Raegan's Homecoming

Why hello! It's Raegan time! (The REAL favorite daughter.) :)

I will now share my own experience of Homecoming! Because I wasn't 16 at the time, along with several of my friends, we decided to go as a big group. My friend's mom is a photographer and took us around for some serious model shots. Including us getting ready.

Here's the group! Me, Kim, Amelia, Rebecca, and Jaylee!

The sunset was perfect for picture taking.

Dinner and the dance was a blast! To save money, we ate at a cheap restaurant which was fine with us. All of us had a great time and I'm so happy I got to go with my friends. I'm pretty sure I'd feel more comfortable with my friends than on a date anyway. However, I do look forward to this next year when I can go with a date and a group! I hope it includes these wonderful ladies that I went with to Homecoming.

Elko Dances!

Hello. This is Romney, the favorite daughter. :)

First of all, Homecoming. Before school one day at seminary, my friends were acting all suspicious, asking for my locker combination and everything. When I got to school, my locker was full of about 20 balloons, all full of shaving cream. Gross. My friends, Vivian and Hannah, were there and helped me pop them with pens. Some of them had little pieces of plastic in them that had random letters and numbers on them so I could sort them out. When I put them together, it spelled out, "CR AZ YA SI AN", and only one person in the entire school uses that phrase: Brendan Shelley. So to say yes, Hannah and I made fortunes cookies (Asians..ha!) and took them to his house, all saying "Crazy Asian!" inside except for one, that said "YES!"

Our friend Kim's mom came over and took pictures of me and of Raegan and all her friends getting ready for the dance. This is the lovely dress my mom made!

My AMAZING mother did my hair too, and everyone LOVED it!! She's a wonderful lady.

Meet Brendan Shelley. He's such a fun guy, and we had a great time at the dance! He looks like a cute little leprechaun, huh? After the dance, we went to Tyler's house and roasted marshmallow's and just talked. Brendan and I even made fireballs in the fire pit. It was sick. Yay for Homecoming!

Next: Sadie Hawkins. This took a lot of deciding. I had no idea who I wanted to ask! There's a boy who lives down the street, Landon, who's a year older than me, and I had never really talked to him before. But then we got to know each other when Sophie and I went to work for his dad for a couple of days. He's super nice and on a mission now in Florida. Awesome!

A few years ago for Christmas, we got a couple of wigs to wear just for fun. To ask him, I wrote on a big poster, "Are you BRAVE enough to go to Sadie's with me?? If you are, wear this wig to Choraliers on Monday!" (with a big poster of Merida from Brave on it) and I gave him our gross, red wig and dropped in all on his porch and ran.

Lucky me! He said yes!

We all came here to our house and had Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner, which is now everyone's FAVE. My mom decorated the table and made our delicious dinner. We left the dance early because of the music, and it was getting a little weird. It was snowing, so we came back to my house and slow danced in the snow instead, which was more fun anyway!

Here are all of our sweet shirts. NIRD BIRD!

Alrighty, Prom night. It was the best night EVER!! I went with the boy I've had a crush on for forever (Tyler), so of COURSE it was great!

The night before he asked me, Raegan, Sophie and I were just chillin around the kitchen table, doing homework and just hanging out. Then Raegan's phone rang, and she went out into the garage to answer it. I went out a few minutes later to get some chips or something, and Raegan was talking to someone, but right when I came outside, they ran away! I asked her who it was, and she kept telling me that no one was there, and I was just imagining things. But I KNOW I saw someone there. I came in the house FREAKING OUT, and Raegan convinced me I was crazy! So I just went to bed.

The next morning, Raegan and I got up for our paper routes, as we do every day. There was a note on my stack that said, "There's something new on your paper route today. Look for the pieces!" My mom was SO excited, cause she guessed it was for Prom. The whole time I was wondering who it could be! I didn't think that Tyler was going to ask me, because he said he was going to be out of town to pick up his sister from the airport from her mission.

Throughout the route, I found lots of different puzzle pieces. I collected them all and took them home. But on the front door was another note that said, "Oops! Looks like you're missing a piece. I hope it's not important. Oh well! Find the missing piece today at school." I put the puzzle together, and it said, "Will you go to prom with", and the last piece missing. Great. I had to wait aaaall day.

I was late to seminary that day, and I was very thoughtful about who could've asked me. I walk into school with Tyler and my friend Kassi, and we were talking with a couple of our friends in front of the choir room. Tyler went into the choir room with a sweatshirt on, and then came out the other door with it off. When he came out, Kassi just looked at me and smiled. I was like, "What?" and then Tyler came around the corner with a shirt with a puzzle piece drawn on it that said, "Me?" I just about died.

