The Thrillionaires Improv Theatre with Laura Bedore!

The Thrillionaires warm up back stage before the show.
They performed for two hours!
Maclain Nelson, Lisa Valentine Clark, Hailey J. Smith, Laura Bedore (a local radio celebrity on KOSY 106.5), Jacob Suazo and Matt Mattson
Margaret Valentine Clark, Lisa Valentine Clark, Shauna Burgon Valentine after the show.

The Thrillionaires perform live improvised comedies, dramas and musicals. They do not use a script of any kind. Their plays are based purely on audience suggestions and the chosen style of the night.

They performed on Friday, May 30, 2008 at the Covey Center for the Arts! The Thrillionaires performed 1940's style radio shows on subjects shouted out by the audience! As usual, the house was packed and everyone had a great time! Grampa and Grandma watched baby Margaret during the performance. Lisa's husband Topher was across town for the opening of his new musical at the Hale Theatre, "Little Women."

Daughter Lisa has another blog!

Shauna, mother of five! Lisa, mother of five!
Grampa is overwhelmed!

Check out Lisa's new blog: http://lightrefreshmentsserved.com/author/lisa/

Of course, you can also enjoy her regular blog www.ohjudy.blogspot.com, which is a hoot! Don't forget daughter Gina's blog www.thesewingfriend.blogspot.com, too!

Tonight, we took Lisa to dinner at Carrabbas to celebrate her birthday! Yummy! Robert and Shauna had Sirloin Marsala: Lisa had her favorite, Pollo Rosa Maria and we all shared a Sogno di Cioccolata for dessert. We will all exercise vigorously tomorrow. Topher was at the rehearsal for the musical "Little Women," which debuts soon!

Memorial Day 2008 at the Murray City Cemetery.

Is there are safe substance to remove the stains on marble?

Shauna and Robert decorate Shauna's parents' grave in Murray, just south of Salt Lake City on Monday. As you can see, all of the brothers and sisters had already placed flowers and flags. The red, white and blue decorations are reminders of Margaret's birthday on the 4th of July! Marvin Heber Burgon and Margaret Tholen Burgon were wonderful parents and grandparents.

Memorial Day 2008

Decorating Lee Benson Valentine's grave at the Provo Cemetery.
The grave of Lee Benson Valentine, PhD
The grave of Americus Vespucci Greer, great great great, etc. grandfather.
Amy Melvina Young Valentine (92) has been a widow for nearly 41 years. Lee Valentine was and is the love of her life.

After Sunday dinner in Highland, we drove to the Provo City Cemetery in several cars to visit the grave of Lee Benson Valentine, Robert's father who died in an auto accident in 1967, three months after Robert and Shauna were married. Lee Valentine was a great singer and guitarist. He acted in many plays and musicals at BYU and was a kind and wise father. Born in 1911, Lee grew up on a farm in Brigham City, Utah, the only boy of Nephi James Valentine and Ottolina Bengston Valentine and had five older sisters (Grace, Wilma, Ruth, Erma and Thelma) who adored him. Lee met gorgeous Amy Melvina Young, his mission president's daughter, in Argentina in 1935 while serving a mission for the LDS Church. He taught Spanish at BYU and Stanford, where he earned a PhD in Latin American Area Studies in 1956.

We also visited the nearby grave of Americus Vespucci Greer who died in Provo in 1896. Americo was grandmother Amy's pioneer great grandfather, which would make him the great-great-great-great grandfather of Robert and Shauna's spunky grandkids, who seemed only mildly interested in this genealogy. By the way, Americus had a brother named Christopher Columbus Greer!

Imogen and Sydney did not quite understand that you are NOT supposed to climb on tombstones!

¡Viva España! I can't believe James in playing guitar in Madrid!

Left to Right, Vicente Abellán Bagán, Robert Young Valentine and the UNICAR, SA salesmen at the 1988 Barcelona Car Show.
Adam Levine is one of the best crooners in the world.
James Valentine makes a guitar sing!
James Valentine's father Robert spent many years doing business in Spain, mostly selling Chief Automotive Systems frame straightening machines through his distributor Vicente Abellán Bagán in Barcelona. Robert has covered almost every province in Spain with high quality body shop equipment. He loves Spain and his old business partners and customers throughout the country. ¡Gracias, colegas, por muchos años de gran éxito y amistad!

With the weak U.S. dollar, el viejo Roberto wishes he were selling U.S. equipment overseas again! These are great times for U.S. manufacturers to sell their discounted products overseas!

Maroon 5 played again in Madrid on May 24, 2008, this time in the fabulous Palacio de los Deportes. James' older brother Christopher lived for two years in northern Spain as an LDS missionary many years ago before becoming a successful physician. James' aunt Cristy Valentine also lived in Spain for two years back in the 1970's as a missionary. She later worked in the Reagan White House and U.S. State Department. Muchos miembros de la familia Valentine hablan español bastante bien. El hermano de James tiene muchos pacientes en su despacho médico de México que hablan muy poco inglés, pero el Dr. Valentine les habla en español con un acento de España. "¡Ay, el doctor es de España", dicen muy agradecidos! ¡Viva España! These recent pictures were copied from the m5blog.typepad fan web site.

