The Wynn-er's Circle

Elder Jesse Wynn, Servant of the Lord!

2010-06-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm a little late with this post, but I wanted to show our preparations for Jesse's mission and the pictures at the MTC.Here are some of the pictures we took with family & friends before he left.
To see pictures now that he is serving in Sunnyvale, CA, go to his Facebook page, we'll post all the pictures & news from his mission there!

All packed and ready to go! Wow! What a handsome missionary!

Saying Good-bye to Dash, he even gets a good-bye doggie kiss from Dash! This was a sweet moment, like Dash knew he was going somewhere for a little while. Lump in my throat for sure!

We attended the Family History Celebration at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. It was a fun event. Jesse & I went and took Caleb, Liesel & Ammon with us. These are Jesse's new glasses for his mission.
A friend's good-bye for Justin. This was the night before Justin went to the MTC! I love the expression on Jesse's face!

Tuesday night before Justin went to the MTC, we took the two boys to the Salt Lake Temple for a session. It was a great last night together. These boys have been buddies since they were 4 years old!

We had some cardboard cutouts of Jesse, Andrew and Sarah's brother made to take to the wedding on May 7th. Here's Jesse side-by-side with his cut-out look-alike. Funny, huh!

Grandma & Grandpa Glenn came down on Sunday for dinner. This would be the last time before his mission to see them & say good-bye. They have been such a wonderful influence in Jesse's life!

I love these pictures taken at the MTC before we went to lunch! Jesse's missionary "Jump for Joy!" Priceless!

Jesse's last 'civilian meal', what could be better that J-Dawg's polish dog with special sauce. Seth opens wide for his next bite. Love it!

It was fun to have cousin Kimberly with us for the MTC drop-off. I think this is a great cousin picture!

A sweet good-bye hug for Liesel, Jesse's biggest fan! She is so affectionate and loving! Her emotions were close to the surface that day! We remembers Jesse in her prayers each day, it's so sweet!

A last piggy-back ride by little? brother Seth, & a SWEET picture with Camille at JDawgs!

A hug for little brothers, Ammon & Caleb. Take a close look at Caleb's expression. That's so tender! Big brother to littlest brother good-bye hug for 2 years. Caleb may finally be catching onto this whole Jesse's leaving for a mission thing. The day Jesse was packing, I overheard a sweet conversation between Jesse and Caleb. Caleb:"Where are you going Jesse?" Jesse: "I'm going on my mission, Caleb." Caleb:"How long will you be gone?" Jesse:"For 2 years! Caleb" Caleb:"Is that a long time Jesse?" Jesse: (choked up)"Yeah, Caleb that's a long time." Caleb:"Oh." Then a big hug for Jesse. It was heart-wrenching!!

A last hug for Dad at the curb....

And then off he went! This was our last look at him for the next 2 years! Well done Jesse! "Move On! Go Forward! And aren't we lucky?!" YES! I am! Love, the MOM

Wedding Day for David & Sarah!

2010-05-10T19:10:00.000-07:00

We went to Oakland, CA for David & Sarah's big day-Friday, May 7th, 2010. It was a beautiful day! The flowers at the temple were so spectacular! The weather was perfect; sunny, with a little nice, cool breeze. The view over the San Francisco Bay area was almost completely clear, you could see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance even. It was a perfect day for David & Sarah to begin their lives together! They both were so happy! Sarah was a beautiful bride! Here are some pictures from the beautiful Oakland temple.

High School State Swim Finals

2010-02-15T19:33:00.000-08:00

This weekend was the High School State Swim Finals at Brigham Young University. It was an exciting meet for Seth! Although he was only swimming in one event, the Men's 100 Yrd. Backstroke, it was Seth's goal to get a personal best time and a qualifying time for WESTERN REGION SHORT COURSE SECTION CHAMPIONSHIP in Federal Way, Washington in March. His previous best time was a 56.83. He needed at least a 55.08 to qualify for Sectionals. So, going into the race, Seth was seeded 9th Place, just missing getting into the final heat of the Men's Backstroke. Here's the video of his big race. Seth is in Lane #4. You'll see he won handily, and take a look at the time on the board!

The end of the clip is the medals platform. We didn't get the part where Seth got up on the platform. One of his best friends, McKay King, took first place, setting a new High School State record. I like seeing them both on the platform, McKay rubbing Seth's mohawk and Seth's signature "Peck Dance!" The Men's team took 2nd in the State!
Way to go CAVEMEN!

Jesse's Mission Call

2010-02-15T18:36:00.001-08:00

I'm interrupting our Mexico trip day-to-day blog to announce that Jesse received his mission call on Wed. Jan. 27th to the California, San Jose Mission! He reports to the MTC on Wed. May 5th! He's really excited! Here are some pictures of the mission call letter opening event we had at our house that evening!

