Surprise!

My dad turned 60 on September 29th. As I was talking to my sister Heather (who lives with him in San Diego) several months ago we threw out the idea of having all of the siblings go there to surprise him for his birthday. It seemed an impossible feat--we are spread across the country and all have families and jobs and school, but as it came closer it seemed like it actually might work. Heather and my dad's partner Ruff made all the plans on the San Diego end and the rest of us made arrangements to get there. Megan is still stick and is in a long-term care facility, so she couldn't come with us :(.

Early Friday morning, David and his wife Katty, Lindsey and her baby Jonah, and I set off on our one day drive to San Diego. We took David's fun new car (a Mazda 3) which was actually quite roomy, even with the five of us. That's not to say we had extra space (especially in the trunk!) but it was comfortable!We met up with our (step)brother Clint who lives in Vegas for lunch at In-N-Out.

Jonah loved entertaining us (and being entertained) in the car. He was so good for the whole trip! We got to San Diego in the early evening and met Heather who told my dad she was "going out with friends" for dinner at Panera Bread (yummy!!!) and then we crashed in a cheap hotel for the night since we weren't going to meet up with the others until Saturday.

In the morning we went to the swap meet (a favorite thing to do when we were younger--we'd save all of our money to spend it there when we'd go to visit my Dad during the summer). While we were at the swap meet my dad called me... I was trying to play it cool and ask normal questions... and be very vague about what I was doing so I didn't have to blatantly lie...saying things like "Oh, the kids have soccer games today" or "there's a wedding reception tonight" and I even asked how the weather was in San Diego and then had to make up the weather in Utah when he asked me about it. I almost gave it away a few times (I don't think I'm a very good liar), but I don't think he had any idea I was actually IN San Diego.

We spent a few hours in the afternoon at an outlet mall close to the border. Everyone (but me because I'm picky) ate at a mongolian grill place for lunch.

Katty and David, so happy together!

Then we went off to Ocean Beach (Matt thought he was funny with the seaweed) where we devised plans of how we were going to surprise my dad. Matt wanted to jump off a building on the pier as my dad was walking or scream "BOO" really loud at him. We thought that might set off his defibrillator, and we really didn't want to find out if it works for his birthday surprise. Lindsey wanted to line up and sing barbershop quartet style to him... does she think we are the von Trapp family singers? All good ideas, but we decided to play it cool and just sing "Happy Birthday."
Self-portrait (Katty and David are especially good at taking these kinds of photos!).

It wasn't a super-warm day (very cloudy at the beach) but Jonah loved being in the sand and by the water.
We amazingly enough all gathered at the appointed time... but as usual we were running a little late. Lauren and Erin saw my dad and tried to hide, but he didn't see them. Ruff saw them and was worried that my dad would see them, so he faked having something in his shoe and made my dad help him with it while everyone gathered below the pier. They were waiting on the pier and were looking out over the water so we tried to be in stealth mode as we walked down the pier (insert bathroom break) and came up behind him singing "Happy Birthday". As he turned around and realized that his children were all standing there he was a little bit dumb-struck--he was so shocked that all of us were there, and then asked, "What are you all doing here?" as if it were for some other reason than to be with him for his birthday. There were lots of happy tears and he expressed that earlier in the day he had been thinking about how wonderful it would be to be all together.

For several minutes he still couldn't believe we were all there! On the right is Heather with Lauren's baby Grace.
We ate at a Mexican restaurant where mole is the specialty... I'm not such a big fan, but lots of people loved it. I was very happy with my boring cheese enchiladas :).

This neat old bicycle was chained outside the restaurant (someone had ridden it there!) so we all took it as a good photo op.
After we got back from dinner he got to sit in the birthday chair to accept his gifts. The biggest gift of course was US being there, but we wanted to give him a few small things too.

