Happy #8 Sweet Ellie!

It's hard to believe sweet Ellie is 8 already!  We had a fun evening eating the favorite birthday dinner and the amazing swimming pool birthday cake.  Thanks for letting us join the fun!  Happy birthday Ellie!  We love you!  We are looking forward to you upcoming baptism.

Family Camp 2014 - Red Cedar Lodge - Dairy Canyon

It was another great Family Camp this year with Weed and Derek hosting.  We had a turn out of 38 - missed Brynnli and Bean.  It was the perfect place for all of the new babies and Paul having had knee surgery recently.  It was comfortable, convenient and  beautiful!  Bedrooms and bathrooms aplenty, a great kitchen set up, a huge grass area and pond, and perfect weather made it just right!  Many thanks to Weed and Derek for all of their work putting it all together!  

Here's the group shot - missing Lou, Bryan, Afton and Joel unfortunately.  They somehow missed the camera call.  

 Lou and Joel

 Bryan and Afton

 JJ - our camera man

Pics of the younger set on site

We had lots of activities (besides cooking and eating great food) including a CPR class taught by Moss and rock pets by Christie, soccer games, a kids' soccer clinic by Supe and Beacher, badminton, Bocce, baseball batting, fishing, boating, taffy sculpting, a hike, a mini talent show and impromptu dance party, Nerf wars, Pobre Gatito, and from what I hear, mortuary lore by Bryan.  And we did plenty of relaxing and enjoying the cool weather and beautiful scenery.  I'm sure we all gained a few pounds from all of the great meals.  I think Eden's comment, "We should do a family camp every month: says it all!  Thanks again Smiths!  Heads up Weavers.  You are up for next years' Family Camp 2015!

Recovering

It's been a good week for Paul's knee recovery.  He is doing well and has graduated to just walking around the house unaided for the most part.  Doing the stairs and being away from home he still takes the crutches just to be safe.  He's doing well with his physical therapy exercises.  In one of them he uses a wheel chair to push against the wall until his knee will bend enough to touch the wall. It is painful and challenging, but he is getting it.  Probably the thing that is going to be the hardest for him is not pushing too hard too fast, but so far, so good!  Staples come out next week after the Family Camp!  

I have learned to give Paul a shot in the belly once a day - not a permanent thing - thank goodness!  And since we have been staying close to home, I got busy and finished a quilt project that I have wanted to do for quite a while.  I have always avoided doing a certain type of binding, but decided to take time to learn to do it.  I found a great how-to video on-line and it came out very well.  I even like it and will probably do more that way.  No hikes in this neck of the woods for a while, but I have enjoyed the time just relaxing and concentrating on getting Paul better.  Hopefully it will be a good fix and over time we will be able to get back out there.