Arizona Natrual History Museum

On June 30th I took the boys and their visiting Utah cousin, Curtis, to the Arizona Natural History Museum. We had a great time walking around looking at the dinosaurs, jail and panning for gold. It was a great day to get out of the heat.

Tyler & Curtis looking through a space rock.
The boys in front of the dinosaur flash flood exhibit.

Jacob & Tyler ...dinosaur bonesTyler in jail

Curtis & Jacob in jail

Aaron in jail

Curtis panning for gold

Aaron showing me his gold.

Jacob

Tyler

Jared, Tyler & Curtis on a giant sea turtle

The museum lobby

Catching Up... Building a wall & Woods Canyon Lake

The weekend of June 25th-28th we took a quick trip up to my parent's cabin in Heber/Overguaard. It was nice to get out of the heat and enjoy a nice quiet weekend in the pines. Joe has been working 4 10's with every Friday off and he had some time that was either use it or lose it, so we decided to use it. No TV, no phones, no radio. It was glorious!

We enjoyed reading books while the boys watched old VHS tapes and ran around outside. Aaron even learned how to ride his bike without training wheels (I didn't get any pictures though, oops). Joe and Jacob built a wall/room divider in the basement for my Mom. One side is a closet, while the other is for shelving. Jacob was the big helper. He was interested in every aspect of the project and stayed to help the entire time.

Here is the beginning of the project. Tyler and Aaron wanted in on the hammering too. Thanks to extra nails and spare wood, everyone got to help.Aaron showing off the extra nails.
Jared says, "Me too".

Starting on the drywall.

The closet side.

The storage side.

On the way home we stopped at Woods Canyon Lake. Joe with the boys.

Sherri with the boys.

Looking for rocks to throw.

CHEESE!

Finally, throwing rocks.

Hiking around the lake.

We spotted the Bald Eagle. It kept flying around the lake. So we hiked closer and got some great pictures of it sitting in the top of the very tall trees.

Joe & SherriPicture taken by Jacob. I'm so glad he is able to get some good pictures of Joe and me every once in a while.

Boulder Creek Stake Girls Camp

I was very lucky to be able to attend girls camp at Camp LaMia this year with my stake. I went up with a few friends working in the Craft cabin as a Craft Lady. We left on Wed, Jun 16th and returned on Saturday, June 19th. It was busy but very fun. I love going to camp. It gives me great "girl" time and there is nothing like the spirit at camp. Wednesday was our busiest craft day. The girls made necklaces. Panic started to set in as we realized we were short on some supplies. Because of a combination of a bunch of girls making more than one, without permission, and the total numbers were off a bit. So Thursday, during the hike, we took a road trip into Payson for more stuff. Luckily we found a craft store that had some supplies that would work. In all it worked out fine. We learned a little and had a great time together.

I was so grateful that I was included this year at camp. It was uplifting and memory making. Now if only I had pulled out the camera I brought along and actually took some pictures. Oh well.

Joe's birthday and other goings on

I am so lame. Joe's 37th birthday was this past Monday and it has taken me until now to post about it. It was an uneventful birthday, no thanks to me. Joe decided that he wanted to attend the ASU Baseball playoff games the weekend before his birthday as his birthday present. So he attended the Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday day and night games for his birthday celebration. He enjoyed 4 college baseball games with no wife or children. A perfect celebration in his mind. Then on Monday the boys and I went to lunch at Applebee's with Dad. That evening Joe and I had our Co-Ed softball games. No parties, no fuss. Just the way he likes it.
Happy Birthday Joe!

On another note and goings on....

I took Jared to get speech evaluated today. He was on his game. He refused to speak to anyone and would just walk away if they tried to engage him. I even had Aaron there trying to help engage him. Needless to say we are scheduled for a 2nd screening later this month. They want to evaluate his speech, cognitive (which I know is fine, but they don't know because he ignored them) and social skills. They thought it was funny that while he played if they took a toy from him he did nothing. He would just move on. I wish that were true at home. He fights to the death at home. Oh well. We'll see what happens.

Galen & Julia's Wedding

This past weekend my entire family traveled to Snowflake, AZ for my older brother's wedding. Galen married Julia Mitchell on Saturday, May 29th at the Snowflake Social Hall. My parents and both sisters, Christine & Denise and their families, along with my family all stayed at my parents cabin in Heber/Overgaard, AZ. My brother Doyle and his wife, Jody stayed at a hotel in Taylor.

These are pictures we took of the families while we were waiting to be called for the official wedding pictures.

The Macdonald Family My sister Denise Perkins and her family.

My brother Doyle Hastings & his family.My sister Christine Merrill and her family.

(As you can tell they are the photogenic ones of the group!)

The entire Hastings clan. Siblings photo

My Parents, Stan & Janell Hastings with Julia & Galen

Trying to keep all the cousins occupied by looking in the pretend well.

Jared & Tyler. They both seem to have the goofy smile down.

Jacob, Aaron, Jared & Tyler. Waiting for the wedding photos to be done so we could go into the social hall for the wedding. Trying to keep them clean and from going crazy was tough. We took lots of pictures.

Waiting for the wedding ceremony to start. Bishop Evans conducted the ceremony. The best man was Mark Caldwell, my brother's very good friend.

Julia and her son Sheldon

Exchanging rings

The cookies tree. My sisters and sister in law and I all made the cookies for the reception that followed the ceremony.

Banana Cream Pie!!! The best ever!

Root Beer floats

Jacob took my camera and occupied himself and all the cousins by taking pictures. Here are a few of my favorites. There were many to choose from.

Snowflake Graduation

This past weekend we went up to Snowflake for the High School Graduation ceremonies. 2 of my nephews, Austin & Trevor Hastings were graduating. Austin will stay in school for at least another year, but their parents decided he should walk through graduation with his brother, Trevor.

Trevor and Austin are picture here walking together. Austin has his cane. It was very windy and everyone had to hold on to their hats.
One of the speakers had all the graduates turn and look at the crowd. It looks like Trevor is looking right at me. Austin stood, but didn't look of course.Here they are headed up to the stage to get their diplomas.
Austin walked across all by himself. The pictures I took were blurry, plus I kept stopping to watch as Austin stopped by every person to pose for a picture.

Here is the cap throwing. Pretty cool.

This is my brother, Galen with his 2 oldest boys. Happy Graduates...Proud Dad!

My Parents, Stan & Janell Hastings with the graduates.

It was a fun trip up to the mountains. I need to be better about taking pictures. My sister, Christine and her family were there with us also but I have no pictures to prove it. Oh well.