No Good Deed....

You know the saying NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED? Well today I am living proof. Last night at Target I heard a page for anyone who had jumper cables to come to the front of the store. Well, I have jumper cables so off I went. A woman needed help with her car and I was the only one who responded to the page so out to the parking lot we went. I got the cables on and all was well when Brad called to see where I'd gone (he was inside with all the kids in the toy section when I went upfront) I finished the call and one of the clamps wiggled loose and started to spark so I quickly put my phone down on the TIRE. Yes, the tire, I put my NAVY BLUE phone on the tire of my Yukon XL in a dark parking lot. Needless to say I didn't remember where I had put it until I had moved my car after my new friend had her car up and running again. Sweet! So this is what my 2 month old Centro looks like after my Yukon ran it over. Sweet right?

Luckily I am smart enough to have insurance for my phone so I will be up and running again on Monday but a whole weekend without my phone?! How will I survive?!!!

In pieces!

Smash-a-roo

Powered Up--great graphics on the screen!

1st Day of School Pictures

Here are my cutie pies on their first day of school. We are already 3 weeks in if you can believe it! I also had a birthday on the 11th of August but the pictures were so fuzzy and bad that I can't share them with you! You'll thank me later. :>

Crazy faces

with Book Bags

Grif at desk

Mary by door

Helen by door

School Begins!

Well, school is back in here in the desert. We had a great time at the open house to meet the kids teachers. The girls are pros but I am a little nervous about Griffin. Kindergarten will be quite the change for him. We will see how the first week goes. The girls both knew lots of kids in their classes so they were excited to see their friends today but I didn't recognize any names in Griffin's classroom so he will have to make new friends! His teacher seems like she will be great. She was recommended by the principal as a teacher who can handle very active boys (his wife was Griffin's pre-school teacher.) So it is just me and Lewy here at home for the next 4 years. Poor kid is gonna be a mommas boy! My plan is to get back into scrapbooking by cleaning off the mess on the desk and being productive while he is napping. He takes 3 hour naps so I should be able to get it something done with that amount of time. Here are the kids with their teachers feel free to try and pronounce their names! :>

Griff & Mrs. Levandowski

Helen and Mrs. Vick

Mary and Mrs. Szaszfai

Lake Powell

Lake Powell was a blast. We were there with almost perfect weather. It clouded up a couple of times but we didn't get any rain. We had fun with the sea doo's, tube, and just jumping off the houseboat. We climbed Sand Mountain, one of Brad's old favorites from when he was a boy. He and Griffin had lots of fun rolling down. Aleksia did cartwheels down and Malcolm, Cedric & my girls ran down as fast as they could. I was happy to sit in the boat (I hate getting all sandy) The girls wish we could stay forever but Grammy and Pap only let them stay a week. :>


Helen and Amie on tube

Anika, Malcolm & Griffin on tube

Griffin sleeping on boat

Brad and Griffin in blue shirts--way up on top

Mary, Leksi, Malcolm & Helen reach the bottom

Evans Reunion Photo

Here is the whole family at the Evans Reunion with our matching shirts designed by Malcolm Freer! Sweet!

Utah

We started the Utah part of our trek in Orem with Auntie Paula and her family. We went to see Wall-e and swam in her pool. And we swam in the pool and swam in the pool. We love Auntie Paula's pool. It was lots of fun.

After 3 days at Paula's we went to visit Matt & Molly and had loads of fun there. Kung Fu Panda was at the Drive In and we had our drive in burgers, loads of popcorn and watched one funny show. Skadooosh! Matt & Molly have a great back yard and deck and we played outside as much as possible since we knew that wouldn't be an option at home. We also went to their nephew's Eagle Scout ceremony. It was a great time.

After 3 days with Matt & Molly--and strangely not a single picture?--we headed to St. George where we met up with DADDY! Yes after 2 weeks without him we were so happy to see him.

The Cruz family & Perry family were there along with Grandma & Grandpa Jenkins and Aunt Denise. It was fun for us to see everyone. We had lots of fun and went to a water park to play and then came home and swam in Grandma & Grandpa's pool. Aunt Denise has all those pictures but lets just say it was super fun and Lewis is one crazy pool guy. He worships the pool. He can hardly wait to get in and you have to watch him like a hawk! He just got out and jumped in to Daddy all day long. The girls--Helen, Mary, Julia & Megan set up a nail salon and painted everyone's nails.

