Saturday night at the dance festival

At long last we were able to go watch the dance festival on Saturday night. Erin and Bryant left at 2:30 to get there by 4:30 for the devotional given by President Monson's daughter, Ann Dibb, who was just called into the General Young Women's presidency. In the devotional, she talked about modesty and who you are. After the devotional, everyone ate their sack dinners and got ready for the performance. It was nice for me to be able to relax and sit in the stands to enjoy the show. I enjoyed the show and even got choked up when the field filled up with the roughly 2,500 youth.

Erin in her cha-cha dress and Bryant in his basketball outfit. Parker waiting for the show to start.
This is a picture taken of the audience with Ron front and center! You can see David Willis, Emmett and Parker below him.
I found this picture of Darin and Donna Allison in the second row - don't they look like they're having fun?! GO ALLISONS!!
All the youth on the field for the opening number

The patriotic closing number
A short but good fireworks display
Bryant with his group in the High School Musical number "Gotta Get in the Game". Bryant is just right of center looking towards the stands. He was excited because he was asked to be the group leader - and we know how much Bryant likes being in charge!
It's not so easy to get all the boys synchronized with the balls.

Running off the field after they're done.
The cha-cha group did the best of all the groups (in my opinion). Erin is in the middle of this row of dancers.
The girls all loved how these dresses twirled - just as if they were 3 years old again! Erin is in the center of the picture facing back.
The final pose - yet again you can't really see Erin well, but she's just right of the middle.
Erin running of the field while holding her flower in place.
Matthew and Rhett lifting Erin - YEA IT'S OVER!!!

There was a rope under the bleachers that all the boys wanted to climb. Parker patiently waited for a turn and made it almost all the way to the top! This is him coming back down.

Hangin' with Corrie

During the dance festival performance, I was able to help with Corrie Snell so that her parents could watch from the stands. I really enjoyed the time with Corrie. It's great to see how well she learned the dances and feel her sense of accomplishment. There was a setback during the beehives dance when Corrie couldn't find her mom and dad. She got upset and didn't go all the way out onto the field, so I found myself on the field giving her a pep talk. When the music started to play, she bolted and headed straight for her group where she was able to finish the dance. She was so proud of herself after it was done!

Corrie got a new coloring book to help pass the time before the start of the performance.
When I was taking Corrie to the staging area for the final number, we walked past youth who were getting American flags. Corrie decided that she wanted a flag and one of the ladies gave her one by mistake. While I was trying to convice her that someone else was supposed to have that flag, the kindest lady came over and told her that she could carry it. She made arrangements for Corrie to stand between two wonderful youth who were so sweet with her. It was a great experience to see how people were able to be flexible to make someone elses experience better.
Corrie proudly carried her flag.

Getting ready for the dance festival

Erin and Bryant have spent many hours over the past few months preparing for a 12 stake dance festival. It was quite a big time commitment from the youth, leaders and parents. I chaperoned a couple of times, one of them being the Friday performance. It was fun being with the youth and seeing them grow through the process. The dance festival was held at the University of Redlands where it's much hotter than Temecula. We had to be there at 4:30 and the performance didn't start until 8:00. The youth filled their time with a devotional and then last minute practicing and plenty of time to just hang out throughout the afternoon (hanging out was Bryant's favorite part of the whole thing). I took advantage of the time by taking pictures of our youth.

Bryant was hot and hungry and not so easily satisfied early in the evening.

Nikki Chase practices with her partner. William Wixom and Annie Chase wait for instructions.
Rhett Jaramillo and Maegan Shaw practicing.
Erin in her final pose.
Cassidy Scott and Annie Chase resting in our ward area.

Maegan Shaw and Kristen Badal
Erin and Rylee Snell
Erin with her partner, Preston Manley (a TALL 12 year old from the Redhawk ward)
Maegan, Deidre, William, Matthew, Merrill, Erin and Rhett

Family night at the big "A"

Last night we went to another Angel game. This time we went even earlier than normal so that we wouldn't miss the Angels' batting practice. After going to Mo's for our teriyaki chicken bowls, we got to the stadium just after 5:00. We were so early that we had to walk all the way around the stadium to the front entrance to get in (we always park in the same place because it's so quick to get out after the game from where we sit).

