Dance Festival

This is the whole group!

We took a cooler with grapes, strawberries and lots and lots of water.

The lace around the neck is a nice touch.....don't you think??? EEEKKK!

Notice the long sleeves and high neck. The poor girls were about to die in the heat!

The girls are both involved in the Dance Festival at church. For the past few months, they have gone to practices to learn dances that they will be performing at the end of July in the Tacoma Dome, along with about 1500 other youth from the Tacoma region. This last Saturday we attended a preview that was held at a high school stadium in Sumner. There were about 1/4 of the youth at the preview that will be in The Tacoma Dome. The youth 14-17 years old in our Stake learned the waltz and the 12-13 year old girls learned a cheerleading-type dance to the song "Momma I'm a Big Girl Now" from the movie "Hairspray". The Waltz dresses have been handed down from one Stake to another for years and they are truly hideous! Amanda was mortified to find that she was assigned a "gold" colored dress - but it actually didn't look that bad on her. Besides, when we were sitting in the stands and they were clear down on the field doing their dance - they looked really nice. (Distance is the key there....) The 12-13 year old girls had a cheerleading outfit sewn for each of them and they looked really cute in them. As I'm sure most of you know, Sam wearing a cheerleadig outfit is seriously not "her". The first time she tried it on, the look on her face was priceless and all I could do was laugh!!!

Andy and I both helped chaperone all day. Andy was in charge of a group of boys that were part of the waltz group. I was in charge of a group of 12-13 girls doing the "cheer" dance. All the chaperones had a sign to hold up so when it was time to gather them all up again they would look for their assigned group. It was a system that worked pretty well. Of course, as is our luck, yesterday was a blistering hot day. It was the hottest day we've had since Sam had the double-header a couple months ago and we were stuck outside in it. Only this time we had to stand out on the artificial turf on the field, which was AWFUL! Despite the heat, though, we had fun. I love being with the youth and watching them be with each other and having fun. I can't wait for the Dance Festival the end of July. It's going to be an amazing experience!

Jeeping

"Airing-down" the tires. She's getting to be pro at it.



Sam's making her own "fun" while waiting for someone to pull another jeep out of the snow.

This is who we were waiting for. The first jeep made it over the snow patch in the road - but the second one didn't. The second jeep started sliding backwards and was heading for the drop-off. As you can see, they hooked up the yellow strap and pulled him up back onto the road.

What a beautiful view of Mt. Rainier!

Andy, Samantha and I headed for the hills yesterday in the jeep. Everytime we go out in the hills, I'm reminded of why I love living in the beautiful State of Washington! Some of the rocky, muddy, steep, snowy trails we went over about gave me a heart-attack, but Andy is a very competant driver and I have every confindence in him. But it still about gave me a heart-attack!!! We met up with some other people and all went as a group, which is always a good thing to do. That way in case someone gets stuck there is another vehicle to pull them out. Anyway, here are some pictures from our fun day.

Drive-In Theater

One of the things we love about summer is going to the Valley Drive-In Theater. Sometimes it's hard to find a time to go, because we get home so late. The price of admission includes 2 movies shown on the same screen, which are (obviously) shown one right after the other. The first movie doesn't even start until around 9:45'ish and the second one usually around midnight or so. Anyway, last night we decided to go to the drive-in for the first time this summer. Since we get there so early (in order to get a good parking spot) we take books and magazines to read while passing the time away. We always wear our PJ's and take blankets and pillows to curl up with while watching the movies. It's fun to spend time hanging out, walking around and talking/reading before the first movie starts.