Church Dinner - East Highland Stake LDS Church

Our Bishop Scott Whiting and his wife Cindy.
Most at this table are from the Canyon View Ward, our friends and neighbors.
Our great dentist Ed Tucker and his wife Nancy. He his the best plaque-getter-ridder in the world!
Our pals Larry and Joan Goss who moved here from California.

Robert and Shauna were in charge of the table decorations. Brigham Young University (which has wonderful gardens) gave us permission to pick tulips. We filled 80 vases with over 500 tulips, which were destined to be replaced the following week with summer flowers. We bought the vases at the Deseret Industries thrift stores. Guests got to take the vases home. Rick and Denise Nydegger served a delicious prime rib dinner (cooked early Saturday by Denise's neighbors up and down the street) to over 300 people. Our stake (diocese) and ward (parish) have activities all the time. Our Highland neighborhoods are very close, friendly and social. We live in paradise!

Paul Burgon, master builder.

Shauna's brother Paul Burgon, who earns his living building expensive homes, built this elegant and amazing doll house for his lucky grand daughters in the backyard of his and LaDell's home in the foothills of Pleasant Grove, Utah, about fifteen minutes away from the Valentine's in Highland. You have to see it to believe it!

Shauna and her sisters!

Celebrating Shelley's birthday last week!

Family Home Evening, Monday, May 20, 2008

Sheridan James has a birthday, too!
Amanda celebrates her birthday in Nashville!
Happy Birthday, Grampa! Our loveable clean-freak gets a robot Roomba vacuum.

Family Home Evening thought: Talking with God Personally!

"It matters not our circumstance, be we humble or arrogant, poor or rich, free or enslaved, learned or ignorant, loved or forsaken, we can address Him. We need no appointment. Our solicitation can be brief or can occupy all the time needed. It can be an extended expression of love and gratitude or an urgent plea for help. He has created numberless cosmos and populated them with worlds, yet you and I can talk with Him personally, and He will ever answer."
(Richard G. Scott)

Have a fun week--no matter how busy, enjoy!

Love, Mom and Dad, Robert & Shauna Valentine
xoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Amanda Valentine - Fashion Show in Nashville

Amanda is a fashion genius. She designed and sewed this and many other dresses. "Amanda Valentine" is a fashion moniker!

Family Home Evening, Monday, May 5, 2008

The apple tree where the cousins hold their "club" meetings.
Where did you get the kites, Grandma!
The Canfields had extra balloons from their son's welcome home from Romania.
Can we climb the backyard boulders, Grampa?
We have one yellow balloon that is still on the ceiling--we're wondering what happened to all of yours.
(James and Amanda, check the family blog for an explanation.)

Remember that Maroon5 is on American Idol this week. Amanda, we want pictures from the fashion show!

Sunday is an important day. We love having our family over. We love joining with our neighbors to worship. We enjoy singing--don't always sing on other days, but we always sing on Sundays.

We need Sundays. Our minds and bodies need a day off, a change from all that we put them through during the week. What a wise Heavenly Father to command us to observe the sabbath and refresh ourselves. Good for the physical self, mental well-being, and spiritual growth--if we observe it as we should.

We've been promised other blessings, too!

"Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase. . . .

And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid."

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."

President Kimball taught how we might observe the Sabbath:

"The Sabbath is a day on which to take inventory—to analyze our weaknesses, to confess our sins to our associates and our Lord.
It is a day on which to fast.
It is a day on which to read good books, a day to contemplate and ponder,
a day to study the scriptures and to prepare sermons, a day to nap and rest and relax,
a day to visit the sick, a day to preach the gospel, a day to proselyte,
a day to visit quietly with the family and get acquainted with our children,
a day for proper courting, a day to do good, a day to drink at the fountain of knowledge and of instruction,
a day to seek forgiveness of our sins, a day for the enrichment of our spirit and our soul,
a day to restore us to our spiritual stature,
a day to partake of the emblems of his sacrifice and atonement,
a day to contemplate the glories of the gospel and of the eternal realms,
a day to climb high on the upward path toward our Heavenly Father." (Teachings, 216).

Make Sunday a different day. Have a good week,

Love, Mom and Dad, Robert & Shauna Valentine
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Neighborhood Togetherness

The view from our backyard shows the homes of the Sampsons and the Canfields. The Canfields were celebrating the return of their son from an LDS church two-year mission to Romania with baloons. Across the street the Sampsons were welcoming home their Marine son from a year-long tour of duty in Iraq with American flags. In church Sunday, both families expressed their gratitude and answers to their prayers. What a great neighborhood!

Saturday Night Dancing, May 3, 2008

The Springville Arts Museum Gala dinner and dance is wonderful. There are more artists per capita in Utah than any other state and only the best were on display. We danced with high school pals while planning our 50th reunion for 2010.