Sent from my iPhone

See the full gallery on Posterous

So yesterday we got a great surprise.  Urgent Care Extra has a suite at the Suns arena.  As part of that they had a special offer that would allow us to buy nosebleed Suns tickets for $5 for last night's game against the Clippers.  So I thought it would be a fun thing to do with the kids. Becca had plans but the boys we in.  

Then as I was about to order the tickets I get an email that they have some tickets left for the suite if we wanted them.  I contacted them instantly and ended up with four tickets to the suite and the parking pass!

So we drive up to our reserved parking spot, walk in to where the "beautiful people" are. We get the free food, the multiple TVs, the couches, and the great view.

What made it even better was the lowly Suns were able to beat the Clippers!  It was exciting to the last moment.

Actually, the best part was being with these guys!  Thanks Josh, Andrew and Adam!

Watch for yourself.

Sent from my iPhone

I'm sharing a few photos (they are already on facebook but this way they are on our website and Daniel can see them).

Thanks to all for a truly wonderful event. It was pleasant and happy and filling in so many ways.

We love you all!  Thanks for gathering with us!

DSCN7831.MOV Watch on Posterous

See the full gallery on Posterous

Anna and Chiaki were walking nutmeg when a neighbors dog came and attacked nutmeg killing her.  Prayers and positive thoughts will be appreciated........

Pictures from Anna frees facebook...............

Little David and beautiful Rachel got sick yesterday, so at 10:30 pm we ran to the store to buy orange juice and naval oranges.

We've enjoyed a couple of those oranges this morning. One of them was a lot darker than we expected. Both Rachel and I thought we accidentally got grapefruit instead of oranges!

It ended up tasting just like an orange, but our tongues were saying otherwise just before we put it in our mouths.

The picture shows the grape-orange fruit. Next to it, you'll see the leftovers of David's normal-looking orange. Crazy stuff!

At 7:00am in Scottsdale this morning the horn went off and over 400 runners left the starting line.  Both men and women JV runners.

As a sophomore, this is Andrew's second year and second time for this course.

It was very muggy this morning and at race time the sun made it above the few clouds heating things up.

He did a great job from the beginning to the end and finished 13th overall getting one of the medals given to the top 25!

See if you can find him in the mob picture.  My favorite is the picture of him climbing the hill.

Great job Andrew!  (I must have called him Michael three times this morning, I even started typing Michael for this post! weird)

See the full gallery on Posterous

Hello Free family,

I haven't sent a mass text message to everyone, so I thought I ought to let everyone know that Rachel and I have different cell phone numbers:

Me: 480-331-3717
Rachel: 480-236-7546

Please make those changes in your phones/directories.

Loves!
Mike and Rachel and David

Uncle Dave spoke as a high councilman today in another ward.  I decided to attend and thoroughly enjoyed his talk and thought his family would enjoy it as well.

The closing hymn was one I was not familiar with #43 "Zion Stands with Hills Surrounded". The third verse had greater meaning to me:

"In the furnace Go may prove thee,

Then to bring thee forth more bright,

But can never cease to love thee;

Thou art precous in his sight.

God is with thee, God is with thee;

Thou shalt triumph in his might."

dave-hc-talk-8-19-12.m4a Listen on Posterous

Rachel, David, and I have decided to go camping next weekend. We are super excited not only because we will be camping for the first time since we've been married, but we will also have Jopes, Elizabeth, Joseph, and Everlit there too!

We are planning on meeting halfway between us and rexburg idaho at some campground. Do any of you have an idea of where to go?

Loves!
Mike

P.S. I got a tent for christmas a couple years ago and we decided to bring it out to test it out and get it all set up before going camping. Unfortunately, we discovered that the tent is not in the tent bag. There's only a tarp and some poles. The pictures are of David figuring out what we'll do instead. I'm just glad that we discovered this before we went to the campsite. :)

See the full gallery on Posterous

9 of us drove 700 miles to return home on Monday (From Highland, UT to Mesa, AZ). We came up with an idea to keep us mentally engaged and to do something creative.

We decided to make a story. The rules were kind of loose. Essentially, each person would give a sentence or two. The only requirement was that they needed to use a word that began with the first letter of their first or middle name.  (Joshua James...always had to use a "J"!).

Each of us had an idea how to get the story to move the direction we wanted.  So we would set up the next person. But invariably they had other ideas.  So as you listen/read you can hear the tug-of-war we had.  

