A Sunday Afternoon

This is my idea of a perfect Sunday afternoon.

Curled up in bed, reading a good book. 2 of my favorite girls with me, watching TV.



Too bad everyday can't be Sunday...

Jon's Valentine

The young men in our ward did a 'singing valentine' fund-raiser for Valentines Day. The boys got all dressed up, delivered a valentine, chocolate, and rose... and sang a love song to those who were loved enough to receive one.





















Nope, his valentine was not from me. It was from his very best friend Mike Withers.

Russell's Farewell

Russell's farewell was on January 31st, 2010. He gave a wonderful talk in sacrament meeting and then his parents had a nice dinner/get together for people to come wish him good luck. It was quite an event. Lots of food, and over 100 people stopped by.

He is a great young man and everyone is so excited to see him go out and do something so important.












































He flew to Salt Lake and reported to the Provo MTC on Feb. 2nd. It was sad to say goodbye because we will miss him a lot. But he was ready to get it started and get to work.

We love you Elder Withers!!

Barstow to Vegas Ride

On January 16th-17th the Haslam/Withers clan planned a dirt biking trip from Barstow, CA to Las Vegas, NV. The boys rode the dirt bikes and the girls drove the chase vehicles. (Tyaan had another event she had to attend that day, so she wasn't able to go with us.) They had been planning this for some time and done a lot of preparation for it. Jon had it all mapped out and they had calculated how many miles each bike got on a tank of gas. The day finally came, we loaded up the bikes and headed to Barstow.

Here are the 4 boys ready to get riding. Brandon, Jon, Mike, and Russell.






They set up 2 stop points along the way where we could meet up with them and fill up the bikes. The first stop was just outside of Baker, CA. We went up a highway several miles and crossed the path they were taking. We actually found another truck there that was doing the same thing we were. Soon a couple other bikers came in and filled up with her and headed out again. I guess our boys weren't the only ones who thought this would be fun.

By the time they got to the 2nd stop at state line (Primm, NV) they were pretty beat and had some trouble with one of the bikes. We had rooms reserved there so Jon and Brandon decided to make that the end of their trip. Russell and Mike took 2 bikes that were still running well and headed to Vegas to finish the trip. They made it all the way!






































































Barstow to Primm is about 114 miles, and Barstow to Vegas is about 150 miles, so it was a lot of riding in 1 day.



We stayed the night at State Line and headed home the next morning. It was a lot of fun and they're always talking about doing it again!

Russell's Endowment Day

On November 21st, 2009 Russell took out his endowments at the LA Temple. We were able to attend with him and it was wonderful.

Here is the beautiful LA Temple, which I love. I grew up in the LA temple district so it's where I went to do baptisms as a youth, and where we visited the visitors center and went to see Christmas lights. It is also where I took out my endowments and was married. So it is a very special place to me.


Here is Russell as we were leaving.


Russell and Tyaan. She got to go do baptisms while waiting for us to go through the session.


Russell and I. Jon also attended but got away before we could get him in a picture.

Halloween 2009

Halloween season was a fun one.

Our Ward Halloween party turned out great. They had people bring chili and lots of kids (and teenagers) came dressed up for a trunk or treat. Tyaan borrowed a hat and dressed as a cowgirl. She won an award...she was cute. Here's Russell and Tyaan.



We had our traditional pumpkin carving night with the Withers family. Here is Kathy, Russell and Mike.


Jon (in the background), Tyaan and Katie. This is a fun night for us because the first time the Withers came over to our house was to carve pumpkins. It was the start of a great friendship!


When Halloween finally got here Tyaan dressed up as a football player. Here she is with some friends.


and here she is with her 'lil sis' Katie!

Russell's Mission Call

On October 2, 2009 my 'almost son' Russell opened his mission call. He is such a great young man and we were so proud of him as he prepared to go and finally received his call.

There was a pretty good group there. It was especially exciting for me because I'd never seen anyone open their mission call before.


Here is his call. Signed by President Monson himself, which was so cool to see. He was called to serve in the Brazil Fortaleza mission. He was really excited to hear he would be going to Brazil and reporting to the Brazil MTC in February of 2010.


Tyaan and Russell...


Russell and me...


Soon to be Elder Withers!

Girls Camp 2009

I was asked to go to girls camp this year as a leader. I was very excited because it was Tyaan's last year at camp and I was able to go with her.

