Maui Birthdays!

So Steven was kind enough to download a few of our snorkeling photos for me to add to the blog. So I apologize that it is out of order.How fun are these pictures?



Such a great shot of my flippers!

So here is the turtle! Isn't he beautiful! What a moment!

Yes that is me swimming next to the turtle! It was so awesome he would look over at me every once in a while and it was like he was saying... hey! Really.. I know it sounds corny but I am for real!

Steven and I were blessed to get to celebrate our birthdays in Maui! With all of our children with family in Arizona we were able to enjoy a Whole week in this tropical paradise! Thank you Mom, Dad (aka Grandma & Grandpa), Auntie Angelene, Uncle Zach, Auntie Rachelle, Uncle Aaron, Uncle Glenn, Auntie Satya, Uncle Amaron, Uncle Sean, Auntie Christine, Auntie Kim & Uncle Dayson and too all that fed and bed my children for the 4 weeks they were there! We certainly couldn't have had such a relaxing time in Maui without the peace of mind that they were in such good hands.our first stroll on the beach!

The Teralani 3 behind me is the catamaran we went on for the 4 hour snorkeling cruise

Check out them coconuts!



Steven's Birthday...August 3rd

We went to a Luau! Our lei's smelled so intoxicatingly good! I put mine in the refridgerator in hopes it would last another day. ( not quite)

The Luau was amazing. The food, entertainment and the location right on the beach! They even sang Happy Birthday to Steven!

This is taken in the Lobby of the Westin Resort & Spa that we stayed at!

The waterfall was a walkway.. so cool! There were pink flamingos and coy in the ponds. And they had parrots and cockatoos too!

Okay now Steven decided he was a professional photographer.... so yeah. This is just a few of many!

This does show how absolutely beautiful the resort grounds are.

Onto Parasailing! Fun and so peaceful! Steven was so excited to go he was getting impatient waiting for our turn.

Finally we were out in the boat! We were soooo excited to go up. We paid $$ extra to use their waterproof digital camera to take up with us! To our disappointment it didn't take any pictures while we were up. Of course we got reimbursed the moola but had no cool pictures in the parasail for our time up there. I have to say I was way more than disappointed! I was quite upset!

So this is another couple up in the air.. just imagine that it was us! Ha, not the same!

We went up the full 1200 feet. What an amazing view from up there!

Scuba Steve! Okay I had no idea that Steven had never swam, let alone even went in the ocean past his toes! The moment he took in a mouthful of salt water was priceless!

For a guy that had never swam in the ocean to go out in the largest fish tank. I was so proud of my Scuba Steve! He is a pro at snorkeling!

We snorkeled right off the beach in front of the resort and also up about 1/2 mile. Then we went on a 4 hour snorleling cruise on The Teralani 3.

I actually swam with a sea turtle! I would have to say that was the highlight of my trip! We rented a waterproof digital camera for the snorkeling. We weren't going to take any chances of not getting pictures of this experience. I forgot to download all of those pictures before I started on the blog. I will have to post the one of me swimming with the turtle later.. it is so cool!

Hard Rock Cafe in Lahaina, Maui

Let's just say sooo cool! It is on Front St. right on the water!
They had a Whole Wall dedicated to Elvis!

Need I say more?
Happy Birthday to Me!

Saturday Aug. 8th

Steven took me to the most amazing Restaurant for dinner. The Tropica. We watched the sunset as we ate. Absolutely breathtaking!

What a wonderful way to celebrate a birthday! It was just missing my children!

I am already looking forward to our next trip to the Islands!

I really Love Hawaii!

Oh, and Steven too!
I think he had a great time... you don't see him complaining do ya?

Until we meet again!

ARIZONA Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!
and facial hair!?!
Silly girls facial hair is for boys!
Although Auntie Rachelle pulls it off well!

My girls are always begging me for a baby sister/brother! Well here ya go! They got a small dose with Kashlynn (& Krew)

Just some random pics of the kids and their cousins up North!

Clayton, Carson, Harly.. such posers!

Aaron and presley.. peace out!

Road trip with G-ma and G-pa and Uncle Glenn!

New Mexico!

Sierra can now say she has Driven in the States of Oregon, Washington, Arizona and now New Mexico.. The Land Of EnchantmentI do hope all was buckled up! With Deputy Sherriff Merrill on the Road you can never be too cautious!

