An Afternoon in the Arena

While Grandpa & Grandma Frye were visiting, they attended one of Erica's horseback riding lessons and took pictures. First she preps the horse and saddles up.

She then "lunges" him before she rides.

Then she does her thing on the saddle. Grandma observed that she's got great posture while posting -- that thing where you go up and down with the saddle.

Wow....got a smile out of her! But of course.....she's in her element.

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A Flashback to May

I forgot to post these pictures when I first started this blog. They are from last May. This is Kyra sharing one of her art pieces from 8th Grade Art. Erica is graduating from 6th grade and elementary school.

This is her last chance to fool around with her classroom's 'toys'.

Besides graduating, she received a special citizenship certificate and a presidential award and letter from President Bush commending her on her academic levels.

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October 2008

I just added an October 2008 photo album on the right hand side of this blog. All you have to do is click on the link and it should take you directly to a slideshow on Flickr. Bill's parents came to town and most of the pictures are of some family activities. We celebrated two birthdays, Adam's and Grandma Frye's. Katie, who Bill told me years ago was Italian, taught the kids how to make homemade pasta. It turns out she has no Italian blood in her at all! We had a good visit with the two of them, and as usual they work like crazy around here. I think we get more done during their visits than any other time of the year. As a family we went to see "Scary Poppins" at Desert Star Playhouse and had a good time laughing. It was a spoof on Mary Poppins, and they did an excellent job. A few days after that we had tickets to see the school version of Les Miserables. For 16-17 year olds putting this on, they did a phenomenal job. I at first was disappointed because there were no backgrounds and very few props, but I was quickly swept away in the music and story and it ceased to bother me. This was Kyra, Adam and Jacob's first time seeing it and they seemed to like it as well. They were willing enough to give it a standing ovation at the end. I prepped Jake on the story beforehand and he was able to keep up for the most part, keeping his eye out for Gavroche. It was a sad day to take them back to the airport and drop them off. I came back to a quiet home and their missing presence was a huge void. Read more!

A Peek at my Mickey Room

Here are some peeks at my Mickey work room in the basement. This is the north view of the room. I did most of the painting this past summer. I have one more character to finish painting -- a martian from Toy Story. It's taken awhile, but I'm getting close. The bulletin board contains all the pins I've been collecting since I've been about 12.

All these picture frames contain pictures of our family at Disneyland or Disney World various times throughout their lives. The round thing is a clock Bill found for me somewhere.

More pics of family Disney stuff...

This is the east wall. I found some cute Disney drawer pulls I used on the closets. They include a Mickey head, red shorts, yellow shoe and white glove. I know, I know.... it was an extravagance and not a need.

This is the west view (window) and the south view of the room.

I love this room. You would think I would spend a lot of time here, but I don't right now. My family and Young Women service keep me pretty busy right now, so I only get down here a few times a month. Once a month I host a scrapbooking Relief Society enrichment night here, so for sure I set aside that night to work. The bed is not a permanent fixture. This room also acts as a makeshift guest room when Grandma and Grandpa Frye come to visit. Usually I have work tables in the center.

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Sparkling Gems: a Modesty Fashion Show

Kyra's Mia Maid class did a Personal Progress 10 hour project together in the Choice & Accountability section. For one part of the project they studied modesty and its impact on themselves and others, and also learned how to make current fashions more modest. As an end-all, they hosted a fashion show of modest prom & wedding dresses. So this is Kyra modeling her dress and her way of making it modest....a sparkly silver shrug for the top. All the girls were positively glowing that night. More skin might have made a man pant, but the true beauty was coming from within.

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Homecoming Dance

Adam asked Liz Miller to Viewmont's Homecoming Dance. To ask her, he created an Alvin & the Chipmunks CD for her by recording some banter between him and himself and singing a couple of songs for her with his guitar, then speeding it up. Pretty cool. It sounded like the real thing.

