Abe Astair and Betsy Rogers

 

Thanks to my dear Andrea and her expert instruction we hosted a ward activity just before Valentine's Day-- Vintage Dancing!

We had a great turn out and an excellent time was had by all.  Cannon was one of the few youth that came, and afterwards, he said, "I was a doubter, but that actually was really fun."  So there you have it.

There was one unfortunate incident, when in our dancing exuberance, Abe elbowed my in the forehead and I got an immediate and quite painful goose egg.  Small price to pay:)

On Valentine's day we got to do more dancing!   Andrea hosted an evening of dinner and dance instruction.  Abe and I like to joke that a couples social dance class we signed up for at BYU was nearly the death of our marriage right when we got started.  Something about the class and dancing together just didn't work for us.  Well, it wasn't the class, it was us.  We quickly decided we had better drop the class for our marriage's sake.  So this evening of dancing together and enjoying it SO MUCH was 25 years and lots of living in the making.  I guess we're both (mostly me) a little easier to work with than we used to be.

So much fun and we weren't too shabby.  In this picture, the instructor is using me to demonstrate.  

Good friends are the best.

And speaking of dances, Faith (the girl in the middle) had a really fun time at the Sweethearts dance for Skyridge High School.  Not her high school, but since she is homeschooled, she doesn't much care what school it was for.  She went with a group of swim friends and her date Jan (pronounced "yawn") is an exchange student from Switzerland.  He speaks German and some English.  He is on her Lehi Aquatics team.

Behold, the corsage and boutonniere yours truly procured the day of the dance because the homeschooler and the foreign exchange student didn't get the memo of how these things are customarily done.  And, if I may say, I accomplished said task even while being "not highly favored" by said homeschooler.  Go me. #momsareawesomelikethat

Snowshoeing Is So Fun

 

Abe and I had the BEST time going snowshoeing up around Tibble Fork a couple weeks ago.  

We went with Russ and Stephanie Hansen because 1. We like hanging out with them and 2. They had extra snow shoes and knew where to go.  

I really love hiking and snowshoeing is basically winter hiking in snow.  I want more!

Sometimes our path was rather adventurous!

It was breathtakingly beautiful.  Just what my soul needed.

I had only been snowshoeing once before and I really love it so much! I can't wait to go again.  Good thing we just got a ton more snow, so hopefully it will be around in the mountains a little longer.  Next up, I want to try cross-country skiing.

When Last We Met

 When last we met, I shared about a Regions swim meet that took place near the end of January.  As I write this, we are now near the end of February, and I sit at yet another swim meet.  This one is a three-day Utah Senior State Championship down in St. George.  Just Faith and I are on this trip and she will be on deck with her team for most of the time each day.  Which leaves me with many, many hours to self-entertain in the stands.  To be honest, I am more than okay with this arrangement.  I'm quite looking forward to the next few days.  My backside-- not so much.  

I love this picture of George and several Deacons from the ward.   I see four good friends- sticking together, supporting, and helping each other. 

Behind them, are shadows-- technically their shadows,--but I see the darkness representing darkness, challenges, the hard things in life, the adversary.  Visible, but of no actual substance.  Frightening, but unable to actually cause harm or halt progress.  

But behind those shadows, is the decidedly larger, solid, immovable, unyielding structure of the temple.  The building with the firmest foundation, where they will go to formally enter into a relationship with their Heavenly Father.  He is all substance, and his work is to help us progress.  

Our good friends, the Snows have season tickets to BYU basketball-- and sometimes they are very good to us and offer us tickets they aren't able to use.  A little while back, Abe took Peter and Greta down to a game.

Their first Cougar Tail

I think Greta's face is saying-- hey, that's too big of a bite!  #largefamilytroubles

Don't worry, Greta-- there is enough for everyone:)

It's a terribly blurry picture, but this was the funniest thing about the evening.  Faith was also down at the game, on a double date.  What are the chances that in that whole huge arena, our gang would end up sitting RIGHT IN FRONT OF FAITH and her gang?  Oh, the horror!  Actually, they were really good sports about it and everyone had a good laugh.  

