The Wicked Witch

Around here there is always a favorite movie--one that gets played (sometimes mulitple times) daily. For a while David's favorite was Enchanted. Then it went to Hoodwinked, High School Musical, and now we have landed on The Wizard of Oz. I have always loved this movie, and it hasn't been until recently (when it has been playing daily) that I have stopped to analyze a key part to the story...the demise of the Wicked Witch of the West. Does she know that water will kill her? If so, why in the world would she have a bucket of the "poison" so readily available? If she doesn't know, has she really never been in the rain or taken a bath? It seems like it would be pretty hard to avoid water her whole life. Secondly, if all of her workers are so glad to have her destroyed, why haven't they done it (destroyed her) themselves? Surely the whole army could gang up on her and get rid of her in a jiffy.

Ok, so I almost deleted this post as my mind finally made it to an answer that made sense (if you think about something long enough an answer will come). Then I realized that it might make someone feel better that they were not the only ones who thought about sensless things (or if you're looking for a reason to laugh at me, here's a good start). So, here's what my brain came up with. This part of the movie is a dream. It was a perfectly innocent mistake with a perfectly glorious result. It would not have been in Dorothy's nature to kill the witch with violent force, but it was very much in her nature to help a burning friend. The fact that there was water within arms' reach and the fact that the water ended up killing the witch, therefore furthering Dorothy's cause, just comes down to the convenience of a dream. I would continue with my explanations, but suffice it to say, it was a dream. Some of my dreams don't make sense either.

And yes. I have more important things to do. Many, many more important things.

Lost in translation?

As I sit here detoxing from the joint birthday bash (for Sean and Warren) at Chuck E Cheese's last night, my mind is trying to understand a little bit of a communication problem at our house. You see, lately when I tell the kids it's time to do chores they immediately run for the kitchen to grab something to eat. It doesn't matter what time of day it is or whether they've JUST eaten, they always seem to be hungry when it's time to work. I wondered at first if I had the phrases mixed up, but when I tell them it's time to eat, they don't start doing chores.

Cat Bath

Our Veterinarian in training cousin Maddy came to visit for a day and decided it was time to give Shadow a bath.

Aside from a wet shirt (Maddy risked the operation without an apron), everyone walked away unharmed, Shadow didn't seem to mind it, and now we have a less stinky cat!

Girls Camp (a little late)

One benefit of Darin serving in the bishopric is the opportunity to spend an evening at Girls Camp.

Bishop wanted to bring ice cream for dessert so we stopped at the grocery store at the bottom of the hill. It was slow moving up to the campground because of this little group:

We finally made it up to the campsite and had a yummy dinner of soup and rolls. At this point Bishop went over to where he had left the ice cream (in a snow bank to keep cold). He came back laughing and told us all to come. This is what we saw:

Someone had run over the ice cream with their car and some little critter decided to get in on the action. Here is Bishop holding his well intentioned dessert:
It was a great night, and we heard all about the adventures of our girls. Highlights included sledding with garbage sacks, prayers being answered for a girl from another camp (she had seisures and had to be flown out in a helicopter), and lots of laughing. Here they are in all their winter gear. It was FREEZING that week--what troopers!

Say What?

I got a phone call the other day from my Mother-in-law. We had spent the evening at her house the night before. After chatting for a few minutes she said, "Oh. I have a pair of black wedgie thongs here. I think they belong to Olivia." It took me a minute to figure out that she was talking about these:

Reunited (and it feels so good)

Last weekend during all of the fourth/reunion festivites I found out that my good friend, Cheree, was in town. We touched base briefly on Sunday and we found about 45 minutes when we could get together with Natt on Monday. The beauty of long time friends is the ability to pick right up where you left off. It was so great to see them and their cute kids! I got to meet Cheree's baby, Benjamin for the first time.

Here is Mackenzie (Cheree's daughter) taking Natt's dog, Chewy for a ride in the stroller: (yes, that's a real dog!)

Mackenzie also showed off her photography skills. (Me, Natt w/her cute girlies, Cheree) Not bad for an almost 5 year old!

20 years ago...

Darin and I both graduated. His graduation was as a T-bird from Timpview High School. My graduation was as a roadrunner from Rock Canyon Elementary School. His was obviously the bigger milestone, and we were excited to celebrate at his reunion! Saturday night was for the graduates and their significant others. It was so fun to see Darin reunite with old buddies (I have met quite a few over the years, and it was fun to reunite with them, too!).

We had a really good dinner, then a short program. Ben York performed a song he wrote about being a T-bird. I was in Ben's singles ward years ago, and he just may be the kindest person in the world. He doesn't have a negative word to say about anyone. He also presented awards to three people who worked hard to put the reunion together. There were also tributes to those who had passed on, those who have served in the Armed Forces, revisiting the Yearbook to see how right the class was about the polls (most likely to...), prizes, and a slide show. It was a great night, and Darin was relieved that he didn't forget names! I don't even think he had to use the name tags. (The name tags were great! The graduates had their senior picture on the name tags.)

