My Sister is a ROCKSTAR!!!

I think I'm trying to make up for lost time, cause this is my third post in one day.
On Saturday night Danny and I went to the East High Madrigals Concert, and let me just say that it was great! They did some really fun and neat songs. Sarah played the guitar for a couple of songs and even learne how to play the BASS to accompany Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. She was jammin out! Tom's reaction was the best. We told him in an email and this is how he responded:
"well, how was wawa biffs concert? did she play that Bass well? ha ha, i can just imagine sarah painting her nails black, dyeing her hair black, and putting on thick black mascara, and playing the Bass in a Heavy Metal Screemo band. ha ha ha."
She didnt have black fingernails or hair, but she did a great job! She has a lot of guts (as was shown in her awesome duet with Jim), lots of guitar skills and a beautiful voice! (note: this isn't at her concert. I don't have one of her at her concert... this one was at Char's wedding a year and a half ago... but it was the first one I found of us)We're excited for her to try out with the U's choirs next year so we can go hear more of her!!! Go Biff!

Hi Tom!

My mom had heard rumors of a Salt Lake City School District van with my brother's picture on the back of it, and has been on the look out. She saw the side of a van as she was driving along and got over and behind it to see if it was the one with Tom. It wasn't, but she followed it, figuring it would lead her to the others. Sure enough it did! She jumped out and took this picture. Tom has been in Brazil on his mission for almost a year and a half now so it's a nice surprise to see him in the street!

Best Vacation EVER!!!!!

For Memorial Weekend we joined my parents and 2 younger siblings and went up to Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. You know those vacations where everything that could go wrong does go wrong? That sentence describes our vacation perfectly. But it was also one of the funniest and most memorable vacations we've experienced yet!

We left Friday afternoon with the plan of meeting up with my sister and her husband who were driving down from Pocatello for the evening to have dinner with us. We got there and my Dad went in to get the keys to our rooms. We decided to unpack later and drove down the street to find Char and Jeff at the pizza place we usually eat at when we go (not that we go that often... we just eat there every time we do go). The first major part of the adventure started as we drove down the hill behind the hotel to our motel rooms (it was a hotel and a motel). We pull up and notice that a fire alarm is blaring somewhere, and as my dad opens door number one, hot steam bursted out. From where we were standing it looked like smoke so we all thought it was a fire. That is .... we thought it was a fire until we saw the river of water come flowing out.

The note on the door says that they were having problems with a water pipe, so the water would be shut off from 5:30 to 6:30. It was 8:30 when we opened the door. But apparently the problem hadn't been fixed yet...


So then we opened door number 2 right next to it.

The first time we looked in the bathroom the tile that is on the floor in the left picture above was still intact, but was drooping down because it was so full of water. Then, as you see in the otherpicture, that ceiling panal was not the only thing to fall! The bathroom was destroyed...

Back to the first room...

Everything was SOAKED with scalding hot water. The floor was completely flooded and water was constantly splashing down from the pipes above the bathroom...
This video is for Ted. Just a demonstration of how much water there was in the room.

We enjoyed the lovely scenery behind us as we waited to figure everything out.
My dad went up to the front desk three times before anything happened. They just kept telling him that they'd called maintenance. Besides the scenery we watched the river coming out of the rooms we were supposedly supposed to sleep in that night. When they said "Hot Mineral Baths" we didn't think they literally meant in our rooms!

We decided to drive up to Pocatello for the night (there weren't too many other options in Lava Hot Springs). My dad called a couple of hotels to find rooms, but it was memorial weekend. After a couple of overly complicated phone calls my dad tracked down two rooms. Ted and Sarah went to stay with Char and Jeff and the rest of us went to the hotel.

But the adventure doesn't end there... The next morning we all woke up and went to breakfast together before we left Char and Jeff to go swimming. We ate at a great place there in Pocatello. Elmers! Danny's grandpa's name was Elmer, so that was fun. It was really good. I think that if we ever end up living in Pocatello, we'll go there more often.We took off to make the half an hour drive back to Lava, and Char (who makes great mix CD's) handed my dad a "Broken Pipe Mix" in honor of the night before. So we drove to Lava listening to some of my dad's and Char's favorite songs, like "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road." Here are the some of the road blocks we passed on the way. Gotta love Idaho!So this post is getting long, but it's not quite over... We got to Lava and went to the hot springs first, and later went down to the big swimming pool where they had 2 new water slides. After a forty-five minute wait we were three people away from our turn and the pool was closed. The line was stopped completely because in the pool next us a girl jumped off the huge platform, landed wrong and landed herself with a major spinal injury. They had to call an ambulance, but I don't think there are any hospitals in Lava, so it took longer than we expected.

So... after an hour wait, we went down this very exciting waterslide. Needless to say it was a one time thing. We headed to the smaller indoor pool to climb the climbing wall and all that. After a while, and luckily right when we were about to leave it started pouring outside and everyone came running to the indoor pool. We decided to make a run for the car. But it wasn't just raining...giant hail came pelting down. We made a run for the hot pools before we took off, but lightning and thunder convinced us that it was time to go home.

That was the end of our trip. We drove home enjoying Char's Broken Pipe Mix, laughing at all that happened in less than 24 hours. We love Lava Hot Springs!!!

RAIN DANCE!

It's raining! I love it. I stopped by my parents on my way home from work and was watching Monk (Ted's new favorite show. It was my first episode ever) when we heard the thunder! It was POURING. It still is. But Ted and I decided to check it out and it looked like a huge waterfall. SO MUCH WATER! Ted saw his friend outside across the street under her porch so we threw off our shoes and socks, rolled up our pant legs and made a run for it. She was out there with her nieces and nephews doing a rain dance. There was nothing else to do except join in the fun! It has definitely been a long time since I participated in a rain dance. I love listening to the rain and thunder and watching the lightning light up the sky! Sometimes it's just what you need, even if you do get a little soaked...