PROM 2010

Prom has evolved into an elaborate weekend full of activity.  When I was a teen, Prom meant getting dressed up fancy, boutinnieres and corsages, eating dinner at a nice restaurant, and going to the dance.  And sometimes on the less innocent side, an hotel room after.  Or, at least, I assume that is what it was, based on the experiences of others.  I was never asked to Prom.  Or to any other school dance, for that matter.

Nowadays, all of the above mentioned is true, but there is the added element of a 'day date' as well.

Day dates range from the outrageous and expensive (bungee jumping or trail riding) to the simple and managable (playing games in a local park).  The point is to get to together and do something casual and fun before the formal festivites begin.  Sometimes the 'day' date is held on Friday evening, leaving time on Saturday for chores and/or hair and nail appointments.

But I am here to tell you about Helena's Prom experience.

They held their 'day' date on Friday evening.  Their group of six couples gathered at the house of one of the boys to have pizza and soda, play ultimate frisbee, and watch the Jazz game.  While this group of twelve 16-17 year olds were upstairs, there was a group of 13-14 year old boys in the basement playing video games.  The parents?  Out on adventures of their own!  I can't imagine leaving my house full of teenagers, even good kids like these!

On Saturday evening, Helena let me do her hair about one hour before Connors expected arrival.  She was super nervous!  She was to the point that she said she didn't want to go anymore.  I managed to get some good photos of her while we were waiting for Connor despite her nervousness.

The couples drove in three seperate cars.  Helena and her date, Connor, went with Nick Clark and his date, McKinzie Payne in Nick's dad's (very nice) car.

When they did arrive, Nick was driving his father's (very nice) car and Connor walked up to the door to pick up Helena.  She struggled a bit to pin the boutinniere on his jacket, but Nick confessed later that his date's mom pinned his for her.  After taking a few more photos, they were on their way.  Please notice the beautiful picture of her corsage!  He went to the same florist that we did and their flowers matched perfectly, even down to the ribbon!

The rest of this narrative was related to me by Helena when she got home at midnight.

First, the group went to the American Fork amphitheater for photographs.  One of the other kids in the group has a parent who is a photographer.  This was great news!  I don't know yet if we need to pay him for prints, but we were saved the photographer's fee.

Next, the group went to Justin's house (another boy in the group) for dinner.  Each boy was responsible for one part of the dinner.  For instance, Connor was in charge of dessert (strawberry shortcake).  Justin's little sisters and their friends dressed up like waitresses and served the dinner.

I was really happy to hear of this dinner arrangement.  One of the biggest obstacles facing boys who would like to ask girls to prom is the cost of it all.  This was a low cost, but very fun solution!

After dinner, they went to the dance, which was being held at the Utah Valley University ballroom.  Fortunately for Helena's group, she knew exactly where that was.  We walked past it every time she performed in a ballet at UVU.

She came home SO happy!  I am so glad that she had this opportunity!  I am not sure I would have allowed her to go to prom if we lived somewhere else.  It is a great relief to know that her date and all of the other kids in their group date hold the same standards.  Oh.  And that Helena and Connor are just friends.  No romance.  Just fun in a group setting.

The First Lacrosse Game of the Season

Yesterday Will's first lacrosse game was held at Mt. Ridge Jr. High in Highland.  We got lucky that it was a 'home' game, because the team they played was Viewmont... FROM CENTERVILLE!  That is an hour drive north of us!

This year most of the schools in the north end of the district (American Fork, Lehi, Pleasant Grove, and Lone Peak) decided to make a break with the Utah Valley Lacrosse people and joined a league in Salt Lake County.  The Utah Valley group were disorganized and had a lot of lame politiking going on, so our coaches felt it would be in the best interest of the boys to go with a more established and better run organization.

So.  'Home' games are held here in Utah Valley at whichever field is available.  'Away' games will range all over Salt Lake Valley.  I think I will need to leave my Saturdays wide open to accomodate whatever drive time might be required for that week's game.

This weekend's game was a close match!  The score advantage passed back and forth almost as much as the ball did.  Will played defense (he is the backup goalie) for more than 1/2 the game.  The other team had a lot more players than we did.  At one point Will was knocked down, but he got back up quickly. 

The sun was out.  It was a mild day.  I LOVE GOING TO MY SON'S GAMES!  It is so relaxing to just put everything aside and enjoy the moment!  Other parents get so emotional and shout at the players and refs.  What a waste of a beautiful day!  I just let the coaches take care of the players and I enjoy the moment.

The final score was AF 8 Viewmont 7.  WE WON! 