I love this picture of Jesse, the expression on his face when he read California, San Jose mission. A big cheer went up from the crowd of friends and family that were there to support him! It was a great family event! We are proud of Jesse's enthusiasm and desire to serve!

Construction Day #2

2010-01-28T21:03:00.000-08:00

The next day we started where we had left off. As we went, doors and windows were framed and the interior walls were started. The goal was to complete 5 more rows and do a second bond beam. Everyone is feeling pretty good about their wall building skills. Jesse and Camille made a good team and Seth and Brittani worked on their exterior wall. Here's some pics.

The second day the scaffolding was assembled as the walls were built taller. Windows and doors started to take shape too.

When our work was finished, we got cleaned up and went out to dinner at a great little restaurant called Ramone's. The Finlayson's had been here before & recommended it! It was great food & great company! Ramone's is famous for their fish & chips, they were yummy!

Here's our job foreman, Rick and his wife Alicia, great new friends!!

Nothing feels better than a hard day's work and a full stomach! We enjoyed the hot tubs back at Las Palomas. Another good day's work done! To be continued...

Construction Day #1

2010-01-25T20:59:00.000-08:00

We arrived at the church at 8a.m.,were assigned our work groups and headed out for the construction site. This is what it looked like when we got there. The corners had been blocked up and the foundation had been poured before we arrived. Look closely, you'll see that some stray dogs walked through when the cement was still wet. Those will be there forever. The floor will be cement, no carpets or rugs.

This is the pile of block that was moved into the house by each cement palette by a huge human block moving chain.

Some started assembly on electrical conduit and electrical boxes for outlets and switches. Caleb and Liesel helped sift sand through a screen and fill buckets with sand to be mixed in the cement mixers.

Next the block and cement work began to construct the walls. Even Caleb got in on putting cement on the end of the block so that Bro. Hyatt could put them in place in the wall. Thanks Bro. Hyatt for being so patient with your 'lil helper.

This is the Mesa's house that they are living in now. It's really not much more than a shed. The one room has a bed in it and the other is their kitchen.

This is Sis. Mesa, first on the right, with 2 of her daughters & one of her grandchildren.

By the end of the first day, we had completed 5 rows of block walls on the exterior.
The final work of the day was the bond beam. Re-bar is lined all along the outside walls and then filled with cement to make it sound. It was a soupier mix that we used to fill the bond beam. The mortar for the blocks was a lot thicker. It was a good day's work. We had all learned so much.

Both Mike and Jesse learned how to use the block saw. It was a pretty 'manly' power tool!We all went home tired and proud of what we had been able to accomplish. Tomorrow, Construction day #2...P.S.Seth was hiding from the camera today. I'll be sure to include some pics of Seth at work in the next post.

Our Mexico Weekend

2010-01-20T14:53:00.000-08:00

One day at the beach, Caleb was determined to write the entire alphabet, upper and lower case, in the sand. We started it several times and then would come to a place in the sand where there was a rock or a hole, so he'd start over. He kept busy at it for a long time. I think we made it to Mm.

On Saturday, we had the whole day to just ENJOY! We played on the beach, tried digging for clams, with no success, those buggers are elusive! We collected all kinds of beautiful shells and played in the pools and hot tubs. The older kids and adults, had a long game of beach football. Their muscles were sore the next couple of days, but it was WORTH IT!

On Sunday we attended Sacarament Meeting in the 1st Puerto Penasco branch. It was all in Spanish, but Mike & I thought we could understand about 40% of what was said. The missionaries serving there were the speakers that day. Liesel went to Primary just for a few minutes and because she was a visitor they sang the 'Welcome Song' to her.
"Hola! (Hola!) Hola! (Hola!)..." It was fun to see the Primary children fidgeting and busy, just like in our Primary.

Sunday afternoon we went with the Finlayson's on a Sunday drive out to the beach houses that they had stayed in last year. The Nyman family were staying out there this year.The beach out by the beach houses was amazing! This is where we found whole sand dollars, big & small, sea cucumbers and some other fun shells. We just walked along the beach for what seemed like forever, soaking it all in! Tomorrow morning we begin work on the houses; the real reason we are here, although it sure has been nice these past few days!

This fish needs some serious dental work! This was the treasure? that Jesse found!Nathan & Caleb show off the squishy, slimy sea cucumbers they found! Tomorrow...Day#1 of construction.

Christmas Day in Mexico

2010-01-20T13:16:00.000-08:00

This was the spectacular sunset on Christmas Eve at Los Palomas!

