Elsie Turns 6

On Friday (July 5) afternoon, we headed south and made our first quick stop at G-ma and G-pa P's new place.  After getting new cel phones (Hilary, G-ma and I), our family continued travelling to Bonnie & Bryant's house where we gathered with Jared & Stephanie's family (on the Mainland for a few weeks), Erica & Jordan, Bob & Janene for dinner.

Tanner, Heather, Breanna (recent HS graduate)

Bonnie & Stephanie

 Though Bonnie has taken a few years off from teaching preschool since having baby Bennett, the kids put this classroom to good use.

 Brinley - the teacher.

 Isaac & Elsie - July birthdays

 Lillian & Anna - just monkeyin' around!

 Jared & Aaron

 Cousins

Breanna, Tanner, Jameson

 The older cousins decided it would be great fun to raid the coin jar and go get treats.  Who's idea was it?

 Saturday morning this birthday girl joined her Dad for breakfast at IHOP.

 And swimming at G-ma & G-pa's pool.

 Wow - I finally have a "poser"?

 After G-ma & G-pa arrived (they are currently living in two homes - yes, it gets confusing), we had dinner and officially celebrated Elsie's birthday.

 Happy 6th Birthday Elsie!

 We love you - and all of your spunk!

 She especially loved the princess nightgown from G-ma & G-pa P and the doll bed from Mom and Dad.

 Later that evening, G-ma & G-pa took the four oldest cousins (Tanner, Brinley, Britton, Jantzen) to Glenn Beck's "Man in the Moon" event.  It was quite the evening and they arrived home after midnight. We arranged beds on the floor (tight quarters) for the seven kids and fortunately, they were so tired everyone went right to sleep.

Sunday morning G-ma & G-pa caught a plane to Alaska and the rest of us were homeward bound.  A few stops along the way to return Britton to Hilary and attend a random sacrament meeting before continuing our journey.  We made plans to stop by the place of our upcoming M reunion to finalize a few details when we discovered my new cel phone was missing.  Oh boy.  And oh no!  Let's just say nobody was shouting for joy when we had to turn the car around and drive an additional 2 1/2 hours - all in hopes of finding the phone.  

There was no guarantee that the phone would be found at the church but providence smiled upon us.  The kids had taken a program from the meeting and I noticed a few phone numbers and started calling.  I left messages.  When we were within 30 minutes of the church, a "good samaritan" picked up my message and offered to drive back over to church and look around.  Later, he called with good news and even offered to meet us at the exit just off the freeway.  Hallelujah!  It was certainly a long fast Sunday but we finally made it home.  Grateful to have the phone back, grateful to that nice man, grateful to get out of the car and grateful to eat dinner.