Summer Fun!

I've been trying to spend any available time with my family so we got together twice this week!

These are the favorite cousins M&E with CJ. M is only a month younger than CJ but has always been tiny and CJ has always been big!

At birth CJ was 24" long and 10 lb 9 oz and M was 18" 5 lb 15 oz
They have always been close although opposites in almost every way.

We went to a park that had a splash pad and let the "little" kids play.

I think 5'10" CJ enjoyed it more than any.

HEY! How did this get in here? That's not mine. That is Daren's new toy that he has saved for for years. He found it for sale in Las Vegas
and flew down Thursday, bought it and drove it home.

Now here is Rad!
He is the funniest kid on the planet.

My sister S and her Youngest daughter El

I love hanging out with my sisters but one has self esteem issues. If she's not dolled up for pictures she would rather make ugly faces so here are my sisters, J and S at the park.

These cousins are also close they are J and S daughters.

After an afternoon of boating and swimming the girls were happy to sit in the shade

and just eat and play. This is K, E and M.

We celebrated Rad's fourth birthday at the lake and we had spiderman cupcakes

This is J's husband and baby. He is the most hands on Dad.

After working long long days he still spent all day playing with kids

near the water and taking care of baby E.

(I managed to get in some baby time myself)

My guys, D and B were there but D was driving the boat all day so we all

could ski and tube and play. He was tired when we left but went all day.

He is the greatest!

B had a few good runs on the wake board and CJ is getting good too!

Lots of fun in the sun and no bad sunburns! A really good day!

Beal Family

July 3 was my family reunion.The reunion was for extended family but we started with family pictures of just my parents family. This is Mom and Dad with all 7 kids.

The next one is all the grandkids. Our L was working on the river Shirleys J is a newlywed and had to work and nephew M is serving a mission in Japan. All others present including one great grand child.
Here is the big group

Here is just our family group without L of course.

This is my nephew Logan, he's so quiet but freakin' smart. He got a 34 on his ACT. Can any of you say that? Unfortunately if you waste your time reading this you probably didn't. He doesn't say much but when he talks it's worth listening to. He has a great sense of humor.

OK so this genius boy didn't find plans to build a water balloon/candy cannon on the internet he came up with his own with the help of his "genius" friend, he says.The kids had a blast running for candy that was shot 50 feet in the air.

The funniest thing was the volley ball game going on the other direction. They decided to shoot candy right into the game and the adults all scrambled in the sand for the candy. It was great!

Awwwwww My little sister has the sweetest kids. This is the youngest grandchild of my parents and there is no shortage of attention. My brother loves babies and this one was never neglected. He held her most of the weekend. Precious!

I have the coolest brothers. The younger one has an unusual hobby. He makes ropes. Yeah, really, ropes. He made his own rope making machine and brings it to family gatherings. It always draws a crowd and most of the kids leave with their own custom made rope. They even choose the colors. Here is my Mom and nephew, L on the controlling end.

Now here is little R on the crank. Sooo Cute!

To top it off one cousin brought horses and the kids and adults went on little rides. We had huge meals and everyone wore color coded shirts. Blue for my Dads family. I feel bad that I didn't get more of the extended family members. It was interesting to see these cousins after not being a regular reunion attender. I enjoy getting together with my siblings and their families so much that we spend most of our time with each other. Since we are spread over 4 states we don't get together all that often.

My creative (nerdy) brothers even came up with a code to figure out who each of us was. The first number designates which family you came from. There were 10 children all together and My Dad is number 10 so his number was 10 and Mom is 10.s (s for spouse) They had 7 children so being the third child I became 10.3. I have 5 children so they became 10.3.1 & 10.3.2 etc. It was fun to see who could figure out the code and who adopted it. It's kind of a "cerebrial" (brainy) thing to do.

Great reunion! Great family!

