Bill & Ellen Thompson

2009-12-24T11:03:00.001-07:00

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Not Much Going On

2009-12-05T07:48:00.003-07:00

Not a lot has been going on here in Cokeville. McKenzie had a part in the school musical. The kids did a great job. It was a fun play and they looked like they had fun participating in it. I hope some of you were able to watch it via the internet. Anything live at Cokeville, I'll try to get it on the internet at the same time so you who don't live around Cokeville can watch it. Granted, the quality isn't like your HD televisions, but sometimes, it is better than nothing. The next live activity that will be broadcast will be the band concert on the 16th and then the basketball games on the 18th and 19th.

Kennan is involved in Jr. High basketball. Their team is actually doing rather well. At least one of the teams has won each game. Kennan plays on the 7th A team and starts as point and he also plays on the 8th A. He also starts on the 8th B team if there is a B game. He loves the sport and is doing a really good job. Breanne came up and watched him play one game. His last home game will be on the 17th.

McKenzie has started basketball. Their first game was yesterday and they won big. I think they play two games today. It is the Carbon County tournament. The boys team also won yesterday. They beat Lingle-Ft. Laramie.

I know I said that I'd post some pictures, but all of the pictures of the kids doing something are at school. We use them for the yearbook. If I remember, I'll post some from there when I have time.

The family went down to Utah for Thanksgiving. It is our annual thing to do. It was fun to see family again. We also were able to watch my nephew play for the BYU basketball team. He is 6'9". He is adopted, that is why there is no family resemblance. He actually had a pretty good game against Weber St.

Brady is still at school. He likes it there. Sometimes he comes home and when he does, he goes back early. Must have a woman there, jk.

That's it for now. We'll see what happens in the future. I'll keep you posted.

What?!? October!!! Wow!

2009-11-15T16:16:00.003-07:00

Wow, I can't believe that I posted last in October. Boy does time fly by. Let me see if I can remember what has happened.....in the last month!!!!!

Volleyball didn't turn out as good as I had hoped. We played for the state championship, but got beat in 5 games. The girls played as well as they could, but it just wasn't to be. McKenzie was named to the all-state team. She actually had a great state tournament. Against one team, she almost broke the school record for aces, she had 12. The record is 13. Brady went and watched the games.

Kennan's football team lost their last game against Lyman. It was their only lost of the year. Kennan had been injured for most of the season, so he didn't play a lot. He played end on offense. During one "B" game, he played quarterback. He had fun and is looking forward to next year. He is now in basketball. They have had two games. He plays part of the 7th grade and part of the 8th grade. He had his first home game last Thursday. They won. He had one play that was quite interesting. He drove to the basket, faked to his right, dribbled behind his back and then went in for a lay-up. He plays point guard and is having a lot of fun.

McKenzie finished off strong in volleyball as I mentioned. All of our pictures are at school, so I don't have anything new to post. She is now in the school play. It will be this coming week-end. For you out of towners, if you go to www.cokeville.com, click on CHS Broadcast, then launch the broadcast, you will get to see Channel 39 on the web. We will bring the play on Saturday night at 7:00 so you can watch. It might be difficult to distinguish who is who because of the low streaming, but it is better than nothing. Also tomorrow, McKenzie will be starting basketball. The year is going by quickly.

Brady is still going to school at Western Wyoming. He has made a lot of "friends" if you know what I mean. His flag football team got beat by one point for the championship in the last 4 seconds. He comes home every once in a while. He is serving in the Elder's quorum presidency as second counselor.

Ellen is a sub for the kitchen every once in a while. She says it is better than staying home by herself. She has been called to the stake Young Women's as first counselor, so that will keep her busy. She is glad to be out of the Primary, because she really loves being with the Young Women.

As for me, I'm still hanging around doing a lot of nothing now that volleyball is over. I still have to organize the Wyoming All-Stars and things like that as part of my being on the Wyoming Coaches Board. School is going by fast and I'm still trying to catch up on things. I am looking forward to the holidays. I love the Christmas season and the break that goes with it.

More Catching Up

2009-10-04T16:50:00.014-06:00

Well now I've really done it and postponed a little more, but I have a little time so I'll try to catch you up with what has happened here at the house hold.

After our trip to Nauvoo, the big wedding week. Kandyce and Clay Bolton were married on August 7, 2009. Do you know any one else who was married on this day? Yep, Ellen and I were married 29 years ago. To me, life has been so sweet with Ellen that time doesn't really matter. Here are some pictures of the whole deal. This first picture is of all of the girls in the family. Aren't they good looking? Just so you know, it goes Breanne, Shari, Kandyce, and McKenzie.

It was great to have Ben and Shari and their family come up for the wedding. The twins are so cute and Lilli is adorable. The reception was held on August 6. We have discovered that if you have the reception before the wedding, you can really enjoy the wedding without any worries.

Here is the anticipated family picture. Ellen and I with our sons and daughters together for the first time since many years ago.

Here is a shot of the happy couple coming out of the temple. There were like 62 weddings that day. The temple had been closed for a month and it had just reopened the week of the wedding. Couples were just waiting in line to get their picture taken. Don't they look gorgeous?

Here is the whole family, grandsons and granddaughter included. We were just missing Greg. There was a line of other families that were waiting for us while we took pictures. Our family is slowly getting bigger.

I like this picture of two of Kandyce's friends that came to the wedding, Megan Larson and Katie Cammack. I just like their looks as Clay kisses Kandyce. We actually have some really good pictures of them bantering (fancy word) with each other.

Kandyce and Lilli doing their impersonation of Marilyn Monroe. I don't even know who discovered the air vent. It was probably Lilli.

Of course I can't show a picture without the happy couple with Ellen and I. Thanks goes to Megan and Katie for taking these candid pictures. They were fun to look at. Yes my hair is getting grayer. It all comes from teenage daughters, coaching, and being a bishop. It actually blends into the temple wall!

I couldn't pass up posting another picture of the girls. They just look pretty. You can see how they all look like each other. You'll have to tell who each one is. Hint: Kandyce is in the wedding dress.

And I couldn't pass up this picture of Ben and Shari and their children. What a happy family. The boys weren't too happy about things going on just then.

And of course, a picture of Breanne spoiling her nephews. She is pretty good at making her nephews think she is the greatest aunt in the world. Aidan on the left and Alex on the right.

It was a great week for the wedding and everything was just great. Lots of family and friends gathered together.

So while Ben and Shari were here, we decided to go up Pine Creek and have a little cook out. We just did smores and hot dogs. We also took the 4-wheelers up and went for little trips. Ben's parents came down from Washington and spent a couple of days with us. They figured with Ben being so close, they would drive down and visit. It was great to see them again. Nice picture of Lilli getting all dirty and climbing around. She couldn't stay out of the dirt.

The twins were all belted up so they couldn't get dirty. I'm sure they would have loved to roll around in the dirt.

We also went to Salt Lake to Hogle Zoo. Just a couple of shots of Lilli and McKenzie being pals.

After the zoo, we went to Ben's favorite restaurant, Rodizios(?). It was great having them here. I already miss them and it has only been two months. You can go to Shari's blog page to see more pictures of their trip home.

So that has been our summer. It was very busy for awhile, but it was all worth it. Especially spending time with family and friends.

I'll try to post some pictures of the kids in school and what not later. I'll also let you know how volleyball has been going.

Our Nauvoo Trip

2009-09-20T17:25:00.014-06:00

So I was perusing the blogs of my children and I realized that it has been almost 2 (TWO) months since I last posted. That has been awhile. I guess one of the reasons why I've procrastinated the day of my repentance is our internet connection is so slow. It takes forever to upload pictures. But here goes the latest.

Back in July, I had to go to Casper to help with the Wyoming Coaches clinic. I also had to stay at home to host the 24th of July celebration in Cokeville at the same time. I really didn't know what to do. Briant Teichert suggested that I host the Celebration. So I did the coaches clinic and left Casper after the Honors banquet (I was selected assistant coach of the year in volleyball) at around 10:00 pm. Ellen and I got into Cokeville at 3:30 am, got up at 6:30 am to get a breakfast ready for the visiting general authorities at 8:00 am. Elder L. Tom Perry and Elder Quinton Cook and their wives, along with the two bishoprics and their wives and the stake presidency and their wives were invited to my mom's house for the breakfast. It was great. The first picture is with Elder Perry.

The second picture is with Elder Cook. If it wasn't for the help of my counselors and their wives and my mom, I don't think it would have been a very big success.

After the breakfast, I had to ride a horse carrying the U. S. flag for the parade. For you who don't know, I do know how to ride a horse, I did grow up on a ranch. I just never rode a horse a lot. As a bishop, I had to lead the parade with the other bishop Todd Dayton. After the parade, I was conducting the program at the Church where Elder Cook spoke to the congregation. I was a rather nervous person. There were a ton of people. It was great to be in the presence of such great people. They are just like any other normal person. After the program, Elder Perry asked me if I was going to stay and eat or go home and sleep. I went home and crashed on the floor for a couple of hours. I was exhausted.

Now that that week was over, the next Monday, I took my family along with Briant Teichert and his family to Nauvoo. If you have never been, you really should go. We drove the whole way there and back, but it was worth it. I will only post a few pictures because between Brady, McKenzie and Ellen, we have a lot of pictures.

We went as far as Lincoln Nebraska the first day. We had stopped at Veedavo (sp?) for a picnic. That is when we discovered that Kandyce lost her wedding ring. Somehow, we don't know how or when, she had taken her ring off to lotion her hands and it just disappeared. We thought maybe it fell out of the truck when we took a potty break back three hours before. We called the rest area and they said they would look for it.

We left Lincoln and visited the tabernacle that was built in Omaha then hurried on in to Nauvoo. That night we went to the pageant. The next day we went to a session at the Nauvoo temple while the kids did baptisms for the dead. After that we went to Carthage Jail. Here are pictures of our two families.

You notice Violet in the background, she met up with us in Nauvoo. She and her hubby were living in Indiana and she met up with her family. She had lived in Nauvoo for a semester and she was our tour guide. Sorry that you couldn't see Tessa, forgot to make sure all were in the picture.

This next picture is just one taken of the family somewhere in Nauvoo. Not a bad looking family. It was great to have Kandyce come before she got married and also to have Brady home with us. We just wished Shari and her family and Greg and Breanne could have come with us.

Here we are at one of the sites in Nauvoo watching how they made rope. It was quite interesting.

The whole trip was just a great experience. Kennan got to see fireflies and catch them. What was also fun is that Stewart Petersen and his family were there (they flew) and also Loring and Laura Cammack were also there. We actually went through the temple with Stewart's family and we ran into the Cammack's at the Mansion House. This next picture is of us by the mighty Mississippi River. It was at the end of the Trail of Hope tour. It was held early in the morning, but it was worth getting up early.

The Teichert family posed for this one. As you can see, they are missing two. They couldn't get up early in the morning. We caught up with them later in the morning.

Of course, one of the reasons why we went to Nauvoo was to see the temple and to learn a little more about Church History. This is a shot of the temple looking back from the Mississippi. I couldn't get over how green everything was. The weather was very cooperative. It wasn't too hot and it definitely wasn't muggy. It was like the week was made for us.

Here are some of the crew just sitting in the shade of the temple at Winter Quarters. We were starting to look a little tired.

The last stop on the way home was at Chimney Rock Nebraska. I had never been there before and I have a little family history about the place. The Teicherts have never been there either and they wanted to see what it was all about. So this is what Chimney Rock looks like. It is different. It was a landmark for the Saints as they crossed the plains on their way to the Salt Lake valley.

My great great great grandmother died near Chimney Rock. Her name was Mary Murray Murdoch, also known as Wee Granny. She was in the Martin Handcart company. Just before she died she told her family "Tell John I died with my face towards Zion." The Murdoch family had a memorial created for her and here we are at that memorial.

The trip was so much fun. Going with the Teichert family brought back fond memories of camping trips when the kids were little. I am glad we went. We saw beautiful country, learned a little Church history, and most importantly created lasting memories. This is only a hundredth of the pictures that were taken. Hope you enjoyed some of them. I'll post some more pictures of what happened later after the Nauvoo trip.

Girl's Camp and Other Neat Things (Brady is Home!!)

2009-07-18T09:43:00.014-06:00

With all of the excitement lately, I have kind of postponed things a little bit. So I will try to catch up on things. The first pictures were taken up at Kennan's Scout camp.

He got his horsemanship merit badge. Ellen also went up and got to ride a horse.

The horses belonged to the Bill Briggs family. Yes, Ellen has ridden many horses in her life. It was a fun time.