We all gave him a little "gifty" (as he calls them) of something that reminded us of him--Lauren gave him Whoppers because she remembered him going to buy a box of Whoppers for a house guest who was celebrating a birthday and she learned that special days are important to celebrate. Many of our gifts were food-related (Oreos for the "real" snacks he always has around, Snickers for the wrappers Lindsey found all around his room when he mysteriously gained a lot of weight, cheese and crackers because he always likes to serve good appetizers, and honey roasted peanuts because had those around a lot too and would let David "sneak" them whenever he wanted).
Erin found him a great little statue of Buddha. He has an amazing back yard with all different kinds of plants, bird feeders, and Buddha statues--he says they are a good reminder of peace and light.
Megan and I remembered stamping t-shirts with seashells on one of our summer trips to his house. We all wore them to the zoo or Wild Animal Park together. I stamped an apron with seashells (and stamps) for him. On the left is a big magnet board of our once-in-a-lifetime trip to Paris with my dad, Ruff, Lauren, Heather, Erin, and me in July of 2005. I used photos from the trip to make magnets (using clear rocks). I didn't get a great photo of it, but it turned out so cute and it was so fun to relive some of those crazy memories.

As my dad was trying to come to terms with turning 60, he asked each of us to just give him a card or a letter telling about a memory we had of him. We decided to compile it into a book so that it would be a nice gift and easy to keep track of.
I found this great quote by Virginia Wolf for the front page of the book.

We each included a picture with our letters that told of our favorite memories of him. The book turned out great!

That night, David was really sick. He wasn't sure what hit him, but he had it coming out both ends. Poor David. He felt a bit better in the morning.
Sunday after a few of us went to church, we did round two of presents. Olivia drew a picture and wrote her favorite memory with my dad--getting up before everyone else and playing checkers with him. Lauren's kids sent some funny cards mocking his new "old age."

My aunts Dianne and Channa sent him a neat compilation of CS Lewis' works.

My sweet Grandma Cole put together a booklet of pictures from the time my dad was born and all through his life. She included snippets from newspapers when he was a sterling scholar at West High School and and letters from him to her mom (Grandma Crook) and mission and graduation pictures. It was such a thoughtful gift, and I think we kids enjoyed it as much as he did. More happy tears.

Then we went to Balboa Park for a picnic. Balboa Park was another of our favorite outings. His favorite cake is Red Velvet cake (yummy!) and luckily we didn't have to actually light 60 candles!!!
Our whole gang at the park: (back row) Jonah, Lindsey, me, Matt, Erin, my dad, and Ruff; (front row: Katty, David, Heather, Lauren, Grace.

When we were little we loved to jump in the fountain at Balboa Park. Erin (with Jonah), Lindsey, and David thought it would be fun to get in again.

We decided to see the movie "Forever Strong" together (even though most of us don't usually go to movies on Sundays) since we were all leaving starting that evening. We really wanted to support the movie during opening weekend and make sure our family saw it. Running late (as usual) we missed the opening 10 minutes, then Katty got up a few minutes later because she was feeling sick. Close to the end of the movie, David came to get us saying that Katty couldn't stop vomiting and he was going to take her to the hospital. We decided to try Pepto and an anti-nausea medication first so we headed home... and when that didn't work David got worried that she would get dehydrated... so they tried going to an urgent care place that took their insurance but they couldn't help them and so they went to the hospital... where she finally stopped throwing up and got some rest in the ER. Matt flew home Sunday night. My dad, David, and Katty got home at 3 am Monday morning (welcome to your birthday Dad!). Heather got sick that night too. Our car was supposed to go home Monday, and Lindsey and I needed to get back, but Katty still wasn't feeling good. Matt called to tell us he'd been really sick all morning too. Lindsey and I started feeling sick. We debated about what to do and at the last minute grabbed a flight home (yay for JetBlue!). We aren't sure if it was food poisoning (mongolian grill?) or some horrible virus, but whatever it was, it was nasty. Thankfully, we are all better (except for Lauren's family, who caught it even though they weren't there, Lauren must have brought it home!).