Occasionally, George has a little babysitting job at our house for a cutie little neighbor kid.  They are pretty much best friends:)

Greta was very industrious at the Museum of Natural Curiosity.

George and Ryder played a Trade-it-Up game recently.  They started with a penny and went around the neighborhood, seeing who was willing to trade for something of more value.  They stopped the game after several rounds because they had acquired this little beauty-- a dog skeleton with red, light-up eyes and an electronic barking noise.   Surely nothing could be of more value than that!

Our dog Grover got seriously spooked!

Not too long ago, Cannon asked me, "If I will juggle for 10 minutes straight, can I get 10 minutes off my piano practice time?"

Okay.  Go for it.  So he did.  It turns out juggling for 10 minutes straight is more physically exhausting than he anticipated.

Greta tried to make the same deal if she did the splits for 10 minutes.  Alas, she didn't have the patience to sit there for that long.  No deal.  Peter also offered to do ballet jumps for 10 minutes.  When he stopped at the three-minute mark to get a drink of water, I told him the deal was off.  He was grossly offended.

Regions Swim Meet 2023

 

We are headed toward the end of the high school swim season.  Faith had good races at the last regular season meet.  Click her to see her 200 IM.

Faith is 3rd from the bottom.

It might seem hard to understand why a swimmer can get so excited about the improvement in such tiny increments of time.  But half a second (or less) in a race is an eternity and usually means the difference between several finishing places.  Any improvement in time is cause for great celebration.  Much more important than what place you get in the race

The following week was 6A Region 3 Championships.  This is a very important meet for the swimmers.  They taper for it-- meaning they really rest and fuel their bodies leading up to it.  They somehow get their bodies into very tight (and very expensive) tech suits and they drop time like CRAZY!  Generally, they don't improve on their times during the season, because they are working their bodies so hard.  Then they finally give them a break and a little time to heal.  It is so satisfying to see so much hard work pay off.

I don't recommend an arm wrestling contest with her.  She's been able to beat me for years.  Also, this happy face came just after a spectacular swim in the 100 butterfly, earning her a 2nd place finish.  She also bested her PR by over 2 seconds.  

Here is the video-- she is the fourth lane from the top in a white cap

She also dropped time and got 3rd in the 100 back.  

This was quite the speedy little 4x100 freelay.  They got first place! 

She swam and medalled in all four races she was in.  Next up will be highschool State Championships in a couple weeks.

Riverton girls were Region Champs!  The boys were 2nd.  

Coach Powers is pretty great!

January 2023 Part 2

 

Central Utah Ballet's Senior Company participated in YAGP.  Click here to see a video of a parent performance they did just previous to the competition.

It doesn't happen often, but it is such a treat when it does-- going out with the former Stake Young Men's Presidency that Abe was a part of a few years back.  We are all still good friends, and there are not many people I enjoy more than this group.  Good, good people.

Elinor and I had the best time visiting Asian City-- a supermarket for all things Asian.  We went in preparation for Korean New Year on Feb. 22nd.  We had invited Brandon's family over to celebrate and we wanted to get some Korean snack foods.  I was not brave enough to actually try to cook any Korean food.  But I will say, there are some really tasty treats to be had at Asian City!  I had to remind myself that just because I can't read the entire food label, does not mean I ought to eat as much as I want of said treat.

We had a lovely time-- we ate, we played games and it was great to get to know them better.

They taught us an advanced Korean version of Rock, Paper, Scissors.  It was way fun!

Peter and his buddies.  I adore this picture.

Abe had a birthday!

We had a little family dinner and celebration.

Greta had her first real violin recital last weekend.  She did so well.  Click here to hear her performances.

We love her teacher, Diane, so much!

Peter did well at his taekwondo testing last weekend.  He is on the last belt before his black belt but it takes about six months to be able to test for his black belt.