4th of July Weekend with FAMILY!!!

Our first weekend with everyone together AT THE SAME TIME! Well, at least with those who are here right now. :)

Check out our family website for the full details.

We are busy with work, family, Humanitarian Service "missionarying", elder parent care, and all those things that come along with being "anxiously engaged".

Mother's Day

2008 CHRISTMAS SEASON

We put our Christmas tree up "early" this year (the 15th). Romy and Sophia helped us pick one and we left it in the garage until Sherrie returned from Provo (taking care of Rebecca "post-foot-surgery") on Saturday.

You'll see a series of "snowgirl" pictures that I just left in for fun. The last one was taken today and the little girls made the snowgirls last Monday night so they lasted pretty well.

We finished up our "bucket project this week (see below). I included pictures of the "set-up" just to show how we had it organized. There is a picture of me with a young boy. He arrived with his dad and I asked his dad if I could assign his son to work "keeping cardboard boxes cleaned up and transported to the cardboard-breakdown area". He said that his son was autistic but that he should be able to do it ok. For the rest of the session, he did great...stayed on task and had a good time.

We had another snowstorm on Wednesday which set some records here in the valley. In fact, school was cancelled on Thursday because of concerns over snow. Thursday, however, was a beautiful day and there were no transportation concerns at all. Oh well, the kids had fun playing in the snow.

Friday was our "Happy Feet" service at Ruby Thomas Elementary School.

Friday night I went to Josh's ward's Christmas program...well, a dinner, three Christmas carols, and we went home.

Saturday was our last "bucket project".

Sunday was our ward's "Christmas program" and the choir sang a number of songs. Sherrie sang in a trio for one of the numbers. After Sacrament Meeting we drove to Josh's ward to see the little girls sing in their ward's Sunday Christmas program. After church we had dinner and then came home.

Monday was spent shopping for food for the week and cooking a lasagna for our ward's monthly "feed the homeless" at St. Timothy's in Henderson. I didn't go out this month and when our group arrived they found that "Panda Express" was already there with dinner. Hmmmm, signals crossed somehow. They packed the food back up and took it to St. Vincent's.

Josh's family stayed overnight with us. We babysat the kids Monday evening since Josh and Zully had an office party to attend. Sherrie and the girls made sugar cookies and we had a fun day today.

Today was "clean up the house day" and "cake delivery" to the mission office and my home teaching families and to the Hooglands.

(From memo from Hooglands to the stake presidents.)
"In all, over the six (6) double sessions, starting on December 2nd thru today, December 20th, we had approx.1420 volunteer/workers and we completed 203+ pallets or 17,060 Cleaning Kits.
The volunteer workers from all the Stakes did such a wonderful job. A number who came stayed for both sessions with enthusiasm and willingness to work.
Sandstone Stake; Tuesday, Dec. 2, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm. Completed 40 pallets w/ approx 350 volunteers.Las Vegas Stake; Wednesday, Dec. 3, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm. Completed 32 pallets w/ approx 122 volunteers.
Lakes Stake; Tuesday, Dec. 9, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm. Completed 38 pallets w/ approx 308 volunteers.
South Stake; Saturday, Dec. 13, from 9:00am to 12:00am. Completed 35 pallets w/ approx 290 volunteers.
Warm Springs Stake; Tuesday, Dec. 16, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm. Completed 29 pallets w/ approx 140 volunteers.
Anthem Stake; Saturday, Dec. 20, from 9:00am to 12:00am. Completed 29 pallets w/ approx 210 volunteers.
* Some volunteers came and went without signing-in so that the actual numbers may vary slightly."

HUMANITARIAN "BUCKET" PROJECT, WARD PARTY, RODEO, TRIP TO RACHEL'S CHRISTMAS CONCERT

See our family website for all the pictures.

12-1 The first couple of pictures are from our Rotary Christmas Dinner at Spanish Trail Country Club.

