Halloween

It's seems like lately I'm always a day late and a dollar short, but I guess it's better late than never, huh? We had a great Halloween. The weather was so nice! My extended family came over and had dinner with us then sat around our fire pit while we handed out candy. Shannah dressed up like a gothic teenager, Mandy was half angel/half devil, Josh was a stick figure and Brandon was a pirate. Britney was hanging out with friends all night so she's not included here. Here are some pics. I'm including a picture of Josh's costume in the dark so you get the whole effect. I have to admit that it turned out pretty cool.

Best Anniversary Gift Ever!!!

I can't believe it's taken me this long to post this. This was by far the best anniversary present ever! (Well, except for winning our car on The Price Is Right 9 years ago. But that's going to be pretty hard to top. :o)
Anyway, knowing what a big fan I am of the Osmond family, particularly Donny & Marie Osmond, Scott surprised me with tickets to their show in Las Vegas. (I know!) Our Anniversary was on a Tuesday and the tickets were for Friday night. The plan was to drive down Friday morning, see the show, stay at my Aunt Sheryl and Uncle Bob's house and then head home on Saturday.
So, we made great time and got to Vegas Friday afternoon by about 2:30 on one tank of gas and the gas light wasn't even on. We decided to go straight to the Flamingo to pick up our tickets and then head to Sheryl & Bob's house. Well, we quickly ran out of gas as soon as we got back on the freeway. After almost 3 hours and 4-5 walking trips to the gas station about 1/2 mile away, we finally had Sheryl & Bob come rescue us. They called a tow truck and wouldn't you know, the tow truck guy got in and started it right up? So we quickly drove straight to the casino and changed our clothes in the parking lot. While we were walking through the casino to the theater, Scott realized that one of our tickets was missing. It probably fell out of his pocket. We panicked and searched. (As if we would find it, haha!) We went to the ticket office and they said "no problem, we'll just print you a new one." Can you believe it? We were so lucky.
The show was awesome, everything I dreamed of and more! Donny walked on the table next to us so close that I could have reached out and touched him. (But I didn't because I thought that would be weird. And I didn't want to trip him. :o) Marie picked the guy sitting right next to me (Steve) to come up on stage and sing with her. I videoed it on my camera and sent it to him on a CD later. He was really nice.
After the show we went to a midnight dinner at IHOP with Sheryl and Bob. When we got back to their house she had our room made up like a bed and breakfast with rose petals on the bed and chocolate and everything. It was so cool! Thanks Sheryl.
The next morning we went to visit our dear friends who moved to Vegas from the house across the street from us. We love and miss them so! Then we headed home. We had a mostly uneventful trip, except for our car shutting down on us 3 times. We think it was a vapor lock or something like that because it was 104 degrees down there. After waiting for 15 or so minutes, it always started back up again and we got home just fine.
We came home to 3 of our children standing in the driveway with a welcome home poster that they had colored. They are so cute. Honey, you are such a romantic! Thanks for this spontaneous and most memorable trip. I love you!

What a great summer!

Ok, so I've been non-exsistant for several months. Sorry about that. I put off updating this blog for so long that it got to the point that I didn't post anything because I didn't know where to start. We have done so many fun things this summer. Combined, we took 1200 pictures in 5 weeks that I sorted through and narrowed down to the 350 that I saved. I put a few of them in a slideshow at the bottom of this post. Feel free to breeze through them. Anyway, here is the abbreviated run down of our awesome summer:

July:
Marsh Lake Camping with Scott's whole family. (about 45 of us). We spent a week in the high Uintah's camping and fishing and just like every year, had a wonderful time.
On July 13th we welcomed our darling French student, Tifenn, into our home. In trying to show her as much of Utah as we could, we did the following (among other things): Ogden Pioneer Day Concert, Bowling, Music and the Spoken Word with the MoTabs, This is the Place State Park, Bear Lake, Tony Grove, Rick Springs, Kennecott Copper Mine, Oquirrh Mt. Temple Open House, Utah Olympic Park, Park City Outlet Mall, Antelope Island State Park, and East Canyon Resort. And that was just in July!

August:
Ogden Raptors Baseball game, Clark Planetarium, Gateway Mall/Fountains, Utah's Capitol Building, Lagoon, Hogle Zoo, Trolley Square, Snowbird Resort, Girls Camp at Heber Valley Girls Camp, and watching a "Good Things Utah" Taping. On August 17th we had a very tearful farewell at the airport when we had to say goodbye to Tifenn, who I now consider my French daughter. While she was here, she became part of our family and we love and miss her so much!
Later in August, we went to Bear Lake again with my extended family. I love that place!

