Megan is 16!!!

Megan is officially 16 years old now! We had a wild "Winter Luau" to celebrate, and about 30 of her friends were able to attend. We decorated outside as well as inside, but even with the fire pit, it was just too cold to stay out for very long. Everyone had lots of fun playing Guitar Hero, Pool, Foosball, "Do You Love Your Neighbor?", and Karaoke!!! Her generous friends brought her presents, and among the cute gifts, she received 8 pair of fuzzy socks, more than a dozen scents of lotion, and a poster of Taylor Lautner, the guy who plays the Werewolf from "New Moon" (causing all of the girls to scream with envy).


Hard to believe she has reached this magical age; but she is such a sweet girl, and she is very loved! Click on the photos to view them larger.

Olivia by Megan

It is official! I have been in exactly 10 shows. I just finished performing a show called "Olivia". It was written by my fabulous director Michelle Rubino and it is a combination of Oliver and Annie. It is about a little orphan girl named Olivia who gets taken to an orphanage by the character Megan... ;). While Megan starts to love Olivia like a daughter she can't adopt her herself, so she lets other families adopt her. One family is obsessed with animals, but Olivia was allergic. Another family believed that aliens were coming any day so they don't send their kids to school, so Megan takes her back. Finally, Olivia finds her real aunt, Aunt Polly. I played Aunt Polly. Except Aunt Polly abused her children, including Olivia. Yes, I beat children... Ha ha! Me and the little girl who played Olivia became really good friends so she knew that while I was yelling at her and pushing her she knew I still loved her. This was definitely the hardest part I have ever had to do, but also the most fun. My notes during rehearsals were that I needed to be meaner and louder, the exact opposite of me. So I practiced on Ryan and Cameron... JK. Not really. I was really sad on closing day. I got so close to all the little girls in the cast. There was a scene when I was crisp and clean and pretty, and then 2 scenes later I had to look like a slob in curlers and a pink robe. So I would spend an hour curling my hair for the first scene, then I would run backstage flip my hair and all 20 of these little girls would swarm around me messing up my hair and ratting it and making it huge, then wrapping it in curlers. They would then form a line and put some lipstick all over my face. They really enjoyed that. I know that it wasn't my last show, but it was really fun, and I will miss it. :)

Ryan's Latest

Yola familia! This is Ryan here. I am currently on our school soccer team. We are the Akimel A-al Rattlers, I play stopper (mid-defender). Our record is 1-8 (1 win and 8 losses), we aren't very good. The problem that we keep having is that we get the ball and then we can't pass the ball well, so we have the ball and then we give it up often.

Recently, I also auditioned for our school play,

Beauty and the Beast. I made it. I wanted Lumierre (the magical talking candle) but instead they asked me to play the part of Cogsworth (the magical talking clock). It's all good.

~!POKEY!~

Aloha people I am here to talk about Pokey. Pokey is a tortoise, he is my class pet, so I asked my teacher if I could bring him home for fall break? She said "yes!" so on Thursday me and my mom took Pokey home. Pokey is a weird tortoise. So the other night I was holding pokey and he pooped on my shirt. I was so grossed out. Pokey eats lettuce and tomatoes. He has a tongue it is so cool! My class is so jealous that I got to bring Pokey home. Pokey is cute but not as cute as my older sister she is beautiful! I will be very sad when I have to bring pokey back to school.
-Cameron

First Day of School

Megan: 15 1/2 years old; Sophmore at Desert Vista High School

Ryan: 13 years old; 8th grade at Kyrene Akimel Middle School

Cameron: 9 years old; 4th grade at Kyrene de los Lagos Elementary

Randy and Natalie came for a visit

The Randy Woods bunch were in town for an Awerkamp wedding, and we got to see them for a little while this weekend. Harry and Cassie joined us for dinner. The cousins had a great time getting reacquainted. As always, you can click on any picture to view it larger.

Cameron sings "Beautiful Things"

Cameron was asked to sing in Church. We video taped a practice session, and it's so cute we wanted to share. Click the link below to view it. Her hair style is of her own design.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SI2McKavoU

David and Demi

Before our Cruise vacation, and while Ryan was at Scout Camp, Mike and I took Megan and Cameron to the David Archuletta/Demi Lovato concert. Outside the arena, Radio Disney was set up, playing music and having contests. Cameron volunteered for a game and won a Jonas Brother's guitar pick necklace and the Pocahontas DVD. Each of us had a David Archuletta button to wear on our shirt.

