SATURDAY
Saturday morning we all woke up and Rich and I got ready for the wedding. My youngest sister and her boyfriend were watching my kids and my sisters three kids at the hotel while we attended the wedding at the Temple. It was a beautiful wedding. After the ceremony my sister and I and our husbands (Rich and Jacob) went back to the hotel to pick up the kids and bring them over to the Temple for pictures. Nancy and I made a quick bouquet with some flowers my mom had bought the day before, while our hubbies got the kids changed and into the cars. We didn’t take too many pictures because it was unbelievably hot… 105 or something like that. Then we went over to a luncheon at a church building. The kids got to run around and play a bit more and we could relax in the air conditioned building.
We left St. George around 2pm and drove up to Midway Utah. There would be a reception down in Orderville, Utah for my sister and her new husband that night, but we were going to be going to the reception the following Saturday up near my parents house, so we skipped that reception that night. The drive from St. George to Midway was 4 ½ hours. In Midway we went and got some McDonalds for dinner and let the kids get rid of some extra energy in the play area. Angela had a blast climbing up and going down the slide over and over and over and over again. Then we went and meet up with Rich’s parents and sister Sharon and her family over at the house we had rented for the whole family to stay at.
The house was a great house for a reunion. There were six bedrooms. One master bedroom with a king size bed, four bedrooms with queen size beds in them, and one large bedroom with three daybeds in it. Under the daybeds was another mattress that we could pull out and we had six twin size beds in that room. There was a good size kitchen/dining/living room upstairs, and a large game room downstairs with a pool table and fooseball table and big screen tv. Rich’s brother showed up and the kids all loved playing with their Uncle Dave until it was bedtime and we got them all in bed. Alex and Ashley and Elijah (Sharon’s oldest) got to stay up a little later, but when it was bedtime they still had to be reminded a few times to be quiet and not to talk. Three of our kids and three of Sharon’s kids all slept in the room with the six twin beds. The best part of renting a house and all staying together was in the evenings. We would get the kids in bed and we could sit up and talk or play games and have some adult time together.
Monday, July 02, 2007
Sunday
SUNDAY
Sunday morning we all got up bright and early and got ready for church. It started at 9:30 am and we were lucky that it wasn’t far away, or we might have been late. We went to church with Rich’s grandfather- my mother in law’s father. During the middle of the service I had to get up and quickly go to the bathroom because I had a nose bleed… fun fun… Rich’s youngest sister meet us at church with her family- their flight had gotten in late the night before and they decided to stop at a hotel instead of driving all the way down to midway that night. After sacrament meeting was over all of us kids and grandkids headed back to the house while Rich’s parents stayed to attend the other meetings with his grandfather. We had a nice afternoon at the house with everyone playing and reaquainting themselves with each other. Then we loaded up and headed down to Mona, Utah.
Rich’s uncle bought the little house that his dad’s dad grew up in and it has a wonderful yard that makes it a perfect gathering place for large family gatherings. We were there and starting to wonder where Rich’s brother Dave was when he drove up. Ashley had ridden in the car with him and they had left at the same time we did. It was a good 20-30 minutes later when he drove up and surprised us by having his girlfriend with him. She had driven up with him from Arizona and stayed with some cousins in Orem the night before, but decided to come and join us for the dinner.
We had a traditional Newton taco dinner with all the cousins, and extended family that could come and visit. The kids had a great time running around and playing in the yard. We brought out some toy helicopters that my dad had given my kids and they all had fun chasing those around and launching them. We even had it get stuck up high in a tree and on a roof and Sharon’s husband- James had to climb up and get it down. Through this all Alyssa still had the fever, so we were trying to keep her away from others and since she wasn’t feeling well that was fairly easy to do and she clung to Rich or I almost the entire time. We stayed till it was starting to get dark and then left. I was in charge of an activity the next day and had to print out some stuff, so we stopped at my parents house on the way back to midway and printed off the stuff I needed- and then got back to the midway house. All of Sharon and Laura’s kids were already in bed and it made it much quicker to just change our kids into pj’s and have them go to sleep without cousins to lay and giggle with late into the night.
