2008 California Dreamin' A Stadium Spectacular! 7/25 & 7/26

Ok, here is Jacob actually dancing- His group is the first row starting from the left. He is directly behind the first couple at the left and he is facing our way. He is in mid step with his partner, Dara, who is in our ward and has been in Jacob's Primary and Sunday School classes for the past 8 years, I think.

This is like find Waldo but all the kids are dressed the same!

Can you see Jacob? Let's help you a bit. At the very top of the picture, to the right of center, there is a group of guys, a cluster in red shirts with tan pants and you can see their whole bodies, head to toe. Jacob is the one with his back to you and is in full stride ,arm at his side, with one little blond kid in front and one in back of him.

This is during the finale when the youth formed a giant flag on the field.

So it finally came and went, the

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'

Dance Festival

This was a multi-stake dance festival. It included ages 12- 18 and each had their own dance. Jacob was (sarcastically) soooo excited to be able to participate. He will probably never admit that it was even a fraction of fun but I think there were some good times. They would practice within their own stakes each week and then for the last month or so they had regional practices at one of the high schools in the area and then a combined group practice and then a dress rehearsal full day practice(6:30 am to carpool there for 7:30 am arrival and returned at 11:30pm that evening), before performing 2 nights in a row during a 2 hour production. It was quite a site to see. There were approx. 3000 youth altogether. It was done to live music by choir, indivual or group plus an orchestra or band.

This is the only close up picture Mike was able to get of of Jacob. He's hard to catch especially with his eyes open!

Tuesday Musings #13 & still going!

List five things that drive you crazy and make you want to go live in a cabin on a mountainside and never see another human being. Then, list five things that make you smile even on the rainiest of days.

DRIVE ME CRAZY

Mean People: no explanation needed.

“Parents”: who have children and treat them like pets OR teach them (by example) that they can do NO WRONG and everyone else is at fault!

Impatient Drivers: I am driving down a 4 lane street (2 lanes each way) and a car pulls out in front of me just as I get within 20 feet of them and I have to break quickly to avoid hitting them in the rear. As I look in my rear view window…not a car in sight for blocks!!!

Store employees: Who seem to have forgotten that I am spending my $$ at their place of employment…THE REASON THEY HAVE A JOB! BUT still cut in front of me to get somewhere fast and practically ignore me when I ask them a question or better yet say “I don’t work in this dept.” and then proceed about what they were “doing” in the first place before you interrupted them.

Grocery & Gas prices: If I lived on a mountain side then I could eat wild berries and grasses plus various small animals I would hunt (ha ha ha) & and not have to drive anywhere to get them either. (I don't have a current picture but...wouldn't you die for this again? notice the date I'd even go for the other one below! Click on it if you can't see the prices)

MAKE ME SMILE
Simple Children’s thinking/misunderstanding- “Kristin, why when you get all wet, you get soaped ?”(quote from a 3 ½ year old)

Air Conditioning

Playing in the rain- I don’t do this so much anymore but when I lived on the east coast it was a blast!

My children all asleep on my bed when I come home from a night out with Mike.
Any night when I say I’ve made dinner and I don’t hear “Ah, I don’t want that! Not that again or I don’t like that!”

Tuesday Musings #12

Question:

Do you regret anything that you have done in your lifetime and if so what?

I was a nanny in NYC at the ripe OLD age of 18 and my family lived in Massachusetts but had recently relocated 2000+ miles away in Riverside, CA where I told my Mom I would never move to. I was going to live in MA. Fast forward a couple of months & the Mom of the family I worked for says, "We are going to Ireland this summer and you can come with us if you like for the 2+ weeks or you can have time off. You'll need to get a passport if you come but I can help you get it." My eighteen year old mind said " Whooo I can go see my family in CA!" (sarcastically-Because I wasn't ever going to live there or anything! ). If I went to California, then I wouldn't have to watch kids for 2 weeks. Sure, I wouldn't get paid but, whooo CARES???

SO, they go off to IRELAND & I go to see my family in Riverside.

Where I have lived for more than 1/2 my life now!

Ahh the narrowminded-ness of youth!

IRELAND

Been there? Well, I could have toured here(for free). I could have kissed the Blarney stone, too.

I could have seen the only inland salt water lake in all of Europe called Lough Hyne, located in Cork, Ireland. Also, free of cost!

Then I would have ordered this lobster for dinner from the English Market in Cork. Yes, for free!

After eating a type of sealife/seafood or marine animal I would have gone to see the city of Youghal, Cork which was the set of the 1954 film, Moby Dick. I might have seen this town with mediaeval walls or checked out the Clock gate completed in 1777 !!!

So, then to add to my cultural enhancement, I might have visited Saint Colman's Cathedral where I would have seen the architecture of Pugin and Ashlin and the largest Carillon in Ireland with 47 bells! Did I mention this would have been FREE?

So I think you can guess what I regret!

Tuesday Musings #11

Well the question is...

Growing up what extra curricular activities did you get to try? Which activity was your favorite and which was your least favorite? If you didn't have an opportunity which do you wish you could of tried? Pictures Please! :)

I took violin lessons through my elementary school at 4th grade through to the 6th grade. It was on Mondays and there were alot of holidays so it eventually petered out and I stopped playing. I wish I had a picture though because the violins they gave to us in 4th grade were like two peices of board(like the brown clipboards with the metal clip) but they were shaped like a violin and played like one.

Next I took piano lessons and this must have been around the same time I was in the middle of violin lessons I think from 5th grade to 7th or 8th I can't remember but I wiggled my way out of that-wish I had NOT done that. No picture unless my Mom has one! Yikes

In 7th-9th grade I got to be part of a school television morning show and eventually was the director my senior year. It was alot of fun and that's what I thought I would do for college because I got to take another class in High school where we filmed, edited, etc. I just found out at college that it was most likely not a great career if you were going to have a fmily and kids!

So I played Basketball in High School. JV my first year and Varsity my junior and senior year. I really liked playing basketball. I scored 22 points in one game, it was in the paper but usually I just scored like 8 or 10 points a game. One of the funniest things I remember is that I was the oldest of 9 kids and sometimes my whole family would come to my games and the girls on my team called me "brady bunch" ( I think that was the biggest family they knew of at the time). The friends I had playing basketball were some the people I would like to hear about or from to see what theyare doing now because I have no idea but if we somehow ever got together again I know it would be...not the same but easy, know what I mean?