US History Project about Gambling

Ethan had to do a big project and presentation for his US History class and he chose the history of gambling in America.  He spent a lot of time researching the topic and then had to come up with some way of demonstrating it to the class.  We put our heads together and he wanted to make a poker table and teach the class some card games.  We had an old homemade ping pong table that served as the base and we went from there.

Blue felt on the table top and pool noodles covered in black vinyl to make the arm rest edge all around.  It came together quickly and turned out pretty cool.  Now the table is in the basement for some fun gatherings and has plans to go on a boys trip this summer that Ethan is going on.

The table was broken in with a few round of hearts with the kids.  And Ethan got 49/50 on his project and presentation so it was all good all around.

Celebrating Grandma Pearson's 100 years of righteous living!

Elva Pennock Pearson

An Elect Lady

On a beautiful spring day, May 13, 2015, our beautiful, loving matriarch, Elva Pennock Pearson, passed away peacefully after her 100 year sojourn on this earth. She was born into the loving family of James Ernest Pennock and Hannah Driffill Pennock on Feb. 17, 1915 in Devil's Slide, Utah. She spent her happy childhood and early adulthood right in the middle of Salt Lake City where she graduated from South High School. She married her sweetheart, David G. Pearson, in the Salt Lake Temple on Aug. 6, 1940. They raised their family of seven children in Taylorsville, Utah. She was very active in the LDS Church and held many positions over the years. She had a firm testimony of the Gospel. She was a loving, gracious and generous person who loved people and they loved her. Her large family, including her extended family, was her greatest joy. She will be greatly missed by all of us, but her legacy of love and kindness will ever be in our memories. She is preceded in death by her husband, daughter, Diane Roeller, and 3 grandsons, John Pearson, Chris Pearson, and Jeff Morgan. Her survivors include Beth Ann (Kent) Smith, David Gary (Linda), Carolyn (Terry) Rose, Stuart (Linda), Scott (Allison), and Merrilee (Don) Forsyth along with 39 grandchildren, 88 great grandchildren, 10 great great grandchildren and numerous in-laws, nieces and nephews. She will be honored at a memorial service to be held on Tues., May 19, 2015 in the Taylorsville 1st Ward located at approx. 1355 W 4800 S, Taylorsville, UT at 12:00 noon with a viewing preceding from 10:30-11:30 am. A viewing will also be held at McDougal Mortuary, 4330 S Redwood Rd on Monday night from 6:00 - 8:00 pm. The family would like to thank Intermountain Hospice - Laura, Angela, Bonnie and Katie for their kind, tender care, and especially her children, Stuart and Linda, Carolyn and Merrilee for the many days, weeks and years of dedicated, loving service to our dear mother. 

What a wonderful memorial service that we had for Grandma.  She was an amazing person and she will be missed.  Our family is beautiful partly because of her!

State gymnastics meet goes awesome!

McKinley was so excited for the state meet this year.  She's been doing so well in her other meets and was determined to do her best at state.  Before she left she decided she wanted to get 9.0 or higher on each even and as the meet unfolded she met that goal easily!  She did so well with a personal best on the floor (9.45)!  When it was all over she learned that she placed 3rd overall!!  The team also did awesome with a 4th place overall team!  Such hard work and dedication paying off!  Way to go!

Mother's Day 2015

This Mother's day rates up there with the best!  I have to admit that some Mothers days I have had great expectations that left me a little disappointed, but this year my highest expectations were met and even exceeded!  Dave and the kids were great and prepared and thoughtful.  Austin sent me flowers from school and the kids went shopping by themselves the day before and came up with some thoughtful gifts.  The sign that greeted me was touching and everyone behaved and spoiled me!  It was so nice and I really appreciated it!  I love my family!

Annual Smith shooting trip 2015

The Smith shooting trip happens every year and is always a lot of fun!  The boys and men really look forward to this trip and even though there are several women and girls that would love to go they have kept this as a boy bonding trip.  The guys just do things a little differently and we don't really know what goes on there.  :)

These pictures are from Evan and they give us a glimpse of the area and what goes on.

