Faith, the Musical

The kids had an enjoyable time performing in Faith, the Musical. It was a big time commitment and we weren't too happy with how some of the time was managed and some of the performance decisions that were made, but I'm glad that the kids were able to participate. They were in one scene where the British Saints were on a ship immigrating over to the United States. They had a song that they sang and did a little dance routine to. I think that they ended up having a lot more kids then they had room for on the stage, but were able to work out a solution. They are supposed to be giving DVDs to each family of the performance so hopefully the kids can see the whole thing from the beginning to the end.There was a man in our stake that had a part in the play and two of his children were in the children's chorus and he actually had room for all 4 of our kids. So he ended up driving them to and from just about every performance for us! What a lifesaver that was! Here is a picture of our kids with the other kids from the car pool:

Tired little girl

Saturday, August 6
After I got home from Temple Square with Kay and MJ, I went downstairs to feed MJ. After I was finished with that I went to find Kay and this is what I found in MJ's room:
She was super tired and wasn't sure where to lay down. DH's brother and family were using the girls' room while they were staying with us and each morning I folded up the sleeping bags that the kids were sleeping in on the floor so there was room to walk around during the day.

Conference Center & Temple Square

Saturday, August 6, 2011
Shortly after Blondie's baptism, the four oldest kids had to run off to the Conference Center to perform in Faith, the Musical. DH, his parents and his brother and family went to see the matinee performance at 2:00. I stayed home with Kay and MJ and then met up downtown with everyone after the performance. We were able to take the four oldest with us too because they had about an hour and a half before they had to report for the evening performance. The first thing we did was take a tour of the Conference Center and then we walked around Temple Square a little. A little after 6:00 I took the older kids back to the Conference Center Little Theater for the play and then I took MJ and Kay home again. DH and his family stayed a little bit longer and then came home and brought dinner. DH's brother and family left that evening for Idaho.

Conference Center:

View from the roof of the Conference Center:

This is a mural etched out of stone that is located on the roof of the Conference Center. The black, shiny areas are the polished stone and the varying degrees of gray and white are where the stone was etched away to make a relief mural.


Temple Square:

Tabernacle:
Christus statue in the North Visitor's Center:

Trip to Washington - Vancouver

Wednesday, June 22 - Saturday, June 25
After the reunion in Mossyrock, we drove back to DH's parents' house and spent a few days there with his youngest brother and their family. We mostly just hung out at the house and talked and recovered from the reunion and let the kids play.

Bouncy House:
(If you look closely, MJ and Blondie's pants are almost an exact match.)


Sidewalk chalk & ring toss:


Eating out on the deck:


Visiting Grandma-Great:

Sharing her M&M's and flowers with the kids.

Trip to Washington - Reunion Fun!

Sunday, June 19 - Wednesday, June 22

MJ with one of her cousins - he loves babies!
DH has a brother who is currently living overseas with his family. Towards the beginning of the year they announced to all of us that they were going to be coming to the states to visit for about a month in June and they wanted to see all of us if possible. We were able to finally work around everyone's schedule and come up with some dates when we could have a family reunion up in Washington. DH's parents were able to find a really nice vacation rental home in a little town called Mossyrock, WA - about an hour or so from their house. The layout of the place was awesome and great for large family gatherings. It was in a very secluded area so we had plenty of privacy - and no cell phone service! The house had a large kitchen with 2 large tables, a large living room/gathering area with a lookout from the second floor, a large den/playroom area with lots of toys, games and movies for everyone, a huge master bedroom suite, 3 additional bedrooms - 2 with a set of bunk beds and a twin bed + trundle and the third with a queen size bed, and two full size bathrooms (not including the huge bathroom in the master suite). I think the only thing we would have done differently in the design of the place was to add one or two half baths. There was a basketball hoop out front and a fire pit off to the side of the place.

Unfortunately we didn't take a lot of pictures of the downtime that the kids had. And we missed a few of the main activities, i.e. Family Home Evening and the Talent Show. We have some video of some of it, but no pictures. The kids absolutely had a blast and really enjoyed being with their cousins. Each of the married siblings got a bedroom for their family to stay in, but most of the older kids slept each night in the den with all of their cousins.

Nature Walk/Bug Hunt for the kids organized by Aunt V - she also made these cute bags and bought cute bug kits for each of the kids:


Macarena Dance (see, they do learn things at school):


Adult "hike" (really more of a stroll) at Riffe Lake:
MJ loved having free access to my hair...

Campfire with S'mores!!:
Unfortunately it was quite wet where we were staying and so our last night there we were finally able to have a campfire - although the logs were pretty smokey and the ground was pretty wet & muddy.

Target Practice/Unbirthday party activities:

Trip to Washington - Family Pictures

June 20, 2011
Here are some of the family pictures that we took at DH's family reunion in Mossyrock, WA:

DH's parents with all of the grandkids.

Kay talk

This morning I was trying to do some cleaning in my bathroom when the sink stopper closed all the way and I couldn't get it to work anymore. So I proceeded to clear everything out from under the sink so I could take it apart and try and figure out the problem. When I discovered that a piece had broken so we would need to go to the store to get a replacement, I told Kay to get some shoes on so we could go to the store so I could fix the sink. Kay said that she wanted to see the sink and what was broken so she went into my bathroom to take a look at it.

Kay: "So what's broken?"

Me: "This piece." I point out the piece to her.

Kay: "So you have to fix it?"

Me: "No, it's broken. I need to buy a new part. That's why we need to go to the store."

Kay: "Oh, I understand!"

Dishwasher

Thursday, September 1

MJ loves to play with the dishwasher whenever it is open. Here she is getting upset because she can't quite climb onto the top rack...
And here she is helping unload it...I'm surprised she hasn't managed to break it yet...