"Midnight in Paris" - Prom 2008

Aimee was asked to prom on her 17th birthday! When the doorbell rang she found a basket full of fortune cookies on our porch . . . she was sure that one of them contained an important message. After quickly going through all 100 of the fortune cookies and not finding the anticipated message, she broke each and every one open! She finally found a small strip of white paper in one cookie that said "Patience is a virtue"!

About an hour later her friend Ricky brought a Chinese food box that had all of the fortunes he had removed and a note that said "I would feel fortunate if you would be my date for prom!" A couple of days later Aimee got an order of sweet and sour chicken and took it to him with a note that said "It was sweet of you to ask me to prom . . . I would be in a sour mood if you hadn't . . . The answer is yes!"


The Dress:
Aimee had very specific requirements for her prom dress. First . . . it absolutely had to be orange. Second . . . it had to be made by me. And third . . . it needed to be short, pouffy and have lots of "bling"! ("Bling" means lots of shine, sparkle, etc.) We had a very hard time finding orange material that was the right color and weight for what we wanted to do. We finally ended up with a beautiful orange shantung and I used what would normally be the "wrong" side of the fabric as the"right" side of the dress. After many hours of sewing, fitting, , unpicking and resewing, refitting, and finishing the dress was finally complete . . . and Aimee was happy! I had enough fabric leftover to make a bow for her hair and a clutch purse.































The Evening:
Prom 2008 was held on May 10th at The Hyatt in Anaheim, California. Twenty-five students from church, including Aimee and Ricky, and their friends rented a "party bus" to take them to prom and back home again. A "party bus" is a large bus that has been converted so that all the seats are around the sides. There is music, strobe lights, food, drinks, etc. There is a driver so everyone gets to relax and have a fun time . . . including the parents who are at home!


Aimee styled her own hair, did her own makeup, and was almost ready when Ricky came by to pick her up! They exchanged corsage and boutonniere, posed for a few pictures, and went to join the rest of their group . . . where they posed for more pictures!!!































And more pictures . . . this time with everyone else!!!



Aimee and Ricky turned for one last picture before the doors closed. You can tell by their smiles that they are already having fun . . . or they are happy to leave their parents and the cameras behind!!!

We love being grandparents!

Sherry, Bryon, Kate, and Noah came for a visit last week and we had a blast! Kate and Noah have grown so much we could hardly believe it. They are talking a lot more and we could understand most of what they had to say. The week went by much too quickly . . . we now have a countdown going until we see them again in July!


We had the opportunity to watch "the twins" a couple of times during the week and this t-shirt that Kate wore one day describes exactly the "Grandparent Philosophy" that Allyn and I have. . .


We took them to McDonald's for dinner and had donuts for breakfast! They each picked out a tomato plant with Grandpa and then planted them in our garden . . . Kate picked out an Early Girl and Noah picked a Roma tomato plant. They were good little gardeners!


Kate and Noah have something in common with Grandma . . . a love of books! They enjoyed reading ALL of them, but especially liked their book called The First 100 Words. Since it was hot this week the twins cooled off by running through the sprinklers and snacking on ice cream cones. Yummy!



We hope Kate and Noah had as much fun with us as we had with them!

Happy Birthday Aimee . . . 17 years old!!!

Here are some of the highlights of Aimee's 16th year . . .

Aimee and her two buddies . . . Kaitlin and Farryn . . . have a lot in common. They hang out at church, school, and just about everywhere. Phone calls, text messaging, shopping, sleep overs, boys, etc. are all things they enjoy!

Last spring they all tried out for the Varsity Cheer Squad and made it! This is them the day of tryout along with Ricky and Dallin who came to support them. Thanks guys!

Aimee really enjoyed attending EFY (Especially For Youth) last summer at the BYU campus in Provo, Utah. The theme was "Power in Purity" and Aimee made many lasting friends.

The theme for this years YW Girl's Camp was "Sweet is the Work" and Aimee's cabin was given the Baby Ruth candy bar to decorate around. They chose a baseball theme and called their team "The Babes"!!! The girls had fun doing camp skills, receiving mail from the boys, preparing for their lip sync to "Popular" from Wicked, scaling a rock-climbing wall (Aimee made it to the top several times), and just hanging around!

Our Varsity Football Team was AWESOME this year! The Cougars ended league play in a 3 way tie for first and qualified to play in the CIF Tournament. It was exciting for all of us as they continued to win and made it to the semifinal game before losing. This is Ricky, Farryn, Aimee, Kaitlin, and Dallin after a Cougar victory! GO TEAM!

This is Aimee and her friends at a 80's Dance held at our Stake Center. She won an award for "Best Costume" . . . We think she was born in the wrong era!?!


Aimee was "Pretty in Pink" and a "Lady in Red" at the Midwinter and Mormon Midwinter Dances!

One fun thing that Aimee got to do this year was coach the Cheer Team for Hidden Springs Elementary School. They met once a week and danced, cheered, and tumbled! This is the team with their first place trophy at the competition! Way to go Bobcats!

We celebrated the 2007-2008 school year at the annual Pep Squad Banquet. Everything was decorated in teal and black . . . even Aimee! The girls had fun as they remembered the year through a photo DVD and received awards. Besides the "Cheer" awards, Aimee was also awarded the Scholar Athlete Patch!

Our Trip to Fiji - Bula Bula!

We had the opportunity to go to Fiji on a business trip the last week in March 2008. Aimee enjoyed meeting the natives! These young men performed the "Fire Lighting Ceremony" every evening at our hotel.


At the "Welcome to Fiji" Dinner our first night on the islands the menu included roasted pig. We thought this would make a fun picture. By the way . . . Aimee puckered up but never really touched the pig!!!


We enjoyed drinking smoothies from "New Zealand Natural", eating lunch at "Hard Rock Cafe Fiji", and visiting with many of the local Fijians who were very warm and friendly. We did lots of relaxing, this hammock was off the patio of our room, and spent lots of time in the water.

We also had the opportunity to go to a local ward for church on Sunday. Many of the men had on Lava Lavas, instead of long pants, like this brother did. The spirit was very strong and the people sang like angels. It was one of the highlights of the trip!


Allyn found this blue starfish when he was snorkeling off the coast of Bounty Island on Wednesday. We were sure it was a sign that BYU would win their first round NCAA Basketball game on Thursday against Texas A & M.
We watched the game via the internet in the Business Center of the hotel. It was a lesson in frustration as the Cougars played poorly and the internet was very, very slow. Several times the coverage would freeze with the ball on its way to the basket and resume several seconds later. We are still not sure exactly what happened in certain parts of the game, but have high hopes for 2009!

The scenery in Fiji was very beautiful . . .



We took a one hour ship ride from Denarau Island, where our hotel was, to Bounty Island, where they filmed Survivor Fiji. There was a tropical storm on way over and we all got wet as we were transported from the ship to island via small motor boats! This video is of Allyn and Aimee snorkeling . . . even I had a tough time telling exactly who I was filming?!?