Turkey Bowl 2008

Last year Brent started the Turkey Bowl for our neighborhood. First thing on Thanksgiving morning there is a serious game of flag football on the field at the church. Cameron was excited to play this year and had it on the calendar for weeks before the big game.

Orchestra Concert

Thought it was time for a post about Heather. She got back into orchestra this school year after taking a break last year. She is really enjoying and is glad to be playing the violin again. Their Christmas concert was this past Thursday. They played well and had some fun pieces to share. The favorite was 'Faeries'. This was a piece arranged by the Mannheim Steamroller guy- think Sugar Plum Fairy rocking out. The other favorite was Eleanor Rigby. You can see the zone that Heather was in before the concert and during the first pieces.

Very serious stuff.

But then the fun song started and I loved how much she was enjoying playing. I am sorry that I could not capture the head bobbing around while she waited for her parts.

Then this is Heather with her good friend Bobbe- they are just so cute and have a lot of fun together.

The High Flyers

Yesterday our neighbor called and asked if anyone wanted to go up in his airplane. Tori and Cameron had been wanting to go. Tori was too exhausted from working late the night before, so she did not go. But Heather decided that she did want to go. So they went up, with my niece Caitlin. They flew over the mountains and up Spanish Fork Canyon. They flew over our house, and I was going to take a picture but my battery was dead- ARRGGH! While they were up there, Cameron got to fly the plane for about 10 minutes. I think he thought it was the coolest thing ever! I also think that Heather and Caitlin thought it was the longest 10 minutes of their lives. Heather is not a fan of heights and gets a little motion sick. She did not enjoy it as much as she would have liked. But I am so proud of her that she tried it. I was too scared- I also had a hair appointment, it was a good and convenient excuse. One day I will have to go.

Admitted Klutz

Thought I would share my not great day. I am not the most coordinated person in the world- I mean they would not invite me to be on Dancing With the Stars. I can walk and chew gum at the same time though. But today was a different story. I learned that I cannot walk down stairs and browse the merchandise at the same time. I was in the BYU Bookstore- I had some time to kill before the bus came. I was going to do a little Christmas shopping. I had done some recon browsing earlier this week and was excited to make the purchase. (Don't you love when you find something perfect!?) I was almost to the bottom of the stairs and I missed the last step. My ankle hurt! Then before I could stand up again- yes, I fell down- I knew I was going to faint. No reason to stand up and fall down a second time! Some of you know that I have this tendency- get hurt- faint. I was not that hurt and I did not hit my head. It was incredibly embarrassing. The campus EMT's were called and I was in the middle of a main thoroughfare. Anyway- just had to share.

Tori's Spotlight

I posted for Cameron's birthday, but life got a little crazy and I neglected Tori's. I don't actually have pictures on her birthday because she was in Cedar City, UT for the Shakespeare competition. That was the 2nd year in a row we didn't see her on her birthday. So here is how Tori is doing and a little of what she has done this year. She is now 17! Why does 17 sound so much older than 16? She stays very busy with choir, drama, school, friends, and she is starting a job tomorrow.
Tori is not a fan of getting her picture taken and often makes faces.


She went camping this year at Goblin Valley. She had a great time except for the falling and hurting her knee at the beginning of a hike.

These are some of the girls in Tori's class at church.
I just really like the picture...

and they are really sweet, cool people!

One of my all time favorite pictures. We went on a Young Women's retreat in November. Tori and Whitney are having a jolly old time.

I should give a little more detail about her activities... For drama she is working on 'As You Like It'. The choir is going to put on a Christmas Gala. She is enjoying all the Christmas music. She begins working at the Spanish 8 movie theater tomorrow.

Homecoming 2008

Thought I would share a picture of Tori on her way to the Homecoming dance a few weeks ago. And as a side note- Spanish Fork won the football game the night before- Go Dons! Her date is Michael Jenkins, a friend from school. Morgan, Tori's friend, came over to help her get ready. But as you can see- Morgan didn't really want her picture taken.

Cameron is 12!!

September 23 was an historic day at our house. Cameron celebrated his 12th birthday. It was a day long in coming. He now gets to go to the young men/young women activities at church. He has been at home by himself almost since we got here, but no longer! In fact his first activity was on his birthday. We had a GPS activity through out the neighborhood with s'mores at the end. I believe he had a great time. He now gets to be in Boy Scouts instead of 11 year-old Scouts. He has already finished everything to receive his Second and First Class Scout badges. Which should happen this Tuesday. Another milestone will happen tomorrow at church. He will receive the priesthood and be ordained to the office of Deacon. He won't get to pass the sacrament for a couple of weeks though because next week is General Conference.

I thought I would share a few of Cameron's current passions...

He has just learned how to solve the Rubik's Cube puzzle.

He builds some crazy card houses.

And he has had an enduring love of building with K'nex.






Apparently he has also taken up photography because I did not take the pictures of his creations.

