A Christmas Carol

Disney notified me about the national touring train, "A Christmas Carol". It just so happened to make its stop in Portland the day we took Nicole to the Airport. So I surprised the kids and we went to the train station to see the Disney train. Of course it was all done up Disney style.

Carolers for entertainment while we stood in line. It was a hot day too!

It snowed! They had chimneys that blew snow (soap bubbles) every so often. If you click on the picture of Alison you can see them in her hair.

This was taken inside one of the train cars. Each car was done up with costumes, props, TV screens showing different clips during the editing process, etc. This car was showing how they put the actors in front of a blue screen and filmed their facial and body movements to make the animation more realistic. So cool.

This is a giant inflatable movie house. We got to go inside and watch a 10 minute clip of the movie in 3D. It was awesome. I don't know if the kids will really be able to sit through the movie though. They thought it was pretty scary as they only have "A Mickey's Christmas Carol" to compare it to. Mickey, Donald and Goofy are not as dramatic as these ghosts were. I was in the play in the sixth grade, so I am excited to see it when it comes out this year. Thanks Disney for the fun, FREE event!

Goodbye

(sung to Goodbye Norma Jean by Elton John)

Goodbye Aunt Nicole.

Though your stay was short,

We sure enjoyed your laugh.

We had good times with you.

Like Youth Conference and Seattle,

Laughing and playing dress up.

Please come back sometime.

Maybe stay a little longer.

We love you.

Party Like A Pop Star

This year Alison wanted a Hannah Montana Birthday Party. So I made these "backstage passes" for the invitations. The reverse side had the who, what, when, and where. It told the guests to dress in their favorite Hannah clothes or Rock Star clothes. Most of the guests even wore their backstage pass to the party as well. It was a lot of fun to make the invitations.

The invitation




We played "pin the microphone" on Hannah. The girls had fun with that. And yes, that is where the microphones actually ended up. The other game was guess how many M&M were in the jar. There were 575 to be exact. I don't think any girl even guessed above 150. Alison's answer was really funny. She said "a lot". We also did dancing and I had the Karaoke machine set up so they could sing. I kept the party at 1 hour. It was perfect for this age.





We did build your own ice cream sundaes.

Our own "Hannah". Happy 5th Alison. We love you. It was fun to see you all dressed up. I loved watching your friends and you have a good time together.

Relay For Life

June is here and that means Relay! Here is a wonderful video the event photographer, Heidi Watts, put together. It sums up my 24 hours wonderfully. I was on the committee this year again as the Events and Entertainment Chair. It is so wonderful to see your communitty come together for a great cause. At the end of the event we had raised $62,000 ytd. Way to go Oregon City!

Alpha and Omega in Seattle

My sister Nicole came to spend a month with us. We really enjoyed having her here. One of the first things she told me was this idea she had. She thought we should make matching shirts. My shirt would say "Alpha" because I am the oldest. Her shirt would say "Omega" because she is the youngest in our family. We met Mark in Seattle and had lunch in the Space Needle Restaurant. It is a revolving restaurant and takes 45 minutes to make a complete rotation. The kids had so much fun watching the view constantly change. So here we are atop the Space Needle.

Jennifer and Nicole. 17 years apart. I was a senior in High School when she was born. I remember my mom having me take her with me on errands. People thought she was my daughter.

Jennifer, John, Alison and Mark atop the Space Needle.

Look what street Seattle has!

John with the Monk Fish. It is attached to a string and the guys behind the counter move it every so often to scare the viewers. This is the famous fish stand on the corner at Pike's Market Place where they throw the fish.

Nicole with the Monk Fish.

Mark, John, Alison, and Nicole

John, Nicole and Alison all smiles on the Monorail.

Father's Day

Father's Day started out with breakfast in bed for Mark. The children sing to the dads at church so Mark came with us to hear the kids sing. We had a wonderful dad with Mark. He is a great husband and father. He is so loving to the kids. They love their dad and miss him when he is gone. Thank you Mark for being a wonderful husband and father. We love you!

Breakfast in bed with Dad

John's breakfast for dad: Diet Dr. Pepper, pop tart, cereal straw, fruit loops, buttered bagel

Alison's breakfast for dad: buttered bagel, fishy crackers, pop tart and water

"I'm so glad when daddy comes home"

Me and my Man

John made this for Mark at school. It is a picture of Mark.

Youth Conference

I was asked to be in charge of Youth Conference for our Ward this year. I had to come up with a theme, location, menu, transportation, schedule of events and promotion for about 50 people ages 12 and up. The theme I came up with was...

I wanted the youth to be secret agents. They really had a fun time with it. My friend Mark McBride designed the logo for me and we used it on the shirts. The scripture focus for the youth for this year is 1 Timothy 4:12. "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." I used this scripture to plan my activities. They would be an example in conversation through bearing their testimony. For charity we performed a service project of setting up large tents for the camp. Their spirit and faith were tested through the activities we did as a team.

We went to Zions Camp in Washington. We were there for two days and one night. I had the youth divided into two teams. Each team participated in a row boat competition, archery and ropes course. The main focus was to unify the group. So they had to work together as a team to accomplish each mission. I had a CD player that "appeared" before the mission telling them what to do, and that the message would self destruct. It was a lot of fun.

Everything went off without a hitch. We were able to stay on our time schedule and had no injuries. The only criticism I have received was that I had scheduled too long of a lunch hour. They wanted to get to the activities.