"I'm So Excited...

...and I Just Can't Hide It!"

We are on our way to:

We haven't been there for 16 years!
The first time I went I was in kindergarten in 1956.

Disneyland had just opened. I have no pictures from that trip but for some reason I saved this ticket from the Mark Twain Steamboat ride.

We went another time in 1983. I was now married with 6 kids. We visited the Wismers for Thanksgiving and our family went to Disneyland the day before Thanksgiving. Here's the leader of the band:

Spending some time with the Wismers:

I don't think John remembers this trip but he was sure cute!

We enjoyed their beautiful home and the kids really liked the large bathtub:

But I digress. Here are the few photos we took from that trip to Disneyland. Cameras and photo taking surely have improved. I'm afraid to think of how many digital photos I will take on this trip!

Tom Sawyer Island:

10 years later and we now had kids in college. We decided to make a family trip to Disneyland in the summer of 1993.

We enjoyed the Electrical Parade:

I've even been to Disneyland by myself. One time Dan had meetings in Anaheim and I was able to go with him. I spent part of a day by myself in Disneyland. You know what? It wasn't very fun. What makes Disneyland fun for me is sharing it with people I love!

On A Roll!

Four weeks in a row and we're still in first place!

Charity Never Faileth!

I'm glad they talked about the Relief Society motto tonight. It really sums up the three purposes of Relief Society.

I work with the stake Relief Society and for several months we have been concerned about the Relief Society dinner and broadcast. Last year (before this current presidency) the attendance at the dinner was very low and consequently the attendance for the broadcast was low--less than 150 people. We know that many people like to watch it at home and/or read the talks, but we were concerned that so many sisters were missing out on the good things that can come from spending time with one another and listening to our leaders as a group. I noticed that President Eyring talked about being a Zion people during the broadcast and that has been our stake theme this past year. This was our desire for the sisters in our stake. We implemented some ideas which included:

1) Good advertising of the event which included invitations, beautiful posters and a visit by two members of the RS stake presidency who presented a short presentation to each ward Relief Society

2) Asking sisters to bring some items for the dinner, decorate the tables, and provide music during the dinner

3) Having the wards organize carpools

4) Starting just one hour before the broadcast so sisters didn't have to be away from their families for too long--we had very efficiently layed-out serving lines and had all the sisters served in about 15 minutes

5) Having a fun and easy service project which was asking each sister to bring a dress or outfit and some dress shoes to donate to Deseret Industries

6) We also fasted as a presidency

The results of our efforts were wonderful! We had over 300 sisters at the dinner and broacast!

We had these Young Single Adult girls standing up front go through the racks of donated outfits and choose some of the items to model during the dinner. They were a big hit!

We borrowed a couple of clothing racks from Kohl's( thank you Kohl's and thank you husbands!) and had the racks spread around the room. The sisters loved our service project. We collected approximately 150 dresses and 150 pairs of shoes!

It was a wonderful evening!

Big Bro!

Last January MaryAnn posted this photo on her blog. For some reason I thought Joshua's T-shirt said "BIG BIRD." When I clicked on the picture to enlarge it, I realized it said: BIG BRO! This was her way of announcing that she was expecting!!

Now 9 months later here is the Big Bro in action!

Music Makers!

(This is a special post for MaryAnn to enjoy--but you are welcome to take a look as well!)

Almost every Friday morning for an hour a group of young mothers get together for "Music Makers." The Moms take turns being in charge of different parts of the day's activities. The last two Fridays I got to take Hannah and Joshua. Here are some of the goings on!

Singing a special song with puppets:

Other singing activities at the beginning:

After the beginning, the children have a chance to come up and sing a solo. Hannah raised her hand first today. Here she is singing the ABC's:

Then they go into a circle time. The theme for this month was about cars. Here they are singing a song about cars and Hannah is holding one of the cars:

Then they played Red Light, Green Light. Hannah is first off the bench:

Joshua is off this time but it was "Red Light" so Hannah is still waiting:

Hannah had a turn being the "Light:"

Then they all get instruments and march around:

Joshua, the first week:

Joshua, the second week:


The last thing is story and snack time:

It was a lot of fun!

Fun Family Memory!

I was reading this book to Joshua the other day. I think all of our kids will remember one of our favorite pages from this well-worn but well-loved book. It was a real tongue twister that everyone liked to say. Posting this just for a fun family memory!

"Tow trucks tow cars. Tow trucks tow trucks. Tow trucks tow tow trucks.

There's not much that tow trucks don't tow."

How Can This Be?

We're still in first place!

Sorry to sound so excited. I do feel badly that BYU lost at home!