Feeling the Spirit in Spanish

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

It did not work out to go to the Live Nativity with family this year, so we let each of the kids invite a friend to come with us, we invited the Sawyers and the Peerys decided to come along when we picked up Mason to come as well. We carried on the tradition of bringing donuts but decided to bring chocolate milk instead of hot cocoa.  When we got there the line for the 6:00 show was so long, we were not able to get in.  We decided to wait for the 7:00 show even though it was in Spanish.  We ran into the Shafers in line and we shared our treats while waiting.

Alexis brought her friend from school and soccer, Jade.

Camryn had fun hanging out with the two Heathers.

When we finally got a seat, Seth and Mason were in the front row and since they knew this was the Spanish showing, they said "Hola!" to everyone that passed by.

The music was still in English and the whole experience is really more visual than anything else, so we were still able to feel the Spirit and get ourselves ready truly celebrate Christmas, the birth of our Savior.

Fall Ball

Fall 2012

Seth refused to try any other sport this fall even though the Little League in our area only has a spring league.  We found another league for him to play in.  His team was The Rays.

They had a great season, coming in 2nd place in their division.

Homecoming

Thursday, November 15, 2012

My parents returned home from their mission at Cove Fort, UT on October 12th.  They had spent 18 months giving tours and bearing testimony at the historic site.

My baby brother, Bo, returned from his 2 year mission on November 15th.  We made the traditional sign, playing on his name being BO.  We waited for him at the baggage claim, but he came down a different escalator than where we were standing, so it was pretty anticlimactic.

After the airport, we went to Bo's Stake President's house so he could be released. After hearing a good report from his mission president and hearing Bo's testimony, we headed to the place he really missed while he was gone.  Not home - Sammy's.  We all ate a ton of the good but greasy food then headed back to Mom and Dad's for a slideshow and souvenirs.  That weekend, Lee's family came up for the homecoming talks in the Villa Bonita Ward.  Mom and dad took up all the time - Dad went through the entire Fort Tour, leaving Bo with only enough time to bear his testimony.  After sacrament, we had brunch all together at Mom and Dad's. We are thankful for the service our family gave, but we are happy to be back together again.

Shark Bait, Ew Ah Ha!

Saturday, November 3, 2012

The first weekend of the month, teachers and a guest can visit the Shark Reef for free.  We decided to take advantage of this offer and went on a family field trip.

We checked out the Piranhas

and touched rays in the Petting Pool.

Seth was totally freaked out, yet really wanted to do it.  We were there for quite some time, while he tried.  He finally did it!

We sat in the big shark tank area for awhile just watching.  There are some strange animals in this world and we saw a few of them.

Of course, you must exit through the gift shop, where the kids found these fun hats.

We finished the field trip with a visit to Yogurt and.

Trunk or Treat

Friday, October 26, 2012

This year for Halloween Seth and Camryn were Gnomeo and Juliet and Alexis was Fall (the twins were Summer & Winter). We headed down to the Goodwill near our house and found clothes that could be the base for the costumes.  We made out pretty well and I just had to cut and sew a few things to make these cute getups. 

The Young Men and Young Women in our ward were in charge of the Trunk-or-Treat, which meant we had to be there early and get things set up.  The YM were in charge of the hot dog and chili dinner. They had a chili cook off (Grandpa Jenkins was one of the judges) and then Dave and other YM leaders manned the grill making hot dogs.  The YW made and ran games for the kids to play. 

Alexis manned the fishing game.  Not many YW were there so she made her guy friends help and she made sure she got treats too.

                                    

Seth hung out with his best buddy, Mason.

Camryn spent time with Heather and Emma.

They both got tons of candy trunk-or-treating and they played all the games.  The donut game was their favorite, racing each other to eat the donut off the string.

At the end of the night, we cleaned it all up and headed home, while Alexis went out with the boys. There had been a game where toilet paper ghost were knocked over by a fake pumpkin.  The TP couldn't be used for conventional purposes, so Alexis decided to take Taz, Lawson, and Hansen on their first TPing adventure, with Taz's brother Tanner driving them.  Let's just say - they got caught and interrogated by their victim's neighbors!   

Fong Fall Festival Fun

Thursday, October 25, 2012

After school on Thursday, I wheeled out the Book Fair Cases and got ready for the Fong Fall Festival.  I was stuck working the Book Fair the whole time, but Camryn & Seth had plenty of tickets and spent the evening hanging out with Makenna and & Cayson.  They played games, ate, and went through the Huanted Classroom.  After the fair, Makenna came over to spend the night and Seth had his first sleepover at a friend's house, going home with Cayson.  The kids had fun, the weather was great, and I met my book fair goals.

Mega Fun Birthday Party

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Megamind is a family favorite.  We often watch it when we have a family movie night.  Seth decided to have a Megamind Birthday Party this year.  We made a little paper giving the party details and rolled them up and put them in a balloon with Megamind's face drawn on with a Sharpie.  The kids Seth invited had to pop the balloon to find the note.

I made this cake.  It was very blue.  I didn't leave enough time for it to dry, so the Megamind figure kept falling over and had to be propped up.

When the guests arrived, they decorated their own capes, making a Black Mamba, like in the movie.  The boys mostly wrote things about how awesome they were on their capes.

