Halloween!!

Halloween night was great this year.  Riley dressed up as Batman and went Trick or Treating with Sara & Sarah.  They are old enough now that no adults needed to go with them, which was very nice.  We sent their cell phones with them, just in case.  Erika went to a party at the McGriff's house that Heather was putting on.  She was also invited by a friend, Keith, to another party, but she didn't know the persons house, so she chose to just go to Heather's.  Also, her friends, Rachel and Peggy came too.  Brian and Sharri decided to go out to dinner with our neighbors, Rob & Janet.  We went to Goodwood BBQ.  It was so dead at the restaurant, which made it nice for us.  Our waiter dressed up as a waiter from Carrabba's.  We did not dress up today, only on Friday at our work places.  Riley, Sara and Sarah were exchange treats when we came back from eating out.  We just left a bowl of treats outside our doors and left a note that said to take only one.  It was nice not to have to go to the door fifty million times during the night.  If we were to plan it again, we would leave the candy on the front doorstep again.

Halloween at IHS & DTI

As Secretaries at Independence, we decided to all be the same thing this year for Halloween.  Julie bought us all the big binkies and we dress in PJ's with our hair in ponytails and blankets and teddy bears.  It was fun to all be dressed alike.  Julie had on this cute one piece jumpsuit with feet in them, just like we put our kids in when they were little.  It was nice to be able to wear our PJ's and slippers all day.  Thanks Julie and Rozan for the great idea.  Brian's work always dress up in his department.  The gals are always bugging him about what he is going to wear for his costume.  It is always a last minute decision with him, so as we were going through some older costumes, we found Cameron's pioneer trek shirt and hat.  The girls in his department were sure what he was dressed like, but they all thought he was Indiana Jones.  We didn't even thing of that, but whatever works, we think he looked like a pioneer or cowboy.  Here is a picture of his QA team dressed up.  Cortney as the bumble bee, Diana, Brad, Debbie, Michelle and Brian.

PHS Orchestras Fall Concert

We were able to go and see Erika play in the Provo High Orchestra for their Fall Concert.  First, the Concert orchestra played 3 songs, and then the Philharmonic Orchestra played 3 songs.  They played Simple Symphony IV. Frolicsome Finale, Selections from "Les Miserables", and Ghosts of Brandenburg.  The Philharmonic orchestra is a bit small this year.  Apparently, there were many students who graduated last year.  It still sounded great.  Below is a link to the video of  "Les Miserables" selection.  Great Job Erika!

Elder Brown first email from Texas

This week has been great. I am in Texas and and my companion is Elder Moli. He is from West Valley City, Utah. We are both in Arlington Texas and are serving. When I got here I got to meet the mission president and have lunch and a testimony meeting with all 18 of us. Then we all slept in the AP apartments room for that night. The next morning I was assigned Elder Moli as my companion. We went out tracting right as soon as we got to the Apartment. It was great, we found a couple of new investigators on my First Day! I am so happy to be here and I am not used to no mountains yet. I am so disoriented I couldn't tell you which way is North or South, but Elder Moli knows. We have a car and we travel to our appointments in it. We only get to 1,150 miles every month, so we have to watch out and be careful of how far we travel and such. Thursday is my P-Day. I am having a great time here, it is so different, but I am slowly getting used to it.  It is tough, but I am striving to be better every day. Hope all is going well at home. I am sad to see BYU lose, but it is for the conference so we can get BCS recognition. I am only allowed to write letters and write 1 e-mail each Thursday. I cannot do it any other time. You can send me e-mails and letters whenever, but I can only respond on P-Day, which is Thursday. Hope all is going well with cleaning out my room and transforming it to a room for Riley. I will be writing next week. Until then, have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Cameron Brown

Tonight, our ward mutual put on a Halloween Carnival for the Primary children.  They had 6 different booths that the children to rotate around and do.  Erika's class (Laurel's) did the fishing pond, the Mia Maids did face painting and the Beehives did the cake walk.  The Young Men also had booths.  The priests did the donut bobbing, the teachers did the bean bag toss and Riley and the deacons did pumpkin painting.  It was from 6:00 to 7:30 pm.  Erika & Riley had alot of fun helping the children in the many different booths.  All the children were dressed up in costumes, but Erika and Riley chose not to dress up.  Maybe they will on Halloween.

