In seminary this year we are learning about the Old Testament. Currently we are talking about Moses and the whole plague thing. The other day Brother Norton had all of us split up into small groups of 3 or 4 and fill out a paper about the 9 plagues (it didn't include the last one about dieing firstborns) and also draw our "favorite" plague. When our team figured out that our favorite plague (if you think about it, that really is a hard decision seeing as we wouldn't want to go through any of them) and I volunteered to draw. We decided on the frog plague.
2 And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:
3 And
the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and
come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and
into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine
ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs:
4 And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.
5 And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.
6 And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.
My drawing became the laughing matter of the day. I could hardly finish it because we were laughing so hard. A bit dorky eh?
I love it when little kids tell stories. Well OK so who doesn't? Kid History anyone?!? Ta-da! You are in luck. I found these cute videos about kids and their scripture stories. There are many, many great little Sunday videos out there. I'm just getting started! Not that you need to watch anymore TV today. That many hours of General Conference can be tiring. No matter. You should watch these anyway.
Marie is dad's grandma on his fathers side. This must be the reason why so many people are scared of family history research. It gets really confusing! But it is also very interesting how we are all connected somehow or another.
So. I have to say I don't very much enjoy joint activities (church youth activity with all young men and young women). Let's just say there isn't many activities you can do with all the youth 12-18 and please everybody. There is always someone who would rather not be there (I'm not saying I've never been that person). But every once in a while inspiration comes.
Earlier this year some of the youth that were new in the ward (because of the ward boundary change) mentioned a joint activity that everyone had enjoyed in their previous ward. In fact they had done it a couple times because it was such a hit. We put it on the list of activities to do this year. And finally a couple week's ago it all came into play.
Have you ever read...er...looked at (?) the Where is Waldo books? You've probably at least heard of them. But wait. Have you ever played it? In real life? Oh well you should try it sometime.
All you need is a mall, a few "Waldos" (although I wouldn't recommend the normal red and white attire. That would be to easy to spot in a mall.) and bit of planning and off you go!
It would have been cool if each team (there was between 8 and 10 teams I think) had a camera so you could see everyone's reactions but I was the only one that got footage of the adventure with my team of 6. Next time I'll see what I can do.
If you would like to see the complete instructions I found this website that has them written out much better than I ever could have attempted. http://goforwardwithfaith.blogspot.com/2010/09/wheres-waldo.html
And another note. I would contact the mall beforehand. The mall security was a little worried at first. :)
Just another normal breakfast in the Webster household. (2004)
While peacefully eating my breakfast my little brother decides that it is much too peaceful for his taste. He then proceeds to blow a whistle in my ear. Who knows what happens after that.*
“They say that not matter how old you become, when you are with your siblings, you revert back to childhood." ~Karen White
*This is just my interpretation. This might not be exactly what occurred.
While visiting family in Utah, Summer 2009, Nana (moms mom) helped my cousin Lexi and I make aprons. Nana took us to the store where we chose our fabric and then she taught us how to use her sewing machines.
Thanks Nana!
Currently my apron is still going strong and is well used. Like...basically every day. Love it!!!
This was back when I had those few years of being the only child so mom & I went with dad on a lot of his show tours. Here is a slideshow of me touring the East coast (more or less) in 1998. Note: I would make sure the captions are on because they have notes of dates and places etc. Anything with quotations are exactly what my mom wrote on the back of the original prints. (with the exception of my name) Also the pictures are probably not quite in order but I did the best I could.
I have no idea when and why this was taken but I don't really care. I think its just a funny and cute picture of dinner with me and my two brothers and that little boy in the front right corner. We can't figure out who he is. Awkward. Well I'll let you know if I ever figure it out.
My cousin* Anna (who lives in my ward) and I were board the other day. So we did a little brainstorming. I had a video camera and she had a mic, a kitchen and random food items. This is what we came up with:
*Well more like a second or distant cousin or something like that...I can never remember.
Most videos played in seminary are...well pretty boring. And old. Way. Too. Old. Hopefully they fix that soon. But thankfully I found that the boring part is not completely true. I, along with the rest of my classmates, were pleasantly surprised when out teacher showed us this one on Friday. It's still old but that makes it even funnier.
When I came home I promptly favorited it on YouTube and showed my family.
July 2008 we went to Minnesota for my cousin Ashli's baptism. We spent most of our time at their grandparents cabin's that are right on lake McKenzie. The baptism was done in the lake because the font in the church building was broken. We were there for the 4th of July which was so fun because we went to another lake that had a beach and watched all the fireworks that were everywhere.
