Penny's 2 Cents

Shayne's last Jr. Prom!!!

2012-01-23T07:53:00.008-07:00

Oh man! Mitchell Hutchings. You are a ray of Sunshine on a dark day!
Mitchel is by far one of the cutest kids I know. Always smiling, making everyone laugh and the perfect date because there is no tension or even a quiet awkward moment, just fun. We've know Mitchel for a couple years now because he is an incredible swimmer. He asked Shayne to Prom but putting a sign in her room that said, "I'd be a dummy to not ask you to Jr. Prom." Then he dumped 3 huge bags of DumDum Suckers all over the room. He had written his name inside 2 of the sucker wrappers and Shayne had a hard time finding them because Josh hid them from her and made her squirm.

This is the hair Do we went with because #1 she had just gotten out of the shower from getting done with Region #2 It was fast and #3 it's fun. We call it the Messy Worm.

This is Mitchel trying to figure out a wrist corsage. FYI Shayne's dress was only $25 at DEB in the mall! It only had the right strap and was 6 inches to long so my mom and niece whacked it off and made another strap.

Since they both won 1st place at state in their races and since a blue ribbon matched the blue dress, vest and bow tie, they had to accessorize with their medals. They said that everyone at the Dance was super excited for them and thought it was awesome.

Then they went to Mitchels house for pictures. His Dad too about 300 pictures of all the kids.

These were the best ones of Shayne and Mitchel. If you scroll down fast it looks really funny.

The day was dark and rainy but luckily it rained during the swim meet in the day and didn't get the girls beautiful dresses wet that night.

They had a great time and had so much fun. Exactly what Prom should be!

REGION!!!

2012-01-23T06:50:00.006-07:00

Region Swim was a blast! The team did an amazing job and Shayne got a best time in both her 50 free, where she got 1st place, and her 100 Backstroke, where she placed 3rd.

The rest of this post is a picture diary for Shayne to remember her swim family.
Here is our boys and Desert Hills boys relay teams who tied for 1st place and a picture of her BFF Kyson.

This is Coach Christian. We love him! And this was supposed to be a team picture but the rest of the girls went to be girly and change into real clothes and put on makeup while Shayne continued to be herself and join in the love.

Here is our dear friend and Head Coach Dani and Coach Shawn.

Here is our Favorite, Coach Inti. He is a current soldier and has been over to Afghanistan 3 different times. We love him and all he does for us and this country. The next picture is Shayne with all the coaches talking about her race.

This is Chase. He's another Big Brother like Eric. We love him too. He came just to support and cheer for Shayne. Just like family does. And the other is the team all lined up to hear the results of the Meet. Desert Hills boys and girls won over all. Our boys took 3rd and our girls didn't take last! So everyone was happy.

This is Shayne, Courtney and Tim leading the team, after the celebratory jump in the pool, in their team cheer. And one last picture of Shayne and Courtney together.

Here is Nick and Tim

And Shayne's little sister Alex. Even though Alex is only a Jr. this was her last year swimming because she is going to Europe for her Sr. year. We will miss her terribly but know that she will have an amazing experience over there.

I want to thank everyone who has ever helped us out with our efforts to help the swimmers of PINE VIEW HIGH SCHOOL. Your donation of your time and money has greatly affected the lives of these amazing kids and in return they have greatly affected my and my family's lives. We LOVE you all!

MLK Day in Zion

2012-01-17T16:11:00.005-07:00

Every Martin Luther King Day weekend the Utah National Parks wave all fees and let you come for free. So every year we take advantage of it. Joel and Shayne had to work so it was just me and the younger 4. We went up to Weeping Rock first and the parking lot was full so we expected a lot of people there since it was a short easy hike. But, we were surprised to see that not a soul was there. They had all gone the opposite way on the longer hike. I was sad to see that Weeping Rock was only Crying Rock. It was the driest it's ever been.

This is a picture from the bridge and Ben in the stream underneath.

The rest of these were from our hike up to the Emerald Pools. If you've never been then you should. It is 3 different pools and and usually a waterfall into each one.

The day was overcast and cold but it wasn't windy so it was bearable. It made for dark pictures but it was a great hike. No one fought, screamed or even complained. It was a MIRACLE! I think we need to buy a year pass so we can go more often.

Last Home Meet

2012-01-17T15:23:00.005-07:00

There were many tears at this last home meet for Shayne and all the Sr.'s. Each Sr. was called up onto the starting blocks and given roses by Coach Dani.

It's hard to think that it's coming to an end. Region is this weekend and then 2 weeks until State. Then it's over. Not just for a little while. It's over for good. Sophie thinks she's going to swim next year but we'll see. Here is her relay team. They have all become one big happy family.

We are looking forward to State. Every Year Joel and I Chaperone for Pine View and stay with the Team in the Hotel while the kids spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Shelton and their cousins. It's a win win for everyone. It's always fun for Shayne and I to come up with new ideas of things to give to the Team to keep their spirits high. Sometimes our minds get a little more excited than our little budget can handle. Oh to not have to worry about money. Wouldn't that be nice? Oh well, since that'll never happen we just have to get creative. This year Shayne is swimming the 50 Free and 100 Back. She is hoping to drop some time in her Back for Region otherwise she may end up doing the 100 Free instead. It is the end to an Era. An end to traditions and things that they've shared that will now become priceless memories. One of her traditions is that she would always kiss the relay teams caps in order before they swam. Well, this is Matt and he never wears a cap. We think he does it on purpose.;)

She's been swimming for 4 years with some of these swimmers and some of them longer than that. But, it's time to move on. It's been a fun and scary ride at times. I can't wait to see what happens next. Speaking of that...

p.s. Blaine Salibury comes home from his mission TOMORROW!

AntiGravity!

2012-01-05T16:36:00.003-07:00

For Christmas the kids all got AntiGravity passes in their stockings thanks to Santa and Aunt Jan and Uncle Andy. It is an indoor trampoline arena that we haven't wanted to go to since our friend Taylor was severely hurt at one just like it in SLC. But we decided during the school break to try it out. It ended up being pretty fun but I was on edge the entire time and was glad it was over an hour later. Had we not had the passes we would not have gone because it was $8 for the first hour per kid! We could go to Floodstreet Theater and see a movie for $2 that lasted longer and was safe. Now we can say "Been There, Done That" and move on.

New Years Eve Night!

2012-01-05T15:44:00.006-07:00

It has become a fun tradition for us to go crash the party at McArthur's Temple View RV Resort every New Year's Eve Night from 7:30 - 9pm otherwise known as 10:30 to Midnight. Every year Ira and Jen McArthur invite us over to their RV Party that they put on for the retiree's that are there over the holidays. They always play Bingo and have Ann and Dallas Mangum's live band for a night of dancing! It truly is one of the best nights of the year. We take all the kids to JoEllen's at 6pm and eat pizza. Then we leave them there under the watchful care of Sophie or whoever is the oldest and take off. Ira turns all the clocks ahead so that at 8:59 we start the New Year Countdown. That way he can be done by 9:30 and go do something else and the old people can go to bed. It works perfectly! I get to dance with my Sweetheart this one time a year only. I look forward to the RV Party for 364 days so that Joel and I can dance once again.

This year Spencer and Shana joined us. Joel said that we'd better work on our moves so we can keep up with JoEllen and Kyle. They are great dancers. They remind me of my parents and how they used to dance around the house all the time growing up. Some of my favorite childhood memories.

Then we came back and joined the kids with a couple different games and ended with Puffy Poo, otherwise know as "Shove As Many Marshmallows You Can In Your Mouth Without Throwing Up."

Then we had the countdown and cleaned up and went home to bed. A great way to kick off the New Year. Happy 2012! May it be better than the last!

New Years Eve Day

2012-01-04T08:49:00.006-07:00

So on Dec. 31st at noon we got together with all the Wells Families and went for a hike to see some Petroglyphs. To get to them we had to pile in the back of Kyle's truck. We had 16 of us plus Olive in there and 6 in the cab. It was right on the Arizona border and was really fun to see. Can you see the goat?

There were a ton of fun rocks for the kids to play on. We joked about how it was a man made playground.

At one point someone asked how long they thought it would take to hike to the top and Mason said, "Let's find out." (These two pictures were taken right where I was standing and I wasn't even at the bottom. The highest point right in the middle is where they all climbed.)

So off he and Shana went and just like little sheep all the kids followed. We had to yell at some of the littler ones to come back. Mason made it first and then Shana, Maycee, Sophie, Drew, Ben and George.

It was pretty steep in some places. Ben was so surprised to see the whole valley from up on top. Maycee found some jaw bones while hiking. We all had a great time. The weather was perfect. Where else can you go hiking on New Year's Eve but good old St. George! Then we went home to shower and get ready to party it up later that night.

Home Run Derby

2011-12-27T19:42:00.004-07:00

Every year we sneak into the Wells Family Christmas Home Run Derby but this year Joel had to work so we held our own today. We had Brian, Kai and Luke, Jared and Alex. Shayne invited Kyle Buck and Kyson Sullivan too. Then we had our family minus Sophie.

It was a perfect day. 65 and Sunny. Joel won for hitting the most light poles, Kyson won for hitting the fence the most and Jared, Joel and Brian ripped a ton of home runs. I wish we didn't do this just once a year. We should make this a Halloween Day, Turkey Day, Boxing Day, Kwanza, Hanukkah and any other day Day.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-27T17:02:00.006-07:00

Here is my Pine View Christmas tree (tribute to Shayne) with my Jack Skelington ornament that I got for myself at Disneyland. Joel's new suit is hanging next to it.

This has been the funnest Christmas since last Christmas! I loved that it was on a Sunday. Christmas Eve we went to Brian & Holly's house for dinner and to do the 2 traditions that the Beckstrands have.
#1 Re-intact the nativity with the little kids. I was in charge this year so we had the 2 youngest (Bailee & Luke) be Mary & Joseph. They were darling. Josh and Alex were Shepherds, Ben David and Kai were the Wisemen and Joel read the story out of the Bible. It was awesome but I didn't get any picture's of it. Hopefully I'll get some from someone who did.
#2 Elaine reads "Cajun Christmas". It's "The Night Before Christmas" with a Cajun twist. She even does the accent which everyone loves!

Then we left and drove around to see the lights and then came home to open new pj's from my folks and read more Christmas stories until the kids fell asleep. On the way home we asked the kids how we should do Christmas because we had church at 9am. Santa gave us our incredible trip to Disneyland so all he was coming to our house for was to fill our stockings. So we didn't need to worry about opening Santa gifts. David came up with the great idea of just doing stockings before church and then coming back to unwrap everything else. Everyone agreed and when we woke up the next morning at 7:15 Ben & David were already dressed in their church clothes and ready to go. It was a Christmas miracle!

After church we got back into our pj's and opened all the Disneyland gifts.

The girls got Eeyore Pillow Pets.

Josh and Joel got Chewbaca and Yoda backpacks and the boys got to build their own light saber in Disneyland then wrap them up when they got home and gave them to each other.

We had so much fun remembering everything we did in Disneyland.

Later that afternoon we went over to Mike & Elaine's for brunch and to watch home movies. Then we went to JoEllen's to see what they got and came home. It was a full day and was great fun. I love that it started with church. It got my boys started off right. No fighting or yelling and just being calm. I wish we could do that every year!

Locks of Love!

2011-12-23T15:41:00.004-07:00

Sophie donated her hair to the Locks of Love.

She had been growing it out for quite some time now and decided that Christmas time is the perfect time to give to someone else. Please check out this wonderful web site that make cute wigs for little girls that don't have any hair due to chemotherapy because of cancer. We are so blessed to be healthy. The least we can do is donate some of our hair to those who have none.

Aunt Jan's Annual Christmas Cookie Party

2011-12-23T15:00:00.004-07:00

This is the best tradition we have. Everyone LOVES it. Especially JoEllen because she can showcase her one and only talent. Decorating Cookies.

Every year Jan buys trays or plates for people to take the cookies home on and it usually costs a lot of money so this year they came up with the idea to use medium sized pizza boxes from Dominoes that cost about .40 cents a piece and can hold exactly 10 cookies perfectly. Then they printed up this paper and put it on the top of each box so everyone could have their own.

It was amazing! We have 7 people so we ended up with 70 cookies! They are Paula's sugar cookie recipe and Jan's buttercream frosting recipe. That's amazing x2. Also calories x2. We always have the best time. Andy plays a little Bing Crosby and then puts on Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas (another family tradition). Thanks so much Jan and Andy for bringing the Christmas spirit every year. We Love you!

