the white house at the right time

 Annually voted the most scenic football structure. Ultimate frisbee Hot dogs Lemonade Nachos Bro. White Bro. Knowles No Rain Absolutely great activity! Maybe this little guy will play here, officially that is, one day!

 Every year the Institute, and now the YSA (young single adults), host The Sweet Meet.  Basically a Valentine's dinner and dance. The twist is dessert is made by the guys.   The gals then vote on the desserts by dropping in tickets to a box or bag placed in front of the Valentine inspired dessert, of course not knowing who made it (but really, I think a few did!).  A ticket for each dessert is pulled out and "whala" you have a date and a dessert for the evening. The rest is up to cupid! Pictured above is what we made.  Fruity and fresh.  While I spent most my time in the kitchen helping with dinner (and thinking never do catering, never do catering), I stepped out to help with the judging. Naturally, chocolate desserts got extra points in my book. There were some pretty good entries. One year, somebody made a love bird's cage out of Twizzlers. Nothing quite that spectacular this year. However, flavored chocolate was new this year. Afte...

At the start of every quarter, there is an opening social.  Usually with games. Always with food. And always pool and ping pong! I joke with Randy he gets paid to read scriptures and play pool and ping pong all day.  No wonder a lot of people want to do what he does.  Rough job!  This time around they had robo-surfer.  Think bull ride in the "waves".  Super fun. The guys went downstairs to practice their "Ka-ma'te" island dance while the girls stayed in the gym to learn the hula.  Cayleb learned it too! Madalyn and I tried the hula, but Kenzie wanted me to hold her on my hip. Another 35 pounds no matter where it is, makes shaking and swaying awkward.

Can't see them all. Piano is playing. Elder Kato is sitting up the door singing. A few in the backyard playing b-ball. Having the "Meyer's Way" group over for a little bbq . Can see their awesome personalities. Can see their respect for Randy. Can see their testimonies. Love having all of you over. Meyers Way. U-Dub students. YSA . Married couples. Your energy and commitment to full, gospel oriented lives always infuses me with admiration for the "rising generation".

Inspired by the soccer world cup, came the closing institute activity - crab soccer world cup . The amazing championship cup was designed by Randy - oh so cool! The kids (not really kids anymore, but saying adults sounds weird too, so students?), so the people who came were assigned to teams, Team England, Team Germany, Team USA etc. Teams faced off. Kicking the ball into the goals. Todd kept track of the brackets. Teams were eliminated and advanced to the final. Before the final match up, there was a break to eat the food from all over the world that people brought. With many already serving missions, they brought in some pretty tasty dishes they knew how to make. Yum, I love potlucks! Some serious goods from the vending machine. My change goes to my sweeties to buy sweets. Now what country are these goodies from? Final game between Team Germany (stacked) and Team Spain. Some serious work to keep in those crab positions. Comfy at daddy's work, no shoes but all smil...

It has been some time since I graduated from the U of U Institute program. Much of why I originally enrolled was for my free parking, though I still had to hoof it across campus and when I had late classes, I was always a little freaked out to come back to a dark, nearly empty parking lot. But the more classes I took, my spiritual darkness was lit up by amazing teachings, which was not freaky at all. I had great teachers like Bro. Wilcox and Bro. Jack Marshall, whom I took most of my classes from. I also took a married couples class with Randy taught by Bro. Thomas and his wife. Little did I know that years later, Randy and I would teach the same class at the University of Washington Institute. Randy and I served as the LDSSA married couples representatives back in 1996-1997. It was a position created after I asked if there was any representation on LDSSA for the married couples. Whala , a position was created and Randy and I were asked to be on the council. Our main responsi...

Daddy's work. "YEAH!" "CANNY" (candy) Surprise! Closing Social at Golden Gardens Beach rained out. But what a quick response and improv - check out the setting sun and beautiful Puget Sound water. Marshmellows for smores melted in the oven. Hot dogs roasted over the grill. And we were introduced to a new tasty treat that I swear someone came with up at a b.y.o.b. party for sure - roasted starbursts . How? Same as roasting marshmallows . End result, soft and chewy and definitely a twist on a favorite. This year's student council pres. - John Cox, and more serious than normal in this pic for sure is what I am told. Hanging out - a.k.a. the group that came to our house to help with our lame computer problems, again, THANKS! Me and some of the ladies! The ongoing favorite - the vending machine at dad's work. We spend a little chunk of change here everytime we are here.