This was Cameron's first concert, and she had a great time. She danced and sang all night. It was good practice for when she gets to go see Hannah Montana in September. (She got tickets for her birthday.)

David has come a long way since his start on American Idol. He still seemed pretty humble and star-struck, though. Megan is in love. Demi Lovato can Rock! She is a very talented girl for just being 16 years old.

RYAN!!!

Hello! This is Ryan again, I was not fortunate enough to make the all-star baseball team (Awww). But, however I was fortunate enough to go to scout camp again this year. We got the same campsite as last year and I earned two really cool merit badges; Horsemanship and Rifle-Shooting. I really liked riding the horses because they were easy to control. Also the merit badges had simple requirements. I had to name 15 parts of a horse, a saddle, and a bridle. Then I had to show how to control a horse which was easy. The Rifle-Shooting merit badge was great because each day we shot the rifles. We had to have 5 sets of 3 rounds in the size of a quarter, and then 5 sets of 5 rounds in the size of a quarter. It was easy for me because I am just cool like that, but other scouts were still trying to get their shot groupings on the last day.

As you might have heard, my family and I were recently on a cruise. We went to Cabo San Lucas Mexico. While there, we went zip-lining. We repelled down a 180 ft. cliff. Megan and Cameron were hesitant but I was all for it. Another thing that was included with the zip-lining was a tarzan swing thing where they strap you into a harness and spin you around while you zip-along and near the end of the line you hit a stopper on the cable and you are shaken around violently. (It is really cool!!!) If you click on the picture, you can see how high I am.

Summer!

Hey guys! It's Megan! So like I wrote in my last blog, my summer started off crazy! And I haven't stopped going!!! After I got home from my show choir trip which my Mom wrote about, (2nd out of 23!!!!), I helped Cameron with her play which my Mom also wrote about. That was so much fun being the head grip. Anyway, after the play finished I was chained to our dining room table and a laptop. I had to take Health class online. It was so wierd! Since there was no face to face interaction, they added in tons of details because it wasn't so awkward for them. It was for us, though! A girl in my ward was in the same class and we were both uncomfortable during it. Anyway I had to finish a week early so that I wouldn't have to work on it while on our cruise.

So I took the final and the next day we left for San Diego to get on a cruise ship and sail to beautiful Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Saturday and Sunday were sailing days where we really just hung out around the boat. I met a really great group of kids and we all went on a Scavenger Hunt looking for things on the boat. One of the items we needed was something with teeth. So we thought and thought and finally came to the conclusion that children had teeth! So as we were coming back to the club to turn in the stuff we collected we saw a kid and his mom looking at pictures, so we ran up to him and asked the mom if we could borrow her son. She looked at me like I was crazy. I told her he would help us win a Scavanger Hunt and that we would just be down the hall for a second. She said "yes" but the kid looked scared out of his mind! We walk into the club and our director asks us who the kid belongs to and we explain how he is our something with teeth. She starts laughing so hard and we let the kid go back to his mom. He practically ran the whole way.

The next day we docked in Cabo and went Zip Lining! It was so fun and scary at the same time. They made us put on these ugly Doo-Rag type things and then a bulky helmet and a harness. Then we hiked up this mountain and went on about 10 different zip lines across canyons and off huge cliffs. If you looked down you saw pointy rocks and cacti. It was awesome! Then they took us to this really high cliff and told us we are about to repel down it.... 180 ft!!!!!!! It was so scary! I hate heights, and was practically in tears. When I finally reached the bottom I was shaking so bad and had to sit down. It was so crazy. The next day we went parasailing, which is where you are being pulled by a boat in the air with a parachute on your back. When I was up there I looked down on the ocean and saw a school of sting rays! It was so cool, but no one else saw them! I was so mad!

The next and last day was a day at sea while we traveled back to California. I hung out with a girl I met on the boat all day and her siblings. We traveled all over the boat and saw a whale while we were getting ice cream! I can't believe all the wildlife I saw this past week. It was an amazing vacation and gets better, but I have to leave something for Ryan and Cameron to write about!