Channel 5 and Washington Elemetary

2011-12-23T14:46:00.003-07:00

Washington Elementary received 200 books from Channel 5 news. They were delivered by non other than Nadine Wimmer and Santa! The kids loved it. Burke had them all out on the field standing together to form the 5 news logo when the helicopter flew overhead. Then they landed and the kids all screamed when Santa got out. It was really fun to watch. Nadine talked about the importance of reading and how special they all were and then Santa gave them all high 5;s as they walked over to check out Chopper 5. It was really fun.

Ugly Sweater Party!

2011-12-23T14:22:00.007-07:00

We had a Christmas Party. My first ever!

We have never lived in a place where we were able to actually have friends that we got to hang out with. For 20 years I've been waiting until Joel and I had friends outside of the family that we could invite over to play games and have fun with. Well, it's a Christmas miracle! We have 3 other couples in our ward who have been able to tolerate us long enough to get to know us and love us for who we are.

So, I took on the Christmas party. NEVER been done before and I think it went pretty well. Everyone wore an ugly sweater and we had a potluck dinner with all of the kids (14). Then we played Take Two. It's a speed scrabble kind of game and had a excellent visit from Santa!! He's the best! He had a present for each kid and they got to unwrap them and play with them while the adults played Candy Bar Bingo. It was so much fun. I really needed that night. After everyone went home and we went to bed I wanted to cry I was so happy. 20 years! It took 20 years but it was truly worth it. Thanks so much guys!

Spectrum Article on the Swim Season

2011-12-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON CITY - Coach Missy Bahr's Mountain View swim team, having disposed of Dixie and Snow Canyon on Friday, repeated the process Saturday at the Washington City Community Center pool, where they out-pointed Desert Hills, Pine View and Hurricane.

Scored as 10 separate dual meets, the Bruins beat everybody in both the boys and girls divisions, including their traveling companions, the first-year team from Timpanogos.

The point scoring, which accrued primarily from Mountain View's team depth, was overshadowed by the individual efforts of the Pine View pair of Shayne Beckstrand and Mitch Hutchings, along with Courtney Freed and Tim Senholtz, both of Desert Hills. Mountain View won only three individual events and one relay on the 22-race card.

Sophomore Hutchings, who swam a strong butterfly leg on the winning Panther medley relay team, was back in the water a few minutes later cruising to victory in the 200-yard freestyle, winning in 1:54.38 over Trent Talbott of Timpanogos and Josh McPhie of Desert Hills. He also won the 100 back in 59.03 and also swam a quick 50 free on the third-place Pine View 200-relay quartet.

Beckstrand uncorked an impressive sprint double, winning the 50 free in 26.45 over Bruin Devri Atoa, with Hurricane's Kaylee LeBaron third ahead of the Desert Hills duo of Madison Wawryzniak and Emily Jesgarz. She then overpowered Tessa Trimble of Desert Hills, and 20 other swimmers, in the 100 free in 58.35.

"The 50 went great," Beckstrand said, "but in the 100 I got water in my left goggle on the dive and I couldn't see a thing out of that eye. I always breathe bilaterally, but I couldn't because of the water in my eye. I had to breathe just on my right side and it felt weird"

Shayne, who already ranked fifth in the 3A state standings in the 50 freestyle, shaved a tenth of a second off her previous best. Her 58.35 clocking in the 100 propelled her into the top 10 in the state rankings.

"Ater being sick and not swimming all summer my body doesn't want to do things like it used to, so I guess I'm a sprinter and backstroker now," she said.

Freed and Senholtz also scored double victories, and in the same races. Freed won the girls' fly and breast stroke and Senholtz mirrored those wins with a power-packed pair of performances on the boys' side of the ledger.

Freed won her fly on cruise control in 1:07.17, 15 seconds faster than her closest pursuer and then came back to capture the 100 breast in 1:14 over teammates Anna Karatti and Amelia Draney. Senholtz' scintillating 55.42 fly shot him into the top spot in the 3A state standings ahead of Park City's Dusty Ragland, and his surprising 1:05.65 breast stroke time ranks him third in the state standings. He also chipped in a 51.30 100 anchor leg on the Thunder's triumphant 4x100 free relay team, as well as an opening 23.47 leg on the winning 4x50 free relay.

Tim's clocking in the breast stroke was five seconds faster than his listed seed time, but he explained he had actually done a 1:07 in a USA swim meet in Harriman last week.

"The time was surprising," he said, "but both the fly and the breast felt good."

Other local winners included Amelia Draney of Desert Hills in one of her specialties, the 200 IM; Desert Hills' Clark Corry in the 50 free; Kyle Buck of Pine View in the 100 free; the Thunder's John McPhie in the 500 free; and Desert Hills' Lindsey Child in the girls' 100 back.

Individual heat winners among Southern Utah swimmers included Payton Carter in the 200 free; Jefferson Beatty, Desert Hills, 200 IM; Mallory Roberts of Pine View, 50 free; Spencer Whitehead, Desert Hills, 50 free and 500 free; Koby Sullivan, Pine View, 50 free; Desert Hills' Ben Powell, 100 fly; Jesi Nelson, Pine View, 100 free; Zach Rowe, Desert Hills, 100 free; Desert Hill's Tyson Child, 100 back; Zoe Smith and Makai Smith, Desert Hills, in the 100 breast.

"I was really proud of my kids today," said coach Dani Caldwell, who mentors the Desert Hills, Pine View and Hurricane squads. They really came together as a team. Of course they'll probably hate me now. I've told the varsity swimmers they have to practice for an hour after the meet's over."

2011-12-18T14:54:00.001-07:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! 2011

Day 4!

2011-12-18T13:29:00.010-07:00

Today we started in Disneyland and ended at California Adventure. It was so much fun! We took the train over to It's A Small World and Toon Town since we didn't do them the first day.

Then we went to the Matterhorn Jungle Cruise and Pirates. All of which were closed the down the first day so we were glad to get to go on them. Then we ran into Tigger!

By that time we were all hungry and went to Tomorrow Land were we sat down to eat by the stage. Just as we were finishing the Jr. Jedi fighting Program was starting. David got picked to go up and be a part of it. It was awesome. He was the third kid to fight Darth Vadar. He did a great job. When they finished they all got certificates saying that they completed their Jedi Training and he said, "Look my own paper!" It was great.

Then we hit Pixie Hollow to see Silvermist and Iridessa and on our way out of Disneyland we saw Geppetto.

The we ventured over to California Adventure where we split up and the girls went to Tower of Terror and the boys went to Goofy's Flying school. We were able to go on tower 4 times before we needed to catch up with the boys. There weren't any kind of lines at all. It was great! Sophie and Shayne became friends with the creepy bellhop named David. Here are our photos:

Then we caught up with the boys and went on the Toy Story Mania Ride. It was so cute. It had the longest line out of all the rides. Shayne and the little boys got on in line while Josh, Sophie, Joel and I went and rode California Screamin'. It was a blast.

Then we ran over and got in line with them and 5 minutes later Brad caught up with us just in time to get on the ride. It was perfect timing. By the time we were done it was almost time for the World of Color to start so we watched it again and were truly amazed once again at how beautiful the whole thing was.

On the way out we stopped by Build-A-Bear because Sophie had saved a coupon and wanted to use it. What happened is she ended up buying on for Ben, David and herself.

At the end of everyday we'd go through the McDonald's drive through to get something to eat and every time we ended up with something close to this.

It was honestly the best vacation I think I've ever had. I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity and we wouldn't have if it weren't for Brad and his amazing hard work and talent. THANKS BRAD!

Disneyland Day 3

2011-12-14T20:00:00.007-07:00

CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE!

Everywhere you went they had signs like this up because they currently making Cars Land. It is going to be HUGE! Brad says that watching and helping in the process has been amazing. "It's like walking into a real life Radiator Springs." It opens this summer.

The first thing we did was go see Crush in his turtle habitat and then down as we were walking to a Bugs Life we ran into Monsters Inc. on the street.

Then we spent forever in A Bug's Life and went on the Tower Of Terror! My FAVORITE ride. The boys went this one and only time. Shayne, Sophie and I went a bunch more (see picture's).

Then we were off to become Wilderness Explorers with Russell. You had 6 different adventures you had to do to get your badges. It was really cute.

Then we caught up with Brad and off to the Tower Of Terror we went! Joel stayed with the boys and did more Bugs Life stuff. This is our YMCA pose.

After we went to the World Of Color show. Which is AMAZING! If you haven't seen it then I suggest you go just for that reason alone. You will never see anything like it in your life. To watch it with Brad was even better because he told us all the secrets of the show. We LOVED it.

Disneyland - California day 2!

2011-12-12T14:24:00.007-07:00

So day 2 we headed off to Disneyland. It was AWESOME! Brad was able to walk right in everyday with Shayne, Sophie and Josh for free! He ended up saving us $835 in tickets alone. Not to mention that we stayed at his house = $400 for a hotel and discount on all the Christmas presents we bought which was easily a savings of $100. Without Brad this trip would not have happened. We dedicate the entire trip to him and Ashley who put up all 7 of us in her home while she was trying to study for finals. Thanks you guys!!!

We have never been to the park during Christmas and it was deck out in decorations!

Here are Santa's Reindeer! The big man was there too but the line was longer than any ride.

Pluto was our first character. We didn't see many because the lines were so incredibly short for the rides that we kept running from one to the next.

This Shayne eating a Funnel Cake! It was so good!

Now onto the rides. I took 285 pictures so I am skipping around and if you want to see all of my pictures you'll have to come over and look at the book I had made up of them.

The park closed at 9 and we stayed until the last minute. So Much Fun!

CALIFORNIA!!!!

2011-12-12T07:07:00.004-07:00

We were lucky enough to head to California last week as a family to visit Joel's old stomping grounds, Brad & Ashley and go to Disneyland. Well, here is the first part if that.
This is the house that Joel grew up in on Hackett in Long Beach.

This is Michael's favorite street in the world. It is gorgeous in the summer. It's a tunnel of trees.

Here is the alley where Elaine had a garden that is now all cement.

This is apparently the El Camino that has been in the neighbors drive way for 30+ years.

Here is the ball field that Jared hit a home run out into the busy street nearby.

Kinda fun seeing Joel as a Bishop in front of the church he grew up in when his Dad was his Bishop.

Here is Joel's Elementary School Patrick Henry. We drove by DeMille Jr. High but it had been torn down.

It was a great start to an even greater trip!

Another race!

2011-12-09T12:48:00.005-07:00

This time the Beckstrand Boys did the St. George Expedition. They wanted to beat their Lake 2 Lake relay time which was 7:07. They destroyed it with a 6:12! Joel started the first leg.
Then he passed off to Dad.

Then all the boys ran and I went home to get ready and do some errands. Then we caught back up with them when Dad passed off to Joel.

The boys ran with him past Staheli Farm.

Then Joel passes off to James who passed to John.

Who passed to Brian to finish the race.

I'm glad they all enjoy running. They never get hurt or get kicked out for poor sportsmanship and afterwards they talk about it for hours but it's all happy and positive. I LOVE it!

This time Kristal and Holly ran on an all girls team together. They did a great job too.

Turkey Day

2011-12-02T13:52:00.005-07:00

We didn't think that we would be able to go to Lehi this year but thanks to my Dad I was able to take the kids. Joel had to stay and work and attend to his Bishop duties. We missed him but had a great time with our family. We had a great dinner, of course.

Then we all went to the movies. Different movies for different people. Shayne, Sophie and the other girl cousins went with Paula and JoEllen to see Footloose. Charles took 7 little boys to see Real Steel. Dad and Kyle saw a movie the night before so they stayed home to watch the Utes football game. And I took David, Evan, Emily and Jenna to see Smurfs. It was a good nap. David thought so too. He fell asleep before the movie even started. The next day we ventured up to Temple square. We haven't been up there to see the Christmas lights since Josh was 2 years old. Because he got lost in the sea of people and I've been to afraid to go back since. You should have seen me checking for Ben every 2 seconds. We left David at Juanelle's to play with Jenna. I knew we'd loose him. The light were gorgeous! It put out dinky little temple lights to shame.

Ward Volleyball

2011-12-01T08:46:00.006-07:00

This year we had a ball playing Volleyball!

Our Young Woman's team took first in our stake and went on to region where we quickly lost both games and were out. But it was a lot of fun.

