Father's and Son's

Last weekend was the Father's and Son's for our ward. This year we went to the church property in Fairfield. This is the first time in several years that I have not had to plan it so it was nice to be able to just go and hang out. We played baseball, heard a lot of interesting stories, got to deal with about 40 cows being around us and some bad wind that around 1:30am woke most people up.

I made a couple of observations at camp. The first is there has never been a fire made in the presence of a boy under the age of 12 that didn't have a stick put in it. There must be something in the DNA of boys that makes them do this because they all do the same thing. They put the stick in the fire until it starts to smoke. Then they pull it out and I don't know if they think they are writing or sending smoke signals but it always goes in the air and is waved around until it stops smoking and then it is returned to the fire.

Second is that I am not sure this is a big bonding experience for dads and their sons because other than eating and bathroom breaks most of the boys leave their dads to take off exploring looking for trees to climb, rocks to throw or sticks to put in the fire. The dads all sit around telling stories about the mischief they got into when they were young. Remember, stories told at camp stay at camp.

The last thing I learned is with age comes wisdom. The high priests were in charge of breakfast. None of the high priest in charge of breakfast were in camp the next morning and they were supposed to serve at 8:00 so those who had baseball games at 9:00 could eat before leaving. With ten minutes to go the group showed up with bags of McDonald's breakfast burritos and sandwiches. Apparently they had been discussing a menu during the week and someone realized that they could have McDonald's make everything for about the same cost of buying all the ingredients but they wouldn't have to do any cooking. Everyone got fed and nobody had to cook or cleanup afterwards.

Camp was great but what will probably make this camp famous was the surprise we had at camp. I can't find words to describe this scene so I am just attaching a picture. Jared was one of 5 boys that I know of who had this picture taken. I think most of the boys will remember camp for this more than anything else.

~Brad

Anticipating...

(Or at least I know Dad has been!!)

After waiting over two months for my guest bloggers to write about their big events, I am giving up. I wanted Brandon to share some of his latest big days because he is a much more clever writer than me, but I figured you would rather get this sometime (with less excitement) than never so here we go...

20th Wedding Anniversary

It is hard to believe that Brad and I have hit that magic anniversary where I have been married as long as I had been single before marriage. Where does time go? No anniversary trip for us this year - not with a big family trip coming up. One of these years we will go to a nice anniversary spot. We are going to shoot for an off year - maybe 24th anniversary??

UPDATE on Brooke

Brooke has performed in a couple of concerts - getting a new acoustic/electric guitar recently (an early birthday present plus money she came up with herself after selling her old guitar to her sister). Brooke and Allie both participated in a vocal camp this summer and won the top prizes - Brooke won a song writing session with a local Utah artist and Allie won 2 free hours at a recording studio. Brooke actually scored on the deal because her sister was nice enough to give her the recording time for her birthday!! What a nice sister!!

Old Guitar



New Guitar (she insisted on a black one this time)



Westlake's First Annual Fine Arts Extravaganza. The drama department performed scenes from Camelot and Oklahoma.

UPDATE on Allie

Allie is now the proud owner of a new guitar, ukulele, violin and would like to add a few more to her "musical instrument" wall in her room. You may ask where she keeps her clothes and shoes? The answer is I don't know, but she definitely has her priorities straight! Allie participated in a couple of different things this Spring including Volleyball Camp at Westlake High and performed in her Spring Orchestra Concert. The volleyball camp was a lot of fun for Allie - her team came in 2nd place, and the Orchestra was MUCH improved from the concert earlier this year. I was even able to recognize the tune of "What do you do with a drunken sailor?" which I felt was a very interesting choice for a middle school orchestra concert!



More to come soon...

Joseph

I am right in the middle of this cast photo wearing a yellow shirt.

I just finished participating in my first musical at Willowcreek. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work, but it was worth it. I even enjoyed the practices. Sometimes I took my uke to play before practice started to pass some time. I was Zebulon's wife. Zebulon was played by Yoshi who was Jo Jo in Seussical last year and is also Mr. Wiltbank's son (counselor at the school). When Brooke found out what my part was, she said, "Poor Yoshi can't get rid of us Morgan girls!" He is quite a bit shorter than me, but red headed too.

A crazy thing happened with my tryout. I did not make the callback list, but as I was leaving to go home the day of the callbacks, Mrs. Jennings, the drama teacher, grabbed me and told me she forgot to put me on the callback list and would like me to come that afternoon leaving me NO TIME to practice the song. I felt excited because there were only like six girls out of about 100 girls that made it on to the call back list. Good thing I had heard the music a few times before!