After Scout camp it was girl's camp. Being a bishop, I got the opportunity to go and spend a night at girl's camp. When Ellen used to be in the YW, I always went as the priesthood holder, so this wasn't anything new to me. I enjoyed it a lot. These are just a few of the many pictures Ellen took. (As bishop, I got to take my wife also). This is McKenzie with a bunch of her friends. I really don't know what they are doing with the chopsticks. I'm sure it isn't healthy.

The girl's are back row, left to right: Mariah Boyer, McKenzie, Hannah Dayton. Front row, left to right: Lauren Fiscus, Bethany Briggs, Torie Larson. McKenzie also had to do some of the cooking and cleaning as you can see.

As you can tell, McKenzie really liked cleaning up.

Sometime after the 4th, Kandyce, McKenzie, and Ellen went to Logan so Breanne could take Kandyce's bridal pictures. I just picked a couple that I thought really showed what went on. The first picture is the girl's eating at some restaurant. Do they look anything alike?

Kandyce was just doing a fun little pose for the camera. I thought it was cool. Flirt with the camera!!

When they were taking pictures by the Logan Tabernacle, a couple of little girls were watching and they thought that Kandyce was a princess. They just had to meet her.

As with any model that you work with, sometimes they just pack up and leave you.

Of course the big news so far this month was the return of Brady from his mission to the Baltic States, Latvian speaking. For those of you who don't know where that mission is, it is by the Baltic Sea next to Russia. It was an exciting time for the family. Breanne and Kandyce came down. Breanne said that she was going to be the first to give Brady a hug, she was. For the fun things about the airport, go to Breanne's blog. It was truly funny. Here are some of us waiting patiently for Brady's return.

When Brady finally arrived, with all of the excitement, there were a lot of blurry pictures. So we don't have pictures of him hugging people. Brady is here talking with Shari on the phone. Shari made Kandyce call her and talk to her the whole time as we were waiting for Brady. Kandyce was doing a play-by-play.

Isn't this a great family? We are just missing Shari, but next month, Shari and her family are coming for two weeks. I am so excited. We are definitely going to take family pictures and then you can see the whole family.

Here we are again getting some extra hugs from Brady.

Of course with Brady being home, things are a lot more fun and exciting. He was cleaning his room and he found his Nerf guns. He and Kennan were shooting each other. I think Kennan got the better shots. It was fun.

Brady spoke with Trevor Teichert on Sunday the 12th. He then reported to the High Council with Trevor. He'll be helping around the house for the summer as he prepares to go back to Western Wyoming to get his associate degree. He has also been asked to be on the Institute board for the school year. He is excited about that. For the upcoming events, I have the Wyoming Coaches Clinic this next week, then the family will be going to Nauvoo with the Briant Teichert family, then it is the big wedding of Kandyce. We will be very busy these next few weeks.

With Brady and Kandyce serving missions, our family has been blessed for the last 4 years. We acknowledge our love of our Heavenly Father for their service that they have given. We have truly been a blessed family.

Special Event

2009-07-01T10:43:00.020-06:00

So there is a special event that is coming up real soon. Many people celebrate it and I'd like to also show why this special event is so special to me and my family. This was Ellen's idea, so I thought it was a great idea, so here goes. Do you recognize this person?

So you have probably guessed that we are celebrating Breanne's birthday. She will turn a certain age (not suppose to tell a woman's age) tomorrow, July 2. Breanne was born in Star Valley on a hot afternoon. Ellen was in intense labor so much that she actually passed out. Scared me to death. Ellen was the only person in the hospital, so they asked her what she wanted to eat for supper. They only stayed overnight and then came home. The unique thing about Bre was that she had the cutest little dimple on her right cheek. Breanne was quickly spoiled by her two older sisters.

We asked people to tell us some of the fun things they remember about Breanne. Grandma said she remembers riding with Bre going somewhere and Bre was driving and putting her makeup on at the same time. She was using her hands to put the makeup on and she was driving with her knees. Grandma said it scared her pretty bad.

Kennan says this about his sister, "I love Breanne because she is a fun loving sister who makes everything fun. I remember in the 3rd grade, Breanne was leaving to go back to Logan and I was at school. I came to my desk and I saw an Almond Joy (my favorite candy bar) and a note from Bre."

This next picture of Breanne was taken when Ellen was taking her senior pictures. Brady and Trevor came along and they thought it would be neat to make it look like the leaves were falling. So they grabbed a bunch of leaves and started to toss them in the air above Breanne. Of course with Brady's sense of humor, he had us all laughing.

Another funny story about Bre was when we were camping with the Briant Teichert family. Breanne was sitting on the bench with her knees tucked up inside her big sweat shirt. She wasn't very old. As we were all talking, we heard a big thud and looked and there was Bre on the ground having fallen off the bench on her side with her knees still tucked up in her sweat shirt.

Breanne really loved sports. She was very competitive and hated to lose. Her senior year the basketball team was very small. At one of the ball games, she got a big thigh bruise and it hurt her like crazy. The coaches wanted her to sit out, but she was begging the coach to let her back into the game. She was one tough kid. This next picture was at Lander after they had gotten beat out at Regionals. It was her last basketball game, hence the tears.

She also had the opportunity to play college volleyball. She played libero and helped her Western Wyoming team win Region IX and place 9th at Nationals. She is one of very few from Cokeville who got to play in a national tournament. Here she is playing and celebrating.

While at Rock Springs going to school at Western Wyoming, Bre met her love of her life, Greg Aullman. They had so many things in common, late nights not being able to sleep, computers, etc. They were married in May of 2005. The first picture is when Greg came to the house and we did our family tradition of making gingerbread houses. The middle picture is one of their announcement pictures and the last is when they bought their house in Logan. Cute couple.

Another neat thing about Breanne is her relationship with her younger brother Brady and her cousin Trevor. I think she is more excited for Brady to come home from his mission than anybody else. She said that she is going to be the first one to give him a hug. But it wasn't always like that when they were little. I was one of those parents who always said, "If you two don't stop your arguing, I'm going to stop this van and make you walk." Here is a picture of the three. We have lots of prom pictures that Breanne took with Brady and Trevor. She is a great sister.

Breanne has always taken an interest in photography and video editing. She was the yearbook editor and created a number of videos. But most of you know that already. Just look at her blogs that she has. She is a very talented person. When she was 12 years old, she was the Beehive president. Marti Warner was the YW advisor and she said that she could not have done her job without Bre. Bre was organized and planned most of the activities. We also have a lot of videos of people then Breanne's head would pop in front of the camera. Breanne made the 1997-1998 yearbook on cd all by herself. This book was not sent to the publisher, but the pages got lost and were later found. She scanned all of the pictures and made a great memory for those classes.

Of course, Breanne is also a great aunt. Just ask all of her nieces and nephews.

Most of all Breanne is one of the girls that is special in our family. We have many but this week we are honoring one of the best. Happy Birthday Breanne! Mom and Dad love you.

Rain, rain, go away

2009-06-21T18:48:00.006-06:00

Okay so it has been awhile, but today we had something interesting happen that I haven't seen for a very long time. But before I get into that, I do need to update you on some things that have happened to the family.

The first part of the month was our volleyball camp. It was done by Grayson Dubose who is the Utah State women's volleyball coach. He did a great job. We had over 70 girls come to the camp. Most were from Star Valley, but we still needed 5 courts for all of the players. It was a very successful camp. Grayson has become part of our family. He is so cordial and fun to be around. Most important, he knows his volleyball. He actually took the family to Montpelier one night to go bowling. We were the only ones in there and it was a blast. Of course I won one game and Grayson won the other. McKenzie will be the setter for the varsity. We should do all right next year.

The next week was the basketball camp. McKenzie and Kennan were involved with that. I went to Bear Lake to do the volleyball camp there. On the weekend, McKenzie went to a basketball team camp at Weber State. The team played against some varsity teams, even though it was our JV team that went. They played well. They won and lost, but played really well. Of course Kennan is excited that his Lakers won the NBA. He still talks about it.

This past weekend I took the volleyball team to a team camp at Weber State. There were 16 teams there and we took 4th. We played Evanston and lost to them in the semi-finals. The scores were really close. The girls were disappointed because the day before we went undefeated in pool play and went in as the overall number one seed. I told them that yes it was disappointing to lose, but our ultimate goal is to win the state championship, not the Weber State team camp championship.

Okay now for the news and some pictures. As most of you know it has been raining for the last three weeks. I have never seen so much rain before. We planted our garden on Memorial Day and watered it that day. Since then, we haven't even had to water it at all. I think it hasn't rained but three days at most. There is a lot of water. As soon as it warms up, look out because the grass will grow fast.

Today we watched another storm move in and it started to rain like always, then it started to hail a little, then hail a little more, then a little more, then a lot more. The size of the hail at one point was the size of a quarter. Here is the proof. It was hailing really hard and you couldn't see.

When it was done hailing, the lane was just covered with hail. Cars were stopped along the road because even the highway was covered.

The car was parked outside and I ran out to pull it into the garage. As you can see, it almost looked like winter.

From the next picture, you can see the size of the hail. I haven't seen hail that big since I was in Mexico on my mission.

Once it stopped hailing, it was still raining. You can kind of see how there were little rivers cutting through the hail.

The next shot is after it was all over and the hail was still falling from the roof of the house. In the background is another storm making it's way towards us again. If you look close to the second picture, you can see how much hail was on the roof.

So the weather has been interesting to say the least, but after years of drought, I'll take the rain. I really like summer rain storms. I like to see the lightning and hear the thunder (when it is far away).

Just one more thing, Brady will be home on July 10th. That is less than 2 1/2 weeks away. Are we excited? Of course.

Gone and some stories

2009-06-01T11:05:00.006-06:00

So Ellen decided she didn't want to have the bushes behind the house any more. Don has this little track hoe and he said that he would bring Derrick and Sheila up and we could spend the day visiting and pulling up the bushes. Here are some shots of us working really hard. It had rained a lot the past couple of days and so the ground was just right to pull up the bushes. Here is Don running is outfit.

It was quite the handy outfit. The bushes had a lot of little roots that didn't go down in the ground, but they shot to the sides. They pulled up a lot of dirt and kind of made a mess of things. Here you can see Derrick and Clay (Kandyce's fiance) picking up the bushes. Clay would use the 4-wheeler and haul the bushes to a big bush pile in the field.

The next picture showed what the women folk were doing. Just visiting as we worked really hard.

Actually they did help. Sheila Kandyce decided they needed a break and Ellen caught them watching and talking. This next picture even shows Kennan actually helping. He was guiding Don on how to pull up the bush.

Here is Clay just getting back from making a dump of the bushes. He loved driving the 4-wheeler.

When everything was cleaned up and hauled off, McKenzie and Kennan went for a ride on the 4-wheelers. They went around and around and around and around and around and....... well you get the point..... around Gram's house.

As I said before we had been getting rain off and on again the past week. This last week we had a gorgeous rainbow. It was a full one as you can see. Also notice that there are no more bushes. Some of them were actually dying and that was another reason we got rid of them.

This next picture of the rainbow is really neat. If you look closely, you can see the blue/purple colors starting all over again. You'll probably have to double click on it and try to zoom in, but the rainbow was so bright. It was just a great day.

This week is the volleyball camp starting on Wednesday. I do have a funny story about the kids going back to Washington DC. I was told it was a very quiet ride on the subway from the airport to their motel. They were the only white people on the subway. I'm sure it has been a culture shock for our innocent students. When they went to Church, they noticed that there were not a lot of white people there. Here is another Cokeville story. When they got to the Salt Lake Airport, as they were passing through the detector, Landon Cornia set the whole thing off really bad. They pulled him to the side and asked him to empty his pockets. He then realized that he had gone rabbit hunting the night before and forgot to empty his pockets. Yes he had gun shells in his pocket. Only happens to kids from a little tiny town called Cokeville.

School's Out For Summer!!!

2009-05-30T16:16:00.007-06:00

Oh the great wisdom of Alice Cooper. Yes, school is out for the summer here in Cokeville. The last week just flew by. The highlight of the week was the 5th Annual Film Festival. For you who don't know, this is when my film making students get to show off all of their projects that they have done to the community. I had ten students in the class and they came all dressed up to the hilt and looked really sharp. We started the evening by showing a lost film that was made about three years ago. It was a film created by Kalvin Watson. For some reason, it got lost somewhere in cyber space, but I found it, fixed it up and showed it to the community. It is a urban legend of the Windego and it is funny. After that, we showed their "Super Bowl" ads, then music videos, (this years were by far the best since Brady's class, lots of good stuff), silent videos, a short film created by the class for an economics class (it was pretty funny), then a Q & A with the students, movie trailers, and then the all important feature movie. This years movie was directed by Andrew Petersen and it was based on the sitcom "The Office". We called ours, "The Classroom". I had never seen "The Office" until we started production. All in all it was a 2 1/2 hour long show. It was a blast and we received many compliments.