The best part of going to the lake is going tubing. It's like going on a roller coaster except on water...and you can fall off. You have to hold on for dear life so after a day on the lake my arms were very sore.
This trip I remember like it was yesterday. OK not quite but it was one of the most memorable for me so far.
Summer of 2007 we drove out to Utah for my cousin Andrew's wedding. After which we flew over to San Diego, CA for dad's business trip. We stayed on a resort and everything! (Paradise Point) It's one of the most gorgeous places I've ever been to.
When we first got to CA we stopped at the temple. I decided then that it was on my top 3 favorite temples list. I mean look at that! Beau-ti-ful. It looks like a castle out of a fairytale.
Then we stopped at uncle Val and Aunt Virginia's who are dads aunt and uncle. But all us kids really wanted to do was go see the resort! Well we got there eventually. We had a great week. There was the catered food for breakfast on the boardwalk & lawn and lunch beside the conference building, the pool, the pretty plants and the little stream out the back window and the beach...we were in the bay so the waves weren't quite the same as the real thing...but we searched for shells and had long jump contests in the sand. Our bungalow had two rooms. One for parents, one for kids. Great fun! While dad was at meetings we roamed around the resort or played in our room and when he came back we went to dinner.
One evening we went to the resorts outdoor restaurant. It was much like dinner and a show because of all the wild birds. As we ate the waiters sprayed the brave birds that came too close with a little spray bottle to keep them at bay. They got pretty close. You can't blame them. We had food and they didn't. As we got up one bird hopped up onto a chair ready to eat. Too bad there wasn't any food left for him.
This trip was probably the funnest I've ever been on. Although I love the mid-west, California might be runners up to where I possibly would like to live (if you take the living costs out of the picture etc).
Summer of 2004 my dad was working on a show in Dallas Texas so we spent some time there. Here are the few pictures from the trip.
We went to a restaurant called Big Texan. And hey! There might have been a few big thing! Like this rocking chair that can hold a whole family.
Yup that's me right there in the middle! (I added the red arrow.)
We visited my moms friend a lot and sometimes stayed over night. I don't remember much of this trip but this is actually what I remember the most. I remember playing upstairs in the play room and swimming in the pool in the back yard. Here we are sitting on the stairs ready for church! (Or maybe it was after church. I don't know.)
But then there was a lot of driving. Thankfully we had a nice roomy van. (Faithful Van R.I.P 2001-2009. It died on a road trip. I'll tell that story later.)
I found out that the KC 3rd ward girls were going on an overnight trip to Nauvoo
only a few days before the trip. But I still really wanted to go. So I
called and asked. The answer was yes except for one thing. There weren't
any seats left in any of the cars. So I was put on the waiting list
just in case someone decided that they couldn't go. It wasn't until the
night before that I got a call saying I could go.
So next morning I was in the church parking lot at 6. I was put in the car (er truck) with only 3 seats in the back. So I got to sit with my friends Meagan and Laura all the way there. Brother Stephens (the driver) became everybody's best friend when he let us use his iPads. (Sample in the video below...um way below)
When we got to Nauvoo (about 5 hours away) we stopped at the
Pioneer Pastimes park for lunch and tried walking on stilts, stick pull
(I found out I wasn't too good at it), and bear puppet races or whatever
they are called.
Then we headed over to the visitor center. Everyone signed up for a wagon tour of the town. We all went up and petted the pretty horses before we went on the ride. It was so slow and peaceful I could have fallen asleep.
After the ride the bishop and his family, Laura and I want to the show "High Hopes and River Boats" inside the visitor center. Everyone else went site seeing. The show was pretty funny and I wondered why more people hadn't stayed to watch it. When the show show was over the bishops family disappeared. Laura and I couldn't find anyone. So we sat in the lobby area for a while waiting for everyone to come back. We had no idea where they could be and when the meet up time was so I didn't feel like we should leave. Bad idea. I didn't see any of the sites apart from what I saw from the wagon ride. It wasn't that big of a deal because I've already seen a few of them before but I was still a little bummed. Well anyway, while sitting there the actors from the show came out and sang a couple songs a-capella and we enjoyed it because we weren't doing much else.
Finally a few people we knew came into view. After regrouping everyone headed over to a park for dinner. This whole hoard of carzy teen-aged girls took over the playground. Sometimes its fun to play like kids again.
