Rae, the Birthday Girl

Rae is 16.  She had a friends party last Saturday.  As her name is Aurora Rae, she had a Princess Aurora (Rae) Party! Also known as a Royal Pajama Party. There was a white chocolate fountain planned and bugle chips!  Hail, to the Princess Aurora!

She and her friends watched "Malificent". 

The Birthday Pary

Other significant things about Rae.
She won her first games of Shanghai!  And then her second.
She loves to bake and make pasta dishes and read books (still).
She also loves anything "Pumpkin"!

Rae is very fond of giraffes.  She even has a pair of giraffe socks.
She will be taking her driver's test pretty soon.

Bright was able to come to Salt Lake City to celebrate with her when Rae went for her doctor visits.

A fun dinner in Salt Lake City!

Medical Report:

Last Friday, Raedles had a check-up and an ultrasound with her doctors in Salt Lake City.  She seems to be doing well.  Her cholesterol is down, which is always a concern and they upped her medication.  They are hoping to help her uterus grow so that she can have a period.  Right now her uterus is very small.

Have a great year, Rae!

Some Sunny Photos

Kuni's  tough tattoo

A new boyfriend, perhaps?

So Cute!

Baby Pineapples

Pineapples grow usually one to a bush and take about 19 months or 2 years to become mature...FYI !

How a pineapple starts.

Sunny, the Senior

Kuni (Sunny's Hawaiian name) and her Mom went on an adventure.  They went to Hawaii for about 10 days.  The Polynesian Cultural Center was a great hit with a Luau and Kalua Pig.  She also loved the lava cliffs at the ocean's edge, the pineapple plantation, Acai bowls, snorkeling, Fijian Curry, the Waimea Waterfall and so much more.  "The baby pineapple are so cute!"  Here Uncle Bridger and his family live on the big island and they spent a few days with them as well.

Sunny and Aunt Darci enjoying island life

Right now Sunny is planning to work at Bear Lake for the Summer.  She has applied to UVU, Utah State, Snow College, SUU, BYUH and Auburn. (Do you all know where Auburn is?)

She really loves marine biology and has been accepted to most or all of these schools.   She didn't know about BYUH until a few days ago.  She was accepted there, which is very exciting.  That would be a great place for marine biology.  She has garnered some scholarships as well, but there is a time line to her decisions.

She helped her mom put on a fun birthday party for Rae...Rae will be the next post, perhaps.

Golden, Kuni and Rae

Road Trip

Grandpa and I are going on a road trip for a few days.  I will tell you all about it on Sunday.
Here is a great poem that Julia wrote and I think it might be about her!


Roofless

In a small round nest

High up in a tree

The egg hatched

And life began

This little blue bird

With no future plan

She sat in this nest

Her siblings around

Life was easy

Food by the pound

Then one day

She’s good as grown

Feathers strong and able

With just one push

Her future awaits

Away from comfort and warmth

To find her own way

Then swoosh

She has fallen

Time to test her strength

All that she learned

In that little round nest

Started to make sense

She flapped her wings

And was on her way

Her parents truly proud

Her elegant blue wings

Facing the challenge of life

This little blue bird once small and clueless

Was starting her new life roofless.

Grandpa's Corner

Have you ever been shipwrecked?

There was only one survivor of the shipwreck. He was washed up on a small, uninhabited island.  He prayed and prayed for God to rescue him. Every day he looked out over the ocean in every direction, but no help came.

After a few weeks, he had collected enough driftwood to build a small hut to protect himself and his his few possessions from the elements.

One day after looking for food for several hours, he turned to return home and noticed smoke coming from the direction of the hut.  He ran to the hut and found it engulfed in flames.  Everything he had left was lost.  He was filled with grief and anger. "God, how could you do this to me?" he cried.

Early the next morning, he was awakened by the sound of a boat approaching the island.  It had come to rescue him. "How did you know I was here?" the man asked his rescuers. "We saw the smoke from your signal fire," they replied.

It is easy to get discouraged when things get hard or something bad happens to us.  Often these experiences help us be stronger and turn out to be blessings.

love, Grandpa

Mary, the Senior

Mary enjoys doing Yoga.  Here she is doing "downward dog" with Roxie...her dog helper.  See the video on "Instagram"

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Mary has applied to lots of schools such as: The New School; Boston University; NYU; Northwestern; Ithaca College; Bard.