Randy and I returned home from the Northwest area husband and wife conference held in Spokane. It brings together the seminary and institute directors, coordinators, and principals from Washington, Alaska, and part of Idaho. It was such an inspiring conference. Great counsel was given to us by Seminaries and Institute Director Chad Webb. He stated the mission statement, a one page document, had close to 59 or so revisions to make sure it included everything the Church Board of Education felt it needed to accurately delineate the importance of their work. We had great break out sessions, and presentations. Brother Adams, who teaches institute, recently returned from a 1 year deployment to Iraq. His wife spoke about her "widow in training" year, the struggles and the prayers. Brother Adams spoke about his experience working with top Iraqi military officials and more interesting, his call to serve in the presidency.

Thanks Knowles for hosting a great going away/Christmas dinner party. One of the many benefits Randy has at work, is working with some amazing people. Missionary couples, missionaries, stake presidents, etc. In this picture are some people that I truly admire because... amazing testimonies marathon runners marathon winners author of the scriptural text books the institute teachers use marathon coach (do you see a pattern?) the real deal Iron Man participants (who do you think is training for the upcoming St. George Iron Man?) half marathon runners amazing, loving parents with kids that love them too! successful business owners, lawyer, accountant, doctor bi-lingual missionaries airforce pilot incredible testimonies way, way, way positive happy people bike to work people church history tour guides way, way, impressive grounded, spiritual, priority right people fiscally responsible people and. and. and. the list goes on. As far as co-workers go, it doesn't get better than this! Tha...

Husky Stadium on a sunny, dry day. Some great ball is played here, not so much this year, but the only game I really follow anyway is the annual turkey bowl game, when my son plays alongside his dad. Randy, Malcolm, Cayden , Ethan Annual Turkey Bowl at Husky Stadium. Each year the Institute reserves the field for the students to have an amazing game night. One of the perks of Randy's job is that our family can come too. The girls and I like tossing the ball around a little bit, but hours on end in the cold doesn't entice us more than a night by the fire watching a chic flic and eating ice cream. Cayden looks forward to this every year. It is big for a kid to pretty much have free run of a collegiate football field for hours on end. He invited some of his football loving friends to come spend the night with him. They played football, but also had fun running up the bleachers, having kicking contests, and downing tons of hot chocolate. A little more hot chocolate to keep them...

Randy had to take a trip to Western Washington University for some class observation. While he was occupied, I took Makenzy and Cayleb on a five mile hike down to the waterfront where we chucked rocks into Bellingham Bay and watched trains. Brian Nelson is the Bellingham institute director and swears his office has the best view of all the institute offices, even beating out Hawaii. Just a bunch of palm trees there. Pass the tall pines and firs, home to eagles and owls that often perch and watch him work, is Bellingham Bay, where he often sees seals and looks out to the Pacific Ocean. We agreed, his view was phenomenal. However, he told us to get a better view, we should stop by Sehome Hill Arboretum, a 180 acre natural preserve just around the corner. So we did. On our way up the hill was this amazing tunnel carved out to let cars pass through years ago. A little further and we came to this observation tower that was once used to spot wildfires. We climbed up. This is the view...

Randy loves his job! Several years ago, he was mowing the grass, and decided he wanted to pursue the career goal he had back in high school, seminary teaching he didn't want to do something he felt had him in "golden handcuffs" and where he wasn't really happy, not making a difference, just making money. He made the change and has never regretted his decision. He is almost a month into this quarter, always loves the infusion of "new Israel" students- So this is what my hubby chose for a job, he gets to teach about the gospel, study scriptures, build the kingdom, work in an ultra-positive and life changing institution, pretty cool if I must say so myself. But this is how it is described on the web-site, www. ldsces.org/seattle Welcome to the Seattle Institute of Religion! Located right in the midst of the beautiful University of Washington campus, our institute building has been a gathering place, a refuge, and a place of learning for nearly 50 years. We offe...

Ahh, the annual Sweet Meet, where the guys make yumma treats and the girls bid on them; think Oklahoma the musical, and yeah, there probably still is a weird Curly guy among the group. Since Randy and the girls are kind of exempt from really doing this, the girls made their own yummy treat, Chocolate Fudge Mango cake with carmel, petit fours, fresh strawberries, and 5 honkin chocolate chip cookies. One guy made a birdcage from licorice complete with a Peep bird inside, how "tweet", and another a Twix and Hershey chocolate castle. Cutie patootie Madalyn, Randy dandy good lookin' eye candy and lip smackin sweet lips Makayla and of course, check out all the crepe paper! Boogie, woogie, raise the roof, jump up and down and turn around, jammin kind of moves.