In our ward the Relief Society has a new presidency that are trying to get to know the sisters more. They have started doing a “spotlight” each Sunday on a sister who fills out a paper. They pick one to read after the announcements and before the lesson starts. They also send out a weekly email of announcements, including the typed up spotlighted sister. This week my spotlight was chosen. I figured this was a good history item to save.
LaReita first indicated that she goes by ‘Mom’. (Cute!)
She was born in Phoenix, Arizona
She has one brother and two sisters
She has lived in Phoenix, Tempe, Daly City (next to San Francisco)
She was baptized when she was eight years old by her father
She did not served a full-time mission but states that her mission is to raise her five sons to be wonderful missionaries
Her first job was working in her father’s office reading off numbers from microfilm to him
Her favorite church calling is working with the scouts, she enjoys helping boys grow.
Her favorite books are Kitchen Table Wisdom, My Grandfather’s Blessings, and The Book of Mormon
Her favorite movies are Fried Green Tomatoes and Count of Monte Cristo
Her favorite treats are Raw Coconut Macaroons by Raw Melissa and Mejool Dates with Peanut Butter
Her best vacation is every vacation, because there is always something great with each of them
Her favorite holiday is Pioneer Day because she enjoys being with her family and teaching them or learning about her ancestors
In her spare time she like to . . . oh wait, what spare time???? However, she does enjoy bicycling, preserving family history, and watching her garden grow
Her most precious possessions are her boys, including her husband, her non-working ’63 Chevy Impala from her grandma, her cello, her marked-up scriptures, her testimony, and her Patriarchal Blessing 🙂
We hope you know LaReita that you are a VERY IMPORTANT sister in our ward. Our lives are enriched because of you and your sweet giving, caring, and loving spirit.
Love and blessings,
Lil, Kelly, Melissa, and Adrienne
On the final day we hit all the rapids perfectly again. We all got to take turns commanding our big raft and the small rafts (called ‘duckies’). We had steer through a rapid & deliver water. In the big raft was 5 gallon water containers, and we had to serve water to the people in the other rafts.
The 3 Merit Badges we earned were Rowing, White water rafting, and canoeing.
To earn the Rowing we had to row the big boat.
To earn the White Water Rafting we had to steer through rapids, flip the boat, and get back on.
To earn the canoeing we had to flip the duckie and get back on.
Some kids had a hard time doing these things.
But we did it quite well, even better than some of the older troops. (We were a 12 year old scout patrol.)
The river guide, Kim, said I was the best steer-er that she had. Steve, the guy in the water boat, said that I was better than all of the other scouts that he had previously, including the 18 year olds. Dad even verified this with them, and they weren’t just saying that. They really meant it.
The next few days seemed to blur together. We had to flip the boat & get back in. We got to play the trust game. Go over rapids, eat dinner tell scary stories, wake up and do it all over again. One day we at lunch we made a slide out of a flipped boat and slid into the river, at lunch we also played the paddle game. We had fights and invaded the other boats
this is a giant pancake called the 'mancake'
Brian wanted to eat this but could not because the other 18 year olds ate it.
That day we hit almost all the rapids perfectly. we went strait through this mini whirl pool. and all the other boats with 16-18 year-olds got stuck in it. after we got off the river the boys and i found thins big mud hole and we played in it for hours.
I went on a river rafting trip in June. we started of with a hike to Delicate Arch. After that we went to sand dune arch and spent a couple of hours there playing in the sand, and climbing up the arch. However my dad didn’t climb and took pictures of the climbers. (he’s afraid of heights) In the sand pit Brian started to do front flips off a rock outcropping. Tanden almost broke his leg on another rock.
climbing the arch
After that we went back to camp. Then the next day we packed up and went to the meeting point for our river rafting trip. Then we jumped in the river to get a taste of the water. It was cold. Then we got the boats in and started our first leg of the journey.
Our First Family Race - Tour de Donut held in Pleasant Grove/American Fork on July 16, 2011
Our first family bike race!
