Josh's Never Ending 13th Birthday

This is a little late, but how could I pass up reflecting on Joshua's first teenage birthday! Trying to find the time for all the events was a challenge with so many things going on....so we just partied for a week.
Since the parade was the weekend before his birthday we had an afternoon/evening party. Josh invited his 3 closest friends and we went to Portland to an indoor water park. The day was cold and pouring down rain, so they got wet inside instead of out. They had a great time. The last time we brought Josh here for a party a few years ago, he was afraid of the slides and barely put his face in the water. He's made alot of progress this past year in overcoming many fears. I brought the boys home and they ate pizza, played video games, foosball and played the keyboard. By the time Josh got to bed that night he was one tired young man!
His actual birthday was on the following Monday. Since he had a band concert that night, we opened gifts and went to his favorite Mexican restaurant before the concert. We told him stories about how long it took him to be born and how his birthday should have been on the 10th instead of the 11th. He was slow then and boy was that a true of how he is now. We practically need to start waking him up the night before to get him up in time for school. (hee hee)
Well, this being his 13th birthday, we have the tradition of doing up the special book that Debi did for her girls (we do the boys version too). I had so much fun making it, then Richard and I went and decorated the motel room. Of course, true to form, everything I did had to be color coordinating. His book was covered with big black and white checkered racing fabric. So, I wrapped all the presents in red paper, black bags with silver and black ribbons. I got silver, black and red balloons and they looked really cool all over the room. Josh and Melissa had very similar reactions to the whole thing. Richard made up a story telling Josh he wanted to take him to get a bite to eat. As they were driving, I called and pretended to be Richards boss, asking him to go on a call to fix an ATM machine. We played it up really good. Josh wanted to stay in the car, but Richard finally convinced him to go up with him. It all seemed on the up and up because the room was right next to a conference room that had a long table with lots of chairs. We had talked about it on the phone, so when Josh saw the conference room he didn't think anything of it. Richard put the key in the door and started to go in. Josh tried to stop him telling him it was a private room and it was somebody's birthday. Josh wouldn't go in....just like Melissa!! It was very funny. Richard finally convinced him it was HIS birthday. Josh finally believed it when he saw Dad's shaving bag sitting on the sink. He called me right away to tell me thank you. He was so excited!! Josh and his Dad had a very special night, swimming, eating out, playing games and of course reading and doing the book. I was sad that this is my last child to do this for. Thanks Debi for getting me started on this!!! My baby is growing up..........

And Finally....(scroll down 2 blogs to get started reading this)

The reason we went to the parade.......our Jon!! Evergreen won the Sweepstakes award for the best marching band as well as other awards. We were the only band that followed the theme of the parade. We were assigned to represent the 70's. Not only did our music reflect the 70's, but our colorguard were all dressed like we dressed back then...the hippie era. Even our band parents that followed behind the band were all in 70's attire. They called us the "groovy" Evergreen Marching Band. Winning Sweepstakes in the Grand Floral Parade is a big deal. There are bands from all over the west coast marching.

Here are the "troopers"...Josh and his friend Austin. We had to get up at 6:30 AM to get to Portland to get a good spot. People start marking off places along the parade route days before. The parade started at 10AM. We walked to Wendys for breakfast sandwiches after we got all settled in our spot. We got great spots right up front. We went with our friends The Cooks. Their son Jeff is also in band. At the time, sitting in the rain, it seemed like we would never want to do that again.....but we will, we always do........ Josh will be there the year after Jon leaves.

Don't rain on my Parade!! (check out blog below first)

It is so hard to choose just a few pictures to blog. If I can't you'll just have to see them all. Some info...Each float must be covered completely with flowers, whether it be the stems, the petals, the leaves. There are other things that are accepted, but I can't remember. Anyway, here are some that I snapped for your enjoyment!
If you look closer, this first one has real fire around the outside of the circle.The ringmaster would get the crowd excited and then it would light up with fire.
It seems hard to believe, but on the Lewis and Clark float, the boat, the barrels and everything is covered with parts of flowers. There were alot of other countries represented in the parade. Tiawan is Portland's Sister City, and an all girls marching band from Tiawan marched. This float was made and represents Korea. There was a Vietnmese float that I took a picture of for Grandma Rose.

