Daniel Family

I guess the title says it all, but here's the story... This morning I went downstairs to the food storage to get a box of cereal. When I opened the door there was a bag of macaroni on the floor. I picked it up and noticed it was no longer full and I thought, "Wow, the boys must have been hungry!" Then I saw that the bag was chewed through and on closer inspection of the shelves found the tell-tale droppings. Yes--we have a mouse in the house and not just any where in the house, this mouse decided to take up residence in my food storage! I patiently?? waited for Bill to come home from his night job and when he walked through the door exclaimed, "You've got to help me. There is a mouse in the food storage!" He, of course, walks patiently downstairs and gets the wheat bags out of the storage room and then declares he needs to get ready for his day job. So, I grab the shop vac and a lantern and head downstairs. I remove a lot of the buckets, of course leaving a clear path to the stairs in case I need to run screaming up the stairs. I got the mess cleaned up, threw away the damaged packages, and set out mouse bait luckily never seeing the little fiend. All in all I figure we have an Italian female mouse since the only things it ate where 4 packages of pasta and a bag of chocolate chips! But then I got to thinking....female mice have babies!!!! Just how fast does a female mouse reproduce? Note to self: Google mouse + reproduction.

When I told McKay that he had a red letter day on Saturday he asked, "What does that mean?" Well McKay, that means that you had a day of special significance. On Saturday McKay was awarded his eagle and then scored a goal at his last lacrosse game! I'd call that a red letter day for sure! We are very proud of McKay. At the eagle court of honor we were supposed to have a chance to introduce our eagle and Bill and I fought over who was going to GET to do that. I won, but then that portion of awarding the eagle was skipped over so I want to just say a few things now. McKay is a great kid. He is what I would call heroic when it comes to his school work. Things don't come easy for him. He has to work twice as hard as most kids when it comes to school. But he does it. I have never had a kid worry so much about his grades and it shows. He has been on the honor roll every year and most terms he is on the high honor roll! McKay has the gift of empathy. This was evidenced to me when I received a note from his first grade teacher who observed him on a cold winter day give his coat to a little boy who didn't have one. He sees what people need and he gives of his time and sometimes his possessions. McKay always tries to do what's right. I sometimes call him my little Nephi because if he sees that his brothers aren't doing what they should he sets them straight. As you can imagine his brothers receive that criticism about as well as Nephi's brothers did (although he hasn't been bound by cords yet!). His dad wanted to make sure I expressed how impressed we are with his hard work and determination and his strong faith. McKay, you will do great things with your life if you stay on the path you are on now! We love you!!

We had a wonderful week with Seminary graduation on Sunday, May 23rd and then High School graduation on Friday, May 29th. We are so proud of Colton. He played with the orchestra during graduation and looked very handsome in his cap and gown. After much deliberation between attending BYUI and Dixie State College he has decided to go where it's warm and attend Dixie this fall on scholarship. Way to go son!!

Imagine my surprise when I walked home from church on Mother's Day to find this sign wrapped around my house!! In case you can't read it, it says: "MOM, YOU'RE THE GREATEST. WE LOVE YOU THIS MUCH--------->mommie-------->" I couldn't have asked for a better present!!

Well, it was close anyway! To me Tahiti will always be paradise with Maui a close second, but our week in Florida was relaxing and above all WARM!! Bill and I left our boys home freezing in the May snowfall (is it supposed to snow in May?!), and flew off to sunny Florida to celebrate 25 years of marriage. We spent most of our time in the Keys where we lazed on the beach, watched the sunset, and ate lots of good food. The key lime pie was to die for!


On Saturday we headed down to Key West. Just outside of Marathon we crossed Seven Mile Bridge. Incredible!! You had the Gulf on the west side and the Atlantic on the east side. We usually hold our breath when we go over a bridge (just a silly little thing we do with the boys!), but there was no way we could hold our breath that long!!

Sunday we found a small branch in Marathon Key. When I say small I mean small!! The vistors out numbered the members (there were only 5 plus the Branch President!). But it was a great experience and so wonderful to hear their sweet testimonies. We were afraid we were going to have to travel either west to Key West or east to Key Largo to find a sacrament meeting since our GPS couldn't find an LDS church in Marathon, but as we were driving back to our motel on Saturday I noticed the familiar sign. It felt so comforting to know that there was a church and members nearby. We were so excited when we found the building!!


