Lexis' 1st email home from Panama!

Lexis left for PANAMA Saturday morning at 4am! She will be there for almost 3 weeks with her Spanish class. She called me on Sunday morning to tell me she had gotten there safely which I so appreciated!


Monday, June 1st
Hola familia!

We just got done with our first day traveling around Panama! It is so humid here and very hot! Everyone is in tanks and shorts all the time...and we are all so amazed at those who can stand to wear pants in Panama!

Our families last name is Araya. They have three kids: Nicole 7, Mimi 4, and Gabrielle is almost 1. They are so cute and Carrie and I play with them all day. We are always playing horses or princesses or sitting outside when it rains. Our family speaks english but they are speaking spanish most of the time. Im not doing too good on responding but i can listen and comprehend most of what is said.

This morning we woke up, got dressed and went over to the local store to buy batteries. It is so different. Police are everywhere on the streets and at stores. We came back to the house and were the last ones to be picked up by the bus. We made our way to Panama Viejo but on the way one of the girls threw up three times in the car. We had to stop at a car wash and get the car washed because it smelled so bad. While we were still on our way to the car wash i was covering my face with a newspaper so i wouldnt smell it and when i took it off there was newspaper ink all over my face. Everyone took pictures and it was very funny. After starting the day off with so much adventure we made it to Panama Viejo. It is the ruins of the old panama city built back in the 1500s. It ended up being closed until tomorrow. We decided to walk around the mini market and we got a cold smoothie made from pineapple. We decided to switch today and tomorrows activities. So we drove over to the Panama Canal. We ate at the resteraunt there at the canal that was outdoor and looked over the canal. I found a hair and some kind of octopus tentacle in my food which was not what i wanted to expect out of this suppousively nice resteraunt. After eating we went down to the museum and walked through four stories of museum and learned about the canal and how it works. At 315 we watched a boat from the US go through the canal that contained cars, it was on the way to South Korea. The way that the canal works is so interesting, you guys should look it up. After standing out in the hot sun forever we are now home at our families homes. Tonight we are going out to dinner with our family and i hope to not find anything in my food this time.

I am having a lot of fun. There are TONS of mosquitos and they get worse as you get closer to jungle. I have around 8 mosquito bites already with many layers of repellent on. We got one of the best families compared to the others and are very lucky to get picked up last and dropped off first. I cant believe we still have two weeks. It seems like we have been gone forever already.

But i love you all and miss you. Hope the birthday party went well noah and have fun at fifth grade camp this next week. Dad i will call the Lambs tonight to get their fax number and will call you with it. Mom, i hope your not stressing out over me and Grace i will try to email you all the time! :)

Lots of love from Panama! Adios!

Happy Sweet 16, LEXIS!

Memorial Day 2009

Each and every Memorial Day for the past number of years the kids and I visit the Orem Cemetary where Grandma and Granpa Thurston and Aunt Ann are buried. It has become a tradition of ours that after we've laid flowers on their grave markers first, Mama tells a story about each of them and next we wander the busy cemetary standing up the flowers and flags and wreaths that others have brought their own loved ones and have since been knocked over. I truely love watching my small children as they take the initiative to reverantly walk the rows bending to pick up each fallen container of mums and repositioning each garden gathered bouquet of flowers. It is a special day for remembering.

LEXIS' Sweet 16 Dance Party!

Noah's 11th Birthday Party!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Happy 11th Birthday, NOAH!

Noah's Soccer Team Wins 1st Place

Noah plays on a special Club team. They practice twice a week, play games once a week and work hard, hard, hard! He has been doing a great job this season and really enjoys it. Unfortunately, I have had very few opportunities to watch him play as I do not have help with Michael and he has been struggling. A soccer game outdoors is usually just way too much for him. Fortunately, Lexis agreed to stay with him this morning while I watched his final Championship game! "Thank you, Lexis!" Noah was Awesome! He is an outstanding defensive man and I have the video to prove it! His team won first place and afterwards his team's coach gave out medals to each player saying a little about each as he did so. Each boy had been given a nickname and Noah's was "Goofy." He said that Noah has a great left foot and is awesome at defense among other things. I was very proud of him! Now on to lacrosse...

Soccer player Grace

Grace got aggressive with another player on the soccer field during their game today and they ended up colliding-- Grace twisting her ankle. It really hurt and so I sat with her off the field. Her beautiful eyes turned bright green reflecting off the red of her cheeks and the green of her jersey and I snapped a picture of her to show her the own sweet loveliness.

She told me that she was basically body checking the girl on the other team and it made the other player mad. This player told Grace to stop as they fought for the ball and when Grace told her (quite adamantly direct, I am sure) that you could do "this" the other player fought back enough to step on the side of Grace's foot twisting her ankle and Grace went down. Little stinker is lucky there were others around cause this Mama knows how to body check too when one of my babies is involved :) Grace sat out for the last few minutes of the game and still their team won. The soccer season is now over and Grace did great! She plays hard and tough and can most often be found on the defensive side of the field. I am proud of her and her determination and spirit!

This was done as a History Class assignment...

A History Class assignment..if you can believe it! :) and yes! that is ALL Lexis' own hair! I told her people pay for all that hair but maybe not that particular styling-- people like Hanna Shamamah or something.