Graduation went well. Once again I did some up-to-the-last moment editing on the senior slide show. It all turned out well. The worst thing that happened was that I got word our yearbooks would not get here in time for the yearbook signing party. The main company once again screwed up. They blamed the economy because they laid off a bunch of people that worked in their web design department. They violated our contract still. I really don't know when we'll get the yearbooks. I'd like to go back to the cd version. That way I know that things will go well and I have complete control over everything. If people want a book, they can print the pages out themselves.

A couple of weeks ago, I got home and there was a package from our California friend John Scarett. He sent it to Kennan. I had no idea what it was until Kennan opened it, this is what he sent to Kennan:

Yes, they are Laker shirts. Kennan is a huge fan of the Lakers. Right now he is pretty excited that the Lakers are in the Finals. He is currently playing in a team basketball camp in Evanston. It is a camp for high school JV teams. Coach Fiscus asked if Kennan wanted to go and he did. Kennan is actually playing in some of the games. Here he is a sixth grader and he is playing against sophomores. He loves it. Earlier in the month of May, they had World Day for Kennan's class here are some more pictures of that. Kennan did Mexico, if you couldn't tell.

This next picture is his entire class. Yes it is a big class and yes there are a lot of boys in the class and yes it is hard to think that we will not have a kid in the elementary next year. All our kids that will be home will be at the high school. And one final yes, yes I am getting old.

The boys and girls track team finished off the season by placing 2nd in both the boys and girls division. For the boys, it was quite a feat. They only had 5 who qualified for state and they scored 75 points. The girls made it closer than what some may have thought. Both teams lost to Burlington. It was a good year for the tracksters.

Brady sent us an email telling us how he and his companion have been tracting by horseback. It is hard to believe that he only has 41 days left, but who is counting. Back to the horse riding, he did send us a picture of how he and his companion are doing it.

I doubt that they will get any where using that horse. He is loving his mission and doing well.

McKenzie will be starting volleyball camp next week, then basketball camp, then more camps. A new era of volleyball will be starting next week. It is hard to believe that I am now the head honcho. Because of this, I quit being the faculty advisor to the student council. I wasn't getting paid to do this so it wasn't a big deal. Then the person who is taking my place told me that he is getting paid to do it. I checked with the office and it is true, after all these years, I was suppose to get paid as the advisor. The reason I wasn't getting paid is because when I first started, the secretary at that time told me that they don't pay student council advisors. So I never checked back. I only missed out on about $10,000. But I did get paid this year. If I wasn't a bishop and a head coach, I would still be the advisor, paid or not paid. I enjoyed working with the students.

Our other missionary also sent us a picture. Yes Trevor has put on a little weight. Not much though. Don says Trevor weighs about 215. He started to lose the weight at his last area because he had to ride a bike. Now he is back in a car. There goes his weight loss.

That is about it for now. The family is doing well. I'll post some more things later. Some things that will shock you!! Not really. Just want to keep you in suspense.

Sorry, no pics

2009-05-10T17:23:00.002-06:00

Just a quick note of what went on in our life. Because it is a quick note, there is no pictures. Sorry!

Two weeks ago, we went to Provo to watch a nephew get baptized. Kennan was asked to say the closing prayer and McKenzie was asked to do a musical number. It was quite interesting. Down in that stake, they do ward baptisms at a stake level. So there were two families involved. Two cute boys ready to accept the baptism. Just before the meeting was to take place, in a five minute period, I heard 6 cell phones go off. Amazing that people want to be contacted in a Church. Cell phones have taken over the world, just like the computer has.

The night before, we as a family, went to a Brazillian restaurant. The food was okay. I've tasted better, but because my birthday was coming up, my meal was free. Yes, for freeeeeeeeeee! (Need to watch a movie to get that last little bit, you know, Bedtime Stories).

Well now the most important stuff. This past weekend, it being my 37th birthday, we went to the NCAA Men's Volleyball championships at BYU. It was great. The semifinals were fun to watch (UCI over Ohio State and USC upset win over Penn St.). The next day, Ellen and I went to the Timpanogas (however you spell it) Temple. It was packed, but it was worth it. Then Ellen and Kandyce went wedding shopping and McKenzie, Kennan, and I went and watched Star Trek. You have to be a real trekkie to get the little sayings that were done. Apparently there was me and two other people who laughed at the little sayings. Good movie, don't take kids, too much swearing. Later in the evening, we took Derrick and Sheila out for supper. Derrick then asked Kennan if he wanted to watch the NBA game with the Lakers and Rockets. Of course Kennan said yes. He had a lot of fun at their house.

The next day we went to the championship match and watched a 5 game thriller win by UCI over USC. I got to talk with USC's coach before the match. He just happened by and smiled and said hello and I started blabbing on about his team and he was cordial enough to listen to my babblings. Had the opportunity to visit with Carl McGown and his wife, Susan and also their sons Paul (whom I haven't seen for over 5 years) and Chris (who was the announcer at the game). Just a great week of volleyball which makes me excited for volleyball to start. Also got to see my 6'9" nephew who will be playing for BYU next year in basketball. What a funny kid.

Today is Mother's Day. Mom came out and had dinner with us. Kandyce made the dinner and it was luscious. I really appreciate mom for what she has done for me and also my wife and the example she is for me.

That is it for now. When I have more time and my thoughts are more organized, I'll post again.

Excuses??!!

2009-04-25T12:33:00.000-06:00

Okay, its been awhile, but I do have some excuses. I've been busy, so there. Actually as the weather got warmer, our internet got slower. For some reason, with Spring run-off, our internet goes really slow. So slow that it takes forever to load a page. Trying to upload pictures was frustrating. so I quit for awhile. Now that the snow is gone, we'll get going.

Here is the news that everyone already knows, but the wrestlers took state again. Ellen and I went to state and I broadcasted with Mike, Zane, and Stan, while Ellen took tons of pictures. It was an exciting time. The next week was state basketball. The girls went on and took 3rd. That has been their best finish for a long time. Here is McKenzie warming up at the Events Center.

Here is a shot of her and Olivia getting ready to enter the game. If you look real close, you can see a lot of people have at least one of their hands up to their mouth.

This was the game against Kaycee, which the girls won pretty easily. This next picture is all of the sophomores playing. Maddie Petersen is shooting the free throw, Holly Grandy is on the right side and Lauren Fiscus on the left, with Olivia #14 and McKenzie back.

Here is the team picture of the girls with the third place trophy. They lost to Southeast, but beat St. Stephens for third.

During the state tournament, Coach Brian Toomer asked me if I would be willing to take over as head coach of the volleyball team. He actually said that I would be more in charge because I do a lot for the team any way. He is stepping down to coach football. Coach Briant Teichert has stepped down as junior high/high school coach. Coach Dayton asked Brian if he would be willing to step in. Coach Toomer has his boys that are now starting to play football and this will give him a great opportunity to watch them play football. It will be tough to do volleyball without Coach Toomer. I really enjoyed working with him. He is a good coach and tries to do things that would help the girls achieve their potential. He will be sorely missed. So now I am the head coach looking for an assistant.

Kandyce came home for her birthday and here is a picture of her blowing out her candles on her chocolate roll. Yes, the kids would rather have chocolate roll than a birthday cake. In fact, here is Kennan blowing out his roll too.

It is hard to believe that Kennan is now 12 and holds the priesthood. His first Sunday passing the sacrament, I couldn't find him sitting with his mother. Then it dawned on me that he was sitting with the deacons.

Also on Kennan's birthday, the Junior Prom was held. It was held in the auditorium. It was a unique experience. The parents sat in the audience and the kids danced on the stage. To honest, it was the easiest way to hold a prom. Not a lot of decorating. It did look nice though. Here is a picture of the McKenzie in the dress that Ellen had bought for her.

Track season has started. McKenzie, with the Thompson speed, decided she wouldn't do track. She asked me if I would work with her lifting weights, doing plyos and some setting. So we have been doing that for the last 6 weeks. Her strength has improved a lot, as well as her foot speed. Her setting is pretty good. But it is tough trying to do things with a bucket as your hitter. Sometimes when some of the track kids are done doing their thing, they come and play.

With track season going on, of course we have the greatest weather of all during this time of year. Here is one of the storms that happened by.

The big news here at home right now is that McKenzie got her hair cut. At first I didn't like the idea, but after seeing her with the hair cut, I kind of like it. This is what it looks like, sort of, I guess.

The other big news is that Ellen and I are trying to decide if we want to enlarge our front room or just what to do about things. Ellen did have both bathrooms floor redone. Something about the toilets leaking and causing the floorboards to buckle caused her to make the decision. I guess that has been one of the problems of marrying a computer nerd instead of a contractor. I can fix a computer, but I can't fix anything dealing with tools. Here is the front bathroom new floor (Ellen also painted both bathrooms).

And here is the back bathroom.

All in all the family is doing really well. Kandyce is engaged to be married on the 7th of August. They couldn't have chosen a better day. Ellen and I were married on that day and it has been the greatest blessing for me. Kandyce is also almost done with school. She just has to do her student teaching next fall and she is officially done.

Brady is doing well on his mission. After spending almost a full year in one area, he was moved to the big city of Riiga. At first it was tough to go from a little place to a big place, but with the Lord's help, he and his companion are finding people to teach.

You've already heard a lot about McKenzie. She is doing well in school. Kennan is excited that the NBA playoffs are finally here. His Lakers are doing well and he is excited. He has been coming to the school to shoot hoops while McKenzie lifts weights. Now he is running with the junior high tracksters just for the fun of it.

Ellen is busy trying to redecorate the house and make big decisions on what to do with the house. And she is just being a great person.

As for me, being bishop has been a very interesting ride. Some days it is great and other days it is very trying. But the blessings do come. It has been hard worrying about people in the ward, but I know if we strive to keep the commandments and do what the Lord says, we will be blessed. But we also must be a humble people.

The Ultimate Procrastinator

2009-02-22T16:08:00.009-07:00

So yes it has been a couple of weeks, but you know, I've been a little busy lately. Or maybe I'm just a big procrastinator.

For you who have been wondering what the inside of grandma's house looks like, well look no further here are some pics.

This is looking to your right as you enter through the front door. Look how tiny her tv is. She definitely needs a bigger tv.

This is from the same spot as the last picture but now you are looking towards the southeast at the kitchen. See how open everything is.

Now your are looking from the kitchen to the front door. It is just the opposite view.

This is the kitchen. It has a big refrigerator, lots of cupboard space, a dishwasher, and lots of open area.

This is the master bedroom. It is definitely a lot bigger than her old rooms. Even the two other bedrooms are nice looking. Ellen didn't take any pictures of them because she said they look just like any other bedroom. You can barely see the master bath. It has a tub that is so big the kids could go swimming in it. And her shower is a two-seater. Yes, you can sit down in the shower!!

Ellen took a whole bunch of pictures when she was back in Georgia visiting with Ben and Shari and the kids. I only chose these two because it shows her with the kids. You may have seen them before. By the way, of the 158 pictures Ellen took, 169 of them were of the twins, go figure.

This is grandma with all of the grandkids. Aren't they a cute bunch.

This is a picture that I really like. Ellen and Lilli trying to read each other's mind. Just like any boy, the boys just don't care what the women are doing.

Things here in Cokeville are going great. Regional wrestling was just last week-end. Cokeville won it all again with a number of kids placing. In fact, all of them placed. State is next week-end. Ellen and I are going up to broadcast the matches and take pictures for the yearbook. We have been having technical difficulties with our Channel 39. For some reason, nobody could hear the broadcast of regional wrestling. I'll be doing lots of tests this coming week.

McKenzie and the girls team won the conference in basketball. Now they go into Regionals this week-end also. They are actually ranked 3rd in the state. It should be a great Regionals. The boys are in the pig tail game on Monday. They have a really good chance of winning that one. They are playing good ball, but are just coming up short of a victory. They did beat Little Snake River at the buzzer. Now that was one exciting game. Too bad the students who were doing the broadcasting got so excited, they missed the winning shot and a lot of other things.

Kennan is done with wrestling. He had a good year. He also had fun. Now he stays after school and shoots hoops in the elementary gym. He'll be going to state wrestling and state basketball with us. Brady and Kandyce are doing well, just for your information. I guess, Ellen doesn't tell me a lot.

I am busy being a bishop. One of the awesome things about being a bishop is you get to do a lot of visiting with people. Ellen usually goes with me. We want to visit someone from the ward at least once a week on Sunday.

One last thing. Take a look at the following picture and see if you can tell where it was taken and what is unique about it. Till next time.

Well It's About Time

2009-02-01T16:17:00.005-07:00

Okay, so I've been a little lax on my updating of the blog. But like all good procrastinators, I have a good reason. I'll tell you later.

