Night to Shine

 As part of Tim Tebow's Foundation, proms are held all over the nation for people with special needs.  They provide opportunities to get their hair, nails and makeup done, have dresses which have been donated, and provide a whole evening of activities.  This was Jena's first year and she loved it.

I wasn't able to take her to get her hair done because I had a conference in Salt Lake.  So Jena rode the bus home with her friend Kaitlyn and then her mom took them both.  They had a great time doing it together.  Then I met them back at Kaitlyn's house with Jena's dress so I could help her get dressed and head to the dinner and dance.  They were each assigned a Buddy for the evening.  Jena's buddy was named Kristy (sorry no picture).  They had a nice dinner, got to ride in a limo around Ogden, danced, and had a variety of activities to do throughout the night.  Jena knew lots of people there which just made the whole evening that much more fun.

She wore the dress she wore to her senior prom and she looks gorgeous.

 Her silver nails........

The dance hall

 After her long and very fun day......

A day in the life of Jena......she has some nice events in her life.  We so appreciated all those that made the night fun for her,

Fortune cookie saga continues

I brought food for our class on Tuesday night and brought Chinese food to celebrate Chinese New Year the weekend before.............

This was my fortune at class:

The irony of it was that our subject in class that night was the process of hiring and managing employees as well as how to interview and be interviewed for jobs.  This fall I will be looking for my first full time job since my summer jobs during college so I hope this fortune brings me good luck.

Beautiful day in Utah County

This was the weekend my brother was in town, mostly to spend some time with his daughter, Anna, who is a senior at BYU.  He had always wanted to come up and spend time with her and enjoy BYU with her and time is running out (unless of course she stays for graduate school in the future).  Luckily I was able to find some time to share with them. (Gary and Jena had to stay in Syracuse for bowling.) 

It started at the Payson LDS Temple where we met to attend a session together.  I got there a few minutes early and walked around.  It was a perfect day with blue skies and clear air.  We have been enjoying some rain this week which cleaned up the inversion for while.  I had never been to the Payson Temple before and it was gorgeous--inside and out.  There was lots of original art inside and the look of the furniture was just a bit different than you often see.  It was a very sweet experience to be there and it was sweeter to share it with Anna and Rick.

view to the west

fountains on the east side of the temple

view of the mountains to the east of the temple

the puffy clouds over the west side of the valley

this is the west side of the temple
Sun peaking over the eastern mountains

 Anna has some great "selfie" skills and took this one of the three of us after the session.

We then headed to downtown Provo and had lunch at the Station 22 on Center Street.  I had a BBQ pork sandwich and tomato soup which was excellent.  Anna and Rick had chicken and waffles. Seriously, I have mocked this whole "chicken and waffle" thing.  It just doesn't sound like they belong together.  However after seeing their meals and hearing how great they were, I think we are heading back there and giving them a try.

Downtown Provo

The three of us then headed to visit Ben.  Rick and Anna were the first visitors Ben has been able to have other than Gary , Jena and I since July.  Ben was a bit quiet, but he was glad to have visitors.  He has been fighting a cold most of the week.  He invited Anna to try to get a visitor pass and come and visit on the unit.  I guess BYU students can become volunteers and actually hang out on the unit to provide some social interactions, so she is checking into it.  We played some rounds of Uno and ate M&Ms.

It was a short visit but so nice.  Did I mention how fun it is to see my siblings?  Two down and my sister Valerie is coming this week.

Jena the skier

Because the parking is so crazy at Snowbasin on Friday afternoon, I have started dropping Jena off with all of her gear near the ski school and she pushes her stuff up with a little cart and starts getting ready to go skiing.

When I headed up to join her, I saw her skies stuck in the snow.  This is normally the spot where the ski rack is but for some reason they moved it away.  Jena figured it out herself and simply stuck them upright in the snow.

I appreciate her "can do" attitude!

I had her pose them when she was heading out to ski.

A very busy day at Snowbasin.  (Jena is the one in the orange and blue) Here they are waiting for the ski lift.  She did a great job skiing up on Becker this week.  Her teacher is very happy with her progress and increase in speed.

It was overcast and windy so I was happy for my seat indoors at the lodge where I worked on homework and enjoyed the beautiful scenery while still staying warm.

I love watching her ski down the mountain!!!!