Sunday morning we all got up bright and early and got ready for church. It started at 9:30 am and we were lucky that it wasn’t far away, or we might have been late. We went to church with Rich’s grandfather- my mother in law’s father. During the middle of the service I had to get up and quickly go to the bathroom because I had a nose bleed… fun fun… Rich’s youngest sister meet us at church with her family- their flight had gotten in late the night before and they decided to stop at a hotel instead of driving all the way down to midway that night. After sacrament meeting was over all of us kids and grandkids headed back to the house while Rich’s parents stayed to attend the other meetings with his grandfather. We had a nice afternoon at the house with everyone playing and reaquainting themselves with each other. Then we loaded up and headed down to Mona, Utah.
Rich’s uncle bought the little house that his dad’s dad grew up in and it has a wonderful yard that makes it a perfect gathering place for large family gatherings. We were there and starting to wonder where Rich’s brother Dave was when he drove up. Ashley had ridden in the car with him and they had left at the same time we did. It was a good 20-30 minutes later when he drove up and surprised us by having his girlfriend with him. She had driven up with him from Arizona and stayed with some cousins in Orem the night before, but decided to come and join us for the dinner.
We had a traditional Newton taco dinner with all the cousins, and extended family that could come and visit. The kids had a great time running around and playing in the yard. We brought out some toy helicopters that my dad had given my kids and they all had fun chasing those around and launching them. We even had it get stuck up high in a tree and on a roof and Sharon’s husband- James had to climb up and get it down. Through this all Alyssa still had the fever, so we were trying to keep her away from others and since she wasn’t feeling well that was fairly easy to do and she clung to Rich or I almost the entire time. We stayed till it was starting to get dark and then left. I was in charge of an activity the next day and had to print out some stuff, so we stopped at my parents house on the way back to midway and printed off the stuff I needed- and then got back to the midway house. All of Sharon and Laura’s kids were already in bed and it made it much quicker to just change our kids into pj’s and have them go to sleep without cousins to lay and giggle with late into the night.
Monday
MONDAY
Monday was our BYU/Provo day. We all meet down on the BYU campus (where Rich, his siblings, all of us spouses, his parents and many of his cousins went to school). When we had been thinking of the reunion and things we wanted to do, we thought it would be neat to show the kids BYU campus where all of us meet our spouses… I came up with the idea to do a scavenger hunt of places throughout the campus that had a significant memory for people in the family. I took “clues” that people wrote about a significant place and described the event, and told where it was and then we had to guess which family member had submitted that event. We broke into three groups with three different lists of clues, so each group didn’t have to walk all over the entire campus. Then we would walk to the place, read the clue, decide who we thought it was about, and take a picture of someone in our group holding up the name of who we had decided it was about. It really was a fun activity and I had a lot of fun tagging along with the group and playing the poker face while they tried to figure out who the clue went to…
BYU Scaveger hunt clues (from memory… I can’t find my copy that I had)
Group A:
1. This person described this as the “best class on campus” he took it three times. It was intermediate golf and held on the field south of the Smith Field House. {Dave}
2. Two people in our family went on their first date to a volleyball game at the Smith Field House. Afterward they walked over to the Grandparents house and had dessert and played games. {Rich and Julie}
3. Two people had their first kiss on the steps of the Smith Family Living Center. The steps are no longer there, but there is a new Smith Family Living Center built in it’s place. {Lamar and Eileen}
4. First impressions are not always true. These two people were paired together for a ward dance, and ditched each other at the dance held at the Smith Family Living Center and left with other friends. {Rich and Julie}
5. Two people in our family meet while going to an Astronomy class lab on the top of the Kimball Tower. {Sharon and James}
6. One person in the family spent “a lot of time” at the computer lab in the Talmage building. {Bob}
7. One person in the family spent some time at the jewelry counter selecting matching CTR engagement rings for herself and her intended. {Laura}
Group B:
1. Two people in our family went on their first date to the DeJong Concert Hall. They saw “Magic Flute” {Laura and Bob}
2. Two people in our family had a special spot. It was a fountain on the south side of the Smoot Administration building. There they would practice their two step around the fountain. {Lewis and Dianne}
3. One person in our family spent a lot of time at the Harold B Lee library. He would spend 3-4 hours a day there studying. He was found there one evening by the Hewlett Packard Recruiter with the help of a special significant other. {Lewis}
