Salt Lake trip:Pepper Pong and Bag Game

While in Salt Lake we had a lot of opportunities to hang out with some friends.
Twice we ended up over at our friend Shaun's house to play
Pepper Pong!
For those who don't know what that is, it is the non-alcoholic version
of beer pong where you set up cups and when you land a ping pong
into the opposing team's cups they have to drink the contents. We
played with Dr. Pepper, Coke, and Fanta. It got pretty
intense at times, but was so much fun!

The set up

A lot of tactics were used to distract the other team, 

Cicily and Shaun are doing the most effective one

pretty....

Most of the time you just try to toss the ball in, but if you bounce it

in then it's worth two cups.  However, the defending team can swat 

away a bounced ball.

Jameson and Katie are mesmerized by the ball

We went through a lot of cans and cups

Steven and I did pretty well for rookies.  In one game each side was down to one

cup and for a long time no one could get a ball in.  Jameson and Katie both made it 

into our cup, meaning that we had a redemption shot to keep us in the game, but

we would both have to make it into their cup. Somehow we did it! That kept us

in the game, and then we went on to win it.  Quite an accomplishment that night :)

Once everyone was loaded with liquid and had overused the bathroom...

we moved onto the bag game! This is where you take a bag and have to 

pick it up with your mouth while standing on one foot and no using hands.

Each round the bag is cut shorter

Steven was surprisingly good at this game, I think he came in 3rd.

Here the bag is very tiny now and Shaun used his hands for a fail on that attempt.
Shaun and Cicily battled it out in the end and Cicily won.
We had such a blast playing games with these guys!

Shower continued

About three or four years ago we took some amazing group photos, one at Thanksgiving, the other at Christmas.  At Britt's shower we decided to duplicate them :)

The attempts

I think we came pretty close :)

S.L. trip: Brittany's Shower

A bunch of fun things happened the weekend we went up for Danny's homecoming,
including a "surprise" wedding shower for one of our really good friends, 
Brittany

I thought she was coming around the other side of the tree

so I kind of missed the "surprised face," but I kind of got it

Debbie, Judith, Shanna

Add Katie

Katie's dog, Phoebe, was so thrilled

Brittany's always had it a little backwards...

Brittany showing off Ian's 'Biceps'

We played a trivia game about Britt and Ian's relationship;

she had to guess what Ian's answers would be and for every one

she got wrong she had to eat a piece of gum.

We played this at my shower, it's brutal!

Then she had to get ready for the wedding night in the dark, 

I wish I'd got it on video, but pictures will have to do :)

Ian's a lucky guy...

Next we used candy bars so the happy couple could write 'love letters'

to each other.  I won't show what they said because it wasn't exactly 

G rated ;)

The whole gang!

(Katie, Shanna, Brittany, me, Judith, Cicily)

Some of us have been friends since Jr. High, Cic and I have known 

each other since practically my birth, but we really all came together

in High School.  I love my girls and I love when we're all able

to get together.  It's fun to see how our lives are going compared

to how we all thought it would go in High school.

We're all very excited for this new chapter in Brittany's life!

 

Oh yeah, then we sat by the pool and this little bugger Stung me!
That dot is the stinger.  That part wasn't so fun.

I did it! (sort of)

While we were in Salt Lake my best friend, Cicily, helped me make a skirt.
It was more like I just did what I was told and sewed semi-straight lines...
Basically I probably couldn't do it again by myself, but one day I will!
I figure this is a good start.  I was just happy to finally complete
a skirt!

The triumphant return of Elder Daniel Powell

Two weeks ago we traveled up to Salt Lake for the homecoming 

of Steven's brother Danny.  For the last two years Danny has been 

known as Elder Powell and has been serving an LDS mission in Finland!

I have a lot to post from that weekend, but we'll start with the main event

 At the airport waiting.  His plane arrived at 10:05 pm 

Thursday, August 11

 Danny had quite a few friends show up, which was good because 

not all the family could make it.

 There he is!!! We almost didn't get up in time to see him come out :)

 Proud Papa and a very happy mom!

 Hadley was very excited; not as excited as Steven was to have his 

little brother home :)

 Above: baby Korver who met Danny for the first time

Below: Haegen, who was only a year old when Danny left, was very shy at 

first.  Later at home he hugged him and said, "I love you Danny" It was cute!

 Some guy randomly gave Danny a Krispy Kreme donut,

very nice of him

 The bag Danny put all his heavy stuff in throughout his mission

 Finland Cufflinks

The awesome sign Steven made for Danny :)

Maverick, the golden retriever, was so excited to

see Danny he decided to "mark" Danny's luggage as his own.

Danny wasn't too thrilled.

His homecoming talk was very well done, and the homecoming was crazy 

with people, but it came together nicely.

It was fun to spend that first weekend home with him, and the whole

family is very glad he is back safe.