Youth Conference

in the Heartland. It happened. Emily's first youth conference was a big one. You can read about it here in the Church News. Seven stakes participated and the preparation was daunting. Emily tried out to be a featured dancer last fall. She thought she wanted to be a lyrical dancer but as it turned out she was cast as a featured 30's and 50's swing dancer. That meant dancing with a partner (definition: a boy) and boatloads of practices so when they performed they were impressive. They started practicing in March and we eventually were making weekly trips to Norman so she could get use to being jumped over, flipped over, swung around, swung under and swung over. It was intense. When her friends finally saw the dance they feared for her good health. The bruises have since faded.

Each stake performed two dances. One glimpse of the lederhosen and I am thinking they stole your pants Geoff!

Maybe Eric will come home from Mexico with a hat. Ole'.


Emily's friend Nicole is second in on the left with the blonde ponytail. They are drummers with out their drums. They played sticks, lids and buckets. It was so cool.

A scene from the show "Oklahoma."

Here is Emily's 30's dance, she is on the left side in red, partnered with the guy in Khaki.

You can not talk about Oklahoma history without mentioning the Indians. They should have rolled out a rain dance.

The Bali dancers

and their awesome backdrop.

Emily's friend Dionne was a featured lyrical dancer. She is in the back row second from the right. Marisa and Marissa from the ward were both in the orchestra and Lanae was a vocal soloist. The Jenks ward girls were an impressive bunch.

Our stake danced the 50's swing and a country line dance. Not very exotic but lots of fun. Emily was also a featured dancer for the 50's swing and is up on stage. The performance was presented at the University of Oklahoma. I imagine Emily will remember this experience for awhile.

I would add the video but it is a work in progress.

Sleeping Beauty

One of the reasons we stayed in OK all summer was for Emily to perform in one last production with her dancing friends. She was Cinderella in Sleeping Beauty. In the ballet, Aurora's fairy tale friends dance at her wedding. This tattered Cinderella partners with a broom and a pumpkin.

We loved Emily's performance. It is hard to imagine someone providing so many amazing opportunities for your child as she has grown up. Thank you Ms. Farry!

Parenting 101

You might as well teach your kids to play volleyball. They're going to be asked to play every time the extended family gets together. We use to play flag football until the over thirty crowd couldn't move for days after the final whistle. Volleyball is not much better. Lonny tore his achilles tendon once standing on the court. And that wasn't inconvenient at all. Try driving your husband around for 2 months.

So anyway get the kiddos out setting, spiking and serving and they won't be ducking and screaming when the ball is headed toward their face. I may or may not be referring to the girls born into the family.

So here we've got the anti can't we just all get along team break down of boys against the girls. I had only brought two sons who are not afraid of the approaching sphere, one daughter-in-law who was captain of her high school volleyball team and now coaches the sport and one daughter-in-law who was raised in a pack of boys. In fact she may have thought she was one of the boys since she played on her high school's boys soccer team. On this particular occasion she sat out.

We claim Alayna up front, the rest, my sis Michele's girls; Annie, Janelle, Melissa and Rachael are no volleyball slouches.


If anyone is interested in joining the family, we are specifically looking for volleyball players. Go team!

88.9 degrees

was the average temperature in the state of Oklahoma during the month of July. That is the hottest average temperature of any state in the U S of A ever. Ever. In history. Congratulations for surviving that. I was only home for the first nine days so I probably don't qualify for the medal.

Way back at the end of May when summer still looked promising it was already 100 degrees. If we had known then how refreshing that would seem by August, I would not have felt so bad for having Emily stand on a bridge to have her photo taken during a sweat fest.

I do love these pictures taken by Andria Largent Gebhard, though.

Something smells. . . . .

probably all these fish. Or maybe that summer has already ended for this little girl.

School started August 11th. I know I can't believe it either.

Thank goodness there was still time to pet the sharks and the stingrays,

and this video game. Can you see Kirsten on the screen? She's feeding the sharks.

This little guy hasn't heard of camo.

There is no way I'd go in a shark cage. I am of the "Jaws" generation.

Actual size? I am not that interested in checking it out. I'll take their word for it.

Kirsten and Emily feeding the turtles.

Emily was making friends that day.

All the turtles liked her.

I prefer the toads this way. In the tank.

This photo is so deceiving. These guys are five feet long and swim in Oklahoma lakes. Ewww. I prefer then in the tank as well.

Does Reasor's have their own fishing fleet?

I know what you're thinking. . . . . .what's for dinner?

Portraits. . . .and horses

It just started out as a horseback ride. It ended with photos for hanging over the sofa.

Grandma and the cowboy. Has someone written new Oakley's on her Christmas wish list?

Emily.

Michael.

Nathan and Allison.

Karen's fam minus the cowboys.

Jarin in a picture? Jarin in a picture!

Jenny, Grandma, and Justin.

Michael, Scott, Geoff, Allison and Alayna. Some of these people are not wearing official cowboy gear.

Jenny, Grandma, Justin, Emily, Jarin and Karen.

Scott, Nathan, Michael and Nancy.

Jon and Jen.

Jon and Kirsten.

Colton.

Is he playing cowboy or Indian?

I wanna ride!

Maybe.

Camryn, easy rider.

Look, mom, no boots!

Max needs a pony on his Christmas list.

Thanks Miranda for all the great photos.