Gavin enters the MTC December 2, 2009

He is so ready to go! We are thrilled for him, he says he loves the MTC. He will leave for the MTC in Lima on December 23.

Bo's Court of Honor

Bo got his Eagle on the day that Gavin had his farewell. Val is so proud of her brothers! The boys all stood and sang, "As Zion's Youth in Latter-Days" I loved it, and my chest puffed and I my eyes watered and proud is how I felt! I love these people.

Our family at the 50th wedding anniversary party

Shum & Kathy's 50th Wedding Anniversary party

We are only missing 4 people in this picture.
From Kim's family we are missing Chad, from Kristi's family we are missing Spencer. From Monte's family we are missing Logan (mission). From Yvonne's family we are missing Justin.

Gavin's temple day September 8, 2009

We hosted the PSR in August 2009

End of year report

Where do I begin to sum up a year packed full of special family events and busy community projects? In July we were thrilled to greet Trevor, home from his 2 yr. mission in Russia. This is a picture we took at that time, we are missing Val's husband, Spencer. A week later thrilled for Gavin to open his call to Peru. We hosted the PSR (Paul Shumway Rogers) reunion in August at Sherwood Forest where we celebrated 50 years of our family, we had a sock hop and a bowling game and had a grand time. In September Gavin went through the temple, we knew we had a while to get him ready, he wouldn't report until December 2. He worked nights at Wal-mart and didn't like it really at all but even though it was hard he stayed with it until October 31st. Then he went on a traveling vacation. He went to Eastern Arizona College to spend some time with his friends, James, Dustin and Terel. I'm not sure what they did, but he had a good time. When he got back he flew to Oklahoma to spend some time with Valerie and to drive her back to Arizona to be here for G & G Rogers' 50th wedding Anniversary on Nov. 20. Meanwhile we were following Bo and the Snowflake Lobos Football team as they traveled to Chino Valley and then to Gilbert where they played two play-off games but where beaten by Fountain Hills. I have been sewing costumes nearly non-stop for the Christmas Spectacular that I volunteered to be a part of that just showed on Dec. 11 & 12. It was a fun show and everything went very well! I'll post some pictures from that when I get some back. Gavin had his farewell on Nov. 22 and Bo had his Eagle Court of Honor on that same Sunday. I'm so proud of Bo for finishing and getting his award. All 5 boys are Eagles, yeah! All of my family was together in one place and so we took pictures, the ones you see here. It's been about 4 1/2 years since we've all been together for a picture. We celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas all in one day, Spencer and Val had to go back to OKC and Chauncy and Shar back to Sauhrita. Gavin leaves for his mission and Jay and Brittany will be with her family for Christmas as well as the other married kids. So we have had a really busy fall.
My Dad wasn't feeling well that Sunday evening and by Monday just didn't feel well at all. On Tuesday morning we took him to the ER where they did tests and finally at 5 pm they took him to surgery to remove his Gall Bladder. He got to come home on Friday and has been doing really well ever since. All of his tests were better than they had been for a year, he lost 13 pounds and he looks great! What a blessing! I just wish he would have felt this good for his anniversary party. Now we are taking a big sigh of relief as we look forward to Christmas.

Gavin's call

Ok these posts should have been made back in July..... but I have been doing some major canning and reunions.... busy time for us. But this is to announce officially on the Blog that Gavin opened his call on July 17th. He is going to Peru Piura mission and doesn't report until December 2.

Trevor's quilt

A wonderful Summer

We have had a very busy but wonderful Summer full of activities! We were anxiously awaiting Gavin's mission call and we thought it would get here before Trevor got home. Trevor arrived in Phoenix on July 8th. We had a joyous time at the airport then later at my Sister Ann's house letting him tell us about his experience in Russia. All of my kids were together for the first time in 4 years. It's funny how BIG my family is. Val is still tiny compared to their height. They lifted her up to be the same and the pictures were fun!

He will be home in 11 days...... July 8th. He reports his mission on Sunday July 12th in our ward, it starts at 11:00 Temple view chapel.
WE CAN'T WAIT!

Our garden..... it's looking beautiful!

This is one of the projects we are doing this summer. We planted Aspen and pine trees on the top tier. Jay and Bo spread the rock yesterday and it looks nice!

Their men, MANLY men

Silly Gavin!

View from the Mountain, the Tram ride was so cool! The floor of the tram rotated so you could see the mountain granite as well as the view down on the valley.

Mike and Kristi and their 2 boys left at home.
Gavin just graduated waiting on a call, I bet it will come next Friday (July 3) Bo will be a Junior! When did that happen. Bo was complaining about his shoes being too tight. We measured him and he has grown about 3/4" since April. I hope he will still grow some more. We sure love these boys, we can't wait till Trevor get home 11 more days!

One more picture, the resort was lovely!

We had a blast! At the end of May we went on a 1 week vacation to Indio, California
It is near Palm Springs, we stayed at the World Mark Resort and we had so much fun
Swimming in the lazy river and the big pool and the little kiddy pool was really
fun for these little boys. We played tennis and 2 days we had a H-O-R-S-E contest
which Grandpa Mike won both days! (he will never let you forget that either)
We went to the Air Museum one day and we went on the Palm Springs Tram which
takes you up the mountain 8,000 ft. and we had a little picnic up there. It was beautiful
to look over the floor of the dessert and the beautiful city of Palm Springs.