Yesterday we participated in the Utah Tour de Donut. A spoof on Tour de France, and not nearly as long! It was for charity, and a lot of fun. I stumbled across this event as I was helping James with his Bicycling Merit Badge. He needed to look up the state laws regarding bike safety and this event was listed as an upcoming event. When I clicked on the 45 second video showing last years event I laughed out loud so hard the rest of the boys came running into the kitchen to see what was going on. (Apparently I don’t laugh very often, and when I do it’s a major event!) They watched the commercial with me again and I asked, “Well… should we do it?” “YES YES YES YES, Pleeeeaasssse?!”
To sum it up: 3 laps of 7 miles each. At the completion of each lap, eat as many donuts as you can. For each donut eaten, get 3 minutes shaved off your final time. All the funds raised went toward charity stuff.
So we entered! Dave was a volunteer since he hasn’t been doing the biking as we have. While he is at work, we’ve been biking a lot – anywhere between 5-10 miles every 2 days.
Samuel (5) is one strong kid!
Interestingly enough, it is Samuel (5) who is the strongest of all the brothers in regards to stamina. (And of course Anthony.) Samuel was actually the first one in our family to complete the 1st lap.
Sadly, Samuel had an equipment malfunction with his Camelbak (a drinking apparatus to drink water without dealing with hands and bottles). In our hurry to make it to the start line in time, I didn’t help him put it on his back, and he put it on upside down. So the water wasn’t coming down the tube when he wanted a drink. So he rode 7 miles without any water, and still came in 1st! That kid is amazing. He was also the youngest registered child that actually rode. (Jacob was registered, but wasn’t riding a bike. He was in the trailer I was pulling.)
Next was Anthony who was 10 minutes behind Samuel!
Anthony quickly eating a donut before getting back on the road. Dave's phone camera accidentally had a weird setting of a blue tint. But at least we got this picture of him as he just took off on his own!
I never even rode with Anthony because he just took off! He LOVED this event and wants to do more. He completed all 3 laps, but we won’t know his exact time because on the completion of the 3rd lap he didn’t go across the finish line for the computer to clock him. He went into the donut lane instead. We figured that he was about 15-20 minutes ahead of James and I. So when we get our times, I’ll calculate that in. Anthony says he ate 5 donuts total.
At the end of lap one. Benjamin (7), Samuel (5), Jacob (2). Picture taken by MARK JOHNSTON/Daily Herald
My mom is here for a couple weeks and she came along to watch. She thought she’d just stay for an hour and have Lynette come get her. But really enjoyed it and stayed and watched. After the end of the 1st lap, the 3 youngest were ready to stop. So they stayed with Grandma Leavitt while Dave was doing his volunteer job. They mostly just played in and around her and the bushes, watching the bikers come in and eat donuts. Benjamin ate 2 donuts. Samuel ate 2 donuts and Jacob had one. (1,500 donuts were made by Maceys the night before. And they were ALL eaten too! About 600 riders were in the event.)
James eating at the end of his 1st lap. Same strange blue tint on the camera settings. Oh well.
James at the end of his 2nd lap was getting exhausted but since he had to complete 25 miles that day for part of his Merit Badge, he said, “I HAVE to keep going.” I did some quick plugging in of affirmations, prayers, and energy work for him. About a quarter way through the 3rd lap he caught his second wind despite his gears not agreeing with his wanting to upshift. James only had one donut because he didn’t like the regular glazed. He wanted chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Gross. Makes me sick thinking about eating something that heavy!
Dave was a volunteer helping to put donut tally marks on participants tags as they came in and out. It was pretty much non-stop of 2 hours for him.
As for me, I really had a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to doing another family race soon! Oh, and I ate 3 donuts 🙁
As a “treat” that evening we went to see the movie Cars 2. The boys loved all the action and the spy angle. Anthony observed, “they call that a rated G? There were machine guns, cars blowing up, and cars dying! That wasn’t a rated G!”
Since the Tour de Donut was only 21 miles, James had to go still another 4 miles to fulfill his 25 mile requirement. So he and I went to see the Spanish Fork Pioneer Cemetery that has recently been upgraded. Very nice place. (FYI – the Cycling Merit Badge actually is 100 miles total. So we’ll be doing some more riding!)
