Play Me a Tune?

Caleb had a Halloween recital. He was ready and rarin' to go for the 5:30 performance. Since it was close to Halloween, the performers could play their songs wearing their costumes if they wanted to. Caleb is sometimes funny about costumes so he decided that we was going to go dressed as a neatly dressed 10 year old.

At 5:25, I got a call from my friend who has three of her kids performing that night.

J: Is everything ok?

Me: Yeah, we're just getting ready to head out.

J: I was just wondering because you aren't here yet.

Me: Wait, when does the recital start?

J: 5:00

Me: Oh, snap.

Caleb and I rushed down to the church just as the last person was performing. The teacher had rearranged to order so Caleb could go after.

Literally within a minute of walking in, Caleb played his first piece:The Spinning Wheel, by Albert Ellmenreich.

Next, he played Snowflake Rag followed by The Great Wall of China, both by Faber

We weren't the only ones to get the time wrong. While we were waiting for the other performers to arrive, Caleb's piano teacher wanted Caleb to play The Great Wall of China slower because she thinks it sound prettier that way.

His final piece is The Goblin Council, and original song by Caleb Miller

Because of my mistake with the timing of the whole thing, the girls and Brad unfortunately missed the whole recital. How did Caleb act about the evening's events? He remained as cool as a cucumber.

That Boy, I sure love him.

Lift Where You Stand

When the trailer and truck were mired in the sand, we realized that the only way to move the trailer was to completely unload it and move it into a position where we could rehitch once the truck was unstuck. Darrin Poulsen, one of the dads that were there, has a knack of being able to turn anything into a spiritual learning experience. He retold the story in one of Dieter F. Uchtdorf"s conference talks. In this talk, he tells of his experience of having to move a piano with some other men. In order to move it, they needed to just lift it where they were standing. With many people doing that, they were able to move the piano with ease. The the girls all gathered around the trailer and lifted and moved the trailer. They were pretty proud of themselves.

This whole experience could have been the start of a lot of bad attitudes (heat, dust, manual labor, car troubles), but when we made it back to the freeway, one of my Beehives enthusiastically exclaimed, "Sister Miller, that was the best ever!!! I knew camp was going to be fun but not this fun!!" The other girls in the car wholeheartedly agreed.

I love this girlies.

What You Get when you Combine 50+ Girls and a Desert

The last week of June we had our annual girls camp for the girls in our ward. This year we thought we would do something a little extra special and go down to Southern Utah. Have you ever been there? It's beautiful but really, REALLY hot the last week of June. We loaded up the cars, trucks and trailers and headed down to Green River.

 On the way down, we thought we would take a little detour off of I-70 to check out a petroglyph named The Black Dragon. (As an aside, Brad and I took the kids to see it several years ago and we drove back and forth on that stretch of highway five or six times before we could find the turnoff.) We pulled up to a small stand of cottonwoods and had a nice lunch and the girls tried to stay cool by spraying each other off.

On this first stop, we learned a very important lesson; we learned that a full sized truck pulling a fully loaded trailer has no business driving on soft sand.

Luckily, there were plenty of helping hands.

The trailer was unhitched, emptied of all its contents. Then the work began. Girls were sent up the hillside to gather flat rocks to put under the wheels. After a quick prayer, most everyone lined up behind the truck and started the push. (I had to document the whole affair, so I didn't push.)

Half of our party was unaware of what had happened because they drove out in front of the truck. They waited a couple of miles away wondering what had happened to the rest of us. They figured out what had happened when they saw the huge dust cloud billow up into the sky. Everyone behind the truck was now the same earthy red color. We take blending into the enviroment very seriously.

Then we got the trail man(girl) handled and moved it out of the way. (I'll save that story for another post) After that was done, an assembly line was formed and we loaded up the trailer and hitched it back up to the truck. Yay! Keep in mind that it was about 102 degrees while this was happening.
By then, the rest of the party had driven back to see what was going on. Sometimes it is good to get the bad thing out of the way at the beginning of the trip, right? So I get back in my car and it won't start. Are you serious?!  Michelle, our Young Women president fortuneately has a Suburban that is very much like Mary Poppins magical carpet bag- she not only produced a shovel to help dig out the truck but she also had a portable battery that comes in handy when someone's car won't start. We drove back out to the highway. Because the road was so narrow, the cars that came back to see what was going on had to drive for a couple of miles backward. Those women have some skills!

When we got to Green River State Park, we set up camp. The water was extremely high this year so the girls were told to stay away from the river, although someone forgot to tell the mosquitos.

YCLs.

The next day we drove to Moab to raft the Mighty, Mighty Colorado.

Everyone had a great time, even the people on our raft. We had a girl for a river guide and because she was the only female guide, she felt like she had something to prove. She pushed us hard. It also didn't help that 2/3 of the raft had the average weight of 80 pounds. Combine those two things and let's just say it was a little intense.

After rafting, we went to a park in Moab and just hung out and had dinner and waited for things to cool down before we went on our hike. In the evening, we headed out to Corona Arch. Underneath the Arch, we had a short devotional. It was a visual, and spiritual feast!

This was Rachel's first year as a Youth Camp Leader. This means that she was responsible for 6 girls and she was the "mom" for their tent. The theme this year was Winnie the Pooh and each tent was assigned a character. Rachel's tent was Kanga and Roo. She stayed up until 2:00am the night before making cute pockets for them and making a map of the 100 acre Wood. I'm not sure where the I heart JB comes in the Winnie the Pooh story, though. I've read the Winnie the Pooh stories many times and I have not a single recollection of Justin Bieber being in any of the stories.

