Oh my goodness, our baby is 8!!!

This post is a little late, probably due to the denial that our youngest is 8 years old now.  Connor is such an awesome kids.  He is so full of love and compassion, determination and fire.  He is super smart and talented.  If you have any computer questions, and dad isn't home, then he is the one you turn to.  He is still doing Irish dance, and loves every minute of it, especially hard shoe.  He is great at it too!  He was so excited to start cub scouts.  He tried on his Cub Scout shirt and wore it after school every day until his first day of scouts.  He loved it!  He will be a great scout too. Whatever he puts his mind to, he will accomplish.  His determined little mind is at times trying for us as parents, but he is a great kid and we love him so much!  Happy birthday Connor!  We love you!

Hard work pays off

As you all know, Kiley was chosen to be a part of the Jr. Troupe that performed in the Wicked Jig that was on Saturday October 26th.  She worked hard all through the summer and through these last few months to prepare for the big show.  During all that time she was able to perform in different settings and for so many wonderful people.  The first one they got to do was for the Daughters of the American Revolution in Wellsville, Utah.  She had so much fun with that.

After that came the Homecoming Parade for USU.  She got to wear her little devil costume for that one.  She had so many firsts with this opportunity.  It was the first parade she had ever been in.  

The next performance came for World Cultures Night at the Logan Tabernacle.  That was a fun night with all different types of music and dance.  Of course, they saved the best for last, and had the Irish Dancers be the finally.  They rocked it, like always!

Then came all the blood, sweat and tears.  During the month of October it was crunch time.  Lots of extra practices on top of the regular hour and a half of dance class each week (not to mention school, orchestra and activity days!!  Yea, holy cow!). She did great.  Oh ya, they had to learn the opening dance, the Mummers dance, with only 3- maybe 4 weeks before the show!  

They did an awesome job!  There were some stressed out and scared tears shed on her and mom's part, but in the end she totally killed it and put on an awesome show!

She had tons of fun the whole day.  It was a long day.  It started at 11:30 am and ended at around 10 pm.  She was such a trouper.  She got to share a dressing room with Chloe. They took some fun pictures together.

Then it was show time!  These are some pictures that Terena took.

               This was right before the show.  Ready for the Mummers dance!

                                                    Cute little devil!

After the show they got to go out and greet everyone on their way out.

I have to say that it was such an amazing show!  Everybody worked so hard and it payed off big time!  It blows me away that Kiley went from just starting Irish Dance in November of 2012 and was selected to be in the Jr. Troupe just a few months later, then was on the big, historic stage of the Ellen Eccles Theater!  She was truly blessed with great Irish dancing legs.  Awesome job Kiley!  We are all so proud of you!  You made it!

 

Pumpkin carving

We were asked to bring a carved pumpkin to the Ellen Eccles theater to decorate the entryway for the Wicked Jig on Saturday.  Today we bought our pumpkin and carved it.  It was a MONSTER of a pumpkin.  My little carving knife was long enough to cut through the thick pulp.  Oh well.  The pumpkin was supposed to say Velcome, but the "L" fell off, so it says Vecome.  Oops.  Connor was all excited to gut the pumpkin this year.  When it came down to it, he decided it still wasn't for him.  He did a great job outlining the design onto the pumpkin.  Isaac and Kiley had a blast gutting the pumpkin.  I saved the seeds and roasted them.  They turned out pretty good, not my best batch, but still good.  I carved the pumpkin with the too short carving kit saw.  I ended up using a longer kitchen knife to take out the parts that needed to come out, that's how the "L" fell out.  It still ended up looking pretty cool.

The Wicked Jig

I can't wait till the wicked jig. It will be so fun with live music, hard shoe soft shoe it will be awesome. There will be awesome costumes. I will suggest going to it. We have been practicing a lot. Hopefully a lot of people will be there. It is on October 26th. It is called the wicked jig,if you have not noticed. It will be at the Ellenecclestheater. At 7:00 pm. Anyone can go. Hopefully I will see a lot of people there. This post was from Kiley.  

Beautiful Cache Valley

As I was leaving work this morning, I was noticing how beautiful the sunrise was.  The clouds over the mountains were such a pretty red.  I had to take a couple of pictures on my way to the car.

World Culture Night

An Tus Nua was asked to be apart of World Culture Night at the Logan Tabernacle.  The Troupe and Jr Troupe performed.  These awesome Irish dancers were the last group to go.  They did such a great job.  Here the the video I shot of their performance.  