The trip is always a highlight of the year and the kids have a great time.  Safety is really important and everyone takes things seriously.  They enjoy shooting clay targets and hanging out and eating as well!  It was a great trip!

Evan keeps getting older and better...he's 14 now!

We celebrated Evan turning 14 with an early present of his GoPro camera so he could use it at the Smith boys shooting trip that was going on a day before his actual birthday.  He took it on the trip and had fun making movies and taking pictures as well as shooting.

On his actual birthday we got up early and celebrated his day with him.  Evan is such a fun kid, I mean young man.  He has such a fun personality and is really a joy to have in our house.   He's thoughtful and kind and very generous.  He loves to bake treats and works hard in school and soccer. He does very well in school and has really good friends.  I'm loving this stage and this kid!

Later that night we had some family over to have cake and ice cream and sing to Evan.  I think he had a great birthday and enjoyed us celebrating him.

Spring Break getaway...Devils Garden area

On Saturday we got an early start and headed into Arches by 9am.  We wanted to get all the way to the top of the park to explore Devil's Garden.  This area has a number of arches on a 7 mile "loop" trail.  We weren't sure how far we'd go...we just headed out to explore.  The first arch we came to was Tunnel Arch.

A short hike to the next one was Pine Tree arch.  There was a pine tree growing right under the arch and that is why it was named that.  We took pictures inside the arch and soon learned that you can't see any faces in the shade under an arch.  So as we were leaving Kim and Katie had the idea to take a picture in the sun.  I think it turned out great!

Another hike and we found ourselves at Landscape Arch.  I think this is one of my favorite arches.  It's really long and just looks kind of fragile because it spans such a huge distance.  In face, in 1991 a huge piece of the arch fell off and came crashing down.  Now they don't let you go in this arch...only view it from a distance.  You can't help but wonder if it will collapse completely in the "near" future...maybe 200 years!

We were having so much fun exploring that we decided to keep going.  We hiked and hike to the next turn off and headed to Navajo arch.

We spent quite a while exploring the area around Navajo arch.  There was a slot canyon that Evan and Mayce figured out how to get up and get on top of the bluff.  They were up exploring and making a Go Pro video of the amazing views they had from up there.   We waiting and then worried about them getting down and with good reason.  There were some jumps and scary moments for them to get back down, but they loved it!  While we were there we decided that we needed a big group picture and we asked a poor passer by to take our picture...on 3 different cameras.  I think he did a great job!

From Navajo arch it was a long way to the farthest arch...Double O.  Everyone was doing pretty well and most of us decided to push on.  It was some tough hiking, but again, once we reached Double O, it was worth it!  We were getting pretty hungry by this time (3 1/2 hours in...about 1pm!) and discovered that we forgot the pack with the snacks in it.  Luckily, Kim was prepared with just about everything in her backpack and we scarfed her homemade energy goo (which was delicious!!) and decided to continue the loop onward that eventually lead back to the car.

The hike back was supposed to be the "easier" way and maybe it was, but we were getting tired and hungry at this point!!  The little kids did amazing on this mega hike, but needed a little help near the end!

The "easy" way ended up having one of the scariest parts of the hike.  There was a narrow ledge taht you had to ease yourself across and there was no room for error.  Luckily there were some people there making their way at the same time as us and it was a group effort to get everyone through safely.

After another 1.5 hours of the "easy" way back we arrived tired, hungry, and sore to our cars.  It turned out to be a 5 hour adventure and an estimated 7 miles!  Phew!  It was again perfect weather and such a beautiful experience...but we ate our lunch and headed into Moab for some ice cream!  We deserved it!

All in all it was a great getaway.  We had a fun night around the campfire and a great game of whiffle ball at camp as well....no pictures.  It made for a good mix of work and play for our Spring Break 2015!