12-2 The next bunch of pictures are of the Sandstone Stake (our stake) members assembling "cleaning buckets" for the Humanitarian Service Room. They put together about 3,200 buckets in 3 hours.

12-6 Our ward party was on Friday night and none of the pictures came out very well. Sherrie is one of the angels on the second row.

12-11 Josh, Zully, Sherrie and I went to the National Finals Rodeo on Thursday night. The Thomas and Mack Center was packed but we didn't have any traffic problems. In fact, when we left the parking lot after the rodeo , we didn't stop again until we pulled into our garage...20 minutes...Sherrie hit all the lights just right.

12-12 Friday. Sherrie and I left about 5:30 a.m. to drive to Rachel's in San Jose. Easy drive but long...about 9 hours. Her "chorale" was singing that night. We sat next to one of the judges that Rachel works for. The other lady in the pictures is also a judge. Canasta til midnight. Ryan and I lost big time (actually we had to finish the game the next morning!)

12-13 Saturday. We drove to Menlo Park to visit some friends of mine: Martin and Loessa (who is recovering from a stroke) Tuhey and Del and Cheryl Fassett. Del and I started the same day (7-15-71) at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and Martin was one of the first people I met. Martin just turned 92 a couple of weeks ago. We had a nice visit and then the Fassett's took us to lunch at "Hunan Home", a very good Chinese restaurant. When Del and I worked together, we probably had "Chinese" at least once a week.

We then drove to San Francisco to see the "Afghanistan" exhibition at the Asian Art Museum (across the plaza from City Hall). We drove downtown and spent some time at Union Square, Macy's, etc., enjoying the decorations, the crowds, and the cold weather. Then it was off to dinner at Rachel and Ryan's favorite italian restaurant in North Beach..."Steps of Rome". During the evening we saw lots of groups of "pub crawlers" dressed in Santa costumes...hence the picture as we were leaving the restaurant.

Sunday morning we went to the Santa Clara ward. I met another visitor there who was returning from Nigeria where he had served as the first temple president in "Abu". He had previously served as a mission president there, as well as a senior missionary. He is from Fremont and knows Bill Bain (my cousin Louise Hanks' husband) really well. The group picture is the high priest group who wanted a picture to send to an ailing group member...I volunteered to take the picture (with their camera) and took one with mine just to be safe. Later that afternoon we went to the concert again. They are really good singers and it is a lot of fun just to sit and listen. Ryan prepared pasta, roasted cauliflower, cooked broccoli, toasted french bread with a really good artichoke spread. Dessert was bundt cake that Ryan asked us to bring for Rachel's birthday cake.

Monday morning we left at 5:30 a.m. to head back to Vegas. It was cold and rainy at various times all day including snow over the Tehachapi Pass and just about all the way from Barstow to Las Vegas.

When we arrived home, Zully and the girls came over and we made snowgirls (Josh arrived after work.) Sophia had been asleep in the car when they arrived so she wasn't in too good of a mood. Will had made some cupcakes so we "bribed" her with one of those. She ate part of it and then Zully dressed her up in her warm clothes. She was still a bit cranky so we gave her the rest of her cupcake. She refused, however, and said she wanted a "new" one. So out the door she went with a "new" cupcake and all bundled up. She stood and watched Romy and I roll snowballs and then she went to step up on the pool deck and fell flat on her tummy and dropped her cupcake. Many tears ensued including a request (demand?) for a "new" cupcake. Sherrie took her back in the house and there she stayed. She finally came outside when Josh took Marisol outside to take a picture. She must have got her second wind because she went back in the house and dressed in her snow duds and came back out and insisted that we do another "snowgirl". So we did.
After warming up with hot chocolate, Romy, Sophia, Sherrie and I went out and bought a Christmas tree. It was still raining and the tree was really wet, so we just set it up in the garage and will leave it there until it dries out. Sherrie is headed to Provo tomorrow to help Rebecca with her foot operation so we will decorate next week probably.

