A plethora of pleasantries! :)

Yikes! So I'm a little behind in my blogging. I realize that a good fraction of the things I blog about are probably of little significance to most of you who read this, but it's fun for me to have a bit if a visual record and keepsake of this kind of stuff. I've always been one to love looking back on the past and enjoy connections and memories that have (and possibly still are) helped me become who I am today, so bear with me! :) Not to mention that I've noticed that our family is full of story tellers. We get together with grandparents, aunts, and uncles and it's a given that before the day is over we will all have gotten some good laughs as we all share funny, true, and usually crazy stories of things we've all experienced.

So here we go.....

Dad's birthday is in May so we decided to make him work for his present this year. Mom and I made some little clues that led him on a bit of a scavenger hunt around the house and yard. He never saw it coming and I think he had fun wandering around looking for each next clue.

 His final clue led him to a Cabella's gift card from all of us, because to be honest - Dad is one of those people who is easier to give money to and then let him pick out specifically what he likes. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

     

<>   We had a fun Mother's Day weekend, too. On the Saturday before Mother's Day, Mom and all of us girls went over to Grandma Jack's house and took cinnamon rolls and all kinds of tasty things and did breakfast with her. A couple of our little cousins were there and too, and I got a good laugh as the youngest cousin asked me, "Are you old? Or new?" I told her I was probably some where in the middle.
    Then on Mother's Day we went to Jerome after church. Dad wanted to surprise Grandma Farns by all of us being there once Grandma and Grandpa got home from church. We made it with about 45 minutes to spare so we went on a lookout to watch for them to pull in from church. As soon as we saw the car we all hid in the kitchen behind the counter. Grandpa knew that we were going to be there (which I'd say was a bit of a miracle that he didn't accidentally spill the beans beforehand) but I guess he didn't know we were going to be hiding.
   We heard the door that goes from the garage to the kitchen being un-locked and opened and then we heard Grandma's voice as her and Grandpa were both coming into the house. We were all crouched down waiting for Dad to give "the signal" for us to pop up and surprise her. As we waited, Grandpa had already come in and walked past us. I was sure he'd seen us as he passed and that he was just playing it cool. Right as Grandpa passed us, Dad gave the signal and we all jumped up and cheered. Grandpa just about jumped out of his skin and went springing back in true surprise!
  We all just started laughing as we watched him. Our timing for Grandma was a little off because she had just barely gotten up to the door when we'd jumped up, so I don't know how much of it she even saw. But of course she was surprised to see us at all, since she didn't know we would be there.
   It was so fun! We had lunch with them and a few aunts and uncles and cousins then we all sat around and talked for most of the afternoon before it was time to head back home.   
 
I don't know why my pictures are loading out of order, so this next one is of David and a couple hungry cousins. The one after it is of Grandma just coming into the house after we'd jumped out.

  

In May we also have our traditional clogging Spring Show. It's our last show before we take a couple weeks off before starting up with the new summer schedule. We have a potluck and then all the teams perform all the dances we've learned throughout the past year. It was alot of fun and the weather turned out to be awesome -the rain held off until just a little after the show. The dance in the picture is a new one that we learned this past fall. It's called, "Americano" and it's such a fun, boppy dance. 





And just this last weekend Mom, David, and I made another little day trip to Jerome for a wedding shower/lunch for our cousin, Ben and his fiance. Ben is about 13 days older than me and we've been really good friends as we've grown up. He got home from his mission in Argentina at the end of 2010 and met his fiance last fall while he was living in southern Utah with one of his friends.

The first time that all of us met Kim was during our family Christmas road trip to Utah. She was super fun and I'm excited to have her joining the family in just a couple more weeks!

Anyway, Ben is the youngest, and only boy out of a family of five, so all his sisters threw this little shower for Ben and Kim and a bunch of our family all got together to get to know Kim a little better.

   

                                         

 Ben's sisters made a bunch of pizzas, a couple salads, some treats, and also had an Italian Soda bar going on. Delish! Becky kept getting teased for being the official "bar maid", but I tell you, she sure makes a mean 'mango tango' Italian Soda. :)

  And there they are, Ben and Kim. They're so funny together and everyone who sees them can't help commenting that "they are the perfect match." Supposedly Kim is a huge fan of Ben having that crazy facial hair, but I think most of us who have grown up with him will need some time to get used to him looking like a lumber jack. Kim still lives in Springville right now, and Ben just moved back here to Jerome, where they'll live for a little while once they're married. But I think Ben's going a little stir crazy being this far away from Kim, so honestly, the wedding couldn't get here too soon. :)

  And then there's David. Him and Ben have also had some good times as we've all grown up together. We were all teasing them when we saw that they'd both shown up wearing matching family reunion shirts. The little quote on it is one that Grandma has put onto just about every reunion shirt, "Families Are Forever", so when David showed Ben that he'd worn the same shirt, Ben started laughing and said, "Families really are forever!" I guess it's a proven fact, if you all wear the same thing.

 One of Ben's sisters, Heather, had Ben and Kim play a question and answer game. She'd ask Ben a question about Kim and then they'd both answer and see if their answers were the same. It was actually really impressive - some of their answers matched up almost word for word with each other. Yep, it's going to be lots of fun having these two around!

 To wrap this post up tonight, I'll finish with the most recent event. David graduated seminary just a few hours ago! How crazy that the next step for him is a mission!! But not to get too far ahead, we'll just think about the here and now. He's had lots of fun with seminary and he's the only one of the four of us who got to have the same seminary teacher for all four years. That's the beauty of being home-schooled, we got to choose what class time we wanted to go to, and as one of us would graduate, another one would come in; most of us got to go to the same class with one of our siblings for at least one year, too.

 That's Bro.Featherstone, our rockstar seminary teacher! He has been so fun and all four of us have had him as a seminary teacher. He's definitely a favorite of the students and is known for arm-wrestling students who think they can take him, beating just about everyone at foosball, and showing up at Merritt's Cafe for late night scones with groups of students who got together and decided it's not a party without him. All of that is in addition to of his love of the gospel and the way he can teach from the scriptures in such neat ways.

  When I started seminary as a nervous little freshman, it was the first class I'd taken away from home. Honestly, Bro.Featherstone was my best friend out of my whole class! I'm sure I'm weird, but I've always seemed to be the most comfortable around either little kids, or "grown-ups" - not so much when it came to people my age. 

  Anyway, Bro. Featherstone was student teacher during my first year and he got hired to teach at a different school for the next year. I was pretty sad to see him go, and when Malia started seminary that next year, her and I both had a new teacher.

   But we were both glad to find out that he was coming back to teach at Capital starting my junior and Malia's sophomore year. He's been our teacher ever since and our families all got to be really good friends. When him and his wife adopted their first baby, they'd call us when they wanted a baby sitter, and now, three kids later we still get to do that every so often. 

  Sadly for Kelani, this was his last year at Capital. He's being moved to a different high school next fall. But at least Nani got to have him for her first year. He's been at all of our seminary graduations and it wouldn't have been the same without him. Tonight he brought his two oldest boys and we had a good time with all of them.

                 

Anyway, school's almost out, Ben's wedding is coming right up, and summer is hopefully about here to stay!

Life is good!!