Easter 2009

Easter this year was so fun! We had such a great time together. All of us were here except for Naughty Nerni and Renee'. (We missed you guys!)

We did some shooting skeet as well as hoops, The Ropin' Kings showed some tricks and some of the older folks, (Robert!) tried to keep up. It was wonderful just being together.

Tana's baby shower was lots of fun (a little crazy dirty dancing from some of the cousins ;). Baby Omar's blessing was very nice and Levi did a great job.

Thanks for coming to Utah everbody! See... it's not that bad after all. We have a great family! Let's do this more often!

Sheri's Grandkids!

A Few Pics from State B-Ball...Yes that is Coby and his "Jersey" :)

Can't believe how big and fun my kids are. I wish we all lived closer and could support eachother more.

Just a real quick note...

Cache got into the Honor Society at school

Carl had a great Birthday and was 1 of 2 girls with 4.0 for B-Ball

Carson went to Idaho Falls and did Baptisms and is Capt. for BBall

Cobers made it to state wrestling in Belgrade next weekend, and has Fifth's diesease. (Nothing to alarming...its a form of chicken pox and the whole school has it) But it is a rash that is all over his whole body and I mean whole body :)

Race got a haircut and Shelly did lots of laundry (o.k. so we are not near as exciting)

It is snowing and blowing here and we have about 12 inches and counting... BRRRRR

Good News we are about 2 months from finishing our addition on the house. We will have an additional 1600 sq feet so lots of room for guests, (HINT, HINT).

LOT OF LOVE TO ALL - LOVE THOSE PICS - KEEP THEM COMING

McKay, Stacie and Lincoln in Zion's for Spring Break

Hi guys I had a few minutes so I thought I would write a couple of things about us and our trip to Zion's National Park. So we left on Wednesday morning and headed for Zion, we made it to Tana's house in the afternoon and were able to see baby Omar. We also let Lincoln out to run around for a little bit. Tana made a great dinner that I managed to help myself on. Stacie and Tana were able to discuss some of the tricks and tips to child or infant care.

We then headed for Cedar City were we stayed with Stacie's Aunt. Uncle Larry and I had a great discussion on steam turbines and the physics of such things. He served in the engine room on a naval ship when he was younger. Anyways enough about that.

We went to Zion on Thursday morning and were determined to see a fair amount of the park and if nothing else create some good sore spots. This is hidden canyon which was our first stop. We then went on up to observation point. Along the way we found a really neat little slot type canyon.

So we made it up to the top with little man, we have a nice shade that goes on top of the backpack for him so he took a nap. He was happy to get out when we made it to the top, we were not going to give him much room to roam since the point is about 2000 feet above the valley floor.

This is about an eight mile round hike to observation point with about 23oo feet elevation gain, but the vista is well worth it.

Not a bad view from up here!









We are proud of this picture of little man.









So we made it back to the bottom of the mountain so Stacie and Lincoln could play. I hadn't had enough punishment so I took a quick trip up to Angel's Landing and back. We then drove through the tunnel at the park, Lincoln wasn't sure what to think!

On Friday we went to Kolob the northern part of Zion's and hiked a couple of other neat trails. Lincoln was amazed with the double arching alcove.












We then finished the week on Saturday at the Saint George temple where Stacie's cousin works. It was a great week for weather as it was in the mid 70s all three days. We drove back on I-70 through country we have never seen.

We are all doing well and enjoying life here in Laramie. Congratulations to uncle Sterling on the new job, will you have to sharpen your sql query skills? Or do they have someone else to generate those reports? We will look forward to hearing your job description and what you will be doing?

Good job to the beavers as well! Take care everyone and see you in a couple of weeks.
Stacie, Lincoln and McKay

Some of Dad's thoughts to live by!

I was thinking that Dad is missing out on so much so I thought we should include him in our blog! These are a few of his "ponderisms" but e-mail me with the ones I've forgotten!

The "Cars" movie alive and well at our house!