Our last couple days we decided to head up to Miami Beach and check out the beaches there. It was beautiful! The water was an incredible shade of turquoise and the beaches were gorgeous. It was over far to soon and then it was back to Pleasant Grove and reality! One little tip for anyone planning a trip to Florida: denim pants (even if they're capri's) and high 80"s weather with 80% humidity do not go well together!!!

I didn't know whether I should title this post "Adventures In Moab" or "Moab Madness". It was a little of both, but overall good fun and good memories for all! For spring break this year we decided to pull the trailer down to Moab. It was one way to get all of our boys to come on a trip with us since what two boys with jeeps can resist the sand and rocks of Moab?!!

We camped at Dead Horse Point (absolutely breath-taking!) and spent a couple days in Arches. We had fun hiking and the boys had fun climbing on everything they could climb on! It was a bit cold at night, but great hiking weather. We had fun taking pictures of us "holding up" balancing rock and "jumping over" it as well.

That was the adventure part, now for the madness.....JEEPING!!! I will be the first to admit that I am NOT an adrenaline junkie. My heart was pounding the whole time we were on "Baby Lion's Back" and "Fins and Things". Thank goodness we didn't make it to "Hell's Revenge". Who thought this stuff up? And who decided that jeeps were meant to climb straight up and straight down these rocks? What about gravity?!! I will admit that Michael had me in tears once. The rest of the time I sat in near horror as the windshield filled with nothing but sky and then nothing but sand as we went up and down. By the time we were finished my arm ached from gripping the handle above the window. The whole time I am praying, "Please get us out of here safely!!" I love spending time with my boys, but stuff like this makes me long for a girl who would love to scrapbook with me!!

McKay had his eagle board of review on the 25th of March and he passed!! I am so proud of him. He is not quite 14 and has earned his eagle. He was very nervous at the beginning of the night. He asked who was going to be in the review room with him and when I told him that Brother Williams, Brother Dudley and Brother Griffin were the ones interviewing him he relaxed and said that was all right! A big thanks to his scout leaders and Young Men leaders past and present: Nathan Criman, Bill Daniel (aka dad), Todd Williams, Ted Johnson, John Karren (who did a great job introducing McKay at the board of review), Tyler Dudley, and Ken Maughan. We can't thank you enough. You not only helped McKay in scouting, but you also are such great examples to him. He looks up to each of you. THANK YOU!!!

Surprise! Yes, I am finally writing a new post. It seems like we (or maybe it's just me) have had the winter blues. It is good to see the sun again! I hope it sticks around for a while.

I finally have something exciting to post as well. Tuesday Colton participated in the Utah TSA events in the CAD Architecture competition. He had to set up his computer at 11:00 and then at 12:00 the competition began. He was given a picture of a house and had to reproduce it on the computer and then add a 1000 square foot addition. This addition needed to match the style of the house and had to include a child's bedroom, bathroom, playroom and an office. He had to do the floor plan, front and side elevations, and a walk-through of the addition. He was given four hours to do this. Around 4:30 he texted me to say he thought he did really good. About an hour later he texted me and said, "I GOT FIRST!!!!!!!!!! Maryland here I come!!!!!!!!!!" Knowing my kids and how they love to tease me I texted back, "No way! Are you serious?" But he wasn't kidding this time. I am so proud of him!! Now he gets to go to Maryland in June to compete in the National TSA competition. Pretty exciting! On a funny side note, they switched his first and last names around so he is "Daniel W. Colton" to them!! The Daniel family curse!!!!!

This past Christmas season, Colton (my future architect?) designed a massive gingerbread house. Okay it was more like a mansion. (We are moving in tomorrow!!) Three batches of gingerbread dough and 2 batches of royal icing later we had it baked and built! We poured sugar windows and decorated with cereal and candies. We even lit it up with Christmas lights inside. The effect was beautiful. We made a smaller house for Kaden and he loved decorating it!