More Beal Family

This is a picture of my niece L who is a lot like my daughter L who loves being outside, dirty and playing with critters. She took to this snake with no hesitation. She's da woman!
The guys were all very patient while waiting for pictures to happen at the womens request, of course. They had a good time and didn't go hungry so all was well.
R made a lovely cake for her grandparents second celebration of their 50th anniversary. She helped me with Friday night deli sandwiches and was fun to hang out with. It's fun to see her interact with her cousins now that they are adults and to get to know their spouses. She sure loves her Dad too!

My sister Ronda and her husband Dan were here from Southern California with all their kids (4) and each with a "significant other" (a child is significant too). Fun to see all of them!
The Freedom run began right at our campground and my brother has run this before so he signed up and beat his goal time. Way to go! This is him at the beginning of the race. 9.3 miles.

These are my two boys who ended up getting matching shirts without knowing it. My sister said we all looked like oatmeal. My shirt was about the same color. We looked good. These boys are 7 years apart and the younger one overtook the older one this past year. This is actually their height difference. I love these boys!

Maiden Voyage!

We put the canoe in the water!

We went to Mantua and rowed around for a little while.

B and D tried it first and found out you can't stand in it.

It's not stable like a motor boat.

Of course, having been on many scout camps, they knew that

but I didn't quite grasp that until I got in and felt the wobble. It's water-tight and fast but the stability issue worries me.

I wasn't holding the camera when I was in the canoe so there are no shots of me actually

rowing but I felt the burn in my tricepts so I know I was there.

All-in-all a fun day topped off by a trip to the mall for:

Now I can clean with style!

Homecoming!

He's home and he spoke on Sunday. We had lots of family to greet him.

I didn't get pictures of the grandparents. I really should have

There were kids having fun and playing all over.

Cousins from both sides of the family got together to visit.

The greatest thing is the bond these returned missionaries have with each other.

So many of them came to hear B speak. They were in the living room but when they got their plates they went outside but there wasn't seating out there so they found the stack of lumber against the garage and lined up. My sister-in-law the super photographer came running in and told me to grab the camera. She said this is the cutest thing ever:

We're glad to have him home and glad to have his friends around.

A couple of weeks ago a bunch of these guys were at our house and I commented to D that there wasn't a greater group of 21 year olds. Most kids of this age are causing trouble. These guys compare mission experiences and use thier foreign language skill with each other.

FLORIDA!!! can I stay forever?

This is a bunch of pictures we took in Florida. Daren had a conference there and we stayed at a Disney resort called Shades of Green.

We drove out to Daytona Beach. It was beautiful and you drive right out onto the sand and don't get stuck!
We frolicked about in the Atlantic Ocean. (a first for both of us)

Daren had goals on this trip. One was to see a gator in the wild.

Success!
(do you see him?)

We went on a super cool zip-line in the Everglade forest.

It had 7 zip lengths and 2 plank bridges.

We were with a group of 8 people so we got to know some interesting people and had a great time. The temperature was in the mid 90's and super humid. Great!

There were so many different animals all around.

We were so lucky to be near a temple and we are such temple tourists. On the second day we went with another couple from here to the Orlando temple.

That makes 24 different temples for me and 28 for Daren!

Shades of green is a golf resort and our third story room looked out over the tee off of the first hole.

We managed to get a little footage at the zipline!

Definately a successful conference about aircraft maintenace! hehe

Missionary Home!

Yes he's home!!!Elder B got home May 29 to this:
and this:

and this and more.

He felt rather lost, confused and overwhelmed the first day. The second day he got up and ran for a while. He's adjusting to the lack of structure, companions and oxygen in these mountains.
I did R's hair while everyone else went shopping for things needed after 2 years.
It was R's birthday so we went to Firehouse Pizza!

L and her bro's.

While waiting for our table everyone had to show off their new sandals brought back by L.

Check out her tan after just 3 weeks. We wont recognize her by the end of summer.

It was a fun weekend!

Since then he has been to the eye doctor, dentist and is supposed to get a TB test.