All any of us really wanted to do was go swimming and take a shower because it was so hot and humid. But with some persuasion the leaders got all of us to one last show called "Sunset on the Mississippi" which is more like a variety show than anything.
Turns out it was fun. When we got there the band was playing and we got up and danced and sang and made fools of ourselves because we were so hyper by then.
This act caught our eye before it had even started. Some of those mustaches were pretty funny looking!
It was a very informal show. Like I said we were pretty crazy. We would make comments on each performance out loud (all nice ones of course). In the below picture the cast was waving so I waved back.
Here is a little overview of what the day looked like. From the car ride to the last show. It kind of skips dinner because I didn't get any footage of that but I guess that's OK.
So finally we got to our hotel and dragged all our stuff in. Then everyone quickly got on their swimsuits. Unfortunately I had no idea that we'd be swimming so I just had to go in clothes. I was so grateful that I had brought extras. When we got back there was the excitement of figuring out where everyone was sleeping. Fitting 14 girls in a 3 bedroom suit is tricky but not impossible. Somehow everyone got a bed to sleep on. And even more amazing I didn't have to share a bed. And the whole time I had been worried that I would have to sleep on the floor.
The next morning I got up early hoping that I might be able to go see something to make up for the previous day of not seeing anything. Unfortunately for me I couldn't find anyone to go with in time before we had to start getting ready to go to the temple.
And one thing I'm grateful for is that at least I got to go to the temple since that is the greatest site of them all. Its such a beautiful place. And even though its only been rebuilt for a few years you can still feel the history inside it. If the pioneers would have built castles this is what they would have looked like. In fact they did build some. And yes. This is what one of them looked like.
After that amazing experience was lunch which we ate at yet another park across the street. During lunch I got my traveling buddies to help me with this skit. Its short and kinda weird but it was all I could come up with.
Yeah anyway I really wish I had come up with more than that...but what ever.
Alright after lunch was load up time. Long story short my friend Emily got left behind by her group. I had traded cars earlier and was now in a suburban with the bishops family so it was a little bigger which meant that we got to squish her into in with us. Yup I had great traveling buddies! Not only 3 of my firends but also these cute little kiddos.
The little guy (well I should probably call him a big guy or else he will be after me for life) didn't really like me for reasons unknown to me and I gave him a hard time about it all the way home. But the little girl is my new best friend. She is so adorable!
My mom used to give piano and/or violin lessons every week to a few kids (and I always wondered why I had to be one of them). About once a year she would have a recital so we could show off what we had learned. I personally like just listening to everybody else but I would always nervously get up and play my simple little song on the piano. It's funny because I still hate to play in front of anyone. But I haven't had lessons since I was about 12. And to tell you the truth I'm kind of glad that my mom had me stick with it that long because now I can play a lot of things if I put my mind to it.
For the last few months our local art museum has had a special exhibit. The 3 canvases of the famous painting "Water Lilies" by Claude Monet have been brought together. They have been separated in three different museums for many years. Our museum, The Nelson-Atkins Museum, owns one canvas. The Saint Louis Art Museum & The Cleveland Museum of Art own the other two. They will tour the other two museums and then each museum will get their canvas back.
We had the opportunity to go and see them last Thursday. They were huge! To see the original of a famous painting is really interesting.
In the next room was a lot of information about the painting and Monet. There were a few touch screen computers that you could try to "paint" like Monet. This was my attempt:
Unfortunately I was one of the last ones that got to try the program so I was being hurried because the little kids were getting squirmy.
This is a link to the online gallery so you can see more pictures that were done by other people: http://www.nelson-atkins.org/monetCreate/art/view.php?k=4e31dba44c1ff
So I have put a whole lot of family pictures up for ITA and I definitely want to do more action shots but here is another family picture anyway. It was when TPW was only 2 months old (Sept 2005). I was still surrounded by only brothers and I guess by looking at this picture that didn't bother me much.
I see a brother and sister,
sitting over there together,
fighting over a toy,
they just can't seem to see,
their love shining through,
with every smile that they bring.
In 1999 it was announced that the Nauvoo Temple was to be reconstructed. It was finished summer of 2002. We were able to be there for a couple days for the open house.
I was too young to actually understand how significant this really was but I still knew this temple was important and I was proud to be a small part of this historic occasion. It was the first open house I had been to so I was really excited to be able to go into a temple for the first time. Our cousin Cher was even able to come with us.
Since then I've been to one other open house at the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple. (I've been in two others to do baptisms.) Now we are just waiting for the KC Temple to be finished! Its scheduled for spring 2012 and I can't wait!