Rotary Christmas Party

After our rainstorms last Wednesday and Thursday finally quit and the sun came out, all the paint on the top of my truck roof and engine hood starting peeling off.
Lowell Rex, who served in the Guatemala-El Salvador Mission at the same time I did, had a long layover today at the airport so I picked him up and we spent a few hours visiting and having lunch at Cafe Rio. He lives in Southern California not far from Jennie's.
The moon tonight was flanked by Venus and Jupiter hence the blurry night shot.

Tonight was our Rotary Holiday Party at Spanish Trails Country Club. Last year Sherrie wasn't able to attend because of her neck operation so it was nice to have her there this year.

Thanksgiving Day

Delightful Thanksgiving Day.

Darlene and Tamara brought Mary Alice on Wednesday evening and then went to Alison's for the evening.

Sherrie was busy all week preparing for the meal, including getting up at 5:00 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day to put the turkey in the oven.
We had a huge rainstorm on Wednesday and again on Thursday and set a weather record for consecutive days of rainfall. Course it still wasn't very much , but by Vegas standards, it was a lot. Unfortunately we have a leak in Sherrie's studio back behind the heavy file cabinets.
As soon as the guests (Darlene and Tamara, Alison and her husband, Bill, and their little girl, Ellie, and Bill's parents and brother) arrived, then it was time to eat.
Thanksgiving dinner began around noon and featured the traditional "fixin's": mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, corn, beans, rolls, marshmallow salad, turkey, and, or course, pies...lots and lots of pies.

Friday afternoon Rebecca called and announced that the film that she just completed at BYU has been selected for the Sundance Film Festival next January. CONGRATULATIONS! Sherrie did the costumes so she is doubly excited.

"Wicked" trip to Jennie's

I drove to Cedar City on November 7th to spend a little time and to attend the funeral on the 8th of a young man who used to live in our ward. His family had moved to Cedar a couple of years ago and the young man (now 14) had run away from home and was found dead a few days later...unknown cause at present although he had taken some pain pills from his mom's purse.

After the funeral I drove the back roads to Pine Valley to check things out. Not much different although there was some snow on the ground.

On the 14th, Sherrie's Red Mountain Choir had a concert...probably the last one she will be involved with as the Skouson's are "retiring" from the RMC. They may be putting together another choir on this side of town...time will tell, I suppose.

Last Tuesday, as soon as we finished at the Humanitarian Center, we headed to California to spend some time with Jennie and her family.

The first day, we went to the kid's school to give a little presentation to Tyler's class about family history (click here for his "link" to John Alden. We also told him the "chickens and cow" account about William Jones Thomas' experiences in St. Louis.) The kids seemed to be most impressed with the fact that I said that Tyler is a real "prince" since he was descended from royalty on a couple of the lines...course I didn't say that there are a whole lot of people in that category!) After school we watched Cora's rehearsal of a couple of numbers from "Wicked" (for a performance that they will be doing at their school.)

Thursday after school was Tyler's "fencing" class and Friday after school was the kid's "circus" class.

Sunday evening we went to see the play "Wicked" at the Pantages Theater.

Eric has been working virtually nonstop finishing his work on the "Thumbelina" movie that should be out soon. We did get to work in a game of Canasta, however.

The pictures toward the end are Tyler's "animation" efforts. He wanted me to not erase them.

Drove home early Monday morning, foggy as we left at 5:30 a.m., but cleared up by the time we arrived at the I-15. Home at 9:30 a.m..

Gorgeous weather while we were there.

Check out all the pictures at our family website.

Halloween Week in Las Vegas

Sunday was "Primary Program" day at the Paseo Verde Ward so we spent the day in Green Valley. We brought the girls home with us to spend the night.

We hit the "jacuzzi" Monday morning and then in the afternoon headed back to Josh's as their ward was having their "Trunk or Treat" Monday night. Fun night. The girls' costumes were really cute.