Becca typed the story into her iPhone and was able to read it back to us so we could keep things straight.

In the end I think it turned out surprisingly well!  It took 2 hours and 45 minutes to get through it.  We were happy to be done, which is why the story finally ended.

There are a few items that could still be explained in the story...but that just sets us up for a sequel.  Or dare I say a series!

We would like to thank our cast of authors ranging in age from 52 to a few months: Diana, Becca, Melinda, Jeff, Samuel (who started crying at just the right part in the reading of the story), Josh, Andrew, Adam and Joe.

Becca also did the dramatic reading for us when we were done.  You can hear the road noise in the background.  At that point I think we were at about Gap, AZ.

Here is the audio and the text.

Once_upon_a_time....m4a Listen on Posterous

Between Kanab and gap az, 2 1/2 hours on July 23 2012. 

Dad [jw], mom [dk], becca [ri], Melinda [mk], Jeff [jr], josh [jj], Adam [ad],and Andrew [ja]. 

Once upon a time, 

The sun broke through the clouds, streaming through the leaves, glistening off the back of the jabberwock. [jw]

It was going to be a glorious day. [dk]

The jabberwock ran through the ivy filled glen, [ri]

Just as he reached the glen, a giant cave opened up in from of him and a bear witch appeared in the opening. [jr]

The jabberwock narrowed his eyes with distrust but opened his mouth to say the magic words. [mk]

"JALEPENO!!! BEAR WITCH GET THEE HENCE!!!" And snarled through his teeth. [jj]

After this the bear witch disappeared and in its place a portal appeared in the entrance to the cave. [ad]

Cautiously the jabberwockie walked through the portal, suddenly he found himself in an unusual place. [ja]

Waking from his dream, Jeremy pondered the meaning of it all. [jw]

"What could this mean? Is there something I need to know about jalepanos? Dear me what am I to know?!!" [dk]

Glancing out his bedroom window, he watched the rain flood through the ivy garden outside. [ri]

(Melinda do you wanna recrap of the the story?)

Then he stretched, stepped onto the floor, and made his bed. [mk]

Later that morning on his way to school, Jeremy remembered that he forgot to turn off the oven, so he said "BIBIDY BOBIDY BOO" which is the code word for Siri to turn off the oven. [jr]

As Jeremy was walking down the sidewalk he noticed his friend James.  James is an odd fellow but is very intelligent and superstitious. [jj]

As jeremey still walked down the side walk, James asked "where are you going?" And Jeremey said "To school." And James said "Didn't you know? School isn't happening today because of the rain!" [ad]

Jeremy replied, "In that case do you want to go to IHOP with me?" James agreed and they walked off to IHOP. [ja]

As jeremey looked over his rooty tooty fresh and fruity breakfast he asked James, "do you know what a bear witch is?" [jw]

"Of course you ding bat!" James said, "Who doesn't know?" [dk]

James continued after seeing the look of puzzlement on jeremeys face and said "It is a rare beast found in the northern scopes of rexburg and they live in igloos."[ri]

"huh" said Jeremy. "Is that some kind of mythological creature or does it really exist?" [mk]

But Jeremy would have to wait to find out. He suddenly spotted  dangling from James' fingers millimeters from his lips-a giant Juicey red glowing jalepano!!!! [jr]

Jeremy, in his head of course, screamed like a little girl, "JAMES! Its the red jalepano!! Can'tcha see it." [jj]

"So?" Said James. "I get jalepanos on my pancakes everyday. Especially red growin ones." [ad]

"Oh" said Jeremy with a sigh of relief, "Are you ready to leave then?" [ja]

"I promised you an answer" said James, "and I plan on giving it to you, have another pancake.  What is this all about?" [jw]

So jeremey reluctantly related the crazy dream from the night before. [dk]

Then suddenly a waitress who had been listening in on the dream slipped on an ice cube and flew across the room!!! [ri]

Kristen the waitress got up and ran back to jeremey and James. "Wait!! You had that dream too?!?!" [mk]

"What do you think it means?!" the waitress asked. "The portal that leads to the Ross elementary school gym?" [jr]

"I don't know" Jeremy and James replied. Jeremy thought for a second, then asked "do you know about the fortune teller up the road a couple of miles?" [jj]

"No" said Kristen. "But I say we go and check out the Ross elementary school gym." As they walked outside an antelope ran past them into a giant igloo. [ad]

Then Jeremy rubbed is eyes and the antelope and the igloo were gone (tarter sauce says Adam). Kristen asked if he was ok and he replied "yes I'm fine I think". 