4. The Wind Tunnel in the Engineering building is where this person spent a lot of time. They would test wing shapes in it. {Troy}
5. The Bike racks at the Knight Magnum building would usually not be considered a romantic spot. For two people in our family it was though. He proposed to her there and after three more hours of talking she said “yes”. {Laura and Bob}
Group C:
1. The museum of Art holds some memories for one person. She had the “Dining plus” on her meal card and would meet her sister there for lunch during her first year at BYU. She also took an Art Appreciation class that left her not appreciating art quite as much. {Laura}
2. Two people in our family went on their first date to the DeJong Concert Hall. They watched “Sunday in the park with George”. {Lamar and Eileen}
3. This person lived in Deseret Towers in “R” Hall. She invited her future spouse to an “R” hall dance for their first date. {Dianne}
4. One person in our family spent a lot of time in the south parking lot of DT practicing with the BYU Marching band. There was a white “tower” that the band members jokingly referred to as the “Rameumptom” where the director would watch to see the formations and shapes the band created. {Heidi}
5. The BYU Basketball team had a thrilling game against Utah and beat them in a close finish at the Marriot Center. One member of the family was there to witness the great game. He was also at a lot of their other games with front row seats as BYU only won that one game that year. {Dave}
It was fun. Afterwards we went to the Wilkenson Student Center and had lunch and then we all went bowling afterwards. It was fun to see the kids try to bowl. A lot of them had never bowled before. After we were all done bowling we went over to Rock Canyon Park.
Rock Canyon Park is where Rich and I took our engagement photo’s at. It has changed sooo much in the past 10 years. I barely recognized the turn off to it because what used to be empty areas surrounding it are now full of houses! We spent the afternoon and early eveing playing games, eating, laughing and just having a great time together. We didn’t leave until dark- and on the way home the Alyssa and Angela fell fast asleep since they hadn’t had any nap at all that day. That made bedtime really fast since we just transferred the little ones into their beds fast asleep. Then again us adults got to stay up and talk and play games probably later than we should have, but it was fun for all of us.
Monday was our BYU/Provo day. We all meet down on the BYU campus (where Rich, his siblings, all of us spouses, his parents and many of his cousins went to school). When we had been thinking of the reunion and things we wanted to do, we thought it would be neat to show the kids BYU campus where all of us meet our spouses… I came up with the idea to do a scavenger hunt of places throughout the campus that had a significant memory for people in the family. I took “clues” that people wrote about a significant place and described the event, and told where it was and then we had to guess which family member had submitted that event. We broke into three groups with three different lists of clues, so each group didn’t have to walk all over the entire campus. Then we would walk to the place, read the clue, decide who we thought it was about, and take a picture of someone in our group holding up the name of who we had decided it was about. It really was a fun activity and I had a lot of fun tagging along with the group and playing the poker face while they tried to figure out who the clue went to…
BYU Scaveger hunt clues (from memory… I can’t find my copy that I had)
Group A:
1. This person described this as the “best class on campus” he took it three times. It was intermediate golf and held on the field south of the Smith Field House. {Dave}
2. Two people in our family went on their first date to a volleyball game at the Smith Field House. Afterward they walked over to the Grandparents house and had dessert and played games. {Rich and Julie}
3. Two people had their first kiss on the steps of the Smith Family Living Center. The steps are no longer there, but there is a new Smith Family Living Center built in it’s place. {Lamar and Eileen}
4. First impressions are not always true. These two people were paired together for a ward dance, and ditched each other at the dance held at the Smith Family Living Center and left with other friends. {Rich and Julie}
5. Two people in our family meet while going to an Astronomy class lab on the top of the Kimball Tower. {Sharon and James}
6. One person in the family spent “a lot of time” at the computer lab in the Talmage building. {Bob}
7. One person in the family spent some time at the jewelry counter selecting matching CTR engagement rings for herself and her intended. {Laura}
Group B:
1. Two people in our family went on their first date to the DeJong Concert Hall. They saw “Magic Flute” {Laura and Bob}
2. Two people in our family had a special spot. It was a fountain on the south side of the Smoot Administration building. There they would practice their two step around the fountain. {Lewis and Dianne}
3. One person in our family spent a lot of time at the Harold B Lee library. He would spend 3-4 hours a day there studying. He was found there one evening by the Hewlett Packard Recruiter with the help of a special significant other. {Lewis}
4. The Wind Tunnel in the Engineering building is where this person spent a lot of time. They would test wing shapes in it. {Troy}