I didn't take pictures of any other kids' costumes except for a picture of a "nerd" costume!

I've included a few "Travis Bickle" pictures of Mr. Will...he said it is for his "Halloween Party". He is in Utah this weekend.



Wednesday evening was my Rotary Club's "Feed the Homeless" service project at Christ Church Episcopal on Maryland Parkway. We (the Humanitarian Room) provided hygiene kits. Every three months we "feed" about 100 to 120 people lasagna, salad, and vegetables (sound familiar? Same menu as our ward's project in Henderson...my recommendation...after our first effort was a complicated chicken dinner, etc.).


We took 143 hygiene kits to distribute and they were all gone by the time Henry Hoogland and I left for the Humanitarian Room for an evening group. One of the sisters brought her three week old baby with her Young Women's group so I took a picture of our youngest volunteer to date.

On Friday, Zully and the girls came over early and Josh joined us in the afternoon..full costume and all. They carved pumpkins and then we headed to our ward's "Trunk or Treat".



Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn (thanks, Sophia!) Sophia is always up way early..."Is it morning yet?" "Is it morning yet?"..."Look, it's starting to get light."

After Josh's family left, we just relaxed until late afternoon when we went for a ride to "Luv-it Custard" for the "Western Special".


Check out all the pictures at our family website.

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"FALL AT THE FESTIVAL(S)"

It is the final weekend of plays at the "Fall at the Festival" at Shakespeare in Cedar City so we headed north Friday morning. Sherrie stayed in Toquerville with her mom and ran some personal errands and I drove to Cedar to spend the afternoon playing on the computer with my mother.

We had reservations for dinner at Milt's Steak and Seafood and met there with some friends from our ward; Thom and Kathryn Cristensen, Kyle and Julia Stephens, Lloyd and Kris Benson, Mark Zobrist (Kris' brother who is in a different ward), Kevin and Julie Christensen, and Bill and Jane Harvey.

After my "Orange Roughy" (see, I don't always eat steak), we all headed to the Randall Jones theater for "Moonlight and Magnolias". Then it was on to the Christensen's (T&K) cabin in Brianhead where we all talked until about 3 in the morning before finally crashing.

Since it was "Livestock Festival" time in Cedar City, Sherrie and I headed back to Cedar to make it to the parade which began at 10:00 a.m. Lots of tractors, sheep trailers, and even a stagecoach pulled by miniature horses (driven by my nephew, Jason Thomas.) The highlight of the parade is 1500 sheep being herded down the entire parade route. They, for obvious reasons, were the last entry in the parade...well, the next to the last...the last was the street sweeper! There are only two cities in the country that have parades which feature a sheep herd entry; Cedar City and Ketchum, Idaho. (Although I've never seen the parade in Ketchum, I used to see lots of sheep being trailed back and forth next to the highway between Bellevue and Ketchum when I was a kid and we would be travelling to the Ketchum/Sun Valley chapel for stake conference.)

We met at the Garden House for lunch and then it was time for the matinee, "Gaslight" (an interesting play that ran almost 3 hours and which, unfortunately, was held in a nice, dark, comfortable theater)...full tummy...dark and comfortable theater...late night the night before...zzzzzzzzzzz.

Sherrie headed back to Toquerville and I, ever the dutiful son, drove to Christiansen's Deparment Store to pick a couple of "personal apparel items" my mother had ordered. Fortunately, the clerk knew exactly what I needed to pick up, and, unfortunately, she went back to the layaway area and came back holding up both of the "items" for all the world to see. After I paid the bill, I immediately went to the "Men's Department" and bought a man's dress belt (just in case anyone was watching and wondering!)

