Temple Trip

Whitney and her close friends finally had a chance to finish the last two temples on their Utah temple tour. Manti and ironically, nearby Salt Lake. This was quite a feet now that college had started and the girls are all at different ones. With Jeremy leaving in a few days for the MTC, they fit it in and accomplished visiting all 16 temples (or temple sites if they are under construction.)

The BIG Surprise

 

 

We surprised Steve L. BIG time for his 16th Birthday.  Mom and Dad left on their Friday night date as usual, but really we were picking up the cake and setting up the park. A bunch of his friends met at the park near our home and hid in the gully for him to arrive. We called with a story that he need to go babysit his cousin while his Uncle was at the emergency room with his other cousin. Whitney, who was home for the big event, offered to drive him. They didn't make it far, since they were ambushed on the way by all his friends.

After chasing him down, they all gave him a big group hug!

Cake and ice cream, games, thoughtful and funny presents at the park. When it got dark we transferred to our house. Since Steve L. and Bilbo Baggens share a birthday, they watched the first Lord of the Rings out on the deck. Lots of m&m's, homemade kettle corn and fun was had!

New Zealand Friends and Football

I just didn't get to say enough last week about how wonderful it was to have our dear friends and adoptive grandparents visit from New Zealand. We were privileged to spend time with them three different times over the weekend. Daniel is excited that Auntie Hoki promised to send him some New Zealand coins for his collection along with some more "Legacy of Love" books for Dad.

Auntie Hanna looking so beautiful and strong!

Uncle Dave, Uncle Owen and Daniel at a BYU football game with dad.

B-day

This last Wednesday was my fifteenth birthday! Yay! Exciting! We went to the Zoo and I had a neat friend party on Friday. Some of my favorite presents are; a titanium water bottle, a leather journal, a seed-beading kit, and a Bonsai tree! A Bonsai tree is one of those really tiny ones, mine is the kind that is going to live for a couple hundred years so I need a really good name for it. I'm thinking about "Zen" but if you have any suggestions let me know. I am also going to be learning how to drive this year so that's exciting. To all of those who gave me gifts thank you. To those who didn't, well shame on you.:)

20 Years!

Last weekend I had the opportunity to participate in my 20 year high school reunion activities. I was surprised at the fun I had seeing old friends and acquaintances again after such a long time, many I had not seen for almost 20 years. Friday night we had a Show and Chamber reunion where we ate some good food and got to know each other, and our families, better. The highlight was when we sang some of our old music together, we had quite a group turn up to the reunion, and it sounded great! A flood of memories came rushing back and some of the emotions that come from singing in close harmony with your friends as well. It was a great time and the general consensus was that we had a desire to get together this next year to sing together again. A big thank you to those who organized the event and made it happen!



The next morning we attended a Seminary Council breakfast and had a chance to catch up with almost everyone with whom I served on Seminary Council. Again, tons of fun to see everyone and to see everyone so happy in their lives. Again, a big thank you to those who organized the event and made it happen!

Later in the day we attended a picnic at the park where we played the face recognition game more earnestly than before. This was the larger school crowd at this gathering. The trick was to mingle and try to recognize a few and then see if that led to recognizing more. It worked and before long it was like being at a dance with lots of chit-chatting going on and general mixing and mingling. A fun time.

Later that evening Noreen and I attended a dinner event where more people attended and again, the face recognition game, this time with the aid of name tags! Much easier and still a lot of fun to mix and catch-up with friends and acquaintances. I had the opportunity to talk at length with a few close friends from high school which was great fun. The general feeling on the experience was one of humble gratitude for being able to mix with such a great crowd of friends and acquaintances that helped shaped my early years. What a blessing! I was also so very happy to see people in good circumstances in their lives, with very few tragedies. What more could you hope for? Not much. So, for those of you who might have your own reunions coming up, attend it! - Steve

The Show and Chamber Crowd

8 of the original 12 Seminary Council Members

Beautiful Bride

Congratulations Tricia! It's so wonderful to see you so happy.



What a perfect excuse for 6 best friends to spend the day together. Well, make that five, since one of us was a little preoccupied. Serendipitously, Jennifer was in town from California and it was so wonderful to get caught up in person, although her blog is always a joy to read. Below is a remake of a dance photo we had taken, while our dates looked on, our senior year. (We missed you Katie!) Eighteen years later we're even closer friends.

Jurassic Encounters by Steve L.

On Wednesday we went to a Dinosaur Park. First we went and saw the indoor museum where they had a lot of dinosaur skeletons, a section on minerals and they even had a robotic mother triceratops protecting her young from a juvenile T-rex. Then we went outside and looked at a ton of dinosaur statues including: a T-rex standing triumphantly over his kill, a dinosaur being attacked by velociraptors, a Triceratops that bit Daniel's hand, a group of large amphibians, and dozens of other dinosaurs. I definitely recommend this park to anybody who likes dinosaurs. (Bring a water bottle, because the park is BIG! It even has a playground for littler kids.) Dinosaurs rule! (Or at least they used too!)

Photos also by Steve L. A T-Rex

Ouch!

Imagine THAT thing lunging at you!

A baby triceritops

If this guy was still around giraffs would have have someone to look up to.

Look behind you!

(Note by Mom: We got to spend the afternoon with my good friend Alesha and her children. What a treat!)

Minnesota Friends

Turns out we only live minutes away from our good friends from Minnesota. Our family lived in Minnesota from 1998 to 2002 and two of our children were born there. We had a wonderful visit getting reacquainted and the kids had grown so much! (Amazing what 6 years will do.) My kids are excited to get together again with their new, old friends and I'm glad to have Tami back in my life.

Girlfriends

I had the chance to visit with my High School girlfriends and their families Wednesday night. Katie was in town from Missouri, so we took the opportunity to get together. I was a delightful evening of catching up and seeing how much the kids have grown. We have 29 children between us! We have all been friends for at least 20 years, some of us for 30. What an amazing group of women they have all become and I am so privileged to know them. Love you all! (Jennifer, you were sorely missed. We are going to go somewhere big when were all 40 (just the girls), so start saving those frequent flyer miles.)