Austin's Accomplishments

Here is Austin's 6th grade school picture. He sure is growing up! Don't you agree? Well 6th grade has been the best thing so far for Austin. He likes having different teachers for math, science, computer lab, PE & core. We are so proud of Austin! He gets up each morning pretty much on his own which is a real change from last year. He works real hard at school & comes home exhausted from straining his brain, ha ha! What a handsome young man! So be prepared because the next picture is going to come as a shock. Make sure you are sitting down before you look.

What an accomplishment! He's getting straight A's. Right after this report card was received we got an email from his teacher letting us know that he now has an A+ in that class thus I crossed out the C and wrote an A+. I've been bragging to everyone about his straight A's. We are so proud of him! He deserves this after all his hard work. I told him I was going to continue to brag by posting this to the blog. Then when I hadn't done it he nicely reminded me, because he's proud of himself too. Way to go Austin! Keep up the hard work!

TRADITION - MATCHMAKER - IF I WERE A RICH MAN

As you can see the WHS Musical this year was Fiddler on the Roof. It was great! Whitney was a villager (a MaMa to be exact). She was in all the scenes that everyone else was in except for those main ones which included only Tevye, his wife & the daughters. So Whit had a lot of stage time. She loved the songs, loved learning about the Jewish traditions & having fun with the rest of her cast/friends. As you can see below this is the cast picture along with the individual in the upper right hand corner. In the group picture she is right in the middle, second row in the back.For several months Whitney practiced at least three times a week, then every day for two weeks & then in November performed this musical 8 times. It was great! She had fun! The only exception to this was that she became allergic to the make-up they were using. It took us several performances to figure this out. We thought at first it was just her contacts that had maybe scratched her eye but then it became very apparent it was a reaction to the make-up. Finally by the last two performances we were able to figure it out & switch make-up and everything was okay for those two performances. If you look real close at this picture below you can see that her eyes are real red. She was crying during this performance that the Herricks, Papa & family went too because her eyes were hurting so much. She even missed some school because of it. Even after the play her eyes got bad again which we couldn't figure out? Preston started asking questions & found out she had put her contaminated contacts in. So we threw those away & even had to go see the Dr. She had eye infection in both eyes, because of the allergic reaction. She had to put hot towel compresses on her eyes, walk around the house with no lights, wear sunglasses & anything else over her eyes to protect them from the light. We drove to the Dr with sunglasses on, towel over her eyes & blanket over her head. Poor girl. It finally cleared up after about 5 days of no make-up & the previously mentioned routine. She learned a lot from that bad experience!

The last picture is of one of her practices. She has her head turned & is laughing, imagine that. Is her outfit crazy or what. She's wearing a t-shirt, my spandex workout pants & short short lime green shorts over the top. She is one wild & crazy, fun lovin' teenager. She loved the practices. They had such a good time! Wonder what next years musical will be? This was Mr. Jacksons last year, unless he can't afford to retire either? We'll see. Whitney sure loves him as a choir teacher & producer of this musical.

There were 12 LDS youth in this musical. It reminds me of years ago before I was in high school when the musicals had lots of LDS kids in them. They are so talented because of all their experiences in primary and YM/YW. It's always fun to know so many of the actors.

"TEVYE EXPLAINS THE ROLE OF GOD'S LAW IN PROVIDING BALANCE IN THE VILLAGERS' LIVES. HE INSISTS THAT WITHOUT THEIR TRADITIONS, HE & THE OTHER VILLAGERS WOULD FIND THEIR LIVES "AS SHAKY AS A FIDDLER ON THE ROOF."

Mom's 60th Birthday - Nov 2, 2008

This is Mom's best picture for her bday. Because we surprised her she didn't have time to plan ahead & get her hair cut before we came. So she had it done the day after we left. Doesn't she look beautiful? She looks great for 60! Happy Bday Mom!

So my Mom turned 60 & we kids surprised her by showing up at her home on Halloween.

I want to be sure & post these to my blog so when I print all this for our family journal I will have a record of this. Mom's candles are in a pan of Apple Crisp. Yummy! Mom has never liked birthday cakes. Always something other than cake to celebrate her bday.

On her actual bday, our last day together that weekend, we took individual pictures with our bday Mom. It's been a long time since I've had a picture taken with my beautiful mother.

