Dance Festival

Taking a break while waiting for the next performance.

This is all 2200 youth on the floor at the same time to perform the opening dance.

Last month I posted pictures from the Dance Festival Preview and this weekend (Friday and Saturday) was the Dance Festival itself. It was held at the Tacoma Dome and it was an AMAZING experience! The committee original figured there would be around 1500-1600 youth participating - but there were approximately 2200 youth, which included 11 Stakes!! I chaperoned Sam's group from 8:00 Friday morning until 9:00 that night and then Andy and I chaperoned Amanda's group from 11:30-9:00 today (Saturday)! We were all exhausted when we got home - but it was worth it. Amanda had to hobble all over the place, (due to her injured toes/foot), but she still had fun. This was an incredible opportunity for both of the girls. I wish you all could have been here to watch it. I am so proud of them! They did an awesome job! Experiences like this remind me of how blessed I am to be a part of the gospel. I love being involved in the youth activities and watching the joy they take in committing to and following through with their church activities.

In Sunday's local paper, there was an article about the dance festival. Here is the link for those that want to read it. It's worth reading - the paper did a great job with the article.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/front/topphoto/story/424942.html

McChord AFB Airshow

The girls had a good time dancing to the music.

This is a C-141, which is the plane Andy was a Flight Engineer on when he was in the Air Force.
Andy's "office" for many years.



There was a re-enactment of when Pearl Harbor was bombed. It was very impressive!









This weekend there was an airshow at McChord. On Friday night there was a kick-off party in one of the airplane hangers for the military families. Since Amanda wasn't able to go with me and Andy was out of town that night, I let Sam invite 2 of her friends to go with us. There were games for the kids to play, a big huge blow-up slide and a blow-up obstable course for the kids to play on, free dinner and a band called "The Spasmatics". They were great! They played and sang songs from Journey, Bon Jovi, Joan Jetts, etc. They were songs from "my" day.....the girls called them oldies. They also gave away alot of door prizes and we actually WON something! We won 4 tickets to the movies and since we love going to the movies - that worked for us! The airshow was held on Saturday and Sunday and was open to the public. There were a lot of planes and, of course, the Thunderbirds. A good friend of ours works at the firestation on McChord, so he invited us to watch the airshow from there, which is along the runway. I just love watching and looking at the planes. They are amazing! It's a wonderful reminder of how fortunate we are to live in such great nation! I am proud of Andy for the years he served in the air force and the part he played in fighting for our freedom.

Moving Day/Week

I think the packing and the heat was getting to Sam! She decided to see if the bags were as durable as they claim to be! What a nut!



I've been debating whether to post this or not, but since this was a wonderful step for our family - I decided to go ahead. On Monday, June 30th, the girls and I moved back into the house with Andy.

Our last day of school was Friday, June 13th and the next week we started getting the girls rooms at the house ready to paint. Amanda's room was painted white and then we put the grandstaff (from a sheet of music) midway up the wall all around the room in black with musical notes. We haven't quite gotten the musical notes put up yet, but it's going to look so cool when we're done. Sam's room was painted blue with white trim. She didn't want any extra decorating painted on the walls because she has lots of stuff from church, school, etc. that she likes to hang up. They both love the new look of their rooms. After the painting was done, we spent the next week packing boxes and getting for the move. Of course, as our luck runs, we were in the middle of a heat wave again! The temp was in the high 90's with no air conditioning! Our friends let us use their enclosed trailer that week, so as we got boxes packed up, we put them in the trailer. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it! It feels really good being back in the house and being together as a family again. I feel so blessed to have a caring and loving husband and 2 awesome daughters.

Another interesting ride with Amanda behind the wheel....

Land....sweet land....




Amanda, Samantha, Hannah, (Amanda's friend), and I went to the swimming pool today. Amanda wanted to drive (of course) so I let her. (Hannah decided it was worth the risk in order to go swimming on a nice warm day and came along with us.) On the way there, as she was going through some road construction, she drove on the wrong side of the orange cones! Then she ran over a cone as she went back to the "right side" of the cones! We couldn't help but laugh at the situation. The contruction worker, however, wasn't as amused as we were. By the time we got to the pool, we NEEDED some relaxation time! When we left, we all decided that I should drive back home after our "fun" ride there. :)

July 4th Fun

For the 4th of July this year we went to our friends house for a BBQ and fireworks. We played horseshoes, volleyball, croquet, and another game that was fun, but I don't know what the name of it is. Sam found a gardener snake, caught it and packed it around until we made her put it back where she found it. (Which amazes me, since she freaks out if a little tiny spider comes anywhere near her.) Amanda hobbled around all day trying to play the games, but it was hard to play some of them with crutches. She fractured 3 of her toes last week when part of a TV stand landed on her foot. There were people at the BBQ that we don't get to see very often, so it was fun to visit and enjoy each others company.

WATCH OUT EVERYONE!!!

Well - we finally did it......we signed Amanda up for Driver's Ed. She's been wanting to start driving for a long time, but it took awhile to get our courage up! :) Seriously, though, it hasn't been as scarey as I thought it would be. Her first time out driving was spent in the parking lot at the church (at night when all the cars were gone, of course). She has to drive a total of 50 hours with Andy or myself.......I think it's going to be a V-E-R-Y long 6 months!!! :|