The theme was Victorian Vintage, and a nice lady in our last ward gave us a bunch of prom dresses that her daughters had worn, and we altered one of them to make it seem more vintage. Matching vest and all.

He's a goofy kid.

Don't know why this is sideways..

Here's the group! Good kids, good kids.

The dance was decorated SO COOL! Totally Victorian Vintage. Tyler and I were the only junior couple (everyone else was a senior or had a senior date), so we just chilled while they all walked the Senior Walk.

Afterwards was the best. We went to Cameron's house and played paint twister, which ended up just being a paint fight, but that was fun too.

We had SO much fun, and all the seniors said it was the best prom they'd ever been too! Definitely a success. Good times all around.

4th of July, First dates, and Missionaries

We had no idea when we moved to Elko that we would see so much of the missionaries.  I think in the seven years we lived in Sandy, and the five years before that in West Jordan, we maybe fed the missionaries 4 or 5 times total.  Now we see them almost daily!  It's actually amazing what the age change has done for missionary work here in Elko.  Last year at this time, we had 5 missionaries total. Now we have 27, and they say we'll get more before we're maxed out.  We have two sets just in our ward!  Two cute sisters just came, and we love them--we'll have to take a picture with them.

We took all four (a set of Elders and a set of Sisters) to the fireworks last night.  We didn't think of taking a picture because there was a torrential RAIN storm the entire time.  We were huddled in the back of the van with the missionaries and a few of us standing close by with umbrellas--not our usual firework viewing!  But it was fun.  Landrie and Scarlett got chanting, "I did not see THAT one coming!" after each firework and giggling.  Elder Miller was getting a kick out of it.  I said, "Next year at this time as you're watching fireworks with your date at home, you'll find yourself bursting out with a 'I DID NOT SEE THAT ONE COMING!'"

Raegan's first date was with a boy who has admired her since we moved in.  In fact, he's been counting the days until he could officially take her on a date.  He asked her with a big gift on her birthday.  The day of the date, he kept telling Raegan how nervous he was.  Brent told Raegan to tell him that it would all be fine, he just needed to review Elder Bednar's conference talk on Chastity beforehand so he could answer some questions when he came to pick her up.

That night happened to be the night of the week that we had the Elders over for dinner.  Five of them.  We had to get a picture with nervous Sean, and Raegan, and all the Elders.  It was a date they'll never forget!

SCOOTERS!

The day of Romney's 17th birthday, a truck dropped off two mysterious crates.  Boy, have they been the life of the party!

 Some great views of our very organized garage.

 Notice the birthday letterman's jackets--the girls have wanted jackets, but the $400 price tag was a little steep.  These beauties were a fraction of the cost, and the Elko High School home ec department was able to do the stitching for me.  We're Indians all the way, baby!

We've had the scooters since May, and even in this small town have put hundreds of miles on them already.  They are so fun to ride!  We take them to church, work, to deliver newspapers, on dates...anywhere we can.  They fill up for five bucks and last several weeks on a tank...what's not to like?  Plus, the girls have told us we're now part of the "Scooter gang" in Elko.  Quite a few of the girl's friends have scooters similar to ours, so it's a scooter party.  Blue and white, BYU.

Elko Third Ward Young Women

We have a great group.  That is all.

The Next Step

Romney and Raegan were part of a group of only 8 girls from the dance team who were chosen to go to several competitions this spring.  They were wildly successful!  But we're glad it's over.

The Elko High School dance team was chosen to dance during the half time of the Holiday Bowl at the end of this year, right after Christmas in San Diego.  Because they need to raise so much money for that, the coaches decided not to perform during football season to give more time for fundraising and preparing for basketball season/Holiday bowl.  Are we excited!  Not for the fundraising, but for free afternoons this fall!

Memorial Day in Lamoille (har har har)

Brent surprised us this year and was HOME on a WEEKDAY to party with us!  We have some really good friends in the stake who have a little family cabin in Lamoille.  You read it.  It's just as exotic as it sounds.  But it's at the base of the Ruby mountains and beautiful in Lamiolle!  You can quilt or fish or hike or do whatever you want.  We chose to hang out with about 100 of our fellow stake members for a fun day of BBQ-ing, games, and chatting.

Perfect kick!

 They were trying to make a "walking pyramid", so the dads had to get involved.

We feel blessed to have such good peeps in town with us.  We've made some really good friends.  It was a memorable memorial.

School is out already???

