6/21/17 Family Temple Trip

Today we had a special treat, a family trip to the Temple. We owe Gram Connelly once again for doing the family history work. We did Baptisms and confirmations for 18 people. David, Stephanie, James and Becca B did Baptisms and confirmations. Chris and Melissa felt uncomfortable being baptized so they did confirmations for Temple names. All in all it was a special event. James was baptized and confirmed for Martin Connelly. Martin is my grandfather's grandfather on my Dad's side.

Rebecca Noelani responsibly babysat the younger kids. Here she is trying out one of her birthday gifts, Mater (from Cars) buck teeth lollipop. She is a huge help taking care of her younger siblings.

Today was our last chance to visit with the Freeman clan. Kids watched movies and played games. The older kids and some of the adults played Settlers of Zarahemla. Kelly prepared corn dogs based on Gram's recipe. They turned out fantastic. We even went for a late night swim. I was so tired I pretty much fell asleep during scripture study.

Peter found these sunglasses and thought he was so cool wearing them.

6/20/17 Birthday Celebration

Today was full of family bonding. Here is Sarah wearing her cousin Melissa's sun glasses and having a good time.

Here is a 4 shot showing Melissa, David, Sarah and TJ. The cousins all seemed to have fun playing together.

Joseph loves to warm up after a swim by lying on the toasty deck. Heidi suggested swimming early today so we avoided the hottest part of the day.

Rebecca had fun helping Peter with his favorite pool activity, dumping the watering cans into the pool.

Becca B enjoyed her new birthday goggles.

After the swim it was time for the movie. The theater near us has giant, rumbling recliner seats. The kids all had fun seeing Cars 3. This film gets the record as the first movie all 6 of our kids sat through the whole time. Usually Heidi ends up in the hall with a fussy child. Not today.

After the movie we posed for a group shot by the giant movie poster.

After the movie Heidi put the finishing touches on the rainbow cake.

Here are the four girls whose birthdays we celebrated today: (l to r) Becca B, Stephanie, Rebecca and Melissa.

Look at Becca B's happy face. Her birthday is one of her favorite days of the year.

6/19/17 Party Prep and Father's Day Gifts

Yesterday, when we made our plan for the week, today was set apart for party prep. Becca B requested a Bambi cake. Heidi and Kelly created a plan and worked to make it happen.

They baked brownies with the help of Stephanie, Melissa, Rebecca and Sarah. The tricky part was transferring it to the aluminum foil and green paper tray.

Heidi printed and colored a picture of Bambi for the head. The brownies became the body.

Kelly cut out the Bambi picture. Stephanie and many of the other kids did Bambi themed coloring pages that Heidi printed out.

Later on Papa remembered that they had a Father's Day gift for me. It was this movie clacker wall hook. They felt it would go well in our theater room. I found a hook downstairs and it does fit in very well with the movie motif.

Heidi then remembered that some of the kids made me Father's Day cards at Humanitarian. It felt good to be remembered by my loving family. The cards were from Rebecca, Sarah, TJ and Joseph.

6/18/17 Take Conference and Freeman Visit Continues

Our main session of Stake Conference was at the Inter-Stake Center. It is a huge facility that can acccomodate a whole stake at once. Heidi brought our kids plus Kelly and her children in our big van. Gram and Papa came in their car and they all sat together. The report is that Peter let her sit the whole time. Pretty amazing for a two hour meeting.

I sat in the technical director chair in the control room. I did get to see the family through one of the remote controlled cameras. It was pretty exciting to TD a four camera show complete with lower thirds, lyrics and picture in picture for the choir director. My brain was pretty fried from the extended concentration by the end. Still, in spite of feeling drained it was a good experience. I feel like Heavenly Father needs me to get better at doing that skill. It was a blessing to work with such a talented crew. We couldn't have had such a successful broadcast without the great team that has been assembled.

After conference we made our way home. The kids played board games. Here are Joseph, TJ, Rebecca and James playing Clue.

Peter and Chris played with some Disney character on a map. They had fun together.

Melissa and Sarah enjoyed playing Battleship .

Later on, while the grown ups visited upstairs, the kids gathered around Melissa's tablet to watch an episode of Disney's Lion Guard TV show. We thought it was ironic that they had the option of a giant screen yet elected an 8 inch one.

