Dance Festival

Tyaan was involved in a church dance festival last weekend. It included 12 stakes in Southern California and about 3000 youth from 12-18. She has been going to practices for several months and has put in a lot of time and long days into preparing. Our stake wasn't involved because they did the trek instead, but Upland Stake did it and Tyaan joined with them. (That is where Jon's parents live, and is the ward we were in for a few years)

This is Tyaan with her dance partner, Alex.


It turned out really well. It was unbelievable to see how many youth they got together for this event. On Saturday before the festival started Pres. Monson's daughter came and spoke to all of them. Tyaan said it was really good.



Here are a couple quick videos I got with my digital camera. It isn't very good quality but gives a little bit of an idea of what it was like. We were sitting down low in the stands so we had a good view of Tyaan dancing, but couldn't get a good shot of how many kids were on the field. They made a flag at the end using the different colored shirts they were wearing. Tyaan was in blue at the other corner of the field.

The first shot isn't even half of the kids. They didn't even get all of them out in time to do the opening routine. Tyaan's group, along with a lot of others didn't get out in time. This is mostly just beehives and a partial of the Mia Maids and Teachers.

Then there is a minute of Tyaan's dance. They did a waltz to Disney songs. We are supposed to get a DVD of the whole thing which will be a lot of fun to watch. Tyaan's group knew the dance really well so they were put up front and were on camera and up on the big screen during their performance.

Tyaan's Party

We had a party for Tyaan's 17th birthday yesterday. (Her birthday is actually tomorrow, the 23rd) It turned out really well and she had a good time.


She wanted a chocolate cake, so that's what she got. She got all 17 candles out at once, also!


I had tables and chairs out with some candy, bubbles, and paper blowers. They looked cute, and after eating it was great to sit and snack on the sweets. Jon cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on the barbeque and made homemade salsa. Everything was really good.


We also had a jumper, which was the first thing on her list of what she wanted. It was where she spent most of her time. It certainly got used!




We also had Rock Band set up out on the patio. It worked out really well. They'd come play when they needed a breather from the jumper.


We had a lot of fun. We had some friends there that we hadn't seen for a while which was great. And we had several others stop by and had a great time visiting with all of them. We stayed up too late and there's still clean up to be done, but it was worth it!

Malibu with the Haslams

Jon's family all got together this weekend in Malibu. I had never been to Malibu before so it was interesting to drive through it. It wasn't what I expected, but I guess you have to go behind the gates to get to all of the million dollar houses that the famous people live in. :-) Jon had worked in the area while doing air conditioning/heating a few years ago so he got to point out some of the places he had gone to.

This is a picture of us in front of the house we stayed in. It was a nice house with a great view of the ocean. We didn't get there soon enough to make it to the beach, but we got to visit, have dinner, play Rock Band, and spend a night. It was fun to have everyone together since they all live in different areas these days.

This is a picture of Rachel and Andrew with their Uncle Jon, who they obviously love. Jon really enjoys getting to see them.



I took this picture of Tyaan on the drive home. She's such a pretty girl, isn't she?

Tyaan's Picnic Date

Tyaan had a date last Friday night and borrowed my camera so I got a hold of a few pictures. I thought this one was cute. They had a picnic and played a game with another couple. Her and Kenny (her date) then came to our house and played Rockband. She said it was fun.

Hope she doesn't mind me sharing... If so - Sorry baby! :-)

A Visit from some Andersons!

My Uncle Norman (one of my moms younger brothers) and his family stopped by last Sunday to visit with us. They came to SoCal to visit Disneyland and Universal Studios. It was a lot of fun to see them, even though seeing how grown up his kids are makes me feel really old!

Jon's Birthday

Jon's birthday was Tuesday, July 15th. His mom and dad stopped by with a cute cake for him and sang Happy Birthday.


Then our good friends, the Withers, came over and helped us celebrate some more. Jon wasn't very happy that we put all 35 candles on the cake.



It was a fun night and we stayed up too late. But birthdays are fun to celebrate, especially ones for those that are most important to us.

