Commencement

Commencement was a lot of with Jeremy. They rented segways and had an amazing time at dinner and the dance.

Hillcrest Commencement

Whitney was set up on a blind date from a friend she made through Jr. Miss. She had a lot of fun making new friends from another school.

Whitney Senior Class President

 

Whitney ran for Student Body Vice President. She didn't make it but then she ran for Senior class president a week later. She used  2 legit 2 quit for her slogan and speech from Hot Rod. It was fitting for her willingness to try again. She had a lot of supportive teachers and students that were glad to see her run again. Persistence pays off!

Bonneville County Jr Miss

Whitney won $3,250 in scholarship money in the Bonneville County Jr Miss Program. As 1st Alternate she won $1,500.

She won $450 for Talent with her 90 second piece of Edvard Grieg's Concerto in A minor.

$350 for Self Expression, 

 

$450 for Interview 

 

 $150 for Be Your Best Self, $350 for fitness and a gift basket of prizes and gift certificates for most sponsors. Here's a cool connection between these two girls they are a year a part in school. They both won 1st alternate and both lost student body elections their junior year and then won senior class president. Kind of a weird coincidence!

This was the best part hanging out together and becoming good friends.

Senior Ball

We got a kick out of how Whitney was asked to Senior Ball this year. Her date Alex is not only cute but pretty clever I may add. We had no idea but our Stake President calls up Sunday afternoon and asks if he could meet with Rick and I to talk with Whitney. We thought oh my goodness what is up? So we feel pretty special that he would actually come to our house. He is all dressed up and breaks the ice and talks to all of us in his wonderful calm manner and then he asks Whitney if she would speak in stake conference on the ten lepers. I was about sick for her and so was Rick. And she without even a hesitation said "Sure!".  Then he said well that was pretty easy how about I give you a choice you can speak in stake conference on the ten lepers or you could go to the dance with my nephew Alex.  Then he pulled out a tin of mint gum that said "Chews" Wisely. She immediately said yes I would much rather go to the dance. We started to laugh grateful that she didn't have to speak and excited that she would get asked by such a neat guy. I was shocked that our stake president would take time out of his busy schedule and do that for Alex. We totally got punked. That was awesome! To respond she used her scriptures and left him a note and a bunch of gum that said "As I was preparing my talk for Stake Conference on the 10 Lepers I came across this scripture I wanted to share with you. D&C 130:5 she highlighted the beginning of the scripture that said "And I answer Yes....".  and added I Chews to go with You! 

Preparing for the dance was quite the fiasco. I hate to say that she went through four dress choices. Every week it was a different color. Poor Alex didn't have a clue what he was going to get to wear. I'm sure Alex and his family think we are so lame. Then she found out that they might not even be able to go to the dance because he had basketball tournaments scheduled for that week and depending on if they lost he would have a game that same night out of town.  Sad that they lost but happy they got to go to the dance together. 

Happy Birthday Whitney

17 Things We Love About Whitney

 
1. She is the nicest girl I know.

2. She never talks bad about anyone.

3. She is a great role model and always has time for her little sisters. 

4. She is a wonderful musician on the piano, flute, organ or singing.

5. She has bright sparkly blue eyes.
6. She can be the prettiest girl all fixed up but still looks amazing in a ponytail when we are camping.

7. For being a blonde she's really smart with a 4.1 GPA.

8. She is always willing to try even when it's hard.

9. Being in the popular circle is not her goal.

10. As busy as she is with friends, homework, piano, MYAC she always finds time for her family.

11. She is a great listener.

12. She has always been respectful to her parents.

13. She fills our home with beautiful piano music.

14. She is helpful around the house. If she sees a task she'll do it without being asked.

15. She desires to dress modest for a teenage girl. Buying immodest clothing has never been a battle.

16. She loves to learn and amazes me how quick she can learn whether it's calculus, piano, or a dance.

17. She is a good sport and can be wild and crazy as you can tell with her school pictures this year.

No this isn't photoshopped. Whitney was not looking forward to getting school pictures.   So Brielle said just where some glasses and nobody will be able to see your face. These are 3D glasses from the movie UP with the lenses punched out. The photographer had a fit when she had the glasses on. I had to support her and tell him he would take the picture with the glasses because I was paying for them.  I paid for these? What was I thinking?

Whitney 1st Place at EIMTA Sonata Competition

We spent the day at piano recitals.  It was quite the fiasco to get everyone to there judges appointments since they all overlapped and were at three different locations  around the city. We had to divide and conquer. This was Brielle's first year performing. She was a little intimidated by a male judge but she did well for her first year. Yeah Brielle!

