THE PARK POST

Yesterday I went to eat lunch with Sydney and it happened to be the 100th day of school celebration, but really I went because of the intense interrogation by the vice principal she had to go through the day before. A couple of days ago Sydney was riding home on the bus with one of the girls from her class (who was new to Sydney's bus and riding it for the first time)  and her best friend Brooklyn.  They started to feel squished with 3 in the seat and asked this little girl if she would move to a different seat since this was their assigned seat.  The little girl started crying, fell to the ground, and was beside herself.  Both of them moved out of the  seat, but this girl would not stop crying.  Long story short she got off the bus and told her mom that Sydney and Brooklyn slapped and hit her and she had scratches on her face to prove it. This accusation caused an investigation into the whole matter. The next day at school Sydney was called down to te...

  Saturday we had a big ol' Southern storm come through that left us without power for about 10 hours.  The kids were so excited when the power first went off.  They built forts, played flashlight tag, took showers in the rain and pulled out games that had been sitting on the shelf for months.  Then at about hour 7 they started to have withdrawls and lose faith.  They didn't know how they were going to live without ipods, tv, and phones.  You would have thought they had been asked to pull a handcart across the plains.  Luckily for them the power came back on and all was well, all was well! Personally, I wish we were unplugged a little more often. I loved this quote from Elder Ian Ardern this past general conference: "Electronic games and cyber acquaintances are no lasting substitute for real friends who can give an encouraging hug, who can pray for us and seek after our best interest. . .I know our greatest happiness comes as we tune in to the...

Jackson skipped out on playing basketball last season because he had such a negative experience at the YMCA the first year we moved here.  We had to push him to give it another try with a different league, the Upward program.  None of his friends from church or school play basketball, (they are all into year round soccer) so that didn't help his enthusiasm any.  But once he realized he could dribble, shoot, pass, and block shots just as well as the other kids playing, he started to really enjoy it.  I think he also liked the idea of how fast moving basketball is and how short the court is as compared to a soccer field. His first trip down the court he dribbled in and shot a hook shot from his hip.  He was all smiles after that, which is saying a lot for Jackson because he was determined he would hate it.   Because this program is run by a church, they say a prayer before every game and have devotionals at half time.  We are definitely living in the b...

This last week I found a grey hair on my head, then another and today another one.  I guess my dad is not the only one getting older today.  I have such happy memories of my childhood and my dad was a big reason why.  Happy 70th to one of the greatest, kindest, easy-going men I know. 

 McKell turned the big 13 on the 8th.  Unfortunately we were driving home from Florida on her birthday, so it wasn't too exciting.  (But the week previous was full of excitement) We did eat at Macaroni Grill for lunch before we left and embarrassed her a little bit.  She is now equipped with her own cell phone and feels much more complete!! We sure love her bright personality that adds a lot of fun to our family.

The first day we went to Epcot.  It was a little chilly, but we will always have memories of the fish n' chips, the birds attacking us, the Italian street performer, and the big golf ball. The next day we went to Disney Hollywood Studios.  It was still a little chilly, but with all of the Christmas decorations still up it gave us some authentic holiday spirit.  They even had fake snow falling from the sky.  Pretty fun!!  The kids loved the American Idol Experience and Jackson and Paige were crazy enough to go on Tower of Terror. The next day we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom.  The safari was really neat, as was the huge carved tree and the camoflouge lady on stilts who was hiding in the trees.  The animals were amazing, especially the gorilla and its baby.  The day was capped off by us going on the rapid ride (except for Paige who hates being cold).  Sydney happened to be on the wet side of the boat. I...