Good thing we have lots of parking at our house... Jake got his "first ride" the other day. A $700 truck Robert got from a friend. It has one window handle and no knobs... but, HEY! THE RADIO WORKS! Jake loves is and his friends named it "MATER". (Only his friend, Emily could name it!) And, Mr. Poo Poo Head loves the "Road Trips"!
Jessi was so jealous of Mater that she went out for an oil change and came back with "Sally", (gulp, yikes and "Holy Crap, can your kids buy cars without you?") Anyway, we named it "Sally" 'cuz that's the cute Porsche on "Cars". It really is a good deal and I don't worry about her as much.
So now let's talk about the discussion Kaycer Noodle Nose had... she thinks she should get "Lightning McQueen". I've been trying to explain that the UTA bus is alot like Lightning... just more people get to ride at the same time! Yeah, no, she's not buying it.
Anyway, the kids are learning the price of cars, gas and (OMG)....INSURANCE ON A TEENAGE BOY EVEN ON A BONGO SLED IS CRAZY TALK!!! Funny too, how if your grades or your driving record sucks your insurance rates go up. Kind of eats that $7 an hour money up in a big hurry. I'm hoping that "Get a college education or get used to Mater" lecture is starting to pay off!
Actually, it's really cool that the kids are excited about growing up and getting first cars and stuff. It seems like last week Sterling was painting that brown mustang, Sheri had to hand me the keys to the "Toyota Corolla Deluxe" and Weed was putting miles on my mustang!

Love you guys! Sooooo excited to have you all here!

Dillon Beavers are STATE CHAMPS !!

Howdy everybody! First things first... We love and miss you all and can't wait to meet baby "O". Sterling and Renee were here today and Sterling fixed my internet so it works better and Renee went home with my Subaru. Yes we bought a "Tree Hugger" car but, the very first time we tried to put Cache, Carson, and Race in it at the same time we knew it wouldn't last long. Sterling mentioned that they were looking for a new "Subey" and I said, "have I got a deal for you". Anyway we are now looking for another, BIGGER vehicle.

We got home from Great Falls this morning at 2:00 A.M. - Yuck! Cache was on the varsity basketball team and they won state it was great fun to be there! Cache didn't play but he was definately the cutest bench/towel boy there :)
Carl and Cache are loving High School and all that it has to offer. They love their sports and choir seems to be hit. Luckily they got their dads singing voice and not mine.

Carl had a great B-Ball season too! The Freshman team was painful because of the inexperience of the other girls but she only had to play one quarter. She usually played all four quarters of JV and just needs to shoot the ball more!

Track is starting soon she loves the 400 and the 800 she inherited running from someone other than Race and I.

Carson was the quarterback of his football team, and the post for his basketball team ...they went undefeated for both!Carson saved his Christmas money and his B-Day money and bought a 17 HMR gun (not pictured). He is totally stoked. He wants to throw for track but we are trying to talk him out of it and start earning money for all the camps he wants to go to this summer.

Coby decided to wrestle this year.. and he loves it. He has pinned two different kids and was the winner at one wrestling tournament in his bracket. I think that I am saying this right, (Brandon let me know) Coby also played football and b-ball and we are using sports to keep his school work in check. Ya know the old trick if your grades aren't doing well you will be benched by your parents!!

Well all is good at the King household and things will hopefully start slowing down now.. hope to blog/facebook more now. Thanks Code for getting us all back in touch. Love to all of you - Shelly and Kids

Happy Birthday Baby Omar Thomas Antoine!

Congratulations Levi and Tana! Baby Omar Thomas Antoine decided to have his birthday on March 1st at 12:29 p.m. He weighed 8 lbs 4 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long.

Tana did a great job of pushing for 2 and a half hours and Sheri and Jenny did a grat job of holding her legs while she did it. Mikey was able to get there two pushes before he was born. Auntie Codi got to be there as well (that was alot of fun but hard not to jump in and be the delivery nurse!)

Baby O is THE cutest baby in the whole nursery (as Levi says, "Duh! He's and Antoine!")

Robert and Codi being "Young and Spontaneous" (OK, I was knitting and Robert was reading about Prostate Health on the Plane, but hey, we did it!)

