Saying Goodbye to Ayame

One of the highlights of the homestay program is the Farewell Party. All of the families come to watch the students share their talents and culture with us.

Tom and Tammy have been running this program for 20 years.

 

Cute Ayame was part of two different acts in the program. They ended with a curtain call set to music from "High School Musical"

The students sang two songs to begin the program. "We are the World" and "Country Roads" by John Denver.

Ayame did a demonstration of a Kung Fu routine. 

Ayame was also a part of a group where they did a Caligraphy demonstration. They read the English version of what they wrote. It was a thank you letter to their host families.

The teachers had some fun props for family pictures after the program.

Dropping Ayame off at the bus. There were lots of tears and Melanie got to practice her Japanese by saying, "I will miss you very much".

Tammy is so sweet. Melanie had a great time participating with the students this year.

Cousin Temple Trip

Mason, Kyle, Ethan, Emily, Melanie, Rachel, Jenna, and Taylor

(Not pictured: Megan and Ashlyn)

As is often the case, getting this group to the temple was not easy. Getting Melanie's temple recommend to Snowbird didn't happen and so we ended up driving to Lehi to pick it up on the way to Salt Lake City. Megan's car broke down on the freeway on the way to the temple and Connie and everyone with her, pulled over to wait for the tow truck. The rest of us took the opportunity to watch one of the new "Meet the Mormons" segments (The Horseman).

When we got to the Salt Lake Temple we had chosen to come at the same time as many other people and the temple workers were having trouble keeping track of who had arrived first and wait was very long. Mason's temple recommend was in TN and so he got held up at the door while they confirmed his worthiness to enter with a phone call to his bishop. That put them in just he right place to get to wave at President Holland who was walking past. At one point, President Samuelson came to personally speak with the youth in the chapel to thank them for coming and waiting.

Taylor got to baptize his brother and sister and the girl cousins. Michael got to baptize Becky and Mason. In all, 27 members of our family had their baptism completed. I got to be the one who handed them all their towels as they got out of the font. It was a sweet experience.

Nature Hike

Hiking the Nature Trail at sunset is one of our favorite activities at Snowbird. On this night I took some cute pictures of the people on the hike.

Jessica with her boyfriend, Clayton.

 Tyler, Kara, Megan

 David and Connie

 Bethany, Jenna, Emily

 Graigry and Tyler

 Dave and Kayla

Graigry, Warren, and Robert

Lake Catherine - Monday

Kara asked if we could hike before breakfast and so we agreed. Robert and Graigry were van drivers and couldn't get a parking spot and so they had to drive back down to the bottom and take the shuttle back to the trail head. They were quite a bit behind us and so Graig told Robert, "We just need to set a good pace and then keep it up." Robert thought Graig might be trying to kill him making him run up the mountain to try and catch up. The flowers on the Lake Catherine hike were beautiful as usual.

Ayame, Warren, Debbie, Jenna and I decided to hike down towards the lake while others in the group hiked to Sunset Peak.

Other activities of the day included pound class with Becky and then later Yoga. 

It was a very active day.

For Family Home Evening we had a discussion/testimony meeting about how we have felt God's hand in our lives lately.  I'll list some of what I remember about what was said:

Warren: talked about how he was thinking when we were hiking that different trails often lead to the same location and that God doesn't care what path we take as long as we return to him.

Mary: reminded everyone about the Grandma letter where she talked about how God helps them each day on their mission. I also talked about how I feel God's love when I see a beautiful sunrise.

Graigry: was grateful for coworkers who encouraged him to take a date to the new Star Trek movie.

Jessica: talked about how she is grateful to be able to go to church where ever she is in the world and have it be the same.

Clayton: said he was grateful for good news when he talked with the doctors in Missouri last week.

Saturday at Snowbird

Saturday was a typical day at Snowbird.

Sleep in until 8am

Gormet Breakfast

Go for a hike

Delicious Dinner

Have a light lunch

Soak in the pool and hot tub

Have a delicious dinner

Visit the deer on the nature trail

Play games the rest of the night

Warren, Melanie, and Ayame hiked to Cecret Lake.

Mary, Jessica, and Graigry hiked with the group to Hidden Peak. It is always a good feeling to make it to the top.

Ayame and Melanie had some fun with selfies in the hotel room.

Out on the Nature Trail for sunset.

Fun with Ayame

Tom and Tammy allowed Melanie to hang out with the Japanese students this week at their morning English conversation and culture classes and then attend field trips with them in the afternoon. She had a great time getting to know some new Japanese friends.  She started writing the new words she learned in Japanese in a notebook. On Monday, they talked about saying kind words to each other and practiced by writing on sticky notes and sticking them on each other's backs. The students wrote on her notes that she is beautiful and has beautiful hair. She got her picture taken a lot this week.

Ayame is a master at Kung Fu. She taught us some moves for Family Home Evening. Melanie photo shopped this picture.

On Wednesday the students went on a tour to Park City. Melanie's favorite part was watching the ski jumpers practice by jumping into the pool. She was very patient to help the Japanese student's shop at the outlet mall.

Melanie and I took Ayame to Seven Peaks. She loved the slides.

The students learned about Western culture on Thursday morning at a ranch. She got to ride a horse, which made her happy. In the afternoon, they went swimming at the Legacy Center.

Fun in the Sun on Saturday

We began the day slowly, got the tent put away and took  nice drive around the rest of the Alpine Loop. We stopped at Bridal Veil Falls to climb around and enjoy the beautiful day.

Since we were half way to Provo anyway, we decided to check "visit a famous bakery" off Ayame's Utah bucket list. We decided to eat lunch at the Italian restaurant where Ayame ate huge plate of spaghetti and meatballs.  It was impressive. We picked up half a dozen cupcakes from The Sweet Tooth Fairy bakery and watched a few brides come out of the Provo temple.

 Saturday evening we attended a BBQ hosted by the Mitchell's for some of the exchange students, the teachers, and families. It was a great way to end the day.

Friday Fun

 It wasn't easy but it is done! She is now a licensed driver.

Who knew a trip to Costco could be so fun.

A pack up a tent and some sleeping bags and a little food and head to the mountains for the night. The original plan was to sleep in a campground but that changed when they were all full. We started searching the Alpine Loop for a place to put up a tent but even that was pretty full.  We decided to stop at Cascade Springs and Look around.

When we left Cascade Springs we took the road towards Heber and found the perfect camping spot. We put up the tent and watched a beautiful sunset as we ate chicken salad sandwiches. Ayame was a little disappointed that the clouds prevented seeing very many stars.

Welcome Ayame

Melanie wanted to make sure we had the best welcome sign when we went to meet Ayame. She drew the poster and then enlisted Tyler to help her get it painted. Ayame told us she wants to spend a lot of time outside and that she wanted to go camping and that inspired the poster.

Ayame was one of the first students off the bus. She recognize us right away. She started to cry when she first saw us but quickly explained she was just happy to be here. We took her home for a dinner of homemade pizza and fruit. After dinner Melanie took her to play Ultimate Frisbee in the field behind our house at the YW/YM joint activity. When they got tired of frisbee they came home and played with the dogs in the backyard. The garter snake that fishes in our pond came to catch some dinner and Warren caught the snake and handed him to Melanie. She enjoyed showing off how brave she is around reptiles.

Thursday night was the welcome party at Olympic park. One of the host families did a demonstration of Tongan dancing and then hosted a dance class.