Issue 55

Cookie Party by Janey

The cookie party was really, really fun. It’s a girl scout party that celebrates all the girl scout that sold cookies. They put my name up on a screen, because I sold 500 boxes of cookies. We ate lunch and played real carnival games and won prizes, and went in the bounce house. I didn’t like the cookie party, I LOVED it!

Teen Writer's Conference

Whitney with a favorite author, James Dashner, at the teen writing conference. All of the authors donated their time for the day long conference that taught teens how to become life long writers. Whitney loved the conference and came home on fire about the novel she has been writing. Here is an essay that she wrote for the conference:

ALPACA

They say you are in trouble when the alpaca puts its ears back. I’m inclined to agree. At least I was, when I was holding onto the back of a baby alpaca and an adult put her ears back at me. At the time I was living in New Zealand. I was volunteering at an alpaca farm with one hundred plus animals. It was feeding time and we where trying to catch and separate all the babies from the herd so we could halter train them. We did this every Tuesday, but this time I did something wrong.
When you are catching an alpaca you want to get your arms around the base of its long neck. If you get that you have control of the animal. Then you can get a halter over its head and clip on a lead. Bet you didn’t know you can halter lead an alpaca did you? Well any way, you usually approach it from the front, but I approached it from the back. That was mistake number one. Mistake number two was grabbing two hand holds of fleece in my desperation. I had been trying to catch this one for fifteen minutes. And then I let out a triumphal yell to let everyone know I had finally caught her.
The end result was me being dragged across the corral, holding onto the back of a panicked alpaca. Ouch. To make matters worse when it finally slowed down, as to not crash in to the fence, an adult alpaca named Perfection came up. No doubt I looked like some fearsome predator that had attacked her grandbaby, holding onto its back, making it squeal in terror. I got a barrage of alfalfa cud spat in my face. Twice. Then she started kicking me! I had to high-tail it to the fence before she could get me again. Of course everyone was laughing their heads off as I vaulted over the rail. Perfection paced by the fence with a smug expression. Yes, alpacas can look very smug when they want to.

Simulations Week by Whitney

(Note by Mom: American Youth Leadership Institute joined forces with Whitney's high school for Simulations Week. The youth had 8 different simulations to choose from. The music simulation composed, performed and recorded beautiful music for the rest of us. The art simulation created an amazing mural on a wall at the high school that promoted peace. Their was a legislature simulation, a mock trial intensive and a city council simulation, among others. Steve L. picked the Olympics simulation, where the year was 2025 and their group was in charge of promoting peace through the Olympic games. Their job was to invent new sports and play them for the Olympics held at the high school. It was truly an amazing opportunity filled with lots of unique learning.)

This week I had the opportunity to attend the Constitutional Convention simulation (The Con Con.) This is a week long simulation, where you are given a scenario where the country has been almost destroyed and you have to wright a new constitution for it. This year we were dealing with the aftermath of WWIII.

We got to the school building at 6:30 every morning because my Mom had the keys to the building and she was in charge of all the meals for the simulation.

It was an amazing "hands on" lesson on how the constitution works and it's different functions. The simulation ended at 2:45 every day, but there was a different activity that went on after. Things kike game night, a concert, a talent show, and a formal banquet.

The banquet was cool. You got all dressed up, and a boy escorts you to your table. You get etiquette lessons before and everyone's served by waiters.

In the actual meetings you are a delegate from a state. Emotions ran high a lot of the time, but it was amazing. I can't wait until next year.

Girl Scout Day Camp

Janey attended her first girl scout day camp this week, paid for by her hard earned cookie credits. It was three days full of arts, relay races, story telling, Olympics, service projects and performances. Her favorite part, she said, was learning and performing a salsa dance!

Issue 54

The Giants

The Giants had an amazing season, coming in 2nd in the age division! Way to go Giants. Next week they get to play in a round robin tournament.

Temple Celebration by Whitney

Steve and I had the opportunity to participate in the temple celebration that was held in honor of the two new Mormon temples built in Utah. We started practicing in March for it and it was an amazing experience for me. We where in the first dance that was about the Ute Indians. I was a fire dancer. Since we where the first we got to watch pretty much the entire thing. It was an amazing thing and you could really feel the spirit there. I have really been inspired to get married in the temple and read my scriptures steadily. I am so jazzed at having had the opportunity to dance for President Monson. It was so amazing to be in the same room as him! It was a once in a life time experience and I’m glad I took advantage of it. Happy Summer!

Washington DC

Steve had a conference in DC this week, and I escaped with him. We saw the sights in the evening, and I spent the days relaxing in the hotel. I could have gone out to see more sights, but I didn't feel like going without Steve and frankly having a fancy hotel room to myself was too delicious. I read three books, took two hour baths, napped, ordered room service and did some uninterrupted planning. What more could a mom ask for? A huge thanks to our moms and sisters who watched the kids and made it all possible. We can't wait to take the kids after we study early American History.

Issue 53

It's our one year blog anniversary!

This is the Place by Janey

Field trip Friday took us back to This is the Place State Park with our cousins. Yes, that's Brigham Young standing on his front porch!

Corporate Retreat

We want to teach business skills to the kids and felt than running our own cottage industry would be the best way. Memorial Day this year started with a personal invitation, tucked under everyones' pillow, to attend the First Annual Family Corporate Retreat. About 6:00 am we heard an audible "What's this?!" from Steve L. and a couple minutes later he knocked on our door and announced, "I'll be there!" We attended events like:

"Buy-in Pancake Breakfast" Where we listed our goals for our new family business

"Product Brainstorming session" Where we taught the kids how to brainstorm and record their great ideas

"The Great Logo Hunt" Where we went to local stores to find great logo and company name ideas.

"Marketing Power Lunch" Where we explored how we will bring our product to market.

"Job Fair" When we created the job titles and descriptions for all aspects of our new family business. Then officially interviewed the children for the positions they were interested in.

Then to "Official Job Offers at Dairy Queen"

Followed by "Pizza and Project Management" When Dad gave us a Project Management 101 course and we decided our next steps.

Whitney was hired as our company President and Marketing Director.

Steve L. is the VP of Research and Development and the CFO covering accounting and legal.

Daniel is VP of Production and Fulfillment.

Janey is VP of Sales.

Ellie is Director of Testing.

Mom and Dad are the Governing Board.

What fabulous product are we bringing to market? For now it's a secret, but you'll be the first to know!

Issue 52!!!

Did you catch that? Issue 52! That means one full year of blogging! One full year of family history, connecting with family and friends, and trying out our writing skills. Here's to the next 52 issues!

Treasure Island by Steve L.

My Aunt Becca got us tickets to the Hale Center play Treasure Island. It was really, really awesome! They used the stage very cleverly. One minute it was the deck of a pirate ship then the mast was drawn up into the ceiling, the crates and barrels moved around, some railings came out of the floor, a staircase came down from the roof (and viola!) it became the Benbow Inn. They also had a pool of water on the side that sometimes the actors would dive (or fall) into. (I'm glad we weren't on the front row, because they got soaked!) It was an awesome play with very good actors and stayed very true to the book. Although, they did have to change a few things from the book to make it fit on the stage. (Such as Jim Hawkins discovering his father had been on Flint's pirate ship and was killed by pirates. I thought that was totally bogus.) It was an awesome play!

First Recital

This week I had my first piano recital and played two short pieces in front of the crowd. It was cool to be up there performing in front of everybody. I was glad my Grandparents could be there. I'm glad I get to play the piano.

Steve's adoring fans.