Lelu's a "town girl" not a "downtown girl"

Lelu's "ready to rock" concert attire!

Yes, I do realize I have some amazing opportunities to have a lot of fun! Lelu told B if she won the Moab 5 miler that she wanted to go shopping with mom somewhere. This was total retribution for the torture of Izzie (well almost as I'm sure she'll live for 15 more years). We decided on going to San Francisco since I missed going with B for a conference because Lelu was really sick. Since I am a super fan, I heard that Coldplay had just announced more concerts including one in SF. Ahhhh Serendipity! We had a bonding weekend of shopping, sightseeing (going up and down the crazy hills - good thing it doesn't snow there!) sleeping in and eating out. Some highlights: a homeless guy walked across the street while the top was down on the car and pretended to shoot at people and then Lelu didn't allow the top down very much after that; the skeleton performer at Fisherman's Wharf pretty much sent her into convulsions; we drove over and back across the Golden Gate bridge for $6; I bid on 4th row tickets on ebay the night before the concert and won them, so Christina and Landon drove up and took my other tickets and went to the concert with us; Lelu tends to be very scared of people who look "off", meaning scary or dirty or mean and there were plenty of them in SF. She announced that she isn't a downtown girl (remember our little mishap in Hollywood), she is a town girl - she loves Draper. But she wants to live near a big city. So I declared her a suburban girl. Now me, on the other hand, likes the big cities and can find my way around pretty well, but I wouldn't want to raise my kids in one of them. When they are all raised, I want to live in London and New York for a year. We had some great conversations about her goals for this year going into 7th grade. It makes me sad that my kids are growing up so fast. I cherish these moments! I look forward to taking D and the twins one on one sometime soon.

My review on the concert is that Salt Lake's concert was the best. There was an amazing energy in the crowd and the band seemed to thrive on it. Maybe it's because 95% of the attendees aren't wasted. I don't know but there was a definite difference. I would still follow them around the world because they put on an amazing show. We got lost on the way home from the concert and my phone was dead so I couldn't use my navigation. But Christina and I found our way back and was just glad Lelu was asleep in the back with Landon.

First Girls Camp

Hello everybody that is reading this blog! This is Lelu typing right now because my mom says that I have to tell about girls camp myself because I was the only one in my family that was there! Well, it was awesome! I loved it! I went with my old ward with a very small amount of girls, only 16 girls were there (as you can see.) This was my first girls camp ever and our theme was, "not all that glitters is gold" so we were pirates. Not my favorite theme but it turned out to be the most fun theme in the stake, and I have to say that it was fun to go with my old ward because I knew every body there, and also my best friend, Morgan is in that ward (she is the one with me on the right that looks like Captain Hook.) This experience was also very spiritual for me, my testimony is now stronger and so is my friendship with the ward. I learned a lot of things at camp. The first thing is that you never get sleep, the second thing is that you never go 20 minutes without laughing, the third thing is that every one there is so nice and caring, and the fourth thing is that there is no such thing as snipes. I can't wait tell next year!

Lake Powell 2009

This being only the second year that we've gone to Lake Powell, we learned a ton. This year, I brought enough sun screen and cover-ups and B learned to handle a boat better (except forgot that his blackberry was in his pocket when he jumped in to free a rope that got caught). We are especially blessed to have friends with a houseboat that have kids our kids ages and are kind enough to invite us to go. The great thing about going down there is that no one is ever bored! The kids never once came to me and said they were bored. They pitched in for every meal and clean-up. They had constant friends to play board games when they needed a break from the sun. This year, Dave & Shel were coming to visit at the same time as we were invited to go and since there was room, they got invited too. I think they had a great time too, even with 2 little toddlers. Here's a few of the highlights:

Mr. T never stopped until he fought his eyes closing each night. There were 5 little boys who kept really busy climbing cliffs and jumping off them, tubing, digging in the dirt, swimming, canoeing, riding as fast as possible on the waverunners with whoever would take them, jumping out of boats, trying kneeboarding, wake boarding (not quite staying up yet) and occasionally the Wii (only in the hottest part of the day). He was in heaven!

Should I jump? Should I jump? Should I jump? .........

D made the decision for her.

Ari pulled lots of attitude, but wouldn't try any of the sports. The funny thing is that I'm sure she could get up on whatever she wanted. She's such a little tough gymnast.

Yay! Lelu learned to wake board! She got up every time and stayed up for a long time. She was really nervous about it too because the other kids (who are super boaters) could all do it and she didn't want to be embarrassed if she couldn't. We were so proud and I'm pretty sure she was too.

B is the super skier, that I actually never saw ski because he got up everyday and went with the early risers. Then he skippered the boat all day so everyone else could have a turn.
D surfed in the wake, body surfed, wake boarded, knee boarded, cliff jumped, super tubed and took off on the wave runner with Hannah (cute teenage daughter of friends from Nevada) and Griffin (friend he brought along). All that kid is missing is melanin to really enjoy Lake Powell. He fried the top of his feet and back of his ears. I think it's the only time he doesn't like his red headed complexion.

Dave pulled Shel and the kids on the tube with the waverunner. I'm pretty sure Dave won't have any trouble talking his boys into being a boating family in the near future. Taylor loved the speedboat with the wind in his face. Christian just went to sleep with the motion. Start them young, right?

Pretty much anyone can drive the houseboat, so each kid took a turn including Taylor. Sharon (owner of said houseboat) is usually the Pied Piper too, between she and Michele, the lizards and speedboats - I never even entertained my kids! It was awesome;)

Lelu Beats Her time by 32 seconds

Lelu competed again at the State Track meet at BYU. She ran the 1500 (just shy of a mile) and beat her time from last year running it in 6:01. She took 3rd place this year behind these two girls who are a year older. She was hot on their heals and once again we were in awe at her ability to run! NeNe and Papa stayed long enough to watch her run & Michelle came down to cheer her on too.

Support from CA Closes the Show!

Once Upon a Mattress has closed and D was lucky enough to have NeNe and Papa come up for a a couple days to see him perform. The cast had really improved their performance from the first week, when we saw it. There was 12 of us that went to see it, including Aub, Michelle, Brett V and his wife Charlotte. We filled an entire row. I think they all really enjoyed D's performance as the jester, esp when he took a hideous looking face dive. He came out of it unscathed and was happy to have so much support.