All about Kyle

 

It’s Kyle’s birthday today, so I wanted to do a little tribute for him, like all of you do for your kids on their birthdays, but then I became overwhelmed by all of the pictures we have and couldn’t decide where to start.

Mothers seem to be able to distill their children’s lifetimes down to a few perfect pictures that characterize the transitions that each child makes as they develop. Dad’s I’m afraid, tend to miss it. I don’t know why. It’s like a dream Judy had soon after Kyle was born.

Judy dreamed that she was looking at a picture of herself and a teenage boy standing in front of a car outside of out house. She was delighted that he was handsome, tall, and happy. Being a guy, I wanted to know what kind of a car it was and if it was mine.

 

He was the largest of our children, and continued that way until he entered preschool. Now he is one of our thinnest.

And he was fiercely independent. He never realized that he being smaller than everyone meant that he wasn’t supposed to be able to do what everyone else did. If dad could go leave the house at 6:30 on a cold morning, Kyle could, too. If he wanted cheese, he could get it from the refrigerator and the knife from the block; but Mom would be better at cutting it. She’d know what to do if you held it in front of her face as you woke her up.

He loves spending time with his brothers and sister.

 

Well, most of the time.

He’s stretched himself by learning developing talents such as dance and piano. He’s surprised me by his excitement about piano. When  he was asked to be a party boy (I hope that’s not prophetic) in the Nutcracker, I figured he’d get bored and frustrated with the practices. Instead, he was excited to go and enjoyed the production.

 

He’s good at making friends.

And enjoys relaxing.

I love his smile

Happy birthday, Kyle.

Berrett’s Eagle

Yesterday Berrett got a couple of letters from VIPs, which reminded me that I never got to the point of actually blogging his great accomplishment this year. Yes, Berrett is an Eagle Scout now. His Eagle project was to put in a low-ropes course at Trefoil Girl Scouts Ranch (it’s a camp for girls, not a place where they herd girls).

 

He got a group of scouts together and the owner of CLAS in Provo and we went up and placed some short posts in the ground.

Then he went up later and they cut the posts to size, cut slots in them and cut some boards to length. It’s called a ropes course, but there aren’t any ropes involved. (Weird.) Instead, the group has to figure out how to get from the first post to the last without anybody touching the ground in between. Boards of varying lengths are stacked at the beginning, so they also need to decide which board to use and which gap to cross (there’s a red herring gap to throw them off). Here’s an action shot.

After a successful board of review and waiting for other eagle candidates to get their paperwork in and boards completed, Berrett finally had his Eagle court. Dad and Mom came, Todd’s family came, but he became ill and had to leave, and others were kept away by weather, but it was nice to be able to take 3-generation scouting pictures,

Family pictures,

Etcetera.

He does look kind of happy, doesn’t he?

The court of honor was in November. Since then he has been awarded a bronze palm and will have earned a gold palm by the next court of honor. We’re sure proud of him (sniff)!

And the letters? From none other than Gary Herber (Utah governor) and Barak Obama (president, I believe).

Pictures from another time

I spent a month scanning in pictures, so I've got to do something with them.

Remember when Thistle, Utah was replaced by a lake? Not very many people were able to see it, but because I was working for the county at the time, I was able to see it from the landslide itself (on my last day of work, no less).

The lake was acually wider than this stitched picture makes it look.

Next, Mom and Dad at Squaw Peak in 1987.

Grandma Carter feeding TJ his first birthday cake. (I think TJ made the first attempt by himself)

Dad and Lia in 1992.

Lia and Judy in pink.

A family picture in our back yard.

Kelli's high school graduation cake.

Thank you for letting me be random.

What we did on our summer vacation

Now that summer is about over, I thought you might like to see a few pictures from our summer trip to Washington.

Stopping in Twin Falls to visit with the Van Burens.

We took pictures at the temple and then a quick trip to Shoshone falls and then to their house for dessert before we were on our way again.

Then to Manson to visit Dale, Rae Anne, and family. We came at a hectic time, got to see most of the kids, and got some hands on training from Dale and Rae on how to spoil your grandson. Should come in handy. We also spent some time on the lake, of course.

 

While we were there, Dale took us up in a helicopter to get a good look at the lake. It was a gorgeous ride, and was a highlight of the trip, just behind visiting Dale and Rae, the Van Buren's, Sharon, Brad Nora and Family, the Wells, and all the others that I haven't mentioned, in no particular order, unless you want to be first on the list (hopefully nobody is offended).

