Replay at Bernie's

Friday night was the Improvables' annual Valentine's Day performance, aka the Battle of the Sexes. I was joined on stage by Brianne, Bryan, Charlotte, Erica, Keenan, Lorin, and Willis. We had the rare opportunity to perform on the CenterPoint main stage for this show.

One of the highlights of the night was this video, which captures Brianne, along with "dolls" Charlotte and Erica, in "Replay at Bernie's."

Basketball Time with Kylee

My 16-year-old niece Kylee made it on the Layton High School sophomore girls basketball team this year. The team has been doing very well, having lost only two games all season.

I finally made it to a game Friday afternoon, which was also Valentine's Day. The Lancers beat the Northridge Knights by a score of 56-26. Though Kylee is not a starter, she got about five minutes' playing time, shooting 2-2 and scoring four points. She also added a couple of steals and generally played very well and aggressively.

After the game, I snapped the above photo of her alongside her dad, my brother Mike. She wears #5, which was also Mike's number when he played sports.

Peas

I got to spend part of my New Year's Day holiday with this cute kid, my five-month-old nephew Christian:

As you can see, I fed him peas, which was his first experience eating that particular vegetable. And, as you can tell, some of them actually ended up in his mouth.

All Is Calm, All Is Bright

Christmas was last week. Perhaps you've heard of this holiday.

I am a week (and also a year, depending on your point-of-view) late in posting photos of our family shindig, but suffice me to say that we had a good one together. I was down and out with strep throat though I was on antibiotics, and the family was good enough not to shun me from spending time with them and observing the many goings-on.

Our annual family Christmas Eve program was very well put together, as it always is, by my sister. Kira enjoyed playing the part of Mary, while Luke was one of the three wise men:

Dad grew out his annual holiday beard for the occasion and gave Kuma a good scratch on the head as he looked on.

Gifts were also exchanged, and among the many given and received, I must say that my family knows me well enough to get me gift certificates for Dee's:

I hope the rest of you out there in blogging land, likewise, had a good Christmas holiday and that the year 2014 is a good year for one and all.

Second Thanksgiving

Hobbits have second breakfast; we have second Thanksgiving. At least, we do on the years when everybody goes to their in-laws' on Thanksgiving Day.

Such was the case last week, when bi-monthly family dinner became second Thanksgiving. Scott, Claudia, and their gang came up from Lehi and joined us for the occasion. The food was plentiful and delicious.

Christian continues to be the ladies' man wherever he goes. . . .

Most of the nieces and nephews gathered around the Christmas tree to play with Grandma Plowman's new train.

Good times, as you might expect, were had by all.

The Family 5K

How was your Thanksgiving this year? I hope it was a good one all around. As far as the Plowmans' holiday went, four of us (Mom, Dad, Biz, and myself) participated in our first 5K race.

Jeff also joined us for the South Davis Recreation Center's Family 5K, a race covering parts of Bountiful and Centerville. As for the four aforementioned first timers, it wasn't necessarily about speed or competition but rather in crossing the finish line, which we did together after about 66 minutes on the road.

 

And now we have these cute medals to show for it. So, it was a win-win all around.

Carving Pumpkins

Halloween is, sadly, now over. Still, I have one more photo to post today from recent Halloween-related festivities.

Last Monday night, I joined with Mike, Jana, and their kids to carve up the pumpkins we picked out the week before for FHE. As you can see, we (collectively) made some pretty great jack-o-lanterns.

Ben's Birthday Bash 2013

It was Ben's birthday last Saturday, and to commemorate the occasion, Adi put together an enjoyable birthday party for him at their home in Centerville. It being only five days before Halloween, the event was also organized as a costume party.

Our family seemed to unofficially capture Disney/Pixar as a theme for our costumes, as Ben and Christian, respectively, dressed up as Sheriff Woody and Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story:

Summer and Steve were two Pirates of the Caribbean, yours truly dressed up as Squishy from Monsters University, and Adi portrayed Hamm (also from the Toy Story films). Adi's friends Corinne and Joe were a couple of bank robbers, and Biz and Jeff were a couple of zombie killers from the movie Zombieland.

In one of my favorite photos from the event, five-year-old Kira took a turn holding her three-month-old cousin Christian.

Ben and Adi also brewed up some Butterbeer, which was based on a recipe from the Harry Potter world. It was surprisingly good.

Here's to many more birthdays, Ben.

Spider

Today's video clip is from last Friday night's aforementioned Improvables Halloween performance.

In it, Bryan, Keenan, and Brianne re-create a 60-second scene in 10 seconds. It's about spiders.

Enjoy!

The Improvables' Halloween Extravaganza 2013

Friday night marked the Improvables' fifth annual Halloween performance, as well as our second anniversary of performing at the Davis Center for the Performing Arts (aka CenterPoint Legacy Theatre). It's hard to believe that we have been together that long and that we have put on that many Halloween shows, but the calendar doesn't lie.

Among the highlights were "Half Life," played by Bryan, Keenan, and Brianne:

. . . Erica's zombie costume, inspired by "The Walking Dead":

. . . and our many fans who dressed up for the occasion, including our costume contest winners, one of who is pictured here as the Last Airbender:

Following the show, the assorted troupe members (and an enthusiastic audience member dressed as Bruce Lee) posed for this group shot:

Yours truly chose to dress up as Teddy Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States and one of all-time favorite historical figures.

Good times were had by all.

Monday Night at the Pumpkin Patch

For family home evening last night, the Plowman clan (minus Adi and Christian, who are in Florida visiting Adi's friends where she served her mission, and Jeff, who was in class) made our annual trip out to the Pack Pumpkin Farm in Farmington, something that has become a much-loved Halloween tradition for our gang.

