Martin's Cove

In July our stake had a youth conference at Martin's Cove in Wyoming. This was mine and Ted's third trip to the cove. The first time I was serving as our ward Young Women president and we were an Aunt & Uncle. The second trip we were called to be a Ma & Pa, and this time we were on the stake planning committee. I worked with the youth committee as well as directing a youth choir. I loved working with the choir as well as the committee. We have some amazing kids in our stake. Ted worked with the quartermaster committee with the special assignment of garbage collection. The bags of trash were loaded into his trailer and when we got home we took it to the landfill. Everyone that was involved with the planning did such a great job. It went really smoothly and the Spirit was so strong! Ted and I were an Aunt & Uncle again and had an awesome family. Each time I have an opportunity to focus on the pioneers I am so awed by their committment and strength. Their challenges were different than ours, but both of us have to be strong and dedicated. I know that when I apply myself to trying to be the best I can, I am so blessed! Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to go back again someday!

Bear Lake Family Reunion

It's hard to believe that it's already fall! It seems like only yesterday that we were busy planning our family vacation to Hawaii, our stake pioneer trek to Martin's Cove and the Abrams Family Reunion at Bear Lake We had 125 family members there from the Abrams side and not everyone was there!! I've posted a few pictures from the day at the lake. We had an awesome time. All in all, it was a great summer! I'm so glad I have time off from work in the summer. I love having a chance to relax and just do different things.

Aloha!!

June 8-15 we celebrated our first everyone together family vacation since Ty left on his mission in January 2002. We planned right then that we would return to Hawaii after Robbie returned from his mission. That happened in November and June was the day we were all out of school and could get away. I found a home online to rent and very early Monday the 8th we drove to Salt Lake City International for our 7 am flight. We arrived in Lihue, Kauai just after 2 pm, bought groceries and headed to Princeville and our week long vacation. It was everything I had hoped it would be and more! Kauai is gorgeous and Princeville was a perfect landing spot. Our home was large and beautifully furnished both inside as well as the garage. The garage was stocked with 4 full size bikes for exploring the neighborhood, 4 boogie boards to share for wave riding, 3 surf boards for the high adventure guys, 7 beach chairs for the relaxing on the beach types, 8 snorkel sets to see the underwater world and several sand mats. It even had a resident gecko which happily stayed in the garage. I later learned that his job is to eat the bugs. We crammed more activity into 7 days than I could have imagined possible. We snorkeled, scuba dived, boogie boarded, jumped off rocks, saw waterfalls, went to church, hiked and spent lots and lots of time exploring the island and relaxing at home and at the beach. My job was to photograph the high adventure activities and keep everyone fed. I had forgotten how much my family can eat when they are all together! Especially when they are running around having fun and burning calories! We all slept really well in the tropical, sea level climate. I think we were just exhausted when we finally stopped for the night. It was a great trip! I really enjoyed being together will all the boys and Amanda as well as Grandma Abrams and Leland. Everyone was so easy to be around and explore with. I don't know when we'll be able to accomplish somehting like this again so I'm grateful for the hundreds of pictures we took and the great memories they invoke! I've posted just a few of my favorite pictures here to give you a taste of what we did. Mahalo!!

The robins have hatched!

Since my last post the birds have hatched and are almost grown up! As you can see the first pictures were pretty scary looking, but since then the little fuzz balls have turned into cute little birds. I've had a hard time getting any pictures lately because mama robin did not appreciate my intrusions!! The last picture is one I took today of one of the babies sitting in the nest and it's amazing how much she looks just like the first one I took when the mom was sitting on the eggs! I guess that shouldn't surprise me, but it's just happened so fast. It's been so much fun to watch!

Spring Has Arrived!

Earlier this spring a robin decided to build her nest directly over my front door. Since I knew this would be a huge mess, I knocked it down. Being a dedicate and persistant mother, she began again. I knocked it down. This continued for a few days then Amanda told me she heard if you move the wreath from the door into a tree it will lure them away. I tried it but it didn't seem to work as the nest building continued. Finally, she gave up and we cleaned up the muddy twiggy mess! Well on Saturday when we were working in the yard, a robin flew out of the pine tree in the front yard. I wondered what she was doing there and went to have a closer look. Low and behold, it had worked after all!! She had built her little nest right in the center of the tree and is currently sitting on 4 pretty robin blue eggs! I'm looking forward to seeing the babies hatch and grow up. I'm being careful not to disturb her too much but wanted to share a few pictures I was able to take. I think this means that spring is finally here!!!

Congrats Ty!

Well yesterday Tyler accomplished a first for our family. He graduated from college! We are so proud of him and his focus and determination. He began his college journey during high school taking concurrent enrollment and AP classes, continued it online while serving with the Idaho National Guard in Iraq and completed it on campus after returning from his military service. He was so blessed to have the love and support of his amazing wife Amanda. Having a tendency to be a bit ADD I continue to be amazed at his ability to stay focused on a goal and see it completely through. On Thursday he accepted a teaching position at Roy Junior High School. He will be teaching 7th and 8th grade English and I know he'll love it. I have loved working in at a middle grades school. These kids have so much potential and are just discovering who they are. It's a great experience to be a part of that. I know he plans to continue his education, but for now we just want to say congratulations and thanks for setting a great example and working hard to accomplish your goal!