Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Reunion was a blast!
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
1856
Hi, all. I know I just sent a family letter, but it was kind of long, so I'll recap a few things here so you don't have to read the whole letter if you don't want to.
The three older boys just finished participating in our stake musical, "1856". It was wonderful. The musical was written by Cory Ellsworth (any relation Jon?) if any of you are ever looking for a production to do. The boys were in the chorus, which means they were in the background for a lot of the scenes. I probably didn't get too much out of it the first night since I was constantly scanning for what they were doing. In the first big number, "Come, Come Ye Saints" they were adopted into a family from our ward. They wore matching vests and followed the parents in a line throughout Salt Lake City. It was very cute. The directors called them the Barnum ducklings. Michael looked very grown up. Friends commented on how he was one of the men. Brett and Matthew got to play "Duck, Duck, Goose" with other pioneer children and looked bored during General Conference. It was sure fun to watch them sing and dance though. Brett had a hand-holder during "the Handcart Song" so he didn't march off stage. He spent most of the song watching his feet. Poor Brett had stomach problems Friday and Saturday, so spent much of the show running to the bathroom. Amazingly, he only missed one scene. Saturday night he missed a scene because he was playing cars backstage with another boy. Oh, well. Michael heads off on a pioneer trek tomorrow. It should be really neat. I'll make him post a blog about it when he gets back. Take care.
The three older boys just finished participating in our stake musical, "1856". It was wonderful. The musical was written by Cory Ellsworth (any relation Jon?) if any of you are ever looking for a production to do. The boys were in the chorus, which means they were in the background for a lot of the scenes. I probably didn't get too much out of it the first night since I was constantly scanning for what they were doing. In the first big number, "Come, Come Ye Saints" they were adopted into a family from our ward. They wore matching vests and followed the parents in a line throughout Salt Lake City. It was very cute. The directors called them the Barnum ducklings. Michael looked very grown up. Friends commented on how he was one of the men. Brett and Matthew got to play "Duck, Duck, Goose" with other pioneer children and looked bored during General Conference. It was sure fun to watch them sing and dance though. Brett had a hand-holder during "the Handcart Song" so he didn't march off stage. He spent most of the song watching his feet. Poor Brett had stomach problems Friday and Saturday, so spent much of the show running to the bathroom. Amazingly, he only missed one scene. Saturday night he missed a scene because he was playing cars backstage with another boy. Oh, well. Michael heads off on a pioneer trek tomorrow. It should be really neat. I'll make him post a blog about it when he gets back. Take care.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Heavenly Father must get a kick out of my dating life
Why me? Why.... Why why, me?
Earlier last week I was determined to go on a date to an upcoming festival on Saturday called Llama Fest. I had a crush on a boy in my ward and decided to call him up and ask him out. With much trepidation and pounding heart I did it. And he said no. Yep, he said no!
Well, that was enough to send me into a anger-induced flirt fest at the Stake Service Project on Saturday morning. I was determined to meet a boy in the Stake and take him to Llama Fest with me that night. Well I did. And he is fabulous. So cute. We spent the whole day together actually. We went kayaking down the Provo river and at the end of it, just when I was basking in the glow of my new crush, who is to float by but Mark. Oh yes, Mark.
Thankfully the cute boy, we'll call him John, noticed my abrupt change and sensing my discomfort worked hard to distract me. Which worked. We had a fabulous evening together at Llama Fest (which he has ALWAYS wanted to go to) and I look forward to future "contact." Tee hee!
Love Ya!
Meesh
Earlier last week I was determined to go on a date to an upcoming festival on Saturday called Llama Fest. I had a crush on a boy in my ward and decided to call him up and ask him out. With much trepidation and pounding heart I did it. And he said no. Yep, he said no!
Well, that was enough to send me into a anger-induced flirt fest at the Stake Service Project on Saturday morning. I was determined to meet a boy in the Stake and take him to Llama Fest with me that night. Well I did. And he is fabulous. So cute. We spent the whole day together actually. We went kayaking down the Provo river and at the end of it, just when I was basking in the glow of my new crush, who is to float by but Mark. Oh yes, Mark.
Thankfully the cute boy, we'll call him John, noticed my abrupt change and sensing my discomfort worked hard to distract me. Which worked. We had a fabulous evening together at Llama Fest (which he has ALWAYS wanted to go to) and I look forward to future "contact." Tee hee!
Love Ya!
Meesh
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Adventuring - Fabulous deals! by Meesh
As you know, I'm an avid "adventurer" and always keep my ear to the ground as it relates to cheap adventures. I have some nifty tools that I use that I think are fabulous!
- Travelzoo.com - Once a week they publish their "Top 20" deals. This week, the three night Bahama cruise for $189 caught my eye.
- Cheapoair.com - They get exclusive airfare deals. At times I've found airfare $400 cheaper than on my other favorite searching sites.
