Do you remember the first movie you ever went to in a theater?

We celebrated President's Day by inviting our African friends to their first dinner and a movie. Of course, they had no idea what they were in for, but as they are very trusting they piled into our suburban, and we headed off for fun. First stop, Wendy's. They are very conversant with the English words hamburger, french fries and coca cola. They also now know the word Frosty. Then we went to the Waterhorse movie. Fortunately, it has a lot of action and visual emotion as I am certain they did not understand very much of the dialogue. They were very well behaved the entire time. Do you remember your first movie? Hugh says his first movie experience was the Disney zippity do dah, "Uncle Remus" officially, "The Song of the South" and I remember seeing a movie on Thanksgiving evening starring Jennifer Jones, "Good Morning Miss Dove." I was 7 years old and I threw up in the bathroom at the theater. Please comment with your first movie memory.

The Amazing Gift Basket

Check out this Thank You gift basket given to us by Brad and Melissa Thompson. Talk about creative! It touches on so many of the fun things we did in Kauai. Note the beautiful flowers, the beach towel, the fresh pineapple, the colorful fish pinata (Melissa was a snorkeling fiend), the Kilauea lighthouse, and of course, who could forget the chickens? Also, look closely and you will see several fun scrapbook pages highlighting our helicopter ride around and over the island and our hike to the nualolo cliffs. Thanks Brad and Melissa. You are the best.

Caught One at Last

We recently spent some time on the island of Kauai with our friends, Brad and Melissa Thompson. Even though the state bird is officially the Nene, a special Hawaiian goose, the unofficial bird is the Chicken. They are everywhere. Melissa entertained us royally by trying daily to catch one. As you can see, she succeeded.

100 Years of Utah Basketball

We had a fun experience on Saturday afternoon. We attended the U of U basketball game with Ty and Tiff's family. The event was not just a basketball contest between Utah and San Diego, it was the event commemorating 100 years of basketball at the UofU. Everyone who had played at Utah in the past 100 years was invited to a special luncheon and honored at half-time. Ty was one of those invited to participate. They also honored the Sweet Sixteen Century Team which included several players with whom Ty had played in various capacities. Note: Keith Van Horn, Andre Miller, Alex Jensen and Michael Doleac to name a few. Tom Chambers and Danny Vranes were also on the Sweet Sixteen team, as was Jeff Judkins. Ty had a great time hanging out with the other "gym rats" he has known through the years. They were all very cordial to him. They named each player by name and then gave out U of U jerseys to the sixteen players on the special Century team. Way to go, Ty! It is an honor just to be on the floor with all those who enjoy basketball as much as you do.

Santa and Peter Pan

Tending Santa and Peter Pan

I had the fun opportunity to tend Ty and Tiff's kids while they traveled to Hawaii for a medical convention. Jackson, Davis and Ella stayed with me and they took Avery (five months) with them to Maui. I had a lot of fun with the kids. We emphasized a Penguin theme. We read lots of books about penguins, watched a penguin movie and made a penguin craft. One morning, they watched the Disney Peter Pan video and Davis dressed as a combination of Peter Pan and Captain Hook the rest of the week, continually having sword fights with himself.
While looking for a Tinker Bell costume, Ella spotted one of my toddler Santa outfits and ended up wearing that every day. She took it off only for meals and potty time.