Lake Alice Adventure

Here is Eli, Tyler, Natalie, and happy Sharon at Lake Alice. They drove from Indiana and came up hoping to meet Brooke and Dallin, Sam and Shauna Wollenzien at Cokeville before heading up the mountain...having never come to Lake Alice before. They got stalled in traffic from an accident and so when Kim and I hiked down to meet them at the campground below, we got in our car and waited by the river of water so that they would know they could get across and not freak. We packed them up and loaded up the backpacks and got up to Lake Alice where everyone was waiting for us with a yummy Dutch oven lasagna dinner. We had fun doing more dinners this year in the Dutch ovens and ate so well that the next Monday weigh in that Kim had for Y-Be-Fit ( I had to take Dallin to get his wisdom teeth out and missed the weigh in ...how so very sad..hm) revealed how well he ate. Back to work! Sharon could not get into a routine and sleep through the night so sadly they headed home on Friday afternoon. Tyler was happy camper in that Eli caught his fish, rode a mule, and paddled on the lake. It was a great change for us with cooler weather and beautiful starry filled evenings for one week! We were pretty loaded down on Saturday when we came off the mountain and were happy that it was mostly down hill. It was a wonderful week up in the mountains with fishing, hiking, cooking, canoing, playing Scum, designing add ons in the kitchen ( like this really nice counter behind the dish washing area) , sitting on our favorite Fred Flinstone chairs ( 3 were under water --the Lake was way up this year!) and just meditating in a place that is about as close to heaven as I will ever get. More pictures at Mom's pictures and Brooke's pictures and Tylers on the left column of this blog!

The monsoon season has arrived!

I just love the rainstorms here. It rained all last night. There was thunder grumbling and flashes of light constantly. There was water in the wash by Aunt Lauryl's house. That doesn't happen very often!

I finished my rotation of 12 hour shifts. They are hard but doable. I need to get faster in getting things done. I like to talk to the patients too much. I have been able to use what little Spanish I know every week. I hope to start taking classes again one I start working. We had interviews last week. I interviewed with five different departments so I have no idea where I will end up. When they told us what jobs were available, it didn't seem like there were 40 positions. One never knows what the future will hold with this program! I have a month of community health and then all I have to do is pass boards.

My ward has been pretty small this summer but we have been able to have some fun activities. So far I have been bowling and to a baseball game. This Friday is game night. I am looking forward to that. They will have DDR, Guitar Hero, Wii, Rock band and then a dance. I really like DDR even though I am not very good. I hope you all have a great time at Lake Alice. This will be the first year I have not gone :( Ty and Nat, I hope you have a great trip to Utah and that you travel safely.

Fun times in Oregon.

I have finally started doing cool things here. It has been a lot of fun. Oregon is a gorgeous place.

Last weekend I went to the beach. It was nice to go hiking and I got some pretty good games of Ultimate in.



I have been on a few good hikes as well and am really enjoying how things grow so well here.




This past week I went boating on the river to explore Portland. That was pretty amazing. The day after that, I went boating again for a boat dance. Yay. A dance. That was. Fun?




Yesterday I went to the drive in for a service project. We got to see the showings there for free so I saw Wall-E and Get Smart. Good times.

Hair no more

This past week both Natalie and I put in long hours at work (she on her book and me at the office) in anticipation of our trip back West coming up next week. While we worked hard we also found plenty of time to play and it was a pretty enjoyable week.

On Friday Natalie had her hair chopped off. This is the first time in our marriage that anyone in the TyandNat’s has gone to a salon. This was her reward for taking off all her pregnancy weight (and a little more) and it turned out really cute (as you obviously can see from the picture). I haven’t taken off any weight this year but was a little jealous so I went ahead and cut off all my hair (and then some) and spit shined my scalp. Eli then became a little jealous of me so he begged for another hair cut (I cut his two weeks ago against much opposition from him). I gave him another trim but wouldn’t concede to his request to get a shave like daddy. Sharon has not made any formal requests for shortening her hair, at least not any that we’ve been able to understand—so her mowhawk is officially the longest hair in the family for the time being.