My favorite costume was my GO,GO costume. You can't see me very well here either, but I am toward the left side with nice black shiny leggings (like the Mama Mia ones).

I am happy the show is over, even though I had fun! Especially since I came down with Laryngitis closing night! Thanks to all of the people who came to see me in the show! I appreciate your support.

Coming Next...

Prom report and Musicals x 2!

Hopefully this will encourage some of our other bloggers to contribute - hint, hint:)

Basketball

Jared LOVES basketball. If you ask him what his favorite sport is even though he also likes to play baseball, he will tell you basketball. It helps that he is fairly tall for his age, has long arms and is pretty fast. I think he could be really great if he didn't like video games an tv a little too much! He had another great year with a good team. He is lucky to have two fine coaches who have become the coaches of envy not only for basketball but baseball as well. They do a great job bringing out the best in the boys.

Jared is a rebounder. He will even take it to the floor if needs be!

The girl in this photo happened to be one of the best players on the other team AND Nicole's niece.

The team this year was made up of 3rd and 4th graders. Although most of the team was 3rd graders, they certainly did a great job only losing one game!

Bring on baseball!

Scouts - Wolf AND Bear

Between my Young Women callings, I was called as Bear leader. Let's just say I was not so excited to be wearing a scout uniform. This was my "first" pack meeting as a new leader. Jared was earning his Wolf and moving on to Bears.



Before becoming a leader I was not so interested or excited about scouts. Poor Jared was lucky to have any badges on his uniform (Is it ok they were Brandon's old ones?). In fact, it was really not complete until I had to put the badges on my leader uniform before his was up-to-date. I had bad memories of sore fingers in trying to get them on for Brandon back in his cub days. Luckily I got to borrow the "Strong as Nails" glue from an "experienced" leader and wallah...no more sore fingers! Wish I would have found that YEARS AGO!

Maybe due to my non-love of scouts Jared felt it necessary to embarass me in front of the entire group as he was pinning my mother's pin on by telling EVERYONE that I had done NOTHING at all to help him earn his wolf. You can see mine and the other leader's amusement/nonamusement as we listened to his answer of what I had done to help him earn his wolf. I WILL have you know that is NOT TRUE!! I had done quite a lot!!



Although doing NOTHING to help Jared with his Wolf, the Sunday they sustained me he was THRILLED to find out I was going to be his leader and lucky for me I had a GREAT and well-trained partner. Shawna and I were able to get both our boys (and a few other boys) their Bear in less than five months before being released to go to young women's. Not bad!



Good thing Brad's the artist! That is his job to get him all painted up.



Great job Jared! We are proud of you!

Happy Birthday to Me

DAY 1
I am one of the lucky ones who had a 3 day birthday celebration last weekend. I guess we deserve that every 40 years or so! Still recovering from my foot surgery, I haven't been going very many places. Before we begin this little narrative, I would like to say upfront, I DO NOT LIKE SURPRISES!!

Brad, however, pulled off a NICE surprise party on Saturday night which was quite miraculous, because he got me out of the house so the kids could set up the party, and I was actually dressed for the day - not in my pajamas!

I was not even a little bit suspicious when Brad spent the morning cleaning my kitchen and living room - you know the "Mom Clean" version? He even pulled out the Rainbow Vacuum and cleaned all the floors. I thought THAT was the birthday present:) But no - there was more to come! Next he had told me I should come with him to pick up Brooke from play practice that afternoon. Although I was almost finished with my book, Brad had worked some horrible hours this week, so I consented since I had not had a lot of time this week to visit with him. Then he mentioned it would be ok to take my book with us if I wanted to keep reading (WHAT?!?) I thought he wanted to visit! We picked up Brooke, were having a nice VISIT when Brad told me we needed to pick up my cake so we could take it to my mom's house for dinner the next day. I was a little confused because I had placed an order with my mom for my favorite Strawberry Cream Cheese Cake. Our next stop was Arctic Circle for the kids (we had promised them for a few nights) and that is when I got REALLY annoyed. I knew I didn't want Arctic Circle for dinner (the only thing good at Arctic Circle is milkshakes and fry sauce - not a great dinner choice), so I tried to get Brad to get Chinese Food for us. He told me we would take the food home to the kids and then go BACK out to get our food. Now I was ANNOYED! My foot was throbbing and I did not want to go all the way home and then back out again!! By the time we pulled up to our house, I had decided I was not going back out and I didn't even care if I had dinner that night. That is when I saw the cars in front of my house. When I walked in the kitchen there were two full tables set up with black tablewear and black balloons and streamers everywhere. Friends were there to greet me and more arrived shortly thereafter. I will have to say I was mighty surprised! Brad had assigned out all the food which was very yummy (much better than Chinese) and we had a great visit with friends. The Schroeders were able to come and one of the highlights of the night was for me was to see Traci WALKING!! There is hope for me yet!