Happy Birthday Jon!!! We love you!

The Trek

Tyaan came home safely from our stake youth handcart trek. It was a great experience and it sounds like she had a really good time.

On the first day it was very hot and they went about 6 1/2 miles. It was the furthest distance they covered in 1 day. There were 7 handcarts total and about 10-12 youth per 'family' along with a ma & pa. There were also several other leaders that went to help.


Here is Russell and Ty ready to get going again. I had several people tell me that they were 2 of the strongest trekkers. They actually won an award for "super trekkers" on the first day.




One morning all of the men and young men were taken for a 'meeting' and ended up walking ahead, leaving the girls alone to pick up camp and get the handcarts going. They went for a while on a downhill slope, but as they turned a corner there was a steep hill. The young men were waiting at the top of the hill but the stake president drew a line that they weren't able to cross and couldn't touch the handcart until it had gone further than that. It was apparently hard for the boys to watch all of the girls get those handcarts up that hill so they prayed, sang and encouraged them. The girls all worked together to get each handcart up. Tyaan helped with all 7 handcarts, and had to convince her ma that she could go back for the last one. She's a strong girl and I had dozens of people approach me to tell me how hard she worked, how much she impressed them, what a great leader she is, and even that she always had a smile on her face. What a girl!


One of the handcarts going up. Notice the guys along the side giving encouragement.


Tyaan and a few of her 'brothers'

There's that smile!


The last day they climbed Testimony Hill. It is long, uphill, and in many places extremely steep. It took a lot of endurance, and teamwork to get all the handcarts to the top. Jon and I had the opportunity to drive down and back up this hill with one of the leaders that had a rhino (4 seater, 4x4 vehicle) and I was stunned at how long this hill was. I pictured one big hill, but it was a long, windy, up and down (mostly up) dirt path. I am so impressed with these youth.



Once they reached the top of the hill they would head back down to help the next handcart come up. From where we were waiting at the end of the trek we could see the top of the hill. We saw the first handcart make it to the top and waited about 45 minutes before they had gotten them all there. Tyaan said that the whole way up the hill they didn't know how much further until the first handcart got to the top and could see us all down below. She said the message got passed all they way down that they were almost there and they were able to work together to get the last of the trek done.



Once all 7 hancarts were at the top of Testimony Hill it was a short downhill section to where we were all waiting to bring them in. This is Tyaan's group, who was first in line, coming in. They were all singing Come Come ye Saints and looked very happy to be 'home'.



She's finally back. We really missed her but are so glad that she got such a great opportunity. She always does good, and impresses us. We love her and are always so proud of her.

A Pioneer Trek

Tyaan left early yesterday morning for a handcart trek with the youth of our stake. She was really excited to go and hopefully is having a great time. They have been planning and preparing for this for several months and it took place of their youth conference this year. They are walking an unannounced number of miles and are keeping it as close to the actual trek as possible. They all are wearing pioneer-like clothing and are eating pioneer food. They are sleeping out in the open, but did take sleeping bags. It's ending tomorrow and we are going to go have lunch with them as they come in. We will be able to see them finish and then are having a big lunch, which I'm sure they will be ready for.

I miss her, but am glad she is getting to participate in such a fun activity. I know it will be a great lesson and experience to look back on.

A Family Reunion

This week we took a quick trip to Cedar City, UT for my dad's family reunion. Cedar City is a beautiful place and we had great weather, and even better company. It was great to get to spend time with my mom, dad, and youngest brother and an added bonus to see extended family that lives far from us.

Here are a few pictures from our trip. We left Sunday morning and got home Tuesday afternoon.



My dad with his mom and 4 siblings:


On Monday morning we went to Cedar Breaks National Monument. It's just a short drive from Cedar City and is really beautiful. If you've been to Bryce Canyon, it's a lot like that just much smaller, and about twice as deep.

This picture shows a small portion of it, and doesn't show off the true color.


My dad and I at another overlook.



