Spring Break and a blast from the past

For Spring Break, my sister, Denise, and her son, Jake, drove here from Vegas. Hannah's project that first night was to paint some signs that she later put up outside by our dead tree trunk.

On Sunday, Deni and I left Jake behind (we were a day late due to a needed car repair), and we went to Oregon to visit our parents for a week. Jake, a senior like Ryan, seems to have had a good week partying it up with his cousins and their friends. Yes, they had a movie party and watched the cartoon version of "Robin Hood." We know how to live.

While Deni and I were in Oregon, Andrew (still in Provo and almost done with winter semester) turned 22.  I wasn't there to take a picture, but here's one from his 3rd birthday and notice he is wearing a BYU shirt:

Andrew and Glen

Ryan turned 18 and got his driver's license. Hannah made a great cake for Ryan, which I saw when we got in (partially eaten, of course). For those of you not as familiar with pokemon as we are, this is Charmander. One of his special traits is he can breathe fire. Hannah had placed the candles so it looked like he was breathing fire. Pretty creative:

After returning home I thanked Hannah for doing such a good job keeping the house in order. She gave me this amazed look and asked me how I managed to do it all. Apparently it had been a difficult task. Though I wish her task had been easier for her, I'm so glad there's a new appreciation in her for what I do. Warms my heart.

Denise and I had a quiet week which was just what the doctor ordered. Mom, Deni, and I played games (the dice games Farkle and yahtzee, plus some 3 to 13, a card game). We got Dad to play one game of yahtzee with us, too.

I only went to the beach once, on Monday, as I had a project I was working on, but Denise went several times to sit and think. The sun actually came out for a bit while I was at the beach. They hadn't seen the sun in over 2 1/2 weeks, Dad said. It had been raining a lot. We did see the sun a couple of times while there, but it was mostly cloudy and a bit rainy.

Deni and I also had a mini Jane Austen movie-fest. We saw Persuasion, Emma, and 2 versions of Sense and Sensibility.The 2 versions were different, leaving us wanting to read the book to see what really happened. I read it so long ago, I don't remember the details.

My big project was to take my grandfather's scrapbooks and some other family photos and scan them into the computer. The scanning is done, but not my project. I am still working on a family history book.

Denise and I drove back on Saturday. That night we went to see "The Princess Bride" in the high school theatre. Glen plays the grandfather, Alex is the grandson, Eric is the albino, and my nephew Joseph is the gatekeeper. Curtain call:

Fezzik (Chad), Inigo (Dallin), Albino (Eric), Miracle Max (Braden), and the Taylor (Jared)

(Alex and) Denise and Jake after the play

Now, for a blast from the past. Besides scanning photos that were 100 years old, there were also a few a bit more recent...like about 35 years ago taken in Metairie, Louisiana.

me readingin the back yard--wish it was something great, but it was a Harlequin Romance

I think this photo was taken in the summer of 1977. Denise and Martha, who was visiting us from Massachusetts, would have just graduated from high school. We are still in contact with Martha. She even came out for the wedding of Denise's son last year. It's great to still have contact with old friends.

Denise, Martha, Beth

Great fun.

Glen and Hannah's trips, college basketball, using your computer as a reader

Hannah went to Reno for 3 days to a leadership conference and apparently had a wonderful time, though when I asked her what she learned and what they did, she didn't really give me an answer. But she really has a blast.

Glen went to Henderson, NV with 3 of his students for the Nevada State competition. His students were competing in musical theatre. They all received "excellent" ratings and Glen and the moms/grandmothers with him apparently loved the thrift shops there and found a lot of good props for the set of "The Princess Bride" (which debuts April 6th, by the way).

For the last few year, my brother-in-law, Alan, has created a group on ESPN's College Tournament Challenge. Even though Glen and I don't follow sports and know nothing about the coaches or individual players (with the exception being BYU sometimes), we have a blast choosing our brackets and following the rankings. There have been some really exciting games this year.

Eric, Ryan, Glen, and I created brackets. Eric had Louisville winning, Ryan had Kansas winning, and both Glen and I chose Ohio St. to win. It's amazing that those 3 teams are in the Final Four. Not bad for a bunch of non-sporters.

If Jacob and I have done the math correctly, we are now at a point that if Ohio St. wins, I win the family tourney.
If Kansas wins, then Maddie comes out on top again.
If Kentucky wins then it's either Daniel or David who gets the glory. Daniel will get the glory if Kentucky beat Kansas and David will if Kentucky beat Ohio St.

Usually I only stay interested in the tournament until I no longer have a chance to win...and I've never been this close before, so it's really fun. I believe Maddie won last year and her prize was a purple cow (vanilla ice cream and grape juice float). Sounds good to me.

I lost my Kindle Touch back in January when we were in Utah with the theatre kids, which made me sad. But recently I learned you can download a free reader to your computer and buy books (or just download free ones) and read them on your computer. Good deal. So I downloaded my first free book (it was a play, actually) "Hobson's Choice" which was the base for a made-for-tv movie that I loved back in the 80s starring Sharon Gless and Richard Thomas. There is also an old classic movie "Hobson's Choice" that I haven't seen yet. I love "free" things. Of course, the laptop doesn't fit in my purse, but that's OK.