So far she has been accepted to The New School in NYC.

Recently, she had an MRI to see what is going on with her painful shoulder that is keeping her from being actively involved in playing her violin.  Yoga has helped and some strengthening exercises, but the MRI show a tear in her muscle.  One option would be to do surgery.  They are looking into other options as well and other opinions and then will decidedif they want to do surgery.  It could take a long time to heal on its own.

Awaiting her MRI

Alternative medicine is another one of her interests.  Being a therapist for people with musical injuries appeals to her too.  What's fun, is that she can do anything she would like and be good at it.
She has been reading T.S. Eliot poetry lately and dropped AP Physics, which is making her time much more manageable.

I will do a post on Sunny, the Senior, when she gets back from a trip to Hawaii!  Whut?

Next up, a Grandpa's corner, perhaps.

Three Seniors...

Sunny, Mary and Julia are all seniors this year.  What will they be doing when they graduate?

I will post a little something on Julia today.

Julia's Senior Photo

Julia has been accepted to BYUH and BYUI and Utah State and UVU and I think Southern Utah. She won't find out about BYU Provo until the end of the month.

A congratulatory cookie! for a sweet cookie!

Adam fo Fadam

Adam arrives home on March 6th.  What an exciting time for his family and all his cousins and grandparents and friends.


He is planning to go to BYU for Spring term.

Anziano Ostergar e gli amici

His whole family is planning a trip to Italy this summer for about a month.
They will stay in several different places and then see the sights in that area.  Adam will be able to introduce his family to the people he has taught and loved in Italy.

I think I heard that he bought an Italian suit for himself.

"This week is going good! Last week we taught the family that lives by us! There were 6 of them. The parents, two kids, a niece, and a friend. We will be seeing them again this weekend. Yesterday at our lesson with Michele we found out that he knows and is friends with that family! That was a fun coincidence :) With Michele we made some good food. He has had some health problems in the past and they are coming back a little right now. So I don't know if we will be able to see him as often. Hope so!"

A Fun Surprise...

Guess who?

Lucy is 12 years old!  She is now taller than her mother and she is an amazing part of the Ballentine family.  She is a 6th grader at Mills Park Middle School where she participates in the Academically Gifted Program and gets straight A's.  Her best and most favorite subjects are math and social studies.  But she excels at them all.  She has started to teach herself how to code, and loves to play computer games (especially Minecraft), and video games with Peter and Andrew.  

She is an avid reader and has trouble finding books in the house that she hasn't already read.  Her mom has trouble keeping enough books around for her to read.  Her favorite book right now is 'Words of Radiance' by Brandon Sanderson.  

For her 12th birthday party she had 20 friends over from school, church, and soccer.  They decorated mugs, played party games, and had cake and ice cream. She was in birthday heaven and by the end it looked like a birthday explosion in the house. 

Lucy has a great sense of humor and enjoys goofing off with her parents and her brothers.  She fits right in at this nut house. Her favorite foods are chips, crackers, popcorn, bread, and laughing cow cheese. She plays the piano, is on a recreational soccer team, plays four-square with her friends and brothers, likes to watch Dr. Who, and loves cats. 

Birthday Party Fun!

Allen & Cynthia

Allen 4 just passed his 3 month at Disney Animation.  He is now considered an employee rather than a trainee.  It is very hard work and stressful, but he still loves it.  Imagine having to go to work and come up with an awesome, new idea every time, every day.   Right now he
is working on some promotional animation for Disney's "Zootopia".

Cynthia is working at Michels & Lew, a medical malpractice group.  They help with catastrophic injury cases.  She gets to use her Spanish and is training to be a paralegal.  She really likes the people there.

They have made a lot of friends from different countries that Allen has met at work.  Allen is the 2nd counselor in his Young Men's Group and Cynthia is a ward missionary.  Now that she is working full time she hasn't been able to help the missionaries as much.  They live in a one-bedroom apartment in Burbank, which is much nicer than student housing, fortunately.  They pack lunches to take to work!

From Allen's sketch book