Cameron at Knott's Berry Farm

Hola'. This is Cameron. This summer we went on a great Cruise to Cabo San Lucas. When we got back we went to Knott's Berry Farm which was so fun. I did ALL the rides except the "Rip Tide" and the "Supreme Scream" those looked too scary to go on. I think the best ride was the "Boomerang." The "Boomerang" pulls you up then lets you go really fast and you do two front loops then you do two loops backwards. It was SO fun. The second best was called the "Silver Bullet" in this one it's like you are sitting in a chair and you go upside down and it is awesome. The third best is the "Ghost Rider" it is all made of wood so it wobbles back and forth - it's SO scary. The fourth coolest is called the "Xcelorator" it goes straight up and then straight down. It was really wild - but I rode it with my hands up in the air. I thought it would be crazier that way and I was right. You go from zero to eighty in 2.3 seconds. The fifth best ride is "Montezumas Revenge." You go really fast and then do a full loop upside down and then you do the same loop backwards and really fast.

It was a great trip. I don't think I want to go back to school. Well that's all I have to say for now so see you later bye. (by clicking on the photos we post, you can see any of them larger)

The Latest Goings On

This is Trish. I have been trying to get the kids to write on our blog this summer, because they are "so bored." However, they have pointed out that I have NEVER done a blog post, so I'm going to do my first-ever entry.

School ended, and summer started with a BANG! Megan was off to Girl's camp and then Branson, MO with her show choir. They ended up taking 2nd place out of 23 choirs from all over the USA.

Next, Cameron had her stage debut in the Kyrene Summer Academy production of "Alice in Wonderland." She was in the ensemble, and got to sing and be a flower, a starfish, a bug, and was very comfortable on the stage. The photo is with the "Queen of Hearts."One performance was on her 9th birthday, which was a fun way to celebrate. We talked her Grandma and Grandpa Woods into coming to see her show, and it was nice to have them there. They are good sports.

Megan can't stay away from the stage, so she volunteered her time each day to help with the production. She helped the kids design and create costumes, scenery, and did any odd-job that Mrs. Miller, the director asked. She had a great time doing it.

Ryan finished up his little league career with his team taking 2nd place. He was not chosen for the All-Star team this year, which freed him up to go to Scout Camp. He's there right now, working on his "Horsemanship" and "Rifle" merit badges. I'm sure he's enjoying every minute, and the cool air above Payson, and not thinking about us here in the 112 degree heat. When we get him home on Friday, we're going to drive to San Diego and get on the Carnival Cruise Ship Elation of the Seas for a little 5-day cruise down to Cabo. The kids are really looking forward to it.

The AZ Legislature has been keeping Mike busy. He pulled off some miraculous accomplishments for his clients, only to have the Governor VETO the whole shebang! Right now they are recessed, so we can go on the cruise, and he can re-work his miracles when we get back.
I took a 45 hour SEI course through EAC at the Gila Pueblo Campus in order to keep my teaching certificate up to date. It actually was very interesting. I didn't even mind the drive to Globe each day. I got an Amazon "Kindle" for Graduation, which is an electronic book reader. I can read books on it, but while I am driving, I can turn on the "text-to-speech" function and have it read to me out loud. It made the drive quick and painless. I am very happy to have a job this next school year in our school library. I can put that Master's Degree in Library Science to some use.

Megan was in a play this Spring called "Honk." It is kind of the musical version of the "Ugly Duckling." I never cease to be amazed and proud of her singing voice, so I'm attaching a scene from the play. Her character is "Dot" a Goose with a British accent (huh?). Wait until you hear her sing!!! I am a proud mom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39rrZytBPRM

So There! I've done my blog post. Hopefully Megan, Ryan and Cameron will do some entries after their trip to Cabo. There's no telling what adventures they might have.

Girls Camp and Branson

Hey guys! It's Megan! So my summer just started off with a bang! School ended and the next day I was up at 4 0'clock in the morning to get to go to Girls Camp. All the 4th year girls gathered at our leaaders house where we piled in to two cars to drive all the way to Payson. In Payson we unloaded our stuff and started a 4 mile hike to the top of a mountain with 30 pound packs on our backs. The hike up was not fun at all because it was all uphill. It was terrible! After two hours of hiking we finally arrived at the campsite. It was brutal.

Once we hit the campsite we pitched our tents and then the rain rolled in. It poured and poured and poured. All the girls crammed in our tents and we waited it out. When it eventually stopped we filed outside and all cooked Mexican food on a camp stove. It was pretty random but so much fun!

After dinner it started raining yet again! It rained all through the night and another girls tent flooded! The next day it was so bad that my leader gave us two different options, we could stay in the rain and cold, or we could hike down, go to Pizza Hut, then go to our girls camp, Camp LoMia. Of course we all chose Pizza Hut! Haha. So we took down the tents and packed up our bags and started the hike down. Going back was much more fun! It was all downhill and only slightly raining. It was pretty muddy and I went the whole way not slipping once.... until the very last stretch! I slipped and my whole leg was covered in mud! It was pretty sad.

