Karalenn Smart (Hippen) Update of Magic

I wanted to send our new family picture with an update for you. I've been pretty busy, sorry it's taken a bit to get this to you.

Currently we are living in Los Angeles, CA and have been living here for the last 3+ years. We wont be here for long though. Two weeks ago, just before we were about to make our decision to move to London or another part of California, a company in Salt Lake City, Utah (Avalanche- owned by Disney) contacted Seth about working for them animating for Disney video games. They called three separate times sweetening the deal until finally we couldn't refuse. So now we find ourselves moving from LA to Utah and Seth switching from feature animation to video game animation (at least for a few years, until that job offer from Pixar comes). :) We will be moving end of May beginning of June-ish to start Seth's job, find a home to buy, and settle in the mountains again. We're going to miss going to the beach all the time and Disneyland so often with our annual passes. We're so excited though to move by much of our family or within driving distance and buy a home though (a near impossibility for us here in LA).

As far as what has happened since high school, after graduation I went to Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho and earned my Associates in Elementary Education. I also met my husband Seth there and we had great fun and dated for a year and a half and got engaged and married in the LDS Mount Timpanogos Temple a few months later. We moved to Provo, Utah and continued our schooling and working. We had our first little girl (Makenzie) in 2000 and I continued with school for a while more. In the middle of our BYU experience we lived in Glendale, California for a summer because Seth had an internship doing character layout for the TV show, The Simpsons. That was a blast and very hard at the same time with a new baby (Makenzie was just a few weeks old when we moved out there for the summer).

In 2002 we moved to West Jordan, Utah where Seth animated on children's educational software and I was a stay-at-home mom and took correspondence classes. We had our second daughter (Kendyl) in 2003 and a few months later at the beginning of 2004 we moved to Los Angeles, California so Seth could animate for Sony Imageworks on the movie The Polar Express and since has animated on Monster House, Surf's Up (coming out this summer), and Beowulf (released next year).

Our oldest is now 6- almost 7 and in the first grade and our youngest (now 3) is in a preschool that I teach a few times a month. I've been teaching art at my oldest daughter's school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Although I've been teaching art to youngsters for a couple of years, I haven't painted or sketched for myself for a few years for some reason until the last few months. I've really been enjoying gaining that back again. I've also begun dancing again, which I haven't done in years, but grew up doing and am having a great time with that as well. It's fun to take dance classes a few times a week. I guess I do a lot of sewing too. I like to make insane costumes for the heck of it. (I know, weird)

The hobby that I spend most of my time with is my guitar and singing. I volunteer teaching music and play my guitar on Mondays for a few of the classes at Makenzie's school. (My favorite thing is to hear a bunch of kindergartners and first graders singing/shouting silly songs that I've made up or They Might Be Giants, Björk, and Beatles songs. We had a big performance tonight at the school for a couple hundred parents. It rocked! I was proud of my stinkers. I need to bring in the camcorder and record them singing Monday mornings to post to my blog. It's the cutest thing. I really am not that good at performing compared to a lot of music people I know out here, and haven't ever had lessons, but I have so much fun doing it (for kids at least).

Something pretty cool that has been happening is that I've recorded some of my songs in my friend's studio recently. That's been a kick and it's going to sound really great when all the stuff is added to it over the next few weeks (drums, harmonies, that kind of stuff) by her sound/editing guy (I'm not sure what his official title is). My husband has written some amazing songs and lyrics and will be recording them in her studio too before we move. We love jamming together. I'm not going to release it or anything like how my friend makes her living. I'm just excited to have a CD to send to all my nieces and nephews at Christmas this year.

So that's my life in a nutshell from the last 10 years and what is most current. Crazy and fun where life takes you eh? See you at the reunion now that we know we wont be in London. :)

Location Set - Get JAZZED

Back in 1996 when you were all faced with a very tough decision of voting for Senior Class President, you chose Mikey Smith. Maybe it was his charisma, maybe it was his leadership style, or maybe it was because he ate 10 dandelions in his speech that Lisa Ward threw at him. But either way, Mikey Smith became our leader. With that leadership came the responsibility to plan the 10 year reunion (along with fellow officers like myself).

With Mikey comes awesomeness...and a desire to try something a little different. I tell you this now as I am about to reveal the location of the Saturday night portion of the reunion. We will be holding it at The Big Easy Concert House in downtown Boise by 8th Street. This venue is usually a dance location or concert house for some pretty good acts (for example, Modest Mouse is playing there tonight if you feel like going). They have an awesome stage we can use with killer audio/visual capabilities, room for dancing, and delicious catering we can take advantage of. We're pretty excited...and it won't be your basic hotel ballroom thing. We envision lots of great things - including the Senior Video playing on some flat panels and a fun but not too long program.