James has earned a new buddy. TJ loves spending time with his older cousin. James has been loving and kind to TJ. It's wonderful to see them getting along so well.

6/17/17 Stake Conference and Freeman Visit Begins

This morning at 8 I reported for service at the Inter Stake Center. I met Clyde Ransom and he showed me how to set up the cameras and projectors for tomorrow's main session of conference. President Rondall Jones gave me a ride home around lunchtime. After lunch I caught up with Richard and Kevin at the Stake Center to help with set up there. We got done in time that I could go home for a few minutes before the leadership session. When I got back I met Ray Wall who is the main tech over that building. I also met several other people most of whose names have completely flown my mind. Interestingly I learned that three other people involved in tech served missions in Aargentina. There also seem to be a large number of accountants in the Stake.
After the Leadership Session I went home for dinner. Heidi joined me for the Adult Session. She joined me in the control room. During the session one of the crew members was exceedingly chatty. Heidi helped distract him from talking to me so that I could better concentrate on getting the videos to play at the appropriate times. The broadcast went ok but it could have gone better. A couple of videos played without having the sound up at first, the projector was right in the speaker's face and the Spanish overflow room didn't have sound at first. These all seem like fixable issues. The crew is very friendly but doesn't seem to work exactly as a cohesive unit. It's more like a group of experts who happen to be working on a similar project at the same time. Super smart guys. In many ways I'm very impressed. I hope that with this much talent and quality gear we can do better in the future.
While I spent the day at Stake Conference Kelly and her kids trekked to visit us. Heidi took the kids and picked apples at the Taylor's house. She also took Gram and Papa to check out a pool lift and they ordered one. Pretty exciting. About the time Heidi and I finished cleaning up from Conference Kelly, Stephanie, Christopher, Melissa and James arrived. Rycharn had to stay and work. We wish he could be here and we are excited to see everyone who came. We had bedtime prayer with Gram and Papa and hit the hay. Another busy day tomorrow.

6/16/17 Furniture Shopping

This morning I went furniture shopping with Gram, Papa, Becca B and Heidi. In this picture Gram is trying out a stair lift.

We spent most of our time at Ashley's Furniture store trying out couches, love seats and recliners. Heidi took my picture while I took pictures for Papa. Gram's cool hat is in the foreground. She got a compliment on her hat from Allie the sales person.

Papa decided that this recliner best suited his requirements.
The most challenging part was trying to find a set of three that fit the room. As it turned out our measurement we brought with us was off by 30 inches (124 instead of 154). It wasn't until we'd been at it a long time that Papa suggested we go back to where we started. He asked a question that prompted us to measure the couch and loveseat together. That was when we realized that our measurement had to be off. Luckily David and Rebecca were home. They used a measuring tape and remeasured the room. They found the extra 30 inches and that made a huge difference. Suddenly Gram and Papa's preferred furniture just fit instead of being too big. It was a great blessing to have a good team and people in the right places.

This evening Heather and Doug came over with Lauren and Bradley. Heather did training on her new calling with Heidi. She is taking over Heidi's last calling. The kids and I went swimming. It was Bradley's first time trying out our slide. Doug didn't swim but he and I had a good visit.

6/15/17 Valiant House Warming

This morning Heidi took the kids to Humanitarian while I finished my last 3 CPE credits for this two year cycle. That was a huge relief. It always feels tough finding the time to sit down for a class. Having a set schedule and treating it like a client has helped.
When Heidi and the kids got back it was time to get cleaning. We found the above picture of David while cleaning the office. I think it's from his first year of school. We've been working at it but there was still a lot to do to get ready to have company tonight. The house looks and feels much better now.

This evening was our Valiant and Friends house warming party. Michael Hallsted and his wife Jessica came with their kids Allison, Andrew and Amy. You can see Joseph talking to his mom, Peter on the step. TJ is wearing his new goggles that Papa bought him for helping work on a project.

Sarah, Rebecca and David had fun with our guests.
Sal and Ange came a little bit later on. They are celebrating their anniversary so we were pleased that they chose to spend part of it with us. Overall it was a fun party. We had fun visiting with the grown ups and the kids had fun with the kids. Maybe, in the future, we'll start a little sooner so we don't end so late. It was after 10 by the time we got the kids to bed.