Chelsea sings the National Anthem at the Roadrunners Baseball Game!

"Oh say, can you see . . ." Chelsea down on that baseball field?! Woohoo! For the first time in her life, she finally was asked to sing the National Anthem at a sporting event! I have teased her forever about the fact that although she's pretty much a rock star singer, she has never been asked to sing the National Anthem -- not even at her own high school! Well, they just don't know what they were missing. On Saturday June 7th she was asked to sing for the Roadrunners minor league baseball game here in St. George. The sad thing was that NO ONE from our family could be there! (I was on my girlfriends' getaway at Lake Las Vegas, and Scott and the boys were working at the girls camp on Cedar Mountain.) Thanks to a friend, we have this photo to verify that she really did it. Gooooo....Chelsea!

Look out St. George, new driver on the loose!

Well, it only took until two days after his birthday for Alex to get his drivers license . . . and the only reason it took THAT long was because his birthday was on a Saturday! So, look out St. George, we have a new driver on the loose!

Last week, the news was looking grim. Scott called the DMV to confirm what we needed to do for Alex to get his license, and they told him that it was a 2-3 week wait to get an appointment to do the driving part with an examiner -- horror of horrors! Obviously, this boy has been counting down the days to when he could get his license, and that wasn't going to fly. But smart daddy pulled off a brilliant move -- he found out that if we would go to Cedar, we could get right in. Sure enough, he got Alex an appointment for Monday afternoon. I drove him up there --a bit too fast, I have to admit, since we were afraid we'd be late. I just thought the whole way how classic it would have been if I had gotten a speeding ticket on the way to get Alex his drivers license. Hmmm.... not sure the officer would have been too impressed. But, we got there safe and sound. He passed the driving test with flying colors (and one reminder that he shouldn't stop so close to stop signs), and drove home with his license in his pocket. Gotta love the pretty face in this picture (NOT!). Fortunately, his license picture turned out a whole lot better:).

Now, if we can just keep him reigned in. He thinks he needs to go driving just for the sake of driving. But with the current gasoline price crisis ($4.10 a gallon -- ouch!!) we're telling him he'd better cool his jets.

Father's Day 2008 & Alex's 16th Birthday!

Scott & Marco enjoying a little Father's Day nap.

Happy Father's Day today!

and Happy 16th Birthday (yesterday) to Alex!!

Alex got to spend the past week at EFY in Provo, where he had a fabulous time, as always. That boy is the MOST social creature EVER. He lives to flatter girls, be a gentleman, and make sure that everyone around him is having a great time. He is famous for wearing outrageous outfits to Stake dances, and of course, he took his loudest shirt and tie to wear for the dance at EFY. He makes a habit of looking for the girls who seem to need to be asked to dance the most, and doesn't let a single song go by undanced-to. He went with 5 buddies -- Weston Cummings (his roommate for the second year in a row), Matt Winward, Matt Zappoli (their adorable Catholic friend!), Jake Wixom, and Tyler Nelson. Alex, Weston and Jake auditioned and made it into the talent show, where they sang their rendition of "Cellotape / Tape of Love" (and a zillion other names for this silly song). Alex played the piano, Weston played the bass guitar, and Jake played a the back side of his guitar bongo-style. They were the opening act, and from the sound of it, they brought the house down! He got home on Saturday, his 16th Birthday, which we celebrated on Sunday.....

....which, was Father's Day! We had quite the party at our house on Sunday evening. We had the entire Larkin family over for dinner, which totaled 24 people and two dogs. The exciting news is that Tim and Val arrived in St. George on Saturday night, after a three-day drive from Georgia. This time it's not just a visit -- they are here to stay! We are so excited to have them here. Now, if we could just get Travis' family to move here, we would have everybody. But, that's not likely to happen any time soon, darn it.

The "kiddles table"

The "big kids" table

We had a wonderful pork tenderloin roast dinner with the most fantastic dessert that Megan brought. It was a frozen strawberry concoction on an Oreo crust with frozen cool whip topping and loads of frozen strawberries. Just look at how fabulous this dessert was!!

Then it was SERIOUS present time -- we not only celebrated Father's Day for the 5 fathers who were there, but we added in Abby's 7th birthday, Maura's 11th birthday, and Alex's 16th birthday!! Let me tell you, we had a major pile of paper when all the gifting was over.