Our Old Women's team also went to Region and did the same thing. We thought we were pretty good until we saw these other teams that had pregnant ladies on them spiking the ball! It was CRAZY!

We had a blast and are looking for something else to do now to spend time together. It was so much fun.

Swim Season is under way!

2011-12-01T07:29:00.003-07:00

I love a good swim meet and the year always starts off with a bang at the Greg Fernly meet at the Sand Hollow Pool with 25 different schools and lots of fun.

Sometimes we get a little bored.

And hang out.

And be silly.

Austin couldn't swim because of a collarbone fracture so he just happened to notice a 5K going on that morning down the street and asked if he could go for a run before the meet started. A half an hour later he came back with a 2nd place plaque! Good job Austin! Our swimmers are awesome!

Our team also knows how to be responsible. Here are Landon and Alex doing homework.

And Kyson and Kobe.

But most of all this little team loves each other. Here are our guys and girls relay teams. It's going to be a great season!

11-11-11

2011-11-14T14:36:00.004-07:00

Happy Veterans Day!
My cousin Jim is putting together a book of pictures showing what we were doing and where we were on this date in history. Here is what we did.
Our Day started out with the St. George City P-raid.

Josh & George held the banner for the High School band and Sophie played in the Middle School band.

Then we all rushed over to the Washington p-raid where those 3 were in it again and this time Shayne was also in it with the Exec. Council riding their scooters and Ben and David walking in their classes.

Every year Burke has each class carry signs and banners thanking the veterans for all they have done. So, all 5 of my kids where in the parade. I sat and watched with JoEllen and Joel. It was fun. Afterwards the city always does a veterans day program where they post 50 flags in the park and Joel, being the newest Washington City Bishop, had to give the closing prayer.

Later that night Shayne had a swim meet where she didn't beat any of her personal bests but did make it into the newspaper. Biff Lowery is an 80+ year old man who writes on all the swim meets. He gave Shayne the Fortitude of the Month award (something he just made up) for her hard work and determination to get back into the pool after spending time in the hospital fighting meningitis all summer long. It was good to see her name in the paper again even if it wasn't for winning. It'll be a long season but it will be fun and I will make sure that it will be memorable for all of us.

2011 Family Pictures

2011-11-03T22:33:00.021-06:00

Our incredible neighbor Jalee Scott took these for us. She is an amazing person. We love that she and Josh bought the houses kitty corner to us. They are like family. Here are some of the boys:

The Girls:

Me & Joel:

And the whole group:

You can click on any of them to see them bigger. I think they all turned out great.
Now it's time to get the Christmas cards ready to put them in and send them out.

Pumpkins

2011-11-03T12:33:00.006-06:00

Here are this years jack-o-lanterns in order from Joel on down to David. We got creative this year.

Halloween!

2011-11-02T16:32:00.004-06:00

This year was not one of my best but it is over and in the record books. David was Mario.

Ben was Waluigi.

Josh was a foosball player. I don't have a picture but picture in your mind him in his Real Salt Lake Jersey, soccer shorts and cleats with a pole through one sleeve and out the other. Foosball Player! Sophie I do have a picture of...

A Witch Doctor!
Shayne was in scrubs too with the letter I on her shirt...I (eye) Doctor!
Joel was the best of the best. Can you guess what he was? Not many figured it out.

The Iron Chef! Get it? Fe = Iron
I was going to be a tropical depression but time flew by and after I got everyone else ready there was no time for me. I was going to wear Hawaiian clothes and a big bottle around my neck that read "PROZAC". Tropical Depression.

JoEllen's family - Kyle-Glenda the good witch, JoEllen-smarty pants, George-Harry Potter, Emily - bumble bee, Evan-Mummy and Matty was Dorthy. Originally they were going to do a whole Wizard of Oz thing but it didn't happen. But look at how well the dress fits on Kyle!!!!

A good time was had by all and I hope I didn't gain too much of the 10 pounds I just lost back. Extra time at the gym this week!

It's not Halloween without Aunt Jan's doughnuts.

2011-11-02T16:01:00.004-06:00

This time of year is full of traditions and this one starts them all off. The kids look forward to this more than trick-or-treating. We start off with Jan's bread bowls, which are amazing, and choose from her split pea or this year she had squash soup too or JoEllen's white chicken chili (my fav) and my cheddar broccoli. (Next year I'm taking pictures of the soup.) Then while we let that settle Jan and the kids cut out doughnuts and let them rise for a minute then she and Andy fry them all up to a warm sugary, artery clogging goodness that consumes your soul with happiness. The ultimate comfort food.

We also had some gummy eyeballs that David and Andy found amusing. Good times!

THRILLER!

2011-11-02T14:04:00.008-06:00

This had become a tradition with us. Every year Tuacahn has Odyessy Dance Theatre comes down and perform their shoe "Thriller". It's a bunch a fun/scary Halloween dance pieces that are so much fun. Before the show, during intermission, and at the end they have zombies wander around to scare the audience. Well this year I knew about half of them. This is me and Trevor Hunt one of my first Tuacahn kids. I've know Trevor for about 7 years and consider him a dear friend.

Here is Cole Chollet. The best hugger I know.

This is Christan Rojas. He was in The Wizard of Oz with Daniel 3 years ago at Dixie High and worked with me a Tuacahn during the summer of "Annie".

This is Tino Smith. One of our all time favorites! He was a dancer in the show so he wasn't all zombified.

This is Kendall Zadunich. She is currently a Sr. at Tuacahn and the nicest person.

This is Frank. He has been the summer shows too.

I don't know who this girl is but she liked Spencer and Mason a lot.

It was fun for JoEllen, Kyle, Joel and I to watch Mason, Mandi, Spence and Shana because it was their first time there. It was a really good night.

It's that time of year again...Staheli Farm time!

2011-11-02T13:28:00.005-06:00

Every year I've been lucky enough to chaperone one of my children's classes to Staheli Farm. They learn about everything from how to raise farm animals, how crops grow and how to make a corn maze. It's aMAZEing. Hahaha. I crack myself up.

Every year it's about the same but this year Mr. Staheli told us the secret to his corn maze. He, his wife and 4 boys draw up what they want the maze to look like and when the corn is only 4 inches high they walk through the field and spray weed killer where they want the path to be. It kills the corn and weeds and the maze grows up from the ground. Cool huh?

He said that it takes a lot of math and time. I though that he just programs a tractor to just mow the corn down after they have harvested it. Come to find out that the corn they grow is a special kind of feed corn for livestock. It is meant to be harvested after it has dried up. Burke said it was like Corn Flakes for the cows. So as you went through the maze you could see all of the ears just sitting their waiting to be picked. It was really neat. This year is Burke's parents 50th anniversary so the maze looked like this.

Here is Lilly (our next door neighbor) and Ben watching the pig races.

Here is Mr. Staheli's Thanksgiving dinner.

Here is Ben's class.

Ben fell in love with the Bunnies. He has my love for animals. If they were for sale we would have brought the cutest black and white flop home with us. It was so darling!

It was a lot of fun. The Staheli Family Farm is a great way to kick off the Holiday Season.

Josh's 1st Band Concert

2011-11-02T13:13:00.003-06:00

Josh had his 1st ever band concert the other day. He is playing the trombone that Shayne decided not to play anymore and is doing great. We also have a trumpet that I got from my cousin Jim that is brand new but we didn't get it in time for school to start so he will probably play it next year. I love it when my kids play a musical instrument. I love the sound of music in my home whether it's Shayne's radio blaring, Sophie's flute, Josh's trombone or Joel playing hymns on the piano. It is all wonderful and bring a great, fun spirit to our home.

Biggest Loser Results

2011-11-02T12:56:00.002-06:00

Well Joel came in Third! He thought he was 2nd but a guy on the graveyard shift, that he never sees, lost over 50 pounds. Joel could not have lost another pounds unless he starved. So, 3rd was great. His prize was $124. At the same time he got this check he was given a flier from the BLVD saying that the new suit store in town was giving all employees a suit package deal for $125. It includes a suit, shirt, tie, socks and a belt. How can you pass that up? If you were just made bishop you'd better not pass it up. So we went down there and the suits were all GORGEOUS! And from Italy. I saw a dark Chocolate brown one that had pin stripes and fell in love with it. Joel tried it on and it fit like it was tailor made for him. So thanks to Red Rocks $124 the suit was practically free! And we're saving the suit for Christmas so we save even more on not having to buy Joel something else. The guy who owns the store was telling us how he and his wife bring every boy, when they turn 16, in their district down here and give them the suit of their choice. So nice! They are great LDS people who just want the youth of today to have a fighting chance against Satan. People after my own heart! So if you need a new suit or know someone who does go down to the Bell Tower and talk to Robert Iverson. He'll get you all hooked up. They sell all of their suits for $99 and have a great missionary package for $599 that has a ton of stuff in it.

Happy 100th Birthday!

2011-10-23T16:23:00.008-06:00

Dixie College celebrated it's 100th year with an amazing Homecoming week. They had reunions and all kinds of programs throughout the week and on Friday night they had the Midnight 5K. John, Joel, JoEllen and I ran it last year and it was a lot of fun but this year JoEllen and I hadn't prepared so we helped out instead. It was much funner this year. We directed traffic and joked about how are arms were getting tired. Daniel & Katie Cluff and Sarah Miller ran it too. Along with John, Brian, Mason, Spencer and Laynee. It was quite a family occasion.
Here are some pre-race pictures. Notice how helpful JoEllen is:

Here they all are running except my camera was dying and the picture that I took of Spencer and Laynee said it was invalid so I'm trying to see if I can fix it. It was the best running picture of the night. It was so dark that I was basically just shooting at moving objects hoping something would show up. So here's what I got. I wish they were better and when I get Spencer's picture fixed I'll add it on.

The next morning, at 8am, Dixie had a breakfast in the Town Center and since we had to be to the p-raid by 9 we decided to do breakfast too. Here was the line and a cool picture I took through the fountain:

Then we went to the p-raid. Here we are keeping ourselves entertained by making paper hats, cranes and airplanes out of newspaper I brought. Mason, Mandi and kids showed up right after we took this picture.

Right before it started Shayne got a call from Enrique saying that their flag holders didn't show up and they wondered if Josh and George wanted to do it. So they ran down to the start and got shirts on and looked like they were meant to be there.

Sophie was in the Pine View Middle School Band and was so proud of herself for keeping a straight face while we were screaming her name.

Here is Uncle Alton being recognized by being one of the past Presidents of the college.

This Lamborgini was in the parade too and Josh wanted to make sure that I blogged about how cool it was.

After the parade we went to the Alumni House where Kyle was b-b-qing for the tailgate party. It was so much fun for the kids. They got to play in a bounce house, slide down the massive slide and rock climb.

There was a college girl there spraying everyone's hair red and the kids loved it. They were also passing out necklaces and we teased Jack about what he did to get all of his.

It was a busy but super fun day.

42 pounds later...

2011-10-23T15:52:00.003-06:00

A couple months ago Joel's work started a Biggest Loser competition. Well Joel had been meaning to loose 20 pounds before the marathon and so he signed up and thought that it would be good motivation. Well, the entry fee was $20 and over 40 people joined in. His boss also said that he would throw $500 on top of what ever money was in the pot. So with new motivation Joel now wanted to WIN it. Now keep in mind that he was only looking to loose 20 pounds at first. His weigh in weight was 235. It was a 10 week competition and he had 8 weeks until the marathon. Joel always signs up for the marathon in the weight class division so he doesn't have to compete with John and other little guys who run a million miles a minute. So the day before the marathon he weighed in at 203 and needed to be over 200 to stay in the weight class. So he ate a lot and wore heavy shoes to weigh in with. His goal was 20 pounds before the marathon and he had already dropped 32! You'd think he'd stop, but no. He dropped another 10 pounds in the 2 weeks after the marathon. His final weigh in was 193. 42Pounds total! It ended up being 17.8% of his body fat and his main competition was this short plump lady who had lost 44 pounds which was 26% of her body fat. Joel would have had to loose another 20 pounds to catch her and I wasn't going to let that happen. 2nd place is good enough. Joel looks amazing at 200 pounds. He said that he plans on staying slim and would like to gain that 7 pounds back in muscle. I didn't think he had 42 pounds to loose so I went back to look at some old photos.
Here he is in July at our family reunion:

And this is him this weekend at the Midnight 5 K.

Quite a bit of difference. He also has to stay 200 lbs. or less to fit into his 2 new suits for church. He has another relay race with his Dad and brothers coming up in December so he is keeping up with his running, which will help. I guess I need to get on it and loose some weight too so we don't have the Jack Sprat thing going on.
Good Job Joel! I love you!

