Wesley's blog

I really should be better at posting. Maybe this winter. I just wanted to let you know we have a blog for Wes while he is on his mission. It is lifeinthemission.blogspot.com

frequency......

needs to be improved on this blog. We're doing terrible at it. So to catch up (sort of, wish I could actually get ahead on this thing, but that would be witchcraft :-), School, school, marching band for me and jacob (youtube Davis High School Marching Band Weber Review 2009). Wes got his call to the Houston East mission, he leaves Dec. 2. We went to Lagoon for the first time in years on friday, it was interesting, all the rides seemed much shorter this time. Jacob was brave enough to try some of the roller coasters, but robin, mom, and dad all got motion sick. General Conference was good, Jacob is keeping his no sugar thing, Wes is actually making bank working at subway during the day shift, I keep getting more sarcastic and senioritus-ee, Mom is.......I'll let her tell you. I still can't get over the fact that Clark's beard is gone, its weird. We applied for the HCP again, but there is some dissension over whether or not we should actually go. We got a new swamp cooler just in time for nature to skip fall and go straight to winter (we got hail in September!). Yeah, thats all I can think of right now. Maasalama.

life returns to "Normal"

Alright it has been a little over a week since we have been home and we are all back to normal (as normal gets) except Ethan who is attending Arabic camp at BYU and Robin who is at Girls Camp at Brighton, Utah. Ethan reported last night that the Arabic is starting to feel like AP Chemistry. Meaning he understands it during class time and then when he gets home to do the homework it doesn't make as much sense, but he can work through it. He also said a boy showed up Saturday who did the work crew for pageant and he has enjoyed talking with him.

Saturday was SPUDMAN! For those of you who do not know, it is a triathlon in Burley, Idaho. I can honestly say it was the funnest tri I have done. The swim is a mile in the snake river. Now this sounds hard, but it is only as hard as you want to make it. My friend and I pretty much floated the whole way. Our time was a stellar 24+ minutes. All we can say is open water swimming is NOT like swimming in a pool. The wet suit was great and I would highly reccommend it.


The Bike was 24 miles. Again, we did not give it our all here either. We took 1 hour and 31 minutes. We enjoyed the scenery (Ha Ha, remember it's Idaho) and just had a fun, shall we say, social ride. Many people passed us huffing and puffing.

The run.... It was a grulling 6.2 miles. I don't care who you are that was a hard run. Again remember Idaho, there are pretty much NO trees on the run. It was HOT. We poured water over ourselves every water stop, ran through the fire truck hose and neighbors sprinklers and were still hot. When we got done I could ring water out of my socks I was so wet. We did it in 1 hour 2 minutes. That was pretty dang good considering the temperature was probably low 90's and the fact that we did a bit of walking through all the water stops.

Our offical time was 3 hours and 7 minutes. Next year our goal will be to come in under 3 hours. Hmm.... we might need to practice that open water swim, be faster in the transitions and actually try on the bike.

I plan to sign up next year again if anyone one wants to join me. It was lots of fun. Oh yeah and you get a medal in the shape of a potato. Just what everyone needs for their collection.

Serendipitous

I've been hearing Cameron say that word all week. Guess what? He's even using it correctly! And they say that you don't learn anything from T.V.
Well, we thought that summer was here, and then it hailed on Saturday. It was only for about 15 minutes but we were still thinking "What the heck, its June!". Wes graduated on the 2nd, check out the picture(luckily we checked his robes the morning of and noticed they needed to be ironed, some of his class looked as wrinkly as some of the old fuddies on the stage).

If you've noticed by now that this isn't Laurie posting, congratulations! (it was my humbleness, wasn't it? ;-) Its actually Ethan, mom is still so absorbed by preparing to be cast team leader for HCP that she is totally neglecting the blog so I figured I'd better step up.

This week Jacob started Rookie Camp for Marching band and I started Summer Driver's Ed. Guess which of us is having fun (hint: the one whose name doesn't start with a vowel). Its interesting, my rookie year there were about 14 rookies in our section and this year there is only 4 (and one of them is really a clarinetist we stole!).

Sticking to the Jacob and I theme, we both are done with our AP tests and should get our results in the mail in about 1 to 1 1/2 months. Unfortunately, we won't be here. We'll both be at BYU for language camps, him for Chinese, and me for Arabic (well, I've been accepted but they won't tell me how to register, I'm not sure what happens now).

Robin had her 12th birthday last month and has moved to Young Womens. I think she likes it, but I haven't asked so you never know. She's also graduated from elementary school which I know she is happy about. Just wait until she starts junior high.......

Dad is still on his health thing, unfortunately he isn't losing any weight thanks to the luscious beard he insists on growing (its really just a plea for attention, no one else who works for the church can grow one so he stands out like a Zune at iworld).

Here are some more pictures of Wes, who doesn't have any other news because he's been in front of a TV since graduation.
Sorry wes, I couldn't resist. This is wes in his debut role as the cat in the hat for our ward's roadshow. Just be thankful I'm not posting my photos, I was later informed I looked like a gay unicorn (I was a munchkin).

Welcome Spring

First we had a lot of this, but the weather has finally changed for the better and we are expected to be in the 70's most of the week. It has been a long winter.