September:
A drive up to Francis Peak in Farmington and down Bountiful canyon, Marsh Lake again (just for the day), buying a beautiful 2004 Suburban, and The Donny and Marie Show in Vegas (which will get it's own posting after this one is done!!!).

Anyway, it has been a great summer. I'll try to stay up on this blog a little better in the future.

RAGNAR

This past weekend I had the opportunity to participate in something so . . . well, so . . . I can't seem to think of the right word. It was fun, intense, painful, exhilarating, exhausting, inspiring, bonding, humbling, strengthening . . . I could go on, but I think you get the idea. I'm talking about the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay Marathon. It's 188 miles from Logan to Park City. The logistics of putting something like that together are mind boggling. I was runner #3 and ran 18.4 miles in less that 24 hours with only 2 hours of sleep and minimal nourishment. Although I wish I could have done better, I feel good about what I accomplished. My team finished in 30:50. The rain caught our second van off guard as they were running the last few extremely difficult legs, but they did a great job bringing it home! I had such a great time that I'm already signed up to do it again next year! I only got to see half the course this year, so next year I'm planning on being in the other van so I can experience the whole thing. It was also fun to "run" into several friends along the way and at the finish line who ran it as well. Who knew?

I owe HUGE thank you's to several people (in no particular order):
My Husband, Scott, who, although he was a thousand miles away, was so supportive and my kids who were excited to cheer me on. (but were mostly excited to spend the weekend at Aunt Juliannes! :o)
My Sister, Julianne who watched my kids for me while I ran. She brought them all to my first leg of the race and stopped several times along the way for water breaks, hi-fives and hugs to keep me going in the heat. She had 10 kids for 3 days!!! How do you repay something that? You are so great, thanks for all your help!
My Sister, Amy and her husband Nate who drove a long way to cheer me on for a few seconds as I passed you and for running with me for a bit. That was fun!
My Dad who drove hundreds of miles from far away to cheer me on at the beginning, in the middle and at the end and who opened and cleaned the cabin for us to sleep in, which was a life saver! And all with a sore leg too. Thanks Dad! Your support means so much to me.
My Uncle Ray and Aunt Fran for letting us use their cabin. It was perfect and saved us from sleeping in a field of hay in the freezing cold or sleeping like sardines on a hard floor in a high school gym.
My Mom who called me several times along the way to share her love and support. She was also cheering me on while putting in a 12 hour shift as a volunteer at the shirt/volunteer tent at the finish line. (In the rain and wind and dealing with more shirt problems than you could imagine.)
My Cousin Natalie from Boise who was a runner in her van #1 too and happened to be following the runner from her van who was just behind me during the most difficult 8 mile up hill run I've ever done. It was brutal and your cheers and support were most appreciated!
My Uncle Bob and Aunt Sheryl from Las Vegas for your support and pictures. It was so fun having you there! Also, for getting my mom involved. That was great!
Jill Stevens Shepherd for sending me a huge selection of her running music to load on my MP3. I think only a runner knows how important good running music is to another runner. So from one runner to another - thanks. It was perfect!
Jared, our Team Videographer who never slept from start to finish to get great footage of some pretty tired runners against some pretty beautiful backdrops. I can't wait to see the finished movie!
And last, but certainly not least . . . My team (only half of it is pictured here). Thanks for your patience when I wasn't as fast as I hoped to be or as most of you guys were. You were so supportive and never once made me feel inferior. Oh yeah, and for not looking when I changed my clothes on the side of the road! (Except you Jared - If you really got that on video, I'm going to kill you!) :o)

From left: Jeff, Steve, Kevin, Liz, Lauren, & Me. Driver: Leslie

Van #2: Tiana, Cory, Rebecca, Mike, John & Adrienne. Driver: James

A Memorable Memorial Day (DONNY OSMOND!!!)

I think this Memorial Day will definately go down in the books as one of the most memorable. On the way home from Lava Hot Springs, Scott dropped me off at USU where, thanks to my dear friend Jessie, I got to see Donny Osmond (!) live in concert!! Jessie so graciously gave me a ticket and let me tag along with her and her family for the evening. I've been a huge Donny fan since I could sing "Puppy Love" from my 8 track tape player. (Wow, that seriously dates me!) Jessie got to perform a couple of songs before him and then again with him at the end. She sounded incredible and looked so beautiful. I can't think of anyone else that can hold a candle to Donny.
Ok, I have to spill the beans, even if it's a little embarassing. After the show we were cleaning out her dressing room which was right next to Donny's and as we were walking away I saw the towel he used on stage sitting on the counter in his dressing room. I kind of freaked out and grabbed it after asking a guy backstage if I could have it. It was still moist with sweat and covered in his makeup. (Ok, even I think that's kind of gross.) Jessie was laughing so hard at me! I have it safely stored in a ziplock bag now with the rest of my Donny memorabilia including an autographed poster I bought that night.