5. The Bike racks at the Knight Magnum building would usually not be considered a romantic spot. For two people in our family it was though. He proposed to her there and after three more hours of talking she said “yes”. {Laura and Bob}
Group C:
1. The museum of Art holds some memories for one person. She had the “Dining plus” on her meal card and would meet her sister there for lunch during her first year at BYU. She also took an Art Appreciation class that left her not appreciating art quite as much. {Laura}
2. Two people in our family went on their first date to the DeJong Concert Hall. They watched “Sunday in the park with George”. {Lamar and Eileen}
3. This person lived in Deseret Towers in “R” Hall. She invited her future spouse to an “R” hall dance for their first date. {Dianne}
4. One person in our family spent a lot of time in the south parking lot of DT practicing with the BYU Marching band. There was a white “tower” that the band members jokingly referred to as the “Rameumptom” where the director would watch to see the formations and shapes the band created. {Heidi}
5. The BYU Basketball team had a thrilling game against Utah and beat them in a close finish at the Marriot Center. One member of the family was there to witness the great game. He was also at a lot of their other games with front row seats as BYU only won that one game that year. {Dave}
It was fun. Afterwards we went to the Wilkenson Student Center and had lunch and then we all went bowling afterwards. It was fun to see the kids try to bowl. A lot of them had never bowled before. After we were all done bowling we went over to Rock Canyon Park.
Rock Canyon Park is where Rich and I took our engagement photo’s at. It has changed sooo much in the past 10 years. I barely recognized the turn off to it because what used to be empty areas surrounding it are now full of houses! We spent the afternoon and early eveing playing games, eating, laughing and just having a great time together. We didn’t leave until dark- and on the way home the Alyssa and Angela fell fast asleep since they hadn’t had any nap at all that day. That made bedtime really fast since we just transferred the little ones into their beds fast asleep. Then again us adults got to stay up and talk and play games probably later than we should have, but it was fun for all of us.
Tues/Wed
Tuesday
Tuesday we woke up early again and drove over to “This is the Place” park in Salt Lake City. It is a pioneer village that has really grown in size in the past few years. We got to see a lot of different houses and buisnesses that would have exhisted in the pioneer days. There is a petting zoo, blacksmith shop, printing shop, bank, carpenters shop, leather workers shop (I can’t remember the official name) church, school, pony rides, wagon rides, “train ride” (the train was not really a train). The kids had a great time.
That afternoon we then went over to Temple Square. We took some family pictures in front of the Salt Lake Temple, and then went on a short tour Rich’s mom put together for the kids. She did a great job with some simple facts and clues that kept the kids attention. The tour included the top floor of the Joseph F Smith Building, the Beehive house, a walk by the Lion House, the Tabernacle, the North Visitors Center (with the Christus statue) and the new assembly hall. Angela fell asleep during the time at the Tabernacle, so I sat down in the visitors center and had a wonderful time chatting with my brother in law’s girlfriend while the others finished the tour.
After our tour was over we all headed over to Golden Corral for a big family dinner. Again we had a good time and then it was time to say goodby to the family members that we had reaquainted ourselves with during the trip. The kids had a great time getting to know cousins that they don’t see as often. Then we headed back to the house to sleep.
Wednesday
Well kind of Wednesday… Angela had the hardest time going to sleep that night. She would wake up after an hour or so and cry… around 3am she started screaming in pain. Poor girl. I wound up sitting up on the couch in the game room for the rest of the night with her sleeping on my chest. With all the excitement and going going going that we had had that week I had forgotten to give her one of her allergy medicines and she had become really really stuffed up. The congestion got to her ear and she was in pain and had a fever. So… after that loveley night we all slept in a little later than the past few days and the morning hours were spent getting kids fed and dressed, and Sharon’s family and mine needed to pack up our suitcases and search for missing items around the house.
We went and had a fun little picnic lunch up at a state park near the house and the kids had fun exploring the little structures they had there. We went from there and ran to a grocery store to pick up more pain reliever for Angela with her ear ache, and then we went to the Heber Valley Railroad. We rode the train down provo canyon. It was a fun and scenic ride. It was a little bit hot though, so on the return trip we “had” to get the kids some ice cream to help them cool off. Poor Angela though was just not feeling well and spent most of the time on my lap and dozing off and on. She did however find enough energy to play on the play structure at Vivian park- the halfway point on the round trip down and back up the canyon. It just amazes me the energy she can find when she gets near a slide- even when she is feeling sick!
