I Love Prunetucky

So, Sunday, we're sitting in church. We sit on the front row on the side, by the organ. After I play the Sacrament hymn, I go down and sit with my family. Last Sunday was pretty hot (by Monterey standards, anyway), so they had all the doors open, trying to catch the non-existant breeze. There are a set of doors in the front of the chapel, one at the end of my row and one on the other side, by the Sacrament table.

So, as we're kind of zoning during one of the talks (early church + lack of sleep = not terribly alert) and I notice a little critter coming in the door by the Sacrament table. I look and it looks like someone's pet white rat...white with a pink nose and pink eyes. It starts scampering towards us, up against the podium. The only people who can see it are the front row people and maybe the second row people. As it gets closer, I realize that it's not a rat, it's a baby POSSUM. Just before it gets to our row, it turns and heads up the stairs to the choir seats.

By this time, the speaker and some of the bishopric can tell something is going on, but they aren't sure what. A minute after it scampers up the stairs, Brother Lente gets up, follows it up the stairs, across the back behind the podium and traps it in the corner behind the priests. Everyone is watching him, thinking he's chasing his two year old again, but the two year old is behind him. Finally, he comes down the other stairs, holding this critter. By then, half the congregation is laughing, the other half have no idea what's going on, the speaker is kind of flustered. She looks over at him and says, "Oh MY! That explains it, I was wondering if something was wrong with me!"

Brother Lente finally deposited the critter outside, but not until he held it up and showed the congregation like he was showing off his newborn baby. It was a great moment in the Prunedale ward. ;0)

Charades videos..Bailey Thing Part 364

I'm pressed for time today, so I'm just going to post the charades videos and call it good. Ok, they're not too exciting. Several of the vids he took are too big to post. When Sam EVER gets his software loaded, he's supposed to be able to downsize them. That's the price you pay for High Definition video. My favorite moment of these is Sarah's victory dance.





Oh, and I wanted to do a shout out for a program that a friend of mine started in the Utah valley area. It's called Serving with Smiles and it's a service organization for kids. It looks awesome! (Not surprising, my friend Liz Jeffrey IS amazing). There was a story about them in the latest LDS Living magazine. I know Anna especially needs somewhere else to have to take her kids. :0)

Bailey Family Thing Part 7 (I think)

OK, now I'm just using this as an excuse to not do anything else I need to do. :0)

Monday night we played charades...or rather they did, I'm just not into charades. I know that in Bailey land that's practically treasonous, but whatever. I enjoy watching, though, so I kept score. We played the "kids" against the "adults". Not that all of us "adults" are terribly grownup, nor are the "kids" kids any longer. It was entertaining, but the kids beat the socks off the adults. I shoulda cheated better on the scorecard, eh? But, it's nice to know the next generation has a good tradition base to build on there, although someone needs to clarify Sarah on the rules. :0)

The winning team:

Amy:

David:


These pics were taken Tuesday morning before we left. We got the pic of all the "cousins" only to realize that Meghan is a "cousin" even though she's the same age as the "cousins" kids.



I have a few more pics, of the museum on campus that we visited and a couple of videos of Charades, but Sam just called to have me go and get feed for the silly birds before the feed place closes because he isn't going to make it in time. Hopefully, you won't have to wait until Monday for the exciting (?) conclusion.

Bailey Family Thing Part 6

On Tuesday, Sam wanted to drive down to City of Rocks, a park about 30 minutes away. At first there weren't too many takers, but eventually, I think just about everyone went. It was a beautiful day, a little chilly, but sunny. Unfortunately, we hadn't counted on trying to keep track of 25 kids in a maze of giant rocks, cliffs, caves, holes, etc. Many of us came out of there with a lot more grey hair. But the kids seemed to love it. After about half an hour, most of the moms had had enough, so they took off back to Albion and lunch. Sam and Grandma Bailey and I went through a drive through the rest of the park. It was an amazing, beautiful place and we enjoyed it.




Hayden finds a hole to peek through.

Sarah tries to hang on to her munchkins.


We took this pictures of the "Four Little Boys" in the parking lot there.

