Catching Up!

I'll try to catch up with some of the things that have been going on over the past 2 months.

For a back to school youth activity we had a Roll-your-own-sushi party at our house.

 I dressed for the event.

Everyone made their own.  Not bad.

We had a great turnout.  Quite a few youth from other wards in the stake showed up.

(One of those youth borrowed my outfit and wore it to the Halloween dance on the weekend - he told everyone he was Papahashi)

The first weekend in September we went down to Southern Alberta.   Judy and I went to the temple and then we went to PB to visit grandma and grandpa T.   We drove out to Barnwell to pick some corn.

I could barely lift the sack of corn.

So I had Judy do it.

Grandpa was eating it as fast as we could pick it.

We also dug some potatoes.

We drove around Raymond to visit Grandma A.

The next weekend I did something new.   I went paintballing with the Young Men in the ward.

Judy was asking if this was really a Young Men's activity or a leader's activity.   We had 2 young men there and 4 leaders.  (2 is actually a pretty good turn out).

We participated in the city-wide food drive again.  Its sponsored by the Church.   Last year we made it into the Guiness Book of World.  This year we didn't break the record but we were close.

Thanksgiving Weekend (Canadian) we had a ward youth temple trip on Friday evening.

Here's the young women.  Those same 2 young men who went paintballing came later.

The YW stayed over night in Cardston.  One of their leaders moved to Cardston in the summer and invited them down for a sleepover.   Jamie and Jenelle stayed for that while Judy and I went Raymond for the night.   Alana was also down but she had a car so she did her own thing.   The next morning we headed back to the temple.   After the temple we picked up Jamie and Jenelle and headed back to Raymond to attend the funeral of Judy's uncle Gordon C.

Sunday we headed for PB and on Monday we had thanksgiving dinner with Grandma and Grandpa T.

Grandma took the picture.

Last Friday Alana came home from work with 2 tickets to the Calgary Stampeders vs the Edmonton Eskimos football game for Judy and I.

Stamps won 30 - 7.

We thought it might be cold so we bundled up but it was a very pleasant night.   Not like the next morning.

It was really coming down.

Oh yeah - on Friday there was a big first for Jenelle as well.

She had her first Big Mac ever.  Is that a "congratulations"?

More to come.

It's Been a While

Lots to update but first I want to share my favorite traffic sign with everyone.

Its a "WARNING - Juggler on Unicycle ahead" sign.   You can even see the heads of the folks in the audience.

(its actually a sign that they put up when they repave the roads.  Its to warn motorcyclists that there are groves in the road - It still looks more like a juggler on a unicycle to me)

It makes me smile everytime I see it.

So what do you call them?

This is one of those random thoughts.


What do you call these?

In Hawaii they call them slippers.  My kids call them flip-flops.  

I grew up calling them something else.   My kids cringe and/or laugh when I use that word.   I know them as "thongs".   Apparently that means something else to them.   I will says something like  "Has anyone seem my thongs" and the girls go nuts.

Well, I was at our local Calgary Co-op the other day and look what I saw.

  

The sign says they have Camo thongs on sale - I couldn't find them.

(This was for you Wilma - the only other person in the world who will think its funny)

  

If Calgary Co-op refers to them as thongs - they must be thongs.  I'm not as crazy as my kids think I am.

  

I did some research.  Here is what I found.
  

Did you know that thongs were inspired by the woven Japanese zori?   (Aren't the Japanese great?)

They are called flip-flops because of the noise they make when you walk.  They are thought to have been invented in New Zealand.  Flip-flops are also known as jandals (japanese sandal) in New Zealand, chappel in India, slip-slops in South Africa, go-aheads in some South Pacific islands, ojatas or chancetas in Spanish speaking countries and chinelos in Brazil.  

And they are still called "thongs" in Australia, Canada and the United States.  (So I'm not alone)

Trivia: On July 19, 2005, some members of Northwestern University's national champion women's lacrosse team were criticized for wearing "flip-flops" to the White House to meet with President George W. Bush. The women pointed out that their shoes were not "beach shoes," but were dressier thong sandals. 


   

Where's the Takahashi?

Here's my version of Where's Waldo - Stake Youth Conference Version.

In each picture try to find Jenelle and/or Jamie and/or me.

On the weekend our Stake had Youth Conference.  On Saturday we went to a local Boy Scout camp for the day.

It started with a delicious and nutritious breakfast.

  

The breakfast club.

  

They brought in a guest speaker.  (There were more youth than it looks like in this picture)

  

Waiting for the guest speaker to begin.  Both Jamie and Jenelle are in this picture.  Can you find them?

  

After the speaker they broke into groups. 

  

Find the tourist who thought he was in Banff - He lost the rest of his Japanese tour group.
 

Jamie and Jenelle were in the same group.   Their first activity was lashing.   I didn't have any pictures of them getting lashed.  Not pretty.   In reality, they had to lash together 3 pieces of wood and use it to transport teammates out of Jerusalem - like Lehi and his family.
 

The next stop was archery.  They first talked about the story of Nephi and his bow.
  

  

Then it was time for lunch.

The yellow group table.

  

The theme was Be One with the Believers.  They all got a t-shirt.

  

After lunch they tried to hit Samuel the Lamanite with water balloons.

Learning the finer points of the water balloon launcher

  

Getting ready to launch

  

Who's launching in this picture?  (Hint - if you zoom in you can see the color of her shorts)

  

They took a turn trying to protect Samuel the Lamanite.

  

Someone just took a bullet for Samuel.

  

Next was a battle between the Nephites and the Lamanites.   The swords were nylon stocking filled with flour.   If you hit someone it would leave a big white mark and they were "dead".

  

  

Then they had to cross the waters on dry "ground" like Moses crossed the Red Sea.

  

 

They had to walk a tight rope.

  

They found that if they sat on the "rope" it took out the slack and it was easier to cross.

  

He's attempting a back flip.   He succeeded.

  

The last stop was the tug of war and beach volleyball station.  No scripture story for this one.

  

I think that everyone had a good time at the youth conference.   

I got to go because the bishops and other youth leaders were all invited to attend.   It was strange for me to be there without Judy.  For the past 6 or 7 years she was always at these events.  First as the Stake YW Camp director and then as a counselor in the Stake YWs and then as the Stake YW President.  Erika commented that she did not go to a Stake activity during her YW experience without having her parents there.  

  

I've been attending these Stake Youth Conferences since Candi was a youth.  I used to do a video of the activities that they would show at the Saturday night dance.  That was before digital cameras and easy video software.  I would use a video camera - I would have to digitize it in real time and then edit it and render it back to video.   I would start in the afternoon after the activities.   I can't believe I would do it in time for the end of the dance.   With digital cameras it because easier just to take lots of pictures and do a slide show.

  

 Since I've been the bishop they haven't asked me to do the pictures but on Friday night I noticed that there was no one taking pictures so on Saturday I brought my camera.   Pres Stephen also brought a camera and between the two of use we took over 1000 pictures.   On Saturday night I picked about 100 pictures and I set up a slide show that ran during the dance - just like the good old days.