Maxfield Family Reunion

Saturday was a busy day.  Tyler swam the 200 M butterfly in a race in American Fork and then we ran over to Lehi to watch Melanie march in the parade. We then made our way to Bountiful to attend the Maxfield reunion.  There was a pot luck lunch, visiting, and door prizes.  After the reunion we zipped home so Tyler could work from 5 to 11pm.

Lehi Roundup Week - Parades

Each year there is a big competition among wards who will create the best mini float.  This year our float was designed and built by Katie Jones.  The theme was "In my dreams..." and she completed it with "... I will win a blue ribbon at the county fair"  The float had a giant pig poking out of a barn with a chicken on top.  It was, of course, covered in pom poms.  The float was darling and brought home the top award, "Sweepstake".  The Lehi band and color guard did a great job.  The color guard looked beautiful and were very together as they danced with their flags down the parade route.  G'ma and G'pa Anderson brought Emily and Ashlyn to watch the parade on Friday evening.  After the parade they came over to our house so the girls could play with the dog and Melanie could teach them how to twirl her flag.

Cousins Day at the Museum of Natural Curiosity

Emily and Ashlyn were staying with g'ma and g'pa while their parents were out of town so Thursday g'ma brought them up to Lehi to check out The Museum of Natural Curiosity with Melanie.  There was a big crowd at the museum but the girls still had a great time and didn't want to leave.  They had fun playing in the water in the waterworks section, dressing up and playing in the rain forest market, making tissue paper flowers in the art room, and feeding the fish outside in the pond.  They can't wait to go back again when more cousins arrive.

Lehi Roundup Week - Picnic in the Park

Our family loves the traditional Picnic in the Park on the Monday Evening of Roundup week.  We decided to arrive early so as to get a good spot.  We sat next to the Terry family who arrived early because they were confused on the start time.  It was a fun program with a Polynesian Band and dancers who did traditional dances from all over the world.  Melanie got up on stage when they were teaching the girls to hula.  She got her picture taken with one of the cute fire dancers after the show.

Uncle Jay's Funeral and a Wedding Reception

Some of Warren's notes and my memories from the funeral:

Stephanie McEwen, Jay's oldest daughter, said her dad taught her service, work and to have a positive attitude.  She told of walking her dad's walking route just after he died and finding herself singing the primary song, "I know My Father Lives and loves my too."  She said she know that song is speaking about Heavenly Father but on that day she felt the words were speaking comfort to her about her earthly father.  Stephanie was born with some handicaps and she said her parents chose to listen to the spirit when making decisions about how to help her.  She said their methods for helping her have now been proven by medical science to be the very best but were contrary to the thinking at the time.

Danette Henrie said her dad like to call her his "middle kiddle"  All of the kids told that their father loved to memorize quotes and poems.  One of Danette's favorites is, "Smile, the fresh air is good for your teeth."  She said often they would know their dad was home because they would hear him humming or whistling as he came up the walk.

Shelly Carlisle said her dad was a showoff and she wanted to be just like him.  He was an Army Times reporter.  He always put his daughters and their mother first.  Jay served a full time mission in the Central States but was a missionary all his life.

It was nice for us to get to visit with family we don't see very often.

After cleaning up at the funeral we raced back to Lehi to attend a wedding reception for Tyler and Mallory Caprio.  It was a beautiful reception in one of the gardens at Thanksgiving Point.  It was fun to visit with some of our good friends and neighbors.

Strawberry Days Parade

After taking a dance class at school, Melanie decided she wanted to join the color guard.  She has been practicing and got to show off what she has learned at a parade this weekend.

 

Fathers Day and an Empty Nest for a few days

Thank Heaven for fathers.  We will go to Connie's for dinner with G'ma and G'pa.

Tyler and Melanie were at Youth Conference and so Warren and I had an empty next for three days this week.  From all reports, the stake leaders did a lot of work to make this conference a spiritual experience for the youth and they did a great job.  Bro. Caprio was in charge of the food and so you know they were well fed.  They did some fun water games and there were lots of sports courts available for them to play on. Tyler said he played basketball.  Melanie came home with several new friends, some boys.  Bro. Caprio said Melanie's testimony was his favorite because it was so sweet and so pure.  He had his non-member nephew at the conference and he thought Melanie spoke right to him without realizing it.

It was quiet while the kid's were gone.  I took the opportunity to get some extra hours at doTERRA.  I have been working on setting up a new page on the Head Start web site and getting all the content added.

Tyler did something I was proud of today. In his Sunday school class they are having trouble with the youth bringing their phones to class because they are their "scriptures". Only problem is that they find their way to other distractions on their phones and the teacher was getting very frustrated that she didn't feel like they were listening to her lesson. Tyler on his own decided to go technology free at church. He left his phone home and took the paper copy of his scriptures. He then went to the library and got a bunch of copies of paper scriptures and took them to class. He planned to challenged the other members of the class to put away their phones. Today's lesson turned out to be an indexing lesson from the stake so the phones weren't a distraction but he has set the pattern to do the same thing next week.

We got to do a Skype video chat with Maria, who will be our exchange student for the next school year. She is from Spain.  Her verbal English on Skype this morning was excellent. She really likes to hike and is excited to do some traveling with us to National Parks.

I hate goodbyes...

It was the first week of summer break around here and there was a lot of relaxing going on. Jannik was vacationing with this parents the beginning of this week so that added to the low-key atmosphere. I began working from home and it went pretty well. On Thursday, the Head Start Association had one of their 6 hours meetings in Salt Lake. I had some responsibilities including taking the minutes for the meeting. That was a little stressful because half the time I have no idea what they are talking about and those Head Start people have their own language. I typed up my notes into official minutes on Saturday and I think they aren't too bad for my first attempt. Jannik came back from Yellowstone on Wednesday morning and he had two days to pack and clean out his room. He sent one suitcase home with his parents and was able to get all of the rest of his stuff in one large suitcase that weighed exactly 50 lbs and a carry on bag. We all got up at 4:30am so we could give him a traditional farewell and see him off at the airport. (The traditional farewell included presenting him with a German Book of Mormon that had been signed by everyone in our family and most of the swim team and coaches, singing him "God be with you 'till We Meet Again", and saying a family prayer.) It is so much more fun to pick people up at the airport than seeing them off. 

Today we had some nice meetings at church all of which seemed to have the theme of "Priesthood". Tonight we will be at G'ma and G'pa Anderson's house for dinner and so they can tell us all about their trip to China. This week Tyler and Melanie will go to youth conference for three days and so it will be REALLY quiet around here. 

One of the stake youth leaders brought me two half size pieces of poster board on Thursday with a note that I was to make a poster for my missionaries. I guess they are highlighting all of the full time missionaries from our stake at youth conference. I was a little stressed but decided to just fill the poster with pictures and a flag from their country as the background. I also included a recent letter on the poster. It turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. I will hang the posters in the kitchen when I get them back from youth conference.