1 week down 260 more to go!

2011-10-17T08:16:00.003-06:00

So far so good. Week one as a bishop's wife was actually the best week I've had in a long time. A regular week with us is: Mon - Fri Joel leaves to work around 7 or 8am and gets home from the BLVD around 9 or 10pm. Saturday he works from 7 until 6 or 7. Then we go out to dinner and a movie. Sunday we go to church and then take a nap.
That's it. The week that we've played over and over for the last 19 years. It's worked. This week went like this:
Mon - Joel got home around 5:30 and we went to his parents for FHE.
Tues - Shayne's Birthday - she worked and we didn't do much. Joel got home at 7 and Ben wanted to go to the Halloween Store but I thought it was to scary. So we went to Walmart and bought Luigi and Waluigi costumes for David and Ben.
Wed - Joel was home by 4 because his first meeting was at 4:30 which was Josh getting his interview to get a temple baptism recommend. Then we had Mutual and then a co-ed softball game together.
Thurs - HOWARD JONES Concert!
Fri - Got Family pictures taken by Jalee in the morning and then Joel was home by 7 so we went to dinner and a movie.
Sat - While Joel was at work, we made 4 dozen cupcakes and 6 dozen cookies to start up the annual "Phantom Ghost". It's a cute poem and picture of a ghost that you leave treats with and it tells them to do the same to 2 other people. You of course doorbell ditch them so they don't know who they're from. We've started it every year for as long as I can remember no matter where we've lived. The kids look forward to it every October. This year Joel was home in time to be the getaway driver. Usually it's me. It's always a blast.
Sun - He had meetings in the morning but was done with everything by 2pm and then took a nap.

Pretty good week. We spent more time together than we had in a long time. If the the other 260 weeks are as good as this one then this will be cake! I know I just jinxed myself but it really was a great week.

Joel's first Sunday conducting went flawless. It was also Josh's first time passing the sacrament. Big day for the men in our family. I was extremely proud of my priesthood members yesterday.

HoJo!!!!

2011-10-14T18:59:00.005-06:00

Last night Joel and I went to the Howard Jones concert. This is my 3rd time seeing him and he never lets me down. The only disappointing thing was that the Wells' and Hunsakers couldn't be with us. Well, Kyle snuck in half way through but last year when we were all together was awesome! I have loved Howard since I was about 15 years old. He was one of my very first concerts. My dad gave me 2 tickets to see him for my 16th birthday and I took Lori Hinckley because she could drive and it was up in Park City. It was AWESOME!

18 years already?

2011-10-11T14:17:00.001-06:00

18 years ago Shayne and her big head broke my tailbone and came into the world. All 8 pounds 4 ounces of her. She was and still is beautiful. I look back and wonder where the time went. Click here to see old pictures of her. After this school year she will be going off to college (place yet to be determined). I hope that I've taught her everything she needs to be safe and righteous. She is amazing and stubborn just like me and I love it! I'm not worried. I'm just sad that my good friend is moving away. I will save the rest of this for May when she graduates. Until then...HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAYNE!!! I love you.

Crazy Weekend for Bishop Beckstrand

2011-10-10T14:13:00.004-06:00

So Thursday, Friday and Saturday were spent up in Cedar City with a quick jaunt home and back for the baptism. Sunday continued the madness. We had 51 visitors in our congregation just from the Beckstrand's and Shelton's. Everyone knew it was because Josh was being ordained a deacon. Or at least they thought. Bishop Haley got up and took care of ward business by calling Josh up and congratulating him from graduating from Primary and presented him to the congregation to be made a deacon. It was great. Then the bishop called on his own grandson, Josh Haley, to been ordained to a teacher. What an amazing occasion.

I feel I have a lot of my parents gift to take in strangers and help them. Josh Haley was one of those kids. I loved him immediately. I knew his Dad had problems and that his mom had died when he was 4. I could just see that all he needed was some love and attention. Good attention. He needed someone to tell him that he was a good and decent person and then he knew he could be. He is now living with his grandparents and getting good grades and trying out for the basketball team this season. The fact that he even plays basketball attracted Joel to him like bees to honey. They have gotten along since day one. It's been great to see him grow. He used to sit with us in church but now he sits with his grandma and now he can sit with his grandpa too because after Bishop Haley was done conducting he turned the time over to the Stake President who released him and his counselors and put in Joel as the new Bishop with John Howells, Madi's Dad, as his 1st counselor and Chris Wilson as his 2nd. It was a surprise to pretty much all of the ward members. Half of the people weren't even there.

I wish I had taken a picture of everyone who was there but it was so crazy that day that I totally forgot. Here is a list:
My parents, Jandy, Steve & Juanelle and family, Joel brought Katie down from the Shakespeare competition on his bus and JoEllen and Kyle went up to see the Utah football game in Salt Lake City and stopped by Paula's house to pick up Abby and they brought her down with them. Then we had Eric and Courtney too. Then from the Beckstrand's we had Joel's parents with Jen, James & Daniel, Aunt CarolNan & Wes Hess with Edie and her daughter Taylor. Aunt Boydine & Uncle Larry, Aunt Diana & Uncle Alton and Ron Wade. Jared & Angey and their 3 kids, Kristal brought her kids and Holly brought hers. It was amazing and my heart was so full because of their good love and support for us. We'd be lost without family.

After they sustained them they asked the new bishopric to take the stand and asked the old bishopric to bear their testimonies. It was fast Sunday so it worked out well. Then he asked Bro & Sis Howells and Bro & Sis Wilson to bear theirs. Then I thought we'd be out of time and they wouldn't call on me but they did. I got up and said who knows what. All I remember is telling them all how incredibly wonderful Joel is and that he will be an amazing Bishop. Then they gave Joel the last 5 minutes to talk and then it was over.

Right after we all went into the stake presidents office and Joel was made a High Priest and then confirmed the new Bishop of the Washington 5th Ward. It was really neat. His Dad made him a High Priest and my Dad, Bro. Howells, Uncle Alton and Ron and the stake presidency all stood in. Then just the stake presidency and Mike stood in to make him a bishop.

After it was all over we had about 15 minutes until Priesthood opening exercises were over and the boys and Joel all came in to set apart Josh Haley and my Josh. In my Josh's circle was both grandpa's, Josh Scott, Mike Allen, Joel, Steve, Sloan, Andy, Jared, Jaden and Daniel and Eric. I can't express the love I feel for all those worthy men. I appreciate them all and their good example to me and my family.

Ordaining Josh was one of the best things Joel has ever done. His first son and his first ordaining as a bishop. Pretty Cool. We all left after that and went to our house for lunch. At 2:30 we had a meeting with the Stake Presidency. I had no idea it would all start so quickly. It was a marriage counseling session for the bishopric and their wives. It was an eye opener. He told us that we needed to have things that we liked to do in common. Well, the only thing we have in common is the kids and the president said that that was just common ground and didn't count. Well, we have NOTHING in common. That's why we work so well. We like to go to the movies together where we can just sit and relax or we love to take a nap when we can. But those didn't pass either. So we are going to work on finding something. Apparently we will have these meetings regularly so I need to make a list of things we can do fast. The president also told us that we needed to stay healthy so I got up with Joel at 5am and went to the rec center. Now I need a nap.
Our meeting went until 3:30 and we went into his office for a little while until his first appointment showed up. We had our first Stake High Priest meeting at 5 and he was supposed to be done. So I went home and when I came back it was 5 and he still had 1 more person to meet with. I was getting mad already. The stake president told the congregation about Joel and I and I was sitting in the foyer like an idiot. 15 minutes later I was still sitting in the foyer and Joel got done and sat down next to me. I know that he'll have meetings and I will be fine with it. My problem is when it conflicts with my schedule. Had I known he was going to be 15 minutes late I would have went in and sat with friends and let everyone know that he was in a meeting. But I hate to look like I was late or being a flake. I have never had a problem going to things alone. If I waited for Joel for everything then life would pass me and my kids by. We have gone on vacation before without Joel. I'm pretty sure that we won't have a problem with not seeing him. But our lives can't stop either. So I have learned a lesson...save him a seat. This will be an interesting 6 or so years. I'm learning things already.

Taye Joseph Beckstrand

2011-10-10T13:54:00.003-06:00

Saturday was Taye's baptism. We were up in Cedar and were able to get all the Tuacahn kids to were they needed to be and then took of to St. George as fast as we legally could. We got home in just enough time to change and head to Brian's stake center. It was really fun to see one of the little cousins get baptized. Alex was the last one and it was almost 3 years ago. Ben is the next to be baptized in Feb and then Kali in March. It was great to see Brian baptize and confirm his son. I'm so glad we were able to go.

Shayne and I aren't in the photo because Shayne had to leave right after for Varsity Swim tryout's and I was taking the picture. But right after we got home and changed we drove back up to Cedar so Joel could bring the bus back home.

The Feast!

2011-10-10T12:50:00.004-06:00

The 1st Saturday in October we have a family tradition. It usually starts with a trip up to Pine Valley the night before the marathon to drop the runners off, then the marathon the next morning. Then later that night the Shelton/Wells men all go out to eat Chinese before they attend the Priesthood session of conference. It was a tradition that Scott Wells started and luckily they have carried it along. The women decided that since they were going out to eat that we would too. The last 4 years we have gone out to Tuacahn because Jan has The Kings Feast that weekend. Her drama kids are just getting ready for the Shakespeare competition that SUU puts on in October and Jan does a big dinner Renaissance style...no utensils. The setting is in the Royal Court and Andy is always the King.

We have salad and rolls while the kids do a couple scenes that they have prepared. Then dinner which is usually chicken, thank goodness, potatoes and a veggie. If you want salt you have to call for the Mistress of the salt or the Lord of the salt and then give them a kiss on the cheek as payment. This is Shayne getting some "salt".

While you eat beggars (students) try to get money from you and to get rid of them you throw some change across the room. There is always one that tries to sell you a fork but if the Kings catches you then you go in the stocks. You can also pay to have someone put in the stocks. This time the students solicited money to put the King in the stocks.

He was not happy. But did it anyway and while he was in there JoEllen took the thrown. All the money raised helps to get the kids to the competition.

Then more monologues and scenes and songs. Then we have desert and go into the auditorium to see the 10 minute ensemble act that they are taking to compete with. This year it was Richard the III and they took 1st place with it. It was awesome! They also won a couple 1sts and 2nds in different categories. Overall they ended up winning sweepstakes! They competed against 31 other schools from all over the western states. They did a great job and should be proud of their accomplishments. We were able to go up and stay a couple days because Jan needed Joel to drive the bus. So I came up later and stayed as a chaperon. It was a good needed break for things to come.

While we were up there we were able to see Katie compete in the Tech Olympics. Another part of this whole competition. She and her partner were in charge of hair and makeup. They were told what to do and where timed and judged on how well they did.

She didn't win but it was a lot of fun to watch. The judge told her that her pin curl was perfect.

We had a lot of fun with Jandy and the kids. It was good to get away.

Shoe Drive

2011-10-10T11:10:00.003-06:00

Shayne is the Exec. Council Service Coordinator for Pine View High School. That means any service projects that the school does, starts with Shayne. She decided to try to do a service project every month starting with October and a Shoe Drive for the Soles 4 Souls organization who take shoes all over the world to people who have none. It's an amazing organization. She figured it would be easy to collect shoes if it was the same time as the marathon. So we went to the St. George City person over the marathon, she said that it would be great and that she would put it in her emails that went out to the 7,400 runners that would be here. We got the OK to put up 3 booths at the Fitness Expo the day before the marathon and a booth in the park the day of the marathon. The Fitness Expo is free to everyone and ALL marathon runners had to pick up their bag and running number to run inside the Expo. So a booth was set up at each door and runners dropped of shoes on their way inside. Here is Lexi from Exec. Council helping out at the Expo.

It worked great. We had a lot of people say they forgot their shoes and would bring them to the park the next day or that they would give the shoes they ran in to Shayne after the race. The problem with that is that our booth was way to far away from the end of the marathon. It was a great spot but bad location.

So we set up a table right where the runners exit the recovery station but there were so many people standing around that you couldn't see the table at all. We also didn't get the publicity and support that we thought we would from the newspaper and radio stations. If we had then I'm sure that even the locals would have brought shoes. As it was Shayne collected over 300 pairs of shoes. Here they are trying to separate them and tie the shoes together.