After our train ride we said goodby to everyone and drove down to Orem to stay with my parents for a few days. At my parents house my dad took the three big kids over to the park to play with the helicopters he had given them again. Alex had a great time getting to know Mom and Dad’s dog Tasha. He kept sneaking out to the garage to toss her a treat. For Alex this is huge since he has always been so fearfull of dogs.
Tuesday we woke up early again and drove over to “This is the Place” park in Salt Lake City. It is a pioneer village that has really grown in size in the past few years. We got to see a lot of different houses and buisnesses that would have exhisted in the pioneer days. There is a petting zoo, blacksmith shop, printing shop, bank, carpenters shop, leather workers shop (I can’t remember the official name) church, school, pony rides, wagon rides, “train ride” (the train was not really a train). The kids had a great time.
That afternoon we then went over to Temple Square. We took some family pictures in front of the Salt Lake Temple, and then went on a short tour Rich’s mom put together for the kids. She did a great job with some simple facts and clues that kept the kids attention. The tour included the top floor of the Joseph F Smith Building, the Beehive house, a walk by the Lion House, the Tabernacle, the North Visitors Center (with the Christus statue) and the new assembly hall. Angela fell asleep during the time at the Tabernacle, so I sat down in the visitors center and had a wonderful time chatting with my brother in law’s girlfriend while the others finished the tour.
After our tour was over we all headed over to Golden Corral for a big family dinner. Again we had a good time and then it was time to say goodby to the family members that we had reaquainted ourselves with during the trip. The kids had a great time getting to know cousins that they don’t see as often. Then we headed back to the house to sleep.
Wednesday
Well kind of Wednesday… Angela had the hardest time going to sleep that night. She would wake up after an hour or so and cry… around 3am she started screaming in pain. Poor girl. I wound up sitting up on the couch in the game room for the rest of the night with her sleeping on my chest. With all the excitement and going going going that we had had that week I had forgotten to give her one of her allergy medicines and she had become really really stuffed up. The congestion got to her ear and she was in pain and had a fever. So… after that loveley night we all slept in a little later than the past few days and the morning hours were spent getting kids fed and dressed, and Sharon’s family and mine needed to pack up our suitcases and search for missing items around the house.
We went and had a fun little picnic lunch up at a state park near the house and the kids had fun exploring the little structures they had there. We went from there and ran to a grocery store to pick up more pain reliever for Angela with her ear ache, and then we went to the Heber Valley Railroad. We rode the train down provo canyon. It was a fun and scenic ride. It was a little bit hot though, so on the return trip we “had” to get the kids some ice cream to help them cool off. Poor Angela though was just not feeling well and spent most of the time on my lap and dozing off and on. She did however find enough energy to play on the play structure at Vivian park- the halfway point on the round trip down and back up the canyon. It just amazes me the energy she can find when she gets near a slide- even when she is feeling sick!
After our train ride we said goodby to everyone and drove down to Orem to stay with my parents for a few days. At my parents house my dad took the three big kids over to the park to play with the helicopters he had given them again. Alex had a great time getting to know Mom and Dad’s dog Tasha. He kept sneaking out to the garage to toss her a treat. For Alex this is huge since he has always been so fearfull of dogs.
Thurs/Friday
Thursday
Thursday morning we took it easy and slept in. That afternoon Ashley went with my mom and Susan to go shopping. It was her birthday present from Grandma- so they were going to try and find a dress for her since we hadn’t had much luck the Friday before when we had to buy new clothes for the family. After they had been gone for about 15 minutes, my mom called me and told me that they were headed back to the house. Ashley had thrown up in the car on the drive. So she brought her back home and she had a fever so we gave her some meds and Rich went and laid down with all the girls. They were so tired from the busy schedule we had had the past few days. They all fell asleep down on the bed Rich and I were using and took a nice long nap.
I had a wonderful opportunity to go and visit with an old Highschool friend for a few hours that afternoon. Originally we had intended to get the families together and the kids could play, but since my kids were sick we thought it would be better for me to just go and visit with her while her kids were taking naps. It was so good to see her and just sit and talk for a while. Email and phone are nice, but it isn’t the same thing as sitting and chatting together.