I don't know when or where next week's game will be.  We have a family baptism next Saturday and my family is coming into town for it (I can't wait to see you, Mom!), so I am not sure if Will is going to be able to make it to the next game, or not.  I hope so!

Orchestra Tour - Day Four

Sunday morning, the students were told to have all their stuff packed, loaded onto the buses, and be ready to pull out at 10:00 a.m.

Because Helena and I drove ourselves, we were able to stay just a little longer.  I took this photo of Helena in the hotel pool right about at the same moment the buses were pulling away. 

We relaxed for about an hour, just enjoying the 85 degree weather.  Helena showered and changed, and we were on our way home by 11:30.  It was a relaxing drive home.

All in all, it was a fun trip!  Helena and I got to spend 4 days together without a single moment of conflict.  I am so very grateful for that!  I hope it helps her to remember that I do love her when I am nagging her about school or chores later.

Orchestra Tour - Day Three

Saturday morning arrived, and it was time to perform for the adjudicators! All of the students dressed in their performance clothes and got on the buses by 9:00 a.m. They also packed clothes to change into afterwards, because it would be very uncomfortable wandering around the other fun activities planned for the day while dressed so fancy.

The buses drove us back to Vegas and took us to Bonanza High School. The school was situated in a lower to middle class neighborhood that looked like it had fallen on hard times. With the bus being as tall as a semi, I could easily see over privacy fences into back yards as we drove by. Most were choked with weeds and garbage. I estimated that only 1 in 10 yards (that I could see) were up kept. The homes were small.

The high school itself was a bit of a shocker! There were two sets of security fence/doors to go through in order to get into the school compound! You can see both sets of security doors in the photo above. The outer doors are shown in the bottom middle picture, and the inner doors are the picture on the bottom left. There were also signs on the doors informing students that at any time they can be subject to searches using metal detectors and trained dogs!

As a parent, I would not feel reassured to see the security measures necessary for this school! It felt like a prison compound, not a school!! I'd definitely find another alternative for my kids.

When they were all done at the festival, we drove to a mall food court for lunch, then drove back down to the strip to go to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay.  We got off the buses in the same place that we did for Lion King, but then we had to walk, and walk, and walk through the casino (all the kids had to have adult escorts through there, as per casino laws) and other lobby areas to get to the shark reef at the other side of the building.

There was a projection screen that said 'shark reef' when we were nearly there.  The cool thing about the projection, though, was that it reacted when someone stepped in front of it!  It rippled like water!  The kids enjoyed walking through it.

We then stood in line for over 30 minutes to get into the Shark Reef exhibit.  It only took us 20 minutes to walk through it, however.

There were some cool exhibits there, and everything was very well decorated, as you would expect from the Las Vegas strip.

Rubbing for luck?

You can't go to an exhibit called 'Shark Reef' without getting some pictures of sharks!

After we were all done looking at the exhibit (and buying boatloads of souveniers) we all loaded back onto the buses and drove to the other side of the strip and the Circus Circus Adventuredome, which looked like a gaudy, pepto pink, metallic circus tent from the outside.

It was quite different on the inside, though.

It was full of carny rides and games.  Oh.  And the obligitory stale cigarette smoke that is so pervasive on the Vegas strip.  The smell was much stronger at Circus Circus than at Mandalay Bay.  I suppose that is because Circus Circus has been around a lot longer and has absorbed more smoke over time?

Waiting in line to get our wristbands, Helena and some of the boys from the orchestra watch a ride go to its extreme limits.

Waiting in line for their turn on the roller coaster and showing how excited they are to go on it.

This picture is rather obvious, I think.

Yes, that is actually a picture of Helena and her friends on the loop!

The awards ceremony was held on a party patio right off the Adventuredome, so we took a break from rides to go see how the orchestra ranked.  They received a gold ranking and an award of first place in their division.  Everyone seemed very happy about that, though I think Mrs. Smith was not completely satisfied with the scoring.

After the awards ceremony, we went down to the buffet to eat dinner.  Our meal was included in the day's activities, otherwise I would have been very disappointed with it.  The quality of the buffet was pretty low.  After dinner, Kim and Helena wanted to ride a few more rides before heading back to the buses. 

I thought it was amazing that we could turn 100 highschool students loose in an amusement venue on the Vegas strip and still manage to get them all back onto the buses within 30 min. of the designated time!  That was really quite an achievement!

Everyone was pretty wiped out on the 2 hour bus ride back to the hotel in St. George.  We dragged in at about 12:30 a.m.

Orchestra Tour - Day Two

Here is a shot of the tour buses.  The bus Helena and I were assigned to is on the right.  They look really low to the ground because they have an air ride feature that makes them lower to make it easier to step in and out of them.

