Camping at the Sand Dunes

Our friends invited us to go camping in Alamosa, Colorado at the Sand Dunes National Park. We have never been there so we were pretty excited!

It turned out to be a Mother/Daughter camp-out since Derek had to stay home and work. We were sad that Daddy wasn't going to be able to come, but also knew this would be a great opportunity for us girls to spend some quality time together in the great outdoors. And a time to be adventurous!

The Foote's definitely know how to camp so they had everything you could possibly need, even a shower. We were definitely in good hands. They found us a campsite 2 miles south from the Sand Dunes Park at a place called the "Oasis Campground." It was very nice the only thing we had to be careful of was the cactus and being in bear country. I'm always terrified of coming face to face with a bear while camping, but our friends reassured me that we were going to be OKAY, more than once. :) And we never saw a bear all weekend.

Camille can make some yummy chicken fajitas and Andrew took care of our campfires. We had Smores of course and talked around the campfire each night. The girls had a ball playing in the water and of course in the sand. It was fun to roll down the sand dunes. Andrew had the great idea to bury Camille in the sand. I of course had to help. :) I wish I had pictures.

One afternoon we took the girls to the Visitor Center and they were having Ranger Kid's Day. They had different learning centers with different activities at each center. They had the chance to make bookmarks and decorate them with stamps and Cassidy of course had to make an extra one to give to her daddy. They had the chance to use binoculars and go on a hunt to find the animal pictures that were hiding around the room, touch different animal furs and learn about the different animals, put puzzles together, etc. As they completed each activity they would get a stamp on their cards so they could earn a Ranger T-shirt after completing 6 activities. It was fun and Camille and I were excited for the girls to earn their shirts. Which they did.

Cassidy at home wearing her Ranger shirt

Back at the campsite one night they were having all you can eat ice cream. So of course we had to go! They also had a little playground and some plane tires for the kids to play on while we ate our ice cream. We had great weather and it never poured on us, but one day was extra windy! Andrew even saw one of our fellow campers tent fly in the air. Unfortunately, it was so windy we weren't able to play at the sand dunes but instead we watched movies, took a nice restful nap, and hung around the camp site and swung on the hammock.

It was nice to relax all weekend and to be out in the fresh air. Cassidy was a trooper and an awesome camper. She slept through the nights with no problem. I really enjoyed cuddling with my girl and having the time to just sit and talk together in our tent. We will have to go back for sure, and maybe Cassidy will be old enough to challenge the sand dunes and hike up to the top. Or at least take turns with some friends while we take turns watching the kiddos. One day I will climb the top. :)

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of our adventurous weekend because my camera was having some major issues. But here are some pictures I got off the park's website that gives you an idea of what our fun looked like.

It was like being at a beach:

Rolling down the Sand Dunes:

Someday, hiking to the top:

Gift Straight From Heaven

Last Sunday, Cassidy was asking for ice cubes to put in her drink. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on our ice maker after using all our ice cubes the previous day for our cooler. So we told Cassidy she would have to wait for our ice maker to make some more.

She was understanding and asked if we could play a game of Chutes and Ladders. As we were playing our game a huge rain storm rolled in and suddenly it started to hail. The hail was the size of quarters. As soon as the storm ended, we went outside and grabbed some ice cubes straight from heaven to put in Cassidy's drink.

When we told her Heavenly Father must have heard her wishes for ice cubes, and that he certainly came through for her. She beamed the rest of the night and was soooo thankful to you know who. :)

Circus Time...

This year was my turn to come up with something to do for our 11th Anniversary...I found out the Ringling Bros/Barnum & Bailey Circus was in town...and we had to go! It has been too long and of course Cassidy would love it too. :)

It was sooo much fun! They had a pre-show before the real show started. It was fun to be on the floor watching the clowns do their tricks, and some of the acrobats they showed us was amazing.

I even had the chance to say hi to the Ring Master before the show.

Isn't this the Cutest little Clown you ever did see????

The show was AMAZING and filled with everything you could ever think of to see in a circus...at moments we cheered, other times I had to close my eyes, and of course we all had to laugh.






It was also cute to see a Border Collie walk his friend the Elephant with the leash in his mouth.

Happy Father's Day!!!!

Cassidy colored a tie and drew a picture of herself and her daddy on her Father's Day card today at church. She sure Loves this man! ...And I do too!

Family Business!

