Ward Variety Show

Tonight our ward had a variety show. Jordan played his clarinet, "Triumphal March". He did very well and recieved many compliments. (Raeleigh took this picture of Jordan.)

Stuart and Raeleigh participated in "Do As I'm Doing" with the primary. Raeleigh is leading the Jumping Jacks in the orange shirt and Stuart is behind her to the left in the teal/green shirt. They all did a good job and had a good time.

Cadet Webecke

I'm sorry this is such a fuzzy picture.

Today is Samantha, Cadet Webecke's, first uniform day. I know that she has already had one advancement in NJROTC. So I will have to find out what her rank is and add that latter and maybe also a better picture! Good luck with your inspection Samantha!

I had a terrible time doing her long hair today. It has to be off her collar, but not to high or her cap won't fit on. I had to remind myself often to breathe and that my mom was nice to me when I needed my hair putup for marching band color guard. Thanks mom for being such a good example.

Okay, these are better pictures. I went to her school during lunch and got these. By then Samantha had already had her inspection. It went well. She also got her rank pin (on her right collar), Seaman Apprentice. She had also received her ribbon for attending the mini boot camp before school started. Samantha you look great!

5 Year Hurricane Charley Anniversary

Sometimes it seems like hurricane Charley hit our community not long ago. But, it has been 5 years. Last Saturday, the city of Punta Gorda had and Xtreme Makeover celebration. Several speakers came and opened the days festivities. Jeb Bush, our former Governor (during the hurricane & pictured below) was the concluding speaker. It was a nice ceremony. However I was so worn out and the heat made me sick, so Craig and I left shortly after the speakers.

I am glad that our community has come so far from the devestation we sustained and a matter of a few hours. I am grateful that Heavenly Father watched over my family and all was well with us. Hopefully this will be a mild hurricane season.

Football

Football has been practicing all summer. It has kept Patrick HOT and busy and tired! Saturday they took pictures, so I brought my own camera. Patrick would only grin, no real smiles from him!


Patrick and Daddy-O

With his buddy, Gary

Patrick looks huge with all the pads on. He is a handsome kid!

I'm not sure what group this is, but Patrick is standing in the back (#70).

Have a great season Patrick!!

PCHS or CHS

We have two kids at Charlotte High, Samantha and Patrick. Morgan is at the opposing school, Port Charlotte High. It makes life fun and sometimes silly around here. I was taking pictures of Samantha in her new Charlotte shirt. Morgan happened to be wearing her school shirt as well, so she also jumped in the pictures. (Patrick wasn't home at the time.)

pcitures

Okay, so after looking at the last few posts, I need/want/could use a digital scrapbooking program!!! Maybe someday.

First Day of School

School has started (Aug 10)!


Jordan a 7th grader.



















Raeleigh in 3rd grade. She made this sign for the picture. She was so excited for her first day of third grade.



















Stuart, also a 3rd grader.



















Morgan a high school junior.




















Samantha a high school Freshman!!





















Samantha wanted he eyes to show on the first day of school, so Morgan helped her with make-up!



















Patrick a high school junior. As always not thrilled to get his picture taken!


All the kids had a successful first day and are glad to be back in school and have a routine!

Stairs or Slide?

I was napping and I vaguely remember the kids asking if they could slide down the stairs. These are the pictures they took of each other.

Stuart and Raeleigh had a good time, I'm glad I wasn't watching!!

Liberty Elementary's Open House

Stuart and Raeleigh are so excited for school to begin. The day of the open house 6pm could not come soon enough! Look at their thrilled faces. You can also see in the sign that we got the time wrong and go to the school early. That meant time for pictures!! I like the little statue of liberty in front of their school (in above pictures). On July 4th was found Raeleigh's shirt. It says "Miss Liberty", she just had to have it for the first day of school.

Stuart and his friend Nick making their name-tags for their tables.

Stuart is a lucky boy. He has three teachers!!!

Here he is with Mrs West.

Stuart and Ms. Vida

Stuart and Ms. Dempsey.

Raeleigh and her teacher, Ms. Deppen.

We stopped by and they gave the kids school supplies that had been donated to the school. Stuart and Raeleigh were able to get all the necessary items needed for 3rd grade. They both had piles to carry out to the car!

Jordan went with us and visited his past teachers. He had a good night as well.

Jordan at Disney

This year Disney Theme Parks are doing a promotion to get in free on your birthday. So Craig and Jordan went to Magic Kingdom to celebrate Jordan's 13th birthday. Jordan was so excited to go.


Jordan just inside the park. Cinderalla's castle is in the background of this picture.

Riding the train, something you just have to do at disney.

Parades. They went to the afternoon parade and the evening parade.

Hum.... I can think of times I would have liked to have put Jordan in the stocks!:))

In front of Thunder Mountain.

Can you find Jordan on the thunder mountain ride?

On Tom Sawyer Island.

During the evening parade Ursula from the movie Little Mermaid, came up to Jordan and asked if he would be her friend. She said she would like to add him to her collection!!

Jordan had a great birthday!

Scout Camp

Craig and Jordan went to scout camp July 19-26. Camp LaNoche was the spot this year, same as last year. In this picture, the boys with birthdays in July were called up to celebrate. Jordan has on a hat and camo pants.

Bishop Smith helped the boys with crafts and prerequisites. He helped Jordan to make a cool pouch out of Rabbit fur. Jordan went to camp with his the money he had earned with the plan to make the pouch. Thanks Bishop for helping him to meet his goal.

Jordan and Craig had a good week. They of course home dirty and with lots of laundry, but it wouldn't be a scout outing if that wasn't the case!!

Craig & Christina Vacation, Part 1

Craig and I went to Orlando for a couple of days. Thanks to friends and relatives that helped with the kids. On my birthday we went to disney's animal kingdom. It was a lot of fun. The day was hot and being six months pregnant I waddled very slowly through the park. So glad we went.









This giant ant eater was one of the first things we saw. He is big (he is in the middle of the picture right in front of the palms). I didn't know that they slept for 15 hrs a day.










We took a ride on the safari, one of two rides I could do being pregnant! Of course we saw many more animals then we could get pictures of, but here are some of the animals we got to see.

Black Rino










Lots of Hippos.













American Aligators










































There were several giraffes.

























African Elephant, Craig likes elephants. The baby elephants were cute following the mamas.















This tree looks like it its upside-down!



















Whit rhinos.













Male lion, he is right at the crest of the hill under the tree.














Ostrich, my inlaws used to raise them. They had laid their eggs all over the savannah, but I didn't get a picture of them:(

I loved this mural, it was inside one of the buildings.

This is the skull of a female African Elephant. It is huge. At the nutrition center they have skulls all over, but this one amazed me!

Craig in front of Rafaki. I love the Rafaki character from the Lion King movie. I like that Rafaki can see the right even when no one else does.

The next three pictures are of the carvings around the "tree of life". This is a huge man made tree (with a theatre inside) that has carvings all over it of different animals. I took a few pictures as we waited in line to see the bug movie that was inside of the tree.

The title of the 3D movie we saw in the tree "It's tough to be a Bug"

Craig and I look great in our "honorary bug glasses"!

Another shot of the tree of life. Which animals can you pick out?