All the kids bought new shades at the Swap Meet at the Aloha Stadium; along with a bunch of other priceless souveniers!

Summer Begins

With Megan and Ryan in Summer School, Cameron has been "bored." She hasn't even had Kreston and Conner to bug, with Kreston's baseball schedule, and Conner being with his Snowflake cousins most of the time so far. So, yesterday we had "Plant Washing Day" at our house. It was an excuse to get out and play in the water, and I got the silk plants dusted.

The Cat enjoyed having the ladder available to climb, and took the opportunity to check out the top of the bookcase. I wonder what I can get Cameron to clean today??

Ryan is on to High School!

Ryan graduated from 8th grade this week and is on to High School at Desert Vista. He starts next week, taking his first class during summer school. He got to lead the graduation in the pledge of allegiance, and also put together a slide show of artwork his classmates had created for the big finale.

Right after Ryan's graduation, we drove over to Kreston's graduation from 8th grade. It's hard to believe everyone is growing up so quickly. I will attach photos from the exciting evening. As usual, you can click on a photo to see it larger.

Gila Valley Visit

We finally made it down to Thatcher, to see the new temple for ourselves. It is as lovely as everyone says it is. We got to see my Uncle Kent, who is in the Temple presidency, and also President Crockett, while on our tour. I didn't expect to see very many people we knew, but bumped into so many; folks from Thatcher, Pima, Holbrook, and even from our last ward in Tempe. It was a beautiful day, and Grandma and Grandpa Woods took us out for Casa Manana afterward. (Delicious icing on the cake!)

Megan at Disney World.

The sun is getting up earlier these days in our neighborhood.

Megan is heading to FL with her showchoir. We will miss her!

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

Aloha! Another fun year at the Arizona Aloha Festival!

Cameron loves her Zhu Zhu pet...the rest of us don't understand it.

Pinkwood Derby

While her mom and dad were in Vegas watching the big racecars, Cameron was racing her own car in the Pinkwood Derby. She won a few and lost a few, but had a great time.

Beauty and the Beast

Ryan played "Cogsworth" the clock in Akimel's production of Beauty and the Beast in February. He was so cute, and did a great job. As always, you can click on the photos to view them larger.

We were so happy that Grandma and Grandpa Woods could come watch the play as well as Susie, Kreston and Conner. Kreston is pretty happy that he's as tall as Trish now, and still growing.

Megan's Showchoir

Megan is getting ready to go to Florida this weekend with her showchoir. They will be at Disney World, and get to do a workshop with the cast members while there. They had a parent preview show last weekend. I'll post part of a video (the camera quit halfway through) so you can see them in action. Click on the still photos to see Megan up close.

Nascar in Vegas

Trish got NASCAR tickets for Christmas, so she and Mike went last weekend. It rained and was freezing cold the whole day we were there. You could hardly see the Vegas strip because of the rain. At one point we went and sat in the car and listened to a book on CD, because we had to thaw out. Still, NASCAR is fun! We plan to go when it's in Phoenix in April and take the kids.

Catching up

Megan did get her drivers license the first week of February. She's turning into a great little driver.

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.