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Surprise Party & 5K Run

I joined these lovely ladies in Huntsville in September. Karen and Betsy -- in blue -- had been training for a 1/2 marathon for about a year. I was going as a cheerleader, then decided last minute to run the 5K that was going on at the same time. This picture was taken at 7:30am and it was still a little chilly at this hour. We are starting to stretch and loosen up. I gifted these running shirts to Betsy and Karen to celebrate this major goal of theirs. The shirts say 'Fit & Fabulous @40". We all turned 40 this year and celebrated together.

This is an AFTER shot...I can't believe they are still smiling. The race was long and hard and I was so proud of them for finishing what they set out to do. My race went well. I beat my personal time and placed 3rd in my age group. It was a phenomenal day and a perfect temperature.

This is the town of Huntsville, the beautiful place I got to run in.

Another shot of quaint Huntsville.

Karen turned 40 at the end of the month. We opted to celebrate with pink and silver and keep the mourning at a minimum. I was involved in her surprise party and we had a really good time.....planning and just hanging out with good friends.

Karen and I

The gift I made for Karen. Her daughters' pictures are all over the two mats. The saying in the middle: "There is no one way to be a perfect mother; But there are a million small ways to be a great one."

Bill and I at her party.

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Girls Camp & Savannah

Girls Camp... braids, learning the Heimlich Maneuver, making matchless fires, learning first aid, cooking with dutch ovens, running hot and cold water.... what? Oh, yeah. We had a gadget guru up there this year that set us up with running hot and cold water! Girls Camp couldn't get any better than this. This was my first time back to Girls Camp since I was a staffer, and I loved sharing it with Erica and Kyra both.

Our cousin Savannah that came out from the Sacramento area is experimenting the Heimlich maneuver on Erica. You can see the back of Erica's head with braids that were ALL the fashion! (Some things never change!) Below is Kyra's (blue cap) obsession with the matchless fire technology. She WOULD NOT leave this thing when they were going on to other requirements. I was just an observer and taking pictures, but as a Mom I wanted to kick her in the behind and tell her to be obedient and listen to her leaders!

Learning first aid. Erica is on the far left.

Our favorite shirt up there... need I say more?

Playing WAH! Erica is in the back in the white shirt. I took a ton of pictures of this game because the girls were laughing so hard and having so much fun. We are definitely going to play this for family night when Grandma and Grandpa Frye arrive this week.

Our first day the girls discovered a great way to cool off and take the pressures off of setting up their own tents.

Night after night we enjoyed beautiful sunsets and skies dripping with diamond-like stars. We were camping on private property in south-eastern Idaho.

"The Girls" -- Kyra, Savannah and Erica. We took Savannah to Salt Lake and did the tourist-y stuff. We toured the Conference Center, saw the Joseph Smith movie in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, ate lunch at the Lion House, toured Brigham Young's historic home "The Beehive House" and bought lots of beautiful pictures in the Church Museum of History and Art.

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Jake's Webelos Camp

This is Jake's Webelos den. He's in the middle. We were up at Camp Tracy in Millcreek Canyon in Salt Lake.

Jake had a lot of fun if you can't tell by the pictures. His den took first place in the straight line race in the canoe, which is a terrific feat since there are 4 born leaders of the 6 boys. They also placed 2nd place in the race where they had to turn their canoe in a full circle. Jake is the one on the far left in the canoe picture.

He had a ton of fun hauling in "victims" with the life preserver while earning his Aquanaut pin. Our only meltdown occured when one of the boys didn't believe he was a strong swimmer.

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Adam at EFY

Adam: This is me at EFY up at Logan. These pictures were taken by various new friends with their handy-dandy cell phones. Although why they took them is beyond me. I'm playing And Always in the one with the guitar. I honestly didn't know I was being photographed. And that is me and Aislynn in the bottom we were swing dance partners.

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Art Work

This artwork was a Mother's Day present from Kyra.

Like Adam, she is an artist and is immensely enjoying her advanced art class this year. So far only pencil sketches have come home, but they are setting a foundation for greater things to come!

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