Men in Black

I bought these suits last year for our boys, but they only started wearing them recently after we forced them. Pretty sharp, eh? These two boys will not be so similar in height for very long. A moment to remember!

Jazz Duets at the Cardston Music Festival

On March 16th, our kids performed Jazz duets at the Cardston Music Festival. Austin is playing secondo with Sam Jackson at Primo. Alyssa is playing primo with Karah Orr at secondo. They all played really well and got first place in their respective categories. Austin and Sam got a score of 85 while the girls scored 86.

I missed the performances because I had Mark in Calgary that day for 3 appointments. The last one, Cardiology, took 2.5 hrs, by the time they did the echocardiogram, electrocardiogram and we met with the resident then the doctor. The good news...his heart is fine! The bad news, that left me leaving the hospital at 5 pm just in time for rush hour. No chance of being in Cardston for 7 pm. I am sorry I missed the performances, but glad that Granny and Grandpa, Monte and Sherylee and Rob were all there. The kids got treated to DQ afterwards, too, so it was all in all a great night.

We love Kartchners!

Well, I think this will be my grand finale post from our trip. And, it would be extremely ungrateful, if it did not express the love and gratitude we feel for the Kartchners. In case you think I am flattering them, here is an incomplete list of things they did for us.

1. provided transportation. We did rent a compact car, but still relied on help from Kartchners whenever we transported the whole family (especially Mark). Under the category of transportation, Sherylee met us at the airport and dropped us off there as well.

2. Provided amazing accommodations for us. Our family took up three bedrooms and a closet. I also arrived with suitcases all full of dirty laundry and left a week later with all clean clothes, so i guess I took advantage of their laundry quite a bit too!

2. Sherylee fed our family 3 square meals and lots of snacks, catering to our family's pickiness for a whole week.

3. Sherylee took care of all of our kids for over 3 days while I went with Rob to his education conference. This included providing all of Mark's care. Monte was out of town at the time so she did this all by herself.

4. Provided entertainment for us. Sherylee took our kids to some parks, went shopping with Alyssa and I, took me to her RS brunch, let our boys ransack their lego collection, took our kids to The Lego Store and a mall with stores Alyssa wanted to hit, watched movies with us, etc.... Sherylee also took us to the Salt River and took pictures of our family, too. She also arranged for Hal and Shelley and some of their family to come visit while we were there. Monte also helped Austin build a bow and arrow!

5. Monte and Sherylee cleaned up after us, repeatedly. My family is not the neatest, and Monte and Sherylee took care of dishes, sweeping, vacuuming, tidying, etc after us.

6. Sherylee highlighted Alyssa's hair. Alyssa wanted this done, but I had no experience so Sherylee did it while I watched and learned.

7. The final thing in my incomplete list, is that they all spent time with us and showed love for us in spite of all the work and expense we cost them. They made us feel so welcome and loved. We had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed their company and their hospitality. Kayden spent a lot of time with us too, and he really made the kids feel special! We are sad that Kartchners live so far away from us, but really love going to visit them.

Thank you Kartchners!
Monte sporting the cap used to pull out hair for highlighting. Nice look!
Who me?
Sherylee loving Mark after church.
At the salt river.

Individual Photo Shoots

Hard to photograph

If you've been wondering why you haven't had a family photo of us recently, you should realize that we are probably the most un-photogenic family in history. Between those of us who tend to blink way too often, those who are not happy with their appearance in general, those who hate having their picture taken, and the general difficulties associated with getting a decent picture that includes Mark...it would take a miracle to get a good picture of us.

On one of the first days we were in Arizona, Sherylee took us the the Salt River. It was a beautiful desert setting and a nice day. Our whole family was there and Sherylee takes pretty decent pictures so I insisted we make an attempt at a family picture. Here are some of our results....

This one is actually my favorite. Sherylee had the idea of having everyone look at Mark. That way, we didn't have to get Mark looking anywhere in particular. I wish we had taken a few more with that genius concept.
And these attempts.....

Unfortunately for me, my eyes were closed in this picture which was relatively decent of Rob and the kids....well Mark doesn't look so happy does he?

A Mathematical Formula for "Cold"

Recently I have been a few different places and where the weather was described as "cold." These include

• + 14 C and overcast/drizzly in Mesa, AZ. The picture of Austin, below, is actually on a pretty warm day in Arizona. But it illustrates the point that if you are the one wearing shorts and open-toes shoes, weather in the low teens is cold. For example, on the Sunday before we came home, we went to church. Assuming the weather would be warm, I only brought sandals for Sunday, and no tights. After church, I was cold enough that I changed into sweats with socks.

• -25 C plus the windchill when we got home from our trip to Arizona. This is cold, by any definition, but the morning after we got home, I put on a sweater, a down coat, sorel boots (rated to -40) mitts, a hat and a scarf and went out and shovelled for about 45 minutes. Even though I had ice crystals on my eyelashes, my core was actually warm from the exertion.

• +7 C, cloudy with a north wind on the day of Sarah's wedding. I thought it was a beautiful day for February, but for those who had to stand outside in their wedding clothes for pictures, it was pretty chilly.

