Taylor Band Camp

Josh participated at Taylor Band Camp this year and really enjoyed it. They practiced with each other and had specialists to help the students learn their instrument better. There were some scheduling conflicts and were unable to have an end-camp performance. We'll just have to wait until the first band concert. Josh plans to play the bass clarinet again this year and since there is only two of them in their band, it gives Josh a great opportunity. The instrument is so big and bulky and difficult to take to school. Josh is borrowing one to keep at home and another one to keep at school. That's the advantage of playing a uncommon instrument. Mitchell came to band camp with Josh and the two of them are so fun to watch together.

Memorable MondayGoing to the Temple

Johnny went through the temple this past weekend. It was so neat to see all his friends and family surround him as they congratulated him on this great accomplishment. I was quickly reminded of the time that I went through the temple. I still remember that day and the sacred feelings that I felt that day. I have been blessed of the choice that I made to enter the temple and covenant with my Father. I know that the temple is a House of God. I'm so grateful for all my friends and family that spend that special time with me.

A Unique Family Reunion

We had a unique family reunion this year, Lisa and her family headed up to Utah to get Cortney settled for college at USU. The Clawsons, Jeff, and Steve and his family spent some time together in Utah while the rest of the family spent some time with mom and dad in Mesa. Our Family Reunion took place on a particular day when you took the time to enjoy the family you were with that day.

• Debbie and I took Dani and mom to Hobby Lobby and had a great time. It was mom's first time at Hobby Lobby and there was a lot to see. Dani spent some quality time with Grandma looking at the yarn, buttons, and looking at the cute stuff Hobby Lobby has. Debbie and I took this opportunity to SHOP, SHOP, and SHOP!!! We had a great time and planned a time to work on crafts.
• Mom, Dad, Debbie, Randy, Jim, I went to dinner at Mom's fav restaurant - Mi Amigos. It was great to just sit and talk to each other without being interrupted by the kiddos. After dinner, the boys went Shopping at Harbor Freights. Jim and Randy wanted to spend some extra time there, so we left them at the store while we took dinner to the kids. The boys loved shopping at their store. After we fed the kids- Jim and Randy took the kiddos to a movie and ice cream so we could do our crafts. Thanks Guys!!!
• In the morning, Randy helped my dad install kitchen cabinets. Josh and I helped Randy hold the cabinets in place while he attached them to the wall. It was hard work, but the final product looks really good. Randy and my dad also worked on widening the doorway between the master bath and master bedroom. It was a great family reunion down here in AZ and my parents got some great remolding done.

Fun Times -so many more that the camera missed

crafts and remolding projects

Memorable MondayFirst Trip to Benson

We have been to Benson often these past few years to see Debbie and her family. I never heard of Benson, until Debbie married Randy in 1999. The first time we went down there was to attend Randy and Debbie's open house. We stayed in a local motel and I remember locking the keys in the truck and waiting for the guys to finish shooting before we could get into the truck. That night, we attended the open house and I got some great pics of Debbie and my kiddos. It was a great evening and we love visiting Debbie and Randy and their family.

Benson

Dani went down to Benson for a week to help babysit the Barneys while Debbie was at Girl's Camp. Ashley usually babysits for them, but this year the Clawsons headed out of town and Ashley went with them. Dani had a great time and got to know the Barney kids a little better. We drove down to pick her up and spend some time in with Debbie and her family. Dani was very sweet and gave the girls quad rides while we were there. My kids love to ride the quad and Debbie's backyard is the perfect place to go. Josh didn't make the trip with us, so it was just the girls.

She's heading off to College

Cortney is heading off to college and we wanted to go to dinner with her before she headed off. She is going to Utah State University and we are so excited for her. We went to a local pizza place and talked and wished Cortney luck. My kids really like her and she has been a big part of their life. They see her every Sunday for family dinner and are going to miss her. It's been fun to listen to her and her family planning for this event. Her family is super excited for her too and they are already missing her, but they know that this is a great opportunity for her. She's an awesome girl and will do well in college.

Good Luck Cort!!!