Sunday Happenings

Our computers are driving me crazy. I put the disk in that Bryce sent home so I could look at the missionaries in his pictures to see who was at the Egan's speaking in their ward. They had all the missionaries sit up in the choir seats and they sang the mission song for the intermediate hymn or whatever. I didn't have any luck pulling up the pictures except for birds eye view. I forgot my glasses when I spoke in church today and finally had to stop and retrieve them from my bag. I still haven't got used to the idea that I need glasses all the time now. I spoke on Patriotism. Brother Rosenbaum assured me that Daven would speak for a long time because he had so much to tell about his mission. He took 10 minutes. Kim came to the meeting and after I spoke for almost 15 minutes, they had him follow up and speak. After church, Gelfie came up to our building to try and find me. He said he had missed me several times. He drove me home and we visited. I am so impressed with his desire to serve a mission. He will be 26 years old when he gets home from his mission and wants to go to school and get married. He is putting a mission first. I had to call Brooke to translate some of our conversation. We then went to Sandy using Dad's new ipod/itouch and we ended up at the Egan's home and not the church. We turned around and found the closest church and it had a sign saying that it was being renovated. We found the other church, hurried in to get a seat in the quickly filling up chapel and saved a place for Brooke. The Egans were there and visiting with the missionaries. Right before time to start everyone started standing up and a man walked past us...it was Elder Christopherson. He is in the Egan's neighborhood and friends with them. It was a wonderful meeting. The returned missionaries all looked like they were still missionaries. I was impressed with that. There was the cutest 14 yr. old that spoke. He said he had many challenges in his life. 1. chores that he always had to do 2. playing the piano and practicing 3. his two younger brothers that were wierd 4. and the concern that when he turns 16 he won't be able to afford the gas. Sister Egan said that Tinker Bell was in her scriptures because they are magic. Every time she reads them there is something in them just for her. President Egan said that everyone tells them they haven't changed at all but he knows that they have had a great change. As much as he loved the past 3 years, nothing surpasses being in the temple with all of his 7 children and their spouses when their son was sealed. I can relate to that. It was a wonderful moment for me to see those missionaries and the Egans. I just felt the spirit and thought about all that Bryce has done and learned. We got to talk to the Carrolls ( their son is in SA) and found out that Peter's date is Oct. 14th and they are going down to retrieve him. It was fun to hear about Peter, etc. Today has been a very wonderful day. Elder Christofferson talked about how the apostles pick where the missionaries go...just like Elder Utchdorf told us. I am tired. The End From Mom I had a pool party with my primary class ...we had a great time getting each other wet.

TyandNat 4th

This year we celebrated the 4th with a few close friends, the Steeds and the Silvias. We went over to the Steeds and grilled and played croquet. We stayed up late talking, but the tyandnat's came home before fireworks--it's just not worth it to keep the kids up that late. On Saturday we had couples volleyball in the morning and ended up playing for over two hours. Nearly every person there commented at some point at how much Natalie has improved over the last six months--she is definitely one of the best players now. That's about it for the weekend. We had some new friends, the Kellers, over last night for dinner and enjoyed visiting with them. We've also scheduled another appointment for Eli to see the doctor next week so we'll keep you posted. Here's a link to June 2008 photos.

Breakfast at the Beatty's

Here is the gang minus Ilene(taking the picture) so Tyler can't say I am never in the pictures. We put the grill out and made omelets, had crepes with fruit, muffins, fresh fruit, and lots of bacon and sausage. Yummmm. Ken had a great patriotic devotional on the founding of this nation, we played volleyball and then went home to pack up the bikes for our mountain adventure. It was a fun filled day and we were so tired that we went to bed early and missed all the fireworks. I didn't even hear them! For more pictures, just click on Wynette's pictures on the sidebar to the left.

Bennie Creek Trail on the 4th

This is Jon Fraiser ( Julie Beatty's husband) leading the way with Kim and Ken close behind. They were followed later by Don James and Erica Voorhees. Erica took a spill and went over the handle bars. Ken took a curve too fast and ripped his shirt ( his shoulder took a beating too). Otherwise, things went great. Brooke and I rode our bikes down on the road...fastest I've ever gone. Rita, Julie ( who is expecting), Dallin and Steven took a hike around Payson Lake with Peggy being the shuttler. It was a great early afternoon activity on the 4th!

Fourth of July 2008

Boating with the James. Don and Rita took us and Erica Voorhees out on Utah Lake in the afternoon of the 4th. Dallin got to wakeboard and kneeboard for the first time. He did great. Don did some wakeboarding tricks to impress us and we had a great time being out on the water.