A First Date in Style

 Maddie went on her first date the day after her birthday to the PROM!  Now that is a first date to remember.  She went to the Mormon Prom with Jordan Newberry, a boy in our ward.  They have been friends for years.  They went with some other mutual friends, Allison Greenall and Jon Bowen.  She reported that they had a really good time.

A Boomerang Surprise

Friday was Maddie's 16th birthday!  I wanted to do something for her at school, but I knew that she would hate balloons, and I couldn't think of anything else to do.  Finally, at 5:00 on Thursday night, I received the inspiration that I had been hoping for.  I could decorate her locker!  But I didn't know which one was her locker.  Jayd thought it was #623, but he wasn't sure.  So I asked him to give me his key to her locker.  I knew if the key fit, then I must have the right locker.  So I went early Friday morning, found the locker (it was near the classroom Jayd described), and tried the key.  It opened on the first try.  Bingo!!  So I decorated her locker with a big "Happy Birthday Maddie" sign with balloons and streamers.  It looked great.  I was so excited for her to see it.
After school, I wanted to come take a picture with Maddie.  When I talked with her, she didn't seem to know anything about the sign on her locker.  I thought she was teasing me.  She said that there was a sign a couple of lockers away from hers.  I asked which one was her locker.  She said it was 653!!  I was astounded!  I wasn't surprised that Jayd gave me the wrong number, but the key opened the locker!!  So some poor confused person had a sign on the locker all day that wasn't for him/her.  Maddie and I just had a really great laugh about it, although I did admonish her not to leave anything of value in her locker, apparently there are multiple keys and you never know when some unsuspecting mother might be snooping in your locker to post a sign for another student!   (Luckily I am honest and didn't take the money from the locker)

Our TV Show

The episode of Last Man Standing that we attended aired last week. It's called "This Bud's for You." If you would like to watch it, follow this link. We really enjoyed going to the taping.

http://abc.go.com/watch/last-man-standing/SH55126594/VD55192761/this-buds-for-you

I Love my Lips

Last week, Gabe had a great hit in his baseball game. Unfortunately, as he was stealing third, a wayward ball hit his mouth as he slid into the base. His lip had a pretty good slice, along with a raspberry above his lip. We bought a package of popsicles, and he was pretty happy that day as he was allowed unlimited popsicles throughout the day. However, they next day, it was fairly swollen and tender. As he complained throughout the day, I couldn't help but think of the veggie tales song "I Love My Lips" --beedy bop boo de beedy bop boo..... If you aren't familiar with the song, here it is on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1FGaCNN1aw

I am happy to report that a week later, his mouth is nearly returned to it's original shape, and like Larry, Gabe has a greater appreciation for his lips.

Spring Came a Little Late

Since our spring showers came a little late this year, I decided to deviate from the traditional pastel colors for easter and try a majestic purple. The dresses came out beautiful, and the boys even joined in this year with some purple ties. It was a fun easter morning.

Easter Egg Hunt

The Easter bunny still makes it's yearly pilgrimage to our house, although there was a little confusion this year with the B.I.T's (Bunnies in Training). The end result was the same, lots of hunting, and lots of candy. Here are a few pictures:

The Past Reflected in the Future

On Good Friday, Jeff had a holiday from work. So we decided to have a family day. This year we don't have season passes to any of the local theme parks, we are touring Los Angeles. So after spending the morning at the temple, we headed downtown to go on tour. We started at Olvera St. This is where the first residence in the Los Angeles area was established. Today it is more of a Latino shopping mall filled with stalls full of misc items. It reminded me of the marketplace in Mexico.From there we headed towards the City Hall Building. Originally on of the tallest building in LA, it is about 100 years old. Above is a picture of the city hall reflected in the mirrored police station building. We were able to go up to the observation deck for a lovely view of the city. We could see for miles..if there weren't any buildings in the way. One of the standout buildings was the Disney Concert Hall. It's wavy steel structure was really bright in the sun! From there we toured several of the older buildings in the city. We went in the lobby of the LA Times and read all the headlines from the past 100 years. We visited the Bradbury building (pictured left). It's lobby was truly lovely. We went in several other historical buildings that were exquisitely decorated. We also saw the first movie theatre, and went through the local market. By that time, we had travelled several blocks and were nearing the skyscrapers of Downtown. The Bonaventure Hotel grabbed our interest, so we headed there next. We rode in the external glass elevators on each of the four circular towers, giving us another view of the city from above. We enjoyed counting all of the helipads on the buildings. For a little variety, and to save our feet, we rode the subway back to Union Station. We were a little worn out by then. It was a great day touring downtown LA. We ended the day by attending the BYU UCLA volleyball game. It was full of drama as they went to a five game match. We enjoyed cheering for the visiting team along with at least a quarter of the other attendees.