Thursday's Hero Reunion, 2011 - warning -- lots of pictures!

Tonight was BYU Football Thursday's Hero reunion again. They asked that we just invited immediate family. Well, that's about 40 people so we decided to take a different family every year. Brent and Chelsey have never been able to participate in football camp, the reunions or when Ammon was honored the first time. They were able to make it down but missed quite a few of the players who had already left. Nevertheless, we had fun and we're glad they were able to join us.

These are just various photos showing players, coaches and kids.

This is a pretty good looking player -- does basketball have players this handsome? I don't think so - and never baseball!

This was the second group of players and one coach that sat with us.

Coach Tidwell - he remembered us from last year. He knew Paul Clark as a coach. While Paul was coaching, this man was the head football coach at Snow College.

The Pughs arriving - Kaitlin showing there where to come into the field.

Sarah and Geoff getting some of the players to sign their shirts.

Jim giving a pep talk to the kids to convince them they really could get Coach Mendenhall to sign their shirts.

I think Jim told Sarah he would buy her shirt if she got Coach Mendenhall to sign the shirt. She got it but she didn't sell.

This guy's name is Romney - watch for him this year.

I have no idea what they do with these footballs that are hanging on a cross bar but I thought it was interesting.
Every year I get more enamored with the program and the goodness of the leaders and coaches. The players and the coaches all seem to be excited with their new schedule and new opportunities. It will be pretty fun to be able to watch all the games this year and to see if we can identify some of the players we met this year.

Ammon the Pioneer

Ammon has become quite the little pioneer trekker over the past year. This summer he has gone to Wyoming, Colorado and Idaho. He has been a trooper, with nary a complaint over the long drives. In the photo above, he is "posing" for me. We were in Pocatello, Idaho where we stopped to take care of him.

On our trip up Pass Creek Canyon, Uncle Stephen kept telling Ammon that there are bears and wolves and mountain lions up there. All of a sudden, Stephen, said, "Ammon! Look, there are some bears."  Of course, they were just silly cows. Ammon said, to me, "Mom, do you ever believe a word your brother says?" I said, "Nope, not a word."

Beautiful little pond way up at the top.

Some of Ammon's favorite people:  L to R, Peyton, Natalie, Ammon with Seth's hat on, Seth, Dax (short for Daximus) and Rylee. I wish we could have spent a whole lot more time with this great little famly.

The boy above is Stephen's partner's son who won grandchampion at the County Fair which we attended for a while.  They won first place and third place with their steers. Tayler won best of show with one of her photographs and Seth also won best of show for a gorgeous pair of cowboy boots he made.

Uncle Stephen kept teasing Ammon about dating girls -- over and over and over. Now Ammon has a hankering to go on a date. He will be 16 in a couple of months. Well..... I think he should wait until he can drive??

Ammon watching the sale show at the fair.

Dr. Roth

Ammon sure does like this guy.  This is Dr. David Roth who is Ammon's dentist.  He has completely won Ammon over with his gentleness and expertise.  Today Ammon got a shot to numb his mouth and Dr. Roth pulled out a tooth that had never fallen out. Ammon said it didn't even hurt.  Ok, I need this guy to be my dentist -- but his chairs are only for little people.

We actually have a great dentist as well, Dr. Craig Christiansen. He treats our famly very well. They have even convinced me that it's ok to come in more often than once every five years. And they don't laugh at me if I come in having taken a Valium to relax me.  I need to take lessons from Ammon.

Milestone or Achievement

The other night Ammon and I went for a drive. We ended up stopping by to see one of his school aides, Kathy Kelsey and her husband Ken.  Kathy and Ammon both seemed to be very happy to see each other. The Kelsey's live in Benjamin and know Stephen and Julie and their family very well.  They have a daughter that has Spina Bifida as well so Kathy understands Ammons needs very well.

Ammon asked us yesterday if milestone and achievement were the same thing. We discussed it for a while. No matter whether they are different or not, he just achieved a milestone in his life. He is now feeding himself through his g-tube.  I taught him how to carefully pour the milk and he did it without a single spill the first time.  It was shocking to see how carefully but quickly he could do it. I found myself wondering why we've been waiting for so long to try this. I decided to put his milk in a small measuring cup rather than the large picther Jim and I use so that Ammon could handle it better.  He is so proud of himself!  He has fed himself every single time but once which was early this morning while he was still pretty much asleep.

This afternoon he even figured out how to get the g-tube unhooked which is no small task.  He clips it shut and does the whole thing.  What a milestone in his life!

