004 - Fourth Weekly Update from the Utah Ridleys - Songs, "Opera," Kung Fu, and Bike Skills

The shots I'm attaching in this update are from a few weeks back. They depict scenes from Christa's wedding which I thought you all might appreciate. Disclaimer: No grooms were actually harmed in the making of these photographs.

Family Scripture Time

We've been working on scripture mastery scriptures along with our breakfast reading of Mosiah 22 . So this evening when Matthew wascoming down the stairs, Emily heard him announce, several times, "Behode: Dis is my wuk!" We have found the following fun links that help the kids learn the scriptures that we're working on so far. Seems to work really well:

http://lds.about.com/library/bl/seminary/songs-bm/j-Mosiah2-17.mp3

http://lds.about.com/library/bl/seminary/songs-ot/01-Moses-1-39.mp3

http://lds.about.com/library/bl/seminary/songs-ot/20-Jeremiah-16-16.mp3

http://lds.about.com/library/bl/seminary/songs-ot/02-Moses-7-18.mp3

Apostles Song (video link)

A Night at the Opera (sort of)

Saturday, Becky and Matt came over to watch the yahoos while Emily and I went to the O.C. Tanner Gift of Music concert, "An American Songbook"

at the Conference Center. We met Christa and Steve there for the second half and had a good time all around. Performing were the Utah Symphony Orchestra , Brian Stokes Mitchell, and The Mormon Tabernacle Choir among others I'd never heard of. I appreciated the they played some John Williams. :) As the MoTab site sums it up, they played:

"American composers Richard Rogers, George M. Cohan, Irving Berlin...among others and will include selections from shows such as Man of La Mancha, South Pacific, and Ragtime. It will finish with a patriotic flourish of songs such as "America the Beautiful," "God Bless America," and a salute to the Armed Forces.

So it wasn't exactly an opera, but it was more culture than I'm accustomed to [having grown up with the cows and all...(groan)] and one of the main singers was a world-renown opera soprano. So that factors in there somewhere. Steve and Christa came out on the balcony beneath the hanging gardens as the event concluded to gaze upon the waterfall, the lights of the town, and

the temple and talk in the sometimes-rainy evening.

Kung-Fu Training

Monday was new hire orientation for me at Provo Canyon School. The boys on my caseload are effectively without a therapist while I was in meetings all day learning about benefits, policies, and service excellence. Tuesday I got to train in what to do when I'm choked, kicked, punched, bit, or otherwise assaulted at work. We trained on how to do "Handle with Care" restraints and take-downs including "the wrap" and "supine" for when kids get particularly out of control and might hurt themselves or others. This was all a different form of the same safety material I was trained on at my last job. I refer to it as "The Yearly Kung-Fu lesson."

Riding a Two-Wheeler

Lastnight, the family recreated the traditional scene of Americana in our own culdesac - with mom looking on as dad jogs behind the oldest child on her bicycle wobbling forward and slowly the father pulls his hand away from steadying the seat and the child is launched forth before she knows it to navigate on her own. She had a few close scrapes and kept hesitatingly breaking before she'd gone far and after a couple encounters with curbs, she was crying in the frustration of it all. But Hayley kept going with a little encouragement from her mother and

though she had not mastered it, had at least faced her fears and stuck with it until her parents called it a night because it was getting too dark to see her brothers zipping around in their tricycles. Hayley has been so hesitant to try riding on her bike ever since some unsuccessful attempts (with training wheels) almost two years ago now. When I came home this evening, Hayley beamed at me at the door and reported that she "learned to ride a two-wheeler today!" We are all pleased and excited for Hayley's new skill.

And Matthew can pedal his trike!

A Cat-Nap, Martial Arts Practice, and Toilet Tag

After congratulating Hayley, I sat down to eat dinner with Steve and Christa who had come to join our family for a day-late Family Home Evening. I want to first say that I don't blame their lesson about Christa's mission to the Church Historical Sights before I admit that I managed to rudely fall asleep as they presented. I guess I was worn out from the day's Kung-Fu? But after my ten-minutes of repose, I was quite lively and as we walked out to engage in Steve's "Toilet Tag" activity in the back yard, I demonstrated one of the day's take-downs on Christa who suddenly found herself securely sitting on the deck unable to flee and indicated that she felt it was quite effective. We all enjoyed "flushing" one another in Steve and Christa's variation on freeze tag as the sunset pink on our very own Mount Timpanogos.