of Dad at scout camp. It is good to be home. I included pictures of some of the events.

Take care everyone.