We went to this wonderful restaurant called Salty's at Redondo beach in Des Moines, WA. I surfed the internet & talked to Wenatchee people looking for recommendations. This was a keeper for sure. Would love to go there again. We wanted a seafood restaurant for Mom as she loves it. She can eat anything seafood (clams, oysters, shrimp, lobster). You name it she likes it. She said she really liked Saltys. We all had the same style three course meal. Some of us had steak and the others Salmon. We all ate way too much food but it was delicious. The Coconut Tiger Prawns the others had for appetizers looked really interesting. They said they were good.

When we first got to Saltys we went outside to take this picture. It was raining as we drove there. The clouds were black behind us & we thought this might be our only chance for an outside picture. It worked out perfectly. The rain stopped while we took the picture. I love this picture. If you could see the original the sky is amazing. But what's really amazing is how wonderful my family is. I'm so happy we could get together again & celebrate Mom's bday. Don't I have the most beautiful family?

This was the gift we presented to Mom while we were out to dinner. A book about our Mom. We each contributed photos of us individually with our Mom. We also wrote about memories of her. We each have our own page in the book. She loved it. It made her cry. Mom never cries so we thought it would be ok to give it to her at the restaurant. Turns out Ryan was right. He told us not to do it then, but us girls vetoed his decision and we did it anyway. In the end it all worked out fine. Mom had to wait until she got back home before she could really read it. We kids had a great time putting together our photos and memories. It was a great experience. Now this book will become part of her legacy. She was gracious enough to buy us kids copies of the book so we could have one too. The grandkids loved reading about their Ma-Kay & their parents memories of growing up with her. It will mean even more the older they get.

You can see that we have our desserts in front of us on the table. Dessert was fantastic. Some of us had this cake/mousse/thing with raspberry sauce & a couple of us had creme brulee. The later was incredible, the best I've ever had. A great finish to a fantastic meal.

Mom's dessert. Not a great picture of Mom. Doesn't do her justice. During dessert she had lots of pictures being taken including one from the restaurant. They were real great.

One of the many things we did during the quick weekend together was play Uno. I haven't played a game with my siblings since we were little. So it'd been about 20+ yrs. The funny thing about this picture is Ryan having to consult the game rules. Everyone but me plays card games a lot with their families & they all play a little differently based on the ages of their children. So since we are adults we really had to play by the "real" rules of the game. It was hilarious. You had to be there. Fun times. Ryan also tried to teach us how to play "Hearts". I still don't get it. I even went online recently to play online & see if I could get a better handle on it. Still don't get it! I'm the oldest sibling & the slowest when it comes to card games. Oh well.

We showed up on Mom's doorstep, rang the doorbell & said "trick or treat" in really weird voices. We said it over and over and over again. We knew if we said anything else she'd know it was us. I was laughing so hard under my sheet I didn't say anything. Ryan was saying enough for all of us. I thought the "Ghost of 1973" sign would give it away. But Mom was so surprised to even have trick or treaters that she claims she didn't see the sign. It's hard to explain her reaction. She left us all standing outside while she went to get some candy. Then we pushed Alysa inside & followed her in. That kind of freaked her out. The reason we did that is because JJ told us that's what kids do in Panguitch. If you leave your door open they just come in and sit down. Isn't that funny. We're not real sure Mom was surprised? She said she was??? Mother's intuition & Staci having not called Mom for her daily dose of motherly advice we think gave it away. We'll never know for sure. That's ok. We wanted to surprise her, we think we did & we'll leave it that way.

After we took the sheets off & exchanged hugs we put our sheets back on to pose for pictures. Mom with her five silly ghosts.

Alysa & JJ in the car next to Ryan, the ghost. We had a great car ride from SeaTac to Lacey. Fun times!

Staci was filming how silly we were in the car. I was driving. Ryan was the only one in his costume, at this point. We were laughing & Ryan was making silly jestures to cars passing us. It was Halloween after all so not that strange to have a ghost in our car. Staci how did the film turn out? We knew there were recording problems, but...?

We probably had more fun driving from the store there in Lacey to Mom & Dad's front door than we should have. I should have been pulled over for my driving. I went through the gate at Mom & Dad's at about 50 mph. I was afraid the gate was gonna close. Too funny for those of us in the car. These are great memories! We are so blessed to get a long so well & have so much fun when we are together.