Rose Festival Parade in the rainy (but very beautiful) City of Roses

Each year in June, Portland celebrates the beauty of their roses with lots of fun filled activities. It's called The Portland Rose Festival. There are parades, a fun center on the waterfront, the ships come in and dock on the waterfront and people can takes tours of them (Navy, Coast Guard etc..), there's an air show, among just a few things. One princess is chosen from each Portland high school and then a queen is selected...they are the Rose Festival Court.
There are 3 parades...the childrens Jr. Rose Parade, which Jon and I have both marched in with his middle school band (very fun!!)...there is the Starlight Parade, which is at night, with floats lit up, marching bands, a fun run with thousands of runners dressed up in silly clothes that precedes the parade, (which Jon marched in last year), and the Grand Floral Parade, which is on a very grand scale, with beautiful floats made up of flowers, marching bands, horses, clowns and the likes. This is the 2nd time Jon has marched in this one. It seems to be a curse at the parades...it seems to rain on alot of them!! Actually the weather this year was beautiful for the first 2 parades, but the culminating parade was today...and of course it rained...again...and it was very cold....again! Oh well, it's all fun and we went to cheer on our boy.

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER..........

A few weeks ago, Jon asked Jesika Combs to Prom. Around here it's customary to do something fun to ask your date. Like in September when Jon asked his date during a football game in front of the band and the entire stadium. Asking Jesika was problematic for the fact that he had bought a big bunch of mylar balloons and used stickers to write in spanish asking her to go with him. She can't read spanish (he knew that, but she makes fun of his spanish). He took the balloons to early morning seminary to put on her car, but she wasn't there. (they go to different stakes, diferent seminary) So he tried all day at school. He finally took them to her house and left them on the front door then had Josh call her and tell her to look outside.
Jesika called the house a bit later that day and asked me if she could come over when he wasn't there to give him her answer. She wrote her answer in Japanese on a big foam heart and decorated his bedroom door with it. It was fun!!
The big night was on Saturday. Jesika looked beautiful in her dress. She bought it during spring break in Orem when her family went to general conference. If you look close enough you can see Jon's beard. He actually shaved it off on Sunday morning, but had been growing it for about a month.
On their date they went to an italian restaurant and the dance was in Portland. Jesikas dress had a bustle for the train, but even with that he said he stepped on her dress alot........but he had a great time. This last picture was taken in Jesika's backyard with the other couple they went with.

Day at the ZOO

We have the most beautiful zoo!! It's like walking into another world!! One of the teachers I work with planned a day at the zoo for her kids and their families. I went and took Josh and his friend Caleb. It was 85 degrees today, but the zoo was green and lush and very cool. We saw the polar bears, tigers, elephants, you name it we saw it. There's a wonderful rain forest. About the only thing I can think we don't have at our zoo are koala and panda bears.We loved the butterfly exhibit and the bird sanctuary. Our group stayed together in the morning and then we met for lunch in a huge open grassy area where they put on shows with bald eagles and hold outdoor concerts. Then the boys and I broke off and ventured out on our own. We were able to see everything before we headed home so I could take pictures of Jon and his date for prom tonight (will blog that later) Isn't this guy cute?? While he lives outside in the open, there are windows where we can look in. He just came right up to the window and looked at us.The animals have wonderful areas to live in. This giraffe is in the Africa exhibit. While in the Congo, Josh and Caleb went on a wild ride in a jeep. We traded the jeep in for train tickets (hee hee) and had a 35 minute tour on the zoo train, all around the park.

HAPPY RETIREMENT DAY!!!

Friday was Richards last full day of work. Jon asked him when he started working....around 14 he said....picking berries and mowing lawns. That would have been about the year 1959. In his lifetime he has worked unloading grain cars for Great Western Malt, was a rental agent and cleaned cars for Avis rent a car, worked for Clark County in the mapping and printing dept., worked for the Washington State Highway Department as a flagger (before his mission), worked in a machine shop, was a Sergeant for the Clark County Sheriffs Department as a jailer, then worked 30 years in vending (a hard labor job with long hours in the middle of the night), and most recently as a Customer Service Engineer (fancy name for a cushy job) for Pendium Corp....the largest ATM company in the country. It has been a LONG haul and I am so happy that he can relax and take it easy. He will still be working 20 hours a week, but will be able to be home and do lots of jobs around here for me (who said I was going to let him off the hook that easily?) We had a little party for him...cooked steaks (a real treat for us) and sipped sparkling cider. The boys helped me decorate with balloons and we gave him some cooking tools for the grill. CONGRATULATIONS HONEY!!!