The theme of camp was "It's a Jungle Out There" I was asked to be one of the SIS leaders (Sisters in Service) which is the year of training (or initiation...) before they become counselors the following year. They are freshmen in high school. Tyaan was Jr. Staff, which is the group of oldest girls that are asked to take on leadership positions. She pretty much ran camp, and did a fantastic job.

Tyaan's camp name is Outburst.


This is the 2nd day of camp, which is when the campers arrive. The older girls (Jr. Staff, Counselors, and SIS') get to go up the afternoon before and set up. The SIS' pick a theme and song to identify themselves through the week. We were jocks, so they were all dressed in jersey and sports attire. Their shirts had their names on the back and the number '09. They were very cute. It was a fun theme to work with through the week.


These are my SIS' at our table. They were each partnered up and assigned a cabin to serve. They had to attend to their cabins table whenever they were called, so they couldn't get too comfortable. I made each of them their own place mats with a sports theme. I knew what their favorite sports were so they were all unique and had their names and the theme of camp on them. The girls loved them!


Part of certification was crossing a monkey bridge. The priesthood got it set up and some of us got to try it out. Tyaan went across it very easily...of course.

I was a little slower... The men were ready to catch me if I fell, although I think they probably would have been more injured than me! Luckily I made it across and nobody had to save me.


One of Tyaan's responsibilities was to make the mail box. She made a tree with a hole for each cabin. It was SO great!! (Notice the SIS' always get put at the bottom)


Mike and Kathy were both up at camp as well. Kathy was doing certification, her camp name is Trail Mix. Mike went up as priesthood. Since it was his first time going up he got his camp name...McGyver. Pretty appropriate we think.


This is me and the other SIS leader Wendy. This is in our cabin while helping the girls practice their skit.


Each day the SIS' have assignments that go along with the daily theme. Each day their campers get to dress them up, and there is an eating assignment. This day they had to feed the person to their right.

This day they were dressed up as tour guides. They had to pretend they were speaking into microphones every time they talked.


At the end of the week is SIS graduation. They get their camp names and become counselors! Camp names are VERY important and it is a lot of pressure to give them each names that fit them well and that they will like. We did pretty well. It came down to the last minute on a few of them, but we got them all done. They receive their name by poem which was really fun to read to them.


It was a lot of work, but the girls were great. I had such a good time with them and I know they will go on to be great counselors next summer!

AMA Supercross Finals

We got tickets to go see the AMA Supercross Finals in Vegas on May 2nd. We were really excited because we weren't able to go to the race here in Anaheim and the season was ending. We didn't want to spend a lot of money on tickets so when we found some that were a really good price we grabbed them.

We did the trip in a day so we didn't have to spend the money to stay the night out there. We left mid morning, Russell came with us. Tyaan made herself comfortable so the 4 hour drive didn't seem too bad. Russell was playing video games most of the way, so he was happy as well.


We got there and found our seats which were pretty good. It was really cool to see the track in person since we're used to watching on TV. The pits were open and we got to watch practice during the day. It was pretty hot when we got there, but it made the evening perfect once the sun was down. This is a picture of the track from our seats.


Russell, Ty & Jon


Ty and Jon in their Supercross hats!

Russ and Ty.


There was a show in the pits that Ty and I went out to watch. These guys were flipping and doing all kinds of stuff. It was pretty amazing! They did a show in the stadium in between races. At one time they had 3 motorcycles all doing back flips and in the air at the same time!


Jon and I during the races. It got pretty heated with the Reed vs. Stewart fans. We are Stewart fans, because he is by far the best rider, but in Vegas the Reed fans are overwhelming. Since this was finals and Stewart and Reed were 1st and 2nd in points it came down to this race to decide the season champion.

Here is Stewart during the race. He is amazing!!

Tyaan's sign. The "Reed...who is that guy" is totally funny. If you follow the series you'd realize how cute it was that she put it on there.

They put on a pretty good fireworks show when the race was over. Stewart won the championship (although not the race) which was AWESOME!! Reed didn't win the race OR the championship, although he tried to wreck Stewart because he's an idiot... but that was pretty awesome too.


Afterwards we drove home. It was a long, but really fun day. We got home early the next morning. Luckily Russell drove most of the way home so Jon could sleep. It was a really fun experience and we'll definitely have to make it to a race next season. Although we'll go to Anaheim. The drive is a lot shorter!! (only about 30 minutes)

Mormon Prom 2009

April 11th was Mormon Prom. A few years ago the stakes in the area started doing their own prom because of how expensive and yucky the high school proms have gotten. There are 5 stakes that do it together and rotate the responsibilities from year to year. This year our stake was in charge. This meant that Tyaan, being on SYC, was part of the group that planned and put it together.

