Joey and his friends had a blast. There were 65 other kids. Most were a year older than Joey. More than half were girls and they were all about as fair-skinned as Ressa with every shade of blonde there is. I think the boys were shocked to be away from the vast diversity we see at home and find a place where the majority was a bunch of blue-eyed blondes. They went out to a huge bonfire made of stacked up wooden pallets. They made five stacks of 15!!! Then they all stood way, way back and blew up Sobe glass soda bottles into the fire. It made a huge explosion about 12 feet up into the air from what I saw in their pictures. Some of the local fun, I guess. 
They found out all about Dixie State College which switched over to a 4-year university about 4 years ago. Joey liked hearing that the ratio of teacher to students in the classes is 1:23, and in the accounting classes it's 1:15. They said the church Institute building is huge with an enrollment of 850 kids. Now Joey is totally sold on this place and says he's so sure that this is where he wants to go. One of his friends who is usually rather quiet would not stop talking about how FRIENDLY all the people were everywhere they went. That really made an impression on him.
While the boys were on the "retreat" with the school "ambassadors" (the kids who make up the school leadership team) a girl was driving Joey and friends and tried backing up her van while the back door was still open. The door hit the hillside behind them, the "smart car" sensed a crash had occurred and automatically shut off the fuel pump. It was dark and they were on their way to the bonfire gathering. Joey calls Mark asking "Dad will my AAA card work out here?" Sure it will. So Joey was going to be the hero and save the mission rather than abort. The girl insisted 
the guys go ahead with somebody else so Joey left her his card to use to get help. The help came but could not do anything because Joey, the cardholder, was not present. CRAZY!
They had a blast and learned quite a bit about the school. They had a full campus tour the next day, met the director of admissions, toured the housing and several of the leaders' apartment houses. Now that Dixie is a 4 year university affiliated with Utah State in Logan, they compete in the NCAA sporting events. The boys learned that students can get into any sporting event for $1.00.
In fact, when we picked them up Saturday at 1pm, they announced their plans to meet up with their 50 new friends at the gym for a girls' basketball game against Hawaii at 5pm, followed by a boys' basketball game afterwards. It was Joey, Randy, Helaman, and they invited Austin along. At the game, they found out that the food service people go around serving FREE PIZZA throughout the game to students. They were all over that idea! We told them to be back by midnight. They followed some other kids over to "Iceburg" the local burger/shake joint. Then the kids cruised around the town with an apartment rental booklet looking at various places until midnight. It's easy to locate things with the numbered street system.
Yesterday, I came home and found Joey filling out his application to join the Dixie State leadership ambassadors. I asked him how he could expect to be chosen when he can't even become a student there until September. He said the leaders encouraged him to do so and include a 5 minute video tape of himself. He is so excited about this. We had somewhat of a heart-to-heart about the whole question of where to go to school. He knows BYU is a better school in many ways than Dixie, but he's confident that for the first year anyway, Dixie will be a better school for HIM. He's a bit intimidated by the whole change to a huge university. One girl who was a leader at the retreat mentioned that her brother attends BYU-Idaho and has 300-400 kids in some of his classes. He can't just go ask the teacher for help like she can, going to Dixie where the ratio is 2
3 students to 1 teacher. Joey would feel much more comfortable asking for help if he needed it. As much as I'd love to see him take advantage of the opportunity before him, I'll have to admit I did the same thing myself.... I was accepted to BYU and the money had even been paid, but I was extremely uncomfortable the more I thought about going by myself, without a car, in the snow, and not knowing anybody. Everyone I knew was starting off at the junior college, so I backed out at the last minute. Huge mistake, looking back. Joey says he'll definately plan to transfer to BYU after his mission and graduate from one of the bigger colleges, but for the first year, this will probably be just right for him.
Dixie has a slew of mountain bikes that the kids can check out anytime for $1, and ride through Zion or Bryce National Park which are an hour away. I'm hoping he'll get the "WUE" Western Undergraduate Exchange scholarship which is awarded to kids from California trying to attend college in another western state. It drops the out-of-state tuition fee in half which would be very helpful.
We attended church in St. George on Sunday and the boys found a "Singles Ward" to attend. There are 2 singles stakes, including 18 singles wards all in the city of St. George!!! Church is held in the Institute building which is bigger than the Irvine stake center! It had 2 chapels, a basketball gym, 3 stories tall, 2 ping pong tables, 4 pool tables, and many classrooms. They have missionary preparation classes for the incoming freshman, firesides every Sunday night and dances every Saturday. Joey and friends were hanging around the 23 yr. old institute president the whole weekend and went with him to church. He wants to get a job there at one of the fanciest steak house restaurants to get the best tips/pay possible. I'm just following his lead at this point.... I got a full-head weave done up here adding blonde highlights to my hair. I read all the articles on hair dye on WEBMD and scared myself thinking I'm doing something that is raising the risk of lymphoma to myself. YUCK! I've already had it at least once---why would I want it again?? So since the weave is the only "gray concealer" that doesn't touch the scalp...(short of a wig), I decided to go with it. So I went to a local shop and got it done. Mark says I look like a movie star. I thought to myself, "Oh he always knows just what to say." But when he added: "I said a movie star....but I didn't say which one. I could have meant Bruce Willis for all you know." That made me laugh so hard, actually. Friday night Melody got a fever. By Sunday, it was diarrhea chased back by some doses of immodium to get us home. We had to stop at a bathroom at least every hour or so. It was tough and she was feeling pretty miserable. By Sunday night it was 103 fever and two ear aches. I stayed home with her Monday and took her to the doctor. She got Zithromax and some cipro eardrops. She had a fever all Monday and on Tuesday as well. Mark stayed home Tuesday and made the house immaculate. He did so much with the laundry and tidying up. What a lifesaver! Tuesday morning the high school calls and had Joey in the office covered with hives. (When it rains, it pours!) He had just finished HIS last day of zithromax and appears to be allergic to it. That and penicillin. Reminds me of Grammy being allergic to so many antibiotics that I think more than one dentist has actually refused to treat her. So Joey AND Melody were home Tuesday with Mark. The trip to St. George was great fun, aside from the sickness.