So, as some of you know, we have embarked in purchasing our very own family business. We now have a Promotional Product/Printing business. We invested in commercial equipment that is capable of screen printing on t-shirts and other items of apparel. We also have a vinyl cutter for home decor, signs, car wraps, etc. And last but not least, we have a pad printer which allows us to print on any hard or plastic surface. We can print on things like, cups, mugs, pens, golf balls, keychains, stress relievers, etc. (over 800,000 items). We set-up our shop in our basement and work from home.

Our company name is STELLAR SPECIALTY PRINTING...and we have our very own website: www.stellarco.com

Derek and I have learned so much already about this industry and continue to learn every day. We enjoy the limitless opportunities in this industry. We enjoy getting involved with our local community as well as serving other companies and organizations around the country.

So far some of the things we have done are: assisted a church group in designing embroidered caps for their fundraiser, ordered 1000 pens for the local political 9-12 (based off of Glen Beck) group, embroider polo shirts for a local cleaning company with their business logo, designed art work for an order of stadium cups for a family reunion, screen-printed shirts for an electrician here in town, screen-printed shirts for 12 yr old girls at church, sticker labels for a carpet cleaning company, plastic bags for a golf course, etc.

We have steadily been receiving business opportunities from friends and family, just by word of mouth. We look forward to marketing more and visiting more companies to offer our services to. We are excited to get into the schools to do sport and band events or fundraisers. Cassidy has already been marketing for us too. She's so excited and so cute about being a part of our business. She will help us by sharing what we do with anyone wherever we go. All I have to say is... we now own a family business...then she immediately tells them..."Stellar Specialty Printing!" Sometimes I don't even have to mention anything. One day we were at the park and I was talking to my friend about just everyday things...and I guess she was listening as I was pushing her on the swing. Out of the blue she said to my friend.."How about ordering some pens?" She was hired on the spot! :)

We look forward to the growth of our business, learning new skills, understanding the meaning of hard work, extra money to spend, working together as a family, meeting all kinds of people and their businesses, but most of all help others to promote their business and to help them succeed in whatever endeavor they are involved in.

Derek always says with this business... "Everyday is a good day!" If you think about it...it's true. Whether it's helping someone get the word out about their new business, celebrating a marriage with their personalized items to remember their day, providing apparel for a sports team that earn their way to the playoffs, a family reunion that unites people to create memories, fundraisers to help raise money for good causes, and so forth.

If you need any of our services please let us know. :)

The Stellar Team

We used t-shirt vinyl to make these shirts while we were training on our equipment.

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was fun. On Saturday morning we went to the mall for an Easter egg hunt. The mall was chaotic and there were lots and lots of people. It was disappointing the way they organized the event. Most children didn't even get one egg, and some were crying. Cassidy was fortunate to be standing at the right place at the right time where one of the staff members dropped the eggs.

The best part of this event at the mall... was our daughter making the choice to share her eggs with other children that didn't get any. As well as witnessing a young teenager showing kindness and being a good Samaritan to a mother with young children that needed help, even if it meant she lost her chance to get eggs for herself. That was the highlight of this egg hunt experience.

When we got home we colored eggs and Cassidy enjoyed decorating them with stickers as you can see in the picture below. As we decorated eggs we had the chance to listen to church conference. After decorating eggs we played with Cassidy's new Easter gift her...Play-dough Ice Cream Shop. Cassidy looooves to play with play-dough. It was so fun and it almost looked so real to eat. That night when Derek went to Priesthood session of conference Cassidy and I went to "Girls Night" at the church bookstore. They have drawings for free gifts all night and special buys. Well, we actually had our number drawn and won some great books to read. Yeah!!!!

When Derek got home Cassidy and I sent him off on his very own Easter egg hunt. Us girls had so much fun sneaking around and hiding his eggs. There was even a "Golden egg" with green inside. :) It was fun watching him on the hunt. It made me smile to hear our daughter's giggles as he would get closer to finding one of her eggs. But she couldn't resist in helping her daddy find the eggs that she hid. It was so cute. At one hiding spot she hid 3 eggs at the same spot. Funny girl. Luckily, Cassidy didn't see me hide my eggs. Otherwise, it would have been a very short egg hunt.

Easter weekend was pretty special this year, because we were able to listen to our Prophet speak and other amazing church leaders all weekend in General Conference. It's a world-wide broadcast conference from the Church. They give inspirational talks to inspire us and teach us to be better.

We had the privilege to have Aunt Barb join us for some of the conference. We enjoyed her company and our conversations. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to stay for Easter dinner but we were grateful for the time we did get to spend together . For Easter dinner, we invited our good friends: Jaime and her cute kids Tyler, and Rachel (Jeff had to work).