Brinley performed at University place and took 1st alternate honorable mention playing La Caroline and Whitney took 1st place playing Beethoven's Tempest. Brinley and Whitney swapped places from last year. We were amazed at how well they all did.  Way to go girls were proud of you! Glad it's over we are so ready to hear some new sounds coming out of the piano. I guess it will be Christmas and festival pieces.

Commencement Dance

Whitney was so excited for this date. She was asked two months ago when a gorilla rang the door bell and left a basket of bananas with the quote "I would go bananas if you would go to the dance with me." Tyler lives down the street and we have been camping with their family and had the most amazing time last summer at their cabin. They are such a neat family. For their day date they played beach volleyball, had a water balloon fight and had a slip and slide over a ramp that went into a pool. The weather was amazingly hot and then they got to joy ride in his aunts red mustang convertible. They had a large group which they were all good friends so it was a lot of fun. Our camera was wigging so I used Whitney's camera and I dropped it on the driveway. The shutter is stuck open and I can't get the pictures off of the camera because of a card error. They looked so cute together. So this is all I have. Bummer that I broke her camera. Oh well she had the most amazing time.

Whitney Returns Home From Paris

Whitney had a wonderful time in Paris. Lucky! She loved all of the architecture and how everything was so old. She loved their crepes and introduced to our family Nutella. We ate it for about a month making crepes. Shopping was fun. She went to her favorite store H&M. Someday they will have one closer to us. The Louvre, Versailles, and Notre Dame, were amazing. Areva rolled out the red carpet and treated them all like royalty and showered them with tons of wonderful gifts. They loved seeing the countryside while riding the TGV (high velocity train). The George Besse Facility was impressive and gave them confidence of what will be built here at the Eagle Rock Facility. They went to a crocodile farm after meeting with the mayor of the city of Pierelatte. The funny and surprising part of the whole trip was when they got to Paris she witnessed how crazy they drive. They just pull into a spot and bump back and forth like bumper cars when they try and parallel park. She thought they were worse then the students in the student parking lot at Idaho Falls High School. That's saying something since we have had three incidents this year with our vehicles! As soon as they got off the plane camera crews were there to ask them questions. They didn't take into consideration they had all been up for 24 hours and were sleep deprived and wanted to take a shower and go to bed. Whitney was interviewed and when we watched it on the news we were surprised how well she did. She was surprised as well since she doesn't remember what she said, it was all a blur. A few days later they had a press conference with the mayor and it was quite impressive. I am amazed at the talent and quality of these kids I am glad they are our future we need them. Tonight they will present again as they meet with the Idaho American Nuclear Society at a dinner.

Girls Choice Dance

This was Whitney's first Girls Choice dance along with most of the other girls in the group. They really had a cute group. This was the most fun taking pictures of these crazy cuties. Whitney asked Cory by delivering a pepperoni pizza with skittles and directions on how to cook the pizza and think about saying yes to Whitney. He answered her with a great big high heel shoe pinata that said "Get your dancing shoes on cause we're going to girls choice!" For the day date they went to breakfast, rock climbing played lazer tag and while they were waiting for the rock climbing gym to open they checked out Where's Waldo books from the library to pass the time. They came to our house for dinner and Rick was quite the chef with Strawberry daiquiri's, burgers, fries and onion rings. He had set up quite the kitchen in the garage to stay out of the wind while grilling. Brinley and Brielle served again and loved every minute of it. They even got a $2 tip from Cory. They were thrilled. They all looked like they had a great time. Whitney must have because she actually stayed out later then Spencer. That's a first!

Whitney Goes to First Formal Dance

Whitney finally got to wear one of her formals she bought last summer. She found two dresses on clearance that she fell in love with and when she got her check from Boise State (for winning 1st place at NHD) she didn't have it for more then an hour and went and bought her dresses. Aunt Amy helped us hem it and then we added a strip to fill in the v neck so she would feel more comfortable dancing around. Then I sewed on 9 yards of red sequins on the waist and bow. I couldn't find the right red in packages so I bought 9 yards of sequins pre-strung for $3.90 and sewed them on individually. I loved the fact that I could sit and listen to music or watch a movie and not feel like I was wasting my time. I'm already anticipating sewing sequins on her pink one I love finding bargains and being able to modify.

And her wonderful date was Collin Andrus. He's and all around good guy in sports, school, piano and singing. She was so surprised when he dropped off the pink jello with his message inside. His question said "I would be tickled pink if you would go to Senior Ball with me?" She answered him with a huge basket of dum dum suckers and a big hunk candy bar and said "I would be a dum dum not to go to Senior Ball with a Big Hunk Like You!"