We were there over the 4th of July, so we were thrilled to attend the Manson Independence Day Parade (even got our picture in the local paper).

Then it was off to Seattle/Tacoma where we spent time with Sharon. We took a trip to Pacific Beach and enjoyed the ocean, and took a ferry ride to Seattle.

We also visited with Nora, Brad, Ukiah, and Aslin, and with the Wells and Udarbes while we were there.

Our last stop was Anacortes to visit with Judy's Uncle Lonny and Aunt Bunny. Lia and Berrett enjoyed the suit of armor while Kyle assumed the position of Chief Elevator Operator.

It was two weeks full of activity and rushing about, visiting with people we don't see often, and relaxing and enjoying family and friends.

Lia Guest-Hosts

Hi you guys, this is Lia. Dad isn't putting anything in, so I guess I'm going to have to do it for him.
Well. Berrett and I went on marching band tour about two Saturdays ago, down to Red Rocks in  St. George. Our first competition we got first in our division (3A, based on size of band) with three caption awards (outstanding music, outstanding visual, and outstanding colorguard). I think it was after that one that the band started freaking out. You see, at all of our other competitions, we only got second or third with one or two caption awards. But now, at Red Rocks, we finally got first. Afterward at the bus, everyone was so excited that I seriously thought they were going to tip the bus over. O.O  (scary)
Second competition, we got first in our division (2A this time) again. We were just getting over the excitement of that when the announcer said that we had made it to the top ten finals. Now, that's cool, huh? Here's what's even cooler.  Out of all of the other bands from around the west, we were the only band from 2A to make it into finals; the smallest band there! So we marched our show yet again and came in seventh out of the ten bands. Among them was the mighty American Fork Marchinig Band, who, of course, won first. Not that that's bad or anything, I mean, they had only won first at every single competition they had marched that year, won all of the caption awards, and recieved the sympathy of every band in Utah, but that's beside the point. Just on a side note, in case you hadn't heard, the AF band was driving home from a competition a while ago when the driver of one of the buses fell unconcious and collapsed over the steering wheel. The bus veered out of control and started rolling. The clarinet instructor who had been sitting at the front grabbed the steering wheel and managed to gain control of it somewhat before it started to roll. She was thrown out the driver's side window and was killed. The only other injuies were broken bones and noses. Now at the very end of their show, they have a memorial to Heather Christiansen, the clarinet instructor who gave her life to save the lives of her students. It's extremely touching; the first time I saw it, I started to tear up.
So that's band season. Woo! Well, not really woo since this year was my last one. I told myself I wouldn't cry about it, but right before our second to last performane, my freind Kim walked up to me, put her hands on my shoulders, and said, in the most serious tone possible, "Well Lia, this is our last performance." then walked away. After that, when I put on my uniform I thought, This is the last time I'm going to wear this... and sniffed. I picked up my hat, last time wearing this, too... sigh. Assembled my saxophone, this is the last time I'm going to pick this up to march with it... soon I was crying, trying to wipe my tears away on my sleeve before anyone saw them. At least I was able talk to people without choking on my tears. Another one of my friends, also a senior, started crying also and couldn't stop. It was only after I patted his shoulder and gave him a hug that he managed to swallow up his sobbing.

Well, I wish I could write more, but Mom and Dad are telling me that it's time for prayer and dishes and bed. Yay.
See ya!

(I'll try to guilt trip dad into writing more, so you can hear more about everyone else....)

On parade: Wherein Berrett flexes the muscles in his face

As many of you know, Berrett and Lia are both in the Orem High School Marching Band. Mountain View High doesn't have a band, but I won't go into that here. This is Berrett's first year, Lia's third. This year Lia is a section leader; she gets to order the bass instruments around.



I think that they respect her because she manages to do the heel/toe march, stay in beat, and carry an instrument that is about as large as she is over a mile-long course. I'd respect that. Besides, all the bass instrument players are guys . . . and she's not . . . and she's good looking. No it's her successful heal-toe marching.



Berrett doesn't like anyone to take his picture. If you look through the pictures that we have of him, you'll see that he seldom smiles.

I think that Judy offered him a triple-stack for this one. I know it's not because he just finished the parade and feels great because it was so fun. No, it's all about food.

Like me, both Lia and Berrett dislike street marching (which is all that I did in marching band). Lia loves field marching, which is what it is called when a band marched during half-time. Berrett hasn't done it yet. Last year at competitions (can you believe they do marching band competitions?) The band finished 1st on a number of occassions. If they do that again this year, Berrett might actually smile again . . . without being bribed.