Children's Day

Every year, Chevron sponsors a large festival celebrating children. This year, our children participated by singing and performing a few songs on stage. It was a really hot day! Dallin was a trooper, though didn't relish the idea of singing songs on stage with a huge crowd of mostly unfamiliar indonesians. Eden, got heat exhaustion and was only able to participate for the first song. She was really out of sorts on stage. And when she came off stage she felt very pale and clammy...kind of freaky. Marion was a great performer, and she not only sang the big group number "We are the World" by Michael jackson, but she also did the Twist with her classmates. It was an interesting afternoon, we didn't stay long. My favorite was the imitation Mickey and Minnie mouse...AWESOME!!

Bintan Island

With Mike's job posting here in Sumatera, we get 2 R&R's a year, which means that we must take a week long vacation away from here in the fall and spring of each year. This past fall, we went to Bintan Island, where we stayed in a villa near the ocean at a resort called Nirwana Gardens. What a wonderful trip! We took an elephant ride through the jungle, rode the flying fox (huge zipline), archery, snorkeling, sailing, and played at the beach every day. Dallin and I spent one day in Singapore for an eye appointment. I miscalculated the timing on our return ferry so we had to spend the night there and wait for the morning ferry. While we were gone, Mike and the girls spent that day at the beach and got burned crispy. But other than those minor mishaps, it was heavenly!

Date Night

Bowling with Tanner and Cherylyn Neilson! Super Fun! Tanner kicked all our butts. But since the stakes were on couples...Mike and I pulled through as the ultimate team winners! Oh ya!!
Tanner and Cherylyn...we'll be waiting for the movie date...mwahaha!

Interesting thoughts

I was reading the first chapter of the book of Alma today in the Book of Mormon, during this part in the book, the Nephites (ancient inhabitants of Central America) have just lost their King, a just and holy man, greatly loved by his people named King Mosiah. When he died, none of his sons wanted the throne, they wanted to spend their lives bringing the souls of men unto God, preaching His word, so King Mosiah left the people with judges, higher judges, and a chief judge, chosen by the people. Sound kind of familiar? Anyway, just 2 years after the establishment of judges, there began to be much wickedness among the people and this is the verse that I read today that made me ponder: "Nevertheless, they (wicked men) durst not lie, if it were known, for fear of the law, for liars were punished; therefore they pretended to preach according to their belief; and now the law could have no power on any man for his belief." We, in our world today, have reached a point similar to that of the Nephites, where those deceived by Satan use the word "beliefs" to spread lies, wickedness, and untruth. Where right and wrong (as far as the laws of the land) have become contingent upon wicked and lying people, claiming beliefs in choice for abortion and gay marriage. And, as in this book of history, the law can have to claim on what deceivers claim are 'beliefs'. I'm grateful to know that yes, we are given agency, the ability to make our own choices, but we are not free to choose the consequences. And that their must be a right and wrong, a good and evil, just as there is light and dark, sweet and sour. You cannot appreciate one without the other. And without them, there would be no agency or justice.

I hope that my thoughts here are clear. As I reread this, I don't know that what I felt today and thought about have come across in the writing of it. I was thinking so much of the gay/lesbian issue that is plaguing the USA right now and how people are being led into thinking this is a matter of beliefs versus what is truth and lies. The truth is, man and woman were put on this earth to create families, to learn and to grow, to prove that we would follow God's plan, to experience joy and sadness, that through this we could become more like our Father, and prepared for what is to come after this life. This is truth. And unfortunately our laws today can have no claim on those who lie and deceive calling it 'beliefs', though they lead many astray with their cunning and seemingly educated words.

Maybe no one else will understand this as I did today, but I love when I feel real personal revelation, when the scriptures of old reach out to me, written for our day to speak to me of troubles we face now, that they knew would come. May we hold fast to that which is true.

Water Bom!

We had a 5 day weekend and we went with a bunch of friends to a water park called Water Bom. We had a really great time with our friends, and watching our kids play together. Poor Eden was not feeling well while we were there and didn't participate much, in fact she took a nice long nap in the middle of the day on some pool mats. Below is a picture of Neil Prendergast and Tanner Neilson with Andrew, the Neilson's son. Also Marion and Emma sliding, we couldn't keep them away from the water slides.

Below left, Maria Rosa's family with children Ian and Zoe, center picture is all the children minus 4 that left earlier in the day. Marion playing with Grace and Kathlyn Prendergast.

The last picture below is the Keys family, Sam, Christy, Ella, and Cooper. And I'm ready to throw this laptop into the swimming pool after trying to make my text and pictures line up right and being completely unsuccessful!! Arghh! So, it's a mess, but it's here, now you can see us and our new friends.

The Tooth Fairy

At 7 1/2 years, and in the 2nd grade, Eden finally lost her first tooth!! About 3 weeks ago, Eden told me that her front teeth really hurt. Turns out all of her front teeth are lose at the same time! So just 6 days ago her first tooth came out during school (it was the big excitement in her class that day). I don't know who was more excited, Eden or me! In our house, the tooth fairy leaves a small gift for the very first tooth and for every other tooth she leaves a dollar (or in our case 10,000 rupiah). For her first tooth, Eden received a very pretty fairy necklace that she absolutely loves!

Only 2 days later, Eden's 2nd tooth pops out at a water park during a birthday party. Chowin' on pizza, the crust will getcha everytime! Give her another month and all 4 front teeth will be gone...maybe I should start thinking about our annual family picture sooner rather than later!

Salad

Mike and I were in the bathroom yesterday morning, chatting before we headed out to greet the kids, when Dallin comes walking in: "Mom, Dad, did you guys have salad for dinner last night?" Dallin had been at a friends house the previous evening and had dinner there so he didn't eat dinner with us. "Yes, we did have salad for dinner." "Was there any left?" "Yes, there is some left in the fridge and you can even eat it for breakfast if you want." Dallin went skipping and jumping out of our bedroom going "YES, YES, I CAN EAT SALAD FOR BREAKFAST!! WOO-HOO!!" Now I ask you...where did this child come from?? What 9 year old boy wants salad for breakfast? Mike and I just looked at each other and laughed.

Eden...again!

This girl just cracks me up!! Today for homework she had a writing assignment, so she sat down at the table to begin. After about 10 minutes I went to check out her progress. The assignment said, "Draw yourself as a reader", "Answer the following questions: What kind of reader are you, why do you like to read, and where do you like to read?" So I'm looking first at her picture, "draw yourself as a reader", and I was a little confused, it didn't make any sense. Eden noticing my perplexed expression, looked at the picture she had drawn and read the directions again. She starts laughing, and says "Oops, I did this wrong" and while laughing pulls out her eraser and says "I thought it said 'draw yourself as a reindeer'". We both totally lost it!! That would explain why the picture of herself had antlers coming out of her head!

Home Teachers

Yes, here in Jakarta, we have very regular, excellent home teachers. Brother Jed Beckstead and his son, Hayden, came to visit us this last week, and while they were here, gave the kids rides on their motor scooters...SUPER FUN!! Even Mike took one for a spin up and down the street.

Eden says the darndest things!

We are sitting around the dinner table one evening and Dallin is telling everyone about an audio book he's been listening to about the Titanic. Eden was finding it very interesting and said, "It would be cool if you could actually see the real titanic that sunk under the water." Dallin says, "You can Eden, you can scuba dive down there." Eden with a very amazed look on her face says, "Whoa! I would need a really big straw!" The dinner table erupted in laughter. We love you Eden, thanks for all your quotables!