Shayne's goal was 5,000 pairs thinking that if 7,400 runners would each bring one old pair that she would achieve that goal easily. Oh well, 300 people will have shoes now because of her. That is amazing! I am very proud of her and her hard work.

Next month is the food drive and December is the toy drive. I'm sure they will both be a huge success.

MARATHON #5!

2011-10-01T13:56:00.005-06:00

Joel is the man! He has trained like no other this year and wanted to go under 4 hours and beat his best time of 3:56. Well, he started out of the gate to fast and by the time he got into town with 2 miles left he died. Not literally! He's still alive and kickin'. Well, not kickin'. Maybe shuffling. I am very proud of him and of his dedication. Right before he reached us at the finish line my camera battery died, literally. I always carry an extra battery but didn't put it in in time so, I don't have any actual running photos but I do have after photos:

Matty trying to help Kyle out.

Joel catching his breath with a finish time of 4:20.37. His 2nd best time!

John & Kristal doing great!

Wells Family Photo

Beckstrand Family Photo

Elder Beckstrand is home!

2011-09-29T21:03:00.003-06:00

It's been two very short years. Not a lot for us has changed. But for Daniel it's a whole new world. He served in Argentina and looks exactly the same but a little taller. He was able to fly into the St. George airport so we didn't have to go far. It was really fun to see him. Do you see Shayne's sign?

We were quite a sight.

Joel's brother and sis-in-law, Stephen and Katie (On the far left) flew into town and surprised us all. We haven't seen them for 4 years. It was a great reunion.

Daniel got home at the perfect time: Marathon and conference weekend, Josh's ordination and Taye's baptism all this month.

Needless to say, Shayne was very happy.

It's great to have him home!

My #1 Son is 12

2011-09-27T17:09:00.004-06:00

Happy Birthday Josh! Tomorrow is his real birthday but today I took him, George, David, Alex, Riley, Logan and Dex to Fiesta Fun to drive the Go-Carts and play golf.

They had a lot of fun. Then we went back to our place for pizza, oreo's and to play on the Wii. We celebrated today because tomorrow Daniel come home from his mission. So today is for Josh. We had oreo's because he'll have cake and ice cream tomorrow too. As part of Josh's birthday gifts we gave him a set of golf clubs and got him signed up for golf lessons from our friend Mike Sandberg 2 weeks ago.

He's been loving it and doing really well. He's watched Sloan golf and has always wanted to do it but we could never find an instructor until now.
Isn't this the cuetest picture. All these little kids' clubs. Josh is one of the oldest in the group.

The rest of his presents he'll open in the morning.
Happy Birthday Joshie or Squashua. I love you!

Relief Society Broadcast

2011-09-25T17:32:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was the General Relief Society Broadcast. It was amazing. If you want to read Pres. Uchtdorf's incredible talk click here.

We are truly blessed to have him in our church as a leader of God to help us know what we need to do to return to Him. His talk reminded me of a quote from Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley that I keep in my scriptures.

"I feel to invite women everywhere to rise to the great potential within you. I do not ask that you reach beyond your capacity. I hope you will not nag yourselves with thoughts of failure. I hope that you will not try to set goals far beyond your capacity to achieve. I hope you will simply do what you can do in the best way you know. If you do so, you will witness miracles come to pass."

I have had that in my scriptures for many years. It has brought me great comfort to know that I do not need to live up to what others think and expect. I only need to do what I can the best way I can. I hope to be able to instill that in my girls. Life is stressful enough. We need to remember that we are daughters of a King.

Pres. Uchtdorf's talk is much like this saying. It helps us keep an eternal perspective and not over do our daily life. Using the forget-me-not flower as a metaphor for his remarks, President Uchtdorf noted that although the flower is small in size, and easily unnoticed among larger flowers, it is still beautiful and vibrant. Feel free to read it in it's entirety regardless of your gender. Just because he said it in Relief Society it is still intended for all.

Spinning?

2011-09-14T10:51:00.002-06:00

First of all why is it called spinning? I'm not a spider trying to make a web. And why is the seat called a saddle? It's definitely not a horse. A real saddle is WAY more comfortable than that thing!

Today was my first spin class EVER, and maybe my last. My good friend Katie Cluff is the teacher and talked me into coming. My first thought was, "Have you seen my legs?" My legs are huge and very define. Not that they have any strength in them but they look super strong. They are my Grandma's and they are just for looks. I think the main reason they are like they are is to hold up our huge upper body. In track my coach used to tell me to lean far forward when I run so I have to run extra fast to not topple over. Anyway, I went. And it wasn't bad. The seat did take some getting used to. The man guy next to me, in a nice way, told me that it was because I didn't have enough "padding". It wasn't a compliment.

About half way through the solid brick room we were in started to STINK! Not just a little either. It was getting bad. They have a bunch of ceiling fans but all that does is move the stinky air around. Then I realized that I was contributing to the sweaty smell. GROSS! For those of you that know me well know that I hate the heat here because I hate to sweat. I don't mind it if I am exercising but if you are trying to look nice and there's a bead of sweat running down your back it just ruins everything. Well, I was a sweaty mess. It was a good thing Katie turned out the lights too. She couldn't see me sit down 90% of the time. I did pretty good but could not get my butt off the seat. Or as sweet Katie would say "up and out of the saddle." It was a really good cardio workout and I guess I'll go again. I'm just glad winter is getting closer so I can wear longer skirts and long pants again!

Baptism & Homecoming Dance!

2011-09-12T20:30:00.004-06:00

Vince's baptism was awesome! Shayne gave an amazing talk and didn't even cry. I thought she'd be a mess. I was.

Enrique said it was a good experience. He may not jump right into the font but one day he will remember this day and look back at it with new eyes and know how important it is.
This is us with Vince, Lily and Keona

Vince was confirmed the next day in sacrament meeting and it was great to see. Shayne and I were the only ones that went because Sophie gave a talk in our ward at the exact same time. So Joel took the boys to ours to support Sophie. Everyone said that her talk was great.

Right after the baptism Shayne and Madi changed into their dresses and headed straight to meet up with the rest of their group for dinner.

When she got home she said that it was the best dance so far. They danced forever. Most of the time they are at the dance for a half an hour then leave. She said they had the best group ever. Everyone was relaxed and comfortable and had a great time. I'm glad she hangs around such incredible people. I never have to worry.

Here is my Jr. year Homecoming dance picture with Jason Fisher. Back then it was a semi-formal which meant Sunday best. I guess gray Wranglers were Jason's Sunday best. Don't you LOVE the purple wagon wheel? I do!

Homecoming game

2011-09-10T14:09:00.003-06:00

O.K. let me start by saying the football games were great but it's what happened at half time that matters most.
Pine View played Dixie and it went like this: Pine View Touchdown, Dixie Touchdown, Pine View Touch down, Dixie touchdown, Dixie touchdown, Pine View touchdown, Dixie touchdown. There was absolutely no defense what so ever for either team but it was super fun to watch. At half time we crowned our Homecoming royalty and I walked over to the side to see better when All Of The Sudden.......here it comes.......BRETT ROBERTS came walking up the stairs followed by about 30 teenagers! Brett Roberts! He was nice enough to leave his seat and walk up to the top so his fans could talk to him. It was AWESOME! When I realized it was him I freaked out on the inside and then calmly went over to see what was happening. I asked him why he was here of all places and he said that his wife graduated 20 years ago from Pine View and they were watching the game as part of their reunion. I walked away and let the kids talk to him and texted Shayne like a maniac telling her to "Come here! Emergency! 911!" She came running up and asked what was wrong and I couldn't even explain it. It was pretty ridiculous now that I think of it but I was totally star struck by Brett Roberts. It was so funny. Once she figured out who I was talking about we found Sophie and Shayne tried to tell Sophie what was going on and she got all tongue tied too. It was crazy. So, I made the girls go up to him with me so I could take a picture and he was really nice.

Oh, by the way, I got my camera back from Timmy and it was a good thing because I was the only person with one. Other kids where trying to take picture's with their cell phones but no one had a flash and it was really dark out. Timmy is the kid kneeling in front of Shayne with the curly blonde hair and glasses. He was so excited that he got his picture taken with Brett and asked me for a copy of it. It was great!

If you have no idea who Brett Roberts is then go to You Tube and search for Kid History 4 and watch it. It's by far the best one. Then watch #6. I laugh so hard every time. I want to take partial credit for some of their fame. Kyle sent me an email one day with it saying that it was hilarious. He had gotten it from Lauri. It was so funny. I sent it to everyone I knew and posted it on Facebook a million times. The first time I saw it it had only 380 views. Now they have millions. It's so great. Check them out. It's very family friendly.

We ended up loosing the football game 33-35 but no one was really sad because it was such an exciting game to watch and even play. The boys did a great job and were so tired. Dixie and Pine View both showed great sportsmanship. I congratulated Nale' after it was over. It was a night to remember.

Now that was Pine View's fun night. Here is Desert Hills: It was their Homecoming game also. At half time they were up 32-0. BORING! Courtney was texting me keeping me update on their game when all the sudden I got this text that says, "Two guys just went streaking across our football field. Totally nude. Doing cartwheels."
Really? I was surprised and then I wasn't. If any school were to have streakers it would be Desert Hills. They have such a bad rep it's not even funny. My wonderful nephew Jaden goes there and is the Seminary President this year. He is amazing and has a lot of responsibility this year to set a good example. There is a lot of missionary work to do at that school. I always feel so bad for the good kids that go there because you never hear any positive things coming from that school when you know there's got to be some. They continued to win their game and by a lot but it's only a day later I don't remember how far they won by because I can only remember that their amazing game was tarnished by stupid kids. Crazy.

Homecoming week!

2011-09-08T17:24:00.005-06:00

This week is Homecoming week at Pine View High. It started off right with having no school on Monday for Labor Day. Tuesday was Paint the Town where the students go all around town painting store windows with Panthers Pride logo's and sayings. Yesterday was the P-raid and the Powder Puff Football game which Shayne played in. This is her and Madi pre-game before it got bad.

She was so fun to watch. She was one of the Captain's of the Sr. team. This is her at the coin toss. And I just want to say right now that Shayne gave my camera to Timmy Lunt to get the video off of it to make a Homecoming video and I still haven't gotten it back! So bare with the horrible picture's. Sophie's camera is all I had.

The Beckstrand came out in her and she was talking some major trash out there on the field. It was Jr.'s against Sr.'s and of course the Sr.'s won. At one point she was on the defensive line right across from the Jr. Student Body Pres. who is a friend of hers and she said, "Megan, if I were you I'd move." Needless to say she did.
Once again - crappy picture - Shayne is number 12.

This is her standing on the sideline waiting for her turn to go in on defense. Shayne can catch a football better than a lot of boys I know. The problem is they don't have a quarterback that can throw like a boy. So Shayne was on defense because she can run and she is tough!

This is post game when the boys where talking to them about how great they all are. Fun stuff!

Friday is the tailgate party and football game against none other that DIXIE High! We will win but, I love Dixie's coach. He's an old college brother of mine and friend of Joel's - Nale' Fakahua. Pine View's coach (Ray Hosner)is an old college friend of mine too. Not near or as dear to me as Nale' but it'll be fun to watch the two battle it out on the field. They battled a little in college too. On the field together for the SUU team and off the field in different frats. One from Sigma Nu and the other from Sigma Chi. Ah, the good old days.
Saturday is the Homecoming dance. Which Shayne is going to with her friend Kyle Wiggins. Who's Mom works with Joel at the BLVD. They have been in the band together and friends forever. It is also the day most of the students -including Shayne- take the ACT at the college. She also has VINCE LUSK'S baptism that night at 6pm! Woo Hoo! We are so excited for that. Vince's wife Lily has been in our lives ever since Shayne started swimming. We were even there when they got married. They are great friends of ours. Lily has always been LDS just not that active. Recently she started back up again and Vince felt the spirit right off the bat and now Shayne is giving a talk on Baptism at his baptism. She is bringing her date and Madi and her date. Madi is going with Enrique. I'm not sure if I've talked about Enrique before but he is another band geek and good friend. But not LDS. He and Kyle -who is LDS- are best friends and talk about our religion all the time. So naturally Shayne saw this as an incredible missionary experience. I love that girl! What a great example she is to all of us. It's like she is secretly trying to out do Daniel. So, we have a great weekend ahead of us. Watch for the next post of the Homecoming Dance and Baptism!

