Providing Entertainment

So my sister's wedding is coming up in three weeks. When she first set a date, I jokingly said that I would do a dance from the lu'au (their theme is Polynesian-esque). She jokingly agreed. Well, now it's no longer a joke. I, my younger sister, and two of my sisters-in-law will perform "California" at the reception. Here's the performance from the lu'au. Hopefully the number is just as good at the reception!

ALOHA!!

So on June 12th, our ward had our second annual lu'au. I wasn't originally planning on being in it, unlike last year when I planned on performing. But I got a call the week before the lu'au asking if I could do the same dance I did last year. I said sure, then learned a new dance at the rehearsal for the one I knew. So, here's some picks courtesy of my family, I was going to record it but I forgot my camera in my rush to get to the church on time. (No I wasn't getting married in the morning...)
This is the dance I learned in five minutes, good thing it was pretty easy. In this one, the song states that "I'm going to California, and when I come back we will be married." You can kind of see the Ring Pops we used as engagement rings.

The things we brought back were a pair of high heeled shoes (I wish you could really see the four inch heels I wore), a hat with a crooked brim, a shawl with the fringes, and a short petticoat.

The young men and elders did the Haka, which is usually done shirtless, but we'll make an exception this time.
Pretty fierce faces!!

The other dance I did was Kanaka Wai Wai (pronounced Vai Vai). This is the one that I already knew I just had to practice it a few times.
Although it doesn't look like it, I did have a great time. Unlike last year, our ward was responsible for a good portion of the entertainment. Thank you Adriane and the Guys for teaching us all to dance.

Cub Scout Day Camp

I've been helping out at day camp for our local council the last couple of days with the last day tomorrow. The first comment I received from my brothers is "Isn't it a 'day camp'? Why is it taking three days?" My answer to that is I don't know. There are a lot of things that the organizers wanted to pass off. I was put in charge of the crafts. Originally, I was only supposed to do two days of crafts but one of our teachers couldn't get the time off work, add I got another day of crafts. I found this out Wednesday night and had a short time to figure out what to do. We had decided that the theme of crafts would be Native American, so I came up with tipis for the Tigers, Wolfs, and Bears, and sandpaintings for the Weblos. Today we decided to make rain sticks out of PVC pipe and screws. Trying to talk over little kids and keep them on point is not an easy task. Needless to say, I've come home the last two days with a killer headache, a mixture of the noise and possible dehydration. Tomorrow should be relatively quieter, all they're doing is finishing with the decorations on their sticks. We shall see how it goes...

The first one...

So, I'm pretty new to this blogging thing and I don't know how often I will be able/take time to post but here goes.

After graduating high school (mumbled) years ago, I never thought I would return to the Verde Valley, hence the title. I moved back here five years ago and have worked at the same job the whole time, a first for me. I work at, to quote Dr. Phil, "the premiere all-girls boarding school" aka Copper Canyon Academy. It's crazy that I've been here thins long but I have a pretty sweet housing deal and I usually enjoy my job. I'm still single, so if you know any single LDS guys between 30-35, send them my way...only slightly kidding.

All in all, this should be an interesting experience. Stay tuned...