What an achievement.  This is a pretty awesome event in his life and ours.

BYU Center for Animation

Ammon was invited to go to the BYU Center for Animation. On Wednesday nights they all get together and discuss the progress that was made during the week. They pull up the projects they are working on and discuss how to improve it or decide if they are ready to move on to the next step. It was a very fascinating experience. We had no idea it was so labor intensive. It takes a major movie studio about 5 years to complete a full-length animated movie and that's with hundreds of people working on it.  It takes BYU a year and a half to complete their short stories. They only have 75 students in the major and yet they successfully compete against schools that have over 2,000 students as majors. Last year Pixar had 91 openings for internships and 10,000 applications. Nine of the internships went to BYU students. Some of the schools charge $50,000.00 a year in tuition. It is truly a miracle what this little, fairly new department at BYU has accomplished.

All four of their movies have won either Student Emmy or Student Academy Awards. They have been shown at Sundance and the Cannes Film Festival. BYU is raising eyebrows in the movie industry.

In fact, one of the movies they are currently working on has excited Dreamworks so much they have offered to mentor the students via live conference calls during their weekly reports. The director, Brent Adams, says he is worried that they will try to get the students to do what Dreamworks wants and not what the students want. This is all about student work with a little mentoring.

Crabtree Building where the department is housed.

Ammon watching Emily as she works on lighting for their next movie.

More students working on various stages of the project in the lab.

The pictures below are the ones we saw with their next movie called "Butchered Meat" about a starving, skinny guy that could get $25.00 if he could stay in the ring for three rounds against this big, fat boxer. It has a surprising ending that works so well with the moral fiber at BYU. It's an absolutely amazing little story.

Ammon waiting for the movie and discussion to begin.

Pictures and illustrations of various projects are all over the walls.

This is the very kind man that invited us to come visit. His name is Brent Adams. He was an architectural designer in SLC when he began commuting to BYU to teach a few classes. He got so caught up in the bug of design and teaching that he left that job and began teaching full time at BYU.  (Sorry the picture is so dark. The camera died just as this shot was taken.)

davids exciting arrival

I am excited for davids arrival  see you tonight david I cant wait bye.

Devin Minson

Last Sunday Devin Minson was ordained to be a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood. They invited us to attend the ordination but we were unable to go due to commitments at our own ward.  Kaitlin and I (Mom) took Ammon to see Devin that evening and to extend our congratulations.

I think these guys look so grown-up in this picture.  They have been friends for a long time.  One more year and they will be able to be back in the same school. We hadn't seen the Minsons since December. It is always fun to visit with them.  They are one of our very favorite families!  Congratulations, Devin.

fun family home evening

Yesterday my bus driver and his family came over his name is Leslie .d curtis we watched my video I will have mom put the video up tomorrow and then we had frosties we talked about me and my hard sad trials it was a memoroble night I enjoed it and I'm sure adam and amy did too so long farewell

New Uncle

Ammon wanted me to post these pictures for him.  He couldn't wait until Samuel got home tomorrow. He had to go to the hospital to see him tonight.  Ammon said that holding the baby made him feel like a dad.  He loved this beautiful little boy!

the big accomplishment

Today was the last official day of school. I got a yearbook and I signed everybody's yearbooks. It was fun. I like May. Hooray for summer, Bye.

the last day of school

I am so excited for school to be out 3 weeks of school left to go its nerve racking just want to let you know how much I am excited bye

Spring Break Adventures

Spring break was fun this year.  I played catch with my football with Shelby. I decided I'd become a great mini-quarterback for the BYU football team. We played Shelby's Wii games one day and I just kind of hung out until Friday. Mom took Friday off work and in the afternoon, we took a little drive down to Utah Lake to see how full it was. It was super full. The fields (called Wride's Pond) were very full of water with lots of ducks, geese and pelicans. I went to the doctor's office with Dad that afternoon, too.

On Saturday, I went to get my hair cut by Gillian and then I asked Mom to take me to the BYU library because I wanted to see how big it was.  It was heaven!  One of the books we found was called "Slang Dictionary." It was pretty funny. (Mom kept turning some of the pages, though because there were some bad words in it.) Mom took me all around the library. I hope to find a book of idioms there soon.

Then we met up with Kaitlin who had just come from a final. We talked to her for a while before she had to go to an interview. Mom let me take a lot of pictures with her little camera.

Here I am sitting next to the "Y."

Taking some pictures. A lot of them were kind of crooked because I sit crooked. But it's my point of view, I guess.

