Trick or Treat!

Sometimes it is hard to make a costume work for trick or treating, since you have to incorporate a whole snowsuit into the ensemble. It worked out pretty well with our kids, since Scott was able to pull his costume over his snowsuit, and it just made the fake muscles look that much bigger.



Katie's princess outfit was a bit more challenging. It was pretty easy to hide her purple snowpants under her skirt, but there was no way to squeeze her coat under the top part of the dress.



Instead, we had her wear the pink faux-leather-and-fur coat that she inherited from her cousin Lacey and that helped create a really nice "snow princess" look. We added a white headband over her ears and some big purple mittens and she was ready to tour the neighbourhood.



Our first stop was the retirement home where Great Grandma and Grandpa M live. It was obvious that they were very pleased to have so many family members coming to see them. The kids were popular with the rest of the residents as well. One lady gave us two whole boxes of girl guide cookies, which seemed to be all that she had up in her room. I felt bad taking all her cookies, but they were then kind I really like, so it was a catch-22.



I love getting pictures of the kids with their great grandparents.




Once the cousins had all had a chance to show off their costumes, we piled into the cars again and headed over to R's parents' house to walk their street. We quickly split into groups based on age, and Katie and Adalia stayed together, waddling along from house to house. They would scream out "Trick or Treat" at each house and most of the ladies answering the door would shriek in delight at how tiny Adalia was. Then Adalia would say something like "Trick or Treat" or "Thank you" and they would just melt. Those little girls were so cute.

Halloween Dance

Scott's elementary school held a Halloween dance one evening the week before Halloween and we decided to attend -- it added another exciting opportunity for the kids to get decked out in their new costumes.



While Scott was in class, R styled Katie's hair and even painted her nails. Katie was very cooperative, because she loves things to be pretty, especially when she is the thing that is pretty.



Once Scott came home, it was his turn in the chair. Since no masks are permitted at the dance, R recreated his Power Rangers Samurai mask with make-up. I think she did a fantastic job. Scott was thrilled.



We snapped a few pictures before heading off to the school, and you could tell that both kids felt transformed by their costumes. Scott threw around some pretty aggressive poses with his sword, and Katie kept her movements delicate, often spinning to twirl her skirts around. She had misunderstood the plans, thinking that she was going to HER school to dance with HER friends, so she was a bit thrown by the noisy reality of the event, but it was great all the same.

Temple Dedication News Articles

Article Archived from Church News

Calgary Alberta Temple: Dedication marks 140th operating temple for Church

By Gerry Avant
Church News editor

Published: Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012
CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA

Having left Salt Lake City before dawn Sunday morning, President Thomas S. Monson arrived on a winter-like Canadian morning Sunday to dedicate the Calgary Alberta Temple. Snow blanketed trees and grounds, making the scene look more like the Christmas season than fall’s harvest time.


Photo by Gerry Avant
A wintry scene greets Latter-day Saints attending the dedication of the Calgary Alberta Temple on Sunday, Oct. 28. President Thomas S. Monson presided over the dedicatory events.

Photo by Gerry Avant
President Thomas S. Monson shakes hands with members as he arrives for the dedication of the Calgary Alberta Temple on Sunday, Oct. 28.

A return to Canada is about like going home said President Monson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ever since he was called in 1959 to preside over the Canadian Mission, with headquarters in Toronto, he has had a great love for the country.

In comments to the Church News a few days before the temple dedication, President Monson said, “Many of our missionaries – to the Canadian Mission – came from Alberta. They were all very good missionaries. I look forward to being there with some of them and other members.”



Photo by Gerry Avant
A wintry scene greets Latter-day Saints attending the dedication of the Calgary Alberta Temple on Sunday, Oct. 28. President Thomas S. Monson presided over the dedicatory events.

After arriving in Canada, he said, “Whether east or west, north or south, I love Canada and all our members here. I have a special place in my heart for this land and its people.”

Whenever he dedicates a temple, President Monson usually attends on the evening before a program staged by the young people of the temple district in celebration of its culture and history. This time, however, President Monson did not attend the celebration. In a video presentation shown Saturday evening at the opening of the program in the Stampede Corral, he said, “My beloved friends, although I would love to be with you in Calgary this evening, it is my dear wife Frances’ 85th birthday.