We awoke to a beautiful Christmas morning! Blue skies, a beautiful ocean and Santa had found the kids in Mexico and filled all their stockings! We could've never imagined we would be staying in such a luxurious place as the Los Palomas Resort! Thanks to Jared Parker for making our accomodations arrangements! It was spectacular! We felt a little guilty to be staying in such luxurious accomodations, considering the purpose of our trip there. But, later we found out that the owner of the Condo we were staying in had donated all the money we had paid to rent the condo for the week, back to Families Helping Families organization! We are so thankful for the owners who let us enjoy their 'little bit of heaven on earth' in Puerto Penasco. Here are some of the pictures of our condo, the beach, the view and swimming pool areas.

We were feeling pretty spoiled. It looks deserted! That's right, for the first few days we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves!
Seth treated us to his gourmet omelettes for Christmas Breakfast! Thanks Seth, delicious as always!

After we had spent some time on the beach and in the hot tubs in the morning, we took a trip to the marketplace in downtown Puerto Penasco. The Finlayson's showed us the tricks and tips for getting a bargain, haggling for better prices and the best place to buy FRESH SHRIMP!

The shrimp are HUGE! Puerto Penasco is famous for their shrimp! The marketplace was so colorful and a fun outing for the kids!

The kids had gotten some Christmas money from their Grandma and Grandpa Wynn, so we decided they could use that money at the marketplace, and see how much they could get with $20.00. Liesel already had her list made out. She wanted a sombero and some maracas. Caleb found a cool Nacho Libre mask, just his size. Jesse haggled for a good price on a poncho, I think he paid $15 for it, later in the day Nathan got pretty much the same poncho for $9!! Seth found himself some brass knuckles! We hope we can get those across the border! Ammon found some bracelets that he liked. One handmade with his name woven into it. I found myself some designer? Gucci? sunglasses. We bought fresh shrimp and scallops from Mr. Fish and fish vendor, one of the members had recommended to us. It was a great Christmas Day shopping!

Later that afternoon, we had a special Christmas late lunch in a restaurant at Los Palomas called the La Citron. It was good food. We enjoyed the pools and beach some more in the evening and cooked our fresh seafood later that night. The kids watched movies until late and we had all had a wonderful day!

Our Feliz Navidad

2010-01-17T21:06:00.000-08:00

This Christmas our family decided to do something a little different. The Rick and Alicia Finlayson Family invited our family to go to Puerto Penasco, Mexico to do humanitarian service over Christmas and New Year's. This is something Mike & I have wanted to do as a family for a long time, but we never had the 'connections'. So we were excited about the possibility of taking our family on this adventure. When we asked our kids what they thought about the idea, it was an almost unanimous 'Yes!' (Caleb was a little confused, he's 5 after all). So we decided to GO FOR IT!
Here are some of the pictures of our adventure! It was a wonderful Christmas for sure!

We drove, about a 16 hour drive, stayed in Phoenix the first night and arrived in Puerto Penasco, Mexico at about 3p.m. on Christmas Eve. Our first stop was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Primary aged children were anxiously awaiting a visit from Santa Claus. Before we left on our adventure, we met at the Finlayson's house and assembled Christmas stockings and bags for about 150 Primary-aged children in the 1st and 2nd Branches of the Puerto Penasco church. Here are some of the images of the beautiful Mexican children in Puerto Penasco. I loved seeing the delight in the eyes of these beautiful children of God!

Here are Liesel and Ammon in front of the church in Puerto Penasco.
This little boy wasn't too happy about sitting on Santa's lap.

Most of the children though, had a look of wonder in their eyes and were a delight to watch!

As you can see, Caleb wasn't afraid of Santa Claus. Bytheway, in Mexico, Santa Claus speaks Spanish! "Ho!Ho!Ho!Hola!Como estas?"

Here's a picture of 'Santa's Helpers' right after we arrived.

We invited a good family friend, she's also our kids' piano teacher to join us on our trip. Here is Toshiko Mori helping with the stockings.

There was a little baby girl named Brittani. Brittani Finlayson put her stocking together in Utah before the trip, anxious to meet her namesake, Brittani and Brittani posed for a picture with Santa.

We met another great family from Highland, Ut, the Nyman's.
It was so awesome to see the missionaries serving there!

Alicia and Rick Finlayson had put hundreds of hours in preparing for this special gift for the Primary children. We are so thankful to be in invited to take a very small, but very meaningful part of it!
I can't resist putting a few more pictures of the beautiful children! They are truly children of God and shine with a beautiful, pure light of Christ.I loved watching a little girl relish every juicy section of an orange that was in her stocking.It was a great way to spend Christmas Eve! We were already looking forward to being back on Sunday for Sacrament Meeting.

Fall Fling!!

2009-11-12T22:52:00.001-08:00

What's better than this? Nothin!

