Here are a few highlights.
YOUTH CONFERENCE
This past weekend Dave, Kirsten, and Sarah traveled with 200+ youth and leaders from our stake on a youth conference trip to the Manti Pageant, Welfare Square in SLC and "This is the Place" Heritage Park. Dave currently serves as our Stake Young Men's President so he and other leaders put together a package of events and experiences for our youth. Feedback has been very positive. Youth were asked to leave their MP3's, cell phones, and other electronic devices at home. I noticed that there was a bit more anticipation for their return because we didn't have any contact with one another. It was fun to look forward to hearing about their experiences. A neighbor boy said that it was the longest bus ride of his life, but he did learn everyone's name on the bus. Dave noticed more interaction with one another. Sarah noticed most people didn't have a method to know time because cell phones are often used for telling time.
4 POLICE CARS
While our family was in California, Camille stayed in our home to take care of Sophie our cat. On one day, she went to Walmart and unfortunately locked her keys in the car while it was running. She had quite the dilemma as she was supposed to travel to Idaho Falls for a dance performance. So after making a few phone calls with no headway towards solving her problem, a man noticed her distress. Given this man's personna, she most likely would not have accepted his help, but because he made a connection of a relative that lived in our neighborhood she felt it was okay to accept his offer of help. He drove her to our home where she, in order to retrieve the other set of car keys, had to to climb through a small front window that she had left open the night before. While she was maneuvering her way in, our garbage collector headed down our street and watched the whole event unfold. After grabbing the keys, she dashed out the door and ran to the corner where she hopped in a car of some dance friends. She had planned to meet up at the corner to avoid having to explain the details of our address. After witnessing this "fishy" behavior, the garbage collector made a call to the police where he reported a break-in to a residence. Meanwhile, Camille was off to Walmart to work out the car issues. And while that happened, 4 police cars converged upon our home, which drew out the neighbors. Eventually the situation was resolved after Camille explained to the police the whole drama. The police even thought for a bit that she was a delinquent child trying to break into her parent's home. She never had to face the police as the whole issue was resolved over our neighbors phone.
DISNEYLAND TRIP
For those of us who drove to California, the trip went relatively smoothly. For those members of the orchestra who were on the busses, things weren't quite so rosey. Over the course of the trip one of their three busses broke down several (3 or 4) times. Same bus....This significantly delayed their travels, causing the group to miss their afternoon on the beach. Those of us who drove enjoyed an afternoon on the beach--minus 130 students! We were happy to have Sara Jane join us for our trip. We enjoyed her company and were grateful that she could join us.
Matthew was happy that he was tall enough to ride all of the rides. Three years ago he was still too short and so we had to take turns waiting with him while the rest of the family went on some of the rides. The favorite rides seem to be Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Soaring Over California (I love the smells of the pine forest and the orange groves), and Screamin' California (0 to really fast in just a few seconds is a thrill). Matthew says he enjoyed the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Carribean. I am amazed at the way that they created these "adventures." There are certainly some creative and talented people in the Disney organization. We had a very enjoyable three days in Disneyland.While there we also got to go to the San Diego Zoo. We enjoyed about a half day of wandering the many byways of the zoo. Such a well planned out facility! The highlights here were the very active polar bears, the slow-moving (and nearly extinct) panda bears, and the Koala bears. These are things that we hadn't ever had a chance to see and it was a treat to see them and watch how they acted.
We also went to Medieval Times, a dinner show featuring knights and other royal characters who battle to determine who is the "best" knight. They ride real horses and it is fun to experience the "drama" of the event.
Another highlight was attending a Broadway touring show of "The Lion King". Wow! The technical and costuming aspects of this show were really incredible. I had wondered how they would represent each of the characters on stage. I must say that they were very creative in making costumes that had both a human and an animal element to them.On our return trip we stopped in Meadow, Utah to attend a portion of the Beckstrand reunion. It was interesting to recall some past experiences of previous trips to Meadow and to note the changes that have occurred in people's lives and to notice the changing landscape.
HAPPY FATHER"S DAYA very happy father's day to my Dad. Thanks for your goodness and love.
We are all looking forward to seeing you next weekend in SLC. And the same wish to all the other Father's who read this, whomever you might be.
The Primary children sang today in Sacrament Meeting one of my favorite selections from the Primary music book.
Fathers are so special, with a very special love.
They watch and protect us.
They guide us and direct us back to our home above.
TIME FOR WORK
Well now that we have had our fun, time to accomplish some of the projects that call for Dave's help. It is nice to have his schedule slow down a bit so that we might do some fix it projects that are left unattended to during the school year. Until next time. . .
P.S.....More pictures coming!!!
