Gardening!!!

I spent most of Saturday gardening with Tim. We planted most of our fall garden in the back yard and then put in some new flowers in the front. He is such a hard worker and so much fun to play in the dirt with!

Tucson!

Dandi, Jessi and I sang together in Dandi's ward in Tucson this last Sunday.  We haven't done that for over 3 years, so we were way over due.  

The drive down to Tucson was beautiful!  The clouds were amazing and the desert was gorgeous!  The rain had made things greener, at least for the desert. 

Saturday night in we stayed up late talking; Gavin came over to Dandi's.  Sara and Laney showed us their best contortionist tricks.  Sara's backward feet were the creepiest for sure.  She can walk with both feet backwards, not quite as far backward as she can make just one turn, but beyond normal for sure.

Sunday, after church, we went back to Dandi's for lunch.  Gram and Papa, Gavin and Cadie with their kids, Jessi and most of my gang were there.  We missed Jessi's girls, who were with their dad, Ben and Nan and their crew, and Sam, who had other obligations.

Tim, Sara, Lucas, Rich, and Daphne

Sara was doing Lucas's hair while Tim did hers.

Cadie, Daphne and Laney

Poor Daphne was covered in a rash/hives and swollen all over from a reaction to some antibiotics she was taking.  She didn't look like herself, but she was still adorable.

I love that in our family you never grow to old to snuggle!

Party in the kitchen!

Emmett

I wish this one wasn't so blurry.  Peter was so delighted to shoot me, and gosh, it hurts up close. He was so adorable though it made it ok.

Jonah and Susanna are less than 2 months apart in age. They are so cute!

Laney and Tyson

We spent a while making crazy face swap pics on Gavin's Snapchat.  They were pretty scary, but tons of fun!

Andrew and Lucas

Lucas's hair is long enough that Sara did corn rows for him.

These two are delightful!  They keep me smiling with all their silliness.  

When we got home, Freddy proudly showed me his battle wounds from playing with his cousins.  Boys are crazy!

It was a super fun time at the Wrights!  There is nothing better than family time.

Movie night and friends

Low light and laughter make it hard to get a good picture, but we had a fun movie night with our family and Makenzie and KenaDee Anderson.  They stayed long after most of the family fell asleep.  These four spent several hours sitting on that sofa being ridiculous.  I felt blessed to watch them having such great time together.  It makes my heart happy!

They had all four of their phones on a merged call.  They spent forever making horrible feedback sounds and talking and playing with the echos.  It was pretty entertaining until it woke up Richard. He had been sleeping upstairs in bed for several hours.  He was a good sport about it but was ready for it to stop. 

Rain, Rain, Rain!

We had a beautiful rainy day last week.  It poured!  The grass is looking so much greener and the plants are happier because of the rain we have had lately.  I love it!

Desert City Swing 2016

Desert City Swing is a weekend long West Coast Swing event, all day workshops and then competing and dancing all evening and night. Tim, Freddy, Daniel and Susanna participated along with their cousins, Lilli, Heidi and Gwen, and friends, Branden Strong and James, Thane and Sam Buhanan. Pat and George, their teachers, are wonderful!

Their dance teacher, Pat, made it clear to them that they were not to dance with each other very much, but to get out there and dance with all the great dancers so they could learn from them.  Susanna was so nervous about asking grown men to dance.  After the workshop with Benji Schwimmer, she decided she wanted to ask him to dance.  She was still quite intimidated because he was surrounded by grown women asking for dance advice.  She hemmed and hawed for a bit and then I told her I would give her $5 if she did it. It was just enough encouragement.  She found a break in the conversation and asked him.  He was so sweet with her!  It was her first dance of the weekend and being so star-struck she pretty much forgot how to dance, but he was great with her.  Afterward, she was on fire and asked stranger after stranger to dance.  That night she counted 17 dances with people she didn't know.  They were all so patient and kind with her being a beginner.  

Here's the video of her dancing with Benji.

My pictures aren't amazing but you can get the gist of the weekend

. 

Tim and Heidi in the background, Daniel in the center and Freddy on the right.

 Freddy

The guys, or rather leaders, for the first heat of the Junior's Jack and Jill competition.  In Jack and Jill partners are selected randomly and you dance with 3 different partners to 3 different songs for both preliminaries and semifinals.  Finals you have a random partner, but you keep them for all 3 songs. It keeps you on your toes and shows how well you can dance with anyone in an impromptu dance. 

Tim is behind the announcer, then to the right is Freddy, then Branden and the three on the far right are Sam, Thane and James Buhanan. 

Daniel on the far left, then Tim and then Susie just right of center. 

Daniel and Susanna taking a spin together, with our friends Hannah and Ben Meyer hamming it up behind them.  

Freddy center and Tim on the right 

Tim

Junior's Preliminaries Heat 1

With some of the girls after the heat 1 Junio'rs Preliminaries 

Lilli and her partner on the left, then Tim and his partner, then Freddy and Heidi, then Branden.

The 2nd heat of Juniors Preliminaries, 

Some of the boys danced again since there are more girls than guys.

Daniel is in the rust colored pants in the center, then Branden. Freddy and Susie are on the far right.

Daniel

Junior's Finals

Tim and his partner Brynn doing the Charleston in the middle, then to the right Lilli and Freddy, then Bella and Daniel.

Zannazoo dancing the night away with her new dance boots!

Tori did some social dancing too!

Tim and his partner Brynn got Third Place in Juniors!  

Tim also made it into the finals for the Novice division which is mostly adults! Only 15 of the 70 some people competing made it to the Finals, so Tim was really pleased.

Here are some his dances for Novice.

In this one he is in the middle with a girl in a white shirt.

Tim, again in the middle with a different girl in a white shirt

With a girl in a red shirt

And with a girl in burgundy

Pat and George with their kids!

Tim got a plaque and $65 check for getting 3rd in Juniors.

Pat and George were so proud of Tim that they got him some fancy dance shoes!

They were all exhausted by the end of the weekend, but they loved every minute!!!

I was so proud of all of them for giving it their all and being fearless.

Good times!

We had a bit of shirtless wrestling last week. It was pretty awesome.  Daniel was all over his daddy.  I love the male bonding!

Choir rehearsals have begun again.  We have missed them this summer.  As we were driving there, a huge wall of dirt was coming at us.  It was crazy how beautiful the sky was on one side of the wall and how ominous it was just beyond.  With in seconds we went from sunny skies to very low visibility from the dust and dirt. 

This is the same view seconds later.

We got through it fine, with a little cautious driving.

Sara's group at choir starts an hour before the boys, so we usually go to Costco while we wait.  The boys fell in love with the giant teddy bears.

Another evening we had Makenzie and Kenadee Anderson over for a game night.  This is the kids waiting for Daniel to hide for a game of Sardines.  If you don't know how it works, everyone is suppose to find the person hiding with all of the lights turned off, so it is completely dark.  Then when you find the hider, you hide with them until everyone is squeezed together. The last person to find everyone loses. It's pretty fun.  They continued playing different games until the wee hours of the morning.