A perfect Fall afternoon! We found an untouched area covered in fallen leaves! It was the perfect Fall afternoon pastime! What a wonderful play thing nature has provided in fallen leaves.

I haven't played in a pile of leaves for years! 'Leaf' it to my kids to bring out the kid in me again. It was irresistible, I jumped in too!
You've seen snow angels? How about leaf angels? It was perfect and not so cold.

Our playtime ended up in a big leaf fight!

Liesel's Baptism Day

2009-11-12T22:01:00.003-08:00

Saturday, November 7th, 2009 was a very special day for our Liesel. She was baptized in the Alpine Tabernacle and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are so proud of the beautiful girl she is becoming. It was a wonderful day for our whole family!Congratulations Liesel!

It was especially neat that Liesel's brother, Jesse was able to baptize her. This is Jesse's first baptism in our family.

Lots of wonderful family and friends came to support Liesel on her special day!

Our Grandma On TV

2009-07-21T13:45:00.000-07:00

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

We sent in the recipe for Grandma's 14 layered Rainbow JELLO and they chose her to come on Tv to show everyone! She is the last person shown on this segment (last the best of all). She is so cute!!! Good job Grandma!

Jesse's Latest Summer Passtime

2009-07-18T13:24:00.000-07:00

Jesse's the one in the white shorts that does all the cool stuff. Could this be dangerous???

Studio 5 Card Swap Group

2009-07-18T13:18:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite hobbies card making and card swapping made it onto Studio 5. I was on TV!!!!

Grand Canyon Weekend

2009-07-13T21:19:00.001-07:00

Over Memorial Day weekend, we decided to take a trip to see the Grand Canyon! Mike had never been there! Aki brought Hryu, a friend along and they got a look at the spectacular Grand Canyon too. When we got there, Aki said, "Whoa! Who made this?" I told him, "God made this Aki & a river." It is simply breathtaking. (Especially for mothers of young children. A couple of times, my breath was taken away out of fear for the lives of my little ones!Long story...)

My Graduates

2009-07-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

Our family celebrated a real milestone this Spring! Our first child, Jesse, graduated from American Fork High School, and our youngest son, Caleb 'graduated' from Little Friends PreSchool! We are so proud of both our graduates! Here they are outside the Am.Fork High School graduation at the BYU Marriott Center. Way to go Jesse & Caleb! Doesn't Caleb look so proud of his PreSchool Diploma?

Here's Liesel modeling the candy & money lei that I made for Jesse. She borrowed Caleb's graduation cap. She looks like a graduate too!

The whole bunch! The only time we'll all be in attendance at a High School Graduation Exercises. Due to missions, moving away from home, away at college, marriages, etc. We never realized it until it was happening, that Jesse would finish his public school education just as Caleb was beginning his. Jesse's glad to be on this side of his education, instead of just beginning.

Proud Caleb & proud parents of our new Graduates! We love you Jesse & Caleb!!(and yes, all you other Wynn kids too, you're the BEST!) Love, Mom

Seth's toe

2009-04-26T18:52:00.001-07:00

This is Seth's broken toe! He was playing basketball barefooted & caught it on another barefoot player's foot. Nice job Seth! I wasn't planning to spend all afternoon at the Dr. and Orthopedic Surgeon's office. Anyway, it's mending well! We have given Seth lots of TLC

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-04-26T18:45:00.001-07:00

The kids & Mike really made my birthday special! Camille made me a birtday cake with lusciuos, huge red raspberries on it! Yum! Thanks Camille!

Happy Birthday to me! My mom & dad came down to help celebrate!

All my birthday wishes came true!

Some of those raspberries were mysteriously missing when it came time to put candles on the cake, sing & make a wish. I wonder who the raspberry thieves are???Caleb?Liesel?Camille? Ammon?

Birthdays at our House!!!

2009-04-06T16:44:00.000-07:00

We've had a few birthdays at our ho use lately!! Jesse turned 18 & became an official adult on March 16th! Can you believe he was 5 months old when we moved into our house?! One of the first things he did as an adult, was to buy dry ice (did you know that you have to be 18 to buy dry ice??) and made 5 gallons of homemade Root Beer! Pretty crazy, huh? We are proud of Jesse, and his many accomplishments over the last 18 years!

The ceremonial lighting of the birthday cake!

Make a wish! Blow! Happy Birthday Jesse!!

Seth turned 'sweet 16' on April 5th! He is sporting his new sunglasses that he wanted for his birthday!

Grandma Glenn made the traditional Chocolate Angel Food Cake, a family favorite!! This time she made 2 because 1 just won't do anymore! We put 8 candles on each cake!