This was taken at our "Goodbye Dinner"

St. George Trip

My family and I went on a trip to St. George. I have a couple of friends that live in the area, one of which I haven't seen for 20 years. We found each other through Facebook and I wanted to see her and reconnect. We started off the trip with some truck problems on the the way to Flagstaff. Our truck was struggling with the transmission, so we dropped it off at AAMCO to get it fixed and picked up a small rental car. Flagstaff didn't have a 6 passenger vehicle and I needed to be in St. George that night, so we squashed into the small car and left. We spent a total of 5 hours in Flag, and were anxious to be off.

We passed through Zions on our way to St. George and the scenery was breath-taking. Our family couldn't get enough of the beauty as we drove by. There was a super long tunnel that we drove through we would quickly catch a glimpse of the canyon through cracks in the tunnel. The road through Zion's was winding and long, but it was worth the drive even though we were running late to a show in St. George

We arrived in St. George just in time to see "Tarzan" at the Tuachan. It was an amazing performance with Tarzan, Jane, and apes flying around and over the audience. They stage was outside and I love that they were able to control the water to make a small lake in the beginning and waterfalls throughout. The performance was amazing and I was able to talk to Tracie afterwards. She played the keyboard during the performance.

I had a chance to visit with my friends and enjoy their company. It was so fun to see Tracie and visit with her. We were best friends in high school and had seen each other for almost 20 years. We were inseparable in high school and spent more time in the band room. We took AP Chemistry our senior year too. I really enjoyed catching up with Tracie and reminiscing about our years in high school. When I moved to AZ, it was hard to keep in contact with my high school friends, even though we tried. I had a chance to visit with Chyrisse and her family. Chyrisse is one of my dearest friends and I love her to pieces. She was there for me during my young adult years. She was always there for me when I needed to talk and needed support. She has become a friend to our family and we are so lucky to know her. She was married in St. George and now lives just outside the city. It was great to see her again.

We took in a lot of LDS church sites. St. George is full of church history and we took in a lot of tours while we were there.

On our way home, we stopped by the Grand Canyon. I have wanted to see the Grand Canyon for years, especially since I've never seen it yet. Josh and Dani have studied the Grand Canyon while they were in 6th grade and I wanted to take them to see it. The views were amazing and I could have stayed there forever. We had lunch with a great view of the canyon. The kids had a great time, especially when the squirrels came close by for a snack.

We had an amazing trip and it was so fun to spend time as a family. Here are some snapshots of our weekend away from home.

Memorable MondayMy Friend Tracie

Tracie was my best friend from high school. Our senior year we were inseparable. There are so many memories that I have of the two of us.

1. I remember taking early morning seminary with her our senior year. She would pick me up and we would go to school together. We did this so we could have a free hour to ourselves during 7th hour. We often found ourselves in a small room attached to the band room to practice our instruments. She would play the cello and I would either play the violin or viola. She encouraged me to compete in a solo for our major competition. I practiced a lot on my solo piece. We also competed in duets and quartets also and used that hour to pracice those pieces also. It was amazing to spend that extra hour just practing. We talked a lot too. After 7th hours, we would occasionally stay for Dixieland practice, where I played the bass and Tracie played the piano. Tracie helped me so much ourt senior year and I improved a lot
   
   
2. We often hung out at her house and we watched a lot of great movies. Tracie has a great sense of humor so it was fun watching movies with her. One year, I was invited to go to Canyonlands with Tracie and her family. Her dad took us four-wheeling all over the park and there were times I was a little anxious. Her mom loved introducing me to new foods. They always had something new for me to try. Tracie had a hot tub that we would sit in occasionally.
   
   
3. Tracie would pile some of her friends into her car and we would go "Jump the Tracks". That was a scary thing to do and we did it often. I usually sat in the front row which was the scariest places to sit. There were a lot of crazy things we did and our friend Wesley was always the one to suggest them. We toilet papered our orchestra teacher's house. We visited Wesley's grandma in the snowy cemetery at night. There was a lot of explaining to do when the police arrived. Tracie and I had a lot of fun and made a lot of good memories.
   
