a little school spirit!

She didn't go to school looking like this today. It was pep assembly day - Juniors vs Seniors, a lot of smack talk going on.
Melanie has painted her body no less than 4 time this school year, there have probably been well over a dozen times that a costume of some sort has been created for school attire. And there is often a tray of food being prepared for someone's birthday or the lunchtime courtyard potluck lunch. I've never had to worry about her grades, but when I realize how much socializing is going on at school, I sometimes wonder when she is getting educated!

brigham city fort

A few months ago, my brother sent me a link to an article and video in the news about a friend of ours from high school, Gene Hancock, being involved in restoring and renovating a pioneer site near Winslow AZ. It was part of the first LDS communities settled in Arizona in the 1870's. Here's the link .

Then this week, a friend in our ward stopped by to ask me to help with some lettering on a saddle banner for an event he was participating in. (Our stake was organized in 1954. It seems so young compared to the first stake in the state - 1878. That's 34 years before Arizona was even a state! )Anyway, as we were talking about it, I started to realize this was connected to the same project in Winslow. He was traveling up to the Leupp/Winslow area to participate in the 25 mile memorial ride to the Brigham City Fort. There were representatives from about 80 stakes around the state, a fireside, a barbeque, artifacts, memorabilia, children in pioneer costumes and a play specially written for this event and performed the previous evenings. Not only was there a big 25 mile ride, but a large group of young men from the Winslow and Holbrook areas rode 150 miles over 6 days or so along the original pioneer trail from Lee's Ferry.

There was a similar event way back in 1976, the nation's bicentennial year. I remember my dad and brothers participating. Now this event also celebrates the 100th birthday of our state.

This article was in the Church News last week, but somehow I missed it. I hope there will be more articles with photos now that the event has taken place.

I wish I had been aware of the project earlier. I would have enjoyed attending some of the festivities. I have fond memories of Winslow and wish we still had some family connections there or more reasons or opportunities to go visit. (yes, Terri, I know I need to come visit you more often!)

hermosillo

Melanie has been involved in an exchange program with some students from Hermosillo, Mexico. The program is through the High School and in conjunction with Phoenix Sister Cities. She visited Mexico in January for a few days, and the Hermosillo students visited Phoenix this month. I thought Melanie was excited for her trip in January, but she seemed to be equally excited to see her new friends again this month. There were a few boys in the program, but as you can see from the pictures, they were ignored by this crazy group of girls. They have become friends forever. This is just a small portion of the group. There were 26 students that came. We prepared our home for their visit. This beautiful young girl, Rocio, stayed with us. But as it turned out (and we should have known) they were so busy the whole time they were in town we hardly saw them at all. The group went to a spring training baseball game, shopping at Scottsdale Fashion Square, a day trip to Sedona for hiking and shopping, a slumber party at one of the girl's homes, out to lunch, a half day at school, a prom fashion show, etc etc.
We did get to take the girls out to eat one night. We went to Melanie's favorite restaurant "Rainforest Cafe". We also spent a little time at home on Sunday afternoon. Dave and Rocio made a batch of homemade bread for her to take home with her the next morning.
All in all, it was a fun visit. I was glad Melanie got to participate. Her spanish language skills improved, but most of all - new friends were made.
Come again, Rocio!

funny

This amused me today. The reviews are hilarious!

idyllwild

Dave and I took a road trip this week. We were heading over to California, our destination was 5 hours away. But Dave is always the adventurer. Instead of driving on the I-10, which is a bit of a boring drive (although a direct line to our destination), we drove on highway 62 which is a bit north, but kind of runs parallel to the 10. It's fun to see some different scenery. There is a section of road that runs along a railroad track. For miles and miles and miles, there are names spelled out in rock along the railroad track. It was amazing how long that went on. Our destination was Idyllwild, California. I think it's a new favorite vacation spot. A couple years ago we drove through randomly on another road trip when Dave was wanting to get off the I-10. We were driving in the ridiculous July heat, and drove up into the mountains just south of Palm Springs and found ourselves in a cool forest wonderland! We decided we had to go back and stay sometime. Dave gave me a weekend getaway for my birthday last fall and it has taken 6 months to find a few free days to go. We were at 2200 feet elevation on the desert floor . . . Then 24 miles later, we are at 5560 feet in elevation and looking at this out our cabin window:It was about 20+ degrees cooler and we were in the snow! We enjoyed a fire in the fireplace every evening. It was fabulous.
It is a teeny town, but has a lot of personality. It is a mix of artsy, hippie, touristy and just wonderful small town life. I wish I had taken some pictures of how pretty it was. I found I just took pictures of the goofy stuff:Dave seems to check out the fire protection systems everywhere he goes. He wasn't sure about this little baby sized fire hydrant.I called a few days before we left to ask someone about some hiking trails. I was told there were plenty of hiking trails, but there was also 10" of snow that just recently dropped on the mountain. We did end up finding a little 2 or 3 mile hike down in some lower elevations where it wasn't too icy. Actually it was just perfect. Dave is such a gentleman to hold up falling trees for me to safely pass.We liked it so much, we even found a realtor to show us a cabin that was for sale. We can dream, can't we??