Wander With Wayne

Recently, Tanner participated in Park View Elementary School's Wax Museum. The wax museum is an assignment that the 5th grade students participant in each year. The student selects a person from United States history and studies the person, in depth. After learning about the person, the student dresses up like that person, prepares some props, and presents a little about the person to parents and students in the school. The student sits in a chair, in the hall, and as parents/students pass by, they push a fake button next to the student, and the student comes to life (and tells about their history). Tanner chose to represent Scott Joplin, a favorite music composer. He had a great time telling about Scott Joplin and playing the piano for the parents and students. After he finished, he told me something he had learned: One of the fathers who came to the wax museum told Tanner that there were many other great musicians during the same era as Scott Joplin. He then explained that ...

Last Sunday, Dan Lyle informed me that, in January, he'd reserved a campsite for the scouts. He asked if I'd like to take the scouts camping to that campsite this weekend. I knew I had tickets to the play, which we had already rescheduled. After visiting with several leaders, we decided to go and invite the 11 year-old scouts to join us. We threw the plans together.  When Friday night arrived, Noell and I went to the the Hale Center Theater where we joined Ken, Ada, Kathy, and BrieAnna for the performance of She Loves Me. We had a great visit during dinner and loved the acting and enjoyed the humor in the show. We made it back home shortly after midnight. On Saturday morning I woke early and couldn't go back to sleep. I decided that I'd wake Tanner and we'd go to the campout. Because he is a Webelos scout, he can attend some activities. We invited him and another Webelos to join us. When we arrived, some of the scouts told me that they found a bear in...

Here is an update that I wrote for the Richare Vernile Goodworth family letter: Wayne & Noell Goodworth Family Still living in Payson, Utah, where we love our friends & neighborhood. Wayne manages the Springville LDS Employment office just 15 minutes from home and loves that he no longer has a 2-4 hour commute to and from Salt Lake. He enjoys spending his additional time with the family and around the home. Earlier this year, he was called as Scoutmaster. He enjoys spending time with the young men in the ward. Scout camp was a lot of fun. He also had the opportunity to spend the week with Myranda at young women's camp. Noell returned to school last year and just began her new semester. She recently decided that she will major in Secondary Health Education. Because of her love of sports and her desire to improve health, she felt this would be perfect. She enjoys playing volleyball and basketball in city leagues (and even neighboring city leagues).  Kan...

Our family has had an amazing summer. During the summer, I've taken many photos and intended to update the blog with the stories that went along with them. Time has slipped past and I haven't captured the stories. Hopefully the picture in this post are worth a thousand words... Tanner at our ward Father & Sons Camp out Tanner receiving his Cub Scout Religious Knot Celebrating Grandma Veibell's 99th Birthday at Pop 'n Pins Lanes A bird that nested just outside Uncle Jack & Aunt Carol's front door Myranda at Girl's Camp - Rainy first night Myranda at Girl's Camp - The fun hike Myranda at Girl's Camp - Awesome Tree Myranda at Girl's Camp - Shooting an AK47 Kannesha on a Motorcycle Ride - Payson Temple in the background

“Family, isn’t it about time?” A number of years ago, the Church came out with some exceptional commercials for the television centered around that theme. The message of each commercial showed the importance of spending time with our family. As you can tell, those commercials made an impact in my life. Even years later, the phrase comes into my mind. Our oldest daughter went through the Temple on Tuesday and was married on Saturday. After watching her and her fiancé kneel across an altar and covenant with each other and God, I was immensely moved. If we live up to covenants made in the temples, we can be with our families for eternity. With this experience, I want to modify the phrase (adding another of the Church’s phrases – time and all eternity). Today the phrase in my mind is: Family, isn’t it about time, and all eternity. I hope I can become the person our Father in Heaven intends for me to become. I also hope that each of our children will become the person God inten...

Friday night (actually Saturday morning around 1:00 a.m.) we arrived at Becky and Jason's home. We enjoyed a short visit and then went to sleep. Saturday morning we slept in, got ready, ate breakfast, relaxed, and visited before we went to Dad and Mom's for the Easter party. Kaneesha and Riley had stayed the night at my parents. It was fun to see all the family again. We ate, raced, had Easter egg hunts, visited, and ate more. This year was especially fun to watch Tanner and his age group search for eggs. After the initial rush and most of the eggs had been found, I suggested that perhaps he might start looking for the "Prize" egg. The "Prize" egg is much larger than the other eggs.  I said, "Why don't you look in places where the big egg could be hidden.  He ran around a few places and before I could believe it, he screamed, "I found it! I found the prize egg!!!" Myranda, Kaneesha, and Riley all did well in the eg...

