Camping adventure

Mike and I LOVE to go camping so we managed to take a few days off and head to Greer... The first couple days we had just the right amount of clouds and rain

Our campsiteWe did activities like couponing We drove 5 hours to watch movies we have never seen on a 10 inch screen! We HAVE to play Phase 10... This pic shows a really bad hand... but I managed to remain the Phase 10 QUEEN! We shopped at the local stores One of our favorite gift shops
The scenery was BEAUTIFUL

Wildflowers were everywhere

I loved all the little creeks
Lots of paths to follow We didn't actually hike (kinda old)... but we WALKED many trails that we found we found some interesting spots to rest We HAD to go on several walks cuz we ate so dang much food!

Dutch oven cobbler... WAY yum!

Not only did we cook some amazing stuff at camp we ate twice at the Molly Butler lodge... It was so good and the view is great. While we were eating dinner there we watched deer out the window.. THAT'S not something that you can do at just any restuarant!

Not only did we eat well... but we shared with the little woodsy critters.

There were lots of noisy bluejays

We bought a hummingbird feeder cuz we noticed some hummingbirds flitting around. But I learned that hummingbirds are NOT cute little birds humming a happy tune. They do NOT share and are very mean to each other. I have now determined they are evil and have put them in the same category as snakes!

This guy we nicknamed Chubby. In this pic he is right by my foot. He shoved so much food in his cheeks and kept coming back for more. We fed them peanut butter sandwiches, bread, grapes, potatoes, granola bars and gingersnaps. By the last day this guy passed everything up and only went for the gingersnaps. I hope he is doing OK and not having gingersnap withdrawals.

Friday night we had a fireside... without singing... but a great scripture discussion... and finished it off with smores...

Well... I finished up with smores... Mike doesn't like them... I don't know how anyone CAN'T LIKE SMORES!!! This is my easy recipe for smores... chocolate covered graham crackers and roasty toasty marshmellows. YUM! We had a great relaxing trip and were very sad to come home... especially to 116 degrees! Time to plan another trip!

from Brazil

I've been on vacation, so this is from earlier in the week...

Oí familia, Sorry for the short emails. But the pics are of Thalles who we baptized. Everything is going good here in brazil. My trainer stoped by our house again and this is his last transfer so I will just say that he is super trunky. But i will miss him, he is a good missionary.Nothing much happened this week, it came and went too fast. The weather here is not hot at all and not cold either. The branch is still in need of much help. Last week the attendence was really low but this week it went up a little. Elder summerhays is doing good, last night he threw up alot but is good now. His little sister was has the swine flew he came to find out last week. I have been very blessed not to have been sick yet on the mission and i hope it will continue that way the whole two years. ... We´ve been teaching alot of people here but hopefully we get some baptisms because they are a little lazy but we´ll help them out. During the interview i had with president last week he said this is my last transfer here in industrial. This area has a lot of problems.. One sister kicked her husband out of the house and he is now living in the chapel. This is not the first time too. There is some other apostasy but i can´t talk bad about the area or the members. Most of it is because almost everyone is a new member and the two families that consist of the branch HATE each other with a passion. But all is well and we do what we can do to help them out. That´s about it for the week and i´ll see you all later. Tchau Elder Lewis

our July party

We finally had our July celebration... Happy birthday to Lexy, Kristin, Krislin, Jadon and America! Family parties always involve food. Thanks Kristin and everyone for the yummy dinner.


After our great meal we played the silly family birthday game...

We had to guess the ages of various family and friends...

It required lots of thought and intricate calculations!

Jaron was the top winner... out of 40 possible he got 24... Hmmm... BUT we know a lot more about how old everyone in the family is... even Santa and Spongebob!

Super people were there...

WOW... she's strong!

Time for presents...

How come Kristin's gift bags are smaller than everyone elses?!?

What a smile... that orthodontic work sure is lookin good!

$$$$$

The birthday peeps

Lexy needed help with her candle

Who gave the kids silly string?!?

We had a great time. Birthdays are always fun... but I'm NOT gonna think about how OLD everyone is getting... especially me!

short note from Brazil...

Here's our VERY short note from Brandon:

Oí família
The computer deleted my email but we baptized this week and we had a conference with president so that´s why i´m emailing today. Everything is going great here and i have to go now. Anyone have any questions for me? The truck and the go cart look great. How much did trent buy the go cart for? See you all later. Tchau Elder Lewis

ANOTHER vehicle...

We have yet ANOTHER vehicle added to the collection... Having a truck wasn't enough so Trent bought a convertible... kinda!

He let some of us test drive it

It was fun... Thanks Trent... but now we REALLY need a bigger garage!

The great truck adventure...

BYE bye good ol truck... The insurance totaled it and hauled it away...

It's been two weeks since "the accident"... the person at fault's insurance gave Mike a check (I am TOTALLY convinced the only person that benefits from having insurance IS the insurance company)... so we started our quest to find just as good of a truck for little money. Since we both had Friday off we headed to Tucson. We thought we had some good leads there... but nope... they were yucky.... but we had a GREAT lunch at Cracker Barrell..

They have WAY yummy food and fun decor... So then were back on the road again to Mesa... and guess what... we found a very nice truck for a little money... plus some more...

So here it is... the latest addition to our family of vehicles. I'm glad that's all over. July is NOT the best time of year to go used car shopping!