Ellen has spent the last three weeks in Georgia visiting with Shari and Ben and Lilli and Alex and Aidan and Sid and Billy Bob and Bobby Bill and everybody else in Georgia. She had a great time just being with the grandkids (and Ben and Shari). She got a little homesick while she was there. Good thing she called every night the last week. Next week I'll try to upload some pictures that she took of her trip and of course the good looking grandkids that I have.

Mean while back at the farm, we fended off the wolves pretty good. Briant & Clyda Teichert family took real good care of us. Clyda made sure we didn't starve. In fact, the last Tuesday before Ellen came home we had taco Tuesday with the Teicherts. Now I can fix a mean supper, but when I was taking Kennan to Scouts, he mentioned that "that was the best tacos I've ever had", it kind of made me think that peanut butter sandwiches get old after awhile. Probably the best supper we had was when Lynne Pope dropped off a plate of chocolate chip cookies.

Things are going good here. When Ellen got back she got word that her dad (Grandpa Davies) isn't doing very well. In fact, we have been told he won't last much longer. So I told Ellen she better go to Provo and at least say goodbye to him. She left today, but will be back tomorrow. His mind is still good, but his body is just not cutting it any more. I guess that is what happens when you get old. Except my mind is going and my body has went and I'm not that old!!!

McKenzie is doing well in basketball. The girls are having a really good season. They've only lost twice so far. Kennan has started junior high wrestling. He is doing okay for being a light weight. We went to Kemmerer to watch him wrestle and they didn't have anybody in his weight (65 lbs.) so they put him with the 75 lb. weight class. Here he is wrestling.

He got smoked. But he didn't quit. After this kid he ended up wrestling two kids from Cokeville. In fact, most of the kids from Cokeville wrestled each other. They should just had an official come to Cokeville and hosted the tournament there.

Most of you probably know by now that we got a new bishop in our ward and that new bishop is .......................... me. I've been so worried about how to do things and with Ellen being gone for three weeks, I just couldn't focus on keeping the blog going. But I've realized that the Lord will bless you when you do what He asks and He has asked me to be a bishop, so I'll do it. So far it has been a great blessing and I'm sure it will continue to be a great blessing. I really can't fail when I have the ward praying for me. Here is a picture of me and Ellen the day I was called.

We'll see what I look like when I am released as a bishop. So far I've lost weight, but I think that is because Ellen was gone for three weeks. Thank you for your support and I'll try to do my best.

One last thing, grandma has moved into her house and she loves it. When Ellen was gone, we had Sunday dinner there. It was weird because there was sooooo much room. I'll try to post some pictures next week of her inside. It looks really good.

Here it is!!!

2008-12-30T14:21:00.004-07:00

Here is the long awaited performance of Kennan at the Christmas play as he portrays Dancer.

Enjoy.

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

2008-12-26T14:45:00.008-07:00

This is a typical Christmas Eve and Christmas day at the Thompson household. Here is the home all decorated nice and fancy. Yes there is an actual fire in the fire place.

Also, here is the tree that I told you about in an earlier blog. Isn't it gorgeous? We used icicles for the very first time. Ellen wanted to try it. After finding icicles all over the house, it might also be the last time.

Every Christmas Eve, we as a family, go sledding someplace in the Cokeville area. We chose The Siphon because there really wasn't a lot of snow and they plowed our lane to the dirt. The Siphon is just behind our house. Kandyce and her friend had gone up earlier in the week and it was pretty good. The goal is to see how far you can go. This is the hill.

Here are some of the contestants.

Here we are heading up the hill. As you can see, there isn't a lot of snow.

McKenzie just finishing her bumpy ride.

This blurry person is me. I am going so fast the camera just barely caught me in the act. Almost the speed of light.

With this speed, I was able to finish numero uno. I am holding the number one sign, if you can't tell. Geez!

Here is what goes on at the top. I'm just getting ready to push Kandyce off of the top of the hill. She just doesn't know what I will do. Such an innocent look on her face before she goes crashing down the hill at speeds that only radar can detect.

As you can see from the next two pictures, you just fly off of the hill into a dark hole. That is what makes it fun. You know there is something at the bottom, but you don't quite know what. McKenzie is the first one and Ellen is in the second one.

This is a night shot so you can see us walking up the hill and see how far you can go. It was one rocking good time. If you stay in the trails, no worries, if you go outside, watch out for the sagebrush.

After we sled, we go home to have some hot soup and hot chocolate. Then the kids get to open up the presents from each other. Of course we have to have the pajamas for Christmas.

Once the pajamas are put on, then a rousing game of twister is next. Notice the intensity in Kandyce's eyes as she is putting on the hurt. After the games, then I read the story of the "Connivers" and the Christmas story out of the Bible.

After all of the stories, then it is off to bed. The next morning was a grand ole Christmas. After opening all of the presents, we as a family then eat crepes for breakfast. This year I went and brought grandma for the day and she stayed for the Christmas dinner. The family got an Xbox and Guitar Hero. Yes that is grandma rocking out to my amazement.

And that is what a typical Christmas is like here at our family. We were able to call and talk to Brady, then Shari called and Breanne called later in the day. We try to remember the real reason for Christmas and what our Savior has done for us. Until next time.

Just Before Christmas

2008-12-23T12:30:00.006-07:00

Trying to catch up on some things with the family.

Grandma's house is already to have things fixed up. We have everything connected. She called Rocky Mountain Power to tell them that things are ready and they said that they will be ready ........................................................................................................................after the holidays. They are so busy right now they don't have time, so Grandma won't be able to move in until after Christmas and New Year's. She is pretty upset about it all. I would be too. We were hoping for before Christmas, but what can you do? Once the power is turned on, then the people will come in and tie things up. So that is the news with the house.

Last Sunday, our family and Briant Teichert's family went over to the rest home to sing Christmas songs. We had dinner first, then practiced a little, then made the trip. It was a lot of fun. It was like a mini Tabernacle Choir there singing. McKenzie had a beautiful Jon Schmidt Christmas song on the piano ready, but they didn't have a piano ready for us. So we sang everything a cappella, a copalla, a copala, ah heck without the piano.

The elementary Christmas play was on Monday and Kennan was the star. He really did a great job singing. People just couldn't believe it. I'll try to get a clip ready so you can watch him sing, but he did a fantastic job. This was his reindeer outfit. He forgot his antlers.

Today was the high school party. We did white elephant gifts, watched a movie, and then had Sully Claus give out the presents. Santa couldn't make it because he was over at the elementary and Panther Claus is at a national mascot convention in the Bahamas. So Sullivan Teichert dressed up. Here is a picture of McKenzie getting her present.

Kandyce and her friend came up to watch the play and go sledding. Yes we do have a little bit of snow. Kandyce will be here for the rest of the holidays. It is always fun to have her home with us.

By now you all know that Shari had the boys. They are soooooooo cute. They look like me, all hairy. Ellen will be heading to Georgia on the 6th of January. She is really excited to see the babies. Now maybe we'll get tons of pictures.

Brady is doing just great. He has a new Russian speaking companion from California. They are both zone leaders. He has only 6 months left on his mission. I don't know if I told this but the other day in Spanish II, Coach Linford was watching a Cael Sanderson wrestling video because he had about 5 minutes of class left. He noticed McKenzie getting really somber. He asked her if everything is okay, she said yes, then he asked her if she missed Brady. She started to cry a little and said yes. I thought that was kind of neat that watching a wrestling video made her think of Brady.

Breanne came up a couple of weeks ago to help Ellen do her digital scrapbooking. Breanne has such a talent. She stayed overnight and went to the ward Christmas party. I'm hoping that Greg and her will come up over the holidays to visit.

The sports teams had two games cancelled because of bad weather. They were both with Dubois. They played the North Gem gems (inside joke) at North Gem and the girls JV team was the only one that came away with a victory. The wrestlers are doing awesome. They took 8th at the Evanston tournament, and took 5th at the Star Valley duals and took second as a team at the North Summit tournament. They are such studs. FYI, I was able to get enough sponsor money to buy some new equipment that we are going to test for our sports schedule. I will also be doing all of the home games via the internet, so please check the sports schedule at http://www.cokeville.com/ and watch Channel 39 on the internet. I'm excited about it. But the equipment won't get here until after Christmas, I hope.

One last thing, somebody told me that you can have your blogs printed out in a book form. If so, please let me know how you can do that. What a way to keep a diary and have fun doing it. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas.

Update on Grandma's House

2008-12-13T15:21:00.010-07:00

Okay, here is an update of the things (with pictures) that have been going on at Grandma's house. I'm afraid that she won't be able to get in by Christmas. The people came to fix the inside of the house, but they said they can't do anything until ALL utilities are connected to the house. The contract never said anything about that, so we have been working really hard to get things ready. Then we find out that Rocky Mountain Power works on their schedule and nobody else's. The water is ready to connect, the power is ready to connect on Monday as well as the sewer line. Once all that is connected then Rocky Mountain will come in and turn on the power (on the day which they would like to do it) which will then allow us to call the workers to come in and fix the inside of the house. So here are some pictures. Here is the front of the house waiting to be put into position.

This is the back of the house being put into position. It was amazing how close they could get the house to the foundation so they could put a railing under the house to move it into position.

The next day they came and jacked up the back of the house and put it on a railing. Then they used winches to pull the house across the foundation to put it into place. This picture shows the house almost to it's proper position.

Now you can see the two houses close to each other. The left is the back of the house, I'm facing south. The right side shows the house is on the tracks and they are just removing garbage so they can link the two houses together.

I'm looking through the back window showing the front of the house as it is coming together.

This picture shows how the house is supported under it. There are a lot of these little triangle things that hold the house up. Some are on the cement and others are on cement blocks in different parts under the house.

Before they could connect the two halves, they had to raise the roofs. They are hinged roofs and they used a jack system to crank up the roof.

Once the roof was raised, then the worker would nail the boards together to hold it. Each one of the boards were nailed together on both halves. This took up most of the day.

This next shot shows the two halves together. The next day, the workers came and finished sealing the outside of the house together.

This is the front of grandma's house. It is definitely a lot bigger than her old house. The lower right you can see her driveway. It is further back on the lot and goes right next to the old garden. She told the workers they could drive through her raspberry bushes, they did and there is no more raspberry bushes. The workers were also very clean. They made sure they didn't leave even a tiny piece of garbage. That is all I have for now. I need to take a few showing the trenches they had to dig to put the water line in, the sewer, and the power. Also Ellen will need to go inside to take some pictures to show you a little of what it looks like. By the way, Carole, her bathroom is tan with brown counter tops.

We had our annual gingerbread decorating competition again. This time is was between Kandcye and her friend Clay against mom and Kennan. It was a very competitive competition.

This is a close up of Kandyce's and Clay's house. They were more frugal with the candy, but mom and Kennan stole most of the candy to make a candy walkway.

Here are the winners. I was the judge and I just couldn't pick who would win, so I cheated and called it a tie. Mom and Kennan.

Clay Bolton and Kandyce. Just a friend from school who wanted to see what Cokeville was all about.

Kennan is finishing playing junior high basketball. He plays both on the 7th grade team and the 8th grade team. He plays one quarter of 7th and the rest on the 8th. Here he is stealing the ball against Farson. They beat Farson both times they played, their only wins of the season.

Of course Coach Toomer and I are the officials of the games and no there was no special treatment. I am a very fair and impartial official. Besides, I get paid a lot of money to do it.

Musical & Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T17:40:00.005-07:00

Last week was the school musical. They did the play West Side Story. It was the first time that they ever did a serious play. It was okay, but I really like the comedies. McKenzie was a "Shark" because of her brown eyes and dark hair. Her dancing partner was Bronson Teichert. She did a great job. The whole cast did a good job. Laurel and her boys, Heather and Cassidy came up to watch the play. Here she is doing a dance to the song "America".

Here she is with her partner Bronson at the end of the song and dance "America".

We went down to Provo for Thanksgiving. We left Wednesday to go watch my nephew Brandon Davies play basketball for Provo High School. He has signed to play for BYU next year. He got into early foul trouble and didn't play a lot until the fourth quarter. It was like one of the officials was after him. He couldn't even breath without getting a foul called on him. I felt sorry for him. But he did a good job and it was fun to watch him play. By the way, he is 6' 9". Here he is with Kennan.

We ate at Laurel's house. You might call it the place for the leftovers to have Thanksgiving dinner. Jayne and her family was their, Tiffany and her boyfriend, Kathy and her family, Grandpa Davies, and Aunt Veline and all of us were there. It was fun and the dinner was good and the pies were delicious. Here is Kandyce and I waiting for the meal to be done.