Cameron is dreading the spring and summer ( I wonder if he really could be a child of mine) because he hates bees. He has been stung more than any other kid in our family and he is the youngest.


This is Ethan ready for prom. He had a good time. Being the mom I asked him if her dress was pretty and his response was, "It was poofy." I've seen the pictures now and it was very cute.



Ethan brought home this picture after I posted yesterday and I thought I would add it. The prom was at the capital so they went to Temple Square first and took some pictures.

He can smile here because the AP tests are not looming over his head just yet. We have 6 weeks of school left. I am so excited. I am ready to sleep in and not have the kids staying up late with homework. Don't get me wrong. I am pretty sure they will still be up late, just not doing homework.

Another winters tale

So, I have found that if I don't write about myself I don't have a lot to write about. It feels like our lives are to mundane or boring. Trust me, I would rather that than what it could be. I am still struggling with the whole photo thing. A few years back Clark bought me a nice camera that is a little (a lot) to large for my purse and takes really bad pictures. So, I miss a lot of photo opportunities and then have nothing to post about or so it seems. However I will press on and post boring and no photos as it is.

This past week Ethan and I went to a luncheon at the Little America hotel in SLC for the Freedom Foundation. If you don't know what that is don't feel bad. I had no idea until Ethan told me he had an interview with them for a possible free (not really) trip to Valley Forge. Anyway, there was a luncheon to recognize the Scholarship winners and other individuals that have shown great acts of patriotism. The luncheon was tasty, but I am not sure Ethan could say the same thing. He was a good sport and tried all the food that was placed in front of him, even salad. Although I have to say the face he made while he was eating it would have been a great camera moment. For those who don't know Ethan is my white starch boy. His response to the whole meal was " The Laurals and Priest should have an etiquette night. " The 3 forks thing was a little much. After the valley forge trip Ethan will have to get down to studying for his 5 AP tests. Where did he come from?

We have been having great weather the last few days. Last week was another story with two very snowy days. Robin has been wanting to go snowboarding for several weeks now so Clark took her up on Saturday. It's to bad they didn't take sun screen. They both came back very red faced. However, the trip was a success and Robin can now snowboard quite well and she has regained the use of her limbs that were so stiff and sore the next day.

Wesley informed me there are 8 more weeks of Weber classes. He can't wait. He will still have to wait until the end of May to finish his concurrent enrollment math class before he can graduate from high school and get his associates from Weber. We currently receive more College information letters in the mail than credit card applications between Wes and Ethan. Wesley has decided to got to the University of Utah. His main reason is he can live at home and save on housing costs. The U also has a pretty good Engineering department which doesn't hurt. He is still trying to decide if he wants to go for a semester next fall or try to go on his mission when he turns 19.

Clark has been on a health kick since January 1. He hasn't had any sugar treats. I can't say the same for myself. One day last week he showed me a half eaten bag of cinnamon lips ( I had already seen it quite a bit, thanks). Fortuantely Ethan came to my defense and said he had seen the bag more than me. I should be better. I am runnning a half marathon in 7 weeks and I would really like to not be the fat runner. Of course I should have thought about that when I was ordering my cafe rio pork salad today. YUMMY!!

The good news is I made it through February which means I made it through another winter. Spring is right around the corner. The trees are starting to show signs of life and I have seen a few tulips and daffodils poking up through the dirt.

So that's our lives fun as they are.

Our lives here seem to be on automatic drive and no one is getting off (unless they are willing to jump from a speeding car). Wesley has 10 more weeks of college and can't wait for it to be over. It will be nice for me also since I worry about him driving in the bad weather.
Ethan continues to be buried in homework most nights as does Jacob (maybe even more so).
Robin has been invited to join the Young Women in the ward to make quilts. She was really excited to go until she found out Clark and Jacob were going swimming with the other scouts. I told her to get use to it.

Here are a few photos from the past few months.


Ethan and Cameron on Cameron's baptism day.


Clark and Cameron on his baptism day


Cameron was way excited to join the club scouts.


Christmas Morning. This is before the paper frenzy began.


Ethan had a birthday in there somewhere. He has his usual brownies since he hates cake.


This is Ethan and the other cousins dancing THRILLER at Nick and Sarah's wedding. It is now a family tradition after being preformed at the 3 cousin weddings and can be seen on Utube for anyone interested.

These next few pictures are of the family playing glow in the dark dodge ball after Uncle Jim's funeral. It was a great way for the kids and adults to end the day. It was way fun and the pictures don't do it justice.

Clark and Steve try to defend their side.


Angel, Jared and Nick take on the whole family and WIN!

This year I have decided to try and turn my blog into a printable family journal. This means less of me and more of the family, hopefully. The problem with journals is I get behind and before I know it I can never catch up. I am hopeful this is not the case. I had great intentions of writing earlier this month, but was side track by the death of my brother, Jim. So, in his memory he will be the first entry for the 2009 blog.

Here are some of the families thoughts about Jim.

Jim taught us that education was important. He loved to read and talk about the books we were reading. When he was young he loved to play Tarzan and act out the books he had read. He LOVED movies. Anything to do with movies. He was well loved by his ward members. He had a strong testimony of the Gospel. He taught us family is important. He knew how to keep family.

James Christain Lundstrom
1949-2009


All of us together, Laurie, David, Joel, Jon, Robert, Sally, Holly and Jim.