Marnie's First 5K

So this posting is for my good friend, Lisa. She's the one that got me running. She's such an inspiration. Her first run was the half marathon in 2007 that I walked with my other good friend, Sheli & she ran it. She is still running. You go girl. I've been telling Lisa for months that I would post these & I've finally done it. So this first picture is the funniest one, where it looks like I'm gonna hurl. I was explaining to Lisa earlier that as my sister, Jennifer & I crossed the finished line I thought I was doing fine until she said "so how do you keep from throwing up?" This was my expression. And my sister-in-law captured it on camera to my surprise. I am happy to say that I didn't get sick even though the picture tells otherwise.

Hopefully my sister never says that again at the end of a race. Also, I learned not to sprint the last quarter mile at the end. Who's idea was that JJ? I think she started it & I couldn't let her win, of course. It's pretty funny to remember this experience months later.

So here's "MY FAMILY" that I'm still so proud of. We set a goal. We accomplished it. I can't wait to do it again & also again as a family. I understand that there's a 5K coming up the week of Thanksgiving here in Wenatchee. I haven't exercised much since this 5K in August. I've been a real slacker. I have committed to my good friend, Lisa, that I will run the 1/2 marathon next year in October 2009 in Leavenworth. So I've got to do lots of runs prior to, in order to work up to it. I do need to also acknowledge my brother, Ryan, who has continued to keep running since this occasion & also continues to inspire us all. To all those exercising, keeping healthy & possibly running, keep it up! We all inspire each other. "WE ARE FAMILY". That was our families song. I think of it often.

Austin & 6th Grade Camp

Back on the first week of October Austin & I got to attend 6th Grade Camp together. It was held at Tall Timbers a christian church campsite near Lake Wenatchee. It was beautiful there as you can see from these pictures. The weather held quite nicely. We got wet but not too bad. I was there once before when Whitney was in 6th grade so I knew what to expect only this time it was a little different being there with my son. We had a great time. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

This man (in the white shirt & hat) was real interesting. He spoke to the kids about trees and his job when he worked for Fish & Wildlife. He had a piece of petrified wood that was like 700 years old. It was real neat. He taught the kids to stay in school, work hard and stay out of trouble. He showed the kids how he could climb a tree several hundred feet up. Then he would pick the seeds out of the cones and use them to plant more. They loved to watch him do this even though he only climbed about 50 feet up. The boys loved it. He had some great stories to tell & the boys found it very interesting to think they could do this working for Fish & Wildlife.

This woman taught the kids about salmon & we saw several right there near the bank of the river. The cycle of salmon and how they swim all the way down stream to the ocean & then back again to the exact same spot is amazing. How do they know where they are going when they are swimming up stream? It's incredible to think about. This is something these kids have been taught for years. The school system here teaches them about salmon beginning in third grade. It's real interesting & they love it. It's not the extreme "save the salmon" talks don't misunderstand.

Here's Austin with his "group" at the dinner table. There is a cook here in this lodge & she has it really well organized. There's no messing with this lunch/dinner lady. The kids are kind of scared of her so they eat what she has prepared & follow her instructions to the "t". Dinner this night was homemade mac & cheese with pepperoni in it, Jello squares, scones & no dessert. Good thing since they knew we'd be eating lots of junk food later in our cabins. Breakfast the next morning was real good. Steel cut oatmeal that had been baked with add ins to liking, i.e. brown sugar, raisins, coconut, milk, pecans, etc. Real filling & very tasty.

Here are 4 of my 10 girls I was in charge of. Aren't they cutie pies! Good thing they aren't all 16. They are still sweet innocent fun loving girls. I think I was picking food out of my teeth there in the back of the picture. Oblivious to a picture being taking. So the funny part of this is that I guess Austin's teacher Mr. Birks knows me well. I was the only adult with these 10 girls. All the other groups were about 6-7 in size & had two adult women for each group. All the mom's and dad's thought it was amazing I could handle that many girls all by myself. Never mind the fact they were so well behaved except one mentally challenged girl in the group. But we all got along great. I fed them lots of sugar, we stayed up way past curfew & played games. I got thank you cards telling me how much fun they all had. I am so thankful for all the experience I've had in Young Womens. That's why it was so easy for me to take care of 10 by myself & I told anyone that who cared enough to ask how it was going. Mr. Birks at 12:30 am had to come to our cabin & tell us lights out. He laughed when he saw silly string everywhere & the girls having so much fun & I was still sane. He hated to have to tell us to go to bed. We had a full days schedule ahead of us though. So much fun!