Then it was back to Toquerville to collect Sherrie and her mom and travel back to Las Vegas. Tomorrow is the annual Primary program at one o'clock in Josh's ward so we are going to go to their ward for church. In the spirit of driving two cars everywhere we go, Sherrie and her mom are going to go in one car and I will drive my truck after our Sacrament meeting at 11:30 a.m. (two of the young men that I sent on missions are home and will be "reporting" their missions.)

See all the pictures by clicking here.

Today I am officially eligible for Social Security! Sigh.

A fun day, that started at the Humanitarian Service room with a "Nothing but Bundt" birthday cake (arranged by Sherrie) after which we prepped for some groups coming in to assemble school kits and hygiene kits. After miscellaneous chores, including a visit to the mission office to help solve a balky network printer problem, I spent the last hour "tying a quilt"...yes, tying a quilt.

Van McCarlie (a boyhood and lifelong friend of Tony, Sherrie's brother) stopped by with some life insurance papers. Great timing. We had a nice visit, however, and he and Grandma Hunter (who came down with Sherrie today...Sherrie has been in Provo helping Rebecca with her movie) enjoyed visiting and reminiscing about the "good old days".

Josh and his family arrived around 6:30 p.m. and we went to dinner at "Fatburger"...ahhh, the "Big Fat Deal" with onion rings! Rachel and I were talking as the food was being prepared (hence the picture of me on the phone...sorry, Rachel and Ryan, but it did taste good.)

Check out the pictures on my website. The first picture is Mr. Will's beard. I took a few of them but only am posting one. I posted one the other day on my blog.

The last picture is of what remains of the Bundt cake and some German Chocolate birthday cupcakes that a member of my ward made for me.

Mr. Will's Birthday Beard

Will returned late yesterday evening from San Jose where he had been visiting Rachel and Ryan and we headed right back across town to celebrate his birthday with Josh's family at Lucile's BBQ in The District.

He has been growing a beard so I thought I would include a couple of "beard" pictures; his, taken today, and mine, taken in 1976.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Will

Love, Dad

Staying Busy

Here are some pictures from the past week or so.

Last week (Friday and Saturday) I went to a couple of funerals. The first was for Brooks and Diane Williams (Brooks was in my Rotary Club). He was flying their airplane to Colorado to their place in Breckinridge and crashed...both died. Saturday I went to Maynard Dye's funeral...he and I served in the mission office together under President Hill. He died of prostate cancer.

Today I am wearing a "Holtor" monitor (to make sure that I can discontinue one of my meds...the fewer the better I think.)

Mr. Will's car was finally finished today (Sherrie backed into it in our driveway). Towbin Automotive has had it for 2 1/2 weeks.

Catching up on the pictures

Check out the family website for recently uploaded photo albums. Or just click on the following links.
8-29 & 30-08, Josh and Family. Click here.
8-23-08, Cedar City Shakespeare Play trip and Enterprise Corn Festival. Click here.
8-1-08, Rotary trip to Tuacahn to see "The Sound of Music". Click here.
7-30-08, Gardner Funeral. Click here.
7-28-08, Trip to Jennie's. Click here.
7-26-08, Bringhurst Family Pictures. Click here.
7-26-08, Bringhurst Family Reunion. Click here.

What Have We Been Doing Lately!

Serving as Part-time Service Missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (and, of course, enjoying our extended families...check our family website.)

I began serving as a Church Service Missionary in the Las Vegas Humanitarian Service Center in November 2007 shortly after being released as bishop of the Monte Cristo Ward(although I wasn't officially "called" as a missionary until February 18, 2008). Sherrie began serving in May after the play ("The Ark") was over (although she wasn't offically "called" until June 23, 2008). The calls are for one year. We received a copy of Sherrie's call letter but the fact I had never received a copy of my call letter prompted the email exchange shown below.

We serve two days a week, Tuesday and Thursday and any evening when we have a group scheduled. The Las Vegas Humanitarian Service Room ("HSR") is currently open three days a week, Tuesday through Thursday.