Emma after several days of roughing it. She forgot her razor.

One of the priesthood leaders brought water balloons and there were many welcome, wet games.

I was soaked by some of my girls. They "lured" me out of the pavillion by saying, "Sister Miller! Theres a --spider--yeah, a spider here that we want you to see!" I thought I would play the good sport and let them douse me. I did manage to dump half a cooler full of water on a couple of them though.

Emma is here in her tent writing some notes to the other girls in the camp.

During free time there were crafts and other things that were organized. I noticed that Emma was missing. I found her in her tent. The poor thing was wiped out.

I never went to girls camp when I was a girl but I can tell you that as an adult leader, I love it.

Oh So Sweet

On June 3, 1995 Rachel was born bright-eyed and ready to take on the world.

7 days old

She was always on the go. Always.

1 year old. This is the Place Monument

She was fearless.

2 years old. Little Wild Horse Canyon

3 years old. Great Falls of the Potomac.

She loves the great outdoors (just like her dad).

4 years old. Jackson Hole

 

She was sassy. Very sassy (and very skinny, look at how tight her belt is cinched up).

5 years old. Disney World

She like to be dressed up and looking pretty.

6 years old. With Emma, Sara and Sydney. Sam and Rachel's wedding reception

She loves her brother and sister dearly.

7 years old. Buffalo Peak

8 years old. Capitol Reef

She is creative

9 years old. Princess Leia ( with enough layers underneath to keep her warm.)

She stood out. She wasn't concerned with being like everyone else.

10 years old. Captain Jack Sparrow

She was concientious and always tried to do her best.

11 years old. Hope of America award.

12 years old. Rachel and Emma best friends/sisters.

She has enjoyed playing dress ups as soon as she could get dressed by herself.

13 years old. Messing around with crazy clothes and makeup with friends.

She has a flair for the dramatic

14 years old. Midsummer's Night Dream

She's always up for trying something new. Did I mention that she is fearless?

15 years old. Getting ready to walk the tightrope.

She is absolutely beautiful inside and out. She turned 16 on Friday and she had a date the next day. She also doesn't waste any time.



16 years old and sporting a new 'do.



Rachel Arwen Miller, we are so lucky you're around.

Webelos

Caleb earned his Webelos rank last week. Scouting is still a little bit like a foreign country to me. Webelos?!? What the heck does that mean? Luckily, Brad is an Eagle Scout and he was really into scouting when he was younger so Caleb has a parent that will help guide him through the world of merit badges, certifications, weird skits and silly songs. Oh, and I was told that Webelo means "We Be Loyal Scouts".
Caleb is at an age where it is not quite as cool to be outwardly affectionate to your mom in public. Here is is pinning the mother's badge on me.

I understand and I respect that (I respect it but I don't have to like it). Look at how thrilled he is to shake my hand. It was all I could do to restrain myself from giving him a huge bear hug and kissing him.

Earlier this year, Caleb had the Pinewood Derby. He had a great time making it with the help of his dad. I think it's so funny that they are carving over an old tee shirt in front of the tv. Because you know, if it were me, we would have newspapers spread out and doing it at the kitchen counter.

The finished project. Ooooh, so sleek and shiny!

It wasn't the fastest car in the pack but adults and scouts alike appreciate the aesthetic qualities his wheels.

Scouts is great! Caleb loves it.

Cake Boss

Emma is quite the baker. She loves watching the cake decorating shows on the Food Network and once in awhile, she feels the urge to bake herself a cake or cookies. She decorated her own birthday cake in January, which I will post sometime when we get those pictures off of her camera. But here is some footage of the cake and the cute baker on her birthday.

Yesterday was President's Day. Emma wanted to bake a cake.

Not too shabby. She didn't want to pose for the picture because she spent the entire day in basketball shorts, a tee shirt and no makeup. For the record, she still looked pretty good to me. I'm glad she's working on this hobby, my waistline however, is not.

Magic Fingers

Caleb is going through a stage right now where he really likes to play the piano. I love it when he is in that stage. I really dislike the drama involved in getting him to practice when he doesn't.Earlier this month, Caleb performed in the Music Festival. He really loves his songs, especially the second one, The Sorceror. A bonus was when we walked into the recital hall and saw that one of the judges was Cathleen Poulsen, one of our neighbors and just about the nicest person you could ever know.

This piece is called Fanfare Minuet, by William Duncombe

The Sorceror, by Carol Matz

Caleb Miller, you are so cool.

Dancing Fools

My parents and brother gave us a Wii for Christmas this year. Santa gave us a Wii Fit and a couple of games. It was tricky because Santa's presents were there in the morning and they got the Wii in the evening. Brad and I told the kids in the morning that we would buy them a Wii after Christmas so the surprise wasn't spoiled for my folks.

Just Dance 2 was the game that Emma got-to the great enjoyment of all. One night we had a lot of family over and my sister-in-law Rachel came upon this scene:

So much fun to see them shake it, shake it like a Polaroid picture. For the record, I can keep up with the best of them and I even have a couple of the high scores. Just sayin'...

I have yet to see Brad dance, I'm not sure if I ever will, but a girl can keep dreaming, right?