Elder Brown to Fort Worth, Texas

Elder Brown called this morning at 7:00 am and said he was at the airport waiting to fly out to Fort Worth, Texas.  He was so excited and ready to serve for the next 2 years.  He has had a great experience in the MTC for the past 3 weeks and has learned alot.  He did say that he wished he would have studied Preach My Gospel more before he left.  He also said that there were 19 missionaries flying to Dallas/Fort Worth today with him.  Not all of them going to Fort Worth, some of them were going to the Dallas Mission.  He had to wake up at 3 am to get ready and be at the bus at the MTC at 5 am to be transported to the SL Internation Airport.  He arrived in Fort Worth, Texas at 11:15 Utah time, but 12:15 Texas time.  We all were able to talk to him for a few minutes and get some information from him and to hear his voice.  He told us that he was happy and glad that he was going.  He will probably be staying at the Mission President home tonight and get his new assignment tomorrow.  He promised to email us soon when he knew where he would be.  This was also a hard day for Sharri.  That motherly instinct to protect her child came over her and it was hard for her to keep her emotions in check most of the day.  Just thinking about her son going on an airplane all by himself without her to protect and watch over him.  She knows that he is not a little boy anymore, but she is still his mother.  We pray for him daily and he knows that we love him tons and tons.  WE LOVE YOU CAMERON!! (Elder Brown)

Vivace: A Celebration of Utah Valley's Young Musicians

Erika & her friend Katie (and Mom's too), went to the Covey Art Center in Provo, to see a free concert of the top Young Musicians winners from Utah Valley with a variety of instruments.  It was amazing to see all of them perform.  The first performers were a group of Violins & 1 cello playing Cercerto in B minor.  The ages of these kids were from 11 to 6 years old.  They were so cute and really good.  Wonder how long they have been playing, especially the one that was 6 years old.  Then there was a quartet that played two pianos, a Cellist that played, another quartet playing two pianos, a soprano singer that sang in Italian, another quartet playing two pianos, a Double Bass player and a single pianist.  It lasted an hour and a half and was well worth it and the best part is that it was FREE.  Erika & Katie both need a concert report for their school Orchestra, so this gave them a opportunity to get it and had some entertainment too.

Riley - Restaurant Brochure for English

A tribute to Ozzie (Brian Noble)

Today, we received word that Ozzie (Brian Noble) passed away today.  He lived with Sharri's parents when he was 14 years old.  At the time, the church had the Indian Placement Program, and Sharri's parents had already taken in Ozzie's sister, Kelly for 7 years.  Since Kelly had such great success, her mother decided to send Ozzie to have the same opportunities that Kelly had.  He was great to have around.  He always made us laugh and did silly stuff, like dressed up on Halloween as a Cheerleader.  He did not do very well in school in Utah, so he left Utah and went to live back in Zuni, New Mexico, where his mother lived.  We have not kept in contact with him for quite some time.  We knew that he had 3 kids and was not married, and that he had been drinking lot.  His liver failed because of all the drinking and took his life today.  He was 36 years old.  We are sad, but also happy that he doesn't have to suffer any more and that he can be happy without wordly things.  We give our condolenses to Kelly and all her family in New Mexico.  We love you OZZIE!!  (picture to the left taken in 1989)

2nd e-mail from Elder Brown

"The swine flu is going around here at the MTC. We are not allowed to touch anyone. If we get sick we have to be in a room by ourselves with nothing to do but study until we are feeling better. I am not sick however and am doing just fine.  Sunday's are actually my favorite day here at the MTC because we wake up and eat breakfast and then we do about 2 hours of studing whatever we want. Then we have Priesthood Meeting for about 1 hr. Then we have a District Meeting for about 1 hour, where a missionary from our district teaches us. It is so cool. Then we have Sacrament Meeting. It is weird how they do sacrament meeting. We do it as a zone and the zone leader gets to pick who passes and blesses the sacrament. Then 2 of us missionaries are randomly picked to give a 5 minute talk on a subject they give us the sunday before. I haven't been picked yet, but I just know that I will be picked. I do get a small Prep day on monday before I leave. I leave for the airport next tuesday at 5 am in the morning. I will arrive in Texas around 12.  The mail that you have been sending me is great. I am just overwhelmed with stuff to do. I barely have time to get 8 hours of sleep every night. There is just so much to do and I just don't have time for anything else.  I continually pray for you and the whole family.  I am now regretting that I didn't study Preach My Gospel more before I got here. Thanks for all the letters and thinking and praying for me. If you send a letter to the MTC after I leave, they will mail it to me for the first week after I have left, then after that it will just be thrown away, they will not forward it to me in Texas. I want to take lots of pictures, but unfortunately they have requested that we take few pictures while we are on campus. They don't want us to look like we are just doing nothing all day long. I have taken a few pictures at the Temple with all of our district."