All About Isaac

I was looking through the blog and noticed that there isn't much about Isaac.  So I am dedicating this post to the most awesome 11 year old boy I know.  He has excelled at school.  I can go onto the school's website and access his grades.  I have been so impressed with how good he is doing!  He has all A's and B's!!!  I was so nervous about the transition into middle school, what with 300 plus 6th graders, changing classes every hour, and all the changes that happens in the emotional melting pot that is middle school.  He has done GREAT!!!!!  He blows me away with how good he is doing.  I have enjoyed taking him to school in the morning and picking him up by myself on Mondays and Wednesdays.  It gives us time to talk about school and stuff.  He is turning into an awesome young man.  He had his first band concert a few weeks ago.  I was surprised that they were having one so soon.  The kids had only been playing their instruments for 5 weeks!  They actually did pretty good.  Isaac is playing the trumpet this year.  He has to practice for 30 minutes every night for 4 nights, then he can have a 3 day weekend from practicing.  Here is a little video of the 6th grade band concert.  If you can't tell, they are playing Jingle Bells.

 

 
After school he loves to ride his skateboard.  He wanted to get some video of his cool new tricks.  I put them together in this cool little video.  I hope you enjoy them.  He was so excited to show me his new tricks.  He is getting pretty good at them.  No broken bones yet! (cross your fingers)

Crossroads Feis

Kiley and Connor had another Feis in Lehi on September 21.  They did an awesome job.  There were twice as many dancers in Lehi as there were in Wyoming.  Connor got 4th place in his single jig.  On his other 2 dances he got 5th.  He was only 2 points away from placing 3rd in those two dances!  Kiley got 1st place in her light jig.  Now she moves up to beginner 2 in that dance.  She got 2nd place in her beginner 2 reel and is now competing in the Novice level in that one.  She got 4th place in her beginner 2 single jig.  They are having so much fun!!!  They seem to have a natural talent for it.  They work hard all the time.  Here are some cute pictures of them before the competition.  Next time I will make them keep their dance clothes on and get pictures with the medals they win.

Wicked Jig

The Wicked Jig is coming fast!  Kiley and her Irish dance troupe have been practicing hard.  It is going to be awesome! We can't wait for Oct. 26th!

Awesome quote

I found this quote tweeted out by the Mormon Channel.  Just wanted to share it.

USU homecoming parade

Kiley got to walk in the USU homecoming parade on Saturday. She wore her devil costume that she will be wearing for her performance in October.  She had so much fun walking and dancing her way down Main Street.  Here are some pictures of the cutes devil ever!  She has the devil scowl down great!

 

Update: well used blanket

The rainbow blanket that we have had since Isaac was a baby is still having a slow and painful death.  The hole is humongous now.  Connor still loves it and can't put it out of its misery.  We find pieces of it all over the house as it slowly falls apart.  He still manages to cover himself with the small strip that he can stretch over him.  Here are a couple of updated pictures.

Teaching moments

Tonight Kiley was doing the dishes and Connor was getting ready to eat some tasty ramen noodles.  Kiley was telling Connor about what she had learned in Primary today.  She told him that they learned about doing baptisms for the dead.  She said that you need to do your family history so you can find the people in your family that didn't have the opportunity to be baptized while they were living.  She said that when you turn 12 you get to go to the Temple and get baptized for the people who have died.  She said that the spirits of the people are there with you watching you get baptized for them.  Connor asked if you could see the spirit and Kiley said no, but you could feel them there.  He said that that was so beautiful and that he felt so happy.  I went in and told him that the overwhelming happiness that he was feeling was the Holy Ghost testifying to him that everything that Kiley had told him was true.  He said it was so beautiful again.  He told us that Sunday is now his favorite day.  He also said that he wants to be a missionary when he gets old enough.  He is so excited about the gospel.  I know he will be ready to get baptized in a few months.

Selfies

The kids love to take random pictures of things on their iPods.  They are connected to my account so I see the awesome pictures they take.  I found these beautiful pictures Kiley did of herself and put them into a collage.  Here are her beautiful pictures.

Funny kid conversation

Connor: "I'm going to die twice."

Isaac: "Why are you going to die twice?"

Connor: "Because I'm going to become a zombie and somebody will have to come after me."

Wyoming State Penitentary

On our way home from Casper we decided to go through Rawlins and take the kids through the old state prison.  It was a lot of fun.  Here they do a guided tour, so you get to hear all the history and stories about the prison.  

Here are Kiley and Miranda looking around before the tour started.

They always start the tour with a hanging.  A Cheyenne, Wyoming architect named James P. Julian designed the contraption in 1892, earning the name "The Julian Gallows," which made the condemned man hang himself. The trap door was connected to a lever which pulled the plug out of a barrel of water. This would cause a lever with a counterweight to rise, pulling on the support beam under the gallows. When enough pressure was applied, this would cause the beam to break free, opening the trap and hanging the condemned man. (Gallows info from Wikipedia.)  It was pretty interesting to watch it work.  I can't imagine standing on the trap door listening to the water drain from the bucket just waiting for the door to fall away and you falling to your death.

