That's the way to see the Ballet

We are fortunate to have the New York City Ballet spent a couple a weeks doing performances just a half hour from our house in July. I really have grown to love going to the Ballet and since I have a niece that may be performing professionally soon, it's a good thing. But nothing can beat going to SPAC, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and getting lawn seats. I mean really, how many chances do you have to see the New York City Ballet while wearing shorts and flip flops with a picnic lunch and get to play frisbee and eat ice cream during intermission?

Our budding photographer, Bryson, set up the camera using the delay so he could jump back in next to us. The Amphitheater is not crooked, the camera was; just tilt your head to the side to get the straight effect.

In my opinion, that's the best way to see the Ballet.

We took a short hike after the Ballet to see some of the "Saratoga Springs". Bryson tasted one of them. You have to do it once. It tastes really nasty, kind of sulfury (I think I invented a new word).

Then we walked down to the Island Spouter. That is some serious hard water build up.

Just down the path you run into this mountain of mineral buildup.

Of course Bryson had to climb it (he is a boy after all). While he was climbing I noticed something odd...

My poor youngest child is, yet again, a victim of cheap parents and I hadn't even noticed. You see, I try to only buy sandals for the kids every two years (among other cost saving measures) to keep the clothing budget down. So I buy a size bigger so they can use them two years in a row most of the time. Bryson had a pair of sandals that I bought last year that he was happy to wear again this year. A couple of weeks ago one of the straps on his sandals broke and I haven't had a chance to glue it together. So after going to the Ballet and on a little hike, I notice as he's climbing the mineral mountain that he has two different shoes on! Apparently his left crock broke and his right sandal broke. This was lucky because it left him with a pair (even though his toe is busting out of his crock). He was perfectly fine with it and hadn't even mentioned anything!

What a cheap, bad mom.

Hill Cumorah Pageant

Call me crazy (won't be the first time, I'm sure), but when the Bishop asked if we wanted to take the entire Youth out to the Hill Cumorah Pageant this year, I gave an enthusiastic, SURE! What if we have to drive out and back the same day arriving home around 2 am? Why not! Many of these kids may not get the opportunity otherwise. So off we went. We were able to fit a few younger brothers and sisters so whole families could go, so Bryson went with us and the Homer boys were there as well. Here's a picture of Joshua Bassett, Dalton Homer, Bryson, Duncan Homer, and Parker and McKay behind sitting by McKay's friend Mike VanOmmeren.

The weather was great, the picnic was perfect, we all travelled safely, and the show was amazing. Well worth the trip.

Let Freedom Ring!

Independence Day brought with it the usual parades, barbecues, and fireworks. We started off the day with a parade in our friend's, the Homer's, neighborhood. Bryson was able to be in the parade with his friends Duncan and Dawson riding their rip sticks (imagine a skate board with only one wheel on the front and one on the back and both wheels freely swivel - it takes some practice). Dawson is in the gray shirt, Duncan behind him in the red shirt, and Bryson following in the navy blue t-shirt.

Then we went the Homer's neighborhood 4th of July party where they had, get this, a climing wall, a big blowup slide, dunking booth, BBQ, snow cone machine and 2 bouncy bounces. That is a serious block party.

Here's Bryson on the climbing wall - don't worry he made it to the top.

Bryson took his turn in the dunking booth. Even though both Mom and McKay tried to dunk him, we missed the target. Just when Bryson didn't expect it, one of the neighborhood kids sank him.

McKay and I raced up the rock wall. We were neck and neck up until the end when I pulled ahead.

David was the next adventurer up the wall. None of us wanted to race him, though. His arms and legs are too long. We don't stand a chance.

Then we picked up Parker (the teenager had finally emerged from hibernation for the day) and headed out to Dorothy's for a BBQ, walk along the Erie canal to see the steamboats on parade, and fireworks.

Parker and McKay went out on one of the docks. In the picture, McKay is trying to rock the dock and scare Parker. It didn't work, though.

We went back to Dorothy's and played Yahtzee to pass the time until fireworks. Usually we go into downtown Albany and watch the fireworks on the Plaza, but it's crowded and the people can be kind of obnoxious, so we tried the fireworks in Waterford by Lock 2.

We watched fireworks along the bank of the Erie Canal just below Lock 2. The boys sat on the rocks at the water's edge.

You could see the reflection in the Erie canal. Cool!

The more I travel, the more I realize how fortunate we are to live in a country where life is valued, happiness is achievable, safety and security are taken for granted, and where a belief in God still dictates how many people live their lives. There is no place I would rather live than the good ol' USA.