For my dad's gift from us, I could NOT decide which of four different Polo pastel shirts to give him. I even asked my mom for her advice, and she was not help either. So, we came up with a great plan. I simply wrapped up ALL 4 shirts, and told him he could CHOOSE his own gift! Fortunately, rather than complain about how he had to give three gifts back, he took the positive-Dale approach and reveled in how wonderful it was go get to choose! After much debate, modeling, and taking votes, we all helped him decide on this great pink gingham camp shirt. Every real man ought to have at least one pink shirt!


















We gave Scott a few typical Father's Day kind of things (like razor replacement blades and cologne), but I was pretty excited about his last gift. Earlier in the week he had shown me this ad in a magazine for some "Fly Utah" books he said he'd really like. Well, there was NO way to get them here in time. So . . . I came up with a creative solution. I downloaded pictures of the book covers from online, printed them out on glossy paper, and then taped them over the top of a few books off my bookshelf! When he pulled them out of the bag, he looked pleased, but a little confused. Somehow, of course, the covers looked a little bit strange, and the books weren't the same size he thought they'd be. Once he opened up the first book, he discovered that he was actually holding a copy of the Pocket Guide to Depression Glass. A second look into the other book revealed he actually had an old Royal Doulton china value guidebook. Finally, once the Navigation Chart was fully opened, he had a lovely map of Southern California. Hmmm . . . not quite what he was hoping for. At that point he just said, "Ahh, I get it."

















For Alex's birthday, he got a couple of fantabulous Beatles t-shirts, a Beatles hat (he is a Beatles fanatic), a set of 16 Classical Music CD's (and YES, he does love Classical music!), and finally . . . . drum roll please . . . the Henry 22 rifle he's been dreaming of for years. As you can see, he was pretty darned thrilled with this gift. And, as you can also see, Chelsea just did NOT understand what all the fuss was about over a silly gun. He was a sweetheart and made sure to give his Dad (and Mom) a big hug with plenty of thanks. He's darn lucky his dad is such a gun loving fool, or he wouldn't own a single gun. Obviously, mom is just sure that he'll "shoot his eye out."

So You Think You Can DANCE!!!

Our absolute FAVORITE TV show in the world is "So You Think You Can Dance!" We requested tickets online a couple of weeks ago, and we were so surprised when we got an email notification last Friday that we had tickets for Monday's taping! (Yes, Wednesday night's performance show is taped on the previous Monday). Me, Chelsea, and my sister Allison each got 4 tickets, so we pulled a group of 4 moms and 8 girls together for a spur of the moment trip to LA. The moms were me, Allison, and my friends Brenda Wade and Nancy Hauck. Brenda took three of her girls plus a friend, Nancy took two of her girls, and I took Chelsea and her friend Karly Staples. Allison's daughter India was supposed to go, but got sick the night before.

We had a blast! When we checked in, we managed to get Chelsea, Karly, and Erin Wade chosen for the "VIP" section. They choose just the coolest, hippest kids for that section, because they are the most visible on the cameras! They were thrilled out of their minds. They got to stand up on the railing up above the left side of the stage. Our other, younger girls were placed right on the floor to the right of the stage. And us old moms opted to try for seats in the risers. We got separated, and Nancy and Brenda each got a decent seat. I started out with a decent seat, sitting right next to Courtney Galiano's mother (one of the dancers) until Courtney's best friend arrived late from the airport. Unfortunately, I then got bumped to the standing area on the floor, which was a bit of a bummer, but still TOTALLY FUN.

The luckiest of us moms was Ali! The choreographers all sit on the front row of the risers, with their assistants right behind them. Well, Mandy Moore's assistant (not the singer, but the choreographer), didn't show up, so Ali got placed in HER chair, right behind all the choreographers! She was sitting directly behind choreographers Napolean and Tabitha. She is the person who would MOST hate having to be on tv, so it was just hysterical to watch her try and hide behind Napolean the whole time he was being filmed! Of course, I would have been leaning around and winking at the camera of something...