“She is unable to travel with me to Calgary for the temple dedication, and I felt it was important for me to be with her on this milestone birthday. I know you will understand. Both Sister Monson and I will be viewing this celebration live via closed circuit broadcast in our living room in Salt Lake City.



Photo by Gerry Avant
President Thomas S. Monson invites children to participate in the dedication of the Calgary Alberta Temple on Sunday, Oct. 28. On his right are Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Craig C. Christensen of the Presidency of the Seventy and his wife, Debbie; at far left is Elder William R. Walker of the Seventy and executive director of the Temple Department.

“I plan to be in Calgary Sunday to dedicate the beautiful Calgary temple, which is the reason for this great celebration.”

During the cultural program, Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve, who presided over the event, led the youth and audience in singing “Happy Birthday” to Sister Monson. As the song ended, the young performers and their audience of some 16,000 applauded and cheered.

On Sunday morning, President Monson placed mortar around the edges of a symbolic cornerstone, a symbolic completion of the temple’s construction.



Photo by Gerry Avant
A choir of young single adults performs at the outdoor ceremony for the sealing of the Calgary Alberta Temple's cornerstone. President Thomas S. Monson presided over the temple's dedication on Sunday, Oct. 28.

He was assisted at the dedicatory events by Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Craig C. Christensen of the Presidency of the Seventy and Elder William R. Walker of the Seventy and executive director of the Church’s Temple Department.

The Calgary Alberta Temple is the Church’s 140th temple worldwide, the eighth in Canada and the third in Alberta.

© 2012 Deseret News Publishing Company     Church News

Calgary Alberta Temple: Hymns bring tears of gratitude, tears of awe and tears of humility

By Gerry Avant

Church News editor



Published: Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012

CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA



Hymns of praise, thanksgiving and testimony provided spiritual and edifying accents to the Calgary Alberta Temple dedication Oct. 28. From the first notes of "Arise, O Glorious Zion" to the final chord of "The Hosanna Anthem," music was interwoven throughout the three dedicatory sessions. The hymns literally brought tears to many eyes — tears of gratitude, tears of awe and tears of humility.



Four choirs provided music for the three dedicatory sessions: a choir of young single adults sang outside the temple as they stood near the cornerstone where President Thomas S. Monson presided over its symbolic sealing and three choirs took turns singing in the celestial room.







Photo by Gerry AvantA choir of young single adults performs at the outdoor ceremony for the sealing of the Calgary Alberta Temple's cornerstone.

Janis Kershaw was given the responsibility to oversee the four choirs that performed at the dedication. She and others on the temple music committee selected 60 members — 20 for each choir — that sang in the celestial room and 58 who comprised the young single adult choir.



"I felt very strongly that certain members needed to be in the choir," she said. "The Lord knows us all and is aware of the experiences we need. This has been a blessing in my life."







Photo by Gerry AvantAmong those who sang in Calgary Alberta Temple dedication choirs are, from left, Tiffany and Bruce Nysetvold, Grant Clayton, Doug Sullivan, Joanne Dickson and Barbara Smith.

Many choir members said they felt that "voices of angels" joined them, that they sang beyond their capabilities. This was the case especially for the young single adult choir. One of its members, Ashley Johnson, 27, died suddenly. She had been in good health, going about her daily activities and loving her time at practices with fellow choir members. Her funeral was on Tuesday, Oct. 23, just days before the temple's dedication. "Her choir" sang at her funeral.





Ashley Johnson

Her father, Wayne Johnson, met with the choir on Friday evening as they assembled in the temple prior to rehearsing outside. "Ashley loved to sing," he said. "She wanted me to tell all her friends goodbye and that she loved you, and to sing your hearts out."



On Sunday morning, a space was left vacant – Ashley's place — as the choir sang at the temple's cornerstone. Several choir members said they felt she was there. When Michael Cutler, the director, was asked to confirm the number of choir members, he said, "There were 58, including myself; 59, including Ashley, who was here in spirit."



Rebecca Sherwood said she was honored to join her voice with 19 other members of the choir in the celestial room and those of "many other unseen voices ... who were there. I am unable to describe the spirit felt as I was singing and listening to our prophet, but the feeling has been ingrained into my soul."