The whole crew.. Uncle Dayson, Aunt Kim, Clayton, Carson, Harly, Daycee, MaKenzie, Aarron, Adam, Sierra, Madelynn, Sydnee, Presley, G-ma, G-pa & Uncle Glenn! They spent the 24th of July weekend up North and got to go to the parade and the 24th celebration! Thanks to all that made it happen!

SWIMMING! Lots of swimming! Auntie Angelene's pool was a hot spot!

So many cool action shots of the kids jumping in! Syd is classic!

Going to Uncle Aaron's softball games! FUN!!! GO AARON!!!

Maddy and Grandpa Merrill at a Diamonbacks games! WAY FUN!!!

More swimming! Oh it appears that Cole has arrived! Let the party begin!

again.. check out Syd... classic!

All of my Posers! Minus Presley.. she was too busy swimming!

Jumping off of the Roof! Woo Hoo!

Dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house with Great Grandma and Grandpa Lawlor. Sierra and Cole are their 2 oldest great grandchildren out of 100's!

Uncle Glenn took them Bowling! Check out Sierra's form! You go girl!

Okay trip to Maui $$$$ Syd's pool jumps.. Priceless!

Alright, I wil admit that this one of Presley is pretty dang good too! Go P-Diddy!
Saguaro Lake wake boarding! So Steven and I got back to Oregon from Hawaii on Sunday evening. I got on a plane Tuesday to AZ to go be with my children! First day there we went to the lake! What a blast! The water looked entirely nasty compared to the water in Maui though!

Cole got right up! Thanks Uncle Sean for taking us and Velda for the use of your boat!

Presley loves the water and riding the tube! Unfortunately my camera battery died before we got any pictures of the tube.. and Auntie Rachelle's memory stick was full.. but hey we all had a blast anyways!

Check out Maddy.. this is her second time wakeboarding. 2 years ago when we were down for Auntie Angelene's wedding was her first time. Maddy makes it look so easy!

Looking good in the boat!

So this was my first time wakeboarding. I was relieved to get up my first try! Maddy took a couple pictures of me before the battery died!

Presley cleaning Auntie Angelene's pool. Getting ready for the party!

Most of the cousins came over for an August Birthday party Celebration! Swimming and Pizza!Oh and I cannot forget the Golf Cart! The kids had a blast getting to drive and ride around in it! It seemed that Krew couldn't fall asleep at night without his golf cart ride! Yeah.. I am pretty certain that this was one of Presley's Highlights of the trip! That and hangin' with her cousins Halee and Sage!

During the Party I snuck away and Picked up Steven at the airport! He flew in to surprise the kids! Afterall he hadn't seen them for a whole month! (the girls anyways)

Friday afternoon we had Family Pictures with the Whole Merrill Family!

It was Hot!

We had time to take a few picture of our own as the photographer took each families picture!Maddy my gorgeous Maddy... check it out! No Braids!
Syd had a braid but not her usual 2! So pretty!

Our Family! Together again!

Me and My Girls

Me and My Boys!

Alright here is all 31 grandchildren with Grandma and Grandpa Merrill! They all did amazing considering it was 106 degrees outside!
This all preceeded my Baby Sister Rachelle and her hubby Aaron being sealed in the Temple for Time and All Eternity!

What a special moment to be able to attend!


Oh, I have to mention that Sierra had an especially great time in AZ!

She got to hang with Uncle Zach's younger Brother Garrett. Thanks Garrett for giving Sierra something to smile about!

All good things must come to an end! We did get to see AirForce One at SkyHarbor Airport! Yes Pres. Obama had just landed in AZ as we were getting ready to depart!

Back in Oregon! Hangin' curbside for our ride home! Thanks again to all of our Family that made it possible for all of us to have such a memorable and fun summer!

Visit with Grandma Judy! Steven's Mom had her right hip replaced back on July 31st. We went to visit her when we got home. She is doing remarkably well. She is an amazing woman! Just don't ask her what she exfoliates her skin with! lol

We love you!

Some Catchin' up to do!