Any ideas you have will be considered and appreciated...hope you are as excited as we are about the venue! Don't let the trance dance pictures on the website fool you - check out the virtual tour to see how great the space will be.

A Fateful Meeting For Dave Boyle

Although many have tied the knot, there are still a few of us still living the single life as well as a few who are well on their way...

Dave Boyle is one as he recently got engaged to his fiancee Stormy. Dave sent this picture and a brief description about how he and Storm met:

I met Stormy one month before graduating from Utah State. Hence the photo's USU baseball cap that I'm donning atop my head. She and I met in my last church Institute class as a USU student, sitting right next to each other, as a matter of fact. However, interestingly, we didn't even share a hymn book at the time, although we share a book all the time now!

Actually, other than a few sidelong glances at each other throughout the entirety of that fateful Institute class evening, not a word was spoken between us until right after class in the local Walmart parking lot. We both decided to do our shopping right after class that night at Walmart, which explained how we recognized each other from class right before as we walked in the parking lot to do our shopping. We both did a double take as we initially noticed how familiar we each looked to one another as we were almost literally walking side-by-side into Walmart from where our cars were parked not more than 10 yards away from the store.

So, naturally, we both said, "Hi." Then, "Interesting class, huh?" ... "Yeah!" (I forget who said "Hi" first, but that was truly, almost word-for-word, how we greeted each other). As we continued to walk together into the store's front door, we amused ourselves with small talk about the weather, our funny and energetic Institute teacher, and so forth, until finally, I decided to just ask her out. I was nervous about being too direct in asking her out, so instead, I said, "Hey, Stormy, do you want to join some friends and I in watching Will Ferrell's 'Elf' movie tonight?" She thought about it a moment and replied, "You bet. That sounds fun. I just need to get something for my mom here, and I can meet you all at your movie party place as soon as possible."

"Yee-haw!" I thought, as I proceeded to write down her phone number as she started spouting off her cell phone digits to me, apparently as excited as I was to watch this funny Christmas movie with funnyman Will Ferrell starring in the lead role this time. Then, I remember how adorable Stormy was as she appeared as nervous as I must have seemed when she asked, "By the way, Dave, is it okay if I'm still dressed in my work clothes?" Stormy is a medical assistant for a local family doctor practice in Logan's Cache Valley, and she was still sporting her comfortable-looking medical scrubs from having worked right up until class before.

I was about to say, "Sure," but she decided she wanted to change into something other than work clothes anyway, even though she was still so clean and neat appearing, somehow. So, without further adieu between us, and before I could utter another word, she nearly read my mind with the perfect backup plan instead, when she went ahead and said, "How about I go ahead and call you when I'm changed and ready to go to the movie at your friends' place?" So, here Stormy was, getting my digits for that evening, too, reinforcing even further my belief that she was just as excited, if not more, about the "Elf" movie than I was. :-) Moving on to such movie, it was so much fun that I decided to ask her out again ... and again ... and again.

And so, the rest is history, and in a nutshell, that cold Logan evening was essentially our first date; hanging out with elves, reindeer and everything else magical during the bright lights and sweet sounds of joy-filled Christmas-time! And, planned as such or not, it was just as magical to ask Stormy to marry me under by my brother Brad's brightly-lit Christmas tree in Bountiful, Utah, two holiday seasons after that very first holiday season when we met each other and simultaneously found in each other our future best friends ever!

Congrats to David who I believe is getting married in May...so we can all probably meet Stormy in August!

Art Is Alive And Well In Boise

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to post something really quick about Ben Wilson. For those of you who know Ben as more than just a face in the classroom, you'll probably remember that he was an avid artist who loved comics and design (think back to the Radioactive Beanstalks performance at the talent show 1997). Ben has visited me in New York City a few times and really enjoyed taking in some of the street art and modern art here out East.

Well Ben is turning his hobby into a steady career. He works as a freelance artists and designer in Boise, Idaho, where he is part of a growing artist community. A great way to sample his work is to take a look at his website - Ben Wilson Art. He has done lots of posters, snowboards, etc and has had his art featured on the cover of Boise Weekly. Give him a shout out and feel free to check him out at some future art exhibits downtown where he lives with his wife.

Lise Celebrates

Take a look to the right? Remember that face? It's Lise Peacock (now Goertz). She and her husband Mike live and work in Boise and have several pets...none of which are pictured in this Christmas photo from 2006.

I recently posted a random question on my blog regarding Nougat Day and what every one's favorite nougat was - Lise enthusiastically responded Charleston Chew.

Mike Comstock - World Traveler

Mike Comstock just let me know that he set up a blog that details what he has been up to in the last few years. He has been on deployment I believe in Germany and has been to many places as part of his travels.

You can check out Mike's blog on the list of blogs to the right, but I wanted to post one of my favorite pictures from his most recent posts of him and his wife Kathrin standing on the Acropolis.

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