Bruce Hall said, "This experience has given me a glimpse into how it must feel to sing with the heavenly hosts in praise to the Lord our God."



Janielee Williamson said, "I have learned that when we take the time to see and hear and feel the Spirit in our lives the Lord teaches us. Through singing in this choir, I have tasted Zion; together we have been of one heart and of one voice, totally stretching for perfect unity."



Mardene Francis, who has made singing her career, said she was concerned that her voice was "so big it doesn't fit into small groups." She was surprised and honored when she was accepted as a choir member. "I have sung opera, oratorio, musical theatre and much more, but nothing has touched my heart as much as this experience," she said.



Megan Comin found comfort and reassurance as she prepared to sing with one of the choirs. "Two weeks ago we found out that our daughter (Caroline, age 9) is rapidly losing her eyesight. It was a complete shock and devastating news to us. That night, I went into the choir rehearsal feeling broken and overwhelmed. As we started to practice the hymn 'Arise, O Glorious Zion,' the words of the third verse really hit home in my heart as it talks about walking the narrow road with patient, firm endurance while we go through painful tribulation. Then, I wept as I could feel the arms of my Savior come around me as we sang the 'Hosanna Anthem.' I knew that the Savior loves my family and my little girl and He knows what she is going through and there is a reason for it. Being in the choir has helped heal my spirit when I needed it most and for that I will be eternally grateful."



Members of the choirs spoke of miracles. Karen Baker, who directed one of the choirs, said, "As we began to prepare, miracles started to happen. There were miracles at the auditions ... one brother, undergoing radiation treatments, sang with the voice of an angel even though his mouth and throat were full of sores. One family, who have been trying to adopt a baby, brought their new son home from the hospital on the night of our last rehearsal. Hearts of family members were touched and softened. We have struggled with work schedules and health issues. Time after time, the blessings were very evident as we received the miracles we needed."



Sister Kershaw said that on Friday evening all the choirs took turns rehearsing in the celestial room. After the third group had finished, the organ's technician was there "to fix a couple of little things." However, the power to the organ went out.



"For over a half an hour we just prayed. [Tthe technician] is not a member of the Church but knew of the importance to us to have the organ working. ... He flipped the switch and there was power; we knew that there had been a miracle. When I asked the technician what he had done, he replied, 'Nothing. It just worked.' We had to turn it off as it had an auto-off switch anyway, and then we couldn't turn it back on again. Because it had turned on before the technician knew it wasn't the organ but a power disruption somewhere in the organ. After about an hour he found the circuit board with the problem, took it home, did some micro-soldering and replaced the board; he bypassed the auto-off and the organ remained on until after the dedication. Emails went out to all the choirs to have them pray for our organ. Miracles still do happen!"



gerry@desnews.com



© 2012 Deseret News Publishing Company

Carving Pumpkins

True to tradition, we carved pumpkins the Monday night before Halloween. Because the Monday was so close to the big day, pickings were slim at the grocery store, so we ended up with really large, somewhat nasty pumpking with stringy guts that were REALLY hard to scoop out. Katie kept saying over and over: "It's gross in there."



Scott drew a picture of the face that he wanted carved on his pumpkin. He drew a eyes and a mouth and then decided he wanted to add a nose. Since there wasn't enough room in the middle of the picture, he drew the nose off the to side and labeled it with the letter "N" for clarity. I thought that was hilarious for some reason. Scott was very impressed with the way that I extinguished the match after lighting his pumpkin -- I shook it back and forth vigourously until it went out. You could tell he had never considered such a thing was possible.



The face for Katie's pumpkin was created based on her instructions. I asked her if she wanted triangle eyes or square eyes. She said triangle. I asked if she wanted a happy face or a mad face. She said happy. I asked if she wanted teeth or no teeth. She chose teeth. We make quite a team.

Temple Choir

To dedicate the Calgary LDS Temple, there were three sessions held on Sunday. The sessions were conducted on the top floor of the temple in the Celestial Room, with the proceedings broadcast by closed circuit telecast to those congregated in other rooms of the temple and in chapels throughout much of Western Canada. I attended the sessions in the chapel in Silver Springs, while R had the great privilege to sing in the 20-voice choir that provided the music for the service.