It seems that every family trip has a crisis (which is worthy of an entire blog post sometime) and this time around, we didn't even make it more than 12 hours all together before someone got sick.... However, aside from the horrible ending, it was a great surprise for my dad. Even as he said goodbye he was so emotional that we had taken the time and effort to spend his birthday with him. Sixty isn't so bad, right?

**Have you ever been a part of such a grand, elaborate surprise?

Ryan's Photo Blog

Remember this great photo that Ryan made for me for Mother's Day (see my blog post in May)? Ryan's new photo blog is up and going... visit it!

www.ryanharperphotography.com/blog

Forever Strong in Theaters!

Back in January I blogged about this great movie that I saw at the LDS Film Festival (see post here) about Highland Rugby. Forever Strong is opening nationwide this Friday!!! It is a great film that my cute brother David is in--he is rugby player #1 and is often seen next to the main character. I hope you will all go see this movie--it will be well worth your time and money!

From the archives: A picture of Ryan and me (when we were dating in May 1999) with my brother Matt (who played for many years and whose pictures can be seen during the closing credits of Forever Strong), my dad who came up to see the game, and my brother David, who can be seen throughout the film.

**Have you ever watched a rugby game?
**Are you excited to see this movie?

Journey of a Peter Breinholt Fan

I've been a fan of local Utah artist Peter Breinholt for as long as I can remember... and when I stop to think of how many times I've seen him perform, it makes me a little emotional (doesnt' take much these days) thinking about all the stages of life that I've gone through with Peter (not that he has any idea who I am, but that's beside the point...).

I first saw him in my early college days with one of my best friends Kim and her then boyfriend (now husband) Steve. I fell in love with Peter's music. Kim and Steve bought me his CD for my birthday and I quickly had all of the songs memorized.

Peter came to Logan/USU often to perform at LDSSA (Institute of Religion) events that I went to religiously as a college student with roommates and friends.

After the college days... I went to his shows with friends and family. Megan and I really like to go to his Christmas show together. I dated someone for several months after my mission that was as big a fan as I was--we "broke up" several times, but always seemed to get back together to see Peter Breinholt and had a dress code (fleece vests were a must, for some strange reason?).

Just after Ryan and I got married we doubled with this ex-boyfriend to a concert... the music was good, although the company was maybe just a bit awkward.

After Olivia was born we still went to his concerts, and then when Coleman got here we took him too. Who says you can't go anywhere with a nursing baby?

We've seen him at Thanksgiving Point, Sundance, USU, Ellen Eccles Theatre, BYU (De Jong Concert Hall), UofU, and even the Impact Training Center in Salt Lake.

Last Saturday we got to see him again at Thanksgiving Point. We had a ball. The kids spent most of the time running up and down the hill, or doing somersaults, or dancing with me in the front, shamelessly.
The weather looked a little ominous... and we did have a few raindrops toward the end, but we were well prepared with jackets and lots of blankets.
Liv thinks it's especially fun to take self portraits.
The concert was wonderful... and most of all I was glad to be there with my cute kids and my great husband, who has loved Peter right alongside me.

**Have you heard Peter Breinholt's music?
**Are you a "groupie" of any local artists?

Crazy Busy Defined

This weekend, our crazy busy looked like this:

2 birthday parties
1 pizza run
1 temple session
1 frozen yogurt stop
1 previously recorded movie
3 bowls of cereal
2 pieces of cinnamon toast
2 soccer games
4 quesadillas and soup
1 BYU game
1 timeshare presentation
1 Chadder's run
1 concert at Thanksgiving Point
1 bag of kettle corn
2 hours of football game review
4 more bowls of cereal
1 Primary talk on prayer
1 Relief Society lesson on testimonies
5 hot ham and cheese sandwiches
4 cups of frozen lemonade berry yumminess
1 Young Women's board meeting
4 gifts made and wrapped
1 jello salad
1 hospital visit
1 family dinner

A tip for the week: "At the heart of making the most of life today is the ability to treasure and protect your connections to what you care most about: people, places, activities, pets, a spiritual connection, a piece of music, even objects that are dear to you. But you must not have too many connections or none will flourish. Pick the ones that matter most to you and nourish them religiously; make that your top priority in life, and you can't go wrong" (by ADD expert Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., author of CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap - Strategies for Coping in a World Gone ADD).