We tried something different this year. Filling our Saturday with all the fun Easter activities and reserving Easter Sunday to celebrate the true meaning of Easter, the life of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Cassidy's decorated egg, she insisted on placing the same stickers next to each other in groups. She explained she wanted to place her stickers like Noah's ark with the grouping of animals.

Easter Egg Hunt at the mall

The Golden Egg! I thought I was pretty clever to hide it in our ceiling vent. But no fooling my clever hubby.

Inspiring Video...Stephanie Nielson

I have kept up with this beautiful woman's life story...as most people have. She has touched many hearts including my own. Enjoy!

Futbol

While visiting family in Arizona we had the chance to go to our nephew Branden's soccer game. Cassidy took delight in standing next to her cousin Branden on the sideline, like she was part of the team.

Well this spring, my friend Camille asked if I would like to sign Cassidy up for city soccer to play with her daughter Aly. We decided to wait until fall season(due to unpredictable weather at this time in Colorado) and maybe try out some ballet classes. I found out that ballet classes were already too far into the season in order to participate in the recitals.
So we decided to wait and maybe start classes in the fall.

Then a week later I received an e-mail from my friend Teri that the soccer league she signed her daughter in was short on players and needed more. They were offering a special deal for new players to play for FREE. We decided why not.

It was exciting to go buy her soccer stuff: shin guards, soccer shorts, and her very own pink soccer ball. Cassidy was so excited and we got together with some friends to practice a little bit to get her ready for her 1st game. While we practiced she did very well with dribbling the ball on her own but had to understand this was a "team sport" and needed to give her ball away to others.

Her first dress rehearsal as a soccer player

(wearing her Stellar shirt that we made her)

For the next month and a half, we were going to have Soccer games every Saturday. From 12pm-1pm a soccer practice and then from 1pm-2pm a soccer game. Unfortuantely, due to the weather several weekend games were canceled. But we were assured they were going to have make up games with 2 games in a row (rather than a practice) the following weekends.

Cassidy's 1st game of soccer. Standing next to her friend Tyler

The picture above was the very beginning of Cassidy's soccer career. It was so cute to watch her stand so close to her friend Tyler for comfort.



As you see in the video, she and Tyler (both in red) basically just stood there and didn't move one bit. Within a couple of minutes, she ran over to me and finished the rest of the game on the sidelines as a cheerleader for her team and not as a soccer player. We kept encouraging her to go back out there and play. But she would have no part in that. She just got too overwhelmed.

I can't be too upset, she is only four. And maybe soccer is only fun with mom and dad...and not with 12 kids running in a big crowd after the same ball. But doesn't she look so cute in her soccer uniform?


Superstar #9

Her untucked reversible jersey looking like a dress. Enjoying her goldfish as she cheers for her team. Her teammate Alyssa, that she helps cheer for.

In Sedona... with the JOHNSON'S

In December, 2009 we had the opportunity to spend a week in Sedona, Arizona for the Johnson Family Reunion. It was gorgeous! As you can see, the leaf colors were still changing.

With Grammy's timeshares each family was able to have their very own house unit. These units were huge and cozy. We had fireplaces, a balcony off the master suite, hot tubs, location near a creek, and close to the shopping outlets. It was so nice to be together and to watch the children play together. Some of the fun things we did during our stay:

Matthew & Cassidy all dressed up ready to go to Church

Cousins playing in the courtyard of the resort

Cute niece Carolyn found a treasure

Swimming Time

Uncle Bryan "to save the day"

Fun times playing Rock Band & the Wii

Playing Winter Olympics on the Wii

Play time

Adorable Daniel, Macey, & Cassidy pretending to be kittens in the shower

Matthew snuggling with Grammy

Movie Night

Cute niece Grace with baby brother William

Handsome nephew Michael

We exchanged stockings for the kids & for the adults had a white elephant exchange.



We had Macey's Christmas stocking, and filled her stocking with fun things...but she enjoyed her banana the most

Found snow outside of Sedona. Watch out for flying snowballs. We had a great snowball fight.

Train Ride

Going through the dark tunnel was fun for everyone.

Derek and his brothers: Bryan, Scott, & Kevin

Beautiful niece Brynna holding Cassidy

Santa & Mrs. Clause on the train with us. They read Christmas stories to the children.

Los Abrigados Resort-a tradition in Sedona to go see the decorative light displays.

One of my favorties: Peter Pan Display

Horse rides at a nearby Ranch. We also had the chance to feed the chickens.

Michael, Brynna, Amber, Daniel, Carolyn, & Cassidy

Karaoke Night. Uncle Kevin not holding back.

Karaoke is a Johnson family tradition