First Day of School

sigh... Summer vacation is over. Today is the first day of school for the kids. I don't know if I am just lazy and don't want to get up or what, but I really do not enjoy the first day of school. I don't think that it is just because they are older either. I have never really liked it. I like my kids, I want them around. They are really cool people! Anyway- there they are. Heather left first this morning. She was actually gone before Tori and Cameron got up. It won't always be that way. Tori did not have to be at school until later because the first day is a 'change the schedule' day and no one does anything else. They are all 3 still at different schools. It has been that way since we moved to Utah, and will continue until forever. This is for a couple of reasons. The biggest is because the 9th grade is at the Jr. High, and the 6th grade is at the elementary school. Next year Tori and Heather could go to the same school, but they are building a new high school and Heather will go there. This is the second reason. Tori will stay where she is so she can stay involved with show choir. So here is the rundown: Tori- 11th grade at Spanish Fork High School, Heather- 9th grade at Diamond Fork Jr. High, & Cameron- 6th grade at Spanish Oaks Elementary. There are no pictures of this historic day- maybe I'll remember to get some when they get home.

My Parent's Visit

My parents came to visit me and my brother, Jeff. They rode the train from Missouri. They had quite the experience getting here- it took about 10 hours longer than it was supposed to. We are so glad they came. We had a great time visiting. We were out in nature lots more than any of us are used to. We had cookouts and hikes and general sightseeing of the great outdoors.

This was at our cookout in American Fork- it was really a nice place. We had some struggles. We forgot lighter fluid for the charcoal. But my self-sufficient mom went and found enough wood kindling that we didn't starve- way to go mom! We were by a stream and it was rushing pretty good. My nephew Dayton lost his styrofoam airplane- but Papa saved the day that time. Tori was blowing bubbles for the little boys but I think she may have been having more fun than they were?




I just like this picture of Heather beside the Provo River. We wanted to go to Bridal Veil Falls but there had been a wildfire so it was unavailable. We went to the park across the street and had a good time any way.

My mom and me at the Hot Pots-- much more of a hike than we anticipated! But it was beautiful and the hot and cold water spots were amazing.

We spent some time at my brother's house. This is my dad- Papa- with all his grandsons. This was a hard picture to get. 4 boys don't all look in the same direction very often so I just took this one and ran with it. While we were visiting there was a fierce ball battle. Duncan and Dayton were the most prepared with their shields and swords- though Duncan would correct me and say that he has a light saber.

James Taylor Concert

Brent was a wonderful, thoughtful husband and way back in the spring bought me tickets to the JT concert! It was my birthday present and it was a fabulous present. All I have to show here is the ticket to prove that someone went to the concert. As you can see on the ticket is says NO Cameras. So I was obedient. Everyone else at the concert can add pictures to their blogs cause cameras were there in abundance. I have a couple of pictures on my phone, but they can't be put on my computer. Anyway-- It was so much fun. He puts on a great show- of course he sings divinely, but he is funny too. We had great seats- probably about 20-25 rows back. An experience that I would certainly repeat.

I realized that I am wearing my concert t-shirt as I type this post. So I thought that proves that I or someone who likes me went to the concert. I did not just find the ticket stub on the ground or dumpster.

Breaking Dawn

The long awaited Stephenie Meyer novel that completes the Twilight saga came out on August 2nd. The bookstore where we pre-ordered the book opened at midnight on Friday night and so Brent took the girls and got it. Tori stayed up until about 5am reading it because Heather and I are waiting for it. I am happy to report that she did finish it on Monday and I am blogging instead of reading...

The girls and I went hiking with my parents to the hot springs and Tori even brought the book so she could read at every opportunity.

Tut-Tut It Looks Like Rain

Yipee! Woohoo! On Sunday evening it rained. We love rain around here and it had been WEEKS since it rained enough to even get the sidewalks wet. There was even some good thunder and a little lightening to make it all that much better. The kids really had fun- dancing and running around in the wet stuff. After this was taken they all walked around the block and got drippy wet. The sprinklers in the yard were going at the same time- I have always laughed at people who have sprinklers going in the rain. I was cracking myself up!!

The Fireworks

The end of Fiesta Days was a very nice fireworks show. It was kinda cool- we went to the baseball park and there were people all over the fields. It felt like some kind of movie set. Before the show started, there were kids running all over the place. Then they turned off the field lights and we all enjoyed the pyrotechnics.

The Carnival

Part of the Fiesta Days fun was a carnival. Cameron is the only one of us who really wanted to go. I tried to get a couple of pictures-- those rides move fast!

Fiesta Days- the Parade

This was the first time we participated in the Fiesta Days activities. Spanish Fork City Fiesta Days are a week long celebration of Pioneer Days. For those of you not up on your Utah history-- Pioneer Day is on July 24th. It was the day in 1847 that the Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. Just about everything in Spanish Fork shuts down on this day. These are pictures from our parade watching. We enjoyed the festivities with our friends, the Packards.

Tori with Scott Packard, my future son-in-law. Scott tells everyone that he is going to marry Tori and she will have to change her name but he won't.

Cameron striking a pose.

Heather "flying" Jane Packard.