Notice the spot with no grass. Spring is definitely my favorite time of the year. I love to see the beautiful flowers and the bright greens as leaves begin to come forward. This spring is one we've looked forward to for years. Our walkout basement has always walked out onto dirt (and quite often it's mud). I've wanted to plant grass on that last section of our yard, but have had problems. Several of the problems have been: When we moved in, it was only rocks and had no topsoil. We needed a way to get a lawnmower to it. It was not setup on the sprinkling system (it needed water). Each year we've done work in the yard to improve it, but we still didn't have grass planted. Some of the things we've done over the years, to beautify the yard are: Planted raspberries and strawberries. Built steps on the east side from the area by the raspberries. Removed bushes and weeds that didn't belong. Put in garden boxes. Built a deck. Sprinkler and hos...

This morning Noell and I took Tanner to the city Easter Egg Hunt! He was excited to learn that he can go again next year because he'll only be age 10 (the city decided that children over age 10 shouldn't participate in the Easter Egg Hunt). Tanner had a great time and picked up the eggs left by the fastest runners. Most of the children left eggs next to them to get the eggs in the middle of the baseball field. He grabbed some up close, then realized how many were passed by. He then came back and got them. He willingly shared candy with Noell and I. Myranda stayed home to get ready to go to the temple with the young women. In the afternoon Tanner and I decided to go for a walk in the hollow. It is a beautiful spring day. As we walked, he took me to see the water in the stream.  As we were there, I realized he'd never crossed the stream by himself, when there was water in it. He's nine years old and has great balance. He easily walked across logs that we...

For a while, Myranda has been looking at the great weather and has been begging for a motorcycle ride. Tonight, when she returned from her musical theater class, she said she'd like to go for a ride. The sun was setting, but we decided to go for it. We quickly dressed warm and drove up the hills overlooking Payson. If it wasn't for the flash on the camera, you couldn't see her. Also, for family home evening, Tanner decide it was his turn to run the meeting. He taught the lesson and created an exciting activity as part of the lesson. We had a great time as we learned about the importance of choices and the results of our choices. If we made good choices, we advanced along the path he'd made on the living room floor. If we made poor choices, we took steps backward. The activity took quite a while to complete (evidently we made several poor choices). It was a memorable lesson/activity from a fun son.

This morning I realized that when I updated my blog, last night, I failed to include some of Tanner's letters to and from Santa. These are some well-written messages, and I feel we might all enjoy them.  Written weeks before Christmas Written on Christmas Eve The Jolly Elf's Reply

Christmas was fun this year. Having Kaneesha back and Tanner's excitement for Santa and his gifts made it extra special. More than anything, Tanner wanted to get a Blue Dragon B-Daman. Santa got one for him and Kaneesha purchased a white one for him. He spent all Christmas Day playing with them. Since Christmas, he has also spent as much time as possible playing with them. As an excited father, I forgot to take any photos on Christmas Day.  Unwrapping gifts at Goodworth family party After Christmas we spent a good time visiting family in Idaho. It was so fun to spend time with parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, and even great nieces/nephews. As we were in Idaho, Myranda said, "We need to buy a cello to keep in Idaho." We currently have a cello we keep at school, and a cello we keep for her at home. I would also love for her to have one in Idaho, so she can play when she feels like it (it's fun to play for cousins and grandparents). Deer in neighbors'...

I began this post before Christmas (December 23). Much has happened since (it's now January 11) but I need to get it posted before I can include additonal posts. Also, I've failed to take many photos during this time period... On Friday, Kannesha arrived from Virginia. While it has only been a short time since she was here for Thanksgiving, it seemed like quite some time since she was with us.  That night we also had the Goodrich Christmas Party at Jim & Beth's (Tyson and Laura are currently living there). Michelle, Tyson, and Noell's families represented the Goodrich family. It was a great time to visit, play games, and eat. We had many of the usual activities (including playing the bells - made from electrical conduit). To make it feel more normal, almost all the meal, treats, and deserts were the items that Beth traditionally cooks. With the great food, the house even smelled like the Goodrich Christmas Party. On the ride home we mentioned Myranda...