Winter Camp

Earlier this month my buddy Jonathan Owens asked me if I wanted to take the kids winter camping. Camping in the winter? Any insane person would have said yes. So of course I said yes. The camping expedition was set for American Fork Canyon. Amanda and Shantell "had" to hold down the home front. They also had to attend some Saturday dance rehearsals.

We arrived at the campground around 5:00. The temperature was 39 degrees. We began to setup camp and built a fire to cook our tinfoil dinners. There were a bunch of Quin-Zee's that had been built, but none of them were inhabitable. The roofs had all collapsed on all of them, but that that didn't keep the kids from playing in the ruins.

After dinner, the kids hung around the campfire and explored the night. I brought a collapsible shovel along and T-y spent a lot of time digging in the snow. T-y crawled under one of the picnic tables and declared that he was going to sleep there.

Brielle informed me at 8:30 that she was tired, so I put her to bed. T-y and I retired around 10:00. It was 44 degrees when we went to bed. I was awoken to the sound of Brielle's voice around 12:30. She had gotten out of her sleeping bag and was wandering around the tent looking for me. She had to go potty. I checked the temperature and and it was still 44. I went back to sleep and was woken up by the call of mother nature around 4:30. I checked the temperature and it was 35 degrees. I checked on the kids and they were soundly sleeping. I was then awakened by by T-y and Reese around 6:00. Apparently they thought that it was time to get up. T-y and Reese wanted to start a fire, so I chopped up some kindling and they placed in on the coals and got the fire started.

When Brielle awoke, she helped me cook breakfast. Breakfast consisted of backed blueberry muffins, oatmeal, hot cocoa, and hot apple cider. My brother has a handy dandy backpacking oven that I used to bake the muffins. It's a cool piece of camping equipment to have. I don't have one, so feel free to gift me one.

After breakfast, T-y got into a fight with one of the sleds. It appears that the sled didn't like how T-y was playing with it, so it struck him in the upper lip.

I got him cleaned up and he decided to climb up the side of the mountain. He then proceeded to slide down the mountain on his bum. Reese and Brielle saw how much fun he was having, so they decided to join him.

The rest of the kids decided to join them as well.

Around 10:00 Andrea and Avrie showed up to camp and we they proceeded to the Tibble Form Dam for some sledding. The kids had a blast. The only issue the kids had is with the jump. Baylor spent some time recovering from a trip over the jump. This same jump always got Brielle as well. She didn't mean to go over the jump, but apparently the sleds had it out for my kids. The sled that Brielle sent Brielle over the jump. And despite the better judgment of others, I decided to try the jump. In order to avoid death, I bailed out mid flight.

Here are some additional snapshots:

You can check out more photos in the photo gallery.

P.S.
The sky wasn't really that clear. I have been working on my photo touch up skills.

Very Beautiful Girl

Well, I called to check to see if Amanda made the cut and would up leaving a contact number. I got a call about an hour later. The scout informed me that Amanda was a very beautiful girl and had great camera presence. She went on to say that they would like to meet with Amanda and I at 3:30 to discuss, finalize, and pay for the tuition. Here are the tuition options:

Needless to say, I declined the meeting. If it was truly an audition, then why weren't they auditioning for something? I guess they were really auditioning for an invitation to enroll in their acting school.

Amanda called Dallas and Mariana later in the day and found out that Dallas didn't get an invitation. Amanda was really torn up about the whole thing.

$18,000.00 an hour

Dallas, a friend of Amanda, asked her to go to an audition for theiCarly TV show. Amanda, Dallas, and Mariana were going to the audition with Dallas's mom today. I got a call from Dallas yesterday stating that a parent had to go with Amanda to the audition. So guess where I went today?

The audition was at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake. The last time I was at that place was when the Jazz played there. Dad used to be able to get great seats to the Jazz game from Frank Layden. Dad coached one of Frank's sons at Churchill. Anyway, we got there are were herded into a room. Once the room was full, about 200 people, we were given a sales pitch from Academy of Cinema and Television for Kids & Teens.

During that presentation one of the "Talent Agents" informed the group that productions cost are roughly $18,000.00 an hour and that our kids needed to be educated so that they would be wasting production time. She later went on to say how important it is to get an acting education for our kids. This is how the agent worded the need to enroll in their acting school

"If you want to be a plumber, you go to mechanical school. If you want to be a secretary, then you go to secretarial school. If you want to be an actor, then you need to go to acting school."

Each participant would then have to meet with a scout and read a jingle in front of the camera. We met with the scout and here is how the conversation went:

Scout: What is your name?
Amanda: Amanda Marilyn Berrett
Scout: How old are you?
Amanda: 12
Scout: Dad, how willing are you to support your daughter if she gets a call back?
Me: 127%
Scout: Thats an interesting number.
Scout: Did you get a chance to look at the pamphlet?
Me: Some of it.
Scout: Would you be able to pay the tuition fees if your daughter received a call back?
Me: Yes.
Scout: Ok. Amanda, please read the top jingle in front of the camera.

The scout gave us a piece of paper with some times to call them. We need to call them tomorrow between the hours of 9:00 and 10:00am. Amanda read the following jingle:

Poptarts
Bite into Kellog's poptarts, and get ready for something wild. Now with more fruit filling and wild berry flavors, for a taste thathat's better then ever. It's new and wild.

My bet is that all three of them will receive a callback. Stay tuned to see what happens.