We went to the movies later that day. Some went to see Bolt and some others went to Madagascar 2. The next morning mom and I went and did the early shopping, if you can call 7:00 a.m. early. We really did see any reason to go early so we just went out and about. A lot of the things they had on sale could have been bought online. There were a few things that they lured you into their stores, but all in all it was just an ordinary day of shopping. Kandyce did help me to buy mom something for Christmas. She will be sooooo excited, I can't wait. Kandyce took time off from her boyfriend to be with us, but of course through the magic of technology, they weren't separated that much.

McKenzie has ball games on the road this coming weekend. Kandyce and her boyfriend are coming up to watch Kennan play on Saturday. At his last game he scored a couple of three pointers. His coach told me that Kennan got ruffled by the other teams defense. It was a good learning experience for him. Mom is getting excited for Christmas. According to family tradition we will be putting up the tree tomorrow night for FHE. It is that time of year. Brady had roast beef for Thanksgiving. He and the other elders cooked it, I wonder how it tasted. We'll find out Wednesday.

One last bit of news, grandma's house should be here tomorrow or Tuesday. Fun fun. Here's is one more just because.

Grandma's House

2008-11-22T15:06:00.015-07:00

So we've been talking about grandma's house coming down and a new one being put into its place, now we figured we better post some pictures. So here goes. It will take a while to upload the pics to our blog. The first picture is of the house when grandma was living in it.

This next picture is after taking the windows out (they were new windows) and also taking the roof off. Also the front door (it was new, too). Notice some cabinets off to the side. Some people came in and took some cabinets to use in their garages or shops or what ever. I went upstairs to look around and behind the drawers I found a glass doorknob (worth about $500) and two fire extinguisher grenades. Here is the fire extinguisher.

These are glass bulbs that are thrown at the base of a fire and break to put the fire out. They are rare because they are made to be broken. One has the color really faded, but the other when cleaned up looks brand new. They officially stop making them in 1910, but some companies still made them up to 1945.

Ellen didn't make it when they started to knock the house down so we didn't get any pictures of them actually knocking the house down. This is just after the fact.

The next picture is the pile after hauling some of the stuff to the dump. It took just over 1 1/2 days to haul it off. I took a half a day off to help haul things. It really wasn't that bad. The weather has been very cooperative.

The next two pictures are after they hauled everything they could to the dump. All of this stuff fell into the basement. The walls of the basement were over a foot thick so we couldn't knock it down with the equipment we had. So they burned everything in the basement. The fire department came just to make sure that nothing got out of hand. I guess it was quite the little marshmallow roasting party.

This is just a pic from the street so you can see what it all looks like. Notice the two bushes that were in front so hopefully you can picture where the front door used to be.

So the company came in and dug out the dirt to start putting in the foundation. Grandma isn't having a basement in because she doesn't want to have stairs in the house. Maybe you can see how big the house is going to be. If you look to the bottom of the screen you can see the ties that form the north of her garden. The house is definitely longer.

You may wonder what ever happened to the basement. Well, Stan was talking with the framers and they asked him what he was going to do with the basement. He said he was going to have to haul in dirt to fill it up. They said that they would love to put the dirt that they dig up and use it to fill in the basement. So that is what they did. They had so much dirt that they have plenty left over. Now they are putting in the forms for the pouring of the cement.

This last one is after they poured the cement. They came today to finish pouring the cement to form the foundation. Hopefully we'll get some pictures of that.

Grandma is sooooooooooo excited for all of this to happen and so are we. She has been so patient in living where she has been. When we were hauling off the wood, we found some of the old logs (it used to be a log home) that at some time or another that had caught fire. Why the house didn't burn down, we don't know. Then in the northeast corner of the house, most of the logs were rotten. Once again how the house just didn't fall in we don't know. It is amazing how fast things have happened. The first of October is when mom decided to build a new house and now the company says that they will bring the house on December 2nd and she should be in the house before Christmas. What a Christmas present.

FYI the house was built in 1924. Uncle Ron was born in the house in 1926. My great grandmother raised her family there (11 kids) and also 6 grandkids. I found some homework in the attic from one of the grandkids. I think the stucco was put on the house around 1948 and it was remodeled in 1984 or about. My great uncles (Dave and Aaron) said they had lost a baseball mitt when they were kids in between the stucco and the logs, but we never found it. Grandma did find a 1941 nickel under the front porch.

Stay tune for more on the house. By the way, the school musical has been this week and we'll post some pictures of McKenzie and maybe a little video too. They did the musical West Side Story.

News from Wyoming

2008-11-09T16:28:00.008-07:00

Boy, it has been a while since I last blogged. My bad. I shall attempt the repentance process as soon as possible so that my evil sins will be cast away and scattered among confines of wicked practices.

Let's see, first the most important thing of all, volleyball. Yes the team has come through and won another state championship. We won regionals and played Burlington for the regional championship. It went 5 games and it was a great game. We prevailed in the 5th by a score of 15-8. So now we go to State and open with Arvada-Clearmont. We shut them down by holding there best player to just a few kills here and there. We won in three. Next we played Farson. Yes that is Farson. They won their first ever game at state by beating Hulett, the returning state champion. It was also a good game. We didn't actually play well, but we won in 4 games. This put us into the championship again and it was against Burlington. We didn't start out too well, until McKenzie went back to serve. Kennan took these pictures. McKenzie serving in one of the games.

We were down 6 to 2. By the time she was done serving, we were up 11 to 6 and never looked back and won 25-20. The second game we had a let down. We lost 24-26. We trailed most of the time, but manage to come back and tie it at 24. But the girls never lost focus and came out and drilled Burlington in the third 25-12. In the fourth game we were way out in front. I kept thinking if we could just side out we would win. Burlington made a great run, but we held on and won 25-23, thus winning state for the once since 2001. It was great.

We stayed the night and the bus was met by the Cokeville fans with a police escort on into town. We had an assembly the following Wednesday where the three seniors spoke, two of the senior dads, coach Toomer and I also spoke. I then showed a highlight of the state game to end all things. What a great feeling it is to win. Next year should be just as good. We have the players to replace the seniors with out any problems at all. We will be shorter, but we'll have more experience. We played 8 underclassmen all season long. This picture is of McKenzie and her friend Lauren Fiscus just before their first game at state. Mom thought it was a cool picture so.......

The football team had to go to Southeast to play in the semi-finals for football. It was a good game, but Cokeville just couldn't put the ball across the goal line. They lost 7-2. It was too bad, I really thought that they would win and that Hulett would beat Burlington and Cokeville would have hosted the championship, but it didn't happen. They boys did have a good season and they will miss some pretty good seniors. These seniors were hard workers in the weight room. Sometimes, you have to lose to light a fire under some people to get them to work hard. I just feel for the coaching staff. Cokeville's football coaches are by far the best in the state of Wyoming. We really don't have any good athletes, and they do a very good job for what they get. They always compete to the very end. Their only losses were by 5 or fewer points.

Kennan has started junior high basketball. He played in his first game last Thursday. He scored 3 points in the 8th grade game and 1 point in the 7th grade game. He plays a lot on the 8th grade team. I'm not bragging or anything, but his fundamentals are very good, probably better than anybody else on the team. Both junior high coaches came and talked to me about him. They both want him to play on their teams. I ended up refereeing his game. In the 7th grade, he started to get a little cocky and started to do some NBA junk. Afterwards I asked him if his coaches taught him those things. He said no and I told him then don't do them, do what your coaches want. This week the sixth grade is going to Yellowstone for the week, so he'll miss a couple of away games. His coaches told him to take a basketball with him. I really think that he will try to.

McKenzie is excited about winning state and now has a couple of weeks off to prepare for basketball. This past week she has been coming home and doing homework. I think on Monday she will stay after and shoot some hoops and try to get ready. She has also been practicing for the musical. She is excited about that.

Kandyce called and informed us that she will be able to graduate next fall. She is really excited about that. She is really tired of school. Mom and I went to Logan to the temple and took Kandyce and Breanne out to dinner. It was fun to visit with them for a while. We took Breanne with us to show her grandma's new home that she just bought. Grandma Norene is tearing down her old home and putting a new home up. We will move all of her big stuff on Tuesday of this week and start tearing things down on Wednesday. The guy told us that if things work out just right, she'll be in her home before Christmas. What a Christmas present. She'll have enough room in her new home that nobody will feel crowded. We are excited for her.

Brady is doing well on his mission. He told us that he got to meet Stephen R. Covey. He said that he is a really smart man and that Brady couldn't understand some of the things he was saying. He got to listen to conference in Latvian. He is still in Jelgava. This makes 7 months that he has been there. I just wonder if they are keeping him there to finish up creating a branch. He and his companion have been successful and have had some baptisms, but they want to find a special family. They had a pumpkin carving activity at the church. The people have never heard of such a thing. They had a lot of fun doing it as you can see from the picture he sent us.

Mom has been taking pictures of families and trying to do things like Breanne and Ashley. She just loves to take pictures. I'd like to get her a new camera that she can work with, but she keeps saying that she'll just learn how to use her old one. She has yet to do that, so maybe I should wait.

Now that volleyball is over, I can focus on getting Channel 39 up and running better. We've been having a hard time converting our programs over because the converter program that I had been using just crashed and it won't run and I can't find another program that I can use. Also things at the school are crashing and we keep losing connections. We have to find out why the connection to the auditorium won't work. Oh well, such is life.

The Lord has truly blessed our family and I know it is because of Brady serving a mission. We still have family prayers, family scripture study, and family home evening. The Lord, through his prophets, has promised us blessings and that we won't fear if we do these things. Until next time.

Cokeville Wyoming News

2008-10-19T17:02:00.004-06:00

Okay, so it has been awhile. I get so frustrated because our slow internet, but when you live out of town, you don't get the perks of a good DSL. So here is some news from Cokeville.

Kris Coates married Tony Cornia on Friday October 18. Ellen and McKenzie helped out in the kitchen. It was a like an old Cokeville town reunion. Many people were in attendance. It was fun to see all of the former Cokeville people come back to town.

Kennan played in his last football game against Lyman. Lyman had a kid that made me look like Kennan. He had more hair on his face than I ever thought. Needless to say, Cokeville got beat 14-2. Lyman scored a touchdown with 10 seconds left in the game. As if it would have matter, but it made them feel good about themselves. Kennan actually almost had an interception during that game. He jumped up and was bringing the ball down when someone ran into him and knocked the ball out. He starts basketball on Monday. Kandyce came home and brought him some b-ball shoes. He told his mother that he has to curl his toes in his old shoes. Thanks for telling us just before the season starts. He is really excited for it to start.

The football team got beat by Burlington two weeks ago. The score was 7-6 in a huge snowstorm. Because of the loss, Cokeville will have to travel for the playoffs. Last Thursday they played Dubois. Dubois only had 12 kids on the team and one them left his helmet back in Dubois. The score was 28-0 by the end of the first quarter. In fact, at one point, Cokeville intercepted a pass and ran it down to about the 15 yard line, Coach Dayton had them try a field goal on first down because he knew they could score a touchdown. I can't even remember the final score, something like 49-0. I tried to get the game on the internet, but we found the problem with the connection between the school and the crows nest, but we added some things and forgot to fix the internet connection. So for now, Channel 39 will not be up and running on the internet until further notice. It should be up and running before basketball season starts.

The volleyball team continues to roll. We won all of the conference games with Hanna, Encampment, Little Snake River, and Farson. The games weren't even that close. When we were coming home from the overnighter, we ran into a huge snowstorm on I-80. The tunnels by Green River were closed, but we were able to go around through Green River. It took over 6 hours to come home that night. The JV went to the Bear Lake JV tournament yesterday. They won their pool easily. The beat Star Valley (yea!!), Soda Springs, and Highland. In the bracket play the beat Century out of Pocatello in three games. In the third they came from behind to win it 15-13. So that put them in the championship with Bear Lake. Bear Lake was the only team to push us to three games. It was going to be a fun game. I played the freshmen the first game just to make sure the parents felt good about their kids playing in a championship match. We lost 25-22. The second game Bear Lake jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead before we sided out. McKenzie went back to serve and I have never seen anything like what she did. She scored the next 22 points!! By the time Bear Lake sided out the score was 23-2. We won 25-4. Bear Lake is a good passing team and McKenzie just served them off of the court. One of their players shanked a pass and looked over to the coach and said, "Wow!" So in the third we quickly fall behind 6-0 but battle back to tie the score 13-13. They called time out and I told them that their tall girl will tip so watch for the tip. McKenzie was all over the tip twice, but on the third the girl tipped to the other side and our defensive person for some reason was back in bookoo 40. They won the point and went on to win 15-13. What can you say, the girls really did play well except for the final two points. For the whole day, McKenzie had 24 aces while serving 83 times. This equates to every 4 serves, one will be an ace. Not bad. She did tweek her knee, so she is hobbling around. The girls will start Regional play on Friday in Lander. We don't know who we play yet.

