Summer Work and Play

School's out!  Our summer has officially begun.

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL.  Kara had a 1/2 day of school on Monday, making the last day for us June 22.  Neighboring towns and districts went to school an additional 2 or 3 days, since they took a couple more snow days than we did this past, very snowy winter.  So because of that, we feel lucky!  We "only" went to school through June 22!  ha.

BACKYARD S'MORES.  She hosted a "games" afternoon and "camping" sleepover for those who could stay overnight, where they put up the tent in the backyard.

 We also just got one of those little firepit things, to build a backyard fire and roast marshmallows!  It's not really a pit.  It's a metal bowl on legs.   We fought off the mosquitoes and made s'mores.

Here they are playing volleyball...














then the goofy balloon relay game where you are trying to run up and pop the balloon by sitting on it.

Popsicles, ravioli dinner, and s'mores.

There were about 15 during the day, and 7 could sleep over.  The weather cooperated and I believe a good time was had by all.

CAMP COUNSELOR.  Kara is currently doing a "CIT" program at the high school. Counselor In Traning.  Each week, the town of Wayland (parks & rec) have a different summer camp for elementary aged kids. They have paid counselors, and they also have 2 CIT's help out.  These CIT's can then, the next summer and beyond, apply to be the actual counselors next summer, or whenever.

She's helping with this week's camp and next week's camp.  The kids can be Kindergarten through 5th grade, I think.

Teresa has an interesting combination going on this summer...

LEARNING ABOUT KNIVES.  She is going through training to be a sales rep for Vector, selling Cutco knives.

She will make appointments to present them in people's homes.  Lots of college aged kids do it.  We figure it will be good for her to learn about pyramid-structured companies.  For every Mary Kay, Nu Skin, Silpada, Pampered Chef, etc., she'll have an idea of how they work.  One perk with Vector is, she'll get a little bit of pay for DOING the presentation.  It's not ALL commission.  Of course she'll get paid more if people buy lots of knives.  But at least she'll get a little for showing them in the first place.

DOG BOARDING. The other opportunity came up just a couple of days ago.  She interviewed at Best Friends Pet Care, just about 2.5 miles down the road from us, and got the job!

 It's a boarding/grooming/training place for dogs, and there is some cat boarding too.  She could be out front checking animals in, or cleaning the kennels: they can board something like 400 pets at the time, so there are lots of kennels.  She could take dogs out for walks, or "babysit" the dog rooms.  Small dogs and large dogs socialize in different rooms, and staff has to monitor them and play with the dogs when that is their assignment.  There are also people working in the kitchen, washing dog dishes and preparing their food.

For one week in July, she'll go to YW Camp and be one of the youth leaders.

Anyway, we think it will be a good mix!  She'll enjoy being around the dogs so much at Best Friends, and she'll learn some new things at Vector.

It is weird to think that Teresa has less than 8 weeks before she goes to BYU.


STILL EMPLOYED.  Frank just (digitally) signed the (email) paper that says he still has a job.  HP will officially split into 2 companies on November 1, and he'll be with Hewlett Packard Enterprise.  Here's the logo.

I know...it's a green rectangle.  A little boring, but I'm sure that many hours of thought, discussion, meetings and philosophy went into that logo!  We are VERY happy Frank still has a job, and a good one at that.  We'll take the green rectangle :)

Have a good weekend!  Kari

Softball or Tennis, anyone?

Just a quick post on Teresa and Kara trying out new sports this past spring!  I was excited that both of them were willing to try something new.

SOFTBALL. Teresa had not participated in an 'official" spring sport at the high school...for her first 2 years of high school, she played Ultimate (frisbee) with David and his friends after school sometimes.

But this year, she had some volleyball friends who said, "You should come try softball in the spring!" She thought about it all winter, then signed up for it in March.

Teresa batting

Teresa running out to center field, on right

Teresa "on deck," left

It turns out, she does really well with softball!  The coach was a little disgusted that she waited until her senior year to try it.  She had to learn the rules, since we are not huge baseball fans.  We hadn't watched it on t.v. or gone to many professional games.

"Senior Night," 2 coaches + 3 seniors

But she is actually a good player, and she won some awards at the Spring Sports Night.  One for having a good attitude that supported and lifted the team throughout the season, and the other was "Most Improved." She held multiple "best" records for the whole team, from just this season.

TENNIS.  Kara also tried a new sport.  She was interested in tennis, and started by being in a camp last summer.  Then during the winter, she took some lessons and practiced some with a girl who was already on the high school team.

doubles, back left

serving

She signed up, and in spite of the snow making it impossible to actually practice for the first 3 weeks of the season, she got to play lots of "doubles" matches with the JV team.

Her award at the end of the season talked about how she had a positive attitude, and everyone on the team liked to be paired with her.  That she enjoyed playing, and was happy with any partner.