Whitney had three dates for the day date because the other two girls didn't want to go sledding. They missed out, not Whitney she had triple the fun. After sledding they ate lunch at the Pita Pit and learned what baba ganoush is. It is an eggplant spread.

Whitney Sweet 16 And Never Been Kissed

So Whitney turned 16 in December and I was so busy subbing and getting ready for Christmas I didn't get time to do a birthday tribute for her. She is a peace maker in our home and sets a good example for us every day to strive to be our best. She is getting everything she can out of life. We love you Whitney.

Whitney's Going To France For Spring Break

Bon Jour! I guess Whitney will be brushing up on some conversational French. Whitney was chosen to be one of the 20 delegates representing Idaho Falls Mayors Youth Advisory Council. MYAC (consisting of all 4 area high school students) meets twice a month with the mayor to promote community involvement. They host self esteem camps for high risk children, comm-UNITY Fest, a New Years Dance plus endless other service projects and causes throughout the community. MYAC was invited to attend a public hearing for the licensing process for AREVA the new Uranium Enrichment facility being built out on the desert east of Idaho Falls. The youth read a letter supporting the decision to have AREVA in our area. AREVA was so pleased that they decided to host 20 students with an all exspense trip to France. The problem is they have more then 20 MYAC kids. So they were chosen based on peer vote, ranking in how involved they have been in MYAC and then had to write an essay. The last two months she was counting down till she turned 16 with a chain with dating quotes on it now we'll have to make a chain with 67 french words on it till March 22! She has been learning all about some of the famous landmarks in AP Euro. This will be an amazing experience plus she will be with one of her best friends. Au Revoir!

Whitney Gets Hit By Car

Whitney was running during X-country practice with a group of 10 girls. As they were crossing the street a lady came around the stopped traffic and hit Whitney sending her in the air. The lady rolled down her window and asked,"Are you okay?" Whitney in shock and surprised that she was still alive after being hit by a car answers yes. The lady then drove off! This freaked all the girls. Some good samaritan called the ambulance and police. They wrote it up as a hit and run. Whitney had a bruised seater-ender and deep scrapes on her hands and forearms. We are grateful she has no lasting problems from it. We have to laugh and tease her about it because I think we would cry knowing what could have been the outcome. She was pretty scared to cross the street the first day back. It was the big gossip for a few days and Spencer even had a kid come up to him and say "Did you hear some dumb sophomore got hit by a car during cross country practice?" Spencer's reply was "Yeah, that was my sister, but thanks for telling me." I think the guy felt pretty stupid after that.

Cross Country Mud Run

Whitney decided to run cross country since she wasn't cheering anymore. She had to fill her little bit of extra time up with something. This was the first meet of the season and it was mostly for conditioning with a twist of fun. The area wide meet was at Sandy Downs the course consisted of running up sand dunes, jumping over hay bales, running through the mud pit and swimming through the canal and start over again retracing their tracks three times to the finish line. I think she decide she would rather do cheer it's a little more glamorous. Hey, Whitney mud's good for the complexion?

Whitney wins $10,000 scholarship for 1st place at State History Competition

We were excited when Whitney was eligible to go to Boise for the state competition. We knew we had an excuse to go out of town for a couple of days. We were kind of lame and didn't even bring a camera. I guess that tells you the confidence we must of had in her or the attitude that Whitney had about her project she wasn't going to win she was just going for the party with her class mates. We were surprised when she took 1st place in her division for an individual exhibit. There were some amazing exhibits. First they announced her as the 1st place winner and she received $350 from Boise State.
Then they announced that her exhibit was the best project out of all the categories entered this included papers, documentaries, performances and websites. She was the recipient for the Thucydides scholarship for $10,000. Daddy is happy it will help his wallet.

Whitney Wins 1st Place at Regional History Competition

Whitney won 1st place at regionals for her exhibit on "Did We Have The Right To Test? Linus Pauling and The Petition For A Test Ban Treaty." The theme for this year was Conflict and Compromise. Her exhibit was based on Linus Pauling's research and the hazards of nuclear tests on the futures health and the environment. Linus was a double Nobel laureate. He encouraged a nuclear test ban treaty with demonstrations and speeches. The American government didn't appreciate his negative reactions. The government accused him of being a communist and took his passport away and made him testify at several senate committee hearings. It was an exciting topic. Whitney qualifies for the state competition in April in Boise. Road trip in April!

Whitney's 1st Place at EIMTA Sonata Competiton Performance

Whitney played Sonata in D Major Op. 40 No. 3 by Clementi and a Gershwin Prelude for the EIMTA scholarship auditions and took 4th place and won $200 for piano camp this summer.