The Grotto

Each holiday season the Westview Concert Choir and Les Chanteuse perform at the Grotto.  The Grotto is a 62 acre Catholic shrine and botanical garden.  There is a beautiful chapel where they sang.  They performed Thursday night this year at 9:00 p.m.

The Chapel of St. Mary


  The Chapel inside has amazing acoustics!.

They did a great job and we got a preview of their Christmas Concert material

Tessa is a member of the Les Chanteuse, the women's treble choir.

Before they performed we were able to walk around the area and view all the beautiful lights.  I loved all the candles.

Here are Tessa and some of her friends.

It was cold but fun!!  Thank goodness they had hot chocolate!

Cali's Voice Recital

Hey any of you Utah friends and family!!!!  Cali's voice recital is tomorrow evening at BYU and she would love to have any of you there!!  I wish I was going to be thee!!

The Wilkes' Kid Report

I am not calling it the College Kid Update this week because we need to update you on Tessa too!

The highlight of her week was getting her boot off after six long weeks!  She is still wearing boots, just a more stylish kind!!

She was able to get it off in time to do baptisms at the Temple with the YW on Thursday.  She also volunteered at Target Kids on Saturday morning.  The activity began at 7:15a.m. so she got up at about 6 a.m.  - a real sacrifice as it was a Saturday morning.  They take underprivleged children shopping at Target to buy gifts for their family.  It was an activity through NHS.  Some of the money is provided but the NHS kids are encouraged to also bring some money to help out.  Tessa was very generous with her time and money.  It was a fun experience for her. 

While I finished up my CM Holiday Breakfast Saturday morning Tessa and Jim spent Saturday afternoon attending an Open House at the Art Institute of Portland .  Tessa is very interested in studying fashion merchandising and they have a great program.  Unfortunately BYU does not!  Jim and Tessa were both very impressed.  The only problem is their tuition is a little more than BYU's - like five times!!   There are scholarship and financial aid options available though.

She and a few friends went to see Blindside Saturday early evening.

The college kids are busy gearing up for finals.

Cali went to see Blindside on Thursday with her roommates and on Friday went to see Children of Eden with cousins Brendy and Cecilia.  Saturday was a busy day for her with a haircut/color, headshots for MDT auditions and then she helped a friend make a film for their film class.  We are counting down the days until she and her brothers are home for Christmas!

Clark did a lot of studying and sports watching this week.  He had his Ward Christmas Party this weekend and Sheri Dew was the guest speaker (her niece is in his ward)  I guess Clark and Sister Dew are now on a first name basis as he was her go to computer guy!  He had a date on Wednesday - it got him to go to Institute!

Logan was able to do some part time work this week which was great.  He did some deliveries around town for a company and then DJ'd a dance wiith his buddy Mark.  His job is still up in the air so he is actively networking and pursuing other options.

I received this photo of Logan and Mark on my cell phone Saturday morning.

It was followed with this text...

"We got messed up at the dance last night.  We were packing up at one in the morning and got jumped.  Only have three broken ribs!"

I guess he thought that was funny!!

Actually he and Mark were helping a friend with a film project and were playing the role of wounded soldiers!

Blazer Game

Saturday night Jim and I went to the Blazer Game.  Aflack is one of the sponsors of the Blazers so Jim's manager had some tickets to give out.  They had a private party/dinner before the game and the Blazer's announcer (Mr Rice, I think) came and spoke to us and gave us some inside scoop on what was going on in the locker room, who was hurt ( alot of them) etc.  Jim thought that was way fun!  Then two of the Blazer dancers came in and Jim got his picture taken!

During the dinner they raffled off some Blazer shirts etc and Jim was excited to win a nice long sleeve shirt that he put on right away.

We had great seats - the best seats we have ever had at a Blazer game.  We were in the 15th row.  I could actually even see faces without binoculars!

Being the rabid Blazer fan that I am (LOL!!) I didn't even take a book this time.  I watched the whole game, except for the few times I dozed off (I don't think Jim noticed)  I even saw Greg Oden fall and break his patella seven minutes into the game.

I thought for sure the Blazer's were going to lose.  The Blazer's always lose when I go to the game but this time they pulled it off - winning by a point.

Jim kept in close contact with Logan during the game giving him updates as it went along.

And here's proof that I was there!

A little out of focus but there!!