Well, for all of those who frequently or not so frequently check my blog.. here goes about 7 weeks of catchin' up to do! It may get done in stages or if my computer decides to be nice to me it may all get done today! (fingers crossed) Life has been just crazy busy! One event after another and unexpected ones shoved and crammed inbetween! You would think with my 4 girls being in Arizona for the past 12 days that I would have time to do this. But the Lord apparently has other plans for me. My new church calling has taken up pretty much all of my time. With Girls camp (July 6-11th)just 2 weeks after I got put in as YW Pres. (oh did I mention that I MOVED one of my VT Ladies and her 2 Felines to New York right in the middle of all of this) Inherited a rather uncomfortable activity my very first week... was asked to have the July(1st) combined mutual activity at our house..BBQ. Had Family from Arizona come and stay with us from July 2-10th, 4th of July was somewhere in there.. kinda a blurrr.. Cole went on The High Adventure July 13th-18th.. sent the girls off on the 18th, Drove Cole to Long Beach, Wa. hooked up with all the boys(cousins). Steven taught them how to fly kites.(fun)service at a retirement center, Stake Youth Conference/Helping Hands Service Project July 24th & 25th
Caught a cold from going 100 miles per hour... been enduring 100+ degree days for the past week as Cole has had Daily doubles for Football. 9am-11:30am & 5pm-8:45pm(evening time is a skill position camp) Now that it is Thursday July 30th.. I can finally start packing for Hawaii! Oh, gotta get Cole off to Az. on Saturday then we leave at 10am Sunday! I am pretty sure that I left out alot of details. I apologize if this is too much information and lacking in sense but I am not editing anything.. I am pressed for time! So here goes!

Portland Track Festival June 13th, 2009 Clear back to the first saturday after school was out. Cole and Maddy participated in The Portland Track Festival. It was at The Lewis And Clark College in Lake Oswego. This was Maddy's very first track meet. For Cole it was his first outside of School meets. It was very intimidating. There were teams from 5 states there. Cole and Maddy entered as individual athletes. (not on a team) It was a long day. Arrived at 8:30am- and got home after 7pm
Maddy ran the 100M and the 200M. She took 5th place out of 16 girls in both events. We were very proud of her. Her age bracket was 11-12 yr. olds. She was one of the youngest competing in her heats.

Cole came away with a 2nd place out of 16 in the 100M, 5th place in the 200M and 5th place in the long jump.

It was a bit cool in the morning but it finally warmed up afternoon.

Here is a view from the bleachers. They have a very nice field.

Here is the long jump pit. As you can see they allowed coaches and others to be right there. This Cole disliked very much. (there were some extreme coaches there)

Down time waiting for their events... listening to their ipods.

Steven napped on the downtime!(he did not appreciate me taking pictures of him sleeping)

8th Grade Promotion June10th, 2009

Cole is officially moving on to High School now! His promotion was a very nice ceremony. Cole was honored with 3 Certificates, Honor Roll (4.0 GPA) WEB Leader(where everbody belongs) And of course his certificate of Promotion!It is always a challenge to get a good family photo, Cole is the only one not looking. (there must have been a hot chick walking by)lol

Thank you Grandma Judy For attending Cole's Promotion!

One of Cole's Teachers Ms. Anderson retired after 0ver 30 years as a school teacher. She was an excellent teacher! We wish her the best in her retirement!

Cole gave her flowers and a card (what a thoughtful guy!)

Cole and his Algebra Teacher Mr. Hope. Cole really excelled in math.. he is a brain when it comes to math! A+ all 3 years @ CCMS Thank you Mr. Hope and to all of Cole's teachers in Team Explorer!

Catching up on Life!

Well let's see here where shall I begin? It has been so long since my last post and so many things have occured in our family. I will start with the second to last day of school and work backwards from there. At Highland they always end with a field day... full of fun activities for all of the kids and of course tug of war between the classes. Maddy's class unfortunately did not win any against the other 3 5th grade classes. Here class happens to be the smallest with only 21 students and 5 were gone that day. 16 kids against 25 in each of the other classes... do the physics. They had fun none the less. Sydnee's class won one of their wars... and Presley's class won all of theirs. On this same day the kids get to meet their teacher for the up coming school year. They really enjoy this. Sydnee will have Ms. Johnson for 5th grade(who Maddy has) Presley will have team teachers Ms. Heath and Ms. Conan for 2nd grade... Sierra had Ms. Heath in the 2nd grade. And Maddy will be moving on to Middle School! This Is Syd's class in the middle of a war!
Here is Presley with her 1st grade teacher Mrs. McAllister and a few classmates. Eating their popsicles after Tug of War

Mrs. Grieves has been the best teacher for Sydnee this year. Sydnee improved more than 8 points on all of her state tests from the beginning of the school year. Which is huge and I thank her teacher for encouraging her and helping her stay on task!This is Maddy with her 5th grade teacher Mrs. Johnson! Thanks for a great year!