Kandyce came home to watch McKenzie play. She told me her intramural team won the volleyball again for the second year in a row. She and some of her old teammates from Western Wyoming formed a team called The Spartans. She is doing well considering for the last week she had been sick with a cold.

Brady is still doing well in Latvia. He has had a couple of more baptisms. They are still trying to get a branch formed there in Jelgava. They keep getting a lot of people coming to church. Hopefully they will continue to do so. Here is one of the pictures he sent us. They were going for the "boy band look".

Ellen is helping my mom a lot lately. My mom wants to tear down her old home and put a new one in its place. We've been looking at floor plans with her on the internet. Tomorrow they are going to Logan to actually look at some homes.

I'm still being Bill. I've had a great year coaching the JV team. Of course it is always fun when you win. I think our varsity team is going to be good for a while. I wanted to add more pictures but I can't connect to the server at the high school to get some, so I'll have to try again later.

Conference

2008-10-05T18:33:00.003-06:00

This is going to be short because our internet is very, very slow right now. I won't be putting any pictures on.

Conference was great. We watched all of the sessions as a family. Kandyce came up to be with us. It was fun to have her with us. Can't wait for the November Ensign to come out so I can read the talks. I enjoyed Elder Wirthlen's talk.

The football team won again. They beat Hanna at Hanna 46-0. Mt. View has been the only team to score on the Panthers. The volleyball team lost a heartbreaker to Rich on Thursday. (I know I told everyone it was to be on Wednesday, my bad). We lost the first game 25-22, then we were up 24-21 in the second, but got beat 26-24, then we rolled over and died the last game. The next night we went to Pinedale and beat them pretty good. This week is our overnighter to LSRV, Encampment, and Hanna. The JV is undefeated so far. The freshmen were until this last week and it was like they had never played volleyball in their life. It wasn't the best.

The family is doing well and the weather is starting to get colder. The leaves are changing and the countryside is gorgeous!! Heavenly Father is putting on a great show. Make sure you watch it. Reminder, if you want to watch anything via the internet, just let me know what you want to watch and at what time and I'll set it up for you.

Homecoming 2008

2008-09-28T14:43:00.016-06:00

Okay, before I start getting hate mail, I want to apologize for the broadcasting of the football game. We had a major equipment malfunction between the crows nest and the auditorium. We tried for three hours trying to figure out what was wrong. We (Coach Toomer and I) do have it narrowed down to a handful of possibilities. We just couldn't get things to work. I hope by the next home football game, it'll be up and running. I know many were trying to call and let us know, but the crows nest was the only place where things were not working. My bad, but it will get fixed.

Homecoming was very successful. Once again for the third year in a row the Yearbook did not win the best float competition. What is the matter with those judges? Can't they see talent that is right in front of them? Here is Kennan with some of his buddies at the street rally.

The picture above is what the sophomore girls think about being around boys later in the evening. And the one below is McKenzie just learning how to spell her name. Notice how she spelled the "z"? Very good McKenzie!!

The week long celebrations were fun. For Thursday night, the juniors lit the bon fire by shooting flaming arrows into it.

I was up on the hill watching with Coach Dayton and Coach Linford and it was pretty cool where we were. Since Brady's senior year I have gone up on the hill to video and take pictures of the senior football players lighting the "C". It is fun to be up there with the four football coaches, coaches I feel are the best in the state or any where. I look up to each one of them.

After the "C" was lit, we three stayed to make sure the fire wouldn't get away and burn the hill down. We even had fire extinguishers. Linford's fire extinguisher didn't work and Dayton's was like a cloud when he used it. When things were calm, we walked back up to the truck and Dayton put his extinguisher in the back of the truck, and it went off and sprayed the whole back of the truck before he was able to put it out. It was so funny. Here is a picture of the sophomore class on Thursday night. Typical boys, trying to impress people with their thinking ability.

The next day during the program, they celebrated Coach Keith Nate's receiving a gold card. It is an honor that the WHSAA gives to coaches or people who have exemplified many years of service in their coaching. It was broadcasted via the internet. I hope you were able to watch some of it. The parade was good and short. The football game was fun and exciting. The boys won 42-0 over Wyoming Indian. Here is Sullivan Teichert breaking into the open for a long td run.

Here is a picture of the crowd at half time. Does it bring back memories?

Wyoming Indian is a team of the future. They have a lot of young players who will be pretty good down the road. The volleyball game was pretty good also. Kemmerer wanted revenge on us, but it wasn't even that close. The JV won pretty easily and the varsity also won pretty convincingly. And of course, later on the dance was held. It was kind of funny because after about two hours of dancing, everybody went home with still and hour left for dancing. It was a great week-end.

Kandyce came home to watch McKenzie play. I didn't even recognize her, she was wearing a hat.

Mom took a bunch of pictures of Kandyce. Here is one that I liked.

Breanne also came up on Saturday to take Violet Teichert's announcement pictures and also her wedding dress pictures. I'm sure Breanne will post some of them on her blog page. Check them out, Violet looks really good.

McKenzie played in the varsity game as a defensive specialist/server. Her serves have gotten pretty good. She was asked by Rowland Briggs to wear his football jersey. No, it isn't anything serious. He likes one of her best friends. Speaking of jersey's, I guess over at the elementary there was a lot of drama about who was going to wear whose jersey. One little fourth grader said that he only plays pee wee football and he only has one jersey and he didn't really want to give the girl his jersey because he wanted to wear it. Personal opinion, bag the jersey stuff until you are in high school and even then, why?

Kennan had a bit of a disappointment this week. He didn't play a lot in the football game against Star Valley. They didn't have a "B" team because they brought their big 8th graders. Cokeville got beat by only 4 points, but the coaches were not going to play the small 6th graders against the big 8th grade. Star Valley was suppose to bring their 7th grade team so they could play a "B" game. Coach Linford wasn't too happy about what Star Valley did, but he was proud of how the team played.

Ellen is being busy taking pictures of people. The trees are changing colors and it is really pretty here. She went with Breanne to help her take pictures of Violet.

Bill is Bill. By the way, if there is anything that you want to watch via the internet from Channel 39, let me know and I will set it up for what ever time that you want. You can email me at bthompson@lcsd2.org to let me know and I'll see what I can do. This Wednesday will be the last home volleyball game for Cokeville. We will be playing Rich County. Should be a good match. Stay tune and I'll have things ready to show.

One other bit of news. My sister from Alaska came down for a visit. She wanted to stay for the homecoming activities, but she wasn't able to get that much time off from her work. She came over to the school and Ellen took a picture of her and my mom and me.

So now you get to see me. Aren't you lucky?

We're Baaaack!!

2008-09-21T21:17:00.012-06:00

And you thought you would never hear from us again. It has been a very busy couple of weeks. School and all that stuff. So here is what is happening in Cokeville. The football team is still undefeated. They played Evanston JV and then Mt. View just last Friday. They killed Evanston and beat Mt. View by a close game. This week is Homecoming, so all you former Cokeville-ites, come and celebrate, oh, that's right, you guys have other lives. I'll try to post some pictures of homecoming. I hope you noticed that Shari was able to watch the live broadcast of one of the volleyball games. I'll have things up and running so that you can watch the football and the volleyball game live. It just depends on how fast we can take the equipment down from the football game and bring it to the gym for the volleyball game. Just go to www.Cokeville.com and click on the CHS Broadcast button, then hit the launch webcast button. Wait a bit, and then it should come on. During the week, I'll have it off for maintenance stuff, but hopefully, by next week you'll be able to watch Channel 39 all of the time from your computer. Isn't technology fun? So make sure you watch football and volleyball this Friday starting at 1:30 pm.

The volleyball team had a great two weeks. They beat Mt. View and Big Piney two weeks ago and then beat Bear Lake and Kemmerer this past week. They then went to Thermopolis and won the tournament there. They played Cody for the championship. For homecoming they will play Kemmerer again. It should be a great match. Kemmerer is a lot better than they used to be.

Kandyce, I think is still going to school at Utah State. Haven't heard from her for awhile. Probably doing what all college kids do............hardy party!!!! No she just called and she is doing just fine at school.

Brady is now a zone leader in his mission. He feels overwhelmed for the call, but he'll do a great job. He is still trying to form a branch in Jelgava. He actually gets to stay in Jelgava as the leader. He's pretty excited about that. He said they had 18 people show up for church last Sunday. He is loving his mission.

McKenzie is doing well in school. She is in the school musical. They are doing Westside Story. Because of her brown eyes and dark hair she is member of the "Sharks" in the play. She is setting for the JV and is a serving specialist on the varsity. Against Big Piney, she served 20 points in a row. I was hoping for a sweep, but just fell short.

Kennan is still playing football. Their team got beat by Pinedale last week. He plays on the "B" team because he is sooooo big. (I'm being sarcastic). He did get a couple of tackles and a couple of knock downs. He plays cornerback and loves it.

Ellen just got back from spending a large amount of time with her sisters. They stayed at Park City and had nothing but fun. Here is Park City from the tram they took.

They have been doing this for the last couple of years. All of her sisters get together and stay a couple of days somewhere and just have a sister's outing. With 10 sisters, I'm sure anybody could join them and nobody would know the difference. They had all of them there but one. And here are all of the sisters but Jane.

A fun time was had by all. Ellen is in the primary presidency and they just had their primary program for sacrament meeting. It was my first time also. Yes, I am now in the primary teaching the Valiant 10 class. There are 15 kids in the class. Amazing what a baseball bat can do to keep order with so many students. I just love it.

And finally, Bill is Bill.

Ellen wanted me to post some pictures that she took at Park City so here are some that she wanted people to see. Here is a picture of the home that Ellen's mother and grandmother used to live in. This isn't in Park City but she went to visit her dad and they drove around Springville.

Here is a some pictures of the trip to Park City. Lindsay can you tell where Ellen is hiding?

Of course the leaves are changing.

Ellen said she really liked this old building.

Just playing around with the foliage in Park City. Look familiar Lindsay?

More Boring Stuff

2008-09-07T14:55:00.005-06:00

So it has been a week since I posted last. I just have to let you all know what is going on in the big town of Cokeville, Wyoming and the Thompson family. Our biggest challenge has been in helping Shari come up with some good (notice I said good, not cute) boys names. Of course she will reject every name I've given her, you know like Billy Bob Benjamin and Bob Billy Benjamin Davis, or Jakob William and Ammon Scott William Davis. It must be something about the name Bill or William. Shari, it has to be a manly name, not cute. By the way, William is in the top ten most popular names EVER!!!

Kandyce is doing well at school. We don't hear from her, but we know she is alive. Brady is doing sumo primo on his mission. He had a baptism last week and was to have one yesterday. He is loving life there in Latvia. Here is a picture of his baptism. They were cleaning out the limbs and garbage before the performed the ordinance. We have been praying that he and his companions and the other elders in his district will be able to form a branch there in Jelgava.

Breanne is also doing well as you can see from all of her posts. Bre, you need to get a new computer. They have some nice ones at apple.com.

Kennan and McKenzie are doing well in school. Of course here is the annual picture of the kids on their first day of school. (Sorry it was late posting, they've only been in school since August).

Kennan played in his first junior high football game on Saturday. I didn't get to see it, but he said he did alright. It was more of a jamboree. All of the 6th graders make up the 7th grade team. He said that on defense, he was the cornerback and the opponents quarterback (a very big kid according to Coach Briant Teichert) ran around the end and the only one between him and the goal line was Kennan. Kennan ran up to him and the kid lowered his shoulder and ran right over the top of him. But Kennan held on to the kid and pulled him down for the tackle. It knocked the wind out of Kennan, but he was really happy. Coach Teichert said that Kennan made such a great tackle that he (Kennan) got a little emotional. He had tears in his eyes, if you get my meaning. Kennan's first home game will be Tuesday, stay tune for more pictures and updates.

McKenzie is the setter for the JV team and is a serving specialist on the varsity. They played Evanston last Wednesday. The freshmen and JV won, but the varsity lost in 5 really close games. In game four McKenzie scored the last 4 points to win the match. She had two aces during that run. For the weekend the varsity went to Pocatello to the Highland tournament. They did really good. They finished 5th out of 17 teams. Out of the top 6 teams, 3 were from our pool on Friday. They beat some big 5A schools. We get a little following when people find out that we only have 90 kids in the entire school (7th thru 12th grade) and we can compete with the big boys (I should say girls).

The boys football team played Shoshoni and won 42 to 0. It was 35-0 at halftime. I don't know all of the details, but I'll try to find out. If you are really interested, I think I've found a way to get Channel 39 on the internet. I'll be doing some test runs this coming week to see if it will work. Then you that are far from home will be able to watch Channel 39 on your computers. We'll see.