They really go out of their way to make it an extraordinary event which I think is wonderful. The theme for this dance was Jungle Book. The setup was done over 3 days and I heard they figured 22 hours overall. I went down on Thursday evening with Tyaan because I needed to get her to a hair appointment that night. I started helping her with the 'ruins' and it turned into a late evening. By then I was really excited about how it was all going together and really impressed with how much they were doing. So, I invited myself to continue helping (not that anyone complained, it was a lot of work!)

This is Thursday evening. They were getting the trees brought in and building the structures that would hold up the rock for the ruins and the rock wall on the stage.



This is the archway structure that framed the door that leads to the kitchen. They got this up and Tyaan put up her ruins from here.


These are the cardboard boxes that the SYC had gotten together to paint a few weeks earlier. They all had to be taped together (which took hours and hours) so Tyaan and I spent most of Thursday evening getting that done.





A member of our ward is quite an artist and painted this huge mural. It was 9 feet tall and over 30 feet long. It had the Jungle Book characters on it. It was a big job getting it up.


They had a guy helping who actually does set design for movies. Apparently some of this stuff was actually used on an Indiana Jones set at one time. They hung the camo and built a structure from wood poles and put trees in around it.


On Friday we got to build the ruins using all of the boxes that we taped together the evening before. Once all of the boxes were stacked how Tyaan liked she put moss and vines on it so it looked old and overgrown. It was pretty impressive when it got done.


Here is the mural on Friday evening. They had started setting up in front of it and you can get an idea of how large it was.


Here is Russell on Friday night! He got put to work in the hallway that became the Nile River for the canoe ride.


At some point Friday evening the stake YW president decided to make butterflies to put around the room. Tyaan had a pattern and traced it onto cardboard which we cut out and spray painted. It was a lot of fun and they came out really great.


This is the hallway between the entrance and the rear foyer. This is where the canoe ride would take place.


At the end of the canoe ride you end up in the foyer at the back of the building. This is the 'shipwreck' Once shipwrecked you walked a short distance down the hall and into the cultural hall for the dance.


On Saturday we went down for a couple hours to help finish setup. Tyaan had 2 hours of swim practice that morning and when we got there they were arranging barricades in the hallways to keep kids from wandering the building. There was one that was going to be really visible when people went from the dance to the kitchen for refreshments (banana splits to go along with the theme) so they wanted it to be decorated. Someone suggested a map and Tyaan got assigned that task. All she had was a box of spray paint left over from our butterflies the night before. I couldn't imagine what she would be able to do last minute with spray paint, but this is what she did. We were all amazed at how great it was. When it was finished it included a marked route of a boat ride from So. Cal to India (which is where the jungle in Jungle Book is). It was really awesome.


This is Saturday once they got everything done.

This is the snake from Jungle book. His body lit up which was great once the lights were dimmed for the dance.


The table decorations.


The canoe ready to take kids down the Nile and into the Jungle. They added lighting, fog machines, and sound to make it really cool.


Here is a video I shot of the cultural hall on Saturday when it was completely done.



Finally after all that work it was time for the dance! Each stake is in charge of doing their own dinner for their youth (you have to be a junior or senior to attend) Our dinner was at the Creekside building and then they came over to the stake center for the dance.

Tyaan and Russell were both going without dates so we sent them with each other. They always enjoy each others company so it was good that they got to go together.

Here is a great picture of Jon and Tyaan.


Here is a video showing the entrance and the boat ride. It was really done well, although the video doesn't do it justice. It was too dark for the camera to pick up much but you can see how smooth they moved that canoe around the building and you can get a glimpse of the fog and how the shipwreck looked all put together. The atmosphere was amazing! The kids loved it and we hear that there was a lot of good feedback from the other stakes.




A couple pictures of Tyaan at the dinner and dance. She had a really good time.


It was a great event and I am so glad I was able to participate in putting it together. I'm really glad that our year to be in charge was a year that Tyaan was on SYC so she got the opportunity to see it all come together. It was a lot of work but it was great to spend time with the other members of our stake that were doing setup. I got to know people better and there was a great spirit there the entire time.

The most amazing thing is that there was a crew there at 10:00 to start taking down the entry/ hallway/ and foyer. The dance ended at 11:00 and they had everything down and put away and the building ready for church the next day before midnight. That's planning and teamwork!