Love,
Elder Brown

The 12 hour drive home

We are driving home today.  It is around a 10 hour drive, but we have to stop for lunch, gas, bathroom breaks, etc.  We left Santa Clarita at 9:00 am and headed for Las Vegas.  The kids slept for the first 3 hours and then we stopped in Primm, Nevada for bathroom break.  There is a roller coaster at the Casino in Nevada, and the kids could not resist, but to go on it.  Erika and Rachel were the only ones that went on it.  It is like Goliath at Six Flags.  Rob, Sarah, Riley, Erika & Rachel all went on the log flume ride they have inside the casino.  We were going to stop in Las Vegas for lunch, but we decided since we were already stopped, that we would just have lunch there.  The casino had a mini food court with different varieties of food, so everyone choose something different and ate and we were able to get free ice cream too.  After about an hour and a half, we decided we better get on the road again.  We drove to St. George and stopped to gas up and get some drinks.  We then stopped in Fillmore to dinner at the local Arby's.  We were all tired and a bit silly, but after a half an hour we needed to get home.  We arrived at our homes at around 10:00 pm that evening.  What a long day and drive, but it was good and fun for the kids and the adults too.  We decided that we have had enough of Six Flags for this year and maybe for 5 years.  The kids want to go to either Disneyland or Disneyworld next year during our Spring break time.  Not sure that is going to happen with have a missionary out, but who knows.

2nd day at Six Flags Magic Mountain

We decided to sleep in and go to Six Flags a little bit later.  We stopped at IHOP for breakfast and then went to the park at around 1:00 pm.  The first stop was a water raft ride, like Rattlesnake rapids at Lagoon.  Not having gone on it before, we didn't know how wet we would get.  Sharri and Rob decided not to go, for fear of being wet all day.  They waited by the exit for everyone else and watched as many people came off the ride soaking wet.  When the kids and Brian & Janet came off the ride, they were all soaking wet, except Brian.  Riley, Erika and Sarah had to take their shoes and socks off and ring them out, because they were so wet.  Luckily, that day was very hot around 85 degrees and it didn't take long to get dry again.  There were many people at the park on today, Saturday.  We counted at least 25 charter buses parked in the parking lot.  The Autrey's bought a Flash pass, where you get to go to the front of the line.  This was nice, since the lines were very long and long wait times.  Sharri did not ride any rides today, because she was still not feeling well with the cold she had.  There was a concert that night of a band that played all of Oingo Boingo songs, so Rob, Janet and Sharri decided to go, since all Sharri was doing was sitting around anyways.  Wow, was the music loud and we didn't even know the songs.  Sharri has never left a concert in her life, but after three songs, she was done and went back to meet up with the kids and Brian.  So, not riding any rides and leaving a concert, Sharri told Brian that she is becoming her mother.  Later that night they had a hurst and some dancers on the walkways dancing to Thriller and some other halloween songs.  We left the park around 11:30 pm and walked to our car, since there was a line for the shuttle tram.  It was a fun day for most of us, but we are headed back home tomorrow.

1st day at Six Flags Magic Mountain

We spent the day at Six Flags today.  We arrived at the park at 11:00 am and stayed until 11:00 pm.  There was not alot of people at the park today, so we were able to ride alot of the rides 2 or 3 times in a row without getting off.  It was great to be able to do that.  It was also a very hot and warm day - 95 degrees to be exact.  Rachel has not been to Six Flags before, so we had to ride all of them for her to experience it, including Superman.  During the month of October, Six Flags has a Fright Fest.  Meaning that have 3 haunted mazes, a haunted house, and they turn one of the trains on the big white wooden roller coaster backwards.  At 6:00 pm they turn on the scary music around the park, and then they have people dressed up in scary costumes walking around trying to scare you.  Erika & Rachel did not like this at all.  They were holding each others arms and trying to ignore them.  They also had fog machines going down alot of the walkways that were close to the mazes and the haunted house.  There was one area that they warned parents not to bring kids under 12 too, because of the scare zone.  The weather was nicer when the sun went down.  Riley's friend, Sarah, lost her shoes on the X2 ride.  She didn't have them tied very tight and the last turn that whips you around, made them fly off.  She was not very happy and they never found the shoes, even the next day.  We bought some souveniers and more face cards to play Nertz with.  We heard that Saturdays are really busy for Six Flags, so to plan accordingly.

Drive to Santa Clarita

On Thursday, we drove the rest of the way to Santa Clarita, California.  It took us about 4 hours.  We stayed at the Residence Inn just a couple of minutes away from Six Flags.  We had a two bedroom suite for the 5 of us.  It was nice, because Erika & Rachel had one bedroom with bathroom and Brian & Sharri had the other bedroom with a bathroom.  Riley was in the room in the middle with the kitchen on the sofa bed.  After we settled in, the kids wanted to go swimming at the hotel.  The adults just relaxed and did crossword puzzles and of course, Sharri took pictures of the kids swimming.  The hotel had a free dinner buffet, so we just ate there for dinner.  It was okay food, but not like the other night at the cheesecake factory where they had to roll us out we were so full.  After the kids swam and got dressed, we decided to go to the lobby and play Nertz for a couple of hours.  Of course, Erika and Rachel are so fast, that they won both games. (Note to self, don't play with Erika & Rachel if you want to lose)  We had a good time playing together and then decided that since we had been driving and we needed to get up early to get some free breakfast, that we should all go to bed.  The kids were really excited to go to SIX FLAGS tomorrow!

