Fun at the Splash Park

Yesterday we had Taye and Kai for a couple hours because Holly was at girls camp and Brian was at work so we decided to make the most of it. We went down to Main Street and had some fun! Main street has slowly transformed into a family fun center. First they built a fountain for kids to run through then they added a little waterfall splash area. And just this month they added a carousel.

The fountain is always good for getting water up your nose


and the waterfall is a perfect resting place for taking some pictures.






And isn't there always a picture like this when it comes to kids and fountains? Can you see the little statue behind them that is squirting water?

This is our newly refurbished carousel. It's an older one that we bought from California and fixed up for us. I think it's very cute. And the rides are only .50 per kid. Perfect.






It was a fun day.

Swim Lessons

Yeah for Ben, David and Evan! They all passed there end of level test in swimming. It's hard to think that Evan and David passed off anything because they were so wild the whole time but they did.

Maybe the teacher just wanted to get rid of them. I think we put them in a easier class than we should have. Ben was nervous about passing, not that he did bad but, I told him that he had to pass in order to do swim team next year. So now he is really excited for next summer.

Desert Stars 2011

It's that time of year again. Desert Stars. Abby came down with the Lucero's to do the week long class. Isaac brought his friend, Guy and his cousin on Jenny's side, Lucy. The 5 of them had a great time together. Guy and Isaac stayed over night Thursday and I don't think they got any sleep at all but they still had a great performance.

JoEllen's 3 oldest kids and My 4 youngest all did Desert Stars 2 weeks later. It was funny to watch. They did a great job. I was especially proud of Ben. He really did well in the dances and paid attention. David and Evan were a different story. At one part they are supposed to show off some mad skills and so they both did "handstands". They really just put their hands on the ground and kicked their feet up. But, one time Evan got a little carried away and happened to fall over. He immediately jumped up, yelled "I'm otay!" and went back to dancing and singing. It was so funny. Brad just happened to be in town to see it and couldn't stop laughing. 10 minutes later, after he'd calmed down, you'd hear Shayne whisper, "I'm otay" and he'd start laughing again. They all had a great time. Thanks Aunt Jan for having such a wonderful program for us to all act out and not get in trouble for it.


I tried so hard to upload the videos of their performance but it won't let me. Sorry. Believe me when I say it was incredible!

Shayne's picture

There is a spot up on Turtle Drive that you see the Temple in your rear view and side mirrors. One day on our way out to one of Joel's softball games Shayne said that she always wanted to take a picture of it and finally the other day she did. Isn't it awesome?

She had to put the words in because they are actually on the bottom of her mirror and it covered up the Temple. She sent it to the New Era to see if they wanted it for a new Mormon Ad. We'll see what happens. Shayne and I have already spread it all over Facebook and have gotten great comments. I am so proud of what a great example she is to everyone.

End of Softball

Joel's men league softball is over. The tournament was last week and Joel had 5 boys out on home visits so they were short some players. So, Joel asked Kyle to play with them and Tom was in town so he invited him to play too. It was great except for the first game. In the second inning Tom went to catch a ball out in left center and his right hand got in the way and either broke his pinkie in two places or dislocated it at the top two knuckles. Either way it was totally deformed. Tom grabbed it and pulled the tip of it pack into place but couldn't get the other part of it back so he called time out and ran up to Kyle who yanked on it really hard and popped it back into place. I got a bag of ice and went into the umpires room and got some tape to tape his fingers together. I looked for a splint but couldn't find one. Tom was done. He iced it for the rest of the game.

Jenny and the boys didn't come for the game because they were getting ready to go see the Little Mermaid at Tuacahn and knew that if we won we'd have to play again right after and they'd get to see that game. But when they got there all they found was Tom icing his finger that was already starting to bruise. I felt so bad. I did go to the concession stand and find a plastic knife that we ended up using for a splint. Needless to say they lost that game.

Joel's team won the next game and lost the third. So out of 6 teams they took 4th. Which was amazing considering they lost their first 3 games of the season by the 15 run rule. They should be very proud of themselves.

Kyle said he was so sore the next day because he hadn't played in such a long time. I think we need to get a family team going every year so the men can have fun playing and we can have fun watching.

Summer Swim Meets

Well, Shayne had to cancel all of her summer swim meets but Sophie had 3 and she did a great job. Here are some pictures from the Hurricane meet. I love this one.

It took me forever to get a picture like this of Shayne. I have a better camera now.

This is her relay team

and her backstroke.

Sophie and George swim for the Dixie College Narwhals. This year Emily is on the swim team too. It's been fun to see how much they are learning and how fast they are going.

Elder Beckstrand #2

The 2nd Elder Beckstrand out right now is Jacob! Before he left for the MTC this last Wednesday he was able to work in the Baptistery at our temple on Thursday's. So my girls made it a priority to go each Thursday so he could baptize them. The last day Shayne had to work but since the Johnson's were in town for reunion we took them and Emma. It was Emma's first time doing baptisms for the dead. It was really neat. I dropped them all off and went upstairs to meet up with Elaine and Debra to do more temple work and as soon as we were done I went back to get the teenagers and they were just getting out. Perfect timing. Here is a picture of Jaden, Austin, Bryce, Chase, Sophie and Emma outside the temple.


I am so glad Jacob is such a good example to his cousins. He was set apart Tuesday night and they left Wed. morning to drop him off at the MTC. I am positive that the people of Japan will love him as much as we do. Jacob will be an amazing missionary and we look forward to hearing all about it.

BFR 2011

Happy 4th of July and the start of the Beckstrand Family Reunion. We went up to Pine Valley and stayed in a cabin we rented from the 4th-6th. It was gorgeous weather and the house and yard were so much fun. They had it all. 2 t.v.'s just for video games. 4 different systems and over a hundred games. Needless to say, that is where you could find the boys, especially Alex, night or day. They also had a pool table and theatre room. Outside there was a zip line for little kids,


ping pong table,

volleyball net and tons of room for games, tents and all around fun.



Of course there was arm wrestling


and hangin' out with the cousins.


This years theme was, "Prepare yourself in every needful thing". Everyday Garrett would give 2 little lessons on being prepared in every way not just with your food storage. It was really good especially for the teenagers who thought that being prepared was only for the parents.

When we first got there Kellie and Garrett had us split into groups and we were with that group the entire reunion. Which of course makes it fun because of the competitive streak that runs through the Beckstrand Boys bloodstream. Each group had equal amounts of little kids and I really enjoyed seeing how the big kids dealt with that. As parents we deal. Teenagers usually run. But I loved watching Jaden help Ben with every relay race and Bryce helped David and Kai. I think of how Joel always talks about how he looked up to Brent and Mark when he was little and know that our little boys will do the same to the teenagers.



This is our Green Team.

On Friday morning Garrett & Lance took Joel, Me & kids, Kristal, John and kids, Brian and his boys, Grandpa, Ashley and Erica fishing up at the Pine Valley Reservoir. Joel, Shayne and Sophie caught their first fish! EVER! Ben caught 6. David didn't fish. He had fun catching everyone's as they pulled them out of the water. It was awesome! 24 fish in all. Garrett spent time teaching Josh how to gut and clean the fish and whatever else he needed to pass off part of his fishing merit badge.





Joel brought his Eskimo Blanket from school and we had a blast. What was the funniest was listening to Grandma's gasps each time someone was flung into the air.

From the look on Debra's face makes you think she went the highest. But...

It was amazing that everyone was there except Daniel and Stephen's family. What a fun time and the memories made will last forever!