Dallin's new hair, There's only one Lagoon and man do I love a parade

A couple of weeks ago we decided to honor Dustin's largest wish of the year - to go to Grandma and Grandpa Orton's house without us. You see, Dustin is a cowboy and loves EVERYTHING about their farm in LaGrande, Oregon.

This place has horses, goats, donkeys, mules, rabbits, dogs, snakes, raccoons, and cats. Keep in mind that none of these things reside at our palatial estate in Lehi.

This year we threw Dustin a curve ball. We told him he could go, but he had to fly there by himself. We thought this would cause him some trepidation. Man, were we wrong. Karli expected to see crocodile tears from the little guy, but when they told him it was time to board he looked Karli squarely in the eye and said "I gotta go now Mom," and happily walked on the plane all by himself.

Apparently he did fine on the flight -- Julie Thueson, who picked him up, said that he deplaned with no problem, went up to his aunt and told her that he needed to fetch his checked bag.

Huh. This kid is good. It did make us feel a little better to find out that he missed us for a few days at least.

Dallin Poyfair - Teen Tennis phenom -- About two years ago Darrin and Clarissa got our whole family playing tennis... even Kristen and Dallin. Since this time all of us except Dallin has slackened in our tennis playing consistency. Dallin just keeps getting better and better.

Last year he played for the middle school and did quite well. This summer we signed Dallin up for a intense camp put on by Lehi High School. The captain of the tennis team is an old family neighbor who used to babysit Dallin and has taken a liking to Dallin, even though he'll only be a Freshman this year. Dallin has also caught the eye of the coach. He's still a little rough around the edges and could work on his quickness and serves -- but he's pretty darn good.

Maybe it's time to introduce him to Uncle Doug for some more 'seasoning.'

Sometimes, you want to be blonde. Sometimes you do something about it. If you're Dallin, you take matters into your own hands.

Equipped with a $10 bottle of hair bleach, a friend who also wanted bleached hair and 'permission' from his parents, Dallin embarked on a venture of epic proportion. There's nothing like swapping sandy brown hair for sandy red hair no matter which way you cut it - at least that's what he keeps telling us. And apparently the chicks love it. Bonus.

OC Tanner Lagoon Day -- Once a year you are subjected to pictures of our family at Lagoon. Well, this year is no different! I find that Lagoon is a great park when taken in extremely small doses. When the kids were smaller they loved the place. Since then we've introduced them to the wonders of Disneyland, Disneyworld, Magic Mountain, Universal Studies Hollywood and Orlando and Knotts Berry Farm.

But they still get so excited to go to silly Lagoon. Thank goodness Uncle Obert (OC Tanner) sees fit to send us there once a year for free and then pay for my day off to boot. It's a nice little perk.

So this year we finally allowed Dallin and Katelyn (and their friend Oakley) go off by themselves.

Here's a picture of them on the craziest ride I've ever seen -- the Samurai. Apparently 'Samurai' means 'spin kids around upside down until the barf' in Japanese.

Katelyn was too small to sit on the outside. Maybe someday, Kate.

Karli and I had a great time hanging out with Krissy. Yes, I am as happy as the picture illustrates.
And here are our three Lagoon crazies...

Aren't they cute?

I've decided to coach Krissy's Double A, U-11 soccer team. We're called the Arsenal Strikers. It's a club team, so parents are pretty into it and demand that their girls work hard. I love that.

I'm having a blast doing it, reliving my soccer playing glory days while combining it with my love for working and teaching youth. I'll keep you updated as our season progresses.

Kate the flutist -- When we lived in Arizona, Katelyn decided to play the flute in her school band. When we moved back to Utah she had to drop it because the Alpine School District didn't have that as part of the curriculum for her grade.

Now that she's entering middle school this year, she's picked it back up and spent the past three weeks at a pre-middle school band camp. Her previous flute experience put her way ahead of everyone else and I think she liked being the best one in the class. It all culminated in a cool concert last Friday at Timberline Middle School in which she played two songs very well.

The girls got an amazing opportunity to dance their hearts out in the Lehi Days Parade last Saturday. The only problem is they didn't really dance... unless you call walking and drinking water dancing. They sure were cute anyway...


Last week Dallin went with the scouts on a float trip down the Colorado River for three days - from Thursday until Saturday. He had many adventures during his sojourn (including 'almost dying' 5-6 times -- his words, not mine) and learned alot of water safety and the importance of applying sunblock several times a day.

When he returned home on Saturday he was amazed to see that all the top songs, albums and videos on Itunes were for Michael Jackson.

"This is really weird, Dad. I think Itune must be broken or something. Everything on here is about Michael Jackson."

So we got to break the now quite old news to him that Michael Jackson had died two days earlier. To Dallin's credit, he recognized that the world had lost a truly great musical artist. In fact, Dallin got to play 'Thriller' in his first Jazz Band concert of last year.

MJ part two -- Michael Jackson may have been a sad, confused freak of a person but there was no denying his talent. About two months ago we bought his greatest hits for fun and have been enjoying them with the kids. That guy could sing. And dance.

I think that Karli is finally getting better -- After close to two months of pneumonia, flu, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fevers, chills and overall nastiness, Karli is starting to get back to normal. Finally. I've missed having the healthy Karli around. It's hard to be lazy when she's sick all the time. Sheesh.

If you haven't already, go to www.pandora.com right now and register. It's quite possibly the coolest website out there. The gist is that you get to create 'radio stations' based on your specific musical tastes. It's very addicting... especially given that you can have it work on your iphone and now blackberry.

Anyone who knows me knows that I thrive on recognition of my great work. And while this might sound super corny -- if you like my silly blog writing, let me know. I'm pretty sure that if you do so, then you might see more frequent posts.

Just sayin....