Vacation - stopped in Las Vegas

As a family, we decided to take a trip to California for fall break.  The kids and Sharri were off from Wednesday until Sunday, so we decided since our Six Flags season passes were still good, that we would go for a couple of days.  Our neighbors, the Autrey's (Rob, Janet and Sarah) came with us last time, so they came with us this time too.  Also, Erika took her friend, Rachel, to be her buddy.  Today, we drove half way and stopped in St. George for lunch at the IN-n-OUT Burgers and then stayed at the Spring Hill Suites Marriot in Henderson, Nevada for the night.  After we checked in to our hotel and rested for a couple of hours, we decided to go to the strip to see a couple of things.  We parked at the Belligio Hotel and walked a couple of blocks to the New York New York Hotel to ride the roller coaster.  It was $14 a person, but we went anyways.  It really was really shaky and whip your head and neck pretty good.  It had an upside down loop in it and a cork screw.  Sharri said if she would have know there was a cork screw, that she might have thought twice about riding it.  Riley and his friend, Sarah, wanted to go again, so Brian and Rob took them to ride it again for half price.  Then we walked across the street to the M & M World store.  There are 4 floors of all kinds of stuff with M & M's on them and in every color you can think of.  We also went next store to the Coca-Cola store and saw all the stuff they had with Coca-Cola on it, including more face cards for Nertz.  We walked back to our car and drove to the Cheesecake Factory and had dinner and of course cheesecake.  We were so full of food and yummy cheesecake we could hardly move.  Las Vegas was fun, but we were off the next day to Santa Clarita, California.

First E-mail from Elder Brown

We received the first e-mail from Cameron today.  We were so excited that he got right on it and set up his e-mail.  We now can communicate with him on the same day.  Here are a few things that he said.

"I am having a awesome time at the MTC. The MTC is a wonderful experience, although it is hard work, it is rewarding hard work. Well, the MTC is so cool. There are many things I wish that I could share with you.  This campus is really big, it is hard to find things. I have found some things, but I haven't found everything yet. They have a set time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and if you don't eat at that time, you don't eat. The eating area is enormous. It is so big that you can fit half of all the missionaries in there at once.  The food is really good. Well, I want to tell all of you that I love you all and that I am having a good time here, although getting up at 6:30 is a challenge. We have 1 hr of GYM time so we can exercise monday-friday. We have devotional's quite a bit here, and sometimes an apostle comes, but probably not while i'm here. Well, I am having a wonderful time here and things are going well. If I could tell you all the things I have been doing here at the MTC, my e-mail would be pages after pages long, but I can't. I can just tell you the basics of what I am doing. Tell everyone that I love them."
Love,
Cameron

Riley Court Of Honor

Riley received 5 merit badges tonight at the ward Court of Honor.  He earned them while he was at scout camp in July this last summer.  The are Rifle Shooting, Leatherworks, Archery, Electronics and Wood Carving.  He also received the patch from the organized scout camp they went to in the Uintahs.  He had the opportunity to required merit badges too, but instead he chose to do all the fun ones, just like his older brother.  Now we need to work on the required ones that he has started and get them finished up and get his Star rank.  Hopefully, as the winter months set in, we will be able to focus more on them.  Great job Riley!!

Sharri and the Cookie on a stick

Last year at Sharri's school, the Assistant Principal, Boyd McAffee gave her a large sucker for saving his butt.  After that Boyd and Sharri have been exchanging the large sucker back and forth all year as a joke.  Sharri was able to get the last laugh and give it to Boyd the last day of school in a frame with all the staff signatures around it.  Well, today Sharri received a large cookie on a stick in district mail from Boyd (who works at Dixon Middle School now) with a post it note attached saying "Gotcha Ya".  The first reaction was "I wonder how old the cookie is?"  Last year, when Boyd gave her the big sucker, he didn't know where it came from and his wife told him to take it to school and get rid of it.  Luckily, for Sharri, she was the winner to receive it.  Then she had one of the students give it to him on one of the Lion's Council overnight campout.  Then his family went to Disneyland and he gave Sharri everyday a different colored sucker that he had purchased there.  Thinking that this joke of passing it back and forth was over when Boyd quit at Independence High School when she gave him the framed sucker, but obviously not.  Sharri and her family are going to Las Vegas and Six Flags Magic Mountain for Fall Break.  We are going to have to get a large sucker or cookie while we are on vacation and send it back to him.  We were thinking of sending it with Riley or another co-workers daughter that go to Dixon Middle School.  Just wait...this is not over like we thought.