Ellen and I are fat and happy. I mean we really are FAT and happy. I'm not eating as much as I used to, but I need to exercise. I do have a big problem with my foot and I'm scared to start playing basketball in the mornings because of the pain it causes, but I have to start some time. We miss our married kids and grandchild, but we know they are happy where they are and they know they will always be welcomed when they come home. We'll even let them bring their husbands. They are always welcomed here.

Just an after thought. We were playing Madison High School yesterday and the girl who was helping with the books kept yelling at the setter, "Lets go Shar. Come on Shar." So I asked her what the name of the setter was, she said "Shari". I told her that I had a daughter named Shari. She laughed and I asked her if there was a Breanne on the team, she said yes, the middle hitter. I told her that I had a daughter named Breanne. I then asked if there was a Kandyce, she said no. Holly Grandy was with me and she asked if there was a McKenzie on the team and she said "no, but Shari's older sister's name is McKenzie." Was that ever a Twilight Zone.

Cokeville News

2008-08-31T16:19:00.006-06:00

So we just had the big Cokeville volleyball tournament. Alta High School played Campbell County for the championship. Alta won in four. Your Cokeville team did okay, but fell to Campbell County in four the first round and struggled against Bear Lake to end up getting beat out. The match of the day was between Bonneville out of Idaho Falls and Alta. The fifth game the score was 13 to 8, favor of Bonneville. Alta started to make a run. The score on the scoreboard showed 14 to 10 favor Bonneville. Bonneville called a timeout, during the timeout, the officials noticed the scoreboard had the wrong score, it should have been 13 to 11. The change was made against complaints by Bonneville. (The rule states that the official book is the correct book no matter what and it was 13 to 11). After the timeout, Alta continued its run and ended winning 15 to 13. What a comeback! It was great volleyball. For those of you who remember an official from Preston, Idaho, Randy Moser (the guy with the zipper problem), hung up his whistle by tying it to the bottom of the net. After over 30 years, he had decided to call it quits as an official. It was quite emotional.

The football team had a scrimmage against Wind River. This scrimmage was for three quarters and the fourth was mainly a practice session. I guess Cokeville didn't do so well, but the coaches had high hopes for the coming season.

With all of the excitement of volleyball and football going on in Cokeville, the greatest news was finding out that Shari is going to have twin boys. Boys, what a shock that was. We were expecting girls at the least, not boys. Way to go Ben!! Grandma Norene was telling me that she has the same number of grandsons as granddaughters. Her great-granddaughters were ahead by two, but with the knowledge of these two new ones, she now has the same number of great-grandsons as great-granddaughters, that is why Shari was to have boys.

Sorry, no pictures this week, but I hope to have some by next week. We love viewing everyone's posts, I should say Ellen loves it, I'm too busy to catch everyones. Keep the posting going.

Olympics and School

2008-08-24T14:50:00.009-06:00

So I'm here at the computer checking out the last of the Olympic events and I thought I'd better check the kids' blogs. On Breanne's, I noticed that we hadn't updated for 3 weeks! Oh well, now I have tons of things to talk about.

Three weeks ago was the fair. McKenzie and Kennan took their lambs up to show them. I thought the lambs looked really good, but the judge (who was blind in one eye and couldn't see out of the other) didn't think so. All though the lamb McKenzie showed did take 5th in its group. Ellen and I took the camper up the week before to reserve our spot. It was right next to the barn where the animals were kept.

When we went up on Monday, I stayed the night with them. At 4:30 in the morning, somebody at the fair decided that they would wash their pigs. So for the next hour and a half, you could here the pigs squeal, water running, people talking (by the way, I know it wasn't kids who got up, it was their parents who did all of the work), trucks starting (another by the way, a law should be in place for how many times you can start a diesel truck that early in the morning, the guy must not know how to start it because he practiced 15 times!), and all other noises. So I got up and left to go back to Cokeville to cut hay for Stan.

Here is McKenzie and Kennan washing their lambs before the big show. Aren't they just loving it all?

Friday of that week was the big sale of the animals. I went for the first time because Uncle Ron (who usually buys our lambs) was sick and couldn't go. He had asked me to bid on the lambs for him. I didn't know how much he was willing to spend. Stan ended up going there also to do a little campaigning. He was running for Lincoln County Commissioner. I just told him to bid on the lambs. As it turned out, the kids didn't sell their lambs until at the end, almost 5 hours later!. It was so boring, just waiting and waiting. I thought it was run very poorly. To make matters worse, if you didn't have a buyer before hand to buy your lambs, you wouldn't get much money. I felt sorry for the kids who didn't have a buyer.

Kennan is showing his lamb at the auction. McKenzie is with the lambs after the auction. All in all the kids did a good job and got a fair price for their lambs, thanks to Uncle Ron for buying and Stan for doing the buying for Ron. The family had fun at the fair, but I'm not a fair goer so I didn't care to much for it all.

Kandyce has been spending time at home before she left for school. She needed the rest to help her recover from her sickness. She is doing great. She went to St. George to visit a former companion and also went to a wedding. She also visited with a guy that she was lined up with when we went to Mesquite to do a volleyball camp. She left for school yesterday and is all ready for it to start.

We went up Pine Creek with the Teichert family to have one last get together before we start school. Actually, I started school on the 20th, McKenzie started volleyball on the 18th and Kennan started junior high football on the 19th. Yes, Kennan is playing junior high football. So here are a couple of pictures of us all there.

We had a ball there like we always do. We just had hot dogs, chips, watermelon, and smores without the marshmallows. We forgot them.

Brady is also doing well on his mission. The district president and the mission president has challenged him to get a branch started in Jelgava by December. They moved in a couple or Russian speaking elders to help him and his companion. He is having some success. He does have some baptisms lined up for the end of the month. This is what their meeting house looks like, he's at the piano:

The last two weeks we have been spending time watching the Olympics. What a great two weeks to watch athletes try their best. Some were successful and others weren't. Ellen really enjoyed watching the swimming and how Michael Phelps did so well. What a specimen! Ellen used to be a swimmer when she was in high school. So this meant something to her. I tried to stay up late to watch the volleyball, but there were times I'd rather sleep. I was really excited for the mens team to win the gold medal, especially after what happened to Hugh McCutcheon's family. I met Hugh a number of years ago when he was still a player at BYU. He actually worked with my team when I was at Bear Lake. When we would go to BYU to watch the men's team play and Hugh was the assistant, he would talk with me. The assistant, Ron Larson, is also a friend of mine. I met him at a team camp in Idaho Falls. He also worked with my team when I was at Bear Lake. He used to coach San Diego's mens team. When they would play BYU, I would go and visit with him. He is a great guy. And of course, I know Ryan Millar. I actually played volleyball with him at a coaching/team camp. He and I played against Carl McGown and Scott Larkin. Ryan would say, "You play here and I'll block this half of the court." It was fun. Carl had me make sure Ryan did a good job with the camp. Of course when Lauren told me her sister married Ryan, that just made it all the more cool. But I just like to see the emotion of the athletes when they would try their best. Sometimes their best wasn't good enough. Just seeing how excited even the bronze medalist would get was fun. I would really like to get a highlight video of the men's volleyball team, especially their last three matches. Kennan liked to watch the USA mens basketball team. They did a great job also. It was a great two weeks for me.

With school starting, I'll try to keep you all up-to-date with the happenings at CHS. Make sure you go to www.cokeville.com for the opportunity to listen to games online and other happenings. We are trying to get some expensive equipment to be able to bring you video feeds of our games online. So if you have tons of money and you don't know what to do with it, just let me know because we could use it for Channel 39 Panther television.

Been Awhile

2008-08-01T15:43:00.001-06:00

Okay, so it has been awhile since we've posted last. Things just come up and I'm still reeling from the news that Shari is going to have twins. On Ben & Shari's blog, Ben mentioned how fast news can be spread. Well you know to get information out there quickly you use the two "tele" forms of communication, "telephone" and "tell a woman". (Kennan forced me to put that in.)

Just to catch you up on what has been happening in the Thompson household, Bill had the Wyoming Coaches Clinic in Casper on July 23 thru July 26. He and Ellen went and had a great time. Bill is on the Wyoming Coaches Board of Directors. He is representing volleyball and he had to plan for the clinic. He got Jeremiah Larsen, a young coach from Southeast Missouri State to come and do the clinic. Bill also received his 20 year coaching award. Yes, he is an old coach now. He also had to stay for the volleyball all-star match. Camille Petersen played in the match. When he got home, he had to go to Mesquite, Nevada with Kandyce to do a volleyball camp. If Shari thinks that 105 is hot, how about 112!!! for all four days of the camp!! The camp sessions were early in the morning so that the heat of the day wouldn't hurt the girls. They had fun.

This past week Ellen, McKenzie, and Kennan have been getting the lambs ready for fair which starts next week. They had to sheer the sheep and wash them and all that fun stuff. Bill and Ellen took their new camper up to the fair and picked out a nice spot to stay in. They should have a lot of fun up there. Last year they stayed in a tent and it rained and flooded them out. This year should be different.

Brady is doing most excellent on his mission. He is officially been out for more than one year. He is a district leader and has to go to district meetings every Friday in Riga. He has a new mission president who is making some changes. Brady tells his missionaries about the changes and he said they just whine, so he got mad at them and told them that if they will obey the new rules, they will have success. He has some baptisms lined up for this new month.

Sorry we have no new pictures to show. Once Lilli left, there was no use taking pictures of old people.

Cutting Hay

2008-07-14T20:31:00.001-06:00

Today is Shari and Lilli's last full day here in Cokeville. They are going to Provo to spend the night tomorrow because their flight on Wednesday is early in the morning. Here is a picture of Lilli saying goodbye to her aunt Kandyce. Kandyce left for a volleyball camp in Hulett, Wyoming. Just a 10 hour drive from Cokeville. Don't they just look wonderful?

I was down in the field cutting hay and apparently Lilli thought I wasn't doing a very good job. She convinced Ellen to take her down to the field so she could show me how it is done. Here she is getting into the swather while I was fixing something in the front.

Of course, once she got in, she immediately went to work driving the swather. She pushed many buttons and pulled lots of things. Especially changing my music.

But I finally took control of the situation and demanded that I be given another chance to prove that I can cut hay. I've only been doing it for ........ a very long time.

Once I proved that I could do it, we both left together, back on good terms with each other. She did tell me that I did a very good job and that it is now time to go have lunch.

One side note. When I went back to work, she actually changed some settings on the swather and I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Stan had to come and show me what was wrong. I guess I'm not as good as I thought.

Lake, Camping, & Shopping!!

2008-07-13T16:18:00.000-06:00

So Monday, the family went to the lake (Bear Lake for you out of towners). A fun time was had by all. Bre came up and met the family there. Of course, with my white body, I didn't go because of the fear I would cause with regards to being albino. Some of McKenzie's friends showed up. So here are some pictures to look at.

Bre and Lilli checking out places to take some pictures. Lilli of course is using her special "glasses" to help her see.

Who knows what Lilli is trying to do. I think it is just a ring toss that she thinks will help her swim in deep water.

Here is a mug shot that was taken the day a bunch of girls escaped from the insane asylum located in Evanston. Left to right is Holly Grandy, Lauren Fiscus, Hannah Dayton, Morgan Hoffman, McKenzie Thompson, Olivia Teichert, and Ana Cook. There was a reward out for their capture, but as you can see, it wasn't worth much to the people who were looking for them. For this reason, they are still out and about.

One thing that Shari forgot to tell Lilli and by the look on her face it just dawned on her too, there has to be water to go swimming. Apparently in Georgia, they don't have a lot of water.

Here is Shari, McKenzie, Lilli, Breanne, and Kennan after a long day at the lake. Kandyce was in Colorado doing a volleyball camp. What a family!!

Camping

So after the lake experience, we were suppose to go camping. That is what Shari wanted to do before she headed home. But when Mom told all of the kids to put sun screen on at the lake, nobody listened to her. Mom was the only one who did not get burned redder than a lobster. Everyone was so sore, they couldn't move. So we postponed the camping trip for a couple of days before everyone healed some what.

McKenzie had Youth Conference on Tuesday thru Thursday. The youth did a small trek in Idaho near Charleston. It is by Soda Springs. McKenzie had a good time, even though she was sore from the sunburn. When Mac got back, we went up Pine Creek to spend the night with mother nature.

This first picture shows how excited Lilli was about camping.

This next picture taken exactly five minutes later shows what Lilli really wanted to do.

When it came time to go to bed, it was nice to stay in the trailer. Everyone was asleep fast. About midnight thirty, mother nature called for Shari to come for a visit. Mom and her went for the visit. Shari got back to bed and Lilli woke up and started to cry. She was confused about where she was. An hour later after all of the wild animals migrated out of the 30 mile area, Lilli was still crying. I asked her if she wanted to go home and she kept saying, "home?, home?". So Shari took her home and they spent the night in a nice warm bed. They came up the next morning and had breakfast with us. Lilli actually had fun playing in the dirt and watching the fire, but she didn't care for the sleeping part. I had fun though.