Our HSR has been given an interesting assignment; to oversee the assembly of 16,800 "cleaning buckets" which will be kept in the Las Vegas Bishop's Storehouse until needed for disaster distribution. As buckets are used, we would then "backfill" on an ongoing basis to maintain the original amount.

Each bucket, a five gallon white plastic bucket, contains:
bleach,
laundry detergent
powdered cleanser
liquid cleaner
20 trash bags
scrubber sponges (2)
large sponge
bar of soap
empty spray bottle
2 small cloths (cleaning type rags)
5 breathing masks
two pair of rubber gloves
one long handled brush
two scrubber brushes

All the items fit into the plastic bucket which then has a lid pounded on it and the bucket is placed on a pallet; 12 buckets per layer with 7 layers, which are then shrink wrapped and moved to a storage location within the Bishop's Storehouse. (Yes that makes a tall stack!)

Our first "assembly session" was last Wednesday evening. We had about 225 volunteers who showed up between about 5:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. We assembled 2268 buckets. Given our relatively limited assembly space, 225 is too many. The ideal number would be between 75 and 100. Three evening assembly sessions are scheduled for next week.

In the HSR, we assemble hygiene kits, newborn kits, and school kits. We also make quilts and lots of other items. Our responsibility is to coordinate the work of the volunteers who come to the HSR. The HSR serves the entire valley, so we have people coming from all over town. We are open between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. We are always busy. In addition to preparing items to be sent to Salt Lake City for disaster preparedness inventory supply, we also work with various local agencies. For instance, yesterday we delivered 500 hygiene kits to the Salvation Army and 56 newborn kits (and other items like quilts, etc.) to University Medical Center.

Items that we produce are sent all over the world in response to disasters. For instance, last month, supplies were sent to:

St. Lucia
Namibia
Kentucky
Columbia
New Mexico
Arizona
Texas
Kenya
Colorado
California

The supplies are distributed to disaster victims and are not distributed only to members of the LDS church.




-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Thomas [mailto:kvthomas@cox.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 10:23 AM
To: Parry, Morgan
Subject: Church Service Mission Call

Hi Morgan,

I have attached a copy of the "call letter" relating to Sherrie's call as a church service missionary. Do you know if there is a similar letter relating to my call as a church service missionary? If so, I would like to get a copy of it if possible. I am curious about the dates ("Date Service Begins" and "Release Date").

I see that Brendan will be speaking in Sacrament Meeting on September 14th. Its hard to believe he has been gone for two years!

Thanks so much,

Keith Thomas



-----Original Message-----
From: Morgan W Parry
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 10:47 AM
To: 'Keith Thomas'
Subject: RE: Church Service Mission Call

I believe I was given a copy of such a letter to file and I will look in the file cabinet and make a copy.

Morgan


-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Thomas [mailto:kvthomas@cox.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 10:58 AM
To: 'Morgan W Parry'
Subject: RE: Church Service Mission Call

Thx!


-----Original Message-----
From: Morgan W Parry
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 12:03 PM
To: 'Keith Thomas'
Subject: RE: Church Service Mission Call

Find attached a copy of your letter. If it is a poor copy or you can't open it, I have the copy I made from the original and will hold if you need it.
Let me know.

Morgan

-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Thomas [mailto:kvthomas@cox.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 12:31 PM
To: 'Morgan W Parry'
Subject: RE: Church Service Mission Call

Thanks Morgan,

It came through just fine. I am guessing that my release date could be extended to at least coincide with Sherrie's (June 23, 2009) or even longer, if they wish. Both would be fine with us. We are enjoying our work there and hope we are making a difference.

Warm regards,
Keith



-----Original Message-----From: Morgan W Parry
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 12:33 PMTo: 'Keith Thomas'Subject: RE: Church Service Mission Call

Although certainly not my call, I would bet you could extend as long as you want. They would probably even let you show up in a wheel chair.

Morgan

Why I Love Father's Day!

