Hurray for Maren!

Maren is the Hope of America! I knew she was sweet and brilliant, but now I have proof!

The Hope of America award is sponsored by the Kiwanas Club in Pocatello and honors 6th graders they feel are leaders in their schools. Each 6th grade teacher gets to choose 1 boy and 1 girl from their classroom. They have to have high grades, show integrity, and demonstrate teamwork with their classmates. Maren is definitely a good student (straight A's for 3 years!), and I'm always impressed that my shy little daughter will stand up for other students even though it scares her to death! She is a peacemaker and an all-around good kid! Congratulations, Maren! We're so proud of you!

Fun at Lagoon!

We had a really fun vacation a couple of weeks ago and school wasn't even out yet! Maren and Emma are in the Idaho State University Children's Chorus, and every year, they take a trip to Lagoon. This year we decided to take the whole family and make it a vacation! We also talked some friends who also have kids in the chorus into bringing their families, so our boys would have someone to hang out with (other than their boring parents!). It was a lot of fun!

Emma and Priscilla Hibbert were the perfect pals for going on rides together, and so were Maren and Sarah Hibbert, since they were a little braver! Much braver than I was! My kids keep teasing me because I only went on 5 rides, but I was perfectly content to watch them have a great time while I sat with the jackets and water bottles and talked to other chicken friends. I did try a few, though, and I LOVED Rattlesnake Rapids! That was great, even though we got soaked!

Del was NOT happy about getting all wet, and I was laughing so hard at his sopping wet face that I couldn't stop! Unlike what you may think, this picture shows me laughing and pointing at Del, NOT picking Sarah Hibbert's nose!

I got soaked, too, but just as we went under the waterfall, I bent over, so my back was sopping wet, but my front was pretty dry. Smart, huh, Del! Bet you wish you'd thought of that!

We never did get a picture of all of us together at the park, but here we are with the girls as we waited in the long line to get wet! It was worth it!
Devin and Chris spent the day with Tyler and Trent Winder and had lots of fun without us! We managed to get a picture of Devin, but there is no proof that Chris even came with us! The boys avoid cameras like all good Nielsons do, so you'll just have to imagine Chris' cute little face peering over Trent. Really, we brought him with us!

Devin had just been to Lagoon the day before with his class for an Engineering competition. Their school, Century, did really well! Their teams took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, and it was a regional competition! Devin rode the big roller coaster--Colossus--5 times that day and they all rode it 6 more times on Saturday! It was their favorite ride!


Michelle and Joe Winder are much braver than I am, so I didn't see them much except at lunch. They were off on the scary rides from the minute we got there! I spent most of the day with Farhana Hibbert, who is always great fun (and remembered to bring her camera! Thanks, Farhana!). What a fun day!

May 16th

Wicked!

After buying tickets 10 months earlier, seeing this screen directing us to our "One short day in the Emerald City" was sooooo exciting! We found out a couple of days before the show that a friend had two extra tickets, so we bought them and took the girls with us! They had really wanted to go ever since they found out that Becky and Dave were taking Katherine and Megan, so it worked out perfectly. Except for one tiny point: we had to let the girls sit down in our expensive seats so they could be by their cousins while Del and I took the cheaper balcony seats by our friends. Aren't we good parents?!




Here is a picture of the girls enjoying the nice seats right before the show. Del and I used little binoculars up in the balcony. The sacrifices we make for our kids! It was worth it, though. We could see fine, and it's an experience they'll never forget! The show was wonderful! Even better than I imagined! My only regret is that when I bought the tickets in August I didn't splurge and buy 6 tickets so the boys could have gone, too! They assured me that it would have been a waste of my money, but I know they would have secretly loved it!

Here we are after 3
hours of spectacular entertainment! You can't see it, but my toes are tapping, and I'm ready to break into singing and dancing around on the sidewalk. Luckily, Del was there to hold me back! There's something about hearing incredibly talented people sing that gives you the mistaken idea that you might be able to, too! Now that I'm home, of course, I do it all the time! Mostly in the shower, but my family occasionally gets to attend my concerts in the car, too! Lucky!

Becky and I both decided to wear ruby red slippers in honor of Oz, so here she is clicking her fashionable heels together. "There's no place like home..." Really, we were NOT ready to go home, yet! It was a great day, but way too short!

May 2nd

I'm Repenting!

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since February! We got to visit with my dad's family (Rhea & Dave, Shelly & Bob, and Cavelle & Keith! Fun!) last week and they commented that they're tired of seeing the same post about my new computer! Sorry! I hadn't realized that anyone ever looked at it (except Becky and Michelle--I love you both!). I've just been doing it as a journal for myself, and I'm a lazy journaler! I have been so incredibly busy, but we've had lots of fun, so I'm going to try to catch up on all of it. Hang on! Here we go...

I'm In Heaven!

We just bought a new computer! Yes! Finally! Our old one was 10 years old, and it just wasn't cutting the mustard anymore. Actually, it hasn't cut any mustard for a lonnnnnggggg time, but we've been trying to be frugal, so we just kept using the old beast. I timed myself the other day, and it took 34 minutes from the time I turned it on until I had my email up and could read it! It would take at least 10-15 minutes just to get the word processor working. Shockingly slow, I know, but we made do. Now I click the power button on and 2 minutes later I'm surfing the internet! Wow! I'm in love! It's wonderful! The Symons family has moved into the modern age!