SPell Arachnaphobialicious

Amanda informed me this morning that she was in her school spelling bee. I aint know that she done had one. My plans are open for the day so I decided to go sit in the back of the schools smelly multipurpose room for two hours and listen to them kids spell words that they will probably never use again.

They just announced that you cannot yell or cheer for the spellers. I wonder how they knew that I was coming. The audience may only clap for the students after the round is over. I told Amanda to ask for the deffinition, the country of origin, and have it used in a sentence for ever single word that she was asked to spell, even the easy ones. She laughed and politely declined my suggestion. I also had a fantastic idea to do when she was eliminated. She didnt want me to embarrass her so I guess I she didnt like my idea.

She informed me that she already has a trick to spelling. She closes her eyes and imagens herself writing the word on the chalkboard. The Spelling Bee hasnt even started and I am already behind. They just annouced that there are homonyms in the spelling list. What is a homonym? Is that a bean you eat?

There are 36 spellers and Amanda is sitted second to the last person.

Practice Round
---------------
Peter Young just correctly spelled what we had for breakfast, w-a-f-f-l-e.
Amanda your word is a homonym, principal. The judge gave the definition "a noun denoting chief importance." Amanda spelled it principle. "That is incorrect."
I can't believe that I am tearing up after I heard those words. Maybe I should take off my smelly shoe and chuck it at the judge. Good thing that was just a practice round. Now i will just sit back and wait another 10 minutes for Amanda's turn again. Maybe I should get up and walk around. My butt doesnt care to much for this hard folding chair.

First Round
-----------
Amanda your word is punish. "That is correct." There go the water works again. I cant believe she didnt ask for the deffinition of that word. I sure know how to use that word in a sentance.
8 of the participants were eliminated in that round.

Secund Round
------------
Amanda your word is Slippery. "That is correct." No slippery substances escaped from my eyes this time. Sweet. Amanda is now the very last participant. Two more participants were eliminated.

Therd Round
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Amanda your word is janitor. "That is correct." Phew. Eight more participants were eliminated.

Fourf Round
-----------
Check out the video to find out what word she CORRECTLY SPELLED!!!!! five more participants were eliminated.

Fifth Round
-----------
The words in this round are from list 3. These are pretty tough. 4 of the first 5 participants spelled their words incorrectly.

Amanda your word is cinnamon. "That is correct". Wow. I need a tissue. Time now for a break in the Bee.

Amanda came over and gave me a big hug. Her friends came over and congratulated her and said that she had to beat Peter. The also told me not to cry. I said I was proud of Amanda for spelling cinnamon. I said that I didnt even know how to spell the word. Her friends didnt know how to spell it either. Amanda only remembered the word because she was eating cinnamon bears last night. Its a good thing thing that we were on break because Amanda decided to spell cinnamon again. She began spelling it S-I-N...... Her friends had a good laugh. She has such neat friends. They are

Sixth Round
-----------
There are 8 participants left in the Bee.

Peter - allusion "That is correct"
Amanda your word is venomous. "That is correct" Holy smokes. She is in the top four.

Seventh Round
-------------
Bring out list four

Peter - Stationery "That is correct"
Amanda your word is unique. "That is correct"
Amanda is a very unique young lady.

Eight Round
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Peter - allegiance "That is correct"
Paul - chimichanga "that is correct"
Daisy - prosaic "that is correct"
Amanda - pumpernicel "that is incorrect"

Shucks! Those darn carbs will get you every time. She took forth. The top three received a trophy. What a proud Dad I am.

I didnt think that she had even studied for this. I asked her if she had and she said that she had studied the first three lists. She was pretty proud of herself, as she should be. It seems that in previous years, she would correctly spell the word correctly in the practice round, and then misspell her first word.
Peter eventually won. Paul came in second and Daisy came in third. Peter won by correctly spelling these two words:
bouillon
chrysalis

Well, at least I was able to learn what a homonym is. It is a word that sounds the same as another word but might be spelled differently and have a different meaning.

Here are some sample hymonyms:

The prophet made a profit selling cars.
The colonel ate a kernal of corn.
I can write the rite of passage with my right hand.
Which witch wore the purple hat.
Be quiet or a bee might sting you.
The wind blew the the boat on the blue ocean.

I think that I am going to contest this contest.:)

Give Blood! Shave your legs

Well, today was a monumental day in the life of Amanda. She was able to braid the hair on her legs, so Shantell got her a razor, some shaving lotion, and a box of bandaids. I got her a blood transfusion.

Gotta Fever of 103, I'm hot blooded, hot blooded.

Bre Bre wasn't feeling very well today. She has had a fever for most of the day. To keep her fever down, I let her play out in the snow, without shoes and a coat. How does that saying go? Feed a cold, Freeze out a Fever? Thank heavens for Advil and Tylenol.

Bre Bre has been extra cuddly today because of this. She has also been very inquisitive today. She has been asking a lot of random questions and wanting to know how and why things work. I think the fever and the medicine were making her delirious. Here is one of the random conversations that we had:

Bre Bre: We need to go on a vacation.
Me: Just me and you?
Bre Bre: No. The whole family.
Me: Ok. Lets go pack everybody's stuff and go.
Bre Bre: Not today, but someday. We need to rent an RV.
Me: An RV? Do you know what they are?
Bre Bre: Duh! It's a house on wheels.
Me: Why do you want to rent a RV?
Bre Bre: Cause I can sleep, or eat, or go poop while you are driving.
Me: Where do you want to go?
Bre Bre: To Idaho.
Me: Ok. I will check into it.

I guess I should look into renting a RV.

:: Posted by brb
:: Filed under /brielle

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