So, I guess since all of our activities helped us to treasure and protect the connections we care most about, we are still in good shape, just very tired.

**How do you cope with the crazy busyness of life?
**Did you do anything fun this weekend?

Friends, Facebook, and Fiction

Through facebook I have been rekindling some friendships from the past... it has been so much fun to get a glimpse of the lives of so many people that have been an important part of my life. Yesterday I was chatting with Rebecca, a friend from high school that I lost touch with after graduation, and we chatted a little bit about books. I was so impressed with her goodreads list because she has read such a wide variety of literature and so many important books. I feel like I'm at a point in life that I can fit pleasure reading into many of my days, but I usually just read fluff (see the sidebar of books read this year).

Then, I saw this today on Jill's blog and thought it would be interesting to do... It was fun to see that I actually have read some books that are deemed important by some group that sounds credible enough to decide which books are important. I was surprised to find that I have read 25 of them... not bad, but not great.


The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts program designed to encourage community reading initiatives and of their top 100 books, they estimate the average adult has read only six.

Here’s what you are supposed to do:
*Look at the list and bold those we have read.
*Italicize those we intend to read.
*Underline the books we LOVE. Share this list on your blog, too, if you like.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (I listened to it on tape, but intend to read it someday!)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling


5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (I've read parts, but intend to read the whole thing)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (I have started this a few times, but couldn't get into it... I am determined to read it at some point in my life)
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (I tried on this one too, just couldn't get into it)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger


19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens (I watched it on Masterpiece Theatre, does that count?)
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (I've read a few, but not the complete series)


34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez


44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth


56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy


68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray


80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I didn't underline the ones I loved, because to be honest, there aren't many books that I don't love (aside from that, I don't know how to underline in blogger!). My ratings on goodreads are usually on the higher end rather than the lower end... Don't ask me to discuss plot, characters, themes, or motifs very long after I've read a book though, becuase I can't seem to store anything of importance in my long term memory. I have to read my book club books as close to our meeting as possible if I want to contribute anything meaningful to the discussion (which is still arguable).

The most surprising thing to me is that although I consider myself a Jane Austen fan and follower, I've never actually READ one of her books. That's pathetic, I must say. I'm thinking that Masterpiece Theatre does not count :).

**Are you on facebook and goodreads?
**Are there books that I didn't italicize (intend to read) that you would highly recommend?
**Will you do this on your blog too?
**How about books missing from this list of "top books"? What would you add?
**Which Jane Austen book should I read first?
**Do you know how to underline text in blogger? Do you want to share your knowledge?

Lego Star Wars

Have I mentioned that I love birthday parties? I'm not sure I know how to throw a small party (much to Ryan's chagrin). Some wise moms have the rule that you get to invite as many kids as how old you are turning, so theoretically we should have invited five, but limiting it to five wouldn't have allowed us to invite the all the kiddoes on the block... so we invited the kids Coleman sees and plays with often, and had a very fun group. Anyway, we did a party for his friends on Saturday, and the next day we had our family over so we could enjoy their company for a little longer without all the mayhem... even though with our family, there is always mayhem.

So I love theme parties and I love to copy other peoples ideas. Blue had some great Star Wars party ideas and Amanda had some great Lego party ideas so along with those and great ideas from BirthdayPartyIdeas.com we came up with a spectacular bash. I can't take credit for many (any?) of the ideas that we used for the party, but like I said, I'm really good at copying, and imitation is the most sincere, best form of flattery, right?

We made big Lego cards for the invitations...

This was the inside of the invitation...

