Family Vacation!

It was sad for us to see all our family leave! We had so much fun with everyone ! We were a little lonely without everyone! We just kept looking at eachother wondering what to do! So below is this last week - we did a few things we are not use to doing - 1. We went Camping on the ward campout! (My kind of camping is at the local Hilton!) Grace had never slept in a tent outside of our backyard and she begged us to go! So we went camping- some were happier than others about camping - but we made it and Grace LOVED it! While we were there we hiked to Elk River falls and played in the creek! 2. We went on a 15 mile bike ride through the bitteroot mountains on the Montana and Idaho border! It was so beautiful! It is was the old railroad track they converted to a mountain bike trail! It was really cool! 

This is for you Uncle Darren - this is what we call Inland surfing - No Ocean!

Our Bike ride on the Hiawatha trail! Here we are on one of the really cool bridges!

Gotta love the Idaho scenery!

Grace on her Tag a long bike with Steve

Everyone on the Trail!  I am thinking we should do 

this bike ride next year as part of our Johnson family 

reunion the end of July! What do ya think guys?  They rent all kinds of bikes and trailers and tag a long bike and BIKE LIGHTS FOR THE DARK TUNNELS

That is one of about 7 bridges we rode over!  So cool!

Lots of tunnels - you had to have a light or you would crash in most of the tunnels

 - one tunnel was 2 miles long -

 absolutely NO light!!!!   Good thing we had lights

And now our Camping trip!

This is how Lauren felt about camping!

The things we do for GRACE!

Another Reluctant Camper!

Super Happy Campers!

We hiked to Elk River falls - really beautiful!

After a 3 mile hike we found the jackpot!

Campfire and all!

I

TEENAGER!

Savannah turned 13!  She had a great day!  She got a juicy sweatsuit and a lot of giftcards!  She is so fun and we love her so much!  She is planning a outdoor movie and bowling with her friends this week!  Happy Birthday!!!

Savannah and her presents!
One her way to girls camp!!!  

Johnson Family Reunion

My Dad & Madge, Derek, Mindy, Shannon and their families all came for a week at the Lake! It was so much fun! We tubed, waterskied, wakeboarded, surfed and swam. Cory was the ultimate boat driver! The big kids loved him - Rumor has it he was going 40 miles an hour - Cory denies all inappropriate behavior. Although we do have witnesses that say when Taylor fell off he was skidding across the water! hmmmmm I even heard my son Derek say there were moments he was afraid for his life! hmmmmm My brother tore his hamstring while waterskiing - so that was sad! He loved having all his sisters take care of him! He really loves a lot of attention! hehehe We missed all the family that couldn't come and say to them - put it on your calendar for next year - it is now going on the 5th year of Johnson Family reunion the last week of July!!!!!

The two August 16th Birthdays - We celebrated - had chocolate cake and keylime pie!

Monopoly was the game of choice this year! They played all the time!

Dad & Madge - it was so fun to have them with us!

Tubing - My sister shannon has all the water sport pictures - look on her blog

More monopoly

It always starts out nice

Then it turns ugly!

And just keeps going

Jaxon swimming at night!

Summer oh' nine

So far the summer has been fabulous!  We have spent a lot of time up at the lake!  We are looking forward to the rest of the summer at the lake!!!!  If you don't have plans to join us you should!  Maybe these picture will entice you!!!!!

Savannah reading Harry Potter

Girls out tubing ! Savannah, Grace, Lauren & Annie

Grace out kayaking

Papa Joe & Grandma Marlene came to visit!

Chris, Cassie & Rayne came to visit too!

Lauren perfecting her diving!  Too bad the springboard diving class at BYU was full she would have been a shoe in for an A+

Derek Showing off his mad diving skills also - he is such a goof!

Trek 2009

Fathers Day with the kids! Jackie called - It was the first time for steve to have one of his children call him instead of being here! We miss her!



TREK
Our Stake went on a Trek this last week.  Steve was the trail boss and I was the photographer.  Derek was our only child that came.  Lauren was too old, Grace & Savannah were too young.  Savannah spent the week in Utah at Basketball camp and at her cousins!  When I asked her how the week went she said " It was a Lot of Basketball!"    Maybe I should have explained that at Basketball camp you play basketball!   hehehehe  I love that girl!  Lauren entertained grace for the week and they did everything from making tie dye shirts to riding bikes to get a snow cone!   They went to see the Lippanzaner dancing horses and grace was a little dissappointed the horses didn't do back flips or anything!  hahaha  I guess I really need to talk to my children about there expectations before they go to stuff!  

