REXBURG 18TH WARD

I don't know, yet, how many wards or stakes are in Rexburg. We're in the 18th ward, and we LOVE it! It's a delightful change to be in a ward full of families with kids our kids' ages. There are tons of people our age too, which feels so foreign after, well, our whole lives!

We should have known that our ward would be great when we discovered that our bishop is Richard Cluff (yes, a relative, though way back), and he's a psychology professor (he even has his students train baby chicks to do tricks like dance and peck on command).

Another thing we love is that our ward really knows how to throw a party!

They had a fantastic Christmas party with BYUI catered food. The food line just zipped through because people served you. So fast!

Last night, they had a dinner/theatre party to celebrate the ward's 30th anniversary. It was AMAZING! Absolutely impressive! It was a dinner (again catered by BYUI) with a play that rivaled a full-on stake roadshow! It was modeled after The Wizard of Oz, and it blew me away how many talented people there are in our ward. The high school drama department even helped with the costumes!

Highlights:
-The good witch rode a bicycle and the bad witch rode a Harley and had an oreo-loving biker-gang as her guard (instead of monkeys).
-The stretchkins (munchkins) represented the Relief Society (instead of the lollipop guild) and the Elder's quorum.
-They had us go through a mock-tornado with flickering lights and loud wind and everything. It was great!
-Dorothy wore the coveted bejeweled, black galoshes, since the theme was emergency preparedness.

-Several of the actors, while in makeup, reminded me of other people. One Tin Man looked like the albino on The Princess Bride.

The wicked witch of the west looked like Bette Midler.

And the bishop of Oz looked like Osgood Fielding III, the lady-loving millionaire from Some Like It Hot.

-The best part was how Kaitlin Cluff (Dorothy) figured out how to kill the witch. After throwing water on the witch with no results, she realized that the way to make anyone go "unconscious" is to have them listen to a high councilman speak, so 2 high councilman in our ward walked up from the audience giving talks and sure enough, the witch began dying. It was HILARIOUS!

I'm telling you, the chapped lips and dry skin are a small price to pay for such a great place to live! Okay, I do miss the evergreens and being surrounded by mountains, but wide open spaces have their own kind of beauty too.