Cokeville News

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

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

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

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!!

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

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!!

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.