Caldwell Air Show

June 6, 2009This Saturday Alyssa and I and the Tolman kids went to the Caldwell Air Show. It wasn't like the Hill Field Air show they had with the really cool military planes but it was fun. They had sky divers and lots of planes doing tricks.

On the way there of course we were jamming out to Momma Mia...compliments of Ashlee, thanks again Ashlee. Here are a view wonderful clips from the gang....yes me included although it was really hard to keep me in...you'll see why. :O)

There was a lot of looking up and a little waiting.

I think we got there at the perfect time...just in time to see the skydivers. That was a favorite.

Faith

When we were in Hermiston last time, mom and dad had the sister missionaries over for dinner. At the end they did a very fun object lesson. We did it with the kids last night.

The object lesson is on faith and the love of our Heavenly Father. What is it, where does it come from and why do we need it?

The Apostle Paul taught that "faith is the substance [assurance] of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Alma made a similar statement: "If ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true" (Alma 32:21). Faith is a principle of action and power. Whenever we work toward a worthy goal, we exercise faith. We show our hope for something that we cannot yet see.

I put a tower made out of paper on Alyssa’s hand.

Asking her what she knows about fire, of course she states that it burns things...if I lit the tower on fire in her hand it would burn her unless she moved her hand away. This is knowledge…she has knowledge from prior experience that when things are lit on fire they burn and that if she kept her hand there she would get burned. I then told her that I was going to light the tower on fire and she was not to move, no matter how close it got to her and how much she felt like it was going to burn her she was to have faith in me that she would not get burnt. So I lit the fire.

Now Alyssa had tremendous faith. She kept her hand still even when the flame was really really close to her hand and she could feel it. Like Paul’s teaching on faith, she had faith in me, she hoped the fire wouldn’t burn her and that I was honest in telling her it wouldn’t, she had never seen the fire just rise off her hand, but it was true…she didn’t get burned. We can liken this to having faith in our Father in Heaven and our Savior. He is there, even though we have not seen him with our eyes…he lives and is there. We must have faith in that.

We also need to remember that our Father in Heaven and Savior are there to help up. As life gets hard and things are tough we may feel that the fire is going to consume us at anytime…however, our Savior will lift and remove that fire from us. He keeps us from being consumed if we let me.

When we sin we may feel like the fire is consuming us….that there is no way out. We just need to remember that the Savior has already atoned for us. We just need to ask for forgiveness and repent and that fire will be lift up and extinguished and gone.

There are so many ways we can use this object lesson to teach but those were just a few of my thoughts.

Thanks again for the missionaries for sharing that will us….it was very cool.

Now for the disclaimer….I hope they don’t mind me sharing their secret but it is such a cool object lesson I feel bad keeping it hidden. The paper they used was a tea bag…it CAN NOT however be just any tea bag…they said it has to be Bigelow brand.

My magic pot

I got a new pot to replant one of my plants in. I had no idea it was a magic pot. It not only attracted the cutest little plant but the plant potted itself....no hassle plant. Ok that's just silly after seeing the pictures it is definitely not a hassle free plant but still a really cute one.

Memorial Day at McNary Beach

I didn't quite finish blogging our last weekend so I'm catching up today. Last Monday before we headed home we went out to McNary Beach and played in the water and ate some lunch. Alyssa invited two of her friends and had a blast. The funny part of the story is that the kids were wanting to go and as always we didn't quite have a plan and weren't sure what was going on. So they all got there swimsuits on, Alyssa called her friends and told them what time to meet us and they came down and told us we're going at 1230. Cracked me up. When I said to Alyssa you need to ask me before inviting friends she you said you guys can't make a decision so we "kids" decided to make it for you. :O) I had to laugh.

One of the big things I miss about Hermiston are the great friends Alyssa had...luckly she still has them. Alyssa, Kaitlyn, & Giselle (Sorry if I spelled your name wrong:O).
Their homemade hottub
The groupThe girls getting Ryan all wet.
Braydon
Abby
CailahSaying goodbye to GrandpaLately Delayna's fun thing has been the hello and goodbye wave and shout. She says it as you are walking by to head downstairs or coming up the stairs or back from work. Totally cracks me up. We caught a little footage of her before we left for the beach.


The water was very cold...I just didn't even take my suit so the kids wouldn't ask me to get in. I figured stand by life guard was good enough. Here are a few shots of the kids dunking themselves. I wish you could see Braydon's face....the look of shock and horror at the coldness his little body must have felt. In this video it looks like he's looking at the water and saying, "is that all you've got...and yeah I'm the man." I don't know.....something about it cracked me up probably because I saw his face.


Cailah was hilarious because she was the first to "dunk" herself....I'll let the video talk for itself.


The group did a dive for us.....Braydon wins the stayed under the longest award. He was also the first out but his little body just gets so cold.

Alyssa's Tennis

Alyssa played tennis this year, her first school sport. She is doing really well and loves to play which I love because we can do it together. She's going to pass me up pretty soon and start beating me. Here's her tennis team picture. She only got to play in a few matches this year but her record is 3-0. Not that winning is everything but it sure can be fun. :O)