We had to do the classic dance picture pose (this was after the reunion as we were picking our children up from Jodi's house):

Sunday evening Gary hosted a mini-reunion at his house. Amy's aunt owns a whole bunch of carnival equipment that was there. Our kids were in heaven!!! There was a little bounce house, cotton candy machine, ice cream machine, popcorn machine, sno-cone machine, and lots of kids! Here are the graduates and their wives:


And all the kids:Olivia made a little buddy that night. This is Gary's youngest daughter, Lydia. She has the cutest little personality, and only confirmed Olivia's desire for a baby sister.The kids also had fun playing "Slack" (I believe they made it up) with some of the Dixons and Gary's other (equally sweet) daughter, Isabelle.Monday the festivities continued at a cabin up Hobble Creek Canyon. It was a blast!!! There we enjoyed

pony rides

More bounce house funcontinuing day-old friendshipsbeing flung far into the air on a bungee cord

and a lot more chatting and catching up. Can anyone spot the celeb?

I'll give you a closer look:

That's right, folks! SuperDell!!! I can now add him to my list of celebrities I've met. For those of you who may not be familiar, he owned Totally Awesome Computers and had several local commercials back in the day. Here's how our conversation went:

SD: Hi. How are you?

Me: I'm doing great! How are you?

SD: Totally Awesome.

Classic!

It was a fabulous reunion! Thanks to everyone who made it a great weekend!

Where to begin?

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with blog catch up! A lot of our photos from Hawaii are still on Darin's laptop, but life keeps moving forward somehow! I may need to do a post a day until I'm caught up. So...here are some highlights from the 4th of July:

We started the day with the 5k/10k. Doug and Heidi were the 10k-ers, and the rest of us ran/walked the 5k with the little girlies. Check them out in their cute tanks (Grandma embroidered them with her fancy machine):(Kirsten, Avynlee, Kamryn, Lexi, Olivia)

Here are the other 5k-ers:

We were greeted at the finish line with lots of cheers from Mom, Dad, Camille (the faithful photographer--who is unfortunately not pictured), Brad, and Coleman. Here is the whole gang with a couple of our cheerleaders (Grandpa and Coleman):

After the run, we headed over to our spot for the parade. Kelsey and Chandler went over bright and early and got a sweet spot in the middle of the street (on the island). Darin is not a fan of parades, so he decided to stay home with the boys. Here are some highlights from the parade:

Kaden has a mild case of Coulrophobia:




Governor Huntsman:





THS Marching Band:And here is our shining T-Bird star, Eric, keeping his concentration like a champ. Heidi almost kissed his cheek, Brad offered him a popsicle (right in his face), and he did not crack a smile. I was impressed!From our spot, we were able to get up close and personal with all the balloons (they had to go under a power line right by us):After the parade we headed to Mom and Dad's house for sandwiches, then headed over to the pool. We swam for a couple of hours then headed to Max and Laura's for more food! (Just a little shout out to Laura here. She got back from Hawaii on Sunday, headed up to a week of Girl's Camp on Monday, then hosted a bbq at her house on Friday. Wow.) Liv and I headed to Provo to go to Stadium of Fire and left the boys at Max's. We didn't feel like the boys would enjoy Miley Cyrus enough to make the price of the tickets worth it. I felt like Darin and I had separate celebrations, but we did get together for a quick photo!

Here are some pictures of our simultaneous celebrations (I'm glad we have two cameras!): The boys were back at Mom and Dad's house.

How stinking cute are these boys?!!! I want to eat them all up! (Coleman, Bridger, Warren, Oliver, Harrison, Sean) All the little girl cousins were at Stadium of Fire.

More from the stadium: (it was harder than you might think to get a good picture of the fireworks up close!)

After a long day that started early and was packed with lots of running, swimming, and walking, Liv was absolutely exhausted. She was crying as we made the trek back to Grandma and Grandpas. Luckily Jodi rescued us for the last few blocks. Our bodies were very grateful!

The program at the Stadium of Fire was great! I almost liked the "pre-show" better than the main event. The main event was Blue Man Group and Miley Cyrus--Blue Man Group was really entertaining and Miley Cyrus felt a little "rock star wannabe-ish"--we did love her familiar songs, though, but we were too far up to appreciate it. (Note to self: next time you are seated in the $35.00 section, please remember your binoculars!).

We had a great view for all of the stuff at the beginning! The planes, the sky divers, the dancers (they did a 7 minute number representing every event in the Summer Olympics. It was awesome!), etc. Glenn Beck was the emcee, and did a great job. It was really moving and reminded me of how grateful I am to live here and how grateful I am for those who are fighting for our freedom. I have the opportunity to be in contact with a family member who is serving in Afghanistan. As I hear of his experiences and how people live I am even more grateful! God Bless America!

p.s. No wonder I'm so behind! I manage to make a novel out of a day!