Uncle Kay played a fancy 'Happy Birthday' on the piano, make a wish, blow! We are so proud of Seth too, & the great young man he is! Yes, girls! Seth is available for dating now! (In fact, he has his first date on Friday, with an 'older woman' even. Happy Birthday Seth, we love you!!

New life...a sure sign of Spring!!

2009-04-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

We are excitedt to annouce the arrival of 5 new baby bunnies at our house! They are the bunny kits of Liesel's rabbit, Dafi. They were born around the 23rd of March & are doing great! As you can see, Liesel is so proud of her new arrivals. Yesterday was the first day we could actually hold them & take pictures!
There are 2 light brown ones, called 'chocolates' and 3 black & white ones, like their mother, Dafi.

I think this is the 'runt of the litter'. This one seems to be smaller than the rest, but is doing well nevertheless. They are soooooooo cute!

My Uncle Kay was down for Sunday dinner and Seth's birthday, & enjoyed seeing the new babies too! We are so proud that Dafi is a good mother. On a first litter, there is a 50/50 chance of the babies surviving. Sometimes the new mother doesn't know how to care for her young & will reject them. Dafi is a SUPER MOM & is taking good care of her kits. It has been so fun to watch them grow a little each day!

Seth, always the animal lover, gets to take a look at the babies close up. Their eyes opened at about Day 10. They are fattening up a little each day. If anyone is interested in a new pet, let us know. We want our bunnies to go to good homes. We don't know yet, how many boys or girls there are. In a few weeks I'll find out. Anyway, we have Spring Fever at our house for sure, and we're looking forward to some fun Easter pictures with our new bunny family! Hurry-up Spring!

Wynn's International Bed & Breakfast, kindof...

2009-04-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

The month of March has been a fun & interesting month for our family, as we have hosted 3 different students from Japan this month! We enjoyed every one of them, but Emi Kitamori stole our hearts. She is 20 years old, and studying Nursing at a women's college in Japan. Their trip here was to observe medical procedures & medical-related programs here in America. She just fit right into our family! She was so cheerful, always smiling & out-going. (Which isn't typical of Japanese people.) Her English was very good, so that made it easy for all the kids to communicate with her too. Liesel and Emi became very close. She was so patient, as Liesel was always talking to her or showing or doing something with Emi when she arrived home each night. We took her to the morning broadcast of "Music & the Spoken Word" at the Tabernacle on Temple Square on Sunday & she had a wonderful experience! When she came out of the Tabernacle she said "That was so wonderful!! I have chicken-skin!"(The Japanese word for 'goosebumps' literally translates to 'chicken skin' in English). Later I heard her explain her feelings in Japanese to a teacher from her school that was also there that morning. She told her she has never had that feeling, or chicken-skin all over her entire body in her life! Anyway, it was a great day! Another fun thing we did, was to go to the Olympic Park. We were lucky enough to be there to see several Comet bobsleds race by. It was exciting! It was so hard to say good-bye & many tears were shed when she left. We are hoping that we will meet again someday. She knows she can always come back to her home with us in Utah. It was a pleasure to be her family while she was here! Her are some of the cute pictures we took while she was here. Also, some pictures of the 2 boys, Gen & Yuuki that stayed with us this month.

Wynn's International Bed & Breakfast pics...

2009-04-06T14:45:00.000-07:00

This is Gen Kato from Gifu, Japan. Gen is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was fun to get to know him, even though his stay was very short. We hope this experience in Utah will help Gen prepare for and serve a mission.

Gen Kato & our family, the night before he left to go home.

This is Yuuki Takahashi from Nishiwagamachi in Japan, Iwate prefecture. He was a really great kid, kindof quiet, but he warmed up to us right when it was time to go home.

Emi loved playing tug-o-war with Dash!

Our last night together after the dinner & program! Emi was pretty emotional.

Our farewell dinner with Emi. Hamburgers and hot dogs, baked beans, chips. We had Emi try Root Beer! She didn't like it, but got a good laugh and she took a can home to try on her little sister.

Emi's Graduation Certificate!Congratulations Emi!

Feeding carrots to the horses in our neighborhood

Dash & Emi became close friends too!

Temple Square with Emi

Comet Bobsled at Utah's Olympic Park at Bear Hollow.

Temple Square after "Music & the Spoken Word" broadcast

Being silly for the camera, Liesel & Emi. They became pals!

Comet bobsled racing past at around 80mph!

Another fun picture in the bobsled!

Our family with Emi, (Mike's taking the picture) at Olympic Park, Bear Hollow!

One of the days that Emi was here, she went to Courage Reins, a horse-therapy center for children with disabilites.

At Courage Reins, Emi was able to observe & help children with disabilites get the therapy they need with the gentle horses there.

