Carey Family

Brian

Wherein I report the news

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The latest news:

  • Brian had surgery before Thanksgiving to repair the hole in his ear canal wall for the second time; the surgery went well but there have been some post-op complications with the incisions that haven’t been very fun for him and have made dancing difficult which is a problem when you have three dance classes in a semester.
  • Mark has mono.  Ugh!  So now we are 2 for 2 with our children and mono; he’s having a tough time getting over it with finishing up the semester and working; Lauren feels lousy, too, so they strongly suspect she has it, too.
  • Scott and I attended BYU’s Celebration of Christmas last weekend with all the choirs and Philharmonic Orchestra so we got to see Lauren play violin with the orchestra; we go to this concert every year and just love it because it’s a great beginning to the Christmas season.
  • Last Sunday was tree delivery day for me when we deliver large trees purchased at Festival of Trees; that’s the winding-up activity for Festival week and it went off without a hitch.
  • We managed to finish the Christmas decorating last Monday before BYU kids came up for dinner so we felt pretty good about that; so festive here!
  • Friday was our annual Christmas shopping marathon; the yearly endurance event yielded the majority of our shopping done, so good job for us, although I was completely exhausted by the time we got home late Friday night.
  • Scott played a piano duet at his BYU ward Christmas music fireside last night with a student in the ward; he reports that it went great.
  • I sang in Alpine’s community choir concert, Joyful Christmas Sounds, last night; I’ve only missed two years that we’ve lived in Alpine and it’s fun to sing with my pals and do Christmas music together.
  • And now for the weather report: it’s been snowing steadily since before I got up and it’s a winter wonderland out my window with a full blanket of snow on the ground and on the pines in my backyard; lovely! Glad I don’t have to go out in it…..

Back to my roots

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Yesterday I did something I haven’t done in a very long time-I volunteered in an actual public school classroom during the school day.  I make this distinction because as I was thinking about how long it’s been since I’ve done that, I made some interesting observations.  In our Florida elementary school I volunteered in the classrooms of both my boys multiple times during the school year and I had sons there for eight years.  I also did lots of volunteering for school events and PTA programs, including serving as PTA president for two years.  But I always volunteered in their classrooms and was given lots of tasks to do.  Mark was in middle school there for one year and I volunteered at PTA events at that school, but not in a classroom.

When we moved to Utah, I don’t recall ever volunteering in an actual classroom, although I asked repeatedly for opportunities, especially the two years Brian was finishing up elementary school.  During the remainder of their school years I volunteered for many school events, PTA events, and did lots of volunteer work for the choir, orchestra, and drama teachers, but not in the classrooms.  I also became more involved in PTA on a council, district, and then state level, until after the boys were done with public school my volunteer time consisted mainly of advocating at the Legislature and serving on statewide committees and Boards of Directors.  All of which are far removed from an individual public school classroom.  I loved the time I spent doing that important work and I know that some of my efforts have made a real difference in the lives of children throughout the state.  But there was something profoundly satisfying in helping in a small way to lighten the burden of one teacher in one classroom and thus affect the education of a handful of students.

There were also some interesting Circle of Life musings as I walked in the door yesterday.  I volunteered at the same junior high Mark attended eleven years ago.  We moved here a week before school started, he only knew a couple of boys he’d met once at church, and he got on the bus that first day so bravely to begin the terrors of junior high.   Seems like yesterday.

Wherein I turn 50

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Scott did something truly unexpected for my birthday: he threw me a surprise party.  I had not a clue.  He did it on Monday the 2nd, which was the night before we left for Yellowstone.  Mark came up in the evening to hang with us and spend the night, but that seemed normal because he wasn’t going to see us on my birthday and we were leaving for a week.  The mom and daughter that I read with took me out for frozen yogurt for my birthday.  This also seemed totally normal and the daughter made me a matching bracelet and earring set that’s totally cute!  When they dropped me off, the mom wanted the daughter to come in and see my Willow Tree collection so we walked in the front door and there were crepe paper and balloons everywhere.  I said, “Oh, looks like Mark did some decorating. Fun.”  We walked over to the shelf and then I saw all these people in the family room and they yelled, “Surprise!”.  Honestly, I am so dense.  So I was really surprised and we had cake and ice cream and it was really fun and nice of people to come.

