SUU vs Weber State Football

On Saturday night SUU and Weber State played each other at SUU for the playoffs.  This is the furthest that SUU has gone in decades and we had already beaten Weber during the regular season.  It was super exciting and the place was completely sold out!  We went up and had a tailgate party with all of our friends and then sat by them for the game.  Ruben Tongisala, Nale and Oscar Fakahua, Joel Wilson and Lawerence sang the National Anthem.  They were amazing!  In college they had a singing group called Brown Sugar.   It was like they hadn't missed a day, even though it had been over 25 years! 

 This is Ruben's helmet from the 90's.  Oh man did we have fun.  As we pulled up he had Tone Loce playing and then more awesome late 80's early 90's music.  It was so great!  Oscar was on the BBQ grill making some amazing ribs and teriyaki chicken. There was a ton of food.  Best tailgate ever!

  Good friends, Good times!

 Then we went over to get ready for the game.  Candice, Ruben's wife asked Joel to record them signing the National Anthem.  It was funny because he acted like he was making a documentary.  It was great!

 This is them warming up.   With Jen and Candace standing by and Joel recording it all.

 I was looking at a picture that Joel sent me when they started singing so I didn't get it all but here's what I did get.  It was incredible. 

Then the team came out and the game got started.  We ended up losing but it was still so much fun to be there with life long, steadfast friends. 

 I was able to get Thor to come over and take a picture with him. I told him how lucky he was to have the uniform that he does because in 90-91 I had a horribly big costume that was so hard to move in.

 

 I miss getting picture's with the kids who thought I was the bomb!

Michael and Scott McClean's Fairytale Christmas!

The best play so far for Tuacahn!  I had read the book and wondered how in the world they were going to adapt it onto the stage.  They preformed it in the high school auditorium and it was OUTSTANDING!  The actors were great and the design and lighting were incredible.  We were the test audience.  We laughed so hard.   I can't wait to go back and see it when it is fully up and going.  Tuacahn plans on doing it every year and we are planning on making it a tradition to go see it every year.  Of course, Tuacahn had all their lights up.  It looked beautiful!  And we had our first of 2 Christmas miracles while we were there.  #1 Joel found the closest possible parking space!    My dad would be so proud.

 This year Tuacahn put in a ice skating rink.  THANKS  BRAD!  It's a plastic ice, just like in Disneyland when they put up Olaf's skating rink.  It is really weird.  It's warm and if you fall you don't get wet!  We didn't go skate but we are planning to this weekend.  

 

 I love this picture because it looks like there is snow on the hillside.

 We had a little time to kill before the show started so we checked out the gift shop.  It's always good for a laugh.  I couldn't afford a piece of lint from that place.  I don't know how they stay open.  I took a picture of the ATM machine because it was Fancy!  Just like this shop.  It should be the first indicator of how this gift shop is.   See the fancy peacock next to it?

 They did however have the cutest Santa's in the world.  They were about 18" tall and each one cuter than the next.  They were on sale for 89.99 each.  Down from 129.99.  If they were $20 bucks I'd buy one or all three.   

 I love this one.

 Then we went out and every single person was gone.  It was weird for a Friday night.  But I guess if Santa leaves so do the people.  So we sat in his chair and took our own picture.

 Then Brad came and got us.  We walked into the auditorium and sat down on the 3rd row.  They were still fixing a few things but it was incredible to just see the projections.  Brad had hired his best buddy from Disney, Jon Infante to do the lighting and projection.  It was fantastic with Brad's set design! 

 When they closed the curtain they even had this great projection on it and the snowflakes danced all around.    After that the show started and I couldn't take any more picture's so you'll have to go watch it for yourself. 

 On the way out we had Christmas Miracle #2. David had fallen asleep in the last 1/2 hour of the show and was tired so Ben gave David a piggy back ride to the van.  This is HUGE!  The only way that they touch each other, usually, is to hit or trip each other.   It has been a hard year for those two.  I think that as Ben gets more comfortable with himself, he'll start being nicer to others.   I just wish that would happen now.

Canyon View Invite

CRAZINESS!  We went up to SUU to watch Josh's swim meet and Canyon View had invited twice as many schools as first thought.  They ended up with over 600 swimmers instead of 300.  Because of it, they had to start an hour later so that everyone had a chance to warm up.  It would have been nice to know this info before we left because Joel wasn't able to come because he was coaching David's basketball practice.  BUT...if Dani would have shot us and email we could have planned better.  C'est la vie.
Josh's really did great but on his 200 free he missed 3 walls!!  At one point he had to scull backwards to find the wall.  It was horrible.  His time however was decent.  It was reassuring that if and when he does it flawlessly, he will break a new personal record.  Shayne and Mataya went up with me and we had to leave right after he was done in order to get back in time to go out to Tuacahn.  That will be the next blog.  Don't miss it.  It was awesome!!!
The next morning we had so much going on that we decided not to go up to Josh's meet.  Apparently we are bad luck because when we aren't there he does break records.  He swam in the 200 free relay and did the 100 backstroke and got personal records in both.  We were very happy.  So was he.  The one thing that none of us were happy about were these BUTT UGLY shirts!  Hurricane was lucky enough to break away from the TRIDENT group of swimmers and so we were stuck with Desert Hills.  We LOVE the Desert Hills kids.  They are our family.   HOWEVER, we hate that we are bonded by chains to each other.  The feeling is mutual.  They don't like arrangement either.  So Dani designed a new t-shirt and now calls the team, THUNDERCATS.   Well to pluralize cats means that you have more than one team with a cat name.  That is why we wanted Thundercats while we were with Hurricane because we are the Panthers and they are the Tigers.  But now we are only a Panther and Thor.  This shirt reminds us all of He-man and his cat, Battlecat, that he rides around.  We definitely don't want to be known as Thor's ride.

 Riane Hall braiding Josh's hair. 

 Shayne, always the coach.

Aunt Boydine

Our beloved Aunt Boydine Daniels past away.  She had some health problems and with her arthritis she had a hard time recovering.  She was only 80 years old and we will dearly miss her.  Within the last year they had sold their home to Mark and Denise Wade and moved up to be closer to Marty and Liz so they could help take care of her.  The stairs in that house were horrible for her.  She died peacefully, at home, surrounded by loved ones.
 

The funeral was lovely.  The kids talked and the the bishop closed with some great remarks about how happy Aunt Boydine always was.  I know she enjoyed the funeral.  We all did.  We laughed and cried.  Afterwards we went to the cemetery where Marty dedicated the gravesite and some people gave remarks on their favorite memory of Aunt Boydine.  It turns out that she knew all of us before we were all a family.  She was friends with Diana from school which is how she met Larry.  She was Liz's boss before Marty even came into the picture.  I knew her from SUU before I ever even knew who Joel was.  She was a big reason that we all turned out together.  Aunt Boydine was cremated so there wasn't a viewing and the burial spot was small.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that she was right next to Kadin.  It filled my heart with warmth when I saw it.  I knelt down by him and cleaned off his picture and said hi.  Makayla had just put a bouquet of flowers there the day before.  I felt the spirit so strong when I thought about seeing them both again someday and what fun they must be having.  Makayla still has not giving birth to Arlo.  I told her that Kadin isn't done playing with him yet.  It will be a sad day for him and a joyous one for us when he finally lets go and Arlo comes to stay with his mom.