Shopping

On July 12th, Mom took the family to Logan to go birthday shopping for McKenzie. They met up with Breanne so Bre could say goodbye to Lilli and Shari. They ate at Olive Garden, had ice cream at an ice cream place

(that usually makes sense, ice cream at an ice cream place) and increased the economy in Cache County. It was also a time to get a family picture of all of the sisters and here it is:

If you look really close, you can almost see the similarities between them. They just look like some good looking women to me. Apparently they all had a lot of fun and came away with a lot of stuff. Good thing I stayed home to work to pay the bills.

This last picture is a picture of all of the important women in my life. I couldn't ask the Lord for anything better or any better family. Lilli didn't want to show her face. She told me that there is enough pictures of her on this blog. Thanks to Kennan for taking the picture. Till later.

Fourth of July

2008-07-05T07:28:00.000-06:00

So it was the Fourth of July in Cokeville. A friend of Kandyce's from school wanted to come up and see what Cokeville was all about and of course to see the Thompson Fireworks. The day was spent just cleaning the house and making sure things were okay. Mom and Shari ran over to Montpelier to get some food to eat. For me, after being on the road, a home cooked meal was great.

In the afternoon Lilli wanted to make sure the lambs were fed, so she took it upon herself to go and feed the lambs. Sure, only one or two came to eat, but she wanted to make sure they were fed.

When she was done, she would give the lamb a little kiss on the nose to let them know they are loved.

As Lilli was heading home after a hard days work,

she realized that nobody had ever fed the llama, so she decided to give the llama a little flower (weed). She got really close to the llama and nobody has ever gotten that close to it, so Ellen kind of stepped in and grabbed Lilli. Ellen didn't know what the llama would do. After all, llamas have been known to spit on people.

After contemplating life as a llama, it dawned on Lilli that Phineas and Ferb (the other lambs) had not been fed.

Now our little slave has taken care of all of the animals on the farm.

Once the chores have been taken care of, it was time to go in to great-grandma's house and get ready for the "Football Field of Fire". Kandyce's friend Landon and Kennan had a ball setting off the firecrackers and "bees" and roman candles. Landon is a Utah boy, so anything that shot in the air or was like a small stick of dynamite, was a thrilling experience to him.

Of course the main crew was out on the field setting things up. Without the help of Brady and Trevor, the bosses of the crew (Zane, Mike, and Jim) had to pick up some others to help. Mike Johnson and Sullivan Teichert were the ones chosen.

Here is a shot of the fireworks in the air.

The last shot is what it looked like watching the finale. Notice in the lower right, two of the crew laying on the football field to get a better view of the presentation.

It was another successful "Football Field of Fire". Just look at the excited faces of Lilli, Maliyah, and Cael.

Here are some pics!!

2008-07-04T11:49:00.000-06:00

So I've been gone doing volleyball camps and attending coaching clinics and Ellen doesn't know how to do all of this stuff. I guess I should show her how to update things. Kandyce and I just got back from Roosevelt Utah doing a camp at Union High School. It was a blast. The girls who were there worked hard and the coach really wanted to learn the system. The week before I attended a Gold Medal coaching clinic in Provo, Utah. I stayed with my nephew Derrick and his wife Sheila. It was a very good clinic. I learned a lot and hope to be able to apply what I've learned to help the team do well this coming year.

Having Shari and Lilli here has been GREAT!! Of course Lilli just loves grandpa. Brady is doing well on his mission. He will have been gone exactly one year tomorrow. He is now a district leader and he has a new mission president. He is still in Jelgava and is having some good experiences. McKenzie and Kennan are sort of busy taking care of the lambs. This next week McKenzie has Youth Conference. They are doing a trek. Tonight is the annual fireworks show. I'll take some pictures of the Thompson fireworks show and put them on later.

While I was gone, mom took everybody up Pine Creek to take some pictures and I thought I would share them with you. If you want to see more pictures of Lilli, go to Shari's blog and she made a slide show of Lilli.

These next two pictures of McKenzie and Lilli going to feed the lambs. As you can see by the second picture, apparently Lilli actually came away with an empty bucket, so she must have fed the lambs.

The next pictures are of the kids up Pine Creek. I like the looks that McKenzie and Lilli are showing while watching the water race past them.

I also like the next picture of all three sitting by the creek.

This last picture is in front of the lilac bush by Gram's house. With the wet spring, the lilacs were out in force. We haven't had this many lilacs forever. Of course I just had to have the other two flowers in there.

Shari & Lilli Are Here!!!!

2008-06-24T18:55:00.000-06:00

So Shari and Lilli finally made here to Cokeville. Lilli has already been in more trouble. She loves to look at the lambs and the llama (mama, as she calls it). She loves being outside and we have to make sure the doors are shut so that when we hear them open, we know she is on her way out. The mosquitoes are eating her up, but they are also eating everyone up. They are suppose to spray just before the 4th. Here are some pictures of Lilli in her pool that her grandma bought her for her birthday. Shari can't remember what she did with Lilli's swimsuit, so try not to make fun of Lilli when she gets older.

After she went swimming, she and her grandpa got together to share stories and see who could tell the biggest lies. Lilli showing what she thought of grandpa's first story.

Grandpa showing what he thought of Lilli's big story. Apparently Lilli couldn't believe it either.

Now somebody told a big lie that neither could contain themselves.

Apparently, neither won the contest, but both had a great time.

Not much

2008-06-22T15:42:00.000-06:00

So not a lot has been happening with the family. Kandyce and Bill did a volleyball camp at Highland High School in Pocatello. They had a good time. They didn't get their checks because the lady in charge of payments was on a cruise, so they have to wait for her to come back. They stayed and had meals at some great families. They got to see a lot of Pocatello and they said it really isn't as bad as it looks. There are some really nice homes there.

McKenzie had basketball camp this past week and also a team basketball camp at Weber State. She said they had a lot of fun. Kennan had a camp out with his dad and the other 11 year old Scouts in the ward. It was held at Camp Hunt by Bear Lake. His dad said that the ground seems to be harder than normal since when they used to camp a lot. The fathers just had to spend the night. The camp didn't have food for the fathers, so Bill came home early on Saturday morning.

Ellen has been in Utah since last Wednesday. Shari flew in and spent the night at Laurel's house, then flew out the next day for Washington state to visit her in-laws. She flies in on Monday, so Ellen decided to stay the week and visit with family and friends. They will come home when Shari flies in. Bill is excited to see his granddaughter.

The only picture we have is one of Brady on his mission. This is a picture of him in front of a castle that has been turned in to a school. He says that the days are long now. They only have about 3 hours of darkness. He loves his mission and wouldn't have it any other way.

4-H Sheep

2008-06-13T19:47:00.000-06:00

So last year Ellen decided to get some lambs for McKenzie and Kennan to raise for fair to get money. Once again, she has decided to do it again. Here is McKenzie and Kennan with their lambs. We went to the temple today and they were suppose to walk the sheep. They couldn't catch so they said and I had to go and help catch them. They pull Kennan all over the place. It is good for them. McKenzie named her's "Doofenschmertz" and Kennan named his "Ferb". It will give them something to do for the summer and it will also confine us at home.

This is where McKenzie and Kennan make the sheep jump to help them to develop strong, muscular legs.

Stupid Weather!!

2008-06-11T14:29:00.000-06:00

So we've been complaining about how much rain we are getting and wishing that it would be summer. So this morning at 6:00 am we woke up to something different. Just look at the pictures and you'll see.........SNOW!!! It's summer for crying out loud. It only snows in Wyoming in the summer. Oh well, if we didn't like it, we wouldn't live here. Are you sure you want to go camping Shari??? By the way, those people who are talking about "global warming" better come to Wyoming. It ain't warm here.

Oops I forgot all about this!!!

2008-06-10T13:16:00.000-06:00

So I'm just sitting here watching mom look at every body's blogs and then it dawned on me that we haven't updated our blog in a very long time. Here is mom's flower bed. This is the most tulips that she has ever seen.

This next picture is how green everything is here in Cokeville. I've never seen it so green below the house. It is because of all of the rain we have gotten. In fact, it is raining again. It has rained at least two days a week. Not just a little, but a lot. The weather is cool and not to hot. We still don't have our garden put in. It froze a couple of days ago, so maybe it is all for the better. If you look closely, you can see the llama. Yes, we have a llama. Actually it's our nephew Mike's llama. It protects the bum lambs. We call her Tina, You Fat Lard. She is going to have a baby and is a really curious animal. Kind of fun to watch.

Last week we had our volleyball camp here in Cokeville. We had Utah States women's volleyball coach come and do our camp. He is a friend of Bill's. He was sooo fun to be with. He made us all feel at home. The camp lasted for six days. He also brought one of his assistants and one of his players. His assistant is Taubi Neves from Burlington. You old Cokeville players will remember her. She actually did a pretty good job. While at the dinner table I was taking some pictures to send to Brady. Grayson DuBose (USU's coach) said he would be happy to take a picture of the family, so here is a picture of us all at the dinner table. This week Bill is doing a camp over at Bear Lake. It is just a morning camp from 7:00 to 10:00. McKenzie is going with him.

The missionaries came out to the house because one of the missionaries is from Spain. He also happens to be from Burgos, Spain. That is where Kandyce served her mission. In fact, she met this missionary's parents and they asked her to look for him. Funny how everything works out. Kandyce was able to talk to him in the "pure" Spanish. Kandyce is off doing camps all over right now. She does come home for the week-ends. She hasn't been feeling to well lately. She's scared because she doesn't know what is going on with her body. We have an appointment set up for her to see a specialist. Keep her in your prayers. The missionary from Spain is the one in the middle.

Of course this blog can't be complete with out a report from Brady. He is still in Jelgava, Latvia. He is the presiding elder there. His companion is Elder Palmer from Salt Lake City. He sent us some pictures, so we decided to post one. He is doing real well. He baptized his two African friends in May, plus one other young man from Latvia. He loves his mission and his testimony of the Atonement has grown a lot. He will be out a year come July 5th. His cousin Trevor is in the MTC right now. He will be leaving for Milwaukee the end of the month. Tomorrow there will be three missionaries from Cokeville at the same time in the MTC. Trevor, Logan Briggs, and Cameron Hoffman leaves tomorrow. That will leave Cokeville with 12 missionaries out in the field.

State Track

2008-05-18T17:17:00.000-06:00

So we just got back from state track last night. It was a very good week-end. The boys team took second, which they weren't suppose to do and the girls team took second. They just about pulled off the upset. They lost by 7 1/2 points! One of the girls who throws the disc and shot put set a new school record in the disc. She threw over 117 feet, 15 feet farther than her best throw all year. She was so excited. It is fun to see kids who work hard and are very coachable have the success they deserve to have. McKenzie didn't run anything at state. It was a coaches decision. She isn't the fastest person in the world, but she does run.

So we woke up one morning and there was a moose behind the house. Mom just had to take a picture of McKenzie. The moose just stayed there as she took the picture. The moose has been with us all winter long and was used to us. I just thought it was a cute picture of the moose. FYI the moose is the dark one.

Brady is a trainer now and doing well on his mission. Kennan is excited as the Lakers have moved on in the playoffs. Kandyce is on her way to Colorado to do a volleyball camp for Chad Teichert. This is her first camp as head coach. She's a little nervous. Mom is still mom and dad is getting excited as the school year begins to come to a close. Just seven more days (who's counting).

First Time Blogger

2008-05-11T22:06:00.001-06:00

So, we decided to start our own blog seeing how our children have one set up. So we got to call Brady on his mission in Latvia. It took us over a half an hour before we finally got through. Ellen kept trying until we almost gave up and then the call went through. It was great and he sounds great. His companion, Elder Doane is going home tomorrow and Brady will start being a trainer in two days. He is in Jelgava and he will be in charge of the group there. It is so small that it doesn't even count as a branch. His mission president is going to bring the Church Handbook to him so that he can set up a branch. He also has to meet with one of the Area Presidents.

Kandyce is home from school and it has been fun having her here. We went to Regional track to watch McKenzie use her outstanding speed. She did qualify for state. It even snowed on Saturday. Which is just a fitting thing because that has been happening all during the track season. She ran the 4 X 100 and the 4 X 800. The 4 X 100 took third, but the 4 X 800 took 1st. Overall the girls took second at Regions and the boys took it all. They had to beat Burlington in the 4 X 400 to win it all and they did. It was way exciting.

Kennan is a little disappointed now that his Lakers are all tied up with the Jazz. He is in pee wee basketball now and he loves it.