After the demonstration they take you on the tour.  You start out where all the inmates started, in where you get your mug shot.  Then they take you into the room where they would get their prison uniform.  There is a window that they would open and yell out "fresh fish", which is what new inmates are called.  There is a pole in the middle of the room.  If the inmate was not following commands they would handcuff the inmate to the pole and whip them with a rubber tipped whip so they didn't leave any marks.

Connor had his hands wrapped around the pole right before I took the picture.  I thought it was funny.

Next you walk past the visitation room.  They have a dummy in there.  It scared the kids when they walked in.

Then you walk into cell block A.  When they originally built the prison they had 13 cells on each of the 4 levels on the front side and back side of cell block A.  It was designed for one inmate per cell, but when they transferred the inmates from Laramie to Rawlins, they discovered they didn't have enough room.  They put another bed in the cell.  It was quite cramped in the cell with two people in there.

Cell block A

Just had to take a picture of cell number 13 ;)

After you go through cell block A you go into the library area.  They had an inmate paint the walls.  How painted them with bright colors.  On one wall as you are going out of the library into the shower area, he painted happy faces coverting to sad faces as you leave.  They said it was because you were going from the happiest place to the saddest place.

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In the shower room they said they would have about 30-35 inmates showering at a time with only few shower heads.  She said that that was where a lot of disputes were settled among the inmates.  There is a staircase that leads up to the game room in the area of the shower room.  There was a guard that was brutally murdered in the game room and then thrown down the stairs.  After that, they sealed the door closed and there was no more game room.

The stairwell that the guard was thrown down.

Here's Isaac looking tough in front of a cell ;)

Next we went into the kitchen.  There was a riot in the cafeteria one year.  The inmates had taken all the wooden tables and benches and piled them up at the end of the cafeteria and lit them on fire.  After the guards got control again, they installed metal tables and benches that were bolted to the floor.  They also installed a birdcage where a guard would stand with a tommy machine gun.  He was given the ordered to shoot to kill if anybody got out of control.  I think it worked, because I don't think they had any more problems after that.

They had one of the inmates paint all the beautiful pictures in the cafeteria.  The picture of the big horn sheep is very interesting.  The sheep's heads follow you wherever you go in the area.  It was a reminder that you are always being watched.  The painting of the railroad tracks was interesting also.  No matter where you stand in the room you are always on the right side of the tracks.

Next stop is outside.  They used to have a warehouse/factory where the inmates made various things. First they made brooms, then they made wool blankets for the Navy (I think) during the war.  They received an award for the high quality of blankets they made. Next they made license plates and highway signs.  The factory is no longer there.

They had an outdoor recreation area for the inmates. They had a baseball field, horseshoe pit and basketball courts.  The in,ates would play baseball against the local teams.  They were pretty good until the catcher had to serve his death sentence.  He was their best player.  After that, they never won another game.

Next stop was the death house.

This is what the gallows looked like.  It was pretty convenient that they would hang from the second floor and fall to the first floor.  All the gaurds had to do was cut them down and put them on a stretcher and wheel them around the corner to the infirmary.

The picture below shows the hook that the noose would hang from.  They would face the inmate towards the window so they could see the mountain before they died.

The death row cells were just a few feet away from where the inmate's death sentence would be carried out.

Here is the famous gas chamber.  5 men were put to death in this very chamber.  Connor wouldn't get in it. Isaac and Kiley were excited to.  Connor was pretty excited to pretend to pull the handle to gas Isaac though.

Here is Kiley looking like a little villain!

They end the tour back in cell block A.  They leave you with a story of murder and commerodary.  The story goes like this.  Ther was an old woman who and a nephew in the prison.  She lived just down the street.  Every time she would visit him she would bring treats for him and the other inmates.  They all liked this old woman.  This one inmate was released on parole and didn't know of any other place to go than the old woman's house.  He did some horrible things to her and left her for dead.  She died a few hours later.  He was caught quickly.  The local police didn't think he would be safe in the city jail.  They thought the citizens of Rawlins would come and murder him.  The police thought he would be safer back in the prison.  They snuck him in the prison in the middle of the night in hopes that the other inmates wouldn't find out.  Well, they did.  In the morning when they were being let out for breakfast, the inmates overpowered the gaurds and took all their weapons and keys and locked them the the cells.  The inmates then went and grabbed that guy and hung a noose around his neck and threw him off the 4th teir in cell block A.  After the inmates were done with their revenge, they let the gaurds out, gave them back their keys and weapons and they all went to breakfast.  The gaurds left him there to hang while everyone ate breakfast.

4th teir in cell block A

Area where he was left hanging.

It was such a fun tour (if you couldn't tell, I loved it).  We had a great weekend feising and touring the prison.