Last night we all slept very soundly. 🙂
Love,
~LaReita
p.s. For those detail people, wanting to know how we all got ourselves there with our bikes… I absolutely love our van. We folded down the back seat, took out the “2nd shotgun” seat, and were able to put in 3 big bikes as well as the trailer. In Dave’s car we put in the 2 smaller bikes and bungee corded the trunk down. Perfect! And there was a seat still for everyone without having to double-buckle.
Relaxing at the end of the race, waiting for results to be announced.End of the race. Found some shade while waiting to hear results. James (12), Jacob (2), Anthony (9)Benjamin (7) is tired. Waiting in the shade for results to be announced.Jacob (2) wanting to grab the camera from me and take pictures. He's a little upset I'm not letting him have it.
Benjamin is an official Tiger Cub Scout. When he turned 7, he constantly reminded me that I needed to get him signed up for Tiger cubs. So I called our local Boy Scouts of America office and found a Pack in Springville that has Tiger Cubs. Dave has been taking him every Tuesday night (same night as James’ Boy Scouts here in SF). They have been having so much fun together.
Tonight Benjamin got his Bobcat award. He was absolutely thrilled. Kept saying, “now I’m Bobcat scout! You need to get me the Bobcat hat, shirt, and, and….”
Well, not quite Ben. Had to explain that every Cub Scout has to get their Bobcat (even a Webelos) before they can earn their rank advancement (Tiger, Wolf, Bear, Webelos).
Revolutionary War Dude explaining how they loaded a gun back then. A good marksman could get 3 shots in one minute.
Last year I heard about this free event that Provo holds called “Colonial Days” as part of their Freedom Festival. (One of the largest festivals celebrating our Freedom – aside from Washington DC of course.) So I loaded up the boys and took them.
It was at the Crandall Printing Museum and surrounding buildings in historic Provo. I didn’t know that the Crandall Printing Museum has the only fully-functional Gutenberg Press replica. We learned about where “upper-case” and “lower case” comes from. Also saw a replica of the Golden Plates, taken from a description that Joseph Smith recorded, including the ‘sealed’ portion. Because it was nearing lunch time Samuel was getting crabby so we didn’t get to stay very long in that part of the museum. So we ventured outside where we saw some Revolutionary War army items. Also heard a rousing rendition of the speech, “Give me liberty, or give me death”. James and I were the only brave ones in our family to say “Hear! Hear!” when the actor/orator was giving the speech.
We moved along and happened to run into a man who was telling about the Indian Chief Crazy Horse and why General Custer didn’t have a chance against him. Very interesting history!
Bully for him! A 98 year old registered scout! Look at his shirt!
We also saw a 98 year old man who is the oldest registered Scout in the Boy Scouts of America! I wanted to get all my boys around him for a picture. But Samuel was having a fit about his shoes, and Benjamin was not feeling well (left over from the dentist visit the day before). So I just quickly took a picture of him. Impressive with all his awards on his shirt!!!
We left before being to see everything. But I’m sure that we’ll do it again next year. And bring dad along to help.
Provo’s Freedom Festival always hold a flag retirement ceremony. I thought this would be very educational for the boys to go see. I thought it would be a good FHE activity. I had them wear their scout uniforms (as did I and many others, even though they didn’t participate). June also came with her kids. Dave ended up having to do some work, so he wasn’t able to join us this time around.
It was a good opportunity to talk to my boys about respect, honor and service to our country. I had to keep explaining it over and over to Anthony. He kept asking why we were burning the flag. It is a rather difficult concept to grasp for a 7 year old.
Some Marines were also there and I made sure my boys noticed how well they dressed, and walked in formation. It was not too hot of an evening, but the heat from the fire at times was a bit much.
Scouts saluting the flagBenjamin showing his respect for the flag. Ryan did too, but it was getting kind of long.
Anthony really wanted to wear his Tiger Scout uniform on his last day of school. Sure, Why Not? In Anthony’s last day of 1st grade, he got the “Bionicle Builder” Award because he was always talking about his Bionicle creations that he does at home. And even brought a few too to show his class.
