Red Ribbon Week

Hayden is a part of Broadway Kids. It is the 4th grade select choir at his elementary school. He is on the left in the green hat.

Super Team

Kate was selected to be a part of Super Team at her school. They go around to local schools during special events like red ribbon week and teach kids about being drug free!

Superintendent Ceremony

Sarah and her friends

Sarah received the Superintendent pin

 

Awards Night

Sarah was invited to the Superintendent Scholars Awards Ceremony this week. To receive the award, you must maintain at least a 95 average in 4 core classes.  Out of almost 2900 students that are enrolled in the 2 CISD High Schools, only 250 students receive this award. Sarah was one of those students! Out of the senior recipients, they choose 3 names from each school to receive a $500 scholarship. Sarah has made that her goal. She'd like to be honored with this award every year and then she wants to win the scholarship her Senior year.

AWANA

Kate and one of her Sparkies.




Rachel's last year to be in AWANA. She can be a leader next year.



Hayden's 3rd grade boys group.



We just wrapped up another GREAT year of AWANA. This year, we had about 90 kids coming every Wednesday night to learn about the Bible, play games, sing songs and work in small group Bible study! Hayden started his first year of T&T, Rachel finished her last year of T&T, and Kate and Sarah were leaders in Sparks.  It was great to work alongside some great leaders this year. It is always a blessing to me to see how God works in this program and in the families of those that participate. I think this was my 12th year to be a leader. Wow! Amazing how time flies.

First Prom!

             

Canyon High School Prom 2012  

This day came all to quickly. It seems like just yesterday, out little blond haired, brown eyed girl would watch all the Disney Princess movies and sing along to all the songs.  Today, she looks like she could be a Princess herself. Kate is off to her first Prom.  She looks beautiful and is having the time of her life. What a blessing to have such a remarkable young woman as our daughter. My sweet little Katelyn Rose.

Yellowstone National Park- 2011

The Fruge' family, Carson family & Hoggard family all meet in Yellowstone!

A park Ranger shows Hayden some really big Elk antlers.

Notice the matching shirts!- Thanks Gran!

Our Pet Buffalo and my favorite story to tell.

Bear tracks...

Notice the shadow of the person next to the Elk. We were in our car. Um, they're called wild animals for a reason.

Grand Prismatic

Near Grand Prismatic

Morning Glory Pool

Yes, Hayden has his own valley in Yellowstone and he was really proud of that.

My sweet family!

A whole lot of hiking to do here.

Old Faithful

She was fashionably late.

Can't wait to go back!

Yellowstone is everything you expect and more...

Yellowstone By The Numbers:
6 days of travel, 6 people, 1 car
7 States to mark off the list
3 National parks Mt. Capulin, Yellowstone, Arches
1 60th Birthday party for my dad
2,700 miles round trip
3 nights in Yellowstone in Canyon Village
12 miles at least for hiking on this trip
100's of Bison roaming through the valley
1 'pet' Bison came to visit us the 1st morning
2 many Elk to count relaxing in the shade of old Ft. Yellowstone
4 kids that had just as much fun as I did
3 Moose

1 Wolf
0 Bears

Small Town Parade

US Forest Service- Smokey the bear!

Lots of goodies to hand out!

My favorite float- The Lone Star Ballet

Howdy!

This is what happens when your wagon wheel breaks during the parade...

Parade crowd

Cute Patriotic shirts

TEXAS

A photographer in the making!

Rachel and her crafty Patriotic shirt

Fair on the Square

I love the 4th of July! Family, friends, BBQ, parade... it doesn't get much better. We enjoyed celebrating this morning with friends. Canyon has a great small town parade. We were pleased to see the US Forest Service in the parade. They have had numerous crews in Canyon for the last few months. They have come down to help fight the wildfires in the area. Remember, only you can prevent forest fires. We appreciate those that are serving in our area and were glad to see them in the parade today.

Fair on the Square was a huge hit. Plenty of vendors selling their wares. We saw everything from face painting to funnel cakes and everything in between. It was great to see our new courthouse as the centerpiece of a historic celebration. I look forward to many more years of celebrating the 4th of July in my very own small town.

Clarendon High School Class of '91 --20 year Reunion

This weekend, I celebrated my 20 year reunion. Senior Class of 1991- wow, that seems like such a long time ago. We had about half of our graduating class show up. For some schools, that could be up to 200 people. For us, however, it was just 16. For just a moment, time stood still this weekend. Old friendships seemed to pick up right where they left off. It was great to meet the families of my classmates. I loved seeing where they are now and hearing about what they've done for the past 20 years.

The Campers Return

The Solar Powered Golf Cart.
(Solar Panels are on top)

Hayden and Chris (his counselor)

Another reason Rachel loves camp.

Rachel riding the barrels.

Hayden getting ready to chase the clown.

Notice his feet aren't even touching the ground.

Hayden with Jack and a couple of other campers.

Rachel

Headed home...

Well, things were very different without kids. It gave us a little taste of an empty nest. We LOVED it! Don't get me wrong, we love our kids, but we really love each other and having fun together, watching movies that we want to see, eating out where they don't serve chicken nuggets, getting ice cream for fun...

All the kids are back home and we have enjoyed hearing their songs, stories, and awesome tales of their adventures of camp.

Here are a few of the things they shared:

Kate came back from visiting Gran and Poppy in Lubbock with her new camera! She got to take pictures of the cousins in Lubbock and do her first photo shoot. She then took her camera to Hidden Falls to get pictures of the rodeo. She had a great time going shopping and spending time in Lubbock.

Sarah, who went to WT's engineering camp, got to weld this week. She brought home this really cool WT metal art piece that she welded together. She also got to make her own fireworks! She got to convert a golf cart to a solar powered golf cart. It sounds like she got to do a lot of fun stuff at camp. Now, the funny thing is that she talked about how several kids were falling asleep during the class time. She made it a point to count how many were asleep during each session. Her highest count was 13! They were engineers after all. (I do realize that engineers won't find that funny.) Sarah also won an award at camp this year. She was awarded the "Best Smile". She says that it is thanks to Dr. Sparkman.

Rachel, who went to Hidden Falls, got to spend a week with several of her friends and celebrated her third year at camp. She loves it just as much as the first year she went and has decided that she will in fact be a camp counselor when she is old enough. Her favorite counselor was Sebastian. He is from England and plays soccer for WT on scholarship. She, along with everyone else at camp, loved his accent. Rachel rode the barrels in the rodeo and did a great job. She looked like a natural on her horse.

Hayden, who also went to Hidden Falls, got his first taste of camp. He was a little nervous when he found out that he couldn't call us, but he did great. He introduced us to every counselor at camp. His counselor in the Rockin' B cabin was from California. He learned about Hidden Falls because his mom is from Amarillo. This was his 10th year at camp. Hayden did the clown chase in the rodeo and had a great time. His favorite story was when the camp leader asked for his help. Hayden had to help unlock a bathroom. His leader had him climb through a window and into the bathroom from outside the building to unlock the door. He thought that was pretty cool.