Girls Camp

Going to Girl's Camp in the cradle of the Restoration is just amazing. When you can take the Young Women on day trips to the Sacred Grove, Hill Cumorah, and the Whitmer Farm it adds a new dimension to Camp that the Young Women completely take for granted.

The camp, which I call "The Seneca Lake Village Resort", is located on an old farm with beach front on Seneca Lake in New York (one of the finger lakes). At the time of the restoration of the Church David Whitmer, Peter Whitmer, and Hyrum Smith were baptized by Joseph Smith in Seneca Lake. Christian, Anne, Jacob, and Elizabeth Whitmer and Hiram, Katharine, Mary Page, Mary and Peter Whitmer, Sr., and their daughter Elizabeth Ann, William, Elizabeth, and Vincent Jolly, Ziba Peterson, and Parley P. Pratt were baptized by Oliver Cowdry in Seneca Lake, among many others. It really struck me this year how lucky we are to have the opportunity to camp there (lucky in more ways than just the flushing toilets, hot showers, cabins with electricity and bunk beds, beach with kayaks and canoes, and a restaraunt quality kitchen with dining hall).

Lisa Rubilar and I manning the registration table.

There's never a dull moment at camp with more than 100 people and almost 90 of them teenage girls!

This is half of a group we took to Fayette to visit a replica of the Whitmer home.

With only one emergency room visit, one girl going home sick, lots of time spent in the craft barn, hiking, playing ninja (a fun group game), good food, cooking over the fire, rain everyday, fantastic leaders and youth camp leaders, the Survival Challenge, and ending with an amazing testimony meeting, it was a great year at camp.

Happy Birthday Bryson!

Can you believe he's double digits, now? The big 1-0. It doesn't seem like that long ago that we were celebrating his first birthday.
The picture below is from his 3rd birthday; it's one of my favorites. He ate Scooby Doo's nose on the cake which was jet black. There's no touch up on this picture, his tongue was really this black.
Where does all the time go? So here we are today and my sweet little angel has turned into an all-star, animal loving, star student, survivalist son. And what does this 100% boy want for a Birthday party? For us to drop he and his friends off in the woods, with only a pocket knife, and pick them up the next day and let them use their survival skills to survive (a sarcastic thank you goes out to "Survivor Man" and "Man vs. Wild"). I don't think so. So instead we compromised and had a Survivor Party where they could exercise their survival skills with adult supervision.

First they had to cross a stream on a rope.

The boys, of course, found lots of frogs, toads, salamanders, and even a snake!

Then they had a race up a steep part of the mountain to determine who was "King of the Mountain". Duncan came in first with Bryson a close second. This picture is them catching their breath at the top.

Then it was time to try and make a fire so they could cook their dinner. Flint, magnesium, a pocket knife and a napkin were all they were allowed. The first few boys got fires started immediately, but we let them burn out because we wanted everyone to have a chance. That might have been a mistake. The napkins started absorbing humidity from the moist ground and they got hard to light. Finally, Bryson's friend, David, saved the day and got a raging fire going.

Bryson was having fun just making sparks and yelling "Brisingr!" (You Eragon fans know what I mean). He was the fireworks man.While the fire got going the boys scoured the woods for sticks to make bows and arrows.
And they really worked.

Then it was time for a dinner of hot dogs, chips, and carrots as well as a dutch oven cake cooked over the coals. It was delicious.

There were actually 2 pocket knife injuries all to the same kid, on the same finger! Front and back. Luckily nothing too serious (we confiscated the pocket knife after the second one so we could continue to make that claim).

Happy 10th Birthday Bryson!

Bring a Homer, Get a Homer

After going to the Primary Activity last Saturday...where Bryson got to throw water balloons at the Primary President after memorizing 9 of the Articles of Faith...we took Bryson's friend Duncan Homer back to our house for a day of fun and adventure (it's always fun and adventure with those two!).
Bryson had a Baseball game that evening so we dragged Duncan along. It's a good thing, too. He was telling us as we arrived that he would bring Bryson good luck. Boy, did it work! Bryson played one of his best games, yet. Which included, if you haven't already guessed, a homerun. It wasn't an out of the park homerun, but it hit the back fence. They just couldn't get it into the infield in time because Bryson's really quick rounding the bases. One of the moms was video taping her son on second while Bryson was up to bat. You can hear the crack of the Bryson's bat and soon you see his teammate, Ben, come in; then you'll see the last little bit of Bryson's run in (slide in) as well as a priceless moment with his coach. Be patient with the video, the end is the best part.