Jackson, entertaining as always, enjoyed running through the hay maze and then posed as a zombie atop a different stack of hay bales:

Luke, McKenna, and Jenna posed alongside the pumpkins that they picked out for themselves:

We posed for a family picture . . .

. . . and then the others arrived, after which we took another one. I must say that we are pretty good-looking motley crew:

Good times were had by all.

Weasel Stomping Day 2013

In years past, my friends and I have assembled to watch one of our favorite all-time movies, UHF, starring comedic geniuses "Weird Al" Yankovic, Michael Richards (of "Seinfeld" fame), and many others. Typically, these shindigs have been held during the summer. Since August really has no major holidays, this year we decided to hold this year's party on August 10 and to call the holiday "Weasel Stomping Day," based on the "Weird Al" song of the same name.

One of the traditions involved in Weasel Stomping day is to "put your Viking helmet on; spread that mayonnaise on the lawn," which I demonstrated in the following photo:

Well, why not?

There were only a handful of us involved this time around, but still we had a good time together watching the film. Another important tradition is the eating of Twinkie-wiener sandwiches, which consist of a hot dog on a Twinkie bun (Twinkies are rather hard to find these days, since they just went back on supermarket shelves, so we had to improvise with the generic brand), covered in Cheese Whiz.

Erica was both a first-time UHF watcher and Twinkie-wiener sandwich eater:

I think it would be safe to say that she enjoyed the film much more than she enjoyed the sandwich, which is definitely an acquired taste.

Good times were had by all!

Pioneer Day 2013

It's Pioneer Day, don't cha know? It's the holiday that we celebrate here in Utah that commemorates the day in 1847 that Brigham Young looked out over the Salt Lake Valley and said, "One-hundred sixty-six years from today, our pyromaniac descendants will be blowing up this valley piece by piece with bottle rockets, Roman candles, cannons, M-80s, Molotov cocktails, etc."

No, of course, he said, "This is the right place; drive on." As a family, we gathered at Mom's and Dad's house in North Salt Lake to barbecue (the hot dogs and steak were delicious) for the occasion, afterward we gathered in the street for a small fireworks show.

Here, Jenna, Kira, and Dave throw snaps out into the street:

If you think I was joking about the cannon comment, by the way, the parents' next-door neighbor actually brought out a small cannon to fire some ear-bursting shots into the atmosphere.

Let Freedom Ring!

I'm a few days late in posting these pictures, but I thought y'all would like to know that we had a fun family get-together this Fourth of July at Scott's and Claudia's home in Lehi. Eden had returned from his mission to Quito, Ecuador, just two days prior, making it also a sort of homecoming party for him, as well.

The day started off with a delicious barbecue of hamburgers and hot dogs in the backyard. Jake enjoyed the shade while Ben, Kira, Jenna, and McKenna cooled off in the pool.

Dallin and Jackson provided the post-lunch entertainment, chasing our cousins' chicken all over the backyard (and finally caught it, I might add).

Following the annual family soccer game at a nearby park, darkness fell, and together we enjoyed some fireworks.

For all intents and purposes, it was a typical family Independence Day but a good and memorable one nonetheless.

Book Number Four

My fourth (co-authored) book for my employer, Reading Horizons, has just hit the shelves.

It contains several new stories added to the Reading Library and also updates and addendums to others. If you'd like to purchase a copy or want to have one autographed, just let me know.

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July, everyone. Let freedom ring!

Monsters U.

On Memorial Day, some friends and I went to see Star Trek into Darkness at a local movie theater. We may have become the last people in Utah to see the film, but at least it's finally been checked off of the list of Films I Need to See.

At any rate, our mutual friend Rickey snapped the above photo of Pepe and me next to a display for the upcoming Monsters University as we left the theater.

Good times were had by all.

Easter 2013

So, my post about it is 10 days overdue, but we had an Easter this year. Yes, really.

The family gathered at Mike's and Jana's house for our bimonthly family dinner and to celebrate the holiday. Following a delicious dinner, we took part in an Easter devotional that Biz took great care and time in putting together a fantastic program.

Afterward, we celebrated both Jenna's 10th and Jackson's fifth birthdays, which took place later on in the week. Then the kids went out back for an Easter egg hunt, and they had a blast finding many hidden treats.

 I am somewhat fond of this shot of my two youngest nephews, one-year-old Jacob and five-year-old Jackson, who seemed to be getting along very well together:



Good times were had by all. Happy (belated) Easter!

Day 363: S'more, the Hamster

For Christmas, Santa Claus brought McKenna a hamster, making it the second pet in the household and the fourth total new pet added to the family this year (and first non-dog).

Everybody got that?

She has named her hamtster S'more, after the campfire treat. Speaking of food, do you know that I've actually eaten hamster on two occasions? In Peru, hamster is considered to be a delicacy, and when you're in the mission field, you eat what is served on your plate - unless, of course, there are direct Word of Wisdom issues.

 Nevertheless, I've assured Kenna that her hamster is safe with me around.

Day 362: Christmas Aftermath

Mom and Dad slept over Christmas Eve, and the kids woke us up bright and early Christmas morning to open up their presents. The inevitable sleepiness that began to set in by breakfast time certainly took place thereafter, as you can see by the look here on Jackson's face:

Kylee, however, took a nap right in the kitchen.

Day 360: Stalking Santa

At our Christmas Eve family party, Kylee logged on to the Web to check Santa's progress westward across the United States. At the moment she visited the NORAD Web site, he was in Jamaica.

Merry Christmas, Bedford Falls!