So, what is cold really? Should a Canadian scoff at Arizonans for being cold in weather that is 40 C warmer than it is in Canada at the same moment? I'm not so sure. I feel like there is a mathematical formula to explain cold...perhaps it goes something like this...

Actual Temperature minus Expected Temperature times the Length of Exposure minus (5 times A, where A is a number between 1 and 5 where you rate the adequacy of your clothing, 1 for very adequate and 5 for very inadequate)

So here goes: 14 C in Arizona in open toed sandals and a short skirt.

expected temp= 25 C

actual temp 14 C

exposure 30 min

adequacy of clothing 4

(14-25)*1/2 -5(4)= -21.5

Magrath at -25 C while shovelling snow

expected temperature = -5 C

actual temperature = -25 C

exposure 45 min

adequacy of clothing 1

(-25- -5) *3/4 - 5(1) = -20

Sarah getting her wedding pictures taken

expected temperature = 8 C

actual temperature 7 C

exposure 2 hrs

adequacy of clothing 5

(7-8)*2 -5(5)=-27

So, Sarah gets the prize for being the most cold! But we all, in our own way, have the right to claim to be cold, when that's how we feel!

Happiness Redefined

I think my cousin Rochelle said it well. Paraphrasing, she said, "Considering that Sarah is pretty much always happy, it is really something to say that this is the happiest I have ever seen her." I was once accused by someone (not to mention any names--Joe) of having a "perma-frown." While in that case the evidence was scant, I believe I have in these photos proof that Sarah had a "perma-smile" on her wedding day. Brian doesn't look too miserable either!

Thank you, Sarah and Brian for sharing your very happy day with us.

Big Cousin, Little Cousin

Our kids really enjoyed spending a little time with John and Emma's kids who they hadn't met much before this. Austin and Preston absolutely loved little Hyrum. Austin liked to sit across from him and imitate his expressions.

While we were waiting for people to arrive for the wedding brunch, Evelyn was dancing around. I showed her and Austin and Preston how to do part of the Virginia Reel. It was fun to see my kids reaching out to their younger cousins.

In Arizona, our kids were on the other side of the coin. Kayden, who is 17, was really good to our kids. One evening, he and Alyssa and Austin had some "teenager" talking time. Other times, Preston could be seen on his lap watching TV. The picture above is the boys 3 deep on a chair during the Kartchners' home teaching visit.

Co-ordinating Cousins

The fun began on January 1 when Liz and I with Rob, Anna and Alyssa went shopping in Provo. There was a big sale at Dillards--50% off the lowest ticketed price! We were in search of dresses for Sarah's nieces to wear to her wedding. The store was a zoo--no two dresses in a single style were on the same rack. We persevered, however, and found all the purple dresses in these pictures. Liz found Riley's dress by some miracle on our third trip to Dillards on an unexpected rack. The little girl dresses came from JC Penney's and Liz had to hunt all over several locations of the store to find the appropriate numbers and sizes.

Sarah's purple dress has a story too. I tried on and bought two dresses that I really liked at Dillards too. January 1 is Sarah's birthday. We met up with her and Brian that evening in SLC as they were getting back from their trip back east. I let Sarah try on both dresses and choose her favorite--and it became her "going away" dress.

Anyway, the shopping was only the first fun. The bigger excitement was seeing the girls in their matching dresses. The boys also somewhat coordinated in their dress clothes.

Grandma and grandpa Prete are all tied up with 10 grandsons and 10 granddaughters. Unfortunately, Hyrum is missing from the boys picture.

Any Relation?

On Sarah's wedding day, in the morning, we had brunch for the families at Kneaders. It was super good. Our family sat across from John and his daughter Evelyn. Emma, John's wife, had stayed back with their baby Hyrum so he could get his morning nap. I think it is fair to say that Emma is a very conscientious parent and John is more laid back. Anyway, many of us ordered french toast for breakfast. It came with a cup of whipping cream and a few strawberries on top. Rob and I had fun encouraging Evelyn in eating her whipping cream. First she ate with a spoon, then a knife and after a while, Rob told her she could probably get more if she licked the cup. All the while I was taking pictures and video. She ended up looking like this.

Later that evening we learned where she got that tendency to have her food all over her face.....I think we can safely say it comes from the Prete side.

Family Swim

On the day before Sarah's wedding, most all our family was in Salt Lake already, but we couldn't start setting up for the reception until the building was available at 7:30 p.m. To give us a chance to be together that day, I invited everyone to come swimming at our hotel. The arranged time was 3:30. It was classic Prete punctuality--we were there 15 minutes early, Joe got there with his family at 4:15, John 15-20 minutes after that and mom, dad and Sam just as we needed to leave at 4:50. The water in the swimming pool was really cold and the hot tub was about the right temperature for a swimming pool. We all had fun, mostly in the hot tub. We moms enjoyed visiting at water's edge. I can't express how much I love seeing the cousins together.

Following swimming we had dinner at the Golden Corral. Almost our whole family was there (minus the Bryner men/boys). Also in attendance were Aunt Babe, Uncle Bud and his wife Bev. Sarah's friend Wendy was there as well as a contingent of Kohrman's. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of dinner. I guess I was too busy eating!