Emi was really excited about this opportunity to visit Courage Reins. There isn't anything like this kindof a program using horses in Japan. She loved it!

More Disney Magical Moments

2009-03-09T11:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I just couldn't get all the photos I wanted to share from our trip into one post. So here goes...more memories! Is there any such thing as too many pictures of a good thing? No! When we look at these photos, they make us smile! Hopefully, they'll make you smile too!

Silly pirate Camille after the Pirates of the Carribean ride
Toy Story Mania ride. Mitchell & Seth ready to "rack up some bit points"

Singin' in the Rain' with Ammon

Our last few minutes in Disney's Magic Kingdom, the streets were literally empty, I snapped this last photo of Camille on Main Street!
This is two very tired Disney fans! This was after our second day in the Magic Kingdom! It was such a fun day! Samantha & I took just Liesel, Caleb & Liesel to the Magic Kingdom, while the bigger kids went to Islands of Adventure & Universal Studios for some mind-scrambling roller coasters. Sam & I were happy to go back to Fantasyland, Splash Moutain, Thunder Mountain Railroad, Jungle Cruise, & Pirates-all our favorites!

Yes! this sucker is as big as your head Camille! (We didn't buy it!) After the Pirates of the Carribean ride (the last one of the day, we barely made it!) Camille & Madi had fun taking crazy pirate pictures in the Pirate gift shop!

This is a blind pirate! Funny, Madi!

I think Camille makes a pretty cute Jack(ie) Sparrow!

Hmmm, who outshines the princess in this picture?

I know I'm her mother, but really, who looks like a real princess in this pic? I vote for Camille!

Cute Minnie & Camille

It was sure fun for Camille & Madi to spend time together again! They have such a fun time together! We sure love you Madi!

OUR GREAT DAY AT COCOA BEACH!!!

Justin & Jesse, our future BYU Cougar Freshmen!

Contemplating what the future holds for them?

Oh sooooo cute! Caleb loved chasing the surf!

Run! Caleb Run!

Jesse in neck deep!

Mike gave Seth some body-surfing lessons. They had a ball!

Ammon, Landon & the big boys, dug a hole until they hit water!

What a cute couple! Emma & Caleb

WOW! Look at this lineup! Seth, Jesse, Mitchell, Justin & Braden

Can you see China down there?

Our little boys grew up!

A natural beauty at the beach!

Jesse & I in Japan at Epcot's World Showcase

Winnie the Pooh & Friends in the Epcot's United Kingdom

Our Yakitori dinner in Epcot's Japanese village! All 16 of us!

Camille at I in Italy at Epcot

There was a shop in Italy in the World Showcase with all these beautiful masquerade masks. We wanted to buy one, but they were expensive!

The acrobats in China, Epcot's World Showcase

What a good-lookin' bunch! Epcot's China

Epcot's Germany

Harley Davidson shop in Downtown Disney! Motorcylce Mama Camille!

Mr. & Mrs. Incredible at Hollywood Studios. Nice muscles, Liesel!

One morning, we enjoyed the paddle boats on the lake by our condos & played a round of Pirate's Cove miniature golf. It was a fun, relaxing morning away from the crowds. Later that day we went to Downtown Disney, then to Epcot's World Showcase!

This pirate girl was terribly immodest! Good thing my jacket fit her perfectly! She was kindof falling out of her blouse!

Probably the kids favorite ride of all was the Toy Story Mania ride in Hollywood Studios. It's an interactive arcade that is constantly changing & in 3D. What will they think of next?

Singin' in the Rain, jus' singin' in the rain..." We all tried to strike a Gene Kelly pose on the streetlamp umbrella in Hollywood studios.

Magical Family Memories Made in a truly magical place...

2009-03-08T20:14:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful family vacation to Orlando FL. DisneyWorld, Kennedy Space Center, Cocoa Beach, Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios. We had absolutely perfect weather, not a cloud in the sky or a single raindrop, until the morning we were leaving, it was pouring rain. We met our friends the Thunell's in Denver & then flew together, all 16 of us, onto Orlando. It would be impossible to blog about all the great fun we had! So I think I will photo journal it. Enjoy our pics! In my opinion, every family should take this vacation in their lifetimes if possible. And be sure & not miss the Kennedy Space Center, it's worth the trip! Anyway, take a look at the pictures, they tell the story better than I could even begin to. Tons of good memories! Here's just a sampling of some of the 800+ pictures that the Thunell's & we took!

We had a welcome the very first day at the Magic Kingdom by Mickey's dog, Pluto!

Mom has been attacked by Bruce, the shark from Nemo!!!