If you love SYTYCD, keep reading -- otherwise, you'll be bored. But if you love the show, you may find these tidbits to be fun--

We met the moms of both Thayne Jasperson and Matt Dorame and chatted with them for a minute. Thayne is from Mapleton (Springville) Utah, and Matt is originally from Glendale, Arizona but lives in SLC, Utah now. They were super nice, especially Thayne's mom -- she is adorable. I was standing right in front of Ivan from season 2, and Natalie, the best friend of Katee who was the last one to get cut in Vegas when they chose the top 20. Natalie was SO cute, and so supportive of Katee. I heard her tell someone she would probably try out again next year.

Courtney's mom was super cute and nice as well. She is from Long Island, NY, and has a heavy accent. She was a nervous wreck, but so sweet. For the brief time I was sitting next to her, I was also right behind all the other parents, and right in front of Jamie's girlfriend (who also got cut in Vegas.) From previous seasons, we also had Pasha and Anya right by us, as well as Lacey Schwimmer and Donyelle.

Final fun story -- during the commercial breaks there was a guy that was an audience warm-up kind of guy, who tried to keep everyone entertained. At one point, he asked if anyone wanted to sing American Idol style on the stage. Karly and Erin volunteered Chelsea. So she went down and sang "I Can't Make You Love Me" by Bonnie Raitt for about 30 seconds. Ivan and his friend held up their lighters and were waving them back and forth while everyone laughed and cheered, it was pretty funny! But the cool thing is that Chelsea can now say that she sang for Nigel Lythgoe and all the other SYTYCD judges and choreographers!

The Party Crew!

Front Row: Karly Staples, Amy Hauck, Taylor Wade, Erin Wade

Middle Row: Chelsea Wilson, McKenna Jones, Stephanie Hauck, Ashley Wade

Back Row: Allison Mudliar, Me, Nancy Hauck, Brenda Wade

Girlfriend's Getaway to Lake Las Vegas and Beatles LOVE!

Billie Rowland, Me, Jackie Darrington, Trisha Mickelson, Brenda Wade & Nancy Hauck.

It's so great to have wonderful friends! The gals from the Dixie High School Class of 1984 (or was it 2004??) haven't gotten together enough since we graduated. We've all been a bit busy getting married, delivering babies, raising kids and now teenagers, working, etc etc.

Even though all of those things are pretty important, we just haven't done enough to have fun TOGETHER. Thanks to Trisha, we finally planned and pulled of a Girls Getaway weekend! Brenda's hubby Ron has a golf membership residence business, and one of their properties is a beautiful 4 bedroom home at Lake Las Vegas. For the cost of cleaning (SO worth it!) we were able to stay for two nights at the Marker's house. The first night we had 7 gals -- me, Billie Rowland, Trisha Mickelson, Brenda Wade, Nancy Hauck, Toni Blake and Dana Moody. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of Dana & Toni on here!

We went down on Thursday afternoon, and started out just sitting and chatting for hours. Then we went to dinner at a great Mexican place down by the lake, where they would NOT let me have two different enchiladas. All I wanted was one beef, one chicken. But NO! Mr. waiter dude said that could not be done. I had to have two of a kind. Yeah, right. I did NOT believe him. He was just being lazy. Whatever. ANYWAY, my dear friend Billie was a hero and ordered two chicken, and I ordered two beef. Walah, switch-er-oo, and I have one of each. HA!

We ended up playing Wackee Six back at the house until the wee hours of the morning (2 am-ish), and Trisha just kicked all our hineys after she got the 200 good-attitude-bonus points. Just goes to show what a good attitude can do for ya!

Friday morning, Nancy served us her famous strawberry french toast "al fresco" (I think that means outside on the patio???) Unfortunately, at that point Dana and Toni had to go home, bummer. But Jackie Darrington showed up to fill the gap! We spent a few hours at the pool eating Italian Ices chatting. Then, it was time to get dolled up and HIT THE TOWN!

Off we went to the Mirage Hotel to see "BEATLES LOVE!" The show was quite a trip, kind of like being on drugs, without really being on drugs. But it was beautiful, and so much fun! Check out the fabulous theater -- it was pretty spectacular.

After the show came the big finale -- dinner at the exclusive Members Only "House of Blues Foundation Room" at the top of the Mandalay Bay Hotel! Thanks to a Concierge service that Ron works with, we got reservations to this incredible restaurant, and at that point, we pretty much knew that we were VIP's. And if there was any question about it, we determined that my gargantuous flower necklace practically said "V-I-P." One look at that necklace, and we could probably get in anywhere in Vegas.