Scott and Cameron celebrated birthdays in October. Scott is now 47 and Cameron is 13. Three teenagers at the Emery house. AAAHHH!

All I want for Christmas is my FOUR front teeth. And while your at it, can you get me the two missing on the bottom also. She is so cute!

Here are the teen-agers. Can't you just feel their personalities coming off the screen at you. They are so great. I love being their mom:)

Sarah and Rylee love to share this chair to watch movies. I like it when they collaborate to do fun things instead of clobbering each other.

We Survived The Swine Flu

I guess there's nothing that clears your schedule quite as fast as the whole family getting sick. Our family had the swine flu and it took weeks to get everyone through the worst of the symptoms. We are on the mend now and I am determined that we will get the flu vaccine so we don't have to do another month or two of sickness this winter.
I was surprised, though, that it wasn't as dire as I thought it would be. We had lots of headaches, fevers, aches and pains, congestion and severe exhaustion but then things would get better. As I look back at the whole episode, I realize the wisdom of the statement "The absence of pain is bliss." How very true that is. When everyone was finally well and we could go to church, go out in the sunshine, play with neighbor kids, etc it felt so wonderful.
I guess the bottom line of this post is to remind myself and others to appreciate health and happiness. It is such a tender mercy and a blessing from God.

Cameron posed and took this great picture of Sarah at Multnomah Falls. Good job Cameron!

After seeing the falls with Scott's parents, I took this photo of them running out the rest of their energy. I just thought the sun looked cool as the evening was coming on.

We were so happy when Scott's parents came to visit. This was a photo of the kids with them before they left to go back to Utah.

The kids are taking Horseback riding lessons. Just thought it was funny that Sarah is still shorter than a small pony. he he

Ok, we have given up on the theory of the perfect family picture. I sprung it on them right before dinner. "Nobody eats until we have a halfway decent family picture!" Those annoying mothers (and wives). Thanks everyone for putting up with your crazy picture happy mother. I love my family!

Here are the crazy fun twins with their videographers before we go over to wait on the runway for the "perfectly good airplane" that we are going to jump out of.
Here is the airplane with Jeannine, Michelle, their tandem jumpers, and four or five experienced divers as we take off to climb to 13,000 feet. (that's over two miles as pointed out by Scott's dad, Bob.)
"Here Sarah, look up here for them." I love this picture. I love it even more when I think that Cameron took it. He's great!
Landed safely, still alive, and still walking. Yeah for Sky Diving. Wanna go?

Chelle Sky Dives and Lives to tell about it

Cameron was on the ground recording my screaming for all of my posterity. Love you Cam!

Today I was a bird

Sky diving is an amazing thing to do. It was exhilarating and lovely and so cool. It took a long time until we finally got a 5 minute training and then got up in the air. We got there at 3:30 and filled out seven or eight pages of "you will not sue even if you are maimed" and "oh by the way, you could die" paperwork. Then we sat around for hours watching other people get suited up, take videos and pictures, get in planes, jump and float back down to us.

But when we were in the plane, I was so amazed at how fast we climbed to 13,000 feet. It seemed like it only took a minute. Then they opened the door and the experienced divers went out. After them, we scooted to the opening of the plane where I sat on the floor and dangled my feet over the edge of the plane. My tandem jumper, Dane, was right behind me (well, how could he not be as we were strapped closely together.) Then I arched my back and crossed my arms, looked up at the sky and we jumped. It was a feeling I have never experienced. It only took a few seconds for us to be traveling at 120 miles per hour. Imagine all the air rushing past you as you struggle to breathe, enjoy, and smile.

I had a videographer named Ted who was such a cool guy. He told me to scream a lot as it looked cool on the video. Turned out that wasn't a hard request. Also, I had an interesting time keeping my lips together as wind rushing past at such a fast rate of speed produces dry yet sticky lips in 2 seconds flat. Not flattering though I was too happy to care.

The coolest part was looking around and seeing all the earth and the horizon from so high up off the earth. The farms look like the computer boards that Cameron got out of an old computer. The clouds look pillowy and the sky was so blue. As we were falling, I thought about what it must look like from below and I realized that seeing something and doing it are just so different. Seeing it is cool but doing it produces a perspective that you just cannot imagine from down on the ground.

After a minute, Dane pulled the ripcord and out came the parachute. This begins a different phase of the experience. No longer are you barreling through space toward the earth. Now you are floating and looking round. Dane let me guide the parachute and I turned and tried to twist around to experience the cool feelings and get the full spectrum of what the ground looked like from up there. It is cool to watch other parachutes flying around too and I got a great view of my sister as she spun over and over while headed to the ground. What a great perspective!

As we got close to the ground, Dane had me practice pulling my legs up and basically not getting in his way as he landed us on the ground. Good idea considering I have trouble standing on still ground, let alone ground that is coming up way faster than an escalator. It was great to land and then stand on solid ground. Not that I missed it exactly, just that it was a new sensation after having fallen from so high.

He did a great job getting us to the ground and unhooked me almost immediately. I ran to Jeannine and we hugged and screamed that "We did it!" I could hear Rylee screaming my name and people cheering. My Dad even got teary-eyed watching his girls come down out of the plane. Ted Dad has made hundreds of jumps and was the instigation of such a wild and crazy adventure.

Hopefully, that was not the last time I will embark upon an experience which gives me the opportunity to change my perspective for the better. What a great and amazing day. I will have a video and a roll of film so I can recall this day over and over in the future. Yeah for Sky Diving!

Summer Fun

Ally formed her own team for Relay for Life which raises money for cancer research. She worked so hard and raised almost $200 for the cause. This is a pic I took at the night of the event with two friends who joined her team. Ally is such a great girl and she is so cuncerned about helping the community. Go Ally!
At the Wild Life Safari in Winston, Oregon you can get an Elephant to wash your car. The kids LOVED it. This is a picture of Alice the elephant spraying our window with water. See her trunk in the far right corner. It was great to hear Sarah belly laugh as Alice kept squirting all the windows. What fun!