On Sunday, we went to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. That place is amazing! We saw lots of alligators in the waters collected along the roadside. Liesel's count was up to 10 last we checked.
This is the Saturn V. Still the largest engine in the world. This rocket is huge!!363 ft. long, 17 million tons of thrust to launch this baby!

Enjoying the pools & hot tubs at the Condos. The kids took a dip after a big day!

Yes! They stuffed 6 people into a red phonebooth in the United Kingdom, part of Epcot's World Showcase.
Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida

Disney's Wild Animal Kingdom, with the newest thrill ride, Expedition Everest, in the background! The Animal Kingdom is like stepping into a lush jungle. It's amazing!

We LOVE Mickey & Minnie Mouse, they are sooooooooo cute! What's Disneyland without pictures with all our favorite Disney characters?

Mary Poppins greeted us on a day at the Magic Kingdom!

We caught lots of fun 3-D adventures & movies. This is a 3D film at the Kennedy Space Center about man walking on the moon. Don't we all look haute in our 3D glasses?

Goofy in Frontierland

Monsters Inc. at Hollywood Studios, gotta love 'Roz'

Elephants on the Kilamanjaro Safari at Animal Kingdom

Lightning McQueen & Mater at Hollywood Studios

One night we ate at Red Lobster, we named this lobster 'Max' the biggest in the tank. It's about $60.00 in lobster you're lookin' at.

The whole silly Viking bunch at Norway in Epcot's World Showcase, nice horns Mitchell & Seth!

Did you know that Mickey grows pumpkins in his garden?
Of course, a highlight was meeting the Disney princesses, Cinderellas, Belle & Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty.

Did you know that Minnie likes to quilt & sew? This is Minnie's craft room in her house in Toon Towne.
I have to say, my favorite princess is Ariel the Mermaid. She was so cute, "Say 'fishy'!"

Rafiki from the Lion King in Adventureland

Our little 'angel fish' Liesel with Ariel. We visited Ariel two times, she's our favorite!

Splish Splash the Meet was a Blast

2009-01-31T13:04:00.000-08:00

This weekend was the Region 5 High School Swim Meet. Seth swam in 4 events. We took 3rd place in the Region 5 Men's 100 Backstroke! It was an awesome race, he beat his best time by 4 seconds (that's huge in swimming!)In the 100 Men's Butterfly, he took 8th place, & had a personal best time for the 100 Butterfly. He swam on 2 relay teams. His Men's 200 Freestyle Relay took first. He swam with Kyle Smith, McKay King & Colby Larsen. Too bad they called them all to the Medals stands while they were all in the cool-down pool. (Missed a Kodak moment there.) His second relay was the Men's 400 relay, he swam with Tyler Cox, Wade Healey & Logan Whittaker. They all averaged a 55 second 100, Seth's was a 52 second 100, they took 6th place! The meet results wer1st Lone Peak High School, 2nd American Fork High School, & we don't know who took all the others. American Fork High School had the most 1st places, so I think they should have won the meet, but the numbers just add up differently. Away, they are also winners to me. There were many records broken today, as well as a lot of 'personal bests.' As far as I'm concerned, 'Swimmers rock!' I'm really proud of Seth's accomplishments in Swimming. Take a look at the slide show of pictures I took.

