October Phone Dump

My phone dump posts are some of my favorites and quite therapeutic. First, they catch all those little moments that make me smile. Second, it proves that I did indeed pick up the camera at some point during the month. And finally, it gives closure. Almost like you can put that month officially behind and say I am caught up to that point at least. And so I give you October in random pictures:

I found some old sparklers and tempted the kids outside one evening. No special occasion. Just sparklers.

When June got her nails done for her birthday, I got my toes done. I couldn't decide on a design so I picked some sunflowers and some other blossoms. I liked them both. And they have lasted a good long while.

I love to find the kids snuggling on the couch or reading. The older two were immersed in the Lunar Chronicles. They finished them all and their poor mother is still trying to catch up. (I'm on book three. I'll get there eventually.)

Robyn and Daisy were playing one morning. They do know that I frown on them drawing on themselves. So they did the next best thing. I appreciated their creativity. Plus, I love to see the kids play together and enjoy their imagination.

Our ward had a game night. This was the poster they came up with for advertising. Can you see Tyler and I down in the lower corner?

We didn't have to compete. Instead, they asked us to be the game show hosts. It was really fun. For the occasion, I found the most outlandish outfit to 'Vanna' in. You couldn't miss me up there in all those sequins. The best part was that it was pants. I sure wish I owned a pants suit like that.

During Student Led Conferences at the Junior High, they usually have the art show going as well. This time of year, they do seventh grade artwork, but what I didn't realize is that they display current 7th grade art and 7th grade art from the end of last year. June was excited that she would a piece in there. And Robyn had one too. We found Robyn's piece. She did such a good job.

Her plant artwork would have been on display but she forgot to put her name on it, so it was lost in a pile. You can see June's similar pieces from last year here. June got to do a color piece at the end of the year. I think it turned out very well.

It was funny because she was looking for her name on the list of artwork and she found it twice. She didn't think she had two in the show. But after she looked around, she spotted the other one. She was surprised because she didn't think this was her best work. Guess even average June makes the cut.

Tyler decided out of the blue that we should go on a date and try one of those 'Get out Games.' Have you heard of those? You are put in a room and given clues and try to escape in under an hour. We went to one called Escapes in Time. Here is our crew. (Left to right: Nate, Dee, Maleen, Tyler, Deanne, Darin, Nate, Camie, Jonny, and Beth.) We didn't know Nate and Dee. They came along for the ride, but they were a great couple.

We did a Sherlock Holmes theme. We were put in a small room with a million locked boxes. We  turned over the hourglass and we were off. Nate read our beginning clues. (I didn't take any other pictures because it was pretty dark and we were madly deducing clues.)

Memories: I solved an awesome math problem by myself...before Jonny. I was proud that I found the clue at the end of the rat tail. No one could figure out how to open the camera although we had all tried at least once. The lady running the show had a broken leg, so she texted us our clues. I liked that method more anyway. There was too much going on at once. If you were working on a clue, someone was solving a puzzle across the room, so whereas we got it all figured out, there were some things that I never got to try. It seemed everyone had a burst of inspiration at some point. I totally called that the exit would be through the bookcase. It was fun, but Tyler didn't think it was worth the price.

We did make it out in time, although not record time as our sign says.

Robyn still does awesome art outside at random times. And I still try to get a picture before it gets washed away. (A cute fairy didn't make it through a rainstorm last month.) Here is a unicorn fawn? Whatever she is, she's pretty cool.

Ah, the personal progress Olympics. This was the closing ceremony and awards night. That is a lot of medals on those tables.

The girls only got a medal if they finished an entire value. I was very proud of all the girls. June earned a medal by finishing her Virtue value.

I like this picture because it reminds me that June will not be the shortest girl in class, like her mother. (She does have heels on, but still...not too short. Please to notice how many medals Abby got. She killed it.)

Robyn did a lot of work, but didn't complete any values. She is well on her way though. Check out these cool Olympic torches.

This next picture is probably my favorite of the month. We were shopping at a store that will remain unnamed to protect its identity. A lady near me suddenly gasped and said, "Don't move. They are so fast. She grabbed a nearby container and with the precision of  a ninja placed it over a mouse. The mouse didn't run, which was surprising. She wasn't sure what to do next, so I grabbed a lid and helped her put it on. By then, she was shaking and I told her we would take care of it. Cute little guy.

He was probably not feeling the best considering the lack of running, although he did move around just fine in the container. We took him to the information desk. I hope they didn't kill him. Someone said they let them go if they find them.

If you are wondering, I still shop at that store. I don't feel like the store is unsanitary. Mice are creative creatures. I'm sure many grocery stores find little visitors.