Helen, Mary and I left Daddy, Griffin and Lewis in good hands in St. George and we headed back to Auntie Paula's for our 4th of July fun!! We had tickets to Stadium of Fire featuring Blue Man Group and........Miley Cyrus. Yes you heard right....it was Hannah Montana. Talk about your screaming girls. It was ear piercing in the stadium. I rather enjoyed the Blue Man Group but I think Uncle Boyd, Kurt, John and Emily really were neck in neck with the girls for their excitement for Miley's performance!

Uncle Boyd, Helen, Auntie Paula & Mary

Auntie Paula holding Naomi who loved Under Dog!

First we went to the Freedom Day's Parade and had Grandstand seats. It was really a great parade and we were happy to be sitting in our comfy seats. How many parades have the missionaries in them? Let alone get a standing ovation when they pass? Utah rocks!! Then the girls and I went over to the Freedom Days Festival with lots of crafts and flea market stuff and a free kids area with crafts for kids, free hair-do's, a reptile show, bouncy houses and even rock climbing.

Emily & Mary and not a lizard a skink maybe? Can't remember!

Stadium of Fire hair-do's

We left Freedom Days, went home, had crepes for dinner (thanks Auntie Paula!) and then were off to the main event....Stadium of Fire! It was fantastic. Glenn Beck was the MC, there were 1300 girls performing an Olympic dance which featured every event for the summer Olympics, parachuter's, a fly by from the Air Force and great performers. The fireworks at the end were spectacular and we couldn't have had much more fun!

Watching parachuters

6 Parachuters 1 for each branch of military and on for missing soilders

National Anthem & Pledge of Allegiance

Mommy & her girls

Emily, Helen & Jon--fuzzy sorry!

Uncle Boyd, Mary & Kurt

Stage--Blue Man Group on

Stage--Miley on

Fireworks

We sure packed in the fun on the 4th! The next day we had lunch with friends from PG, Linda Nelson and Jancie Riggs at Mimi's Cafe and sailed back to St. George. Sunday we left St. George for Lake Powell where we had loads of fun.

Idaho

Its been a fun 5 weeks and I'll start with Idaho. The 1st ever official Evans Family Reunion. We had all of my family there and most of Aunt Sandra's family there. My cousin Bruce's kids especially loved the t-shirts that said "Where the Hell is Featherville" ain't that the truth!

Sign by front door on Big Cabin

Big Cabin-- Grandad's cabin to right ->

Grandad's Cabin--Old Cabin

We went to the Church of the Wildwood on Sunday—Father’s Day. With our group of 26 we almost filled the entire church. My mom’s friend Jo Black was the preacher for the day and she gave a great sermon.

Church of the Wildwood

Monday thru Thursday was filled with all the fun activities associated with summer fun in Featherville, Idaho. . . . Swimming in the hot springs at Johnsons Bridge, tubing the river which started with the 3 big boys in tubes, Michael in a raft with the other kids and Sheri and Christy in kayaks and ended with 1 tube and extra kids in the raft. The 45 minute trip took almost 2 hours with the unexpected delays! :> Crafts galore with the kids,

Caley, Reese & Sandra finishing crafts--painted gourds

sandbox fun,

Griffin (5) & Anika (4)

basketball, rafting the Payette river in Banks Idaho, hiking, biking, golfing—yes, Featherville has a 9 hole golf course—and playing in the river.

Helen, Lewis, Cedric, Griffin, Aleksia & Willow at Johnsons bridge--warm water coming out of tube

Making swimming holes at Johnsons Bridge

Uncle Vern, Aunt Sandra, Reese & Caley at Johnson's Bridge

Amie & Brax Lewis & Helen

Lew looking at river

Pap & Lew cleaning decks

Lewis loved basketball, he found a helper—Matt, Bruce’s 11 year old son, and would get a ball and go to Matt and say “ball, ball” he would then turn around and back up until Matt picked him up and he was able to throw the ball in the hoop. It was hilarious! I think Matt’s arms were about to fall off but he just kept going because Lewis was enjoying it so much. Thanks Matt!!!

After everyone left the kids and I stayed a few extra days. We went into Boise one day to visit Jan Schiller Carley and her mom Rae Schiller. The kids swam in her pool and we had hamburgers for dinner. It was great to visit with them since it’s been forever since I have seen them.

Jan, Kathy, Rae & Griffin at Jan's house

We had such a great time in Idaho it was hard to leave but we knew that only 16 days of our vacation was over and we had 3 weeks of fun times left. Next we were off to Utah!