So we made it to the cars in an hour and a half. It was such a pretty hike! I loved the hike down! After a delicious hot meal at Pizza Hut we went to LoMia. We basically had the run of the camp. All us girls had gotten really close and so it was just one huge party! We spent the night in the cabin and it rained some more!

The next morning me and my friend McKinley felt so gross we wanted to go and take a shower. But they were SO cold! We couldn't just stand in there it was so cold. We had to go one limb at a time! After getting a little cleaner we felt so much better!!!

The rest of the stake girls got there later that day. I was put in charge of directing my wards camp skit so we had rehearsal as soon as they got there. That night was the presentation of all the skits and none were as good as ours (I know - I need to learn humility)! The theme of camp was Superhero's and our ward chose Buzz Lightyear. We had one girl play buzz and the other girls were the little alien dudes. At the end they all danced to Bye Bye Bye by N'Sync. The 4th year girls were the Fantastic 4! How cute right? My idea!

I had to leave camp a day early because I had to catch a flight to Branson, Missouri for show choir. But that is a story for another day. Now, Me and my siblings have a list of chores to do so I better start on those. You know, have to keep dad happy.

Until another time, Adieu.

SUMMER!!!!!

School is out and summer is in. I am not yet sure how to entertain my self for the entire summer. Although If I make the All-Star Little League team I will have a bunch to do. This baseball season I played Catcher, Shortshtop and I pitched a little bit. I am not sure that I will make the team. I'm not sure because the way people get picked for All-Stars is that other players pick from a list of names; and not really dependent on playing ability.

But if I don't get picked for the team I will go to Scout camp for a week up in northern Arizona. The last time I went to Geronimo it rained a lot and we had a great campsite. We were up on a hill so the view was great, but taking the gear up and down the trail was a tough job.

As you might have known, my birthday was a few days ago. I had a great party with my cousins from Tempe. We went to Fiddlesticks for the whole day. There was hardly anyone there so we got to go on as many rides as we wanted to. We also went mini-golfing; and I won by 3 strokes. My summer started out great and it will stay this way (hopefully) for the rest of the summer.

RyAn GaRdNeR

My first time on stage

Aloha everyone this is Cameron. This summer I auditioned for a play. I am in a play called "Alice in Wonderland." I am in the ensemble. The ensemble is the extra parts without names. The parts I have so far are a starfish an extra flower and a four person bug.

The first day of auditions was very fun. We sang a couple of songs on the first day. On the second day we read lines. - and we did that again on the third day. Rehearsals are fun but the worst thing about rehearsals is the kid drama. I wish some of these children would act more mature. Rehearsals are fun, too. We started choreographing the song "I'm late". The dancing is really cute. We've now gone through 78 pages of the script in just 8 days. Wow - that's a lot .

The dates of my play are: June 23rd and 24th at 7:00. Come see it if you can.

Pinkwood Derby

Hello this is Cameron - for the past couple weeks me and my dad have been working on a pinkwood derby car. A pinkwood derby is like a pinewood derby for girls.... and all cars have to have pink on them. So my car has black with pink polka dots. I knew my car was fast - I just never knew about my competition. So yesterday I was very excited but nervous, too. When we got to the church we had to do a weigh in then put graphite on my car then do a final weigh in. Then in five minutes it was race time.

At first I thought they forgot about me because my friends were racing but not me. But then they called my name and I got to do my first race. I won all the races. YEAH! I was very excited. I took first place for our ward. My prize was a t-shirt and a certificate. Then, we had to see who's was the fastest in the stake and I came in second. I can't wait for next years pinkwood derby.

Sports

Hello Y'all,

Its Ryan comin' to you from my house!!! I am involved in many sports. I am currently in Baseball, Basketball, and Track & Field. In baseball I am playing Little League and I got drafted by the Diamondbacks. We have had about 3 practices. We have Jay Bell's son on our team and Jay Bell is helping coach us. We arereally lucky. In Basketball I am a guard. It is hard to get shots up because everyone is taller than me. In Track & Field I do the Discus, Long Jump, and the High Jump. I am not the best but it is still fun to compete.

If any one has any advice, I will gladly accept it.