We have an apple tree, but it doesn't produce the best apples. The ones that do grow usually have holes or fall off early. We certainly are not banking on applesauce from our tree. I thought all the apples were gone, but there seemed to be one lone fruit that hung on and grew and grew. It hadn't reached Roald Dahl size, but I wonder what would have happened if we left it on the tree. Here is Ivory displaying our apple before we ate it.

Pearl and I went on a date to see The Secret Life of Pets. You can skip it. I would have much rather seen Kubo or Pete's Dragon. I felt like it was a novel concept that was not developed into a good story. Oh well. It was still fun to hang out with Pearl.

And that about wraps up October. I did find this cyborg selfie on my phone. Never know what the kids will do when they get the phone.

I won't lie. It feels good to dump those pictures off the phone.

Mark and Clarissa Get Hitched

Tyler's best friend from High School is Mark Simpson. He is a great guy and one of the two that Tyler bothered to stay in touch with after leaving Idaho. (Shout out to Sean, the other guy who made the cut.) Mark has been there for us through it all. If we were struggling, he wanted to help. I'd like to think that we returned the favor now and then, but I think the scales are tipped heavily in favor of Mark as the more useful friend.

He got remarried last month and we over the moon to come and witness his wedding and share in his joy.

Mark and Clarissa got married at the Capitol Building. I wasn't aware you could have weddings there, but apparently you can. Because I did not grow up here in Utah, I have not been to the Capitol Building before. (I have seen the outside.) It is quite a grand structure. The inside is beautiful all done in stone and what looks like marble. (I am not a materials guru by any means.) I took a picture of the kids by one of the statues in the rotunda.

The staircases were quite grand as well. All the family came down the stairs until it was finally Clarissa who came to meet Mark at the bottom. Mark's dad married them. I believe he has been a Bishop before so he had the authority. That was pretty neat.

You may now kiss the bride. Woohoo!!

Clarissa looked lovely. Her veil was so long that it got caught on chairs every now and then. Here they are signing their marriage license. All official.

Mark asked Tyler to hold his top hat (to be used later). We had a lot of fun playing with it. June wasn't quite sure what to do with a top hat and cane, but Robyn had the right idea.

They had a bet going to see who would get cake in the face. Clarissa was winning by a lot until her family came and put all the cash in Mark's jar. I guess they wanted to see her get cake in the face.

Weddings are very busy for the people getting married and their immediate family, but for the rest of us, we had some time to kill. June and I played a lot of Boinx. We didn't have any paper, so we used receipts that were left in my purse.

There was a bit of dancing. Mark and Clarissa took the floor and looked pretty dapper. Then there were mother/son dance, father/daughter dances and combinations of the like. Clarissa had a special song for each child and she danced with all her kids.

Both Clarissa and Mark have previously been married and they each have children. Mark has three boys. Clarissa has 4. Check out these seven boys all together. (Sorry they are far away. They were doing a dance number.) The older boys are Clarissa's...the younger, Mark's.

Clarissa also has two daughters. They are both beautiful. I'm sure you are doing some math in your head now. That is NINE kids. Wow. These two newlyweds will be hopping. But love can you help you do all things.

I'm so happy for Clarissa and Mark. We are going on a double date with them tomorrow and we plan to get to know her better. But if Mark approves, we do too.

Concerto in C

And C stands for Cazier of course!

We love music around here. All types. I love that the kids play musical instruments. June has been playing violin for several years now. It is fun to listen to her practice and she comes home with recognizable songs. (Why is it that music teachers often choose music no one has heard before?) Concert time is always a great time; especially now that June is in chamber orchestra. They really sound pretty good. Can you find her out there? (Hint: second row)

Because I can't get up close pictures, I made her hold her violin for a picture afterward. She's so cute.

I'm excited for the Christmas Concert. I have heard Nutcracker during practice.

Robyn started percussion this year. Luckily, the band teacher is a percussionist herself, so they don't get stuck in the back playing the same monotonous beat over and over. Robyn attends a percussion class instead of band. Then she is given some music to play with the band, but she didn't practice with them until it was closer to the concert.

For the actual concert, she played at the beginning with just the percussion. She played bells. We managed to sit on the wrong side for actually seeing her. She is kinda hiding over there.

Then for the beginning band, she was scheduled to play snare drum, but the teacher had her switch a few weeks before the concert. Robyn was a little nervous learning a new part so quickly, but she did a great job and felt proud to be playing the bass. Because it is so big it draws a lot of attention. The drum is almost as big as she is.

