Huge Update of May through July

Summer Fun

24th of July Parade in Hinckley

Hinckley Rodeo

Swimming and Splashing in the Tank

Dinner out on the Patio


The Ray Finlinson Family Reunion was held in Oak City on July 25th. Cory played a special number with his digeridoo, and djembe. Brooke and Dani played "All American Hometown Band" duet on the piano. We had a fun time with the cousins and the dance.



Aunt Georgia, Aunt Norine, and Grandma and Grandpa Fin.



Mom's Birthday
We had a great time for my birthday, first going to the ShakespeareFestival on the 28th of July, then going to the temple on my birthday and in the evening going out to eat at the Loft! It was great.








June

It was quite sometime with all that happened in May before we could have Cory's actual graduation party and give him his gifts, But we got it done.

Youth Conference:
Right after Brooke got the OK to resume normal activities, we went to our Stake Youth Conference which was held in SL at Heritage Park and also at Temple Square. We had to hike from the University dorms we stayed at up to the park and I was a little worried about how Brooke would do, but she was just fine, hiked without any problems, danced like crazy (well not QUITE as crazy as Cory) and got along much better than I with all that walking! We spent the first day at Heritage Park, then had a barbecue and really fun DJ'd dance. I got to stay with Brooke in a room with just us and it was a lot of fun to be with her, then the next day we went to Temple Square, the conference center and ate lunch at a Brigham Young park. It was a wonderful youth conference and was so cool to see about 250 youth from our stake all walking together in downtown SL in a sea of blue shirts. Cory was the youth committee chairman and was a great leader and example to all the youth. It was fun to see him participate and have such a great time.
The "short, flat" (as quoted by our stake leaders) hike up to Heritage Park.

Cory and Brooke in front of one of the buildings at Heritage Park

Brooke with her friend Paige at the barbecue

Cory "almost" winning the limbo dance.

The dance


Cory, Mom and Brooke by the reflection pond

Our ward at temple square

On top of the conference center. It was so amazing up there with all the plants growing everywhere.


Brooke and Cory at the park where we ate lunch, in front of this cool water wheel and pond.

The sea of blue in downtown SL


Summer Games!
We had a great time at the summer games this year. Brooke and Dani again played on the same team and Dani also on her team. Both teams did well. The U14 team that I coach that Dani and Brooke both played on lost 2-1 in the bronze medal game. Cory's team easily won the gold medal and it was so fun to watch Cory play soccer and his team do so well. It was an especially fun year because we were joined by TJ and Shauna, Abby, and Jamie who all came to watch! We had so much fun with them and the little kids. It was quite the party!



The pizza party before the opening ceremonies

We enjoyed the opening ceremonies, the program was not quite as good as in years past, but the fireworks were awesome and Kait tried so hard to like them and be brave, but they were still scary for her.

Brooke and Dani at opening ceremonies

Cory at opening ceremonies


Hanging out at the apartment with everyone

In front of the apartment

Congrats to the kids for doing such a good job and all the fun soccer we watched!


Girls Camp!
Brooke, Dani and I enjoyed going to stake girls camp this year together. It was up Oak City canyon. Just as we arrived, it started to rain and kept raining and raining and raining. We put up the tents in the rain, put up canopies to get under while it rained, and were all pretty much soaking wet and cold by 4:00, but having a great time! The stake decided to move us for the night to the town hall in Oak City, so we loaded up sleeping bags, and some belongings to get us through the night and went down to spend the night. Around 10:00pm the stake decided to send us all home in the morning as it seemed the rain was not going to stop. In the middle of the night some boys from the town set off some firecrackers and tried to scare us, so the leaders called the police and they patrolled around the hall the rest of the night, Talk about an exciting girls camp! Our ward decided to stay and not go home, so the next day we spent the day up the canyon, then moved down to one of the leaders parents cabin to spend the night. We all have a fabulous time and we so glad we stuck it out and stayed while the other wards packed up and went home. Our ward was individual worth (red) thus the red tie-dyed Tshirts.







Just some pictures of my flowers and kittens that I thought were so nice I had to share and post!





Father's Day
It was a small father's day celebration with just the at home kids here and the grandparents. I love these pictures of Grandpa Burnham eating his corn!



Pop opening his presents.

Jay Father's Day gift!!!!!
So I told Jay I would get him a new van for father's day and I did! Our old white van finally gave up after nearly 15 years and now we are the proud owners of a 2005 Honda Odysey. It is awesome and we love it.


"Under the Sea" Music Camp
This year my music camp was a great success and lots of fun. I had a very large beginning group and high school group and a small middle school group. We played water music games outside in sprinklers (finding music symbol cards, notes etc) and had a lot of fun. We even played musical baseball and had to slide on the water slide into home.


Charting to Little Mermaid songs.

The high school group that Dani also got to be in.


Shauna invited us up to a surprise party for Tex her dad and we had a great time and were glad to be included! Tex and Shelly are just like family to us and we enjoy spending time with them.