So, we were lying in bed last Friday morning and thought we should get away from the world for the weekend... Robert mentioned he had a bunch of sky miles from work that were going to expire if we didn't use them soon so I called the redemption center to see where we could go (thinking St. George or Park City) she mentioned the word "Cruise" and 18 hours and some random clothes later we told the kids to feed the dog and reminded them of the fact that life as they know it would cease to exist if they had any parties... and we were in the airport on the way to the Southern Carribean! (Wow! that was a really long grammatically incorrect sentence, but if Sterling can use the word, "muckity", I can use really long drawn out sentences.)

We had a great time and just jumped on a public transit bus in whatever port we were in and for $2.60 we were at a great beach. One beach, though, ended up being nude and I'm pretty sure it was a geriatric nude beach. I'm still in therapy for some of what we saw. Nude guys aren't that great anyway, but 80 years and nude is VERY disturbing. (Maybe not as disturbing as Sterling slapping a buffalo.... eeewwwww)

We talked about having a trip for all of us and you just can't beat a cruise. Everything is paid for and you have a great room and entertainment... anyway, we'd love to do that as a family. Just give me some time to get in shape so I don't have to look for words like "minimizing" in a swim suit.

The kids are doing great... Jessi was made a head lead at Cabela's and is going to West Yellowstone this weekend snowmobiling with some outfitters she met. She's helping them with their guests as payment for the trip. She isn't dating loser boy anymore (I mean, that guy I wasn't super fond of) and she's looking for some roomates so she can move out and do some fun things without a curfew. (I'm a mean mom!)

Noodle is doing good and still "dating" Chris. They still play video games and Candyland on their "dates"... we go from looking for apartments when they get married to what the Easter Bunny is going to bring. We love her!

Jake Man is working at Hollywood Video now (because, Dude, you like get three free rentals... like EVERY day!) He's not wrestling anymore, but did well while he did. He's on the Stake Pioneer Trek youth committee for Trek this summer (I'm going as medical) He's super excited about it and has some really good friends.

I still love my job, but there is so much to learn. I go home every night covered in amniotic fluid and other bodily functions, but it's really rewarding when the parents come back just to see you. I got a recognition from the hospital a few weeks ago from a mom who delivered a baby with only one arm. It was missed on the ultrasound so she had no idea. She delivered as I was coming on shift so I spent the night with her on the side of her bed, laughing then crying, then laughing again. She named te baby "Beckham" which we laughed that he'd be a great soccer player! Anyway... it's a great job.

Love you guys!

Code

Nerni To Get Smokey the Bear Costume

After 12 years of menial employment and it's associated bliss Nerni has succumbed to the temptings of a real job. I took a job with Yellowstone Park as a database manager last week (I don't start for a couple of weeks). I only have to wear a uniform when I meet with the big muckidy-mucks (I'm too important now to check the spelling on muckidy) but I still have to have one.

(I'll post a photo of me in uniform slapping a buffalo if Codi promises to replace the one of me with a toilet plunger stuck to my head.)

Actually, this is a pretty cool job and involves lots of field work throughout the park. The hiring process took 7 months and involved some stiff competition so I'm pretty happy about it...but then I'm not yet actually waking up and going to work and doing any of that work kind of stuff that they're probably going to want me to do. But, so far, so good!

Good job with the blog Code.

Smith Family Reunion- July 4, 2008

The Greatest Grandbabies Ever!

Here it is!

OK, since I'm the middle child, "the emotional one" and "blue"... I've set up a blog for our family.

Here's the deal... we need to keep in touch and since we all have cameras, pictures and computers.. and we SUCK at answering the phone... we can keep in touch this way.

Download pictures, post what's happening in your lives, what you love or don't love about our family! Anyway.... let's keep in touch better!

I've put some pictures on that I've received. You guys can e-mail picts to me or post things yourself. I'll send you an "invite" to be an author on the blog so you can post.

Let me know if you have any questions if you're not "bloggers"... you will be soon!

Code