I think she had a great time. And I think she really enjoys percussion. Last time I heard, it was her favorite class. That is high praise, since she has art as well this semester.

Look at her back there. Still hard to see, but worth listening to.

Speaking of music, Robyn found a strange music video and showed it to me tonight. She enjoyed the music. I actually thought my sister would like it. So, this one is for you Miranda.

Cazanniversary!

Woohoo! We made it another year. We rock. We had some fun plans for our anniversary. Tyler had been playing rugby each Friday with guys from work. He sadly rolled his ankle a while back and it had been bothering him off and on. He was even wearing a brace to be more careful.

It was Fall Break and I was planning on taking the kids to a pumpkin patch. The next day was our anniversary plans. Tyler headed out the door to play Rugby and the last thing I said to him was, "Don't hurt yourself!"

I received a call not too long after from Tyler who could not walk because he had twisted his ankle worse than before. It was very unfortunate. It didn't change our plans too much. (luckily) I still took the kids to Jaker's and Tyler stayed home to rest his foot. The only thing it did effect was carving. We had planned to have Tyler come home on Monday (of Fall Break) and carve with us, but he ended up taking his day of vacation a little earlier than planned. (Hence why there was no Tyler pumpkin this year.)

As for our anniversary, Tyler decided to muddle through and stay off his foot as much as possible. I did all the driving and we tried not to walk too far wherever we went. I would say we did a pretty good job and he survived the weekend with flying colors.

We went to Cedar City to see a play. It is not a bad drive really. About 3 hours. We spent time with the kids in the morning, but we eventually took off and let them fend for themselves. (Love having older kids.) Our first goal of the day was our photo shoot. We didn't have a place in mind necessarily. As we got closer, we thought it might be fun to go into Cedar canyon. (I guess canyons are the place to be.) We saw a nice spot off the road and stopped immediately. We needed to find a place where Tyler didn't have to walk much. Even so, it was a slow and steady photo shoot. We started with Tyler setting up the picture, but realized there was no way he was going to run to get in the photo, so I set up the rest of them. I had a lot of fun running into different positions. One of these days I'm going to hire one of the kids to come with us and take our photos.

We did get many that we liked. After all, we are quite a cute couple. Check out some of the fun shots we got.

This is the one we chose as our final pic. (Meaning it is on our wall.)

Always good to have some bloopers and laughs. I spent some time setting up the camera next to a ravine because it had to be a certain distance away. I had to balance on the edge of the ravine to set the camera and then I had to climb out and run like crazy to jump on a wall to get into the shot. And guess what. All of them were focused on the background. Oh well. You win some, you blur some.

Right at the end of the shoot, we were taking a few more by that same wall and as I was darting toward Tyler, the picture dropped and the frame broke. (Which was really ironic since our previous frame had broken and I bought that current frame the DAY BEFORE.) We both just laughed and then I remembered that the camera was still running. I turned to check it out and got this great picture.

Amazingly, the glass didn't break, so we glued the frame back together and it is on the wall today. But there is no guarantee it will survive with our track record.

The rest of our evening was chill. We had some time to kill so we took a scenic drive further into the canyon. It was beautiful.

Eventually, we came back to have dinner before our play. I saw this really neat building and I loved all the rock.

Turns out it was an LDS church. Nifty.

Even after dinner, we still had some time on our hands. We walked around the grounds and found a door open to one of the outdoor theaters. (I don't think it was supposed to be open.) We toured the new theater. I haven't been for a couple years and so much has changed down there. It was cool to see the new facilities. This theater was built in the same style as the old one. Turns out there was quite a show going on. This man brought down the house. (Too bad, there wasn't much house to bring down.)

Also found this statue of some random guy. He looked cool so I took a picture with him. I wonder who he could be?

It was finally time for our show. We went to see a production of Murder for Two. I was so impressed. Not by the story necessarily, but by the stamina needed to get through the show. There were only two people acting. One man played a detective and the other man played all nine suspects. He had a different voice and mannerisms for each person. It was amazing how he could jump from one character to another. Add on top of that, the play was a musical. Both guys played piano supremely well. They each had times they played by themselves, but the best times were when they played together. Also, the guy who played nine characters sang a song for each of them. Wow. It wasn't my favorite play, but you have to give some props to these guys!

I really liked the theater. It was a small surround theater much like the Hale so every seat is pretty good and you can see the characters faces. I like that. I took a picture before it started, so some of the set is still covered up.

After the show, we had to drive back home since we had church the next day. It made for a bit of a late night, but I never mind being trapped with Tyler. He is good company. I think I will keep him around for another 17 years.




* yes...I know it is Shakespeare.