Sunday, August 9, 2015

Cardston Heritage Days 2015

Austin taught horse camp the same week as heritage days. He couldn't say no so he ended up with too many kids. He had 19 kids on horses. Hanna, Jill and Taylor Lewis were his assistants. The kids had so much fun, learned so much and loved it. Austin is an amazing teacher!!

Carly rode Doc and Lucy rode Happy.




Kaden Lee, Lucy and Carly all entered the pet show.










Taylor Lewis, Jill, Hanna and Bailey Nelson carried the flags for the Cardston parade.




Grandpa Buck and Challis Olsen drove a wagon.


Carly has been determined for months to be in the parade. So we had to think of someone who she could go in the parade with so we asked Dave and Cari Pilling. They decided to ride bikes and be rock stars. Carly loved every minute of it.


They gave each kid in the parade five dollars. She kept it in the hole in her tutu until she got to us and then she gave us the money.


Austin was on Shane Duce's team for the ranch rodeo. They did the best they had ever done. And even won a few events. 







Monday, August 3, 2015

Brooklyn Molly Whipple


A million prayers later, Rachelle and Nathan adopted Brooklyn. They dreamed of having their own baby. Nothing. Then they got their first set of foster children. Then they got given back to their mom. Second set- just for a short time.

Then Brooklyn came. Now after many months she is officially their adopted daughter. 

Brooklyn's sister Brylee came to live with them a few weeks ago. Hopefully in a few months she will become an official Whipple also. 



Brooklyn and Brylee have two brothers that were recently adopted and sealed to another family. They are adorable and the families keep in touch with each other.



Brooklyn is happy to be adopted. Just not happy to have to take so many pictures in the hot sun:)




Then it was time to celebrate the adoption!















Summer Road Trip

Austin was in charge of his mission reunion this summer. We picked a date a year ago and then Jill qualified for Canadian high school rodeo finals which was the same day.  So Austin, Hanna, Lucy and Carly left on Friday. 

The reunion was a success even though there wasn't quite as many missionaries as he had hoped. They had it in Huntsville, Utah with President Marlin and Kathy Jensen.

Jill and I  left Cardston at 7 pm on Saturday and got to Idaho Falls at 2:30 am. We slept until 6 am and left at 7 am to go to Bennington, Idaho to listen to Kade Pitchford's mission homecoming talk.  He gave an awesome talk. He served in Oaxaca, Mexico. He wore out his shoes in the service of God. He is definitely the kind of young man you hope your daughters will marry. 



We stayed over night with the Pitchfords. We visited, ate fresh raspberries, Carly played a dozen games of pool, and team roped in the morning. 

We did some successful school clothes shopping in Logan. We enjoyed pizza and ice cream cones with Steve and Karma Albiston.  Steve turned 80 this year and in a couple weeks they are going to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.


Jill and Hanna took a campus tour of Utah State University. 


Austin and I did our own tour with Lucy and Carly. We relived some of our Aggie moments! 
There is a story that on our second date we were walking around campus and we were standing by a bike rack talking. I put my hand down and Austin's hand was there and I didn't move mine and so we start holding hands for the first time. Austin likes to tell people that I was the mover in the relationship.


After Logan we went to Salt Lake, and we stopped to see Austin's cousin Bobby Depoe at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. He is fighting liver cancer and it's not going well. He was flying home the next day after we were there. He had on a Do Not Resuscitate  band. It was humbling and puts life in perspective.

The last stop of our trip was visiting Doug, Rachelle, Jeanette and Diana. We stay with Doug and Emily in their new house in Cedar Hills. It is an awesome house. We are so happy for them. We still pray every day that they will get a baby. 

Austin I went with Jill and Hanna on the campus tour of Utah Valley University in Orem. It was impressive. It would be fun to go to school there.

Then our girls went to see Hailey Bennett in The Little Mermaid play. Austin I went to the court to be there when Rachelle and Nathan adopted Brooklyn (which I wrote about in another blog post)!

We had a fun celebration that night! 


Grandpa Reeve even came for a few minutes.


Diana has a special place in heaven for all that she's done to care for Grandpa Reeve.




W liked to give Hailey a bad time about her new driving skills.

Now that all the adventures were over, we had to drive home. We drove all the way from Cedar Hills to Cardston. It was a long day. Especially because we had to take two cars back. Jill and I spent a lot of time together in the car. We bonded!

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Jill at Canadian High School Finals Rodeo

Nanton, Alberta
Canadian High School Finals Rodeo
July 23-25, 2015

Jill Nunn, goat tying contestant



1st Round:  8.5 seconds  8th place
2nd Round: 7.8 seconds 2nd place
3rd Round: 9.5 seconds 
(Let's go. Why did I take so long getting off? My groundwork was so fast because I was mad I was late to the goat. I need to goat tie again right now. Can I bring my goat dummy on the trip? I could have done better.)

Overall 7th place in Canada!!










Jill and I then left Nanton at 5 pm, met Grandpa and Grandma in town to switch cars, and drove to Idaho Falls. We got there at 2:35 AM. We sang and sang and sang - but only to fast signs nothing slow.