Wynn-er's in our Family Circle

2009-01-28T18:04:00.000-08:00

So I guess I'll introduce you to our family. Mike, my husband, is a computer programmer for the Church Family History Department. (We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) He is the second oldest of 6 children, only second oldest by a few minutes, as he is a twin, & a gentleman even as an infant, by letting his sister, Michelle, come into the world first. (He did eat most of the food in utero, he was the biggest of the two.) He loves waterskiing, (even in November), racquetball, camping & scouting, hiking trips to the Uintah's, swimming, movies & serving in his Church callings. He is a super-great Dad, & spends a lot of time with our kids, (they are so lucky!) Recently, he has become interested in Tri-athalons & is a Swim Official Starter/Judge for the high school & club swim teams here in American Fork. He graduated from BYU & also served a Japan Okayama Mission at the same time I did. That is where we first met, but we didn't realize what a great match we were until we got home & began dating. (Sorry, no scandalous "mission romance" for us). Jesse is our oldest son. He is a Senior at American Fork High School. He is interested in engineering, flying, RC airplanes, wakeboarding, snow boarding, previously played on the high school soccer team & is delighting us all with his classical guitar skills! He is waiting to hear if he has been accepted at BYU for the Fall. He will go to college for a whole year before he turns 19 & goes on his mission. He are proud of the young man he has become. Seth is our 15 year-old, sophomore at American Fork High School. He is already 6'3" tall, passing up Jesse & his Dad. He is on the American Fork High School Swim Team & is one of the top swimmers on the team & in the State. He was on the State Men's Relay Teams last year as a Freshmen. We are proud of his accomplishments in swimming. Mike was a high school swimmer, and it has been fun to have Seth follow in his footsteps, maybe I should say wake. Seth loves cooking too, makes an awesome omelet. He's a traditionalist when it comes to waterskiing & is awesome at slalom skiing. Also, on the slopes, he prefers skiis to a snowboard. He is amazing on the piano & is discovering his "playing by ear" skill. I love to hear him play the piano. Camille is our beautiful 13 year-old. She is an 8th grader at American Fork Jr. High School. She has many talents. She was an answer to our prayers when she arrived on the scene just 25 minutes after arriving at the hospital. We really wanted a girl to add to our family! She loves to dance & has been studying dance with Tami Meacham at Timpanogas School of Dance for 6+ years. She is learning to dance en pointe now in ballet, loves Jazz & Hip Hop. We love seeing her dance in her yearly recitals, and at Christmas in the Nutcracker. She plays the piano, loves crafts, sewing, spending time with friends, making crazy videos & is also a "fish" in the swimming pool. She is on the HAST swim team, & serving in her Young Women's class presidency. She has a funny sense of humor & creates crazy videos, along with her friends, Jill & Annie. Maybe she will be a comedian or actress someday?? She sings in the Women's Choir at school too. See, I told you she has many talents! Ammon is our 10 year-old son. He is in the 5th grade at Legacy Elem. School. He is an awesome big brother to Liesel, who is a 1st grader there. He enjoys singing in the Chorus at Legacy, led by his 3rd grade teacher, Mr. Botitta, one of his favorite teachers. He loves soccer, basketball, & tolerates going to summer swim team. He really is a good swimmer, I think it would be a shame to give it up. He is learning to play the piano & he & I are avid readers. Recently, we have read together outloud: the Fablehaven series, several Harry Potter's, all the Spiderwick Chronicles, Tale of Despereaux, & currently, the Leven Thumps series. We are anxiously waiting for the fourth book in the Fablehaven series to come out, & are thinking about reading the Inkheart series too. We love our daily reading together! Ammon is an awesome student & is currently competing in a class Chess Competition. He is in the final four! He's hoping to give me Chess lessons, as I have never learned to play. Liesel is our energetic 7 year-old. She came to our family as an answer to her big sister Camille's prayers, as Camille was sure she was going to be the only girl in the family. (Camille wanted to name the baby "dishwasher" if it was a boy, she did not want another brother!) Liesel is full of love, hugs, kisses & love letters. She writes love letters & notes for everyone in the family, especially to me!! She is almost always happy, except when Camille is hogging the bed. (They share a bed, I'm not sure how much longer this arrangement will work??) She is my sunshine & I love blowing kisses to her when she leaves for school each day & signing 'I love you too' as she skips off to school. She enjoys dancing too & tumbling. She wants to learn to play the piano. She has lots of friends & is outgoing to everyone she meets. We hope her happy disposition will last throughout her teenage years & into her adulthood, she's a "the glass is half-FULL" type person. What a great quality!! Last of all, is Caleb, our 'caboose.' He loves trains by the way, especially Thomas the Tank Engine & the Polar Express. He is 4 years old & loves going to Ms. Barbara's Little Friends PreSchool 3 days a week. He loves to spell & sound things out. Of all our children, he is most interested in reading & spelling things at this early age. He loves to ask me "how do you spell__________?" & can spell many words on his own. I think it's because he has so many teachers in the family. Caleb loves to go to the swimming pool with Daddy & loves his 'woobie.' He loves to snuggle & get cozy with Mom. He doesn't like running errands too much. Well, that pretty well gets you acquainted with our family. We also house a dog named, Dash (short for Dasher), a parrot named Roxy, with a celebrity past, & a bunny named, Daffi (short for Daffodil). Our family's motto for 2009 is: "In order to be Wynners (winners), the team (family)must have a feeling of unity. Every player must put the team (family) first, ahead of personal glory(themselves)." -Paul Bryant, football coach We are working on that, it's a process, somedays we do better than others.

Welcome to the Wynn-er's Circle

2009-01-28T17:22:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog! I've been wanting to start a blog for awhile now, so here goes! Thanks to all those bloggers out there that inspired me, Sue Richardson, Dana Smith, Amy Ingram, Summer Strickland & Susan Neal to name a few! My only worry is that this could become addicting! I named my site the Wynn-er's circle (pronounced "winners" not "whinners," although oftentimes, both could apply). We have 6 incredible kids, ages 17-4, I'll introduce you to them in my blog introductions. Also, I'm very lucky to be married to a wonderful man, Michael Wynn--he truly is "my better half." So, that's the beginning of the Wynn-er's Circle blogspot.