Youth Trek

Before the pioneer trek
After the pioneer trek



Josh went on a four day pioneer trek to Southeastern Washington. It was a wonderful experience for him. I love the before and after pictures, Josh was quite a sight when I picked him up. The temperature had gotten up to 108 degrees their last couple of days, so most of the kids were pretty burned, and everyone was tired. Josh's favorite part of the trek was a dance they had. They did some square dancing, and ended with dances like YMCA. Not quite pioneer era, but they had a great time. The last day as the buses were heading home it was so hot that our stake president had the buses stop at a gas station and bought all the kids drinks. I have a great imagination when it comes to that one, 200 kids getting off of buses dressed as pioneers, and all of them FILTHY! I wonder what the people at the convenience store thought? It must have been quite a sight.
I am so grateful for this opportunity that the kids had to learn about their pioneer heritage. They pushed handcarts over about 22 miles, and even though they had it much easier than the pioneers (such as beautifully prepared meals), I think that in a small way they are able to appreciate some of what the pioneers endured. I hope that Paul and I can go with them some time in the future - it seems like such an amazing experience.

Parades!

The past two weeks were the Portland Rose Festival. We went to the Junior Parade, and Rebekah, Michael and Rachel went to the Rose Parade with me. They were both a lot of fun. Michael rides his unicycle in the junior parade each year with the unicycling club from our school district--there are about 100 kids who ride together. It's a bit dangerous! They are riding so close together and with the starting and stopping it gets pretty messy, but they always have a great time.
The Rose Parade is fun for us because Grandma Sandy is in the One More Time Around Again Marching Band. I am not sure what you would call it, maybe drill team? She dances before the band comes by. They are the largest band in the country with more than 500 members, all band alumni of varying ages. In the video clip, Grandma is in the center with blonde hair. The kids were yelling "Grandma, Grandma!" but there were a lot of Grandma's there, so it took her a while to notice us! Rachel spent the whole parade waiting for flowers to fall off of the floats, and she finally got a rose right at the end. We had a great spot on the parade route, just a block from the beginning, so there were a lot of news people around us filming. We had a good time, and Rachel had WAY too much sugar!

Graduations

We have had lots of events in the last two weeks with school coming to a close. Yesterday Michael had graduation, and today Josh had a balloon crossing ceremony, where they have balloon arches that go across the road from the junior high to the high school and everyone walks beneath the arches to the high school stadium. It is amazing that Josh is old enough to be in high school now! My freshman days are all too clear in my head still, and it's a little bit scary for me to have a son growing up so fast!

Dig it!

Michael and Elizabeth had a school play last night called "Dig it". Grandma Debbie came with the Taylor cousins, and it was fun to have them there. The play was really cute, and all of the songs were about different times in ancient history. The 5th and 6th grade classes in our school are blended, and they have spent the year studying ancient civilizations, so the songs from this performance went perfectly with their year's curriculum, and the kids really liked the music - it's pretty catchy! Elizabeth had a small solo part that she was really excited about - there is a video clip of it below. Elizabeth is the second singer--it's kind of hard to tell from our video clips who's who. On the second and third songs, Michael is in the front row over on the right of the screen, right next to a girl in a blue toga. Elizabeth is on the third row up, over on the left side. She has a girl behind her wearing a black shirt.

Michael refused to let me take a picture of him, but this is Elizabeth with her friend Melanie.

Michael's band tour

Michael plays the tuba with his school band. Funny story there, he started as a trumpet player, and then moved to baritone because they needed some other instruments added in. After being on baritone for a few months, they needed a tuba player in the band so they had kids try that one out. Michael was the only kid able to get sound out of the tuba, it's such a large instrument you need to have really good lungs to play it. So anyway, now we have a kid practicing the tuba, and he's doing a great job. In fact, all of our neighbors for miles around can hear what a great job he is doing! (just kidding, but it is pretty loud!)

Michael had a band tour where they went to the four elementary schools that feed into our band program to perform. I spent the day with them helping out. It was interesting to be with 45 sixth graders all day, and let me tell you, I appreciate my son! He sat by me on the bus, he sat by me at lunch, and we had fun together. The other parents complained that their kids didn't want them around at all, so I felt really loved. The kids performed really well, and had fun missing their classes for the day. Here are a few video clips of them performing, of course I focused on Michael. I love watching the kids feet during their performances, about half of them are tapping to the beat all the way through. I tried filming that, but you couldn't really tell what was going.
I think these kids are pretty impressive for a first year band! The first song is Batman/Austin Powers, then Guantanamera, then Majestica.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!
I have thought a lot about my mother, mother in law and grandmothers today. They have all had a huge impact on my life, and I appreciate the things I have learned from them.

My mother has been the ultimate example to me of living the gospel. I remember as a child wondering if a treat was being made for us or someone else. As a child I didn't really understand the importance of service, but because of my mom's example, now my kids ask me if treats are being made for us or someone else. I learned the importance of reading scriptures as a family, having family home evening, giving children chores, going to church, serving in a calling the best you can, going to the temple, and much more. I am the person I am today because of my mother's example.

I am indebted to my mother in law for teaching me how to be a much better cook (those first few years of marriage our meals left a lot to be desired!), seamstress, canner, and planner. I am the world's ultimate spontaneous soul, and she had helped me to tame that a bit herself, and through her wonderful son she taught well. They both try to help me stay out of the sidetracked home executives category. I have a long way to go, but Debbie has helped me to be a much better homemaker than the rough mold she started with!

Both of my grandmothers loved me, and loved the Lord. They were great examples of living the gospel, and especially serving others. My Grandma Adamson loved music, and spent so much of her time playing the piano for different groups, wards, etc. Before I went to Ricks I stayed with her for a few weeks. It was great to have time to be together, just the two of us. We drove to Provo together for a funeral, and she told me stories all the way from Salt Lake of her years dating Grandpa at BYU, and pointed out the places that different buildings used to be. We drove from North Salt Lake to Provo down State Street! It took forever, but she wanted to show me the things from growing up. We drove home on the freeway, the State Street route was way too long!

My Grandma Darley was a great example of service. She served in the primary for forty years! I think my heart follows my Grandma Darley, it is definately in primary. I am currently our ward's primary president, but have been a teacher several times, nursery worker, activity days leader, pianist and primary counselor. I think I have served in and loved primary for about 12 years now. I was the gospel doctrine teacher in our ward for a year, and remember every week wishing I was back in primary. Anyway, I hope I can be like my Grandma and always love primary.

I am so grateful for the wonderful women in my life, and the terrific examples they have set for me. I have also served with amazing women who I have learned so much from, and had many leaders as a teenager who really had a strong influence on my life. I also have terrific sisters and sister in laws who are great examples to me. Thank you all, I love you.

Mother's Day Tea with Rachel

Rachel's class had a Mother's Day Tea. Each of the kids wrote a book of poems for their mom, and they were just adorable performing them for us. The poem Rachel reads in the video clip is one she wrote called "My Mom". It's kind of hard to understand her, but she says:

Her hands are like a soft, warm blanket.

Her hair is like a silky brown pillow.

Her face is like a beautiful pale rose.

Her voice is like jingling bells.

Her smile is like the happiness I feel when I am around her.

Rachel knows just how to melt my heart! Some of the other kids' poems were really funny, like "her voice is like a yapping puppy." That mom wasn't so impressed! Another one said "her voice is like a loud microphone." I really appreciate my daughter being so generous and loving with me, can't complain about jingling bells!

Here is Rachel with some of her favorite friends, Sami and Claire. They are all little performers, and loved having a camera pointing at them.