R successfully auditioned for the part, which meant a lot to her because she has been passed over for several singing opportunities lately and was feeling her singer-life disappearing somewhat. The group, which was composed of members from the NW and NNW portions of Calgary (West Stake and North Stake) held practices regularly for a few months, learning their songs very thoroughly. R said she found the rehearsals to be very uplifting and positive, credit largely due to the glowing personality of director Janice Kershaw.

R got a horrible night's sleep prior to the big day, and had to rush through snowy streets to get the kids out to her parents' house (where Uncle Ross would watch them) and make it on time. Despite some stress, things went beautifully when the time came to perform.

The Celestial Room is not very large, so the choir sat in another room nearby and filed in when it was their time to sing. R was greeted with a host of familar faces in the small congregation -- her grandparents, parents, aunt, uncle, a cousin and several good friends. In her words, "Walking into that room made me feel like I was 'coming home' since I could see so many family and friends there. I imagine heaven will be like that." Singing each song became very personal, very emotional.

From my vantage point, watching the video feed, the choir sounded wonderful. R's parents said that being there live was a very powerful experience. We are so grateful that R got this chance. Something that she will remember forever.

Calgary Temple Youth Celebration

This weekend was the dedication for the Calgary Temple. Saturday was the youth celebration and Sunday was the dedication itself. I was part of the committee that organized West Stake's participation in the youth celebration, and we had a fantastic time performing at the Stampede Corral.



The youth depicted various aspects of Calgary and the history of the LDS Church in the area. In addition to the opening scene and the finale, our youth were in scenes depicting the introduction of ranching and farming in the area, the tradition of the Nativity Pageant at Heritage Park, and the creation of a Chinese (Mandarin-speaking) branch of the church. Our stake built a 26-person dragon that was about 100 feet long.

I got to go out and dance in the ranching number because we ended up with fewer kids than we had originally choreographed. It was tons of fun and a great experience overall.

Scott and R went to the show and Scott was pretty thrilled by the whole thing. He said he really liked the hockey scene, the chuckwagons and the dragon. Personally, I thought the RCMP Musical Ride on hobby horses was outstanding, as was the incredibly detailed Stampede scene. What a great event. It's nice to be free of the stress, but it's also sad that its over.

Temple Tour Round 2

On a quiet Thursday morning R took the kids back to the Calgary Temple for another tour. Scott's favourite part continues to be "the marrying room". He is sad that he doesn't get to back into the temple until he is older, so we thought it good for them to go back in again.

Poor Blankie

Katie loves her blankie. She especially likes to rub the frayed little tag against her nose -- that is how she falls asleep every night. Sadly, all this special attention has been hard on that end of the blankie. R pulls out a needle and thread for repairs more and more frequently, and there is hardly anything left to anchor these new stitches.



We start to worry what will happen when the blanket disintegrates. We bought a blanket made from similar material online a year ago and R washes it fairly regularly to soften it up. However, it is plain white and does not have the Winnie the Pooh graphics on it. Plus, the tag is even a different shape. R figures that she will probably have to remove the tag from the original blanket and sew it onto the new blanket to help the transition.

Raking Leaves

Our old house had 100 times more leaves, but this house has enough to make two piles, and that's really all we need.

Happy 50th Curtis

Curtis C, one of our good friends from Ottawa, turned 50 recently. He and his family moved to Okotoks last year. We hosted a semi-surprise party at our house with Steve and Naomi N, since Steve is one of Curtis' oldest friends from their college days in Ontario. Scott hid behind the couch and jumped out to say surprise when they arrived. He was literally bouncing off the walls trying to wait for things to begin.



There was an ample supply of chicken, sparkling cider and witty conversation, so it was a fabulous evening. The kids really enjoyed helping to decorate the kitchen, and Scott was sad the next morning to hear that we had elected not to put the "Happy 50th Birthday" banners into storage.



Happy Birthday Curtis. It's been good knowing you.

I am Mad. You No Talking to Me.

Usually at bedtime I help Scott (ie: I lie on his bed until he's ready for books and prayer) and R gets Katie into her jammies, brushes her teeth, an so forth. Last night,
R had to run to the store, so I was putting the kids to bed solo. Scott went into his room to get ready while I went to help Katie in her room. That's when things started going badly.