Jessie is one of the most beautiful people I know, inside and out! Jim & Jessie - thanks for letting me tag along with you guys. I had such a great time. Love ya!

Lava Hot Springs

We took a camping trip to Lava Hot Springs over the Memorial Day Holdiay with the Taylors (Scott's sister's family) and the Willies (our good friends). Other than some bad weather and some scraps and bruises, we had a great time. I guess even the bad weather and bruises were fun, sort of. On Saturday morning we went river rafting. the water was high so it was quite an adventure. The first time down I had Shannah, Zach and I in our boat Scott had Britney and Jason in his boat and Wayne was on a tube. Shannah fell out of the boat as we went over a 6 foot waterfall backwards. She got scraped and bruised up a little but was a great sport. The second time down Scott had Britney, Jason and Zach and I had Shannah, Mandy and Josh in our boat so we decided to start after the waterfall. We had a fun and uneventful ride down until Scott (who was in front of us) got his ore stuck between some rocks and hollered at me to grab it. I pulled at it so hard that it yanked me out of the boat and then I lost my ore. So I swam after my ore and barely got it and jumped into the boat before we hit a big rapid. It was fun but I got scratched and bruised up too. We decided it was time to go swimming. Just after we started swimming there was a huge down pour of rain and hail sized marbles. We hid under our umbrellas until we got evacuated from the pool, but went back later to get our $50 worth. :o) I had fun jumping off the diving boards and platforms. Wayne and Britney went back up the river and went down both a 10 foot waterfall and the 6 foot waterfall. They both fell out and Wayne landed on top of Britney. Thank goodness for life jackets. They were both fine, but also got scratched up and bruised.

On Sunday we just played games and watched movies while the rain came and went. We packed up and went home on Monday just before another big storm. We had a great time regardless of the weather. I'll add more pictures of our rafting as soon as I get them from Kristie.

WE DID IT!!!!

WOW! Shannah, Britney and I finished the Ogden Half Marathon (13.1 miles). I am so proud of my two oldest daughters who accomplished something I never dreamed of doing when I was their age. You guys are awesome!

Britney finished first with a time of 2:02:25 which is an average of 9 1/2 minute miles. You go girl! Brit really trained hard to get that time. We need to get her on the track team!

I finished with a time of 2:12:55 which is almost a 10 minute mile. I'm really pleased with that since I beat last years time by 32 minutes. And no injuries, yea!

My sister, Julianne, finished with a time of 2:37:58 which also beat last years time. Nice!

Shannah finished at 2:47:32 which is awesome! Shannah isn't as big of a fan of running as Britney and I so she didn't train nearly as much. I was so surprized when she finished so soon that I missed her coming across the finish line, dangit! Way to go Shan!

What a great experience. Thanks girls, I love you both. Let's do it again next year!

Wizard of Oz

Over Mother's Day weekend, Mandy participated in her school play "The Wizard of Oz". She played the part of Auntie Em and delivered her lines with ease. She was also part of the ensamble that did some dancing and singing. Above is a picture of Mandy with her Great Grandma, Great Grandpa and also her Grandma Kathy. Great job Mandy!

Later the next week she, along with her 5th grade class, put on a puppet show with puppets they made in class. She was a elf in the Elves and the Shoemaker. Cute!

OKLAHOMA!

We had such a great time watching SJH's production of OKLAHOMA! last month. Britney had the lead part of Ado Annie and did such a great job acting and singing! Bor those of you who haven't seen OKLAHOMA! (or can't remember it) Britney's character, Ado Annie, is a fun gullible and flirtatious girl who loves boys. More particularly kissing boys. One of her solo's was the song "I'm Just a Girl Who Can't Say No". She played her part to a tee and had everyone in the audience loving her. (Although much to her parents concern she had a few kissing scenes.)

She had alot of fun playing the part and being with her friends. Great job Brit, we are so proud of you!

It's Great to be Eight!