"I suggest we go to the Ross elementary school gym  and since the fortune teller is on the way we could go to both. What do ya think?" [jw]

The fortune teller listened quietly as the group explained their dilemma. Then she gazed into her crystal ball and said- [dk]

"Beware of ivy, igloos, and ice. And most especially, STAY AWAY FROM IV's!!!!!" [ri]

"There may be more I could tell you, something about a JALEPENO, if you'll give me another $5." [mk]

James reluctantly pulled five dollars from his pocket. "WAIT WHAT'S THAT?!" The fortune teller exclaimed as something red glistened in her eye. [jr]

And of course it was the red jalepano from before. "See" said Jeremy "that's the red jalepano I was talking about." "Hmmm let me check my books." [jj]

Right as she opened up the book screams of terror came from the streets. "Here is a glowing red JALEPENO for luck." [ad]

As Jeremy and his companions ran out to the street to see what the commotion was about they found it was snowing.  And there were screams of delight not terror. [ja]

As the three companions arrived at the school it was hard not to be shocked at the scene. Snow covered saguaros cacti and just a little ivy around the front door. [jw]

James turned to his companions and said, "I'm ready to tell you the answer...the bear witches really do exist but only appear when it is snowing." [dk]

Startled, jeremey and Kristen looked towards the ivy crusted doors to the gym and hopscotched toward the door to open it. (as that was the only safe way to approach a bear witch) [ri]

As they went through the door, Kristen reminded them to avoid touching the ivy the fortune teller and warned them of. They finished hopscotching towards the middle of the gym and stopped to look around. [mk]

An unexpected silence fell over the gym, the group looked at each other quizzically and listened for any sound. [jr]

Nothing was heard for a long time until a faint cry could be heard. This is no ordinary cry stated Jeremy. They could all tell that this cry was of a little child. [jj]

As they looked to the right they saw something moaning but they couldn't see the shape of it, but it looked like a zombie. [ad]

As they approached they realized it was the fortune teller from before! She suddenly turned and said. "It's here." [ja]

Crashing through the roof the giant bear witch sprawled snarling on the gym floor. The light streamed through the hole in the roof and struck the jalepano that Jeremy held, transforming it into a jabberwock!!! [jw]

Dazed by the crash, the children froze for a moment. Then Kristen whispered. "Find the portal!!!" [dk]

They split from each other in an isosceles triangular fashion and began to frantically search for that dang illusive portal hole. [ri]

Kristen remembering the school's mascot were caveman ran towards the team entrance often known as "The Cave". Sure enough there was a faint green glow coming from "The Cave". 

"I've found it!" She yells. [mk]

"Avoid the Ivy" James repeated to himself as he ran toward the Cave. "Avoid the ivy". He absentmindedly glanced at his watch and was surprised to notice a needle protruding from his wrist. Of course he exclaimed "I'm still dreaming!" [jr]  

"James listen to me, you're not dreaming!" Cried Jeremy. "You've been intoxicated from the IV. Just come with me through the portal and you'll be ok." [jj]

"Alright" said James as they walked through the shimmering portal they found themselves in the magical land of candy land. [ad]

As they looked around they saw several other portals. [ja]

As they were deciding which portal to go through, candyland disappeared before them and the bear witch was standing right behind them!! Jeremey shouted "JALEPANO!!! GET THEE HENCE  BEAR WITCH!!!" [jw]

The bear witch disappeared evaporating completely. And the four of them stood before the jabberwockie.  [dk]

Hopscotching around the jabberwok the four some circled it looking for some weakness. [ri]

"Kristen, Jeremy, James and mistress Tralony. Thank you for ridding the world of another bear witch!! As a reward for your service, you may each have one wish and one jalepano." [mk] 

"That's easy" said James "I'll take an order of pancakes with a glowing red jalepano on top." [jr]

Kristen said "Oh I wanna open up my own restaurant so I never have to be a waitress again." Mistress tralony thought long and hard- "I just want a giant JALEPENO ;)" [jj]

Jeremy wished for all of this to just be a dream. [ad]

And suddenly jeremey woke up. It was all a dream. 

As he looked around his room he found a glowing JALEPENO resting on his bed side table... [combined]