Middle School Dance

The middle school had a semi formal dance.  Since Callie is in the Student Counsel, she needed to go and talked her sister into going as well.  Then we had to panic about what constituted "semi-formal"and what to wear. But all ended well and both were pleased with their dresses.

Delaney wanted semi fancy hair, and wanted a picture of it.

My two lovely ladies!

The group of girls they went with.  We have some awesome kids here! 

 And some silly ones......

It's Ma Birfday

It was Marian's Birfday.  She is now 16.  I know, 16!!!

She requested an ice cream cake, which was delicious, but had a bit too much time to melt while we set up.  Oops.

Did I mention that it was delicious though?!

 Marian enjoyed opening her gifts and was pleased with them.

Delaney enjoyed herself as well. 

And Rylee wore her "Fascinator" that she made at Activity Days.  It is spectacular, isn't it!

I love this girl!

 And this is a puzzle she received and then had to work on for the next two days to finish.  I think she needs more puzzles.

Youth Temple Trip

 The Branch had a Youth Temple Trip. As we live on a small island and lack a Temple we can drive to, we had to purchase tickets to fly to mainland Japan to go to the Fukuoka Temple.  For all that expense and hassle, we had a most excellent turn out!  Marian, Callie and Delaney all went.  Dan took them, while I stayed home with Josh and Rylee.  It was a great trip though.

The Fukuoka Temple is situated oddly and really hard to get good photos of it.  But here is a group shot.

Another group shot that someone else sent me.  

The Dog Park

Sarah, the foster dog, likes the dog park.  Well, she LOVES it.  It is close, so Callie tries to get the dogs over there almost every day. We have been making some doggie friends.

Sarah likes to make new friends.

But mostly, she just wants to play,

She wants someone to chase her and run around with her. 

Levi... not so much.  He wants to sniff and hang out. 

 Sarah is up for sniffing too, but then she wants to run.

And run, and run! 

 She sure is cute.

But no, we are not going to adopt her! 

 Levi is ready to go home now.  He is worn out.

Pi Day report!

 I waited too long to blog and have forgotten details.  Oops.

I think we had 24 pies, plus a bunch of mini-pies.  We had a lot.  Someone brought a sugar-free lemon pie and someone brought a vegan pie, and all were consumed.  Pi Day was Thursday from 3:30-5:30, but ended up going on till nearly 7pm.  And there was not a piece of pie left in the house 24 hours later.  So... a success.

This was the list of pies. #12 was done in 2 mini pies.

This is how many eggs it takes to make 3 Chocolate Chess pies.  

And here are said pies.  My favorite!

I tried a gluten-free crust.  Not bad.  But apparently flour matters!  And I just happened to pick a good one. (the second time I went to make something gluten-free, I accidentally picked up bean flour.  NOT delicious.).

I attempted a gluten free chocolate crust.  It was not a success and we did not use them.  No one would even eat the crust!

Gluten-free chocolate pies.  Yummy!

We set up some pies on the table and some in the kitchen.  It was a madhouse and people were everywhere.

 And then all my pie pans looked like this.

And my counter looked like this!

Delaney's friend Vincent wanted a pie to the face and she was happy to oblige. 

His face! Hee hee hee. 

She got him good.

 And Vincent was happy.  

No pies were wasted in this endeavor.  It was merely whipped cream.

That's my Boy!

 I was heading out to the commissary when I got a call from Josh.

This had happened.  

Fortunately, it was on my way, so I stopped by to admire it.  

Just kidding.  I was there to help.  He did not have a jack.  So I took the jack out of the van for him, and then I took his passenger off to track practice so she would not be late.

I expected to have to help when I returned, 10 minutes later, but this is what he was doing.

Yep, he already had the donut tire on and was tightening the lugnuts! 

I was so proud of him!

And then we were a bit worried because the donut tire was rather flat.

 Fortunately, there was a bike pump in the trunk!  Hooray!  We.... and by "we", I mean Josh.... pumped up the donut tire with the bike pump with great success.

 Josh's first tire change!  And he did a great job. I love this kid!

Hong Kong: Friday and Saturday

Friday we attended Women's Conference from 9-3:30. It was amazing and wonderful and fantastic and so uplifting!  I love Conference! We did bail out on the service project, because there were just so many helpers and I didn't want to roam around looking for a job to do.  So we ran off.

One of the breakout sessions I attended was on emotional health and healing. It was fabulous.  I also attended one on the evolution of our faith.  Also fabulous.

All the speakers were wonderful and amazing and fantastic.

It rained pretty much the entire weekend.  When we left Conference, we did not want to try to sightsee in the rain.  We decided to try to find the Jade Market and the Temple Street Market.  The Jade Market closes at 5pm, and the Temple Street Market sets up about that time.

Isn't it pretty?!  This is the Temple Street area, but we were too early for the market.

I thought this was funny, but I did not want t eat there!

Gray and drizzly, but still very cool!

We found the Jae Market!  And it was indoors.  Well, "indoors" may be a bit of a stretch, but it was covered and dry!

There was indeed much jade!

Lots and lots of stalls of jade.  Mostly the same stuff though. I did buy some lovely earrings.

Then the Jade Market closed and we meandered around looking for Temple Street again.

We found it.  But they were only just setting up their stalls.

That was fine.  We were having fun!  We went to dinner and then went back to the Market.

It was comparable to the Ladies Market, but a little smaller.

Still a lot of fun to wander and peruse.

And I thought the metro was cool on the way home. It was the emptiest I'd seen it and you could look all the way down the train.

I was going for a Hong Kong at Night photo, but this was the best I got!

Saturday session of Conference was 8:30-12:30.  And so wonderful. 

Lots of good stuff that I want to remember forever, but will mostly forget.... even with my notes!

I was able to stay for the entire Conference this year and it was great. I had a 5pm flight home, so it was a good day. All went well and I got home without any issues.  A good trip!