Bailey Family Thing, Part 5

So, Monday so many things went on that I don't exactly remember the order of anything. One thing the kids did was an Airsoft war in the old theater (above). I didn't venture in, but Sam told me it was a cool/creepy place (depending on whether you were a kid or an adult...Sam is still a kid, so he thought it was cool). It was pretty dark in there, and after I posted the above picture (which was taken with Sam's ridiculously high ISO camera) several of our moms decided that it was better that it was dark so they couldn't see how creepy it was. The kids had fun shooting each other and Sam had a good time exploring the pigeon poo-infested building. Think I'm glad I missed that one. Bet that theater was great in it's day, though.

Amanda and Jenny also had some crafts for the kids to do. They made bracelets, painted ceramics, decorated frames and planted tiny little plants (Meg's sprouted already, she's very excited).


There were these cool tricyles that we rented and the kids and some of the grown-ups had a good time riding all over the campus. This is Gus, taking it for a spin.


Sam was out taking pics and came across this baby owlet, perched in one of the boarded up windows of another building. Cool, huh.


A bunch of the little kids spent alot of their time in the sandpit/volleyball court. Here they are pushing a giant soccer ball around.



The big expedition was to City of Rocks state/national park. It deserves it's own post, though. Probably won't get to it today, though.

Bailey Family Thing, Part 4

So, Sunday afternoon, we FINALLY get to Albion, where most of the rest of the gang was already unloading and getting somewhat organized. We stayed at a Miller Hall, part of the former Albion Normal School. The school has been closed since the 50's, I think, but this family has purchased the campus and is in the process of restoring stuff. The building we stayed in was a former dorm. They did a great job of restoring it and it was very comfortable. Except for the beds, which Mary and I agreed were like sleeping on concrete.

The picture above is the hall that is restored where we stayed. This picture is of one of the other buildings that isn't restored yet.



One of the buildings was taken over by chickens and a couple of turkeys. The kids said they were vicious, but I'm guessing that the kids terrorized them and the poor chickens were just defending their territory.



There was a hot tub, which was used almost exclusively by the kids. All at once.



Amy, Katie and Jenny (with other help) got dinner on pretty quickly the first night. Yummy potato-cheese soup and rolls.



Here's Mark showing off his new physique. He's lost approximately a third of a Mark since January. Good job!



Violet, enjoying her soup and roll.



'Kay, that's all for tonight, it's past my bedtime.

Bailey Family Thing Part 3

So, Sunday morning, after going back to Craters (since we got there just before dark the night before), we headed to Idaho Falls, where we saw the temple and had a lovely lunch. The sky was heavily overcast when we got there, but by the time we ate lunch, it had cleared somewhat.

Bailey Family Thing, Part 2

OK, I tried to post a video that Sam and Meg took from the top of the volcano, but it's too big. Too bad we don't have a cheap camera that takes low res videos, eh? When he gets the software loaded, he thinks he can reduce it. If/when that happens, I'll post it, it's pretty cool.

So, Saturday night, we stayed in Arco, Idaho. It's famous (sort of, not like we'd ever heard of it) for being the first atomic powered town in the world in 1955, if you can believe that. It's tiny, but kind of cute. There is a mountain there, where every graduating class of the high school has painted their year since 1920. There is also a park with a submarine sail planted in it. Weird thing to find a LONG way from the coast. I guess they did some submarine training in Idaho during WWII. I would guess no one would look for them there, that's for sure.

Bailey Family Thing - Part 1

I know it's been almost two weeks, but I'm always behind. Not always A Behind, mind you, although that happens from time to time, too. I'm probably going to post this in a few parts. I have to run to buy printer ink to print out my free KFC coupon, and I have to give piano lessons, and I have to pick up the kid, and go to mutual, etc etc etc.

We flew to Boise on the Saturday before the Family Thing. Sam had his usual five days of stuff planned to do in the approximately 24 hours that we had by the time we landed, got our rental car, got lost in Mountain Home, etc. We ended up taking a big loop, through Craters of the Moon, Arco, Idaho Falls and down to Albion, stopping for the night in Arco on Saturday night. These first pics were at Craters of the Moon. It was kind of a cool place, where volcanoes have erupted in fairly recent history (the first one was 15,000 years ago, can't remember when the latest erupted, like 1000 years ago maybe). Lots of cinder cones, spatter cones, cool craters, volcanic rock that was light enough for Meg to pick up big boulders, really interesting landscapes. We went by just before dark on Saturday and drove back on Sunday morning. I thought it was fascinating, although I can't imagine little kids being too excited about it.