Sadie's Cold?

Hmmm, I'm not sure if the following comments belong in a blog or not. Oh well, here they are anyway.

I think I picked up a cold while in California last weekend. Sadie wasn't feeling 100 percent and I may have contracted it from her. I'm trying to stay close to home so I don't have the same experience as last time.

This past week I have been helping the mission office just about every day (working around my service in the Humanitarian Service Room) with a new internet-based referral program and had planned to go out there this morning to make sure the secretary was doing everything correctly. Last night was not a good night so this morning I decided to not go and stayed in bed. Then around 9:00 a.m. I remembered that I had told an Eagle Scout candidate that I would meet him at 10:00 at the mission office to review and sign his Eagle project workbook. Since I didn't have the kid's phone number, I showered and headed out. No sooner had I arrived than the kid's mother called and said he wouldn't be able to get there until about 11:30! Argggh. I told her that she would have to bring him by the house since I wasn't going to hang around and pass along my cold to everyone else in the office. They did arrive around 11:45 and I reviewed and signed the workbook.

Salt Lake is using our mission as a "beta" site for the new referral system so I have been giving them tons of feedback about bugs and needed improvements. Eventually the system will be used around the world.

So, I am back home and trying to stay in bed. I was not terribly thrilled to get the cold because tonight is our annual Father/Sons campout in Lovell Canyon and I was looking forward to going.

Sherrie is headed to Toquerville tomorrow morning to spend some time with her mom and then they are going to go up to Provo for a few days.

I plan on doing absolutely nothing...except for the inevitable coughing, sneezing, headaches, and all other things thereto associated. :)

Well, it is lunch time and Sherrie is bringing me a Big Mac.

Memorial Day Weekend at Jennie's

Sherrie and I headed to Jennie's on Friday morning for the Memorial Day weekend. Josh and his family had arrived Thursday night. We enjoyed the rest of the day at Jennie's watching the kids and later playing "Sequence" and Canasta. We were going to go to the Dodgers' game but it was too cold and blustery to spend any time outdoors.
Josh's birthday was last week (the 18th) so we had a little celebration and a little cake.
Saturday morning started with our usual trip to Whole Foods for muffins, croissants, etc. On the way back to the house, Romy and Cora were running down the sidewalk and Romy tried to keep up. She took a tumble and scraped her knees (hence the picture of her knees...it made her feel better.) Sherrie and I and Josh and Zully took the little girls and we headed to the mall while Tyler was having his birthday party with the kids from his school class. We had some lunch and the girls played in the play area while Josh and Sherrie were enjoying a massage.
Later in the afternoon, Josh had to show everybody the "Mentos/Diet Coke" trick. Worked great. He was able to cap one and threw it into the street. It didn't go off so he kicked it. It still didn't go off. He picked it up and threw it over his head as high as he could. When it came back down and hit the street, it exploded, blowing off the cap and shooting the bottle down the street like a mini-missile. Then he did one with all the kids dropping a Mento into a bottle at the same time...well, almost at the same time. The geyser shot about 5 feet high and splashed a little on the kids...which didn't make Sophia very happy. Check out the movies of the "street" explosion and the "group" explosion. Later Josh's family headed to Zully's sister for the rest of the weekend.
Sadie woke up Sunday morning not feeling very well as you can surmise from the pictures. Sherrie and I went to Sacrament Meeting at the Sherman Oaks ward on Burbank Boulevard then headed back to Jennie's.and took Tyler and Sadie to lunch at McDonald's (sorry Rachel) and then we spent some time at the Burbank Mall.
We mostly relaxed the rest of the day and then Eric ordered Indian food for dinner. Yes, I even ate some of it and it was actually pretty good.
We headed back to Las Vegas around noon on Monday and didn't have any traffic problems at all. The traffic was fairly heavy on the southbound side.

Click here for the pictures or go to ethomasfamily.com and click on the link on the left.