Katie was not interested in getting into her pajamas. Instead, she insisted on playing with the humidifier in her room. She turned it on and told me, "Look at it blowing my hair. See? Look at it blowing my hair again." It was pretty obviously a filibuster technique, but it was so adorable that I patiently waited for the demonstration to run its course before reiterating that she needed to get ready for bed. She said no.

I tried to be firm with her. I said, "Katie, you need to put your jammies on. You need to put them on right now." Again, she refused. Instead, she said, "I want to play with this train."

Usually, when Katie says no to something, you just have to wait a few moments to ask her again and she will agree. That was not happening this time. It's been like this for about a week or two, actually. I just kept asking her and she just kept saying no.

Finally, I said that I was going start counting.

I said I would count to three and if she didn't help put her jammies on, then I was going to do it for her. She just kept playing with the train as I counted, although she flinched a little bit just as I reached 3. When I moved in to take over, she started shouting with a her nose scrunched up on one side and her index finger pointed at me:

"YOU NO TOUCH ME! YOU NO TOUCH ME!"

I hesitated a bit because she was so animated. It's really out of character for her. She's been a bit sick the last week or two, so we figure maybe she's just a bit cranky. Who knows. I told her that she needed to help me change her jammies right now. That's when she pulled the door open to her closet, and then dropped down to the floor, sitting with her back against the closet door. Then she let me have it:

"I AM MAD! YOU NO TALKING TO ME! I AM MAD!"

It was difficult not to laugh at the theatrics that were so disproportionate to the circumstances. I sat down near her dresser and assumed the same kind of posture as her and waited. Eventually she came over and started talking to me about the clothes in her dresser. But once I tried to steer towards the bedtime routine, things went sour. We cycled through the whole routine a second time. I kept waiting for that moment when she would just shrug her shoulders and cheerfully say, "Okay" like she always does. Instead, she returned to her spot at the closet door, telling me, "I AM MAD! YOU NO TALKING TO ME!"

Finally I just started putting her pajamas on. I have hardly witnessed such absolute delirium from this little girl. It was intense and it just didn't stop. We only got finished with the shirt before I tried to give her a chance to settle down, but she couldn't. The magical soothing powers of her blankie were useless. She called for Mom, but Mom wasn't there. Instead, she asked for Scott.

Scott came out of his room in his Incredibles pajamas and gave Katie a hug, kissed her on the top of the head and said, "It's going to be okay, Katie." Any other time, this would have been fantastic. Not tonight. She decided she wanted Mom and that was it.

So we called mom on the phone. That also wasn't good enough.

In the end, the solution was to let Katie go with Scott into his room, where he read her a funny little book about a mouse jumping in successively larger puddles. She laughed. While they read a second book about the mouse catching fish from a pond, she let me finish putting her pajama bottoms on.

She did not want to go back to her room, so I let her curl up under the covers in Scotty's bed for a few minutes to settle down and get sleepy. Finally, she agreed to go to her own bed, as long as I promised that Mommy would come home and visit her there.

Wow. Quite the evening. Thank goodness for Mr. Incredible.

Hunting Pumpkins

We tried something new this year: The Pumpkin Hunt at Butterfield Acres Children's Farm.



Uncle Brad and his fiancee Katie were in town to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving, so we wanted some fun things to do. Since Butterfield Acres is only a mile away from Grandma & Grandpa's house (and our house), we figured it would be a simple activity to do without a lot of driving around.



It was simple, but it was also pretty cold. Most of our family was decked out in multiple layers of clothing, but we still welcomed the blankets that Grandma pulled out for the hayride. Well, I guess there was no hay, so it was a wagon ride.













We got to pet some bunnies and see the baby chicks before it was time for our hayride wagon ride out to the "pumpkin patch", a designated spot in the forest where the "pumpkin fairy" had deposited one pumpkin per child visitor.







With our pumpkins in hand we were ready for a ride back to the heated buildings to decorate our pumpkins and wait for the pumpkin fairy to come sprinkle them with fairy glitter. I have never heard much about the pumpkin fairy before. Honestly, I think future-auntie Katie had more direct impact on little Katie's pumpkin than any purported fairy. Auntie-Fairy-Katie put on a clinic in pumpkin aesthetics, in fact. Well done.



