Summer Vacation 2009 -- Kylie's Big Day

June 17, 2009 was a HUGE day for Kylie. Here she is as we leave the house for the day. You can tell by her face how eagerly she anticipates the upcoming schedule of events.

First stop -- the ORTHODONTIST to have her BRACES REMOVED. After the prying, scratching, scraping, interminable waiting and the final molds of her teeth for her retainer came the photos. I'll only embarrass her with this one.

Then -- the DENTIST for a long-overdue exam and cleaning. No pictures, please! The orthodontics was enough!

We also ran over to the OPTOMETRIST to pick up her new CONTACT LENSES.

Next stop -- SUPERCUTS for an eagerly anticipated HAIR CUT. She's been talking about this cut for months and finally decided on the kind of cut she wants.

The only thing she knew for sure was that she wanted to donate to Locks of Love. But now that she's had the cut for 6 months (and 2 more trips back for trims) she's decided she really likes this length -- it suits her.

After a brief return visit to the orthodontist for a pair of invisibles to wear on our 2-week family vacation, we moved on to -- the DMV (or MVD, as they call it here) for her DRIVER'S LICENCE! Yes, Kylie is now a licensed driver.

Here is a recap -- braces off, teeth cleaned, new contacts, hair cut, and license to drive. It's no wonder she beamed so brightly I had to tell her they can see her smiling from SPACE!

Summer Vacation 2009 -- Camp!!

Summer 2009 started with Steven at a week-long Aaronic Priesthood Encampment the first week of June. Steven would be the shortest one on the end, with the pack that is taller than he is. After a whole week at camp, this is the only picture I have of him -- but he did come home with some pretty good stories!

Kylie's turn came the second week of June at Girls' Camp. While the boys went North to Mormon Lake, the girls went South outside of Tucson. She was a Junior Counselor this year and had responsibilities to help the younger girls in her unit. She's on the bottom in the green pants (is that a stack of books in her hand?!?!)

Summer Vacation 2009 -- Cody, WY

June 20 and 21, 2009 -- Days 2 and 3

As a newly licensed driver, Kylie took her turn driving. The only consolation to spending two weeks on the road with the family was knowing we had THREE licensed drivers to share the work. But if you're in a car you're stuck whether you are driving or not, so we all got tired anyway.

Fortunately we'd done a pretty good job breaking up the drive for meals and gas. We stopped somewhere on the Navajo reservation at a Burger King for lunch as saw something quite interesting in the lot next to it ...

I think we spent a good hour here exploring the different traditional dwellings and shelters before we even went inside to order.

We had to remind ourselves that the point of the trip was to explore a part of the country we hadn't seen before, not just to get to our destination. We finally arrived at Cody, WY after 1a!

Fortunately we'd planned a day in Cody before meeting up with my family in Jackson Hole. Since Mike did most of the driving, he decided to stay in our room and rest a bit while the kids and I explored Cody. Yeah, I'd go back in a heartbeat, I loved Cody!

While looking in the tourist shops, Steven was fascinated by the weapons ...

While Kylie gravitated toward the traditional clothing and jewelery.

Imagine our surprise and pleasure when we stumbled upon a formal Powwow! I sent Kylie back to the hotel for her dad (so much fun having another licensed driver!) so I could stay and soak it in.

There were tents all around the main area for the drummers, who provided the music for the dances. I believe the different groups competed just like the dancers.

As if that wasn't enough fun for a single day, after the Powwow ended we had one more site we wanted to check out -- Cody Murals. We saw the brochure at the hotel when we ate breakfast.

The story behind this is, back in the 40's the Stake President who had the church bulding built felt strongly impressed that it should have a rotunda. None of our buildings have rotundas that I know of, but that was how he felt impressed it needed to be built. Then came the impression to hire an artist to paint the dome of the rotunda.

During the interviews, one particular artist explained his vision for the ceiling and told the church leaders that if they would allow him to paint the ceiling in the rotunda, it would be his greatest work and a fitting tribute to God who had given him his artistic gifts in the first place. The artist was not LDS, however, so he spent two years studying Church history before even beginning to sketch or paint.

The end result is incredible -- you can stand in the center of the room and give the highlights of our history just by looking around the rotunda. He also included portraits and quotes from each of the Presidents of the Church up to the current one (as of 1951 when it was completed).