Bryant didn't even want to eat so that he wouldn't miss any batting practice, but we made him finish most of his dinner. After the boys ate, they went to find a good place to try to catch the fly balls. While they were waiting for fly balls, Rick and I headed to the team store to try to find a new hat for Rick. He won't wear the hat I bought him to the games since it's navy blue - so he wears a hat they gave all the fans for free a couple of years ago. When we got back to our seats, the boys tried to tell us they didn't get any balls, but Bryant couldn't hide his smile. This is the result of watching batting practice........ Erin, Dee, Bryant, and Parker before the game
Check out Rick's new hat!
We sat 4 rows behind the bullpen and got to watch the pitchers warm up. Irvin Santana (one of the pitchers in the All-Star game) was the starting pitcher. Unfortunately he was the losing pitcher....

This is the view from my seat without any zoom. Not too bad for the bargain price of $5 per ticket!! (Thanks to the law enforcement discount!)
This is the most Erin smiled while she was at the game - when she was on the phone!

Family night traditions

In our family we love to play games. In fact, we have so many games that it's hard to find storage space for all of them. But for some reason, when it comes to choosing a game for family home evening, the kids all want to play the same game, especially when we have guests over. For lack of a real name, we call it "the flour penny game" - very creative I must say. Rick learned this game while he was on his mission in Chile where there isn't access to the cool games that we have here.
You prepare the game by pressing flour into a cup, flipping it onto a plate, and placing a penny on the top. The object of the game is to cut away as much of the flour as possible without the penny falling. The person who is responsible for the penny dropping then has to retrieve it without their mouth (as they're usually pushed into the flour to make it extra messy).

This past Monday, Erin had her best friend, Kathryn, over for a sleepover. She wasn't expecting to experience her first family night, but I think she had a great time with us. The kids all wanted to introduce her to the flour penny game which made her very nervous - at least she wasn't the one who had to fish out the penny.

Erin shows Kathryn how to carefully cut away the flour....... Bryant makes the tower even smaller...........
Kathryn was the last person to get a clean cut in..........
And I was the unlucky one who lost the game. The kids couldn't wait to shove my face in the flour and Rick couldn't wait to get it on camera. I reluctantly am including this picture because it's the end result, I just didn't expect it to be me! After we finished the flour penny game we decided to play Boggle. We have the one with 5 X 5 letters which makes it so much better. I proceeded to cream everyone in that game - I remain undeafeted!!!

Cousins

Here are some pics of all the cousins together during the Reid's trip to So. Cal. We had such a great time visiting with them. Thanks Tiffany and Dave for taking the long trek with your family all the way down to our house! Until next time........

Before heading up the hill to watch the fireworks.

Girls Camp

Erin went to Girls Camp last week. It's nothing like what I did when I was her age. These girls sleep in cabins and have all their food cooked for them. Unlike Bryant's experience at Camp Emerson, Erin really liked the food at girls camp.


Erin and Kate Brantley
The girls had a spa night (another thing that never would have happened at my camp). They put wax on their hands - I'm not sure what that's supposed to do since I've never experienced it, but the girls all enjoyed it.
Erin resembles a blond indian princess with her bandana on her forehead.
Erin with the ward camp leader, Heather Wride. Erin LOVED Sis. Wride and that means I love her, too!

Camp Emerson

Bryant went to scout camp for the first time last week. Rick was able to go for 2 days and I think he had as much fun as the boys did. I'm so glad that they were able to be there together.

Even the boy scouts don't have to pitch their own real tents. Actually, I think these platform tents are pretty cool - and they even had cots in them! The leaders weren't so lucky, they had to sleep in a real tent.
The boys said that the food was terrible! When Rick left, he put all his goodies in Bryant's bag and I think that's what he survived on for the rest of the week.

Bryant using his free time to earn the leatherwork merit badge. He earned 7 merit badges while he was there - GO BRYANT!