While they were definitely more comfortable than school buses would have been, I was really glad to get off of it!

What follows are just a bunch of photos of our time in Zion National Park.

Helena and Kim on the bridge that leads to the Emerald Pools hike.

I was struck over and over with the vivid color contrast between the red rocks and the bright spring green foliage.

This was the waterfall at the top of the third Emerald Pool.

We hiked with a group of four other girls.  Their names are Allissa, Erika, Camille,and Kim.  Kim was one of Helena's room-mates.

A Close up shot of the girls in front of the waterfall.

It was quite windy right below the falls.  Notice how Helena's hair is swirling around her head!

On the way back down the trail, we noticed an outcropping of rock that had this stupendous view beyond it.  We burned several minutes letting each of the girls pose while I took photos of them all.  I need to burn disks for all of them so they can have these photos to play with!

If it weren't for all the other hikers coming and going, it would be a really zen place to do your yoga!

I told them to do a 'Lion King' pose for this shot.

The views everywhere were just stunning; and this was just on one of the easiest hikes in the park!  I hope to be able to go see even more amazing sights next month when we visit as a family.

I love the texture on this rock background.  The lighting gave her hair some red highlights.  It made this background work really well for her.

The sun came out from behind the clouds for the remainder of the afternoon, so I was able to get this shot of sunlit water falling at the lower Emerald Pool.

The rock formation bows inward, so the waterfall is to the left of this picture, yet it actually falls from the rocks on the right.

Helena wanted to have me take her picture while sitting on this rock wall.  It drops off on the other side, but it was hard to see that in this photo.

After the hike, we returned to the lodge and had some ice cream while sitting in the sun and shade on the big grassy field.  I really appreciated the opportunity to just relax and enjoy the warm weather!  I like my vacations slow and unscheduled, so that hour of lounging around doing nothing in Zion felt like a mini vacation to me.

There was a boy named Daniel who kept climbing the huge tree in the middle of the field.  He was like a monkey!  We told him to be careful that Mrs. Smith didn't see him, or she'd yell at him.

The final image of the day is of Helena and Kim soaking up some sun.  There was a game of ultimate frisbee going on, but these two decided it was more relaxing to not join the game.  I have to agree!

Orchestra Tour - Day One

Helena and I drove down separately from the rest of the orchestra. I decided I just did not want to endure 4 1/2 hours on a tour bus with 50 teenagers. There were 100 students on the tour, half in each bus. We were assigned to bus #2 for the rest of the tour, though.

Anyways, it was really nice driving separate! Helena got most of her homework done, and she and I got to visit one on one in a way that we haven't been able to for a long time.

When we arrived in St. George, the buses were still an hour behind us on the road (even though we left at approximately the same time from the high school parking lot), so we went to lunch at McDonald's while waiting for them. After lunch, we drove up to Dixie State College and waited for the buses to arrive. After they finally did get there, we had to wait another 30 minutes while the kids ate their sack lunches before going into the theater to hold a dress rehearsal with a master teacher from the college. He had some amazing advice for the orchestra to improve its performance. He is the person sitting alone in the seats in the picture above.

After the rehearsal (that ran until 3 pm), we drove to the hotel and checked everyone into their rooms. At that point I met my room-mate, Janeen. She was a quiet mother of a junior girl who plays viola. We were shocked to discover that, not only were we sharing a room, but we were also going to be sharing a BED! The room was a single king! We checked with the front desk about switching to a different room with 2 double beds, but the hotel was completely booked (I mean so full there wasn't a single unoccupied room); so we had to make the best of it.

Everybody did a whirlwind quick change of clothes before loading back onto the tour buses (Helena and I for the first time) to drive to dinner (at Golden Corral... yum. yum.), then 2 hours to Vegas to see the production of The Lion King being performed at Mandalay Bay.

Side story:

Just 15 minutes south of St. George on I-15 I happened to notice a strange site. I saw a woman standing on a hillock of scrub and cactus looking like she was trying to get phone reception. Moments later, we passed a white SUV with a blown left rear tire. I don't think anyone else on our bus noticed her, because they were all focused inward, to the movie playing on the bus DVD system.

There is a stretch of road just below St. George that winds (pretty severely) through a narrow and twisted canyon. There is no cell reception there. I had to wait until we had finally emerged from that dead zone before I was finally able to get through to 911 dispatch and report what I had seen. I have no idea if my call was really needed by that lady, or not. Hopefully she received help quickly, in any event.

So, back to my story!

LION KING WAS AMAZING!!! The singing, staging, and acting were all really excellent! Getting that large group of kids into and out of there was really much easier than I had anticipated and we all had a marvelous time. The photo in the bottom right corner is of Helena and her friend, Kim.