- Sidestep.com - Another fabulous searching site
- REI Adventures - So you're feeling adventurous, but aren't sure where to go or how to get started. REI Adventures, meet my Family. My Family, meet REI Adventures. I'm currently salivating over a multisport adventure in Croatia in October.
Remember, a trip is when you take your kids with you... a vacation is when you don't. You just took a trip, now you need a vacation!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Barnum Family Reunion - by Shaunae
The reunions were way fun! Imagine hugs, screams, children running off to play with their cousins, masses amounts of food and silly games, and you have our reunion packaged up. I did get reacquainted with my in-laws' weird quirks that bug me, but towards the end of my reunion I realized we all have our weaknesses and the only ones that really matter are the ones that keep us from being better ( a.k.a...our own faults) We spent two days at various lakes, Lake Jordanelle and Bear Lake. Bear Lake was beautiful and perfect. We all got sunburned but that was all part of the walking funny chapped legged experience.
Jon rounded up the cousins and we all played two hand touch football. I learned after I tackled my Dad, that I was only supposed to touch them not tackle. It was fun slamming my 16 year old nephew to the ground. He tried to throw me in the lake. Don't mess with a mom who carries babies around. I am proudly much stronger than I thought. Then my brother Karl, Steve and Jon picked me up in my lawn chair to throw me in too. They found out why Heavenly Father invented fingernails. I'm mean but don't unleash my fury unless being attacked.
We also had some fun times with fun family games, like at three legged races, a sling shot knocking down cups, family volleyball which I only got to spike the ball once. Ashton ran around with the cousins his age which happen to be mostly boys. At one point I heard them all running around the lodge saying "Let's go look for Cougars." "Yeah" There was always an adventure to run around for or a bad guy to pretend to shoot with a sling shot.
Corynn did what she always does when Ashton is off playing with boys. She went to a quiet corner, which in most cases was our lodge room, and created a massive world of imagination from the random toys we shoved into our suitcases. I kept pulling her back to reality and trying to get her to play with her cousins. By the end she was chasing her 3 year old twin boy cousins at pretending she was a monster... a favorite fall-back game she plays when all else fails.
Taison scooted everywhere, hot balconies with slivers, grated stairs, his favorite kitchen floors, eatting leftovers, the middle of the football field lawn and was generally adored as the littlest baby at both reunions. His nicknames were Quasi-moto, Peg Leg, and Long John Silver. He must have been teething when he had his sunburn, because he woke up every two hours and screamed for a few of those times before falling back asleep. We brought him into bed with us, which we never do. He promptly fell asleep and rolled all over so no one could sleep on that bed.
In a nutshell, it was all-day action packed exhausting fun. And I'm so tired I could sleep forever. But as I come back to my quiet home, I wish I could have packed a family or two into a suitcase. With them I would have packed all the fun, the great mothering ideas, the favorite recipes, the song lists of music to jam to and all the talent that roll together to make our family.
Jon rounded up the cousins and we all played two hand touch football. I learned after I tackled my Dad, that I was only supposed to touch them not tackle. It was fun slamming my 16 year old nephew to the ground. He tried to throw me in the lake. Don't mess with a mom who carries babies around. I am proudly much stronger than I thought. Then my brother Karl, Steve and Jon picked me up in my lawn chair to throw me in too. They found out why Heavenly Father invented fingernails. I'm mean but don't unleash my fury unless being attacked.
We also had some fun times with fun family games, like at three legged races, a sling shot knocking down cups, family volleyball which I only got to spike the ball once. Ashton ran around with the cousins his age which happen to be mostly boys. At one point I heard them all running around the lodge saying "Let's go look for Cougars." "Yeah" There was always an adventure to run around for or a bad guy to pretend to shoot with a sling shot.
Corynn did what she always does when Ashton is off playing with boys. She went to a quiet corner, which in most cases was our lodge room, and created a massive world of imagination from the random toys we shoved into our suitcases. I kept pulling her back to reality and trying to get her to play with her cousins. By the end she was chasing her 3 year old twin boy cousins at pretending she was a monster... a favorite fall-back game she plays when all else fails.
Taison scooted everywhere, hot balconies with slivers, grated stairs, his favorite kitchen floors, eatting leftovers, the middle of the football field lawn and was generally adored as the littlest baby at both reunions. His nicknames were Quasi-moto, Peg Leg, and Long John Silver. He must have been teething when he had his sunburn, because he woke up every two hours and screamed for a few of those times before falling back asleep. We brought him into bed with us, which we never do. He promptly fell asleep and rolled all over so no one could sleep on that bed.
In a nutshell, it was all-day action packed exhausting fun. And I'm so tired I could sleep forever. But as I come back to my quiet home, I wish I could have packed a family or two into a suitcase. With them I would have packed all the fun, the great mothering ideas, the favorite recipes, the song lists of music to jam to and all the talent that roll together to make our family.
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