We had a wonderful event happen on Saturday. Josh chose to be baptized by his dad and confirmed a member of the church by his Grandpa Thorne. It was a beautiful program that included Britney and Mandy singing "A Childs Prayer" while Shannah accompianied them.
Let me tell you a little bit about him. His favorite scripture story is the one about Jesus walking on the water and more often then not, he's the one that reminds us to have family prayer. He loves to play baseball so much that wants to be a baseball player when he grows up. He loves spaghetti and hates enchiladas. His favorite subject in 2nd grade is science and although he won't sing in the school choir, he has a great singing voice. He loves summer because it's warm and he can jump on the tramp. He is a stickler for rules and likes to make sure everybody in the house follows them. Scott and I wonder if he'll grow up to be a policeman. :o) He plays expert level on Guitar Hero and kicks everybody's butt at Boom Blocks (a Wii game that involves throwing baseballs).
We are so happy that he made this decision. Josh is such a sweetheart and we are so blessed to have him in our family.

"THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!"

WOW! What an eventful evening. It all started a little over 4 months ago . . .

Last December my mom and I decided it would be fun (?) to sit out in the freezing cold for hours and try to get Wicked tickets. We got to SL about 4:00am and the line was already wrapped around almost 3 sides of a city block. We were originally hoping to come home with 16 tickets so we could sell them to family and friends that were wanting to go, but we soon realized that it was highly unlikely that we would end up with tickets at all. Finally, after over 7 hours in line we made it to the box office and ended up with the last 6 tickets for the Apr. 23 show. Five of them were in the Directors Box in the back on the floor, and the other one was up at the very back of the highest balcony. Hey, at least we got some! My mom took 2 and the other 4 were for me, Scott, Shannah & Britney. (My girls paid for half of their ticket, good job girls!)

It felt like April 23 would never come, but it finally did and it was everything we could have hoped for. My mom, Dennis, the girls and I took Front Runner down and met Scott in SL. That was fun. When we got there, Scott and I were walking back from parking the car and President Monsen was just getting out of his car. He was so sweet and took the time to greet everyone he could (even shaking my hand) before they took him into a side entrance to the theater. Then we got inside and Elder and Sister Perry were in the foyer! We greeted them and they let us take a picture with them. Then we saw President Uchtdorf and his family in the balcony during intermission. Talk about cool!
Scott offered to take the seat in the balcony. The tickets in the directors box were split up so I couldn't sit next to the girls, but we were close enought to see each other. Also, we were so far back that we could only see the bottom half of the stage. So, since we knew what was going to happen during "Defying Gravity", my mom, Shannah and I ran down the side isle to watch so we could see Elphaba get raised up to the top of the stage. Shannah and I were both bawling during that song and also "For Good". Another cool thing was that we waited after the show and got an autograph and picture with the actress that played Elphaba.

We've been such big fans of this musical for years so it was just so unbelievably cool to actually be there watching the incredible production and singing all the songs with the characters. I can't imagine Broadway itself being any better!
(My mom has some more pictures on her camera so I'll add those as soon as I can get them from her.)

Shameless Self-Promoting

It donned on me that I could use this blog to promote a couple things I need help with. So bear with me for a minute . . .

First -

I am a Supervisor/Coordinator for a company called Compass USA. I am responsible for finding homes for about 25-30 students who are coming from France and Spain to Utah for an American Experience this summer. Speaking from experience, this is a great opportunity for students and their families to learn about another culture while teaching someone else about ours.

Last summer I placed 14 students in homes in our area. Each family expressed their gratitude for the program and said the experience was amazing. Most families continue to have close relationships with their students to this day.

The student ages vary from 14-19 yrs old. They generally stay anywhere from 3-6 weeks at various times throughout the summer. All the students speak English at some level, but most students are here to improve their English speaking abilities.

Host families are volunteer (unpaid) and are asked to provide:
· A bed - The student can share a room, although not a bed, with a same sex, same age sibling.

· A loving home · Three meals a day · Excitement about hosting.

I am hoping you would be willing to help me publicize the need for host families. If you or someone you know would be interested in doing something like this, PLEASE leave me a comment with your email address and I will forward some detailed information to you.

Second -

We are in need of sponsors for our Miss Syracuse Pageant. There are a couple of ways to do this:
1. Purchasing an add in our full-color program or
2. Donating a tax-deductable donation and your name will be included in our script the night of our pageant.

Again, if you know of a company that would like to do this, please leave me a comment with your email and I'll get back with you.

THANK YOU!!! Shelly

Out with the Girls!