After another long ride back to St. George, we all collapsed into bed to sleep until the next big adventure in the morning... Zion National Park!

Stay tuned tomorrow!

I haven't abandoned you!

I know I need to post lots and lots of stories and pictures about the orchestra trip, and Will's lacrosse, and life in general, but I am really quite swamped right now.  I hope to have some time right after I get photo disks burned for some of the orchestra kids (of pictures I took of them), catch up on balancing the check book, go to Will's lacrosse game on Saturday, clean the house, do the dishes and laundry, and get Helena successfully through prom this weekend.  Oh, and work on the school art show coming up in a month, the Steel Days art show for this summer, and lessons, parent notes, and grading for my job!

But, I promise to post soon!

OUR SUMMER PLANS!!!

This summer it is time for a family adventure!

We are going to go visit my parents in Washington state!

That doesn't sound like such an adventure, you say?

We'll spend one of the weekends there at the West Beach Resort on Orcas Island in a cottage on the beach!

This one, in fact.

I AM VERY EXCITED!!!

The kids and I are going for the first weekend and second week of June and will stay with my parents while exploring both west and east of the Puget Sound.  Then, Bill will fly in just in time for the Orcas Island get away on the second weekend, also with my parents.  Finally, we will head south for a road trip to see the Redwood Forest in northern California, getting home on or before the third weekend.

At least, I hope we can add that final stage of the vacation in.  It depends on if our vacation budget can extend that far.

HOORAY FOR FAMILY ROAD TRIPS!

A New Perspective...

Whenever I get too frustrated at my kids over school stuff, I should just remember this...

Yesterday, one of our neighbors came over to introduce her new baby to us.  They are a younger couple who are quite poor.  They live in the duplex across the street in a run down 2 bedroom apartment with 3 small children.  Her parents are our next door neighbors.  I am more comfortable having the parents as neighbors now that we have central air (instead of the swamp cooler in the dining room window that pulled their cigarette smoke into our house).  Don't get me wrong.  They are good, simple people.  I just can't stand smoke!

Anyways, while chatting about this and that, they (both the older mother and daughter were visiting) asked what grade Will was in.  When we mentioned he was in 8th, the young mother said, "Oh.  That's when I dropped out."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!

The older mother then piped in verifying that fact!  She let both her daughters drop out of school!

The younger mother commented about going over to the high school one day and deciding that it wasn't for her. 

Holy cow.

She never went to high school.

She doesn't even have a driver's license.

Oh, my heart aches for that little baby girl!  She is such a beautiful baby!  But what chance does she have to rise out of poverty in a household where the mom and possibly the dad are junior high/high school dropouts?!  At BEST, only the dad is a high school graduate. What about their little boy, for that matter?  He is a holy terror already at the age of four!  Their oldest is 6 or 7, but she is so mentally and physically handicapped that she will never function is society.  That is another sad story.

Supposedly, the #1 contributing factor to the level of education achieved by the children of any household is the education level of THE MOTHER.


So.

I am grateful that my kids know that is not an option is this house!  A high school diploma is the bare MINIMUM required of them.  I hope they will not be satisfied to stop there, either!  There is a whole world of knowledge out there.  I cannot even imagine how foggy and incomplete that young woman's mind must be.

To those who would say that formal education is overrated...

You can either get your education from a school of higher learning, or the school of hard knocks.

The choice is yours.

Oops.

So, my friend, Celeste, and I signed our boys up to take a couple of merit badges together at the rec center.

Yeah.  We both forgot about it and missed sending the boys to BOTH classes!

Oops.


We'll try again in the summer.  Hee, hee!

Closed on Sunday

We decided to go for a family bike ride that would take us to the Wendy's in Highland for lunch, then ride home again.  An 8 mile round trip.

There was just one snag.  We forgot that there is some sort of ordinance in Highland that requires all businesses to close on Sunday.

?!

RATS!

We rode all the way there before remembering the fact.

In frustration, we rode back home and hopped in the car for lunch at the Carl's Jr. in our home town, American Fork.  We do have a Wendy's, but decided the 6 dollar burger was more satisfying for Bill, since he has to order his sans the bun.

I know we ought to be more strict in observing the Sabbath.  Truthfully, though, I won't lose any sleep over it.

Lambert Park

Bill took Will mountain biking the other day at a place called Lambert Park. It has lots of easy trails that are just right for beginners and intermediate riders. I was glad they got to spend some time together and they got some fun videos, too.

The weather is still not balmy, so they bundled up a bit. Will looks like the ninja terrorist mountain biker in these shots, but I am glad he was warm!