The Journey

 Dave and I were able to be parents on the Stake Youth Conference again.  This year the theme was The Journey and we all wore biblical/scripture clothes....except Derek on occasion who would try to just wear his common man attire and get away with it.  The rest of us wore pillow cases and sheets all week.  We had a fabulous time and it was a huge testimony building experience for the youth!  Dave and I were parents over the GOLD family.  They named themselves the Celestial Warriors.  We had the best youth in our group!  We love them all!  Here are a few pictures from the week.

 (This pictures was taken the morning we left so most of us were out of costume already.)

 

And they lived happily ever after...

18 years of marriage and still in love:)

Nathan's 8th grade graduation

 Hard to believe that Nathan will be in High School in a couple months!  I have loved the K-8 charter school that he has been going to and now he's ready to move on.  He has done well and has made some great friends and has had some really great teachers over the years.

Nathan and his good friend Jonathan.

Mrs. Nilsen has been my older kids homeroom teacher and Science teacher for the past three years.  Best Science teacher ever!  We will miss her.  She and her husband have joined the Peace Corps and are on to new adventures.

ONE

Dave took me to Las Vegas for my birthday to see the Michael Jackson cirque du soliel show called ONE!  ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!! We had a great quick trip (don't know how long I'd actually want to linger in vegas) but the show was soooooooo worth it.  I'm still thinking about it!  Thanks babe for the best birthday ever!



Just sitting by the MJ slots, not playing of course.

 

Brother Sister Fun Run

My younger brother is leaving for Afganistan next month and he and one of my sisters decided to run a half-marathon together of their own making and route.  My other sister thought it would be fantastic for us all to train (I use that word loosely) and surprise him by joining them throughout the run.  My two sisters flew in secretly from Idaho and California and I came from well....just the next town over with my kids.  It turned out to be the most spectacular thing ever.  At one point, Kurt turned to me and said "I love this!  I am going to remember this day forever!"  And I believe we all will!  My older brother couldn't get out of work. We missed him and we know he would've loved to be there with us!  My brother and sister who started the race ran 15 miles total.  Me and my other sisters ran between 8-10.  Which is great because we were each hoping to do 5.  We just kept running all the way till we got home at my parents house.  The kids ran 3-6 miles depending on when they hopped in and out.  All I can say is it was awesome!  We even caught the attention of the local newspaper in Estacada and they did a story on us.  The local paper had four tv stations that wanted to run the story.  It ended up being on channel 12 news the next night.  FUN!!!

Here is the video I put together on youtube if you're interested!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdAA2FnHne4



YAY for FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Primary talent show

 

Lauren and Kurt were in the primary talent show a couple weeks ago.  Here they are with their talents!  In this video Kurt performs his talent of drawing birds.  Lauren and her friend Molly sing .......of course...........Let it Go with Nicole accompanying on the piano and Lauren's friend Denver did such a fun performance that I included that also.  They all did great!

  

Birthday boy Birthday boy and Prom

The boys had their birthdays this week!  Nathan turned 14 and Derek turned 12.  My boys are getting so big and handsome:)

Nathan's 14th birthday on Thursday.

Derek photobombing

Kurt thinking that was pretty funny of Derek and made a photobomb attempt......Derek's head is at the left side of the picture and I got it right before he jumped in.  Nut!!!

Derek's 12th Birthday on Friday.

Derek earned his Faith in God award.

My boys on their way to Priesthood session of General Conference.



Nicole with her friend Ammon.

Luis, Brooke, Ammon, Nicole, Mitchell, Megan

Two Beauties.




Spring Break with friends

Nicole having a game night at her friend Woody's house with Brooke and Woody's sister Mattie



Lauren's much anticipated playdate with her special friend Ella.  Lauren gets giddy just being around this itty bitty one-year old sweetheart.  Nothing in the world makes Lauren happier than when she sees Ella walk into church.

Kurt and his buddy Max from school with Blake, Kyran, Ella and Lauren eating some dino-nuggets and mac and cheese.

Dream come true for Lauren:  Ella took her nap snuggled up on Lauren.

 

Derek and Nathan with their good friends having a gaming overnighter.  Loving it.

Just makin faces.

 

Aloha!

Dave and I decided to take all the kids to his work conference this year because it was in Maui again and we are running out of years when all our kids will be home for big family vacations.  So we figured if we are ever going to take all the kids to Hawaii .... now is the time!  It was so much fun!  The kids were really blown away by how nice everyone was.  The taxi drivers, hotel workers, waiters, shop owners, random elevator people.  Everyone was very friendly.  The weather was in the 80's and only rained a tiny bit.  We got plenty of pool and beach time.  The kids had so much fun just building sandcastles on the beach and playing in the waves.  Here are some of the highlight pictures. 

Pederson kids first look at the ocean.  Ahhh, breath it in. 

Who says modest swimsuits can't be SUPER adorable?!

 

 

The hammock pictures we took created a bunch of argueing and squabbling.  But you can't tell it by the pictures! We are just chillin at the beach.

So what is up with Nathan looking like he is 17 in this picture? Cutie!



Here is Nicole calling Brooke on my phone.  I couldn't resist taking a picture.



Wandering hotel flamigos in the background.

The Forest Gump bench.  The kids didn't really get it since they haven't seen that weird movie, but it was still funny.

 

The kids watching an NBA game waiting for Dave's conference welcome dinner.

The girls after our hula lesson....these were not the dancers, but they did magic card tricks while we waited and they did hula too.



The boys are up on their toes again!  We took this picture after the luau with some of the dancers.  It was really cool.  Especially the fire stick dance at the end.



We had such a great time together!  Aloha!