Will, Mason, Seth, Cole, Kade, Cayson, Kaden

Camryn & Zack in their capes with their dehydration guns (that did not work)

The boys were given little pellets (animals that had been shot with dehydration guns) to put in water.  As they soaked in the water, they took the shape of bugs and animals.

We headed back inside were the boys had a Megamind balloon tied to their ankle.  They had to try to pop each others balloons and the last balloon remaining was the true Megamind and winner of the game.  It got down to Mason and Zack.  We helped Mason a little by holding Zack, so him being older wouldn't be too big of an advantage. Mason won!

Then the boys played Pin the Minion in the glass sphere.  Zack, Cayson, and Cole all got their Minions in the sphere.

We were ready for dinner - Blue Mac & Cheese Pizza with blue Jello Jigglers.  It was so gross, but everyone but Camryn and AJ loved it.

Seth opened his presents, getting great gifts, especially fun crafts to do.

We sang "Happy Birthday" and Seth blew out the candles, after some of the fondant started burning!

A few of the families came to watch the movie projected in our front yard and have cake & ice cream.

The party was "Mega" fun!

Pensacola Wedding

Thursday, October 11, 2012

We took an early morning flight across the country to attend the the wedding of Dave's cousin, Kelly Bartek to Cody Castleberry. When we finally got to Pensacola and got checked in, we ran into the bride and groom and made plans to go to dinner together. We went to an Irish Pub across the street called McGuire's.  We had amazing shepherd's pie and enjoyed getting to know Cody.  The ceiling was covered with dollar bills people had signed with sharpies and had stapled onto the ceiling.  They thought there was over a million dollars up there.

Friday, October 12, 2012

On Friday we decided to do a little sightseeing.  We started out at the Naval Air Museum.  We had been warned to avoid the tours given by retired volunteers, but we ended up joining one led by this gentleman, Terry Bryan, whose call name had been "Zeus".  He had been a test pilot and had very interesting stories and had even flown in space.  He was so funny too, telling us about crashes and flight disasters and then he would say, "That was a bad air day".

There was a lighthouse nearby that we visited after the museum.  You could walk around the lighthouse keepers home, which they said was haunted and had been featured in an episode of Ghost Hunters.  We looked for the supposed blood stains in the bedroom but did not see anything. 

The treat of a ghost did not scare me, but the 177 steps we took to the top of the lighthouse frightened me more that anything else on my life. The stairs were iron with a see-through pattern.  Many steps had been replaced, causing me to doubt the safety of the remaining ones.

The view from the top was amazing, but the journey back down the stairs was just as terrifying as the trip up.

We also visited Fort Barracas, which was dug into a hill, first by the Spaniards, then by the US Army to protect the port.

There were these really long underground hallways that went around in a square. 

That night we ate authentic southern food at 5 Sisters Blues Cafe.  Our waitress reminded me of Whoopie Goldberg and Dave got to enjoy Chicken and Waffles, a new favorite of his.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Saturday we had time before the afternoon wedding, so we visited the Pensacola Historic Village.  There were people dress in period costume showing people how they cooked and made and cared for guns in colonial times and tours were given of some of the older houses.  Because it was October, the tour guide tried to make everything sound haunted.

We went back to get ready for the wedding.  It took place in this old church, which was very pretty, and haunted, of course.

Kelly looked beautiful and the ceremony was conducted by a friend of the groom's family, so it was more personal.

The reception was held outside.  The weather was so nice and we enjoyed spending time with Aunt Amy (when she wasn't dancing the night away) and Dave's cousins Stephanie and Kristen.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

The next morning we had breakfast with the Barteks and then they were headed back home.  It was really good to see them.  Our visits are too few and far between.
 

Dave, Donna and I headed down to Pensacola Beach to relax.  The beach was beautiful.

We walked down the pier, spoke to people fishing, and took this silly picture.

That night we ate at the FishHouse right on the water.  I had some delicious shrimp.

The next morning we headed home. It was a long, hard day for me with way too much sitting.  I was glad to finally be home and see the kids that night.

Wickedly Good

Friday, September 28, 2012

On Friday night we took the girls to see Wicked at the Smith Center.  We started with dinner at Outback then headed to the show. 

Both girls have performed songs from the show in choir and Hollywood Kids, so we were familiar we the music and very excited to see the production.  I had read the book and hated it, so I was very curious to see how the story would be portrayed.

The show was amazing, just like the book but WAY BETTER!  It made me want to buy season tickets to see more shows at The Smith Center.

1st Sleepover

Friday, September 21-Saturday, September 22, 2012

Seth had his first sleepover with Cayson, his best friend from school.  The Allens took Camryn for the night and Seth was especially excited about the exchange.  The boys played a little and after dinner we headed out to watch Seth's baseball game.  We got in late and boys watched part of a movie before going to sleep in their matching Cars sleeping bags. We got up early to clean the church.  Seth and Cayson were in charge of collecting the trash bags from the classroom and were rewarded with donuts.

The boys just hung out the rest of the day.  We made bleached Fong Dragon shirts for Cayson and their teacher, Mrs. Janeksela.  In the afternoon, we met up with the Allens at the Town Square Park to hang out a little and exchange kids.