Overall, this has been a fun spring for us, too, to watch their games and learn the sports with them.  I didn't even know how tennis scored points, actually.  And softball has some rules that I had never heard of!

Once the snow finally melted, they had some good opportunities to learn the sport and play.

Graduation

Hola!

I have done a pretty poor job of keeping up with our family blog!  I am, however, staying on top of David's mission blog...I will make a better attempt at doing both :)

intricate wood carvings

We had a great week, with 3 grandparents here, for Teresa's high school graduation!  I'm so glad they were all willing to make it work.  It is a very "eventful" time of year, and we so appreciate the support of Grammie D, Poppa Dave and Grandma Kay.

They all were supposed to come the same day, but the Whitesells' flight got delayed and changed, so they got to come into Boston by way of Wisconsin (?!?!?!), about 8 hours late.  So Frank picked them up at midnight.  Blah.

this "quilt" is carved from wood! Not joking.

Jenga!!

Boston Temple

We did get to go to the temple the next morning, and had some family names on both the Whitesell side and on the Webb side.
 It was so nice, to go to that peaceful place, and think about family and our ancestors a few generations back.

I was tutoring the next day, so Frank took them to Salem for an awesome museum visit and a walking tour of the town.  They mentioned the witch trials briefly, but there's so much more rich history of that place!  And they did, actually, film a couple of episodes of Bewitched there in the 1970's, so they have a statue of Elizabeth Montgomery commemorating that.

Teresa w/favorite teacher Ms. Lehmann

Teresa had lots of activities every day and almost every night, so we didn't really see her much.  But we played some games, had 1 or 2 dinners together, and there was a yummy banana cream pie by the combined efforts of Grammie D and Grandma Kay!

Banana Cream Pie with meringue :)

Sis picture, after the ceremony :)

And of course went to the graduation ceremony on Sunday afternoon.

It was a little stressful, watching the weather for the 10 days before.  If it was going to rain and they needed to move the ceremony inside, that would mean fewer people could go.  4 tickets per graduate, and we would have had to scramble to find some more tickets!  Angela came too.  This summer she's in an apartment in Boston, working a couple of part-time marketing internships.

So, here are a few pictures of our graduate:

Teresa & Astronomy tchr Mr. Rideout, with Sam photobombing

Birthdays, Spring, and College Plans

Hello, All--

last year or so...

EVENTUALLY SPRING.  Looking out the window today, you would think spring might be coming after all!  It's sunny, with blue skies.  Then you walk outside and it's only in the 30's, so winter reminds us: there's still a little ways to go...  Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 50's though.  That is better.

This above is  a flower photo from years past...we are nowhere NEAR having flowers yet, but I can dream, can't I! :)

KARA TURNS 15!  Well Kara had a birthday on Saturday!  15 years old, can't imagine how that happened.  Here are some baby pictures.  I posted a couple of these on facebook.

3 yrs

6 mos

last fall, for her friend's Quincinera

Hollywood seems to like making movies out of trilogies, these days.  Last year, the movie "Divergent" came out the weekend of Kara's birthday, and we took a group of girls to the movie.  This year, Book 2 in the series, "Insurgent," came out her birthday weekend!  So she had a brunch birthday party,

complete with a waffle bar and games.  Then we took a caravan to the theater for 'Insurgent."  Including our family and 2 of Teresa's friends, there were 21 of us watching the movie!

let's go to the movies

 I liked this 2nd movie better than the first movie, for once.  I think a good time was had by all.  Oh, of course, she did have to make all the cupcakes and party favors...she finished them at midnight.

UNIVERSITY FOR TERESA.  Teresa has put in some more study and research, including online program comparisons and an informative conversation with the Department Head of Wildlife Science.  After all that, plus thinking and more conversations with many people, Teresa has decided to go to BYU Provo this fall!  We think that's pretty cool.  She's been online looking at housing options and mealplans, distances between housing and classes, etc.

from last fall

She can go online Friday afternoon to sign up for housing.  She won't know her roommate.  But there are a handful of kids from our stake who are there already, that she knows.  There are also a few senior girls she knows from camp, who will be going as freshmen too this fall.  She won't have to choose classes for another couple of months.

That about covers our excitement for the weekend!  We are plugging along as the snow melts.  Now we just watch for rain coming, and hope it comes in small doses.  So far, so good :)

Kari

Dubai part 2

GRAND MOSQUE.  The UAE, or United Arab Emerites, is made up of 7 states, or 7 emirates.  Abu Dhabi is the biggest "state," or the next emirate over from Dubai.  Abu Dhabi has the "Grand Mosque," the largest and most elaborate mosque in the world.

It is also the only mosque open to the public, and they offer tours of this mosque.

 Wow, I must say.
 A chandelier consisting of 12 tons of Italian glass, assembled in Germany.

The world's largest single carpet, woven by the hands of 1300 carpet knotters, working around the clock for 12 months

.  Marble columns throughout, inlaid with mother of pearl.  The mosque can accommodate 40,000 worshipers at once.