I can't belive how fast this school year has gone.  We go to FOUR different schools in Elko.  It seems like the during the last month or so of school, we are double-booked almost every single night with concerts, displays, awards nights, banquets, and performances.  Busy times!

Romney and Raegan were able to go to the Festival of Gold in San Francisco for their choir tour this spring.  They earned and paid for every penny themselves!  They had a great time and won first place out of all the choirs.  Their choir teacher is a real slave driver, but she gets results!

See how serious they all are when the sing???

Sophie is basically a member of the faculty at Adobe Middle School.  All the teachers, administration, and staff LOVE her.  She has been a councilor's aide this year during one of her class hours, so they have all gotten to know her really well and depend on her for so many events!  The principal told her she has an "old soul"and also that she dresses like an old, rich lady.  I think that's a complement!  She looks fabulous every single day and plans her outfits to the very last detail.  She of course won every possible award for outstanding student at Adobe.  She went up several times to get her certificates.

She has one teacher who absolutely ADORED Sophie this year in her class.  Her yearbook entry made me teary, she was so sad about not having Sophie at Adobe any more.  Sophie gave her a Book of Mormon on the last day of school.  She's made her mark at that school!  She even made all the tissue flowers you see way up on the stage.

Alivia has been amazing on the violin!  This is her first year playing, and she sounds like a pro!  We love to listen to her practice.  She has a really peppy, gelled-haired young buck for a teacher and he has really been impressed at how quickly Alivia has picked things up.  Her spring concert was great.  She's so obedient though, she wouldn't stand up for me and smile for a picture because Mr. Royce had told them all to sit down.

We were also invited to a Writers Award Ceremony for all the kids in Elko and even surrounding areas.  Alivia wrote a poem called "The Jungle"that won for her grade!  They read almost the entire thing and gave her a book with her poem published inside along with the other winners.  This girl can WRITE.  She wrote a story for the end of the year in her 5th grade class that I kept reading, amazed at how she is able to put such feeling and voice into her story.  She's going to have to take over this blog pretty soon.

She was also asked to do a presentation on a significant person.  She was brave and chose Joseph Smith.  She was able to dress up like her person, and decided to be Emma.  Raegan went over after school to Alivia's school and did her hair and helped her set up.  She did great!  She showed the gold plates, our well-used Joseph Smith doll made by my amazing mother, and handed out quite a few copies of the Book of Mormon to people that stopped and asked questions.  She's an amazing little missionary already.  She has lots of friends, tells us everyone loves her at school (no doubt!), and is always on top of homework and projects.  I admire her so much for being so bold and such a great example of the church.  Her teacher LOVED her this year and asked a lot of questions throughout the year about Mormons also.  This Emma is still spreading the gospel!

Landrie took a dance class on Wednesday nights this year and performed to "What Time Is It?" from High School Musical.  She was diligent about practicing at home, but didn't tell us she was the STAR of the dance!  We loved watching her front and center on the stage.  She was the best performer by far! I think she's got an EHS Dance team future for sure.  She was given a black tank top for her performance, and immediately said, "Well, I can't wear this!"  She's ON it with the modesty.  

Landrie is in choir at Mountain View Elementary.  She has an amazing choir director who gets these kids singing harmony, different parts, and doing actions, all while staying right on cue.  She's the Primary Chorister in another ward, and I'm jealous because those Primary kids know their songs so well. Landrie learned some really cute songs for Christmas, and for the spring concert.  She is the prettiest girl in the whole school, so that helps, too.

Scarlett and Hartman ended up being quite busy for that month as well, they were there to watch everything!

Amidst all this craziness at the end of the year was the Father/Sons campout.  Brent has never even perked up when they've announced Father/Sons, because he's only had daughters--but this year he told Hartman about it, and it's ALL HARTMAN TALKED ABOUT for two weeks until it happend.  That night happened to be a Frito recognition dinner at a swanky restaraunt here in town, so we were sweating bullets trying to get outta there so Brent and Hart could head up the canyon.  We had the van all ready with mattresses, treats, DVD's, and flashlights.  Hartman was so excited it was making me teary-eyed!  They were up there after dinner, but still had a good time.  This is the remnant of the campout:

Cozy.

Finally, the last day of school!  Romney and Raegan headed out, 

Then Sophie, Alivia, and Landrie

Another year over.  Now we'll have a SENIOR, Junior, Freshman, 6th grader, 4th grader, and little Scarly boo in Kindy! (that's what we like to call it).  Just me and the Boy will be home for half a day starting this fall.  Another year bites the dust.