Utah Report

Jim and I just arrived home from our long weekend in Utah. Jim had business there Thursday and Friday so I tagged along on a frequent flier ticket so we could both be there for opening night of Logan's Young Ambassador show and to celebrate Cali's birthday with her this weekend - she turns 19 tomorrow!!!! One more year of being a teenager Cali!

She celebrated by voting in her very first Presidential election! Go Cali! I am proud of how conscientious and thorough she was with her voting. Her dad went over all the local, county and state candidates and issues with her before she made her decisions.

Jim flew in first thing Thursday morning and I flew in midafternoon - thanks to my friend Jeannena for taking me to the airport!!

We went and picked up Cali and 2 of her floormates and took them to dinner at a fun little hole in the wall restaurant just off of Center Street in Provo - Sammy's. Clark met us there.

We enjoyed delicious hamburgers and yummy beer battered fries and sweet potato fries.

Cali and her friends Heidi and Brittany were excited to see this guy there...

For dessert we experienced our first PieShake - yes, they put a piece of pie in the blender with the ice cream and blend it up! They had pumpkin pie, banana cream pie - we chose chocolate oreo pie and oreo mint pie. They were yummy. We are definitely giving this a try at Thanksgiving with our pumpkin pie!!

After dinner Clark went off to his intramural football game and the rest of us headed down to Spanish Fork for Logan's show.

It was an awesome show! And I know I am his mother but can I just say Logan was wonderful!! His Billy Joel number got huge applause and he was truly amazing! His Michael Buble solo - "Everything" was just as wonderful - I didn't want it to stop! I can't wait to go back in February to see the show again.

The closing number is from Tarzan and Logan is a tree - he looked pretty uncomfortable walking around the stage on those stilts and with a huge headdress on!! We are glad he stayed upright!!

David and Tricia and family joined Thursday night as well as Emily and one of her friends

Friday we went out to Wynn's house to have breakfast with Jim's sister Jayna who was in town for a few hours on her way up to Idaho Falls to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Wilkes. It was fun to see her even if it was only for an hour or so!

I met Logan and Cali for lunch (Jim had appointments in SLC and Clark had class). Cali and I spent the afternoon running some errands and doing a little shopping.

We celebrated Cali's birthday with dinner Friday night at her favorite Italian restaurant in Provo. She had her favorite - Fettuccine Alfredo and the accordion player and waiters sang Happy Birthday to her!

After dinner we headed out to David and Tricia's so the boys could watch the Blazer game.

Saturday Jim and Logan went golfing with Cade and David. Cali, Leigh Anne, Tricia, Emily, Jacki and Addie headed out for some shopping.

We made a stop at my favorite - Tai Pan Trading - to see all the amazing Christmas decorations!!! I had to have a lot of self control but I did manage to pick up a few new things for the Christmas tree. We then went to Gardner Village to see all the fun Halloween decorations and have lunch.

Cali had fun chasing Addie and Jacki around with the camera and took lots of darling pictures of them.

We so wish they lived closer!

Jim, Clark and I grabbed a quick dinner at Los Hermanos before heading to the YA show at Orem High School. Cali was on a group date with a friend of her cousin Marcus. They had pizza first and then went to the YA show and then played games afterwards.

Thanks to all the Wilkes family for coming out in force for Logan's show and supporting him. It was fun to see Max and Margene, Julie and Geoff, Lane and Chelsea, Wynn and Emily and all the Wilkes cousins!!

We went to church with Cali this morning and then headed to the airport. We had a wonderful weekend and are proud of all three of our wonderful children!!!

You may be wondering where Tessa was during all of this!? Well, according to her we abandoned her!

Yes she had to stay home. She had mandatory rehearsal for their holiday ballet.

She had a sleepover Thursday night with two friends as there was no school on Friday and then she hung out with Hannah the rest of the weekend - when she wasn't at dance rehearsal.

Saturday night she had was able to go to a fireside with Elder Oaks who was here this weekend.

Thanks to Marsha for picking her up at rehearsal and taking her.

We are happy to be home and get to bed before midnight!!

Willy Wonka Week

Sorry for the delay in getting this post up - due to all kinds of things including technical difficulties and just too much to do!

Last week was "Play Week" at our house - my kids know what that means. It means Tessa and I both spent ALOT of time at the high school.

I somehow became the official hair braider, ratter, and teaser for the show.

All the Oompa Loompas needed their hair french braided to go under their green wigs and none of the girls knew how to french braid. Fortunately there was another mom there who knew how to french braid because there were 17 Oopma Loompas!

Tessa and one of the other girls who was one of the parents needed their hair ratted and teased and put up too.

So before each show I would go in and do hair. It is actually pretty fun to be a part of the excitement and energy back stage - the kids are so fun.

I also went to a couple of the dress rehearsals to take pictures.

They did a great job with the show and ended up selling out almost every performance.

Tessa really stood out on stage because she was taller than the majority of them and her green 80's dress with the big shoulder pads really stood out!

Finally - here are some pictures of Mrs. Beauregarde - Violet's mother -Tessa

Lots of fans came to see her - the neighbor kids!

And Grandma and Grandpa Best

I had fun putting together some "after show" gifts for Tessa. here is a candy bouquet I made using all Willy Wonka candy -

And one night I gave Tessa and her two friends big lollipops!

A flower bouquet was for closing night.

Congrats to Tessa on her big theatrical debut. She is staying after school today to attend a belly dancing workshop in preparation for tryouts for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat which is the musical they are doing in the Spring. Sounds fun !

Technical Difficulties

Logan IM'd me today to say he had checked the blog 10 times today and why wasn't it updated?!


Well, we've been having technical difficulties around here. Last night when I was just about ready to sit down to post we lost power. Our whole neighborhood lost power - it was windy last night but not sure really why the lights went out. Our home teachers arrived during this time too so we had a visit by candle light - very romantic! The lights went back on in time to go to bed.

Tessa was getting worried about getting ready for school in the morning and what she was going to do if she couldn't use her blow dryer.

This evening I just finally sat down to do a post and my laptop just up and died! All my photos for the post are on the laptop so until I can access them - no post again - except for this one to tell you why there is no post!.


I called my computer guy and he thinks my charger died and he might have one that will work so he is coming over later tonight.


So, barring any more technical difficulties I will post tomorrow!