It is going to be a busy spring! Maybe I should quit school :)

Youth Conference

Hey, its Megan. Every year our Stake does a service project of some kind and all the youth, ages 14 and up go and participate. Well yesterday for the project the youth put on a carnival for special needs kids at my school. It was so fun! Each ward had 2 booths to work and those of us who were not needed at the booth would walk around and spend the day with a kid, being a "Best Buddy." I was a Best Buddy and my partner's name was Michael. He was so funny! He was the first one of the kids to arrive so we got to hit all the games first and several times after that. He was really good at the basketball booth. He never missed a shot! It was so cool. He wanted to vist all the booths...and he would want to run there. I think we lapped the school about 50 times. But it was still so fun. Then after the carnival we had a small dance in the cafeteria with the kids. We had a blast being buddies with the kids!! They loved the music and loved to dance. One girl was a great break dancer.

After the dance the kids went home and the youth went to the church for lunch and games. Hanging out with the other kids from the stake was a lot of fun. We played a game called Mingle. You dance around a room until someone calls out a number and you have to get in a group of that many people. Playing that game with a bunch of overly competitive guys was not necessarily the safest game but it was still fun! Really all the girls had to do was stand there and wait for a guy to grab you and pull you into a group. You always hoped that it was a group of cute guys too! ;)

Then after the games we all went to Skateland. Skateland is just a roller rink that is pretty cool. We were all really tired but somehow we still had enough energy to skate in circles and dance like maniacs. It was really fun but when I got home I was exhausted. I still am! But I really liked hanging out with Michael yesterday.

Pinky Update

This is Cameron. I am getting really tired of my tired of my hand being in a half cast. The wrap comes off a couple of times a day (maybe that is because I mess with it constantly - I don't know). It is getting kind of annoying.

Last week my mom took me to the doctor to see if I could quit wearing the cast. He took another X-ray. Unfortunately, my pinky is not healing as fast as it should. You can see on the X-ray that there is a small piece of bone that is not attached to the rest of the hand. That is the problem that we are trying to fix.

The bottom line is that I am going to have to continue to wear the cast for another couple of weeks. Oh well - I just wish I had a wrap that is pink!

Treasure Hunting

For Christmas we got a GPS so we could go GeoCaching. This is a high tech term for 21st century treasure hunting. There is a webpage that lists hundreds of thousands of treasures that have been hidden around the world. You type in your zip code and it will describe hundreds of items that have been hidden in your area. The site gives you lattitude and longitude coordinates. Pop those into the GPS and away you go. The GPS will get you close and then you have to hunt around until you find the treasure.

So far we have found five different cache treasures. Some have been as big as an ammo box. But one was just a small mint tin hidden under some rocks by a coffee shop. A couple were hidden inside light poles. Very tricky!

The larger cache's have trinkets for you to take as long as you leave something for the next guy. The smaller ones only have a log for you to sign.

We are now working on hiding our own cache for others to find. Let us know if you want to go treasure hunting with us sometime. :)

Let It Snow...

This is Ryan. I think I am tough...but my mom thinks I am nuts. I had a good Christmas with my family. We went up to Holbrook to grandmas house on Christmas day. On the way up there we were disappointed because there was no snow. We stayed at a hotel for the night. On the second and last night we were there we said goodbye to every one and left. On the way back we stopped to play in the snow with our cousin Holli Mennaga. It was 19 degrees outside and after we had a snowball fight I took off my shirt and two jackets. I am so masculine. Do you like my guns??

Bless Us All

It's Megan here to give an update on what is happening in my world. So as most of you know, because I posted a blog about it earlier, I just did a play called "A Christmas Carol." In the show my favorite song in the whole show was a song called "Bless Us All." This was the song where I had a couple really big solos. But the reason it was my favorite was because of the message the song portrays. In the scene prior to the song Bob Cratchit, my "husband", toasts the Christmas dinner to evil Mr. Scrooge. My character gets really upset because she feels Scrooge is a vile, wicked man. But then little Tiny Tim, who sees the good in everyone, convinces my character that maybe Scrooge doesn't deserve such harsh criticism. That leads into the cutest song ever. We made many of the people in the audience cry every show. It was super fun! The beginning of the song you can't really understand because Tiny Tim is 4 and really quiet so the first lyrics are the following.

"Life is full of sweet surprises, every day's a gift

The sun comes up and I can feel it lift my spirit

Fills me up with laughter

Fills me up with song

I look into the eyes of love and know that I belong"

Here is the link so you can hear the rest of the song. It isn't the best footage because it was filmed by a parent in the audience who didn't have the best seats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCXzIMeGvM8&feature=channel#

ENJOY!