Labor Day at Navajo Lake

2011-09-05T19:52:00.003-06:00

My dear friend Carla called and invited us up to her cabin right on the edge of Navajo Lake up Cedar Canyon. It was gorgeous! The cabin had huge windows in the front that looked right onto the lake. We watched a bald eagle fly around looking for fish! She had put some peanuts on the railing on the wrap around porch so we could watch the Bluejays come get them. The were so blue! David loved their mohawks. This is the picture he drew of one.

Joel took the kids to the lake while we got dinner ready and they used their slingshots to see who could make it out further into the Lake. They were having a great time until they noticed some ducks swimming by. Then it turned into a game of who can hit a duck. No one did but Joel came closest. It was beautiful up there and so quiet. Carla, her husband Donald and I took a hike while the kids played games and blew bubbles while Joel took a quick nap. It was a perfect day. Thanks so much Donald and Carla for inviting us up. Let's do it again soon!

Thankful Thursday

2011-08-25T18:34:00.002-06:00

It's been too long since I posted a Thankful Thursday and I have so much to be thankful for. I cannot say enough how thankful I am for Dr. Chamberlain and all the nurses and staff at the hospital. Both hospitals. I am thankful for the incredible people in my ward that have come to my aide and even brought me Diet Coke and cookies to help me out of my slump. I am so thankful family and for their unconditional love and support. Always. No matter what.

Today I was reading my friends blog about her son and the trails they are going through. Her son has had on going problems for about 3 years. They've done millions of test and haven't come to a conclusion of why his health is so terribly bad. Well, after giving up on all Utah Dr.'s they heard of a specialist in Cincinnati that works with HLH. HLH is a life-threatening immunodeficiency. It is white blood cells that basically form in your bone marrow and travel through you body to fight off diseases and stops in one place, healthy tissue, and then starts to kills it. He's had numerous liver and kidney problems. They have had to fight it off with Chemo and do a Bone Marrow transplant. The poor boy is Josh's age. He just turned 12 two weeks ago. His story is amazing and though it is awful that he has to go through this huge trail, reading his blog has made me very thankful that all my kids had was meningitis.

Our prayers go out to him and his family as he fights the long road back to recovery. If you want to read about it you can go to www.kaelinbrazzeal.com.

Same Disease Different Child

2011-08-21T09:09:00.004-06:00

I know the Lord gives us trial so we can learn from them I just wonder what I missed the first time around that would cause this to happen to another child of mine. I would love input from everyone who reads this so that I can learn everything I can in hopes that I can save our family from more heart ache.

Ben came home from the first day of school and said that he didn't feel good. His head hurt and so did his stomach. Well, I figured he was nervous because this year he has 2 teachers and he is the kind of kid who clings onto 1. So I told him that everything would be ok and Facebooked his teacher from last year to see if she could tell me anything about his teachers. She assured that they were great and that he'd love the class. So I sent him to school the next day. Same thing. This time he had a worse headache. So I gave him a Tylenol. It seemed to help and when he went to bed he still had it. Wednesday morning he went to school feeling fine but came home crying. I gave him 2 Tylenols and had him lay down. They didn't even touch his headache. At quarter to 6 I had to go over to the school to do Back to School night with the PTA because I told them I'd do the membership drive. I gave him a dose of childrens liquid tylenol and told him that his Dad would be home in a half an hour, left him in Sophie's care and took my cell phone so they could call me if it got worse. Well, Joel and I had a co-ed softball game at 7:30 and when I got there Ben was there with Joel and he said he was doing better. Everything went well until 2 in the morning when he started throwing up. Up until then I was just hoping it was something else. ANYTHING else. Shayne threw up so much that her stomach muscles hurt for a week. Right then I knew. So I stayed up with him and when his stomach settled down I tried to give him some Tylenol for the headache and he threw it up.
Shayne's meningitis was viral and there was nothing they could do in the hospital except hydrate her and give her morphine. Shayne was so dehydrated that it took 11 bags of fluid to rehydrate her. Ben wasn't that bad yet and my mind raced on weather or not to take him to the ER. He wasn't near as bad as Shayne and her bill came to $9,000. We do not have medical insurance. I called Andy to come help Joel give him a blessing around 7am and he was here in a matter of minutes. Thank You Andy. As the morning rolled around I got everyone off to school, Joel went to work and I called JoEllen to see if she could pick David up at the ER if I needed her to. Of course she said yes and I went to pray. I told Heavenly Father that Ben needed some rest and that I was going to give him a Lortab to hopefully help this happen and that if he threw it up then I would know to take him to the hospital. So I gave it to him and it stayed down for about a half an hour which would be enough time for it to start to work but then he threw up. So, I got all ready to go and Ben had fallen asleep. Finally. So I didn't know what to do. He was getting some rest but he did throw up. So I waited. David and I went into my room to watch a movie so we wouldn't wake him up and we fell asleep. When Ben woke up I found that Joel was asleep on the bed with us. Ben had the worse headache yet so we left. I called JoEllen on the way and she pulled up right as we did.

The nurse in the Er thought that we were one of "those" kind of parents that think that just because one kid had it now every kid has it. I wanted to ring her neck. Especially when the spinal tap came back positive. The Dr. was really nice and didn't even think twice about doing it. Although he didn't let me stay and help like the last Dr did. This one made us leave and wait out in the waiting room. Joel was, of course, fine with that but I was a little mad to have to leave Ben. But they put him completely out so he wouldn't have needed me anyway.

While we were waiting for results Michael brought us Cafe Rio. Thanks so much Dad! I hadn't even noticed that I hadn't taken my medication that morning or eaten anything so I really needed some good food. After they found out that it was indeed meningitis they had a shuttle come pick him up and move him to the other hospital to the Pediatric Unit. That was new for us.

Joel went with him and I ran to Target to buy him a Teddy Bear. This kid LOVES bears. Then I joined them in his room. It was an isolated room like Shayne's but they didn't make everyone wear the smock and gloves, just the mask. By that time it was around 6pm. Everything went well after that. They gave him some good pain killers and had him all hooked up to everything. Joel stayed around for awhile then went back home to check on things and to get a change of clothes for me and Ben and my medication. Jan had brought dinner for the kids. Thanks Jan. I am truly blessed to have such great family members live so close. Joel came back around 9 with Josh. They stayed for an hour and then we went to sleep.

The nurses were great. They told Ben the next day that if he ate a good breakfast then they would let him play the Wii. He was excited for that. Although he told me he was afraid to eat because he didn't want to throw up again. He ate a little and she brought in this portable machine that had 2 sets of controllers and 20 games preloaded into it. It was AWESOME! He loved that it was mostly new games that he didn't have and that he didn't have to share. He played for about 3 hours straight. JoEllen came over to see how we were doing and brought her ipad for me to use. Which was great because I don't play the wii very well and I was sick of reading. Thanks JoEllen. Ben played until the nurses came back into give him more medicine and then he relaxed, watched TV and ate lunch. Elaine brought us a subway sandwich and some cantaloupe which was delicious. Thanks Mom. Around 3 he was up for games again and Kyson, Kobe and Zack all came to visit. They took turns playing the Wii with him. He loved it.

Then Shayne came and brought my kids and Madi. It was a party. Ben loved every second of it. Everyone took turns playing against him. When they all left around 5 the nurse came back in to give him another round of antibiotics and he finally slowed down enough to feel that he had over done it. So more pain meds and that night he slept so hard he snored. The night before he was up every hour and a half to use the bathroom (the IV was turned up to high) and then it took a half an hour to get back to sleep so neither of us got much sleep. The next morning Dr. Chamberlain came back to check on the labs and told us that the results to see if it is Viral or Bacterial were not back yet but that because Ben was given a 3rd round of antibiotic at 4:30am, while he was still sleep, that it would cover him for 24 hours and they would have the results within 11 or 12 hours and if it was bacterial then he would be covered until they could get him on a prescription antibiotic. So we were released around 11. We are home and he still has to miss school for the next week to let his body recover.

I went and bought him a new Wii game and he will be fine. I just don't know what lesson I was supposed to learn that I missed. I am extremely grateful to my family and neighbors who helped me out. Especially Kyson, Kobe and Zack who cheered Ben up by coming to visit. Grateful for my health and try to stay healthy. So incredibly grateful for Howard (Dr. Chamberlain) and his knowledge and friendship that I've been blessed with for around 17 years. Love my kids and Joel so much that I cry each time I even think about how blessed I am to have them.

I just feel like I missed something. If you have any ideas please let me know. I know that I am suppressing emotions this time around. I still haven't gotten over this happening to Shayne and I've decided to just not show any feelings at all otherwise I would fall apart and that wouldn't be good for anyone. So, if I seem cold for awhile when I talk about this it's because I feel I have to for now. It would probably be better if I just didn't talk about it. I can't let myself cry or I won't stop. I will however double up on my antidepressants and go on. Thank you all for all you do and have done for my family. Your friendship and love. I am eternally grateful.

First Day of the Last Year

2011-08-15T16:54:00.006-06:00

Back to School!!! Today was Shayne's first day of her last year. I've been dreading this day for 18 years. Her Student Body Pres. told them they had to wear their Student Council t-shirt the first day of school. Shayne was not happy. Why buy cute back to school clothes if you can't wear them the first day? So she wore her super high hot pink heels with hot pink ear rings. It was awesome! All of her guy friends were surprised. Shayne is known for always having the coolest lunchbox. This year is a holographic Mario Kart. It rocks! She said it was a great first day.

Sophie started at Pine View Middle (8th) and also had a great day. She found all of her classes and all her friends.

Josh started at Fossil Ridge Intermediate (6th) and didn't get lost. That school is huge and his classes are so far away from each other. They don't have lockers and only have 3 minutes between classes. He'll have a great time once he gets use to it. He and Alex ride the bus together and are each others support group. They even bought the same shoes without knowing. They call them their Pine View Shoes because of the colors. It was funny.

Ben is in 2nd grade at Washington Elementary. He has 2 teachers. Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Baker. When he told me who he had I though it was one person: Woodenbaker. One teaches in the morning and the other in the sfternoon. They've been tag team teaching for a couple years now and are fabulous.

David is in Kindergarten and has Mrs. Shelley. She is the head Kindergarten teacher and is amazing. It'll be a great year!

2011-08-14T19:25:00.001-06:00

This was the last time we could go before school starts. My kids and I and Zack, Madi and Enrique all went down to the river to go skimboarding.

It was Enrique's first time and he did a good job and gave it his best try. David did surprisingly well. I guess that's what happens when you have no fear. He had a hard time throwing it because it weighed as much as he did. But, he could jump on and ride it further than the older kids.

It was fun to watch. I'm more of a picture taker of activities than an actual doer. Skimboarding is fun but it always turns into a mud fight and then a trip down stream to the waterfall. I think this was Ben and David's first time under and through it.

We met up with Nick who had almost cut his finger off at work the day before so we didn't think he'd come. They all had a great time relaxing in the river.

It was a lot of fun and a good way to ring in the new school year. Tomorrow we start. My heart is both happy and sad. Happy for David and Sad for Shayne. For some reason I can't even think about this being Shayne's last year without crying. In fact, ever since her stay in the hospital I've struggled with holding back tears when I think of her at all. She is an amazing person with a huge future ahead of her to do whatever she wants. I think I'm mostly scared of what is in store for her. The trials of this swim season mostly. I just want her to be happy and I know she will. She is always so upbeat and brings everyone else up. She is on Exec Council this year and has already enjoyed it with all the prep to get ready for school to start. This school years blogs will be with a happy but heavy heart knowing it'll be her last. I can see that this blog took a different turn than started. I guess I'd better make the most of what time I have left with Shayne. Cherish your kids because they grow up and leave you.

Pine Valley Fun

2011-08-12T22:17:00.004-06:00

Summer's just not summer without a trip to the Wells cabin and a ride on the lawnmower with uncle Kyle.

Feeding the deer

Eating

And lounging around.

This year David met Jack. 2 peas in a pod. From the back you can't tell who's who.

By the end the day they were new besties! So cute!

Pioneer Day!