I thought I was so clever making our tables look like Legos (my very own idea!), but when I had to explain it to a few of the adult guests on Sunday I realized maybe it wasn't so clever.We had this sign on our front door so the kids could come in the gate on the side of the house...

Our apprentice Jedi Masters were there to help with training and preparation for the games (JD, Olivia, Anna, and Liam).

This was the check in table where they got their Jedi robes (a simple tunic made with fabric--20" X 60" with a hole cut in the middle for their heads and a rope tied around their waists) and light sabers. Note--if you want to make easy, cheap light sabers, make sure to buy pool noodles from the dollar store at the beginning of the summer, rather than waiting until a week before the mid-September party and going to every store in Utah County (15 in one day!) looking for them and ending up finding them at Big Five for a whopping 2.99 each. At least you get three out of each noodle (20" long each)... and they are very simple with 18 inches of 1/2" pvc pipe, a little black electric tape around the handle, and a cap on the end.

Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi (aka best husband ever) trained the Padawans in the ways of the Jedi so they'd be ready to face Darth Vader.
They were such good students, so attentive!

Darth Vader (my awesome brother-in-law Chad) came and fought all of the Jedis. Although his costume was a little snug (whoever invented the "size" called "one-size-fits-all" is an idiot) he was a good sport and made it so fun for the kids. Our friends lent us this great helmet, complete with voice warping and sound effects (thanks Whites!).

The Jedis had to help Yoda find his Light Saber in the fashion of "Pin the Light Saber on Yoda"

Then we had balloons with small pictures of Princess Leia and Queen Amidala inside them--they had to pop the balloons by stomping on them (or smacking them with their light sabers or just throwing them on the grass) to save the Princess and Queen.

Music from Dexter's Diner (made known to us through the wonderful Lego Star Wars video game) played while the kids danced... when it got shut off they had to freeze in a Star Wars pose...

The Jedi Knights (and isn't Princess Leia lovely?)

I'd love to be a talented cake decorator, but some days all I get is an A for efffort :). Here's my Lego Star Wars Cake complete with Happy Meal Star Wars Bobble Heads... thanks to tips from two blogging friends (Amanda and Shally) we came up with this... I'm not crazy about what I had to do to the bottom to cover up the big gaps between the cake and the board--maybe someday I'll be able to level it out right--but the kids didn't care a bit and ate the whole thing. Using marshmallow halves for the lego heads worked better than cupcakes, because the cupcakes got all crumbly as I tried to frost them.
Coleman said he was going to make five wishes when he blew out his candles (I think maybe the wind blew them out before Coleman got to them, so maybe there wasn't even time for one?).

After presents and cake and ice cream we had a few extra minutes, so we played an impromptu game of "Red Light Saber/Green Light Saber"--there's nothing like a small army of Jedis coming towards you at full speed brandishing their light sabers. I held up the yellow and red light sabers a lot then passed off to Ryan, who let the kids chase him around the yard with their light sabers. What a good sport.

On their way out they got a certificate of completion with some Legos Fruit Snacks stapled to the back... then we all crashed hard.

I think I liked how the cake turned out better for the family party the next day, but the cupcakes were the easiest by far.

Cute Jonah with his Daddy Chad... have you ever seen a cuter youngling? Olivia kept saying "Look, it's Yoda"....

Cousin Sam vs. Darth Vader (little Alyza was afraid of him, but Sam had no fear)

Coleman and Darth Vader

Uncle Tim with Faith against Vader

Cousin Evan fighting Darth Vader...

Lindsey and Jonah with Darth Vader who said in a very convincing Vader voice: "Jonah, I am your father."

We had a great time both days... I'm relieved it's over and still a little bit wiped out... and I think I'll wait awhile before I collect ideas for the next party. We missed our family members that couldn't come... and hope you can come next time (maybe move a little closer, would you?).

**Do you like to throw theme birthday parties?
**Do you like to copy ideas from other people?
**Are you better than I am at limiting the number of guests?