New York State Day

The 4th graders at Bryson's elementary (as many New Yorker's pronounce it "ella MEN terry" - I don't know why that bothers me so much) put on a performance for New York State Day. It was well cooreographed and the kids sounded great. Among the songs were I've been workin' on the Railroad, Simple Gifts, "Er-i-e Canal", Adirondack High, and New York, New York. Here's a taste...

4 Star General

As an alumni of MIT and MIT's ROTC program, David had the opportunity to go to this year's commissioning of MIT's ROTC Cadets. That may not sound that exciting, but what if it was scheduled to be at the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) in Boston? If you think it's still just sort of cool, what if one of the Cadets had a father who was going to be speaking that was a 4 Star General and is the current Commander of US Central Command and one of the smartest men in our military? Well, if you're a military geek like David, you don't want to miss hearing General David Petraeus.


When David (our David) was in MIT's ROTC he held the position of Cadet Battalion Commander, which is the head of the Army Corp of Cadets from Tufts, Harvard, and MIT. It was at this ceremony years ago that David got his Army commissioning into the Infantry after receiving his duty assignment to the Berlin Brigade.


Due to weather, they had to move the commissioning indoors to the National Guard building. The General arrived in an impressive procession of Boston police officers and plain-clothed Federal agents. We noticed immediately that General Petraeus is shorter than we thought he would be, but a commanding presence none-the-less. He was definitely funnier than we expected him to be. He spoke to the cadets about working hard and leadership; including a quote from Roosevelt, "Work hard at things worth doing" and gave them some points to lead by. 1. Lead by example. 2. Listen and learn 3. Lead from the front (except going through the chow line) 4. Keep your troops informed 5. Lead and build your team 6. Learn how to sleep in any circumstances.

The rest of the ceremony was very nice, then General Patraeus led them in the commissioning oath. Afterwards, there was a reception and David got to meet General Patraeus.

I was glad David had the opportunity to do something for himself and not just for family, work, church, or school district.

Pinewood Derby

I know, it's late in the season for the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Oh, well. Bryson and I spent a couple of days making a car for him and a car for me. Bryson originally wanted his to have some resemblance to a rhinocerous, but after we got it cut out, he didn't like it as well as he hoped and didn't spend much time decorating it. I called it the "Raging Rhino". We made sure it was the maximum weight, well lubricated and polished and hoped for the best.

On your mark, get set...

...GO!

And did he go! Bryson's car is the gray one on the right in the picture above. He won his first race, then his second race; actually he won all his races. Even when the front wheel popped up onto the center of the track and it went down kinda sideways. He took 1st place in the Cub Scouts.

Here's a picture of Bryson with his friend Duncan.
Then we were on to the open division. It was tough competition, but in the end, my little "shoe racer" pulled off 1st place as well. Then for the real challenge, 1st place in each division races against each other. Mother against child. Since we made them side by side it was a toss up as to which was better. But the Mom's car won in the end. You'd be surprised how often a Mechanical Engineering degree comes in handy when you're raising boys.

Seriously I made it just like my shoes.

Fastest shoe on four wheels!

Camp Out, Piano Recital, Baseball

A week ago Friday night Parker headed out with the Scouts on a several mile overnight hiking trip (he's next to the guy with the yellow hood on). One small snag in the trip was when they found out the tent they brought for Parker and another kid didn't have poles. They tied the tent to some trees to hold it up and it seemed to work OK. You have to ask why are there tents in the scout closet with no poles!?!
Everyone came back with no injuries. This was a nice picture of Parker before they headed off. I don't get many good pictures of him (awake and smiling).

Saturday morning I took a couple of the Young Women to plant a garden for a sister in the ward (my 3rd garden planted this year, but who's counting - luckily one was mine). Then home to quickly shower and head off to Bryson's Piano Recital. He did wonderfully as usual. He's really talented if he chooses to continue with his music. He loves to write songs, both music and lyrics, although he hasn't combined the two. He writes music to express feeling through the song, and lyrics to express feeling through poems to a familiar tune.

Oh, yeah. It was my recital, too. Yes, I take piano lessons. I am a painfully slow learner, but I'm getting good enough to play cool stuff, now, so it's getting fun. I love to play, but I get really nervous doing it in front of people. It will be a while yet before I'm good enough to play hymns out of the hymn book, but I'm slowly plugging away at it.
Our piano teacher is Wendy Blood from our Ward (congregation). She's an amazing musician and does a great job supporting us in our efforts to learn.

Then we were off to Baseball again. Didn't win, but Bryson played well at pitcher, shortstop, and centerfield.