2011-08-12T19:38:00.006-06:00

Well the 24th of July has always held a place in my heart. When I was little my Dad used to bring us up to watch the parade in Salt Lake because either Jan was in it or he would have to drive the Miss Lehi float. We always loved it. Two times stand out the most in my mind:
#1 One time we were in Pioneer Park having breakfast(cherrios)and a homeless man came up and asked for food. My dad wasn't with us because he was already in line in the parade and my mom was brave and gracious and gave him all our left overs. It was scary and fun at the same time.
#2 Was 15 years later when two return missionaries, Mike Johnson and a certain gorgeous Joel Beckstrand, came to the parade with our family. I am pretty sure that was also the first day we held hands. :)
20 years ago I had my first Pioneer Day breakfast in the Vernon Worthen Park in St. George. The St. George East Stake always puts on a huge free pancake, ham and eggs breakfast. So that became our first tradition as a married couple.
Now that I am in Washington I have a another tradition. Our Stake (Washington Utah) always has a parade and carnival for the entire city. It was weird when I first heard that it was just our stake doing it but come to find out that it is a huge fund raiser and the kids love it and look forward to it every year.
When I was growing up in Lehi we would always have floats in our parades. Real floats. With pompoms, glitter, foam, floral sheeting, fringe, plastic paper and all the bells and whistles. So I was surprised when I saw Washington's idea of a float. A flat bed with kids in some costume just sitting. Maybe a prop or two and there would always be a sign so you would know what the heck they were supposed to be. Well, needless to say at first I was surprised that their would be a place would think that was ok. But I have come to learn that it's not about the looks. It's all about the kids just being in it. So, I now hold this po-dunk parade in a special place in my heart.
Our ward had a trailer pulled by a truck that was papered to look like a boat and it was by far the most "float" like I've seen in our little parade. My boys were on the trailer holding fishing poles and our sign said, "Hooked on our Heritage. Fishing for our Ancestors." It was darling. The Primary Presidency was dressed up and they all had gummy worms tied to the end of every pole. Josh rode his unicycle while holding his fishing rod. It was impressive.

This year Jan's ward primary did a Kazoo Band. It was awesome! She bought a whole bunch of nice kazoo's and led them with pride marching down the parade route in 100 degree weather. They played "pioneer children" which ended up sounding like a mass of mad bees. It was awesome!

After the parade we all went down to the carnival. Our Youth were in charge of the face painting booth. Sophie had a great time and they were busy from 10am to 2pm. Jan and I took the boys around to play some games and win some prizes. They did a little golf game, football throw, ring toss and participated in the races. It was a lot of fun but 112 degrees by noon. Jan left and took the boys home and I went over to help out with the face painting.

Later that evening for dinner we got KFC and went to the Hidden Valley Splash Park. The boys had more fun running through the sprinklers. It was a long but fun day!

Fun at the Splash Park

2011-07-21T19:00:00.006-06:00

Yesterday we had Taye and Kai for a couple hours because Holly was at girls camp and Brian was at work so we decided to make the most of it. We went down to Main Street and had some fun! Main street has slowly transformed into a family fun center. First they built a fountain for kids to run through then they added a little waterfall splash area. And just this month they added a carousel.

The fountain is always good for getting water up your nose

and the waterfall is a perfect resting place for taking some pictures.

And isn't there always a picture like this when it comes to kids and fountains? Can you see the little statue behind them that is squirting water?

This is our newly refurbished carousel. It's an older one that we bought from California and fixed up for us. I think it's very cute. And the rides are only .50 per kid. Perfect.

It was a fun day.

Swim Lessons

2011-07-21T18:17:00.004-06:00

Yeah for Ben, David and Evan! They all passed there end of level test in swimming. It's hard to think that Evan and David passed off anything because they were so wild the whole time but they did.

Maybe the teacher just wanted to get rid of them. I think we put them in a easier class than we should have. Ben was nervous about passing, not that he did bad but, I told him that he had to pass in order to do swim team next year. So now he is really excited for next summer.

Desert Stars 2011

2011-07-19T12:25:00.007-06:00

It's that time of year again. Desert Stars. Abby came down with the Lucero's to do the week long class. Isaac brought his friend, Guy and his cousin on Jenny's side, Lucy. The 5 of them had a great time together. Guy and Isaac stayed over night Thursday and I don't think they got any sleep at all but they still had a great performance.

JoEllen's 3 oldest kids and My 4 youngest all did Desert Stars 2 weeks later. It was funny to watch. They did a great job. I was especially proud of Ben. He really did well in the dances and paid attention. David and Evan were a different story. At one part they are supposed to show off some mad skills and so they both did "handstands". They really just put their hands on the ground and kicked their feet up. But, one time Evan got a little carried away and happened to fall over. He immediately jumped up, yelled "I'm otay!" and went back to dancing and singing. It was so funny. Brad just happened to be in town to see it and couldn't stop laughing. 10 minutes later, after he'd calmed down, you'd hear Shayne whisper, "I'm otay" and he'd start laughing again. They all had a great time. Thanks Aunt Jan for having such a wonderful program for us to all act out and not get in trouble for it.

I tried so hard to upload the videos of their performance but it won't let me. Sorry. Believe me when I say it was incredible!

Shayne's picture

2011-07-19T11:22:00.002-06:00

There is a spot up on Turtle Drive that you see the Temple in your rear view and side mirrors. One day on our way out to one of Joel's softball games Shayne said that she always wanted to take a picture of it and finally the other day she did. Isn't it awesome?

She had to put the words in because they are actually on the bottom of her mirror and it covered up the Temple. She sent it to the New Era to see if they wanted it for a new Mormon Ad. We'll see what happens. Shayne and I have already spread it all over Facebook and have gotten great comments. I am so proud of what a great example she is to everyone.

End of Softball

2011-07-19T08:24:00.004-06:00

Joel's men league softball is over. The tournament was last week and Joel had 5 boys out on home visits so they were short some players. So, Joel asked Kyle to play with them and Tom was in town so he invited him to play too. It was great except for the first game. In the second inning Tom went to catch a ball out in left center and his right hand got in the way and either broke his pinkie in two places or dislocated it at the top two knuckles. Either way it was totally deformed. Tom grabbed it and pulled the tip of it pack into place but couldn't get the other part of it back so he called time out and ran up to Kyle who yanked on it really hard and popped it back into place. I got a bag of ice and went into the umpires room and got some tape to tape his fingers together. I looked for a splint but couldn't find one. Tom was done. He iced it for the rest of the game.

Jenny and the boys didn't come for the game because they were getting ready to go see the Little Mermaid at Tuacahn and knew that if we won we'd have to play again right after and they'd get to see that game. But when they got there all they found was Tom icing his finger that was already starting to bruise. I felt so bad. I did go to the concession stand and find a plastic knife that we ended up using for a splint. Needless to say they lost that game.

Joel's team won the next game and lost the third. So out of 6 teams they took 4th. Which was amazing considering they lost their first 3 games of the season by the 15 run rule. They should be very proud of themselves.

Kyle said he was so sore the next day because he hadn't played in such a long time. I think we need to get a family team going every year so the men can have fun playing and we can have fun watching.

Summer Swim Meets

2011-07-18T23:25:00.006-06:00

Well, Shayne had to cancel all of her summer swim meets but Sophie had 3 and she did a great job. Here are some pictures from the Hurricane meet. I love this one.

It took me forever to get a picture like this of Shayne. I have a better camera now.

This is her relay team

and her backstroke.

Sophie and George swim for the Dixie College Narwhals. This year Emily is on the swim team too. It's been fun to see how much they are learning and how fast they are going.

Elder Beckstrand #2

2011-07-18T23:08:00.004-06:00

The 2nd Elder Beckstrand out right now is Jacob! Before he left for the MTC this last Wednesday he was able to work in the Baptistery at our temple on Thursday's. So my girls made it a priority to go each Thursday so he could baptize them. The last day Shayne had to work but since the Johnson's were in town for reunion we took them and Emma. It was Emma's first time doing baptisms for the dead. It was really neat. I dropped them all off and went upstairs to meet up with Elaine and Debra to do more temple work and as soon as we were done I went back to get the teenagers and they were just getting out. Perfect timing. Here is a picture of Jaden, Austin, Bryce, Chase, Sophie and Emma outside the temple.

I am so glad Jacob is such a good example to his cousins. He was set apart Tuesday night and they left Wed. morning to drop him off at the MTC. I am positive that the people of Japan will love him as much as we do. Jacob will be an amazing missionary and we look forward to hearing all about it.

BFR 2011

2011-07-12T16:31:00.012-06:00

Happy 4th of July and the start of the Beckstrand Family Reunion. We went up to Pine Valley and stayed in a cabin we rented from the 4th-6th. It was gorgeous weather and the house and yard were so much fun. They had it all. 2 t.v.'s just for video games. 4 different systems and over a hundred games. Needless to say, that is where you could find the boys, especially Alex, night or day. They also had a pool table and theatre room. Outside there was a zip line for little kids,

ping pong table,

volleyball net and tons of room for games, tents and all around fun.

Of course there was arm wrestling

and hangin' out with the cousins.

This years theme was, "Prepare yourself in every needful thing". Everyday Garrett would give 2 little lessons on being prepared in every way not just with your food storage. It was really good especially for the teenagers who thought that being prepared was only for the parents.

When we first got there Kellie and Garrett had us split into groups and we were with that group the entire reunion. Which of course makes it fun because of the competitive streak that runs through the Beckstrand Boys bloodstream. Each group had equal amounts of little kids and I really enjoyed seeing how the big kids dealt with that. As parents we deal. Teenagers usually run. But I loved watching Jaden help Ben with every relay race and Bryce helped David and Kai. I think of how Joel always talks about how he looked up to Brent and Mark when he was little and know that our little boys will do the same to the teenagers.

This is our Green Team.

On Friday morning Garrett & Lance took Joel, Me & kids, Kristal, John and kids, Brian and his boys, Grandpa, Ashley and Erica fishing up at the Pine Valley Reservoir. Joel, Shayne and Sophie caught their first fish! EVER! Ben caught 6. David didn't fish. He had fun catching everyone's as they pulled them out of the water. It was awesome! 24 fish in all. Garrett spent time teaching Josh how to gut and clean the fish and whatever else he needed to pass off part of his fishing merit badge.

Joel brought his Eskimo Blanket from school and we had a blast. What was the funniest was listening to Grandma's gasps each time someone was flung into the air.

From the look on Debra's face makes you think she went the highest. But...

It was amazing that everyone was there except Daniel and Stephen's family. What a fun time and the memories made will last forever!

Vegas Baby!

2011-07-02T09:17:00.006-06:00

Wednesday we took 12 of our Young Women to do baptisms at the Las Vegas Temple.

If you know me then you know I have an obsession with the youth doing Baptisms. I'm pretty sure stems from when I was in YW and we only had the Provo Temple to do baptisms. But we had to share it with ALL of the other youth in Utah County down to Washington County. So we were able to do them once every 2 years. So if you were lucky you did them twice while you were a youth. I wasn't that lucky. I was sick one of the times so I only got to go once. Now we have the St. George Temple and we get to take the youth once a quarter. Which still isn't enough for me. We make it the most important birthday party ever when my kid each turns 12. I have a whole talk about this subject and will post it later. As for now:

9 of our YW were able to do baptisms. The other three were non-members. The Vegas Temple is a lot different than ours but the one thing I loved was that it had a huge entrance where everyone could come in (even in your cut off shorts and t-shirts) to sit and read the Ensign or New Era and they even have a large atrium when they could walk around and sit while they were waiting for us. It was nice to not have them sitting outside in the heat thinking that they couldn't be a part of what we were doing.

The rest of us went downstairs and did baptisms. It was really fun to see how laid back and reverent it was there. Our St. George Temple seems to get a little on the, Hurry up and get it done, side. Which is fine. Our Temple is very busy and they hurry to accommodate everyone. We were the only ones in the Vegas Baptistery. The 1st Counselor in the Temple Presidency came down and talked to us for 15 minutes before we even started. It was really neat. Randy Turek, Stefanie's husband came to do our baptizing. It was nice to have a priesthood member with us. We had one Young Woman who this was her 1st time ever doing baptisms. It was fun to watch her.
This is Angie Smith our YW Sec., Jen DeMille and Sarah DeMille our 1st Counselor. I love them all so much. They always keep me laughing.

While everyone got dressed I went back up stairs to see the other girls. They were patiently waiting. I went up and sat next to one of them who asked me if she could come to church with me on Sunday. I, of course, said yes and invited her cousin who was one of the other girls to come too. Shayne had invited them both last week but they declined. So maybe this week. We always have kids that do not belong to us sitting with us. We love it. That's why we have moved to a center pew. I am so impressed with the youth of the world today. They are a great example to their parents. They come to church by themselves and stay for all 3 meetings. I am so glad that I have the calling to help them out.