Just a nice evening so we had to have dinner outside


MAY

Mother's Day
Once the middle of May arrived, time went into hyper speed and suddenly the summer was nearly over! So here are some pictures of May and what a May it was starting with Derek's graduation. We had a nice Mother's Day with everyone attending except TJ and Shauna and kids. It was nice to have everyone here especially for Marcus' call from Taiwan! I did miss Mom a lot and thought of her all day, wishing I could have another Mother's Day with her to tell her how much I love her and appreciate all she did for me. Wendy, Grandpa and I went up to the cemetery and put a bouquet of Lilacs and a card on her grave that evening.

Wendy again had dinner at her house. It was nice and so great to have Grandma Finlinson come. I am grateful to have such a wonderful mother in law to honor.

Abby and Gichin and their little Haddie.

Derek and Jaclyn-what a handsome couple!

Brooke, Jamie, Cory and Dani in a cute pose in the big ash tree

Wendy and I at Mom's grave


Cory finished up his soccer year by receiving the Academic Allstate award at the state championship game in Salt Lake. We attended and watched Park City beat Logan to win state. We were rooting for Logan, it was an exciting game and went into the 2nd overtime. It was sad though as we kept thinking, we could win these guys. The combined GPA of the Academic Allstate team was 4.0!


Besides soccer, Cory did well in track this spring. He qualified for state in the 110 hurdles and at region placed 3rd then at state took 7th overall. Delta won region and came in 2nd at state, so they did well. Cory also was named to the Academic Allstate 3A track team, so that makes 3 Acadmeic Allstate teams he is on the first being football. Congrats Cory for a wonderful year of sports at DHS!




While up to the state track meet, we also celebrated Shauna and Logan's birthdays. Logan's birthday was on the 5th, but TJ was out of town, so we celebrated on the 16th. For Shauna's birthday we had a fun party at the bowling ally and then some great chocolate cake. The next evening we celebrated Logan's birthday with a Jungle party at the park. He loved his bear cake and it was a great party and so fun to have everyone together!





All too soon, it was time for Cory's seminary graduation. He has loved seminary and especially enjoyed serving as the seminary council president. It was very rewarding and a fun group of students to work with.

The seminary council

Cory with a group of his seminary friends


The weekend of state track and Logan's birthday, Brooke got sick and by Monday really had me worried with a fever of 105 and trouble breathing. As it turned out, she got a terrible virus that went to pneumonia, one of the worst cases the doctors down here have seen, and ended up in the hospital for 6 days. It was scary and sad as it was the last week of school and missed out on so many things. She went into the hospital on May 20, graduation day for her and Cory, but the doctor let her go to her graduation with an oxygen tank after which we immediately went to the hospital. She was glad to make it to her graduation, but really felt rotten as you may can tell from the pictures. But after all, how many eighth graders are sporting a cool oxygen tank at the graduation?

Our two graduates!

Brooke and her friends


That same day was also Cory's high school graduation and so it was a little hectic, but with the help of a friend who went and sat with Brooke at the hospital, we were able to go to his graduation.

Cory DHS class of 2009

Cory was valedictorian and spoke at graduation.

Hurray for Cory!

Cory with his wonderful group of friends

All the family that came to support Cory.

Cory and Brooke at the hospital.

Cory rockin' at his grad party!


TJ and Shauna stayed overnight and TJ mowed lawns the next day. It was great to have them stay extra. Jay spent some time at the hospital so I could spend time with Kait and Logan. Kait loves kittens and we have plenty to keep her happy.


Brooke was so sick. Doesn't she look miserable? She was always fighting a high fever as well as trouble breathing. Whenever she had to get up it was such an effort! It was very scary, but she was amazingly good-natured and endured it well. It was quite funny because somehow the kitchen put her name down wrong as "Brenda" instead of Brooke. We thought it was pretty fun since her cousin's wife is "Brenda" and were quite happy leaving it that way, the nurses even joked with her about being Brenda. HOwever hte next day the new nurses corrected the mistake and she was Brooke again. If you have to get your name wrong then Brenda is a good name, because our cousin Brenda is very nice!

Brooke made a haul while in the hospital with all sort of friends giving her lots of fun treats and presents. She was however very happy to be able to go home on Memorial day. She did miss out on the morning activities, but the doctor told us she could go up to the flat for the picnic as long as she used her oxygen.

Leaving the hospital! Yay!!!!!

Honoring our ancestors on Memorial day at the Oak City cemetery.

I wrote up a short history on Grandma Burnham to do with all the other relatives. Cory read it for us and it was nice to remember her. We hope to have a nice headstone in place next year. I still miss her a lot and was so glad to be able to honor her as well.

Brooke with her oxygen at the flat. She also had to use the breathing device to help increase her lung capacity.


Because Brooke couldn't do anything physical, she used her time to get all her little knickknacks from birthday gifts all painted! She sure looks better than a week ago! Nice to see a real smile again.

We attended Kyles graduation in Richfield. It was a very long graduation, but we were happy to attend and show Kyle our support. He is a great young man and he and Cory should both be very happy and successful! They have so many of the same interests and did a lot of the same things.

WE went up and celebrated Gichin's 29th birthday on the 30th and had a fun time on the playground with Haddie. Brooke was still using some oxygen, but she didn't really need it, and on Monday she got a clean bill of health with her oxygen level at 97! What an amazing recovery!


To celebrate her return to health, her and Dani dressed up first as old ladies and then as boys! They are pretty handsome boys and very mean looking ladies! I wouldn't want her as my piano teacher.