Big ol' guy in a cast

It was the first youth activity for Bishop Schmalz and they went to Jump On It. Need I say more? That was just over two years ago and ever since that day Xandi has suffered. He has been blaming everything on his ankle. To be honest, we didn't believe him. After confirmation from the ortho doc, we have discovered that he destroyed his stabilizing ligament in his ankle and he has a ton of scar tissue and a piece of floating bone in there causing his troubles. No wonder he never wanted to go roller skating with us! We (meaning he) are well on our way to recovery now... His ankle has been scoped and cleaned out and he has a fresh new dead guy heart tissue ligament. Yay! Looking forward to 3 weeks in a cast and then 3 weeks in a boot and then he starts physical therapy. Happy healing daddy-o.

Priest High Adventure

A chilled out version of last years high adventure because not one person almost died!

Lava Hot Springs, camping, water basketball, running the river, Paris Tabernacle, and Bear Lake. Great relaxing fun in the sun!

Here are the completely random order of pics and I have no idea how to caption them but you'll get the idea that they were a bunch of guys having an adventure...

Highlights from Youth Conference for the bigs and the big ol' dad

They each got to fly in an airplane with a flight instructor.

One on one. How awesome is that?!! They even got to hold the controls!

 

This is from Sophie's flight. She flew right over our house and snapped this great pic!

 

Meeting Chad Hymas and getting to hear his amazing story.

 

and some fun on the lake

 

 

Thurday Night BBall

This is the first year that Gavin has had the opportunity to play basketball with the young men in our ward. It has been fun to be able to go watch him the one time I went (thanks foot) and to get update's of how his team dominates the court when we haven't been able to go. They are undefeated and are on their way to region here in a couple of weeks. I tried to get some action shots but never managed to get any good ones, but we did manage to get some action shots of the big ol' bishop dad throwing some shots at halftime. In my book, they both (still) got it!

Birthday Dinner

We have thoroughly enjoyed the tradition Xandi's parents have had of taking their birthday kids out to dinner. We get great food and great company all at the same time. It's so fun to catch up and spend a fun evening together and so appreciate the relationships we have.

Here is the big birthday boy with his cute mom and dad. The oldest of eight pretty great kids but even with that, these people here are saints!

Thanks Mom and Dad Schmalz, we love ya!

The Birthday Boy

With his boy

and then

 

Eating some wings and fries surrounded by about twenty large screen TV's playing sports.

What more could a guy ask for for his birthday?

 

Oh yeah, he did get to hang out with his gimpy wife :)

Dark Canyon Pics

I am grateful to have my two big boys home safe and sound, although a day early due to extreme heat exhaustion and dehydration. It turned out to be quite the experience for all those boys and leaders. Not the "fun" that they set out for, but a great learning experience and one that they will never forget. Xandi is so grateful for the big strong boy he has that helped him get out of the canyon, and he is so grateful that prayers were answered and they were watched over and protected. So am I.