Les Miserables

Mary had the incredible opportunity to be involved with Payson Community Theater's production of Les Miserables  as one of the 8 female soloists.

Les Mis is such an iconic and profound musical, that in itself, it was an honor to even be a part of this show. There was so much vision and talent and the cast became like a second family.  It's impossible to describe what it felt like to participate in this show. People would walk out from watching the show with tear stained faces and announce that even though they watched Les Mis performed in London, or on Broadway etc, this production was better! There was a very special spirit brought to life by this cast.

A truly amazing and testimony building experience!
PLUS-- it was super fun playing multiple characters and making wonderful friends along the way

 They asked for BIG HAIR..... I delivered.

 Lovely Lady----- eeeeeep!

 Big Hair had some major draw-backs.   The struggle was real....... 

Hike with the New Next Door Neighbors

We had a wonderful new family move next to us in Santaquin-- the Marchant's.  We invited them over for dessert one Sunday and had such a great time with them, we made plans to go hiking the next day for a joint FHE activity.  We met right after school and drove up to Sundance, up Provo Canynon and hiked the beautiful Stewart Falls.

More fun with Chihiro

For her going away present we wanted to give her something to put a memory in (photo frame) and of course, it needed a peacock, and sunflower is the only word in Japanese we can ever remember. I love how it all came together! 

Sunflower = Himowari.  

 My niece Nati was staying with us for a few days while Luke was out of town and I was scheduled for some really long rehearsals. She was being our Nanny Nati. :)
While I worked on the picture frame, Nati pulled out her makeup to entertain the kiddos.

 While doing so, Chihiro came home from her Southern  Utah trip. She surprised us by wanting in on the make-over fun.

 As most Japanese youth do, Chihiro made a peace sign in nearly every candid picture. Linaya caught on... but couldn't quite figure how to get her fingers to do it.  Chihiro thought she'd follow suite with Linaya's interpretation of the peace sign.  *I kept trying to get her to explain why everyone does the peace sign in pictures, but she didn't really know either. Guess it's just the thing to do :) Even Linaya thinks so.

2014-2015 School Year Begins!

Tianna  in 2nd Grade:  Mr. Love's class at C.S. Lewis Academy

 Adelia in Kindergarten: Mrs. Nielsen's class at C.S. Lewis Academy

Linaya:  Nearly 2 and wild and free :) 

Canyoneering in the Great North West

Well, clearly I am horrifically behind on our family record.  The kids love reading our blog books and for that, it has prompted me to get caught up!

So... Yes it's November 2015, but lets revert back to August 2014.
On August 8-11th, Luke and his buddies Blake and Daniel went all the way to Oregon for a canyoneering dream trip.  They absolutely loved those green, glorious canyons.  Nature is pretty incredible. They were able to explore 3 different canyons while there, Oneonta, Murna, and Eagle Creek. They had a blast jumping, rappelling, scaling, splashing, and sliding, in some of the pretties places on earth!