SIDE NOTE -
Since Jacob got his mission call he has been working in the Temple on Thursdays from 9am-2pm. So Shayne and Sophie have been there every week so he can baptize them. This week I took Sophie and Chase. I think this is Chases first time in the blog so I will tell you who she is. Chase is Debra's 12 year old daughter. They are here for our Beckstrand Reunion this week. So it was just the three of us because Shayne had to work. When we got there the lady at the front desk said that Jacob had just called and couldn't make it because his car broke down. So we did our baptisms anyway and when I saw Jacob later that night at dinner (all of the adults and Jacob went out to eat as part of reunion) I told him that we missed him. Next week we are taking Jaden, he had basketball and couldn't come, Ashley, she was at girls camp, Emma, just turned 12 and didn't have her recommend yet but will get it this Sunday, and Austin and Bryce (Debra's boys) were at a football camp. It will be a great experience. Jacob has been an excellent example to all of his cousins.

Back to Vegas-
After the Temple we went to Ethel M's chocolate factory to see them make all sorts of yummy things. It was very interesting and didn't take long. Then we went to Randy's sister's house to swim and have a B-B-Q. The girls loved it.

They had chicken fights, played basketball,

went down the slide and squirted everyone.

They had a great time. It was hard to get them out of the water when it was time to go.

The whole trip was wonderful. I know it'll be one that they'll remember for a long time and will hopefully give them a desire to go back to the temple soon. I wish we could take them to a different Temple every week. Utah now has 13 working temples and 2 more under construction. Our next closest ones are in Manti and Monticello both a couple hours away. But we are truly blessed to have ours so close. I try to go as often as I can for fear that I may have to move somewhere where it takes longer than 10 minutes to go and I won't be able to take advantage of feeling the spirit and helping those who are waiting patiently for their work to be done.

I hate Vehicles!

2011-07-02T08:49:00.002-06:00

My Dad has a saying that I've adopted. "When I die and wake up to see cars I know I've gone to Hell." I can't stand our Blue Van. It is always falling apart. Nothing huge but just light after light not working, blinker after blinker, tire after tire and now for some reason the light cover on the back decided to melt off. Here we was most recent problems:

The day before girls camp I found a screw in my tire. It wasn't flat but was leaking. Went to get it fixed and they showed me on a different tire that the wire was showing in one little spot that I didn't see so I had to buy a new tire.

Went to the Dentist on Tuesday. Went in, came out 2 hours later and my tire was so flat that it was sitting on the rim. I couldn't see anything wrong with it. But with the kindness of an old stranger he helped my put the spare on and off I went to get it fixed. The cause of the problem - It MELTED! That's it. No hole, no leak, nothing. It just melted. Had to buy a new one.

So now I have 4 brand new tires. So I think I'm done having car problems but, no.

I took our YW to the Vegas Temple the nest day, Wednesday. Had an amazing time. (See next blog) But on the way home right before I got into the gorge I looked in my side mirror to see my light cover flapping in the wind. I nearly slammed on my brakes and pulled of the road and grabbed it. It was hanging on for dear life with 1 inch of adhesive. The problem - It MELTED! The stupid black glue holding it on just melted in the heat and it was falling off. What the heck! Really? I didn't think it was that hot of a day in Vegas. 105 probably but that's not bad. It was windy so it felt good.

So the moral to my story (complaint) is this:
The Lord does watch out for us. If I had taken my van up to Girls Camp without seeing the screw in it for sure the tire would have been flat and the worn one may have blown out. Maybe on the way down Cedar Mountain and killed us all. The Melted tire would have definitely melted in Vegas and ruined our beautiful experience with my YW. As for the Light cover, I think He threw that in just for fun. Lucky Me!

LSP Reunion in A.F. Canyon!!!

2011-06-27T17:03:00.004-06:00

I LOVE this reunion! We only have it every 2 or 3 years and when we do it is AMAZING! My Dad has an older Sister Pauline (aunt Polly - Lucero's). When my Dad was 4 his Dad died of Tuberculosis form working in the coal mines and left my grandma alone to raise these 2 beautiful kids. 8 years later she married Harold Schow and a year after that she had a baby girl named Barbra (Aunt Barb - Peck's). Harold died not long after that and she was alone again never to remarry. Well, from that 1 amazing woman there are 102 people that are members of our family. 3 of which are no longer living. Out of the 99 people we had 76 people there. It was incredible! All from the oldest ( left to right, not from oldest to youngest - Aunt Barb, Aunt Polly, My Mom and My Dad)

to the youngest (Adams twins Allie and Ethan) who are darling!

76 of us up American Fork Canyon having the time of our lives, freezing to death, but doing it together. We got up there Saturday the 18th just in time for dinner. We would have been up sooner but the girls and I were still up in Hatch. We got home from Girls Camp at noon and jumped in the shower while Joel and the boys unloaded and reloaded the van. Then we got back in all clean and ready to go camping again for another 4 days. Sunday it rained and rained and rained. So we ate breakfast and went down into town to dry sleeping bags and clothes and play games at Aunt Barb's. It was really fun. The little kids played whiffleball in the front yard in the rain and the rest of us stayed in.

We had dinner and around 7pm the rained completely stopped and we headed back up the canyon. We made a big fire and talked about Granny Schow and told stories that we remembered about her. Jan wasn't able to be there so she wrote up a little thing and had me read it to everyone. I cried like a baby. Jan did a play on my grandma's life about 10 years ago. It is called Breathless. When she was writing it she asked my Aunt Polly if she had any information on Granny that she could see. Well, Aunt Polly pulled out Granny's journal from 1977-1981. Jan kept it. I pulled it out at the reunion and we all had a great experience looking back on her life and ours through her eyes. Her journal wasn't much to her. She just talked about the weather, her blood sugar and weight and the family. But, every page was extremely special to us. Shayne and I are now in the process of interpreting that journal (sometimes her hand writing was hard to read) so that we can give everyone a copy of there own to love and cherish. Like we do her.

Monday was a gorgeous day! We played softball,

Used Joel's Eskimo blanket - Cinco (Phillip) has the new record for the highest throw.

Painted fingernails,

Braided hair - Jaxson-

Had a moose come into camp,

and of course played horseshoes.

It was so much fun. We had a great time just relaxing. Some people went down to the reservoir to fish for awhile while the rest of us played games or colored with the little kids - thanks Shayne and Katie. It was so nice to just sit and talk and not have to have things scheduled or lessons to do or go to. Girls Camp was great but when it comes to family, time is needed to just sit and enjoy each others company. You can bond so much by just talking to each other. Especially with those who you don't see very often. I can hardly wait for another 2 or 3 years till we all get together again.

Girls Camp!

2011-06-26T17:52:00.005-06:00

Our Washington Utah Stake Girls Camp this year was June 15th-18th. Here is a picture of our wonderful 5th Ward.

I am just writing about it now because I have been super busy. We went up to the Wilson's property in Hatch again because Cedar Mountain had too much snow still. Well, I love Hatch. I think that Girls Camp is amazing every year. Not because of where it is but because of the spirit and closeness it brings to God and to each other.
As soon as we got there we found 3 different snakes, all harmless Mom, and Bro. Allen kindly moved them to a different location.

The first night there we had Katie Cluff come up and give a Fireside about her experinces when she was a YW and how it changed her life. It was so good for those girls to hear that they need to hold strong to the gospel and to help all those around them do the same.

The Wilson's have this great homemade waterside that the girls and leaders had fun sliding down. This is our Stake YW President, Renee Cram. She is in our ward and we love her!

We had lots of crafts, games, singing, scripture reading and lessons on how we are Princess's because our Father is the King and how to get our Happily Ever After. It was amazing!
Our ward was White, FAITH. My lessons was about frogs and how sometimes we have to have faith that if we "kiss a frog" things will get better. Are we willing to give up Better for Best? Then we made a frog to hang out door knob and on the back wrote F.R.O.G. Fully Rely On God. Faith is to fully rely on God and know that if you are doing what he asks then everything will work out. Then I gave them all bracelets that had F.R.O.G. on it with a cute little frog. F.R.O.G. is the new W.W.J.D.

We did lots of certifying and we learned of a new app on my phone that if you hold it up to the night sky and line it up with a star it will not only tell you what star that is but will show you every constellation including the ones that we can't see that are on the other side of the earth. It's awesome! The 2nd year girls had to do a flag ceremony and they did a wonderful job.

This years YW theme is the 13th Article of Faith so every day we were seeking a way to find our Happily Ever After. Friday was seeking Purity and President Ellsworth and Bro. Koeven were the Sesame Street Martians helping a girl know what was pure and what wasn't. It was Hilarious!

Our Stake Presidency is incredible. On Saturday morning they and Brother Lewis all spoke and each one talked about a different Princess and sang a fun little song to go along with it. Bro. Koeven's was Snow White's "Once Upon A Dream." Bro. Lewis talked about Enchanted and sang "How do you know that He loves you?" It was darling. Pres. Ellsworth didn't want to sing and ended up singing a tiny bit and talking about Princess Bride and how Wesley always said, "As you wish", and how the girls should be looking for there prince to be a worthy priesthood holder that will love her like the princess she is and take her to the Temple. It was so neat to see them talk to the girls and see the girls faces light up. They are truly called of God to help out our stake.

There is so much more to talk about but I will have to stop and leave you with these 2 pictures. The first one is of Shayne and I with Sophie in the Background. We were just goofing around at first to get a good picture and then she moved into the background which made for a funny picture. Well, funny for me and Shayne but not for Sophie. She looks sad. Hahaha! The next picture is the 3 of us on a swing there at camp. I LOVED being there for the second year in a row with both my girls. I know that this will be my last year with them. Unless, I get called to be the Ward Camp Director and Shayne is still around next summer. We've learned in this family that you cannot make plans for your life because we don't know what the Lord has in store for us. All we can do is to live righteously so He can use us for whatever he needs us to do.

USG Basketball

2011-06-26T14:23:00.004-06:00

The Utah Summer Games are afoot in Cedar City.

Every year Joel runs something, Shayne swims and Brian plays basketball. This year Joel and Shayne bowed out because of the Shelton Family reunion but we were back in time to go watch some of Brian's games. Brian's team was packed with collegiate talent and they made it to the finals where they played against another team from St. George that they play against all the time and are friends with. Brian's team lost by 1 point. Afterwards we got dinner and brought it up to this amazing park called Park Discovery. It's so cool. The kids played for at least an hour and played tag with the adults. It was great fun.

John also did the triathlon at the Summer games and came in 3rd in his age group and somewhere around 30th over all out of 250!

Officially a teenager!

2011-06-24T11:09:00.003-06:00

Sophie turned 13 yesterday! Woo Hoo! She spent it in Lehi with her grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins.

It was also the start of the Lehi Round-Up and the Stock Parade goes past my parents house every year so they always have a BIG b-b-q and play loud music and have ALL of the friends and family over to watch the parade. This year was the same except they had a birthday sign and balloons for Sophie as well. Sophie said that since no one throws candy in the horse parade, Aunt Barb sat up on the porch and threw candy at all the kids from there. "It was so much fun!" was Sophie's quote. Then they all went to the Rodeo later that night. She had a way better birthday up there than she ever would have down here. I'm glad she had fun.

More Baseball!

2011-06-10T18:32:00.003-06:00

The youth in our stake do not have enough boys or girls to have individual teams so we have combined to have co-ed softball teams. Since Shayne is still out of commission we have her pitch. When she hits she has to get to first base on her own and then we have someone run for her. Sophie is our first baseman and does a great job. We had a lot of girls that didn't want to play but after our first game they saw how much fun it was and now we have a whole team of girls and 1 boy.

Here are some better pictures of Joel in his awesome new stripped pants.

Joel is usually a first baseman but with this team they put him wherever they are lacking some talent. Last week he pitched and this week he was outfield. Obviously.

Safety Town

2011-06-10T15:08:00.003-06:00

St. George City has held Safety Town for as long as I can remember. It is a 2 week day camp that teaches kids that are just going into or coming out of Kindergarten. They learn all about Ambulances, Bus Safety, Bike Safety, Fire Safety, Stranger Safety, When to call 911, What to do when you see a gun, Crossing the road, Dog safety and that police officers are your friend. Here are a couple pictures of David and Evan having fun at Safety Town.

Basketball Camp

2011-06-10T14:54:00.003-06:00

This week Ben and David had basketball camp at our Rec Center.

I figure they are Beckstrands and will eventually learn to play so I'd better get them into it now so they can learn the basics before the the violence sets in.