Family

Andrew had his first concert of the year in the top Poston Jr. High Band. Here he is with his proud mother and brother.

One interesting thing is that a composer had written a piece, Piroska, and then asked the Poston band to play it first, a world premiere! They even had some video folk come to their school to get some images for their web site. So this is the first performance of this piece. That was exciting for them.

Here are links to videos of his numbers. He is hard to see but you can listen to them.

First Number
Second Number
Intro comments to world premiere 3rd number - Piroska
Third Number- world premiere of Piroska
Fourth Number
Andrew says goodbye

Mountain View had its first Choir concert. All 8 choirs participated. Josh is in the Men's Chorus and Daniel in the Chorale.

I also videotaped some of their numbers. Here are some links:

Josh's:

First Number
Second Number
Third Number

Daniel's:

First Number
Second Number
Third Number
Fourth Number

Bonus:

A number Becca sang before: Chili Con Carne

After being inspired by a "preparedness fair" at the church over the weekend, we got out our sun oven this afternoon and tried it out with a little loaf of bread. It worked like a charm. Outside temperature was under a hundred (a little) and we had no problem maintaining over 350 degrees. Had to rotate the box every 20 to 30 minutes to follow the sun, but that was kind of fun. After the little loaf we put a full size cinnamon loaf in and it tastes great as well. Sorry, no pictures of that one--it went too fast.

Bottomline: you can cook things--real things--with just the sun (and an insulated box, and some glass, and some reflective material). It probably helps if you live in Arizona, but not required.

So, uh...I haven't posted in a long time, but I wanted to share a hilarious dream that I had last night. It was pretty funny...and "sweet" at the same time!

I was in the middle of a large field with the whole Free family. It seemed like a place for a family reunion. Suddenly, we all burst into action. We were having a food fight! I remember seeing Justin throw some pie, while McKay was throwing some Jello. Food was flying everywhere! We then sort of just got into teams...I think there were four. Anyways, I was the only one that switched between the different teams. It was intense. The large field became larger...almost like Lord-of-the-Rings-battle-field size. People were dodging every little scoop of cream or piece of meat. We were all laughing, but very serious at the same time. It reminds me of playing in the backyard with Chad and all of the other boy cousins.

The battle was long and hard. Many were "wounded". We started running out of ammo! We all had to be very creative in our weapons. I remember finding some hard peanuts and throwing those at the other teams. Too fun!

After running out of peanuts, I switched over to another team that was hiding in a small bedroom in a house. We were all scared to come out, but we were ready for anyone who wanted to come in. I remember sitting on a small bed, tucked in the sheets, hoping that they would act as a good shield. For some reason, Justin got this vibe that "Nate was preparing something huge" on the other team. We got kind of scared, but held on tight. There was a knock at the door. We cautiously opened it. To our surprise and great relief, McKay came in with a blender and an open can of tomato sauce! Inside of that blender was a mini birthday cake complete with candles! He said, "We wanted to give you some cake!"

We put our guard down and welcomed him in, but I knew better. All of the sudden, he jumped forward with his blender to "pour" the cake out onto my clothes. Remembering that I had just washed these clothes, I pleaded with him that he wouldn't do that. There was a little bit of tomato sauce that came out as a result of him jumping, but luckily, it hit the blanket...and not me. He stopped and accepted my plea...

And then I woke up! Pretty fun, eh? Anyways, I thought I would share that with you and say that we are excited to see you all at the reunion. All this talk of food assignments coupled with my little experiences of seeing one clip from Lord of the Rings, doing laundry, and watching the little kids in "Little Woman" toss some food down at the people at the ball, lead me to a fun dream!

Loves!
-Mike & Rachel

Nate's mission call arrived on Friday the 10th! It came to Mesa, he was in Provo so he "opened it" via Skype. Here are a couple of video's of it. The first is a screen capture. The second is from Joe's iPhone. Buon Appetito!

Thanks to all of you who have made these past 28 years heaven!
We are so happy to be together and surrounded with so many wonderful people.

Daniel singing group did some songs from the Lion King. We were lucky to be in the front and be close to him on stage. I turned on my iphone and was able to capture a few minutes of video. It was great. Check it out at this link:

http://lovebeingadad.posterous.com/mountainviews-broadway-review

Way to go Daniel!

Saw these pictures and thought they looked so similar I had to share!

click to see slideshow->

We had some portraits taken at the temple. Check them out here.

Here is some more info on Melinda's homecoming.

Here are the streams (sorry they were broken up in mulitiples...but I have included a brief description of what is in each one)

Part 1 - On the road discussions before we get there
Part 2 - First sighting and hugs!
Part 3 - More hugs and interviews start.
Part 4 - Discussion in the car on the way home.
Part 4 - Discussion in the car on the way home.
Part 5 - More car discussion & first Lithuanian.
Part 6 - Poll questions flight story begins.
Part 7 - More on the flight and Sister Gubler.
Part 8 - Finish story arrive home.
Part 9 - First view of the sign and family picture.
Part 10 - Final clip of stream and good bye's

Here is Melinda's Mission Report in Sacrament mtg.

As many of you know, Sese Melinda Free has just returned from Lithuania. We hope you enjoyed the live broadcasting video from our Dad...it is so cool to be able to watch it live! We figured that another video wouldn't hurt. I am pretty sure that my Dad will post Sese's talk as well.

It has been such a joy to be with Melinda! Hope you feel that joy from this video!

-Mike Free

P.S. This film was shot on my mom's camera by Adam and Mom. I just post the videos.

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We are so excited to have our whole family together for the first time in over two years!

The first to arrive is Becca. She lands in Phoenix Sky Harbor at 9am on Friday the 18th. I will be going to pick her up. I am going to test out ustream.tv to stream live audio and video from my iPhone to the web so you can all watch.

So go to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/lovebeingadad at 9am tomorrow morning and you should see a live video feed of Becca in the airport. You can go there early and see some clips I took at the Mountain View Holiday Dinners and Andrew's band concert.

Then at 10pm the main event. Melinda is to arrive at 10pm. So be sure to check out the site. The third and last leg of her flight will be coming from Chicago, American Airlines Aa1733 (if you want to check if they are on time).

Here is a video of our family on iChat. We were choosing names for Christmas, but had to spice it up a bit. Enjoy!

Thanks to so many that put us up and helped us in so many ways. Grandma and Grandpa Free, John and Jen Free, Ric and Jodie Jamison. Thanks!

Here are some photos of the trip:

We spent a great week with the Frees hiking, swimming at the Panaca Pond, geocaching, riding four-wheelers, picnicking at Yankee Meadows, riding bikes, eating from the garden, attending the St. George Temple, shooting Grandpa's new pistol, chopping a bow from just the right kind of stick, and plain ol' hanging around.

In case you don't have Facebook, here is a link to some pictures from our week with Grandpa and Grandma back in July.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=113740&id=652162857&l=ed87243590