Women are asked to wear long sleeves to the wrist, and pants to the ankles, while visiting the Grand Mosque.  If you don't have that, they have burqas (robes with hoods) for you to put on over your clothes.

We wore our own clothes, and Lori provided scarves for us :)

EATING GOLD.  After the Grand Mosque, we went to have lunch in The Palace.

 It is actually a palace, and it used to be the home of a prince, or something.  Of course, it got too small (?!?!) so he built a bigger and better one down the road, and then what is one to do with an old, used palace?  Imagine the conversation:  Well let's make it into a restaurant, shall we?  With some shops and offices in one wing.

People will want to take pictures of this huge palace, but we don't want just anyone coming in.  So how about you cannot come in unless you have reservations for a meal, or ok, at least drinks, in our restaurant.

 Here, we will be one of the only places anywhere, to serve Camel Burgers.  And as an extra touch, we will serve them with shavings of GOLD on top!  Yes, people will love it!"

So we ate camel burgers, with amazing sweet potato fries,

and

desserts to DIE for...with gold shavings on top!

GOLD BAR ATM.  Also in the Palace was a Gold ATM.  You could put your credit card in and buy a pure gold bar.  They were small.  The cheapest was 650 dirhams, or about $175.00 US dollars.

The price was updated every 60 seconds, to reflect the change in the price of gold.

 Maybe that was for 5 grams of gold...about the size of 2 postage stamps?  These "bars" of gold were very small.

DESERT SAFARI.  One afternoon we went "Dune Bashing," which just means everybody loads into a Toyota 4Runner, and a Professional Maniac Driver drives up and down the dunes so you feel like you're on a roller coaster!  The sand goes on and on and on.

After our dune bashing, they drove us to a camp for evening activities.

 There were camel rides and an Arabic dinner.  Don't worry, the camel rides were SUPER-short, just enough time to snap some pictures.

But of course we did take pictures.

The entertainment was dancing...a belly dancer first, then a "whirling dervish." I didn't even know what those were, but they spin and spin like there's no tomorrow.

Internet photo. You can't capture speed in a picture.
He was Really. Fast.

Then they have props and throw things in the air, and set fire to them, and all the time they are spinning and spinning.  I really couldn't believe it..it made me dizzy just watching the guy.

How in the world he did not simply pass out, from the blood and oxygen being pulled away from his brain and heart, to his outer extremities, I have no idea.  He was pretty wild.

TALLEST BUILDING.  The Burj Khalifa is currently the World's Tallest building.

 It's half a mile tall.  Half. A. Mile. Tall.

At floor 124, it has the World's Tallest observation deck.  It also has the World's Highest residence,  The views from the top are pretty amazing.

Are you noticing a trend, here?  We visited the World's largest Mall, the World's Only indoor ski resort, and saw what they claim is the World's Largest aquarium (but we went online and read that a larger one has now been built in Atlanta, Georgia).

All the biggest, tallest, widest, fastest, whatever-EST you can think of, they want to build it here!

CHURCH ON FRIDAY.  The Islamic holy day is Friday.  Many of the people work 6 days a week, and if they only get one day off, it will be Friday.  Businesses are open for their work week of Sunday to Thursday, and the weekend is Friday/Saturday.  So, we went to church on Friday.  Kind of different!

COOL-SHAPED BUILDINGS.  It was fun to see some wild architecture.  There was one downtown Dubai that twisted as it went higher and higher.

far left building: twists

 Then driving around Abu Dhabi, we saw the Hurricane Building,

Hurricane Building

and the Coin Building.

Coin Building

SKI DUBAI.  The world's only indoor ski resort: and of all places, it's at "The Mall!"  Lori said, "Oh, the best view is from this room in the Cheesecake Factory, at the end of the mall."

 So we walked in and through the restaurant like we belonged there, and she led us to a room with a window wall, where you could watch people coming down the mountain, either on skis, sleds, or these wild inflated hamster-ball things.

CAMEL PANTS. We went to the souks, or outdoor markets, one day.  Scarves for sale galore, and dresses and camels and genie lamps.

 More STUFF than you could shake a stick at!  Teresa and Kara came home with some cool camel pants.

Another day we went to the "Gold Souks,"

where the entire marketplace was gold jewelry and gold clothing and more and more gold.

 Here is an awesome ring that Teresa fell in love with.  Pretty amazing artwork in this jewelry!

Now this post is getting long, and sometimes I know it can be tedious to look at other people's vacation pictures!  I just thought I'd include these photos, since Dubai is not your average tourist spot, at least for U.S. citizens.  We wouldn't have thought of going, if Lori and Paul weren't living there.  Oh, here's a picture of us with our hosts.

 They made it such a good visit for us!

Wrapping up now.  We of course came back to bitter-winter-Boston, but it was awesome to have a whole week in February, wearing summer clothes again.

Have a great week!  Kari