Speaking of fairy dust and miracles, Scott suddenly decided to make amends with animal nemesis #2 -- the goat. In September he hit a new high in animal paranoia, where he started checking carefully for dogs before he would step out of the car, sometimes bringing up hypothetical scenarios featuring aggressive dogs. It was clearly on his mind a lot. Then one time we were out for a walk near Bowness park (the time the kids wore costumes to go throw rocks in the river) and Scott was so concerned about the dogs that people were walking along the same pathway that I was picking him up (and Katie of course) every few steps. Exasperated, I told him that he had to get over this issue because it was taking all the fun out of going out and doing things outside. I have tried reasoning unsuccessfully with him on this topic so often that I had all but given up on a logical argument, so I was surprised to hear him say that he was going to not be afraid of dogs anymore. We didn't see any more dogs on our walk back to car, but I could see that he was much more relaxed about it.



This trip to the farm was about 3 weeks later, and he shocked me again when he asked to go into the goat pen, because he wanted to see "his friends the goats." His fear of the goats used to be so intense that he could hardly enjoy being in the bunny warren because he was so concerned that a gang of goat ruffians would knock down the fence and attack him. Now he wanted to pose with each goat before we could leave to go home.

Maybe there is something to this pumpkin fairy.

Car Contest Quotes

S. Dad, are you going to take the truck through the car wash?
D. No.
S. But what if there is a car contest and your car still has bird poop on it? Then you wouldn't win.
D. You are right. I guess I wouldn't win.

------------

D: Hey look, there's a boat at the gas station. Why is it there?
S: It is probably getting gas, so that it can drive on the river... or else it wouldn't be able to move at all when it was in the river.
D: What if they used a paddle? Would that work?
S: hmmm...
D: Could you say "hit it" and then they would all start paddling and you could waterski? Would it go fast enough?
S: No. Because the motorboat is too heavy and big and strong.
D: Probably.
S: You would need like 100 people paddling. Then it would work, maybe.
D: But with so many people, then the boat would sink.
S: It would need to be 100 babies! (Laughing hysterically)

------------

Eating a popsicle
S: Mom, the first colour of the rainbow is red.
R: How do you know?
S: (Points to red on popsicle box)
R: That's not a rainbow.
S: But red is the first colour of the rainbow.
R: But how do you know?
D: Because it is the longest wavelength in the visible spectrum of light.
R: Oh, Dad has a good reason.
S: I already knew that.

------------

After the first week of kindergarten
S: Dad, do you know what my school cares about the most?
D: What?
S: The Circle of Courage. (No further explanation given.)

------------

S: Mom, all the kids in my class say that I am the best at everything. (No reason given.)

------------

S: We did races today and I won.
D: Oh yeah? What race was this?
S: We had to run 30 times in the gym and I was the first one.
D: You mean you did 30 laps.
S: Uh, yes. And I was the first one done.
D: Wow. How did you keep track of how many times you went around, if it was so many?
S: We just did.
D: And you were first? By how much
S: This much (uses fingers of one hand to illustrate).

Later, at parent-teacher interviews
D: Look at this Terry Fox picture. Is this why you did so much running?
S: (Shrugs)
Teacher: What was that?
D: He told us he's been doing lots of running races.
Teacher. Oh, we do 3 laps around the gym to warm up.

------------

S: La la la (singing)
R: Scotty, I don't hear you sing very much, but you sound so good singing.
S: (Beams)

Later, in the tub alone
S: La la la laaa...
R: (enters)
S: Did you like my singing mom?
R: Yes, it was great. Maybe now you can add some words.

------------

S: Dad, I am the smartest one in my school.
D: Really? You think you are the smartest one in the whole school?
S: Yes.
D: How do you know?
S: Well, some of the kids think that an "F" is a "D". And I know that it's not.
D: But what if the other kids learn more things?
S: Then we might be the same.
D: Right.
S: But then I would learn more things, and I will still be the smartest one.

------------

D: Katie, why is there a pillow under the table?
K: I wanted a pillow.
D: Are you going to sleep under there?
K: Yes.
D: Now are you sleeping, Katie? Make a sleeping sound.
K: .... Sleeping! .... Sleeping!

Buddies

Sometimes they are rivals, but mostly they are friends.