   
4. We performed 4 musicals together and had a blast during the preparation for these musicals and also performing them. We performed the King & I, Damn Yankees, Oklahoma, and Brigadoon. Brigadoon was a musical put on by her stake. Tracie asked if I wanted to play in the musical with her. The performance was held in Salt Lake City. One day, Tracie locked her car with the car running just before a rehersal. We left the car running to go to practice while Tracie's mom looked in the car.
   
   
5. Tracie introduced me to Manneheim Steamroller and I even went to a concert with her and her mom. Tracie composed a couple of songs for our orchestra - Stille Nacht and Nepenthe. She is so amazing talented and it was so awesome to hang out with her.
   
   

I really enjoyed Tracie's friendship and after high school, things changed as they always do. I spend the summer and the next fall getting ready to move to AZ with my family. I missed Traice a lot after we moved and kept in contact for a few years. It was so awesome to find her on Facebook and re-connect with her.

Swim Lessons

Angela and Emily both took swim lessons this summer at Taylor. They really senjoy wimming and going to their favorite pool for swim lessons was a highlight for them.

Angela has never passed a swim class for various reasons and I think her disability in language may be part of the reason. So, I wasn't really sure which swim class Angela should be in. I know that in the past, the instructors will place the child in the class that he/she belongs to after the first day if he/she is registered in the wrong class. I put Angela and Emily in the same class, hoping that Angela will help Emily adjust to swim lessons and move up a class if she needed to. After watching the girls for several sessions, it was obvious that Angela was in the wrong class. I should have talked to the instructor about moving her up, but I secretly enjoyed watching them swim in the same class. When Angela received her report at the end of swim lessons, she passed this class and the class above her. Good Job Ang!

Emily was very scared to get her face wet, but after a couple of sessions of swim lessons she would dunk her head in the water a by herself a lot. She struggled with swimming and floating, but I was thrilled to watch her become more comfortable being in the water. She even went into the deep end and would dunk her head underwater while holding on to the side. At the end of the class, Emily received her report and the instructor feels that she should repeat this swim class again. I'm so proud of you Emily!

Memorable MondayFirst Parade in Benson

I love the Fourth of July and I love to celebrate it big. One year, our family along with my parents and Clawsons went down to Benson to celebrate the big day with the Barneys. We participated in a lot of great events including the morning parade.

The Barneys built a float to be in the parade, and Jim, Josh, and Dani were in the parade. Debbie worked really hard on the float and I was able to help a little bit. I loved watching my kids sit on the float and wave as they went by.

41 pics for my Birthday

4th of July celebration

The Fourth of July took place on a Sunday this year, so a lot of celebrations took place on the day before.

• We started off the morning by watching a flag ceremony performed by the scouts. Josh was asked to coordinate it and get the other scouts involved. It was great to see cub scouts and boy scouts participate in the ceremony. Then we ate a yummy breakfast cooked by the Bishopric. They can cook a really good breakfast.


• After breakfast, we participated in a neighborhood parade which has become quite a tradition for the members of our ward. This year, we hauled our trailer with our kids riding in the back. On the parade route, we picked up several people along the parade route who were tired, hot, and needed a ride to the end. Dani rode her bike with some of her friends and stayed ahead of us towards the front of the parade.


• After the parade there was plenty of watermelon and cool water available. The watermelon is always a hit with my girls. It's such a cool treat after being in the heat during the parade. Amazingly there was no water fight this year!

• After the parade, a neighbor gave some golf cart rides - Golf cart rides are always a hit! The girls each got a ride with their friends. Dani wishes she could have driven it around the neighborhood. She loves driving the Barney's golf cart in Benson.

• We went to the Mesa Arts Center/Downtown Mesa to view the fireworks. They had cool displays which make great backdrops. They had laser fireworks launch from the buildings and we were just below those firework displays. Immediately after, they had the traditional fireworks about a block away. Josh, Dani, Emily, and I went to get a closer look and closer to the fireworks. The show was amazing and they had 3 finales, which made the firework show much more fun.