Easy Boredom Buster

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.

Not All Seminary Videos Are Boring

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.

Into the Archives-26

8/25/2011

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.

And this is the whole Webster clan!

Into the Archives-25

8/18/2011

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).

Into the Archives-24

8/11/2011

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.)

Last Minute Overnight Road Trip

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!

Oh great times.

Into the Archives-23

8/4/2011

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.

Famous Art

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

Into the Archives-22

7/28/2011

November 2003 I lost my first tooth!

I had a special case to put the tooth in and the next morning there were a few quarters that had replaced it!

By the time I was loosing my molars I just wanted to finish the process. Loosing teeth just became a pain. Literally. Thankfully that's over now!

Into the Archives-21

7/21/2011

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.

-Valerie Dupont

Into the Archives-20

7/14/2011

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!

School Buses Can Get Old. Fast.

So the topic of this post is about school buses! Yay!
Yeah. No not really. But this does involve a few buses eventually.

So this years youth conference was a little different than last year's. Last year I was dressed up like someone from 200 years ago and sweating unbelievable amounts of moisture. I was sleeping in a tent and being eaten alive by huge bugs. Good grief I loved it! (Well not the bugs that were twice the size as the ones in Missouri. I had no idea that just one state away the bugs could get that much bigger. You should have seen the ticks!) I was probably the only one that did besides my friend Shelbe who also wouldn't mind going on a trek every year with me. To top it off we had charter buses to Nebraska and back! We were livin' the life. (If you didn't see that post you can see it here.)

This year was a lot softer. Besides the school buses...oh wait I wasn't going to talk about that yet.

So starting at 11:40AM I got to the stake center Thursday morning. Registration started at 12 but I had to check-in early to work on a skit I was in. We had only gotten together as a group of 6 youth once to work on this skit but it went pretty well. We were going to act out the rules so everyone knew them. We decided to ask a few people during registration to help us with the skit and do a little improv. There were four scenes and 1 or 2 of us were in charge of each. The first scene was about "Registration", second was the "service project", the third I was in charge of and it was about the "host home", and the last was a dance. So after registration we headed to the gym and this is how it went:

So after that we did group games the rest of the afternoon. We were split up into small groups and the chaperones were each given a game to teach to each group. Then we went outside and did some games with everyone. Talk about crazy! A few hundred youth playing a game like Dragons is quite amazing. Or insane.
Then we went back inside and did a trust/faith exercise. You'd need that to fall off the stage...

At 5 we went back outside and had  hamburgers and hotdogs.

(Random fact: the one in yellow is Shelbe my trekking buddy.)

 Then we sat around until the dance that started at 6.

 You will notice that the majority of the pictures were taken during down time. So I am posting a bunch of pointless pictures because that's all I really have.

So we danced for three hours and then packed all our luggage into our chaperones car and headed to our host home. I had 5 roommates and we were all sleeping in this little girls room. Guess who got the bed? Me. Hence the reason I was asleep before everyone else. In fact they woke me up because they were laughing so loud. If I had been on the floor I probably would be awake all night too.

The next morning we woke bright and early at 5:15 to a siren of a blaring alarm clock. We all practically jumped out of our skin! It was on the nightstand right next to my ear so I was quite awake. After getting dressed we quickly ate breakfast because we had to get to the stake center by 6.

Now I can talk about buses. School buses. They are defiantly not the charter buses we had last year. And we had to drive the total of about 6 hours today. Well we were split up into one of the four buses. None of the girls in my ward were on mine. I don't know how that happened but we weren't aloud to trade buses. The bus you were assigned to then was the one you were on the rest of the time.

So after getting situated we were off the Joplin, Missouri. You probably have seen and heard a lot about the May 2011 tornadoes in Joplin. Well we were privileged to go and help in a small way for our service project.

So this 3 hour trip gave us plenty of time to...uh...do nothing. And that's where my camera comes in. Everyone played with it and took pictures of other people sleeping. So basically most of the pictures on my camera right now were not taken by me. The majority of them are from the bus trip.

When we got to Joplin this is what we saw:

 The original Home Depot was completely gone. Now it is just a huge tent.

 Trees were ripped out of the ground or stripped of all their leafs.

 You could see right into the Joplin High School. There were still books on the shelves. On the schools sign the letters of "Joplin" had been ripped off. Except for the O and P. So someone had added a H and a E. The sign now reads "Hope High School". I didn't actually take a picture of it but I found this one:

 Just desolation everywhere. And this was 3 months later...

After a tour around town we went to a clothing distribution area. Some people sorted the donated clothing and toys while others shelved them.

 My wards girls...

 ...and boys. (there are a few missing from this picture.)

I handed over my camera to a chaperone from my ward to take pictures. She got a good variety lots of people.

 That's my chaperone and two of my roommates.

After a couple hours we stopped for lunch. Subway!

After lunch we had a devotional. It was a very special one because the woman who gave it had been in the Joplin Stake Center as the tornado tore up the building. The only room that was even barely left was the restroom. The room that she and a few other people were in. They all survived and walked away with only a few minor wounds. Across the street at another church no one had survived. Another amazing story was that the High School graduation was that night and had for some reason been moved to the university across town. If they hadn't done that thousands more people would have died.

(This is sister Falls who gave the devo.)

After thee devo we got back to work for another two hours.

Oh yeah. You probably noticed the bright green shirts we were wearing. They had all the key words in the 13th Article of Faith on the back. I really like them!

After a total of four hours we were done. That's when we found out we had done a weeks worth of work in that short time. It was such a great feeling!

Then we made our trip back. Now you can see the multitudes of "sleeping pictures".

One time my friend Carol asked for my camera and when she gave it back I had this video on my camera. After that we had a good laugh as we watched it over and over. I don't know how you stay asleep when your head is all over the place.

 There were a few girls that slept in a dog pile. It was pretty amusing.

I only dozed but Carol managed to put the camera in front of my face once without me noticing.

When we got back we had an hour at our host home to shower and get de-sweatied. We had to be back to the stake center for dinner soon. We were a bit late but there was still hardly anyone there yet. So it was nice. There was never a line because people just trickled in the whole time. And because it was so late our dance was short. Only and hour and a half. But I guess its better than nothing.

The next morning we were able to sleep in for forever compared to the day before. We didn't eat until 8!
At 9 we were boarding our bus yet again. Though we only had 3 buses this time so everyone from bus 4 was split up between the others. So 2 of the girls from my ward was in my bus. But I didn't see them much because they were all the way in the back. This ride was much shorter. We were only going up to our almost finished temple that is about 45 minutes away.

 But there was still plenty of time for pictures!

Um hi! I mean I wasn't hyper or anything...

When we got there we sat around the pond behind the temple and had another devotional by our area CES representative about the temple and then the chaperones had an opportunity to bear their testimonies. Afterwords we had about 20 minutes to go off and ponder. The girls in my ward found a tiny bit of shade (the trees in the area are really small right now. They have just been planed in the last few months.) and we just stayed there until we got back on the buses for the last time.

When we got back we had pizza and then had free time at our host homes. We were going to go swimming at the neighborhood pool but then decided it was too much work and it would be kinda weird to wear our clothes (because we didn't bring swimsuits) so we just lazed around until we had to leave.

Back at the stake center we ate dinner and had a testimony meeting. And yes I did eventually get up there. In fact almost everyone from my ward got up. Then we had refreshments. And went home. It was really short. I wouldn't have minded another day. That is one difference from last year. I was glad I didn't have to do the trek for 3 days. I don't know if I would have survived very well.

Anyway. To end with a comment on buses. I'm glad I don't have to ride on one every day. Just saying.