24th of July

The 24th was traditional. 7am breakfast in the Vernon Worthen Park with the St. George East Stake, P-raid and carnival in Washington from Washington Utah Stake. Every year that I can recall the St. George East Stake does a morning breakfast on the 24th along with pioneer games for the kids. It's a great way to start off the day. Joel's Dad is in the Stake Presidency so we didn't feel too much like outsiders going this time, even though Joel grew up in that ward and we lived in that ward for 7 or 8 years ourselves.

After breakfast and chatting with old friends, we came back to Washington to hurry and get the kids on the float and head to our spot on the parade route. We ALWAYS sit on the grass in front of the post office. That way everyone knows, especially the kids, where to find us. The parade was short this year and our kids where right in the middle of it. David and Ben road on the "Float" and Josh and his friend Logan Scoresby rode there unicycles. They were great clowns. They had squirt guns and had a fun time.

I put FLOAT in quotes because they are really just a trailer or a flat bed truck with some decorations on them. Which is great don't get me wrong but I grew up where it was a MAJOR deal to have the best ward float. We would start in January to get ready for the end of June Round up parade. They were amazing, breathtaking and incredibly unique and creative! I am going to look for some old pictures. I know Paula has some pictures of recent years since she and my cousin Melissa have done some of the best ones I've seen.

After the p-raid we went across the street to the park for some carnival games, food and entertainment. Each ward is in charge of 3 booths. Our Young Women were in charge of the Cake walk, the Young men were in charge of the tossing games and our High Priest were in charge of doing scones which I didn't understand because it was 105 degrees. Who'd want a hot scone in that heat? Anyway, the boys had fun getting a bunch of prizes and doing all the games. Ben even did one of the races. It was a lot of fun and a great tradition that we will carry on and on and on.

Water Fun!

This summer Sophie, George, Emma and Alex were all on the Dixie College Swim Team. They are the Narwhals. This weekend is the championships in Mesquite but last weekend we had a big swim meet/B-B-Q. It was a lot of fun.


























A couple of days before that we went to the Hidden Valley Splash Park. It was awesome! 3pm and we had the place to ourselves. I have no idea why it was deserted. The Splash Pad's in the city were made so we could actually go outside at 3pm in the summer. We had a great time.

Desert Stars!

Every Summer Jan, Andy, Myself and a collection of talented students do a theatre program for kids ages 6-14. It is 3 hours long and consists of 1 hour of singing, 1 hour of Acting and 1 hour of dance. At the end of the week they put on little show for all of the parents. Well, my kids have done it every year and this year David decided to join in. He is only 4 this year but surprised us all. I didn't think that he'd even get on stage. But he did. Check him out.



Special thanks to Natalie, Crystal, Selina and Chris. You guys Rock!

Youth Conference

Washington 5th Ward Youth Conference started off with our service project. We were helping Shawn Hirschi build picnic tables to give to the fair grounds. It was fun racing the boys to see who would finish first. The girls did, of course and ours was painted better!












After we had a big water fight and water games then went home to get ready for the rest of Youth Conference. Later that afternoon we went up to Pine Valley and stayed in Bro. Allen Gardner's families cabins. The boys had one and the girls had thew other.





We had some amazing speakers. Daniel and Katie Cluff spoke on self improvement and putting on the whole armor of god. Karice Shimbeck talked about public speaking and how to give a good talk especially because some of us were going to have to talk in church about our experiences. We had a guest speaker talk about her nephews and there struggle with a childhood disease and how they stayed strong through there adversities. We also had a question and answer panel on dating. The three couples were Daniel and Katie Cluff, Christian and Molly Edwards and Stacey and Katrice Shimbeck. The kids loved it. We also had a Walk With Christ where the kids went to 5 different stations and got a little treasure to remember what they were told.

We played TONS of games and really got to know each other well.

Happy 20th!

Today is Elder Daniel George Beckstrand's 20th birthday! Here are some pic's of him growing up. This first one is my favorite because it shows how long I've been in his life. ALWAYS! It's been so much fun to watch you grow up and turn into the man you are now.







WE LOVE YOU DANIEL! Have a great birthday and make some new memories.

Beckstrand Family Reunion

We unfortunately missed the Beckstrand Family Reunion because we were in Lehi but we did get to see Debra and her family before
they left. There is never a reunion without a puzzle or 10. Something the Beckstrands excel at to the point that it becomes a competition. I remember one year Brian and Jennifer doing the same puzzle and being timed to see who could do it the fastest.


Here is a picture of the little kids playing Nertz. And of course we had to get a picture of the big kids but it wasn't the same without Daniel in it. They figured out that they won't be back together until the summer of 2013 right after Jacob gets home from his mission and just before Jaden and Austin leave.



My little boys like to wrestle with Bryce and all of the kids, big and small, LOVE to do thumb wars with Uncle Pat. So even though we weren't able to spend a lot of time with them it was good to get together for a day to see everyone. We did go to a Road Runner baseball game with Austin and he came over and watched movies one night because he and Shayne are close in age and Shayne has cute friends. But it was fun to see all of the Johnson's. We hope to be able to schedule things better next year and get to spend more time with them.


We'd love to see Stephen and Katie more often but North Carolina is not a couple hours away. We only get to Lehi twice a year and it's only 3 1/2 hours. We give them our love and get to keep updated by Katie's blog : http://thebeckstrands.blogspot.com/ Check it out if you can. It's super cute. Katie does a great job!

4th of July weekend - Friday & Saturday

Wow this has been a crazy week. Shayne went up to Lehi on Wednesday because she had a swim meet Thurs-Sat in A.F. We came up on Friday just in time to watch her. She did a great job. All of the swimmers did. To pass the time between races Tim drew tattoos on everyone with a washable maker. It was fun.

Saturday morning we went to Provo to see the Hot Air Balloon festival. It was amazing! Then that night we camped out at Thanksgiving Point to watch Lehi's fireworks. They were fun but what was funner was watching everyone freeze! It was so cold and windy. I thought it felt great since we had just left 105 degrees the day before.