Before, I used to HATE it when people would say, "Just get online and look it up!" Didn't they realize that I didn't have 2 hours to devote to trying to find out the current movie times or a recipe for brownies? It was frustrating to even think about getting on the computer, let alone do it, so I usually got on about once a week. Now I just keep trying to think of genuine reasons why I need to get on the computer so I'm not just playing. I'm still not very good at everything, so I'm taking lessons from Devin. He's a knowledgable but impatient teacher. I don't blame him, though. I'm sure he gets tired of me yelling, "Devin! I need your help!" every 10 minutes while I'm using the computer! He told me the other day that he doesn't know how I'll survive while he's gone on his mission!

I've Been Exposed!

We just had a very fun, but odd, Enrichment! A new lady in our ward is a handwriting analyst who has worked for the FBI and CIA but mostly for companies who hire her to analyze potential employees. She analyzed the writing of all 30 women who showed up Wednesday night, and I can't believe how accurate it all was! It was weird! This is what she said about me:

I have very strong willpower, but it comes in short-lived bursts! (So painfully true! I can't ever seem to stick to anything if it's related to chocolate or exercise! How many times do I have to set those same goals?!)

Along with the willpower, I am stubborn on things I believe and don't back down. (Never!)

I keep my emotions close and don't usually express everything I feel. (Enough said.)

I have a tight group of friends who know who they are. I am a bear if someone bugs one of those friends! (I like that! It makes me sound pretty tough!)

I am a creative person whose creativity is currently squashed! I'm not currently progressing toward my goals. (Sounds like I should start on my book again! I've been on page 80 since October!)

I am a person who sees my relationships for how they are, but always with expectations for more. She said I probably say things about my marriage like, "We have a great marriage and if we could just change this one thing, it would be perfect." (So true! There will always be that "one more thing"!)

I am a person who observes carefully and processes things I see. She said I was like Columbo, but I would prefer to be like Nancy Drew. She dresses much better! She said at church, instead of listening to the lesson, I am likely to notice the look on X's face and wonder if it has something to do with the conversation I saw her having earlier with Y,.....etc." (She made me sound like a snoopy eavesdropper---just call me Gladys Kravitz! I suppose it's true, but hopefully not in a bad way. I'm just always worried about everyone being happy!)

I am normally very optimistic but not so much lately (Hmmm. Could that be because my husband has been self-employed now for 9 months since there are no jobs to even apply for?)

I like to take small risks and test limits. (This one I wasn't so sure about because, mostly I'm a big chicken, but when I asked my friends, they said I am risky about expressing my opinions in groups. I guess they've heard too many of my political rants! What can I say? It was an ugly election year!)

Anyway, that's my handwriting in a nutshell. We only wrote 2 sentences, and she said with that much writing she could tell us about ourselves for at least a half hour! It was fun but a little creepy. I have no idea how you can tell that much from handwriting! Needless to say, I called to thank her instead of sending a thank-you note! I didn't want her analyzing me even more! Think what she could do with a whole card-full of sentiments!

The Camera Saga

Decisions, decisions! Sometimes they're so hard!

Thursday night, Becky and the kids came to spend the weekend so we could drive 4 1/2 hours to Bozeman, Montana to test 2 pricey cameras Becky has been drooling over. Either way she was going to be spending tons of money, so it had to be the right decision! I left her in the camera shop while I went on a 5 hour shopping spree, while she took pictures, enlarged them for detail, and asked every question she could think of. When I came back to pick her up, I had a really cute knee-length brown tweed skirt with a kick-pleat and a great pair of brown earrings (that Becky later stole from me on our trip home!). My total for the day was just under $30. Becky's total was.....well, let's just say that it was a wee bit more!

I thought Bozeman was so cute, and it was such a pretty drive. On the way home, I told Becky, "You know, it's too bad I'll never be here again! Bozeman is really nice." Little did I know that I would see it again....really, really soon!


The next morning, I started to realize there was a problem when I got out of bed and saw Becky pacing the living room with hideously dark circles under her eyes (It was bad!). She'd been stressing all night about how she'd made the wrong decision. I tried to calm her down by saying, "Well, we can always drive back to Bozeman!" I was mostly kidding, of course, as any sane person would certainly know, but Becky jumped on it like a lifeline, and by 2:00 that afternoon, we were headed back to Bozeman, embarking on another 9 hour drive! Oh, well, that's what sisters are for, right? That's what Becky tells me, anyway!



We had a fun drive, and after we started to run out of things to say (which is completely amazing considering we are both talkers!) we sang in perfect harmony to Abba and some favorite disco hits! By the end of the 18 hours of driving, I was feeling a little hoarse, but we still belted out Dancing Queen in a way that would make those Swedes proud! Singing is my very favorite part about traveling. The acoustics are great in a minivan! I always make Del sing in the car with me, but he's not quite as good as Becky! He doesn't know all the words to the silly 80's hits, and he doesn't do a really good Queen falsetto. You should hear Becky's!



Well, now the long road trip is over and Becky is the proud owner of a new Nikon D700. Hopefully, she won't be back this Friday to make me exchange a lens or a neckstrap with her. My numb butt cheeks are still trying to recover from all of that driving. Still, it was fun spending 18 uninterrupted hours with my wacky sister!