(sorry we snapped this picture after Traci and Quint left)

DAY 2
Mom invited us to Sunday dinner the next day. I was a little worried about the long drive and my foot, but I put it up on the dashboard and made it ok. The dinner was VERY tasty and the visit even better! It was very nice to be there, and yes, Mom made my Strawberry Cake:) Thanks Mom!

DAY 3
The ACTUAL day of my birthday was nice too. Brad had taken the day off and so we enjoyed a nice day before going to get my hard cast removed later in the afternoon. I was so excited for the cast to be gone! Now I am in a walking boot, trying to again learn how to walk. I can't believe how great it is to have a "normal shaped" (albeit a little swollen, scarred, and scaly) foot! My calf is smaller than Allie's right now. We compared last night. I can't wait to be able to exercise and get some muscles back again.

Thanks to everyone who was apart of my birthday celebration!

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

So Allie and I decided that we wanted season tickets to the Hale Center Theatre in Orem for Christmas. Now, normally, the shows are mediocre at best. Occasionally a production will blow us away, but more regularly, we leave saying, "At least the costumes were good."

Last night, as my mom was incapacitated, and couldn't drive, Brandon was the lucky soul who got to drive me and Allie to the performance of "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels". He decided that I, the most directionally challenged person of ALL TIME, would be the navigator. So I'm sitting there, reading the directions from Google maps, trying to get us to the theatre. Well, we get to Orem just fine. But I'm stating to think that just maybe, we're not going the right direction. Before long, we reach the exit to head to Provo Canyon. Okay, obviously we are not going the right direction. So we call my dad, trying to get directions. We're already about five minutes late for the show, and I'm starting to hyperventilate a little bit. Yes, I have issues with being lost, and not knowing how I'm going to get out. So eventually we make it to the theatre. Luckily, we could get right in, and we missed very little of the opening number.

This show was AMAZING. I laughed so much, the first thing I did when I got home was ran to the bathroom. This show was not only the epitomy of classiness, but it was extremely hilarious, and had a very good story line, and music. The actors were also extremely spectacular. Not a single one of them did I question why they were cast in the role they were.

I would highly recommend that if you have the time to go, to DO IT. Afterall, it is playing until March 23.

Blessings

As I have set up home base in my bedroom (my bed has become my desk, table, couch,and sometimes sleeping place) I have been enjoying having my kids "stop in" and visit with me when they return home from school. It has given me a chance to catch up on what is going on with them and listen to the little details of their day that I usually don't get to hear. There is something lost if you don't catch them right when they walk in the door. I am grateful for this blessing.

Being called as Young Women's President four days before foot surgery, not knowing when I was going to be able to actually be there was also a little daunting. How greatful I have been for the time at home to get things organized, for the time to study my handbooks, communicating with my presidency, and all the other things it takes to get things going!! It has become a part-time job for the past few weeks. I am grateful for this blessing.

My family has been the recipients of meals (lunches and dinners), subs at school and young women's, cards, phone calls, visits, housecleaning and prayers. I am so grateful for this blessing.

Yesterday we received news about Brooke and Brad who both had multiple doctors visits, blood drawn and other tests last week. Brad had a CT scan Tuesday to reveal MULTIPLE kidney stones. Brooke tested positive for celiac disease. We will find out more on these results next week when they both go back to the doctor. I HOPE we can find the blessings in these new challenges.

My View

This has been my lovely view for the past 18 days. Yes - I bet you wish you could be me! Notice the olympics on the tv in the background. At least there is something good on tv to watch.

The pink cast came off yesterday, stitches came out and a NEW cast went back on, this time for FOUR weeks. Four weeks from yesterday is my birthday! As the receptionist announced the date, I told her that was my birthday. She asked me if I wanted to wait until the next day for my appointment. I assured her, having the cast off would be a great present. Happy Birthday to me! I requested a Westlake BLUE cast this time as Brooke said I should, but no such luck. The nurse did dig up from the basement a beautiful Donny Osmond purple cast. At least it matches my phone:)

Here we go!

So what else is there to do when you are recovering from foot surgery, stuck in bed with your foot elevated for six weeks? I guess start a BLOG!