Spring Break

To start our week we had a new baby grand DAUGHTER born Sunday March 22. We planned to go to Tucson for Spring Break. I hitched a ride with Shea and Yvette and family to Pima on Sunday evening. We arrived at the hospital to see Morgan at about 7:45, I think. Shar was doing well and it was fun to meet our new baby. She is so sweet and soft, I'm awed at the miracle of birth. What a wonderful thing it is! I stayed to help with Chauncy's boys on Monday and Tuesday and then Tuesday afternoon Mike and Gavin and Bo came to get me and we went to Tucson. We stayed at the World Mark Resort. On Wednesday we went shopping and to the Zoo, when you shop with boys/men, it really doesn't take that long, they cant stand it any longer than neccesary. It's rather frustrating. The Zoo was fun. It's small and doesn't take very long to see everything. I was impressed with the closeness you get to the animals. We watched the polar bear swim and we could've touched him if the glass wasn't there to protect 'him'. The monkey's put on a show for us and went swinging in their cage, that was fun to watch. Gavin clapped. The tiger came and walked to the near side of his cage and peed right on the wall in front of us, we felt so lucky to witness that! The giraffe's habitat was really neat. You can watch them eat out of these baskets that are eye level, that was very interesting. We enjoyed the Zoo. Then on the next day we got tickets for the baseball game, Rockies vs Dodgers. It was 73 but windy. The game was not that exciting.... but we enjoyed it. As we were leaving the game Shea called and said that it was snowing in Snowflake so it was even more fun to be in Tucson. On our way back to our resort we went by to pick up Jakki she was in Tucson for Spring Break also, staying with her brother who is going to the UofA. We sat in the jacuzzi for a while then we made some delicious chicken and veggies for dinner. It was fun to get to know Jakki she is a sweet girl. The next morning we played some tennis before we had to pack up and go.
The neighbor next door was feeding some havalina (sp) wild pigs. Out the back door of our place. He was feeding them carrots, he said they like bananas too. So we went and got the banans we had left and sure enough they came right up to our back porch b-bque area and ate all that we threw to them. There were 5 in all. That was kinda fun. We drove home through Gilbert we stopped by Aunt Ann's to sign some papers. Then we came on home. On Saturday Mike and Bo finished his last Merit Badge - Home Repairs. They finished fixing the linoleum in the pantry and made the trap door stronger so you don't feel like you might fall through. It looks good and I'm so glad to have all his Merit badges done. Now we can finish the paper work and hopefully have a court of honor when Trevor gets back and before Gavin leaves.
We all went glofing on Saturday, we wanted to go while in Tucson but it was really expensive. So we golfed with Bo here. He is enjoying being on the golf team. His face is getting very dark from being out in the sun already. He is getting tall and handsome. "He's alway been handsome" I love my family.... seems like this was the spring board for another busy summer, hopefully we'll keep you posted.
K

snow on our new wall

I loved the basketball game on Friday night! The Lobos played Alchesay at home. The madrigals sang the National Anthem (that was a great start) Gavin and Trevor Merrill went and sang with them. (they are both on the team) The band was there to play. White River came in mass. The gym was almost packed. The kids on the end of the court were ready to rock! It was so fun. The Lobos played so well. Robbie Martindell got two dunks, he has wanted to do that all season and finally did. Gavin played so well. He was crashing the boards like crazy, taking control of our destiny. He had a left handed put back that was so amazing. He had lots of comments on that one play. He played with heart, the way I know he can. I hope he continues to play that kind of ball. 3 more regular season games left. Tuesday vs ShowLow (last home game) Friday in BR and Saturday in Payson. Then we go to the play-offs. We hope they all do great. Good luck Lobos.

The WALL

We enjoyed having Val and Spencer here for the last month, they were on their break from school and we hired him to do some cement work and some major back yard work at our house. It looks great and we are so grateful that that job is progressing. We want to plant some trees and grass and have our own little back yard garden area. We are going to love it! I'm so excited to finally have something done back there. We have lived on this property for about 14 years and we are really due to make something of the place.

Disneyland at Christmas time is so fun! We were amazed at the decorations....we? ok maybe just me, I was amazed at the decorations and the fun and music at Disneyland for Christmas. Everything was so perfect accept the crowds. There were so many people. We went to California on the 28th and spent Monday and Tuesday in the park. The Christmas parade was my favorite thing. I loved it. We have video if anyone is interested in watching. We came home on the 31st. It was a fun trip to take these two spoiled boys left at home. I enjoyed being with them and Mike. We were tired of walking and making our way through the crowds but we enjoyed being together. We got home in time for the boys to go to the New Years dance. Then on Jan. 2 & 3 all our kids came to town for our Kung Fu Panda Wa-chow party. Val had given us assignments to come up with a song from Christmas, and we had Chinese food that was just delicious. We decorated the garage and had our party down there. We then went over to Jay and Brittany's and swam in Kirk and Wendy Brimhall's pool. We then had a planning mtg. for the upcoming year, we have lots going on. We have our first granddaughter coming in April and then we have 3 graduations, Chanucy from nursing school in Thatcher and Spencer from engineer school in New Mexico and Gavin from HS. Gavin will by then have a mission call and we will be looking forward to Trevor's return in July. We are in charge of our family reunion the end of July and it seems that life could not be more busy. But all is good and we love life.