My dad and his mom.


Tyaan and my mom.


A lot of Monday afternoon was spent at the pool. Here is Andrew after several hours of swimming.


This was taken on our drive up to Cedar Breaks. Once again, the picture doesn't do it justice, but it was an amazing view. This is looking at Zion's National Park from the road we were on.


On Monday night we went bowling. It was a lot of fun. Here is my grandma, my dad, and my Uncle Gordon.

My 3 day weekend

We didn't do much for the 4th of July this year. Tyaan went with a friend to a local fireworks show at the last minute, but Jon and I just hung out at home. It was great to just be home for a couple days with no obligations and not too much to do.

Since there isn't any event to post pictures of I figured I'd show you what a good chunk of my weekend was spent on. I got up relatively early (7:30, which is 2 1/2 hours later than I get up on weekdays so it was kinda like sleeping in) and headed outside to mow the front yard. It's been pushing 100 degrees all week so I wanted to get it done before it was too hot. Once that was done and I realized mom and dad hadn't called about going to the parade so that was off I found myself with some free time. I had housework and laundry to be done, of course, but it was a day off work, so I didn't feel like doing either of those things.

Tyaan and Jon were both still in bed so I had the living room (and TV) all to myself, which happens very rarely. So, I dragged out some of my scrapbooking stuff to the dining room, put in a DVD (The Closer, my favorite TV series. I own the 2nd season which I'm watching again. Hopefully I'll get seasons 1 and 3 for my birthday. I'm spreading the word!) and got to work. I haven't worked on my scrapbook for a while, mostly because I was working on a DVD slideshow for my dad's birthday party, and I had some new Stampin' Up product I wanted to try.

So, I spent several hours over the last 2 days scrappin and this is what I ended up with. I came and went from the project, which is the best way to do it. I took lots of breaks so we could go out for lunch and do other things. I am really happy with it. The pictures are from Tyaan's 16th birthday party last July.

Here is the 1st page. The string on the balloon is real silver string, and I used ribbon (the brown) for the first time in my scrapbook. You can't see the background stamp on the yellow very well in this picture, but it 's noticeable on the page itself. It's yellow flowers stamped on the yellow paper so it's very subtle. You can kind of tell that some of the balloons, some of the presents, and the cake (not the plate or candles) are dimensional and stand off of the page a bit. I love to do this when I make cards and it looks really good on the scrapbook pages as well. I also used my new tab punch and stamp set (Stampin Up) to make the cute tab that says "Happy Birthday". I think I'll have lots of fun with that.


This is the second page, which is almost all pictures of us playing games at her party. There were lots of pictures I wanted to fit on so I didn't do too much decorating. The blue paper is actually dry embossed (super easy to do). The polka dots are raised on the cardstock and if you look closely you can see that there are a few with punched holes around them. The cake, balloons (including string) and the yellow present are all raised on the page. The 'games' word is stamped directly on the page with my favorite Stampin Up alphabet, Taffy. The paper that the cake is stamped on has rough edges, which you just do with your fingernail. I use this look a lot because it adds great texture to any project.


The 3rd page didn't have quite as many pictures so I did some journaling. I usually do a lot of journaling in my scrapbook because I like to tell the story of an event along with the pictures. I did the background stamping on the yellow in a contrasting color so it stands out a lot more. You can see that I used my tab punch again, but with a different stamp from the Stampin Up 'totally tabs' stamp set. (I think this one is my favorite.) and continued the dimensional presents and balloons. I also used the taffy abc stamp set for 'cake!!'


Anyway, I really enjoyed getting to spend so much time relaxing and working on something that brings me so much enjoyment. I look through my scrapbooks quite often and always enjoy the pictures as well as some of the cute pages I've put together.

PS. I obviously LOVE Stampin' Up, and in case you don't know I am a demonstrator. If you love it as well, or want to try it let me know!! I used to be a die hard Creative Memories user, and over the years I've learned that I get much more for my money from Stampin' Up and am capable of doing SO much more!