AEGD Graduation

Yesterday was Denver's graduation from the AEGD residency program. He was at Scott Airforce Base and the residency was a 365 day program. He's done! It was a tough year, but he did it! Way to go! Here is the cake.All the residents waiting for the graduation to begin. I made the end of the year video which they were watching in this picture.

Denver getting his certificate from Colonel Sterling. Colonel Sterling is the head of the med group on base, I believe.

The 6 residents are: Tatiana Hoyos, Mike Jones, Mark Leedy, Kathryn Marks, Denver Palmer, and Scott Shumway. 3 of the residents are LDS which was cool.

Denver was chief resident this month and last so it was his responsibility to present the check to Colonel Sterling of the donation the residents made.

Each of the families/spouses were called up and recognized and given a certificate. Sterling wouldn't face forward.

Denver and his assistant, airman Champion.

There was a lot of saluting going on throughout the whole ceremony.

We snapped a family picture on our way out.

At home: My certificate for supporting my husband. A very nice gesture for the spouses of residents.

Denver's graduation papers and certificates of training.

YAY! He's done with school...for now. In the next week we'll be getting our stuff packed, shipped, put in storage and then heading out! Exciting times.

Goodbye Scott Airforce Base O'fallon, IL. Hello Lajes Air Base Terceira, Azores, Portugal!

Girls Camp

About 2 months before girls camp, I got called as the camp director. It was a ward camp, not stake level so I was in charge of EVERYTHING! The YW helped plan and carryout the food and lots of parts of camp. We had 7 YCL's and 13 beehives, most of which were 1st years. It was a fun, hot, humid, hilarious, spirit-filled girls camp.





We all did skits-this is the leader's skits. We laughed so hard when practicing, I was almost in tears. Our camp theme was pirates-we seek after these things-CTRRRRRR. I was the pirates Laman and Lemuel (also rappers). Like our pirate pants?

We had a Miss Sea Hag contest. Here are our sea hags. Beautiful, aren't they?

The hike-we are 'following' our treasure map.

At the top of the hike.

The rivers meet. I'm not sure if I'm correct, but the Missouri and Mississippi come together and mayber another? somewhere.

A life-sized chess set. That would be fun to play!

The YCL's and myself did another skit. It was fun to put together. I LOVE these girls!

We all had pirate names, mine was Walker D. Plank -they were on the backs of our camp shirts.

We had a bunch of awesome girls. Usually at camp there is fighting and stuff, but we had none of that. The girls were all great! It was a fun 4 days!

This was the 4th girls camp I went to in the last 5 years. I didn't go last summer because i was moving and even though I'm moving again this summer, camp was before the move.

Summer 2011

This summer has been hot, hot, hot, fun, fun, fun, busy, busy, busy and crazy, crazy, crazy! The kids and I left Illinois and drove to Utah for my family's reunion. Denver couldn't take any time off because of his residency. The kids travelled AWESOME! They just went crazy when we would get out of the car to use the restroom or get a hotel. They finally felt freedom and went crazy at those times, but when they were strapped into their car seats and seat belts, they were perfect. I was amazed and very lucky :)

At the reunion the kids and their cousins played in this water reservoir.

Colson was DIRTY! (and very happy)

Sterling loved the water and sand. Here he is holding a cup of water with tadpoles he found in the nearby marsh area.

Garrett and more tadpoles.

I did a poor job taking pictures. I was more concerned with visiting with my family then taking pictures and I was alone with 4 kids, camping in a tent so taking pictures was last on my mind. Although I wish I had.

We drove to Erin and Jason's house after the reunion to spend a few days there.

This is Mexican Hat.

A beautiful view on the drive. Thanks Maddy for taking these awesome

We went to Little America in Flagstaff to get awesome, inexpensive ice cream cones.

I finally got to meet Erin's Emma. She's a cutie!

After Erin's we headed to my parents to spend some time there. Again, no pictures :(.

Denver flew in for the 4 day weekend and we headed to Heber for his family's reunion.
At the parade. Here is his uncle.

We took family pictures there

The whole group

Saturday, in the middle of the night Sterling threw up and we knew we had to start our drive home the next day so Denver could back to work/school in time. We drove 21 straight hours (all day Sunday and all night Sunday into Monday) and arrived in Illinois around 8am. We were exhausted, but didn't want to deal with a sick kid for 2 days so we made it quick.

A fun summer trip!