Last picture. Mr. Buhler(sp?) Papa you probably know him? He grew up in Wenatchee. Now teaches school in Oregon. He juggled, lots of fun, silly, scarey things & last of all he ate fire. Then he taught one of the teachers how to do it too. Great fun. The kids also did skits. Somewhere there's a great picture of Austin doing his skit & laughing hysterically at something only he thought was funny. His laughter & smile is always so contagious. When I track down the picture I will share. I think Austin will always remember this fun experience. I know I still remember my 5th grade camp experience. Fun times I think I will always remember too. Glad I could do this with my kids.

I've Been Tagged

My friend, Sheli, tagged me & we are using the 4th file & 4th picture. So here it is. This is Austin from 4th grade Field day when he was competing in the running long jump. Now I wish I would have also noted how far he jumped. Austin is in motion in this picture. Landing one footed & falling forward. He didn't win this event & it wasn't his strongest event that year. His strongest event in 4th grade was the softball throw. I was amazed at how far these 4th graders could throw. He came in 4th place which didn't qualify him for the all district meet. However he did his best & gave it his all. Now...I'm going to tag my siblings Staci, Alysa & Ryan. Thanks Sheli. This was a fun way to go through my old photos. Once I started looking at the old ones I couldn't quit. Now I'll want to share other old photos that I thought were great.

The Phantom of the Opera

Yesterday Whitney and I had the incredible opportunity to go see Phantom at the Paramount in Seattle with Kailey & Sheli Franklin. What an experience! Sheli was able to get us tickets months ago through a work associate at the school and we had awesome seats! I was thinking we would be up in the balcony or way in the back, but we were on the main floor, right in the middle and only about 15 rows from the stage. The costumes, jewelry, set designs, actors, actresses, voices and music were fantastic! Like Whitney said, it was over too quickly (a 2 1/2 hour production). I've seen the movie at least 10 times and didn't think the play would be as good, but loving the music I sure wanted to see the play and of course the play was just as good if not better. WOW! I even cried at the end. I was just so caught up in the love story that I could feel all the emotions one feels with the experience of amazing music. What an experience. I can't believe it took me 40 years to do it but so blessed I got to do it with my daughter and great friends.

Whitney getting beautified in the parking lot before walking to the Paramount.

Whitney & Kailey before the play

The theater inside was beautiful

2 Moms 2 Daughters 2 Friends 2 FUN

First Day of School - September 2nd

It's been a family tradition for the last 7 years to take a photo on the front porch before school. Whitney is in 10th grade this year at WHS. Austin is a 6th grader at Foothills Middle School. They sure grow up fast! It's seems like yesterday Whitney was starting Kindergarten. And here we are just three years away from high school graduation. It sure goes fast!

New Arrival - Birthdate May 2008

It's finally done after 5 years. Isn't it amazing? It's been a fun journey and now we get to enjoy all our hard work. It's a blast to take a ride in it! Kind of scary and adrenaline pumping at the same time, depending on how much you enjoy loud engine noises and speeding down the road. Burnouts are pretty fun too. Just ask Austin if you want to know how fast his Dad really drives the hot rod. Vroom..Vroom....Squeal... He will tell you.

We took it out Apple Blossom weekend for the first time during the Classy Chassis parade. Then the next day at that same car show Preston took 1st place in his division and brought home a nice winner's plaque. If you want to see more cool photos check out his award winning web site . There are lots of photos with Austin and his Daddy working on the car. You won't believe what we started with compared to the finished product. Preston does amazing car work as you can see. This is definitely one of his many talents. Enjoy!
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Happy Mother's Day!

Look what you did, Mom! We are so thankful for what you did! Five kids who get along great, love talking on the phone, chatting on the internet and looking forward to the next family gathering. Lots of great memories from then and now because of you! You have always gone out of your way to keep us close and always there for each other. Who would have guessed these five kids would grow up and give you 15 grandkids (and more?) Not from me of course. But our family will surely welcome more, if they are meant to be part of our Penhallegon family. So take a look below and see exactly what you have done! Happy Mothers Day! We love you!

family stuff

My dad has been working on his car and it's looking great I'm so excited!He's also been busy with his high councel stuff. Mom's keeping very busy with her calling as the YW's president and taking care of us kids! Maybe when I can drive, she'll be less of a chauffeur! Austin's been snowboarding like mad, up at Mission Ridge all the time and before that at Leavenworth ski hill every weekend! I've been getting ready for softball
coming up soon, and got done with Cats a little while ago. Fun fun!

Twilight

I've read these books by Stephanie Meyer-Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse. If you haven't read them yet, i really suggest them they're my favorite!

sweet

I decided to make one of these amazing blogs for the family... -whitney