April 28th

LEXIS made it to the next round of Class Elections today!!! This means that now only she and one other boy is running for Junior Class President! Very proud of her! They are doing a skit tomorrow morning for the whole school. They can then continue to campaign until the winner's are announced at the dance on Friday. Many of her friends from volleyball are helping her campaign as well as her regular circle of girls. She has really put herself out there in talking to everyone she can and is excited about the possibilities this position could bring. We have been working over-time to come up with clever slogans, hand-outs and the like but in fact Almost called Uncle Bret to ask for his ingenious input.

NOAH is Loving his new lacrosse sticks! He has been carting them to and from school so that he and friends can play at recess then once home he wants someone to play with him out front. Gratefully, he will start on a team next month. :) He did a fantastic header at his soccer game on Monday and played defense like a champ. When I mentioned the header, he told me "that was nothin'!"

GRACE read Twilight again, made up her own "Chore Chart" and is walking with me every day! We set a goal for ourselves that we might be able to successfully run the 'Fun Run' in May. (I am not a fan of running!) While walking today she let me know that for "every 60 steps you take you can eat 60 calories." Coincidentally, the blue raspberry AirHead in her jacket pocket was 60 calories... we counted our steps.

MICHAEL is headed back to school after another hard week off and his ears seem to have healed to a certain degree from last week's incident. His aide from school ,Miss Rachel, will be driving to our house in the morning to ride with Michael on the school bus to and from class. This should be very helpful and protects everyone but specifically Michael from the possible reoccurence of last week's events. (His poor little ears are finally back to somewhat normal size after being terribly swollen. The ER doc said his right ear, if not also the left, will surely have "cauliflower ear." See Mike Tyson.)

I worked almost all day in the yard today and Loved it! After Michael slept well last night we were up early and ready for the day. I mowed the lawn, weeded, set up an extra sprinkler to catch some flowers... Had a nice lunch break with Lexis to help her stick More "Vote4Lexis" labels on More candy to pass out and I even had time to put in a few chunky highlights in the front of my hair! (Lexis says I look "EMO" but I told her I don't need a name for this kind of cool.) Then at 2:30 I got a call from Lexis' cell where without a word I was put on speaker phone so that I could hear them announce who the final candidates for Jr President were! (So thoughtful= her idea!) I yelled WooHoo when I heard her name called and the phone went immediately dead... oops! A Proud Mama can not be blamed!
P.S. AND I lost another 3 lbs! YAY!

Lexis is running for the JUNIOR Class President!

Lexis decided to run for class President for the Junior class Student Body next year. Preliminary elections start tomorrow and we've been busy with preparations. Her dad actually came up with the chosen slogan and we're running with it.
"LEXIS Great Car. Better President!"
From posters to flyers to candy and badges... It should be a good race and we are ready for the fight. I am very proud of her for putting herself out there like this. Regardless of the outcome, she has shown a great deal of self confidence just in choosing to run, along with such an outstanding sense of self. Wish us luck on the campaign trail!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Mom!

WE Love YOU!

Important update

1 lost Easter egg FOUND!
and it snowed today-Yuck!

The Easter bunny brought stale PEEPS and IV Fluid in both arms...

Michael was up all night with a sick stomach. He was throwing up over and over again and so when the very excited Noah and Grace decided to come into my room at 7am even though we had decided 8:30 would be our egg hunt time, I was exhausted! I gave in to trying to go back to sleep but then Lexis was the one who needed further convincing...
The kids ran out to their Easter baskets in true Thurston Christmas morning fashion with the exception that Noah insisted on being first, since he is never first-- made sense to me. Grace snuggled with her new stuffed animal. No matter how many small furry creatures she has, she always loves the next one just as much and the Easter bunny seemed to know this. Lexis couldn't hold back the yawns and noted that the yellow PEEPS in each child's basket had had the plastic covers taken off of them and so they were now hard as rocks! Oops. Noah bit the head off his chocolate bunny and than jumped immediately up to find the hidden eggs. Unfortunately, two are still missing somewhere in the front room. Not kidding! (Although I suppose there is that slight chance that the ole' bunny counted wrong and all were in fact found.)
Michael woke up after the festivities and still could not stop vomiting. The poor little one had nothing left in him and was clearly lethargic and so off Mama and Michael went to the ER while the older kids got showered and ready for their dad to come get them for afternoon church. Michael ended up being very dehydrated with some sort of stomach bug they never specified directly. The nurse took blood in his left arm and then attempted to hook him up to the iv fluids only to kink the line, "infiltrating" Michael's little arm which was REALLY horrible! Michael started screaming in pain as I watched a large bubble form in the crook of his elbow. I was not happy and the nurseS went into obvious panic mode as they moved the IV to his right arm. They were throwing bandages and such around the room which of course than made me panic. It took three of us to hold him down. I couldn't help but think how fortunate we were that he actually was feeling so ill since the fight he had in him was quite less than I knew it to be normally. Finally, Michael settled down and as the fluid moved steadily into his body and the medicine took affect he fell asleep. After a mere three hours in the ER we were on our way home again to both enjoy a nice, long nap.
Happy Easter to each of you!

Easter egg Coloring

Noah and Grace and I had fun coloring eggs tonight. They got quite creative and made some really beautiful eggs. Michael was fast asleep and Lexis chose to go shopping with friends instead (yes, the stage of choosing friends over family is in full force!) Sweet Noah decided to color one of his eggs in "Grace's favorite color" and then the next egg he did he said would be "Grandma Thurston's favorite color!" ("Lime green") He is such a thoughtful boy!