Meet Jete

Surprise! Yes, we went from no dogs and no hope to ever get a dog, to two dogs. Mom surprised EVERYONE (including Dad, who is now calling the new puppy The Unauthorized Dog). On the way back from St. George we took a little detour through Gunnison to pick up Jeter. He is a bundle of fur and very playful. He loves to attack Romeo and then they roll all over the floor playing with each other. It didn't take long for us to bond with him. Just a week after he came, Jeter became very sick and had to spend some time at the vet on an IV. We were so glad when he was able to come home. Jeter & Romeo fit right in here and we wouldn't trade them for anything!

Game On

Dance night at the high school. The theme is "Game On", which opens it up for lots of interpretations and lots of fun.

Jake's group is going as "night gamers", so the whole group wore black, paint-spattered shirts and then each couple had unique colored bandanas. I think Janessa is a cute girl and they will have tons of fun.
Thomas and Mitch went with a "dodge ball" group. This picture is before the war paint was added.
Evan's group went as "Halo" gamers. Yikes! I hope he will take the helmet off for some of the evening. I think Evan's date, Laura, looks just like Liv Tyler, but not everyone agreed with me.

Evan's Two Home Run Day on Craig's Birthday

Evan's first at-bat today. First home varsity game of the season. With two strikes and two base runners, Evan put one over the left field fence.
After hitting a single in the 4th inning, Evan got up again with two men on base and hit another ball over the left field fence!

It was quite a day.

And it was also Craig's birthday. Evan's is tomorrow, so we had cake and ice cream tonight.

A very good day.

Closing Ceremonies

We should get a medal for our Olympic viewing. We have been true red, white & blue fans. We have been behind Team USA one hundred percent. We cheered against the Germans and the Russians. For a while we cheered for our neighbor Canadians, but then they got a little too big for their britches, so we cheered against them. We liked the Scandinavians and Austrians a lot, so we cheered for them too.

We recorded events almost every night and we didn't miss much of the exciting 2010 Vancouver games. The best thing was watching the events together. It was so much fun to build family unity while we enjoyed hard-fought victories. The worst thing was watching Team USA lose the gold medal in men's hockey to the Canadians.

Now that the closing ceremonies are drawing to a close, the worst thing is looking forward to the 2012 Sochi games. Evan won't be here to cheer for our team. I wonder what team he will be cheering for out in the world.

Will You go to Senate Dance With Me X 2?

I'm a happy Mama. Both my boys got asked to the Senate dance coming up on March 13 (Evan's birthday).

Evan had to blow out candles on these yummy cupcakes and find letters at the bottom to spell: LAURA. He's excited to go, but it's his last high school girl's choice dance.
Jake had to put these bananas in order to spell: JANESSA. We are so lucky that we get to keep that pretty gorilla too!

Sweet 16

Jake says he's "sweet" 16, but he can't prove it. I wouldn't even blame him if he weren't.

We have all been anxiously anticipating Jake's birthday. He can now be responsible for his own transportation. Mom thinks that is wonderful.

On Jake's birthday, we all headed to the Bishop's office for Jake's ordination. While we were there, Jake's friends were busy arriving and preparing for surprising. They even corralled two girls who just happened to come by with birthday cookies for Jake. It was a fun surprise.

We grilled and consumed "Puka Dogs"--yummy Hawaiian style hot dogs. They have a garlic secret sauce on them and then we chose from pineapple, coconut or mango relish. They were so yummy.

Then, the obligatory cake and presents. It was a fun night. Thanks for turning 16, Jake.

Meet Eileen

Do you remember that classic song from 1982 called "Come On Eileen" sung cheerfully by Dexy's Midnight Runners?

"Too-ra, loo-ra, too-ra, loo-rye, aye..."

So catchy. I love it and Jake loves it, Craig--not so much.

What grew from Jake's love of the song is a name for his car. We all now refer to her kindly as "Eileen". I have offered to get license plates that say: EILENE or CMONILN, but Jake, ever the Parry, isn't into vanity plates.