On my real birthday we were in Yellowstone and went to breakfast here:We chose this place so we could have breakfast served to us by this waiter:Now that all the shows are up and running and daily rehearsals are over, Brian works a breakfast shift three days a week at Buckaroo Bill’s.  He rotates between prepping, cooking, and serving.  We ate in the back where each table has its own covered wagon and had some yummy food plus hot chocolate, too.

After our late breakfast we checked out some stores while waiting for Brian to finish his shift, then went back to the restaurant’s outdoor seating to open presents! Yay!  Scott got me a wooden wheelbarrow planter that we left at home, some books, a subscription to a quilting magazine, and then an offer to take me shopping around West Yellowstone.  That was also the present from Brian so off we went.  I got scrapbooking supplies, Wildflowers of Yellowstone seeds, and a framed pressed flower art piece with yellow columbines.  Awesome!

Brian went off to an emergency rehearsal because of a cast member’s accident, and we drove to Yellowstone Lake and did some sight-seeing via the car.  Then it was back for the second show.  Because it was July 4th, the theater had early shows so after the 4:00 show, the cast ran to the start of the West Yellowstone parade and walked the parade route to advertise for the shows.  The town parade was super fun!  Then we saw the 7:00 show of “The Drowsy Chaperone”.  During the variety show the cast brings up audience members with birthdays and they announce their names and sing to them.

I got a special announcement that I was a cast member’s Mom AND that I was turning 50.  Double applause!  I also got a kiss!

The show was great and afterwards we were invited to the cast BBQ.  We ate on a blanket on the sidewalk in front of the theater and watched the town fireworks show which was long and wonderful.

It was a fun day and now I’m officially over the hill.  The best is yet to come.

Grizzlies and Wolves

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Since it’s nigh unto impossible to see grizzlies or wolves in the park, (although various Playmill actors have seen both this summer), we took a little trip to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, Montana.  It’s actually an impressive facility where injured animals or animals that can’t survive in the wild are able to live out their lives.  One of the programs there reads like this:

Keeper Kids – Join us for an exciting activity especially designed for kids ages 5-12. In this unique program, kids first learn about grizzly bear eating habits and then accompany the naturalist and animal keeper into the bear habitat to hide food for some of our resident bears. After the food is hidden, kids get to learn how bears use their sense of smell to search out food.

So the kids go in the enclosure, hide the food, then watch the bears digging all over to find their food.  It was fun to watch the bears turning over rocks and logs and fun to watch the kids exclaim when a bear found the food they had hidden.  I should mention that at no time were there grizzlies and children in the enclosure at the same time.  In case you were wondering.

The center has two wolf packs with different Alpha wolves and the walkways are quite close to the enclosures so we got some great close-up views.

this owl kept turning his head around in that funny way owls do

Brian took our picture on the bear couch in the gift shop.  Evidently it’s the thing to do because everyone was getting their picture taken there.

Mammoth Hot Springs

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Mammoth Hot Springs is a far drive north from the west entrance to the park at West Yellowstone, Montana.  We drove and drove and got stuck in traffic jams and by the time we got there, we didn’t have much time to see it.  Mammoth has a thriving community of hotels, restaurants, and shops as well as a resident elk herd that beds down in the middle of the intersection, along with its own signs and rangers to watch over it.

The springs were huge, so I guess that’s why their name is Mammoth, and there are boardwalks all over the place.  We walked around a little of it and climbed to the top of one plateau, but there’s a lot to see there.  All the thermal stuff is so interesting in Yellowstone.