POW-MIA Demolition Derby

Matt drove a demolition car for News channel six, at the POW-MIA Rally this weekend. Here are the before shots of the car. I am with Matt on the left and the kids are with him on the right.



To the left is Matt entering the derby ring in the first heat. He was out pretty early on as a wire for the ignition came loose. His "pit crew" were able to fix it though, at least to the point where he could hot wire it each time he stalled, so he entered the consolation heat. He won the
consolation heat and went on to the
final round. He was able to make a few good hits in the final round before he was ganged up on and almost knocked completely over by two other cars. He ended up fourth in the final round. I think he had a lot of fun, but I don't think that he wants to do it again. We will see what he says when they ask him to
do it again next year!

The Wizard of Oz...

To the left is Garrett, Kristi, Margaret Pellegrini (one of 7 surviving munchkins from the original movie), and Olivia. It was a wonderful experience to meet Margaret. She was absolutely adorable. To the right is the Mystique Theater after the evening
of the third performance. Bottom left
is Olivia in the greeting line of munchkins. We all greet the guests after the show and thank them for coming. Olivia was asked to sign two autographs that night and was so excited! Bottom right is Garrett, on the end, a few weeks ago, practicing his Winkie drills. I will post more pictures of the play as we get them.

More Island Park Pictures...

Upper left hand corner: The Lindquist family-Avery, Laurel, Cheryl, Luke, and Scott.
Upper center: The Lemon family, the Lindquist family, and the Davenport family. Upper right-hand corner: the cabin.
Middle left: The Davenports. Middle right: The adults...Cheryl, Scott, Kristi, Matt, Cindy, and Chris.
Bottom middle: The Lemon family-Nicholas, Chris, Claire, Cindy, and Hayley.

Fourth of July at Island Park

We had the privilege of going to Island Park to stay with our friends at their cabin. We got to sit at the reservoir and watch the fireworks. They were really pretty.



On Saturday afternoon, we packed up lunch, fishing poles, and chairs and went to the Buffalo River. It is a somewhat secluded area where the river just lazily run through the trees. The men and kids fished and swam, the ladies dipped their feet in the water and sat and talked. It was quite relaxing. There were 18 fish
caught altogether. We had a great time. Afterwards, we went back to the cabin and ate hot dogs and roasted S'mores around the campfire. We stayed up and talked under a perfectly clear sky filled with twinkling stars. It was beautiful. There is no place like the mountains to praise God for His
beautiful creation...o.k., maybe the ocean, the Grand Canyon, etc, etc. But this was so beautiful.

The Lemon's, our host family, brought their Weimerainer and her 10 puppies. That was a BIG hit with the kids. Every time we looked, there was a sweet puppy sleeping in
a happy child's arms.

Cindy, Cheryl, and I did a 5K fun run on Saturday morning. It was fun...but the "trail" was a forest service road with stumps and ruts from trucks getting stuck in it. The best part was the setting. It was in the woods, there was a pastor who said a wonderful prayer before we started and someone sang the national anthem. It was so American, so wonderful. I ran the 3.1 miles in 31 min. and 18 secs.

Pirate Cake

This is a cake I made for my neighbor's grandson's third birthday. I am pleased with the way it turned out! I love making cakes!