That evening Angela’s fever was getting progressively worse and she was in more and more pain, so we took her into the Urgent Care clinic. I was very happy with the clinic- they took our out of state insurance and they bill it as a regular office visit- even though it was open in the evening and they could choose to bill as Urgent/emergency care. Angela’s ear was very swollen and the dr asked us if we had noticed any discharge from it- it was close to rupturing. We got a prescription for antibiotics for her and left. By then it was 9pm and we soon discovered that there are not very many pharmacies open past 9pm in Orem. We finally found a Wal-greens that was open 24 hours and got it filled.
Friday
Friday we had planned on going to the zoo, but since Ashley was sick and Angela was sick, we sent Alex and Alyssa with my sister Susan and her boyfriend. They would meet my brother and his wife up at the zoo and the four of them would be with the kids. Alyssa and Alex were so excited to go to the zoo with Susan without mom and dad along. Lol!
Ashley was feeling a little bit better, so by that afternoon we decided that she could go shopping with Grandma again. She had a great time and came home with two dresses, a shirt and a skirt that she talked Grandma into buying. Rich and I had the unusual experience of running errands with just Angela along for the ride. We ran a bunch of errands for ourselves, and my mom and even stopped at my dad’s uncles house and visited with some extended family members that were there for a little luncheon that day.
That evening after dinner we went and meet up with another friend of mine. I’ve been “talking” to her via message boards for about 4-5 years now and this is the first chance we have had to meet each other. It was fun and her kids and my kids seemed to get along well and play together. The time went by much too quickly though and soon the kids were starting to get cranky and tired and we had to say goodby and head back to the house for bedtime.
Thursday morning we took it easy and slept in. That afternoon Ashley went with my mom and Susan to go shopping. It was her birthday present from Grandma- so they were going to try and find a dress for her since we hadn’t had much luck the Friday before when we had to buy new clothes for the family. After they had been gone for about 15 minutes, my mom called me and told me that they were headed back to the house. Ashley had thrown up in the car on the drive. So she brought her back home and she had a fever so we gave her some meds and Rich went and laid down with all the girls. They were so tired from the busy schedule we had had the past few days. They all fell asleep down on the bed Rich and I were using and took a nice long nap.
I had a wonderful opportunity to go and visit with an old Highschool friend for a few hours that afternoon. Originally we had intended to get the families together and the kids could play, but since my kids were sick we thought it would be better for me to just go and visit with her while her kids were taking naps. It was so good to see her and just sit and talk for a while. Email and phone are nice, but it isn’t the same thing as sitting and chatting together.
That evening Angela’s fever was getting progressively worse and she was in more and more pain, so we took her into the Urgent Care clinic. I was very happy with the clinic- they took our out of state insurance and they bill it as a regular office visit- even though it was open in the evening and they could choose to bill as Urgent/emergency care. Angela’s ear was very swollen and the dr asked us if we had noticed any discharge from it- it was close to rupturing. We got a prescription for antibiotics for her and left. By then it was 9pm and we soon discovered that there are not very many pharmacies open past 9pm in Orem. We finally found a Wal-greens that was open 24 hours and got it filled.
Friday
Friday we had planned on going to the zoo, but since Ashley was sick and Angela was sick, we sent Alex and Alyssa with my sister Susan and her boyfriend. They would meet my brother and his wife up at the zoo and the four of them would be with the kids. Alyssa and Alex were so excited to go to the zoo with Susan without mom and dad along. Lol!
Ashley was feeling a little bit better, so by that afternoon we decided that she could go shopping with Grandma again. She had a great time and came home with two dresses, a shirt and a skirt that she talked Grandma into buying. Rich and I had the unusual experience of running errands with just Angela along for the ride. We ran a bunch of errands for ourselves, and my mom and even stopped at my dad’s uncles house and visited with some extended family members that were there for a little luncheon that day.
That evening after dinner we went and meet up with another friend of mine. I’ve been “talking” to her via message boards for about 4-5 years now and this is the first chance we have had to meet each other. It was fun and her kids and my kids seemed to get along well and play together. The time went by much too quickly though and soon the kids were starting to get cranky and tired and we had to say goodby and head back to the house for bedtime.
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