The trek was so hard!  It looked just like Wyoming and hot and windy and we even had rain!    Steve gave about 10 talks and they were all great!  He gave a great spirit to the trek!  We came home totally exhausted and sunburnt! This is our second Trek Steve and I have gone on with the youth and everytime I can gain such a great respect for the Pioneers!  I am also  blown away by our incredible youth!  I came home knowing "I CAN DO HARD THINGS!"  One of my favorite talks Steve gave was to the YW about Virtue and he said "the Iron rod does not go through the Great and spacies building!"   It gave me a chance to look at my life and see where I could to do better!    Another thing that was great to think about he said was "Because a boy prayed . . . . . . ."  I am so thankful for this gospel and that I get to be a part of it!   

Thought I better document this - Derek writing in his journal 

We started out so clean!!

Trail boss

Our Stake Flag - Lauren made it for us! 

Visit to Grants Pass

We went to oregon for my Nephew Aarons baptism! We stopped by Grants Pass to visit Dad & Madge and had a fabulous dinner and got to see the fancy new chicken coop, picked some cherries and watched some home movies we brought! We miss them so much! I wish we lived closer! We also got to visit Steve's Great Granparents! We spent the rest of the weekend in Corvallis at his Brother Don's house for Aarons baptism! Grace was our only child who could come and she had a great time with Grandma & Grandpa and all the cousins! Derek & Lauren were in Montana for Dereks basketball tournament and Savannah is in Utah with Jackie going to a BYU Basketball camp! We are now home and on the next big event - THE TREK! We leave on Wednesday!

Grace and her MAD gymnastic skills on the top of Grandpas Mountain

Grace and G & G Johnson

Grace and her Great Grandma & Grandpa Green

Steve and his Grandma Cook!

Graduation

We had a great graduation weekend! Steve's mom and dad came and my sister Shannon with her 4 cute little kids came! Good thing too! We had everyone chopping and cooking all morning Friday for the Graduation BBQ! We had lots of friends and family come and help us celebrate this great event! We then headed off to the Graduation ceremony where Lauren was one of 11 kids in her class to graduate with the highest honor - Summa Cum Laude (gold cords) you had to graduate with a grade point average of 3.9 and above! What a smarty pants!!! Then she was off to a All night senior party (which I was in charge of! - glad to have that over with) The kids all had a great time - lots of great prizes were awarded! It was a great weekend to Celebrate such a great kid! Watch out BYU - here she comes! Thanks to everyone who gave such wonderful presents and thoughtful cards!

Seminary Graduation - I believe the quote from Lauren was "This is the greatest day ever!"

(We have early morning seminary)

Lauren and her buddies right before Graduation

Grace only has 10 more years! AHHHHH!

The whole fam after the great event!

Grandma & Grandpa with the little smarty! Grandma also got interviewed from the paper! It was a great article and she told all the graduates to go out and make something happen!

5th at Idaho State Tennis Tournament

We spent the weekend in Boise Idaho for the State 4A High School Tennis Tournament. Lauren and Logan played really well but lost their last match 4-6,7-5,6-6 they had to play a tie breaker and the final score of the tie breaker was 8-10. It just kept going on and on and on! It was so stressful! It was a heartbreaker!!! So 5th place is what they ended up with. Which is pretty great for the whole State of Idaho!

This is the cheering squad - We brought Ashley to help with entertainment!

We also brought Caitlyn for Savannahs entertainment - turns out all we needed was a phone you could text on!

Ashley and Grace playing in the hotel pool!

ON TO STATE!!!

We spent this last weekend up in Sandpoint for the District Tennis Tournament!  Lauren and Logan won and are on there way to the State Tournament in Boise!  So we leave Thursday - should be really fun!  They are playing really well!  My next post should be STATE CHAMPS!

Mothers day was great this year!  LAUREN made dinner - I know!  She did great - I think she might actually be okay at college! Grace helped her too - she peeled the potatoes and made a wonderful cake!  I got lots of great presents and everyone watched movies with me on my bed all afternoon!  It was great!  Jackie and Justin called!  First time Jackie wasn't in charge of the mothers day festivities - she was a little concerned!  

Spring is trying to come!  The daffodils and tulips are so pretty right now!  Here in the North they stick around for a month or so!  Picture is courtesy of Savannah and her artistic photography!

Lauren playing a little tennis!  

Lauren serving!  Her first serve is killer!  She gets a lot of Aces!