I thought this was a cool tree. Mom said it is the same kind they have planted in our front yard. I took this picture after Mom helped me get it straight.

I took this one of Kaitlin.

Mom had to help me with the picture of the Y because I couldn't see it in the camera since the sun was so bright. We shared the camera.

If you click on the picture, you will be able to see the three big pelicans on Wride's Pond.


And to top it all off, I just want to say I have been taken by angels to good heaven because it was the best spring break of my life without any school, homework, etc.

Snazolla

Mom surprised Ammon yesterday afternoon with a new suit - his very first one. He wasn't sure he liked the color at first and wanted a dark blue one. Mom said those are boring. Once he got the suit on, he decided it was pretty nice. We had tried to purchase one for Christmas a year ago but they didn't sell the suit jackets and slacks separately. If they don't sell them separately, then we can't buy them because Ammon's arms are so long and his waist to tiny that they definitely aren't the same size. This suit was sold as a separate so Mom grabbed it.

Ammon thought Mom's word, "Snazolla" was pretty dumb when she said he was a real snazolla - he looked absoultely, postively snazzy! He wore the suit to Jess' ward today and he looked pretty dapper.

April Fools

You all know that Mom loves April Fools Day. Ammon has been obsessed about playing some kind of prank on somebody this year so I quietly decided that I would play one on him. About a month ago, when I was getting him ready for bed, as I took off his shirt, I noticed that one of my knee high nylons was stuck inside his shirt sleeve. Apparently the dryer and the shirt had a love affair with that nylon. He had worn it all day at school and no one noticed. I laughed and laughed. Ammon was totally embarrassed but he insisted that I had done it on purpose. Nothing I said would convince him otherwise. So I decided that I would purposely do that for April Fools.

Unfortunately, he found one stuffed up his left sleeve just before he left for school.

Fortunately, he didn't find the second one and wore it to school!

On a more serious note, Ammon has a scheduled appointment with the bishop a week from Sunday to get a recommend to get his patriarchal blessing. He is so excited. So are we.

The Sound of Music

On Tuesday, we attended Ammon's choir concert. Once again, they really did a great job. They sang "Gloria Canon" by Haydn, "over the Sea to Skye" by Joyce Elaine Eilers and "Joshua Fit the Battle!" arranged by Jill Gallina. They joined the concert choir and chamber singers at the end to sing "River Song."

There was definitely a beautiful sound of music!

And then........ drumroll please......

Ammon earned enough money by doing chores to buy.....

"THE SOUND OF MUSIC!"

I think he has listened to it at least five times. He told me today that several songs in the movie have great life lessons. Those would be "I Have Confidence," "Climb Every Mountain," and "My Favorite Things."

He hasn't stopped talking about this movie or stopped singing the songs since he got it.

We definitely have the sound of music in our household right now.

the hils are alive with excitement

you can tell by the post that I was talking about what movie thats right the hills are alive with the sound of music i am excited i love that movie i cant wait to get it by

Exploitation

Ammon has been a little lazy lately with his blog. I decided to share something funny that he said the other day.  In our conversations last weekend, he was lamenting the fact that Lance and David had moved away. I told him that after Kevin graduates, he and Gillian may move away as well. He looked confused and asked me why. I told him that Kevin might have to find a job in a different state and they would move wherever they got a job. Ammon seemed to accept it for that moment. The next day he said, "Let me get this straight. First David moves. Then Lance moves and now you're telling me that Gillian might move too?" "Yes, that's what I'm telling you," I replied.  Then Ammon said, "Why does everybody exploit me?!"

In the middle of my laughter, I got out of him that he thought exploit meant abandon or neglect. Nope- new word, new meaning.

Guys, every time you move, you abandon him. I'm glad you are not exploiting him.

Paradise

Today we went shopping it was fun i like shopping with my parents it was like paradise i like shopping bye

success tip

pay attention to the feedback your teachers write on your assignments and tests how can you use it to improve for  next time

success tip

no matter what dont see your mistakes as failures seeing them as learning opportunities will put you on the road to future success

success tip

be an individual and think for yourself if your always going for the crowd how will you ever know what you really want

success tip

cultivate your interests many colleges and employers want people who can do other things besides studying

success tip

the best plans and goals in the world dont amount to much if you dont ensure that youre making a regular effort to reach them

success tip

healthy relationships are a key part of an enjoyable school life or work experience are you doing all you can
to get along with others

Chattervox

I have a chattervox michrophone it is cool i love it I speak like a new man now this is the greatest year ever

also david might come again april 9th cant wait bye