They have part-time missionaries who work 20 hours per week for 3 or 4 months giving tours of the rotunda and another room, telling the stories of the art and the artifacts. That's the kind of mission I want to go on when we are older!

The artwork and artifacts in the adjoining room basically pick up the story where the mural in the rotunda left off, detailing the settlement and growth of that specific region. Some of the stories are amazing! For example, the early Mormons had a reputation of finishing what they start, regardless of the difficulty. So the Mormon settlers were hired to dig a canal to bring water to another settlement. It only had to be, like, a mile and a half long but they didn't realize it would be through solid bedrock so when they neared the length of time they had been given to complete their task, they had only progressed a few feet. One of the leaders of the group sent out a heartfelt plea to the Lord for assistance in finishing the job they had been given, and a minor earthquake struck and opened up a crevass in the earth that roughly followed the course they were intending to dig for the canal.

Among the arificats in the room was a book written by Buffalo Bill Cody himself. What a treasure!!!

Yep, one day I want to apply for a part-time mission at the Cody Murals Visitors Center in Cody, WY. You just watch!

Summer Vacation 2009 -- Grand Canyon

June 19, 2009 -- Day 1

We embarked on our 2-week family vacation bright and NOT as early as we had intended, as many family vacations go. First stop on the itinerary is the Grand Canyon.

My very first impression, as I came up and over the ridge, was that this was a painting -- there was no way it could be real. My eyes and brain honestly believed it was a 2-dimensional representation on a vast canvas.

It wasn't until I'd fully crested the ridge and had gone down into the look-out area and could follow the edges of the canyon from one edge to the others that my eyes and brain could attach depth and dimension -- reality -- to the image. It was a very strange sensation!

Here is Kylie, on the edge of the lookout area at Yavapai Point.

Why take a picture of the scenery when I can take a picture of Kylie taking a picture of the scenery? This way is much more interesting!

Here, Steven and Mike are identifying and pointing out the various areas that they hiked through during Steven's scout hike about 6 weeks before. The scouts hiked down and back up again in a single day (disclaimer -- they trained for this and had an experienced leader, this is not for the novice hiker ... they actually post signs warning against trying it!)

There were actually two points that we wanted to hit, the second being the Watchtower at Desert View. We spent more time here than we should have, but not nearly as much time as we'd have liked.

The tower isn't as old as it looks. It was built in the 50's or so to look like it had been here for centuries. Even the inside looked authentic. Here you can see Steven in the lower right corner looking over at the tower.

We would have liked to have stayed there and played longer, but we still had about 8 hours of driving ahead of us. We stayed the first night in Grand Junction, CO. I would really have loved to have spent a day there too, but we were on a tight schedule and had to get moving again.

Annual City Celebration

Our Annual City (of Casa Grande) Celebration was held this year on Friday, May 15th at Peart Park. Of course, Kobukan Karate of Casa Grande had a booth there to promote our summer programs. We had a good spot this year -- we were in a shady spot, right up along the main sidewalk.

Here is our booth from the front. Mike and Steven helped set up, and Kylie, Haley, Lorenzo and Diego helped me man the booth itself.


Lorenzo's job was to pass out fliers and answer basic questions. The Park and Rec building is in the background, across the street.


Diego's job was to play various games using the blockers, including "Mandi the Snake" and "Gladiator Races." I think he had a lot of fun, especially here with Steven early on. They did attract quite a bit of attention! Nick, my contact at the city's Park and Rec department, was impressed with the activity -- it will probably be standard at any booth we do from now on.









Kylie's job was to help the kids make Japanese fish.







Haley's job was to take pictures and to supervise the blocker games behind our booth. She also filled in as needed when someone needed a break.

The gal who teaches the T'ai Chi classes was right next to ours. We shared stories and techniques. It's been a really long time since I've tried to do T'ai Chi, and I got frustrated because I couldn't watch her in the mirror and couldn't see what she was doing. But it was fun to just get up and do it.



She even had drills for Diego.

Here is Lorenzo with her sword. It's an authentic Chinese T'ai Chi sword. The blade was engraved ... it was beautiful.

Of course, nobody worked too hard ...

Here is Steven resting a bit before he and Mike went home.