Golf ball Hail Storms

I'd always heard about "golf-size" hailstones, but kind of thought it was just an exagerration. Well we had quite the storm here Sunday, two tornadoes touched down near here and we had a hail storm that produced stones larger than golf balls. The above photo is Angie holding one of them from our yard. Luckily other than some fallen leaves, we had no real damage to any of our belongings. Our neighbors were not quite so lucky.

Here are the kids holding a few of the hailstones. You can imagine how these could do quite the damage.

This is the collection of hailstones the kids placed in the freezer.

Pinewood Derby time

So Hyrum got to do his first pinewood derby as a Cub Scout. This was Joseph's 3rd. They also let the family participate so we made a car for Lexi.

Lexi took a close 2nd in the non-Cub Scout division to the 14 year old boy next to her.

Hyrum showing off his Toyota truck.

The whole family after the Pinewood. Joseph's was a black Suburban, Lexi had her orange race car and Hyrum's was a green Toyota truck. We all had a lot of fun making them and racing them.

The Denver Zoo

We have had a membership to the Denver Zoo which we have really enjoyed. Lexi and Lyzie have especially enjoyed it and our huge animal fans. Lyzie loves zebras especially. All of the kids like seeing the peacocks that wander around the zoo. Lexi's favorite part is probably the cotton candy. It's a great zoo, lots of shade and lots of animals.

Lexi dirt-biking

Here are some of the pictures of Lexi and the boys riding around at the BMX track at wheel park. Definitely a must-do if you live in this area.

Jazz-Nuggets game

Not the best time to mention it (since the Jazz's season is soon coming to a disappointing premature end), but we did go to a Jazz game earlier this month against the Nuggets. The seats were great, the game was good (even though the Jazz lost) and the boys had a great time. The game did get a late start and even though Hyrum claims he "was just resting my eyes," we're pretty sure he didn't make it to the end.

Hyrum's baptism

We went to Utah a few weeks ago for Hyrum's baptism. We can't believe he's already 8! He was really excited to be baptized and asked the bishop during his baptismal interview if he could give him scriptures to write down and study to prepare for his baptism. He's a very good boy and we are very proud of him. The day after Hyrum's baptism, Steve's brother Eric blessed his 3rd little baby girl which is what the top picture is. We had a very fulfilling but short trip. We had a lot of family from both sides as well as some very close friends who came to the baptism. The next baptism we have we hope to not have to travel so far to have our families there!

Joseph was selected to have his art displayed at the school district building along with some of the other area kids. Joe is quite the artist and loves to do it. This is a picture of him next to his oil horizon painting. It shows the whale's tail as it lifts out of the water.