Jennifer, Shelly, Meghan & Jessie

I haven't had this much fun in a long time! While our husbands attended the Priesthood Session of General Conference, a few of my best friends and I went to Wendover last night for a Phil Vassar Concert. It was a quick trip, but we crammed alot of good times in. We headed out Saturday afternoon which gave us time to eat dinner at the Rainbow Hotel and Casino, do some girl-talking at the table (long enough for the employees to come and start clearing the table off, I think hinting at us that it was time to leave) and catch the concert. Phil Vassar is an amazing performer and his band was incredible. I was fascinated with the drummer (Seth) because that's my favorite instrument on Guitar Hero Band.
After the concert, Jessie ran into someone she knew so we waited for a bit to talk to them and to our surprise the band came out to clear the stage. They hopped off the stage for us so we could take some pictures with them. They were great! After we were done schmoozing with the band :o) we headed back to reality and our loving families. THANKS JESSIE (AND JIM)!!!

Below you see Jen, J-Dog (Jeff) the lead Guitarist and backup singer, Jessie, Seth the drummer, me, Jason the fiddler, etc (he played 5 different instruments and sang backup!) and Meghan.

Thanks for the great time girls! I can't wait until we go skydiving next year!!!

"Mom, you missed it"

Mom: "Josh, your tooth is WAY ready to come out, you gotta let me pull it."

Josh: "NO WAY!!!"

Mom: "Honey, it won't hurt. It's barely hanging on. If we don't pull it out, you might swallow it."

Josh: "NO WAY!!!"

Mom: "I'll give you one more day. We have to pull it out tomorrow, ok?"

Josh: (Hesitantly) "ok"

The next evening -

Mom: "OK Josh, it's time to pull your tooth out."

Josh: "I don't want to! I'm scared! Do we have to?"

Mom: "Yep."

(Mom very gently pulls at the tooth.)

Josh: "Mom, you missed it."

Mom: "Nope, it's right here."

Josh: "OH! You were right!" (I love those words!)

Temple Blessings

Thanks to my sister, my whole extended famiy had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Draper Temple Open House this past week. Our group consisted of my grandparents, parents, sisters and their families and our family. There were 22 of us in all. We had such a great time and feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to walk our kids through so they can begin to grasp the importance of temples and how blessed we are to have them. Thanks Julianne!

Big Birthday Month

We celebrated Scott and Shannah's birthday's this month. We always look forward to birthdays at our house and this month was no exception. Among other things, Scott was delighted with his new CTR spinner ring and the new Wii game he got called Boom Blox. (Actually, the whole family was pretty delighted about that last one.) We had a Butter Pecan cake with Cream Cheese frosting. Yum!

Shannah turned "sweet 16" this month. Aghh! The whole dating, driving thing is kind of freaking us out. Not because she isn't ready, because she is really reasponsible and such a great daughter, student and person. But partly because it really puts our age into persective and mostly because this is really the age when we have to start letting go a little. When we start trusting that we've taught her well and have faith that she'll make good choices.

So far, we've had it pretty easy with her. She's a very cautious driver and dating is the last thing on her mind right now. She's really not the typical teenager. As far as gifts go, on the left you'll see her reaction to clothes. On the right you'll see her reaction to books. She has her own organized library in her room. WOW!

We gave her a BIG surprise party this year. My mom got her out of the house and she had 13 friends come over and surprise her. (Above, Shannah is 3rd from the left.) They had such a great time playing games, Guitar Hero Band and eating lots of food including homemade ice cream cake. Thanks you guys for supporting and loving Shannah. You guys are awesome!

New Do

On a whim one night Shannah decided to let me cut her hair. I cut off about 2 inched and layered it so it would flip up. We were going for the Alice Cullen look. I think she looks pretty cute, but I am a little prejudice. Not because I cut it, but because she's my daughter. Thanks for trusting me hun, it was fun and you're beautiful!

Yummy Science Fair

For her Science Fair Project last month, Mandy decided to test different brands of cupcakes to see which one was the best. Yum! We tested Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines, Pillsburry and Jiffy. We made 84 cupcakes in all and had friends and neighbors come over to test them. We had alot of fun, but it didn't help my goal to loose the 10 pounds I've gained over the winter! FYI - Betty Crocker won out.

Our Own Little Rock Band

How about that? Who'd of thought we'd have our own little rock band? We finally broke down and invested in a Wii system for Christmas this year and have loved it! I don't see any need to pay for bowling ever again. (Where else can you bowl in your PJ's and slippers and score over 120 everytime?) We love Wii Sports and Mario Kart, but our favorite has to be Guitar Hero III. We only have 1 guitar, but we borrowed the complete band from Scott's sister and had such a great time we're going to try to get us one with our tax refund. Although we like to switch instruments, pictured above we have Britney on lead guitar, Brandon on the foot pedal, Josh on the drums, Mandy as the lead singer and Shannah on bass guitar. Scott's gotten pretty good on the guitar and I love the drums and the guitar. Fun!