This is Maddy up recieving one of her awards, next to her is Mr. Ron Neighorn the music teacher. He has been amazing for the kids. He is moving on to another school next year and will be greatly missed. Maddy had her spring Music Program the same evening they had their awards assembly.

In the 8th grade they have an awards assembly that the students get to vote who wins the awards. Cole won The Most Respected award and Most Likely to Be A Pro Athlete Award

Maddy won the Female 5th Grade Athlete of the Year Award! She was so cute.. she had no idea she was getting this award and when Steven and I showed up at her school for the Assembly she questioned why we were there..( The PE teacher had called us the week prior and invited us to attend)

Here are a few more awards Maddy recieved:Exceeded on state Reading,Math,and Science tests and she was the only 5th grader to recieve Extraordinary growth on her state reading test, she not only exceeded but also improved her score by 11 points from the beginning of the school year. That is equivelent to 2 years of growth. Way to go Madelynn!

Sydnee recieved 3 awards(only 2 shown) Exceeding on her state Math and Reading tests. And she was one of two 4th graders that improved more than 8 points on her reading test! I am sooooo proud of you Sydnee! Way to GO!!! (for those that do not know.. Reading has been a struggle for Sydnee. She is very phonetic and as we know the english language is not always phonetic! So I greatly attribute her growth to her Teacher that has spent extra time with Sydnee)

Okay moving on to another fun night that Highland puts on for the 5th grade students.

"Night of The Notables" 6/2/09

The 5th graders each get to pick a person that is "Notable" in history or life... there is a long list from which they get to choose from. Maddy took a liking to Lucille Ball. The students study their person and do a poster board of them. They have to do this all in class so they get NO help from parents. They draw a portrait of them and do a timeline. In class they each have to do a presentation that is at least 4 minutes long.. this is a huge part of their grade. Then they have an evening at the school where all of the students dress up as their Notable person. It starts out they are all sitting around the cafeteria with #'s on them and we have to try to figure out whe they are. Then after 30 min. we all go into the gym where they have their displays set up and we can see who they are and the students hand out souveniers. It is a very fun event!

The same time as Maddy's Night of the Notables Presley had a softball game. thank goodness it was right there at Highland so we could enjoy both.

Here she is wearing the apron... she handed out little chocolates with a picture of Lucy and Ethel working at the chocolate factory. Maddy was so cute she watched several clips of Lucy on you tube and picked that one and the Vitameatavegamin as her favs! She also had little cups with juice in it that were labeled "vitameatavegamin" Very clever. She was the hit of the evening!

It was easy to dress her up.. since I love vintage/classic clothes! I already had the perfect outfit for her to wear. Even polkadot heels with a bow on them!

A couple other girls from other classes also chose to be Lucy!

I have a red wig that I did the hair up and put it on Maddy.. she said it was itchy and asked me to do it to her own hair! I think it turned out pretty dang good! I put fake eyelashes on her and the bright red lipstick! She had a blast!
12U fastpitch Champions!6/6/09

Maddy's team "The Fury" went undefeated all season and played 5 games in a row to win the end of season Tournament! These girls played amazing!

Here they are after winning the championship game!

This is team picture day!(a few weeks back)


Presley's 8U tournament 6/6/09

She was so thrilled to get her trophy! Presley loves playing softball!
Presley is on the youngest team in the league and they took 3rd place in the silver bracket at their Tournament.

Way to Go Black Diamonds!!!!

14 yr. old Birthday Party Weekend! 5/30/09

I think this photo sums it up! Exhausting! Cole and 3 of his buddies spend the weekend with us. Starting with Friday night, pizza,pop, cake, ice-cream... "suppose to go to sleep" to get up early to head to the Sand Dunes. ummm, yeah... they didn't sleep! Instead they stayed up all night eating anything and everything!Steven took them down to Florence to ride for the day!

Brody, Xavier(better known as "T"),Steven, Randy(AKA Oscar) and Cole

These boys had a blast! Steven let each one of them drive the buggy... (brave)
While the sun was shinning back at home and a toasty 90 degrees... it was windy and overcast most of the day in Florence. Steven wore shorts.. thank goodness he took a sweatshirt. He said he was shivering most of the time! He set up the sports cam and you can see them all wiping their runny noses. A few of them put hankerchiefs to block some of the wind. Unfortunately it was going right up Steves shorts. Oh did I mention he forgot his gloves too! LOL

The boys spent the night again and attended church with us on Sunday! I would have to say that Cole had one of the best parties ever! Thanks Steven for taking them! What an awesome dad!