Angeles's bday, Men on Boats, Alex at the temple

First of all, Happy Birthday to Angeles! She turned 25 on Thursday. Wish we could have been there. Hope you had a wonderful day!

Thursday was also the day that Glen and I took some of his theatre students to see a play based on a true story. It was put on by Damonte Ranch High School in Reno. The play was called Men on Boats, only there are no men (per playwright's instructions) and no boats (minimal set and few props--mostly pantomimed). Fascinating play and the girls did a fantastic job, I thought. Lake Powell was named after the leader of the expedition that the play chronicles.

Here are 2 summaries of the story:

Backhaus’ play dramatizes the 1869 expedition of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon, following Major John Wesley Powell and a crew of volunteers who journey to chart the Colorado River. Backhaus uses Powell’s journal to dramatize the (mostly) accurate chronicle of the expedition.

In 1869, ten explorers set off to chart the Green and Colorado Rivers, under the guidance of John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War Veteran and personal friend of President Grant, a government-sanctioned journey following in the footsteps of the deserters, lone adventurers, and countless indigenous people who have previously braved the wild rapids leading through Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, and through the most dangerous waterway of all: the Grand Canyon. Along the way they make friends, they get on each other’s nerves, they suffer loss of boat and supplies, they doubt, struggle, and name mountains after themselves, they posture and pretend, they quit while they’re ahead, and they repeatedly brave dangerous rapids to reach the other side. As boats capsize and supplies are lost, as belts tighten and nerves fray, the company draws together as a band of brothers, even as three members fear the outcome of the final waterfalls and make the fateful decision to leave before the end. In Men On Boats, Jacklyn Backhaus’ original, hilarious, and delightful adventure dramedy, the conquering men out to chronicle the land in service of America, God, and Manifest destiny, are given voice and movement by actors who are anything and everything but white and male, and the bravery, determination, foolishness, humanity, and true grit of the historical explorers is memorialized, while the historical moment of their journey is viewed with a critical lens.

It was homecoming week at school. Friday night, Glen and I went to see the football game, but took a detour into the gym and watched a very exciting volleyball game--it was much more exciting than the football game since we won the football game 56-0.

Turns out when you play volleyball it's the best 3 out of 5. When we arrived at the volleyball game, each team had already won one game. The third game was in progress and we were way behind, but the girls rallied hard at the end and won...and then they were creamed in the 4th game.

So it was tied, 2 games each. We were behind in the 5th game by a lot...and then the girls rallied again and managed to pull out a win. It was, as I said before, very exciting. Glen and I then went out and watched the last few minutes of the football game where the other team almost scored...but didn't.


Another big week for Alex. Yesterday he received his own endowments at the Reno temple. Besides the four of us, Dad Perazzo, David, Alan, Kathy, Gary, and Michael were also able to be there. We were so glad that they were able to come and support Alex.

it was chilly and very windy as you can tell--and it snowed a bit after we left Reno

Cousin Russ, Alex's mission call, my new calling

My kids have 25 first cousins. Glen thinks he has 15. I have 2, Chandel and Russ.

Chandel was 11 years older than I was and Russ was 8 years older. They grew up in California and I grew up in Massachusetts. I don't even remember ever meeting them until I was an adult--and I only saw them once or twice. There is a home movie of me with them at the beach when I was maybe 3. I don't remember it.

Anyway,  Chandel passed away almost 13 years ago. We found out last Monday that Russ had passed away on Saturday, September 14th. It's funny how even someone I had such little contact with can make me feel so sad at his passing. He just seemed to be such a great guy.

He was a musician and played the trombone--he would sometimes play in the band on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. I remember seeing him a few times on TV playing.

Later in life, Russ became a nurse. He had just retired and was traveling with his dog Max. Part of the plan was for him to drop Max off with my parents for a week in October so he could explore further.

Good bye, Russ. You are missed.

So, the looooooong awaited day finally arrived. Alex had warned us last Sunday that if the call came Tuesday that he wouldn't be opening it until Wednesday (because there was too much happening on Tuesday). Sure enough, it came on Tuesday and we had to wait until Wednesday evening to open it. Tuesday morning I was not wanting to wait, but wait we did, which allowed more family and friends to be with Alex as he opened his call...

...and if you haven't heard, he is called to serve in the Utah Salt Lake City Mission to report to the training center on Wednesday November 6th! Seven weeks to get ready. Wow. (by the way, Ryan is the only one who guessed Salt Lake City. Riley, a friend, guessed Utah in general. Good guessing, boys)

As you can see from the map, his mission includes part of Wyoming (about 1/6th of the state?). Alex has noticed that though there are many temples near his mission boundaries, none are actually in his mission boundaries. I said that the Salt Lake Temple is...and he reminded me that the Temple is its own mission (the one his cousin Madison served in)--and it's closing down in December for renovations anyway.

Today Alex was given the Melchizedek Priesthood and ordained to the office of an Elder. He won't be set apart as a missionary until just before he leaves for his mission, though. He will be going through the temple for the first time this Saturday morning at 9:30 am. Another big step in his life!

Bishop Sommer, Grandpa, Gary, Alex, Glen, Brother Polish, Eric, and Alan

Today I received a new calling. I am now the second counselor in the Young Women's (YW) presidency. I was a tiny bit surprised as it wasn't on my radar, but I'm very excited. I'll be working with wonderful people--both the other adults and the girls. The YW program has changed a bit since I was last in it, and come January even more changes will be happening. It's an exciting time to be working with the youth.

And Alex and I have played 5 games this week (Alhambra, Istanbul, Viticulture, 7 Wonders Duel, and Caverna). He not only won 4 of them, he creamed me. I managed to win 7 Wonders Duel, but according to him it was not because I was a better player, but because Alex didn't pay attention to the fact that I was collecting the different science symbols. In many games, he clearly is the better player, but I'm not convinced that 7 Wonders Duel is one of them.

mimicking Andrew and Heather's picture from last week