Sunday, July 18, 2010

A TRIP TO THE ZOO WITH COUSINS





Whitney, Marissa, Cache, Blake, Gma O, Cheyanne


 

Erica, Marissa, Cache, Blake, Cheyanne, Whitney

 
Whitney and Cheyanne (BFF's and cousins)


 





my favorite zoo animal


 
Back row: Cache, Blake, Chloe, Erica, Marissa
Front: Whitney, Cheyanne, Carmen

 
Chloe


 
Cache



Cache and Carmen

 
Cheyanne and Carmen (feeding the ducks)

A NEW TOY

1966 GTO


for Ross?? 

nope
for Bruce??

nope

Too bad, so sad!  This gem belongs to our good friend Mike.  But Mike was kind enough to come over and let the boys take it for a spin.  Thanks Mike!

MISSY'S GRADE 9 GRAD

We had 2 graduations this year.  Emma leaving elementary school, and Marissa leaving junior high.

Marissa graduated from grade 9 and from Wilma Hansen Junior High.  I think she's happy to be moving onward and upward to High School.  She ended up with a nice group of friends, and she will be sad that some of them won't be going to the same school next year.  Of course, one of the perks is that seminary will start about an hour later next year!  That makes all of us happy!

I was proud of Marissa's choice in a nice, MODEST dress.  There weren't many around.






Have fun in High School Missy!!!

OH, DID I MENTION THAT I'M VALEDICTORIAN

ummm NO!!!

Emma graduated from grade 6 and elementary school in June. 

As we were getting ready to go, she casually says "oh, did I remember to tell you that I'm Valedictorian?".
NO, no, you did not! 

"Well, I'm sharing it with a couple of other people". 
Might have been nice to know ahead of time.




Well done Emmy!!  We hope you enjoy Junior High!

SPRING SKIING

Ross and I went skiing together on MAY 11th !!! Now that's spring skiing! 
We went to Sunshine Village and really did enjoy the sunshine!  (The photos were taken on my phone, so they don't truly reflect the sunny, bright day that it was).



Mid- week skiing this late in the season meant NO LINE-UPS.  Yay!
or crowds!

Ross

I haven't been skiing for about 3 years, but was quite pleased with myself to be able to go on a couple of black runs.  I haven't done that since I was Ross's age, and I really didn't enjoy it then.



I had to stop the car as we were leaving the park to let the wildlife cross the road.
I love living in Canada, close to the mountains :)
It was a good day

CALLED TO SERVE

(to hear the audio in the videos, you will need to scroll to the bottom of this page and pause the music first)

Ross opened his call. 
What?!?!?!  He'll be speaking Cree while serving in Regina??

Let's see what's in envelope #2


Hahaha!  Well played Uncle Kevin!

Ross will be serving in the Paraguay Asuncion North Mission! 
Spanish speaking 
He reports to the Provo MTC on August 25th, 2010
We're very excited for him (i think he's pretty excited too)

Paraguay is in the middle of South America.  It's one of only two completely landlocked countries in the Western hemisphere (it is bordered by Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil).  In the summer time (our winter) the 30 degree heat will often feel more like 40 celcius because of the humidity etc.  Ross may be a good person to send there - he isn't a huge fan of air-conditioning.  Paraguay is also one of the poorest countries in the world.  I'm thinking there will be many many opportunities to give meaningful service.  The rats, giant anteaters, tarantulas, poisonous snakes and jaguars might make for an interesting adventure.
Some other trivia bits:  Paraguay has a two-sided flag, meaning, that the front and the back of the flag are different from each other.  Immunizations include: Hep A&B, Tyhoid, and Yellow fever.  Malaria pills will be given by the mission home while he's there. Ross's good friend for the past 18 3/4 years will be serving in the same mission, he reported this week, so only 6 weeks ahead of Ross.

For more info on Paraguay:
or
or

Monday, April 26, 2010

THE MAILBOX STALKER


I'm afraid I may quickly become the next mailbox stalker!

I received a phone call today from our Stake President.  Around 4:00 he phoned to tell me that he had been on the church website where missionary recommendations are tracked.  Ross's mission has been assigned!!!  President Carter answered my question affirmatively - "does this mean that his call is in the mail, right now, as we speak..... on the way to our house???"  YES

Wow!  It's actually happening....
the call is coming......
18+ years of planning.....

I hope Ross gets here before the call does.  (He writes his last exam tomorrow, but wasn't going to be home until Saturday)

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Holiday postings on hold - BIGGER NEWS TO TELL

                      THE MISSION PAPERS ARE IN!!!



We had a phone call from our Bishop on the 13th or 14th (of April) telling us that they had received a letter from Salt Lake City.  The letter stated that due to the VISA issues that missionaries have been dealing with, they have extended the allowance for Canadians submitting their papers for missions.  Now instead of  'putting your papers in' 90 days before your 19th birthday, the new recommendation is for 120 days.  Wow!  That means that Ross is suddenly elligible.



After a few phone calls it was decided that Ross would come home for the weekend  (more like 24 hours) to meet with the Stake President, and finalize his papers.   Ross was just getting ready for finals and wanted to come, but didn't think he'd get much studying done at home, so I picked him up late Saturday.  I drove up after lunch, did a bit of visiting and got to Ross around 5pm, we packed up some of his stuff to bring home for summer, and got home to Calgary around 11pm.  He slept in (no surprize), went to church, met with President Carter after church, ate dinner, and then we left again to take him back to Edmonton.  The whole family went on the drive (to Edmonton AND BACK) since they hadn't really seen him - arriving back in Calgary around midnight.



Now the waiting begins....




p.s. don't forget to tell us where you think he is going.....


These pictures were all taken during a mini photo shoot TRYING (really hard) to get a decent picture to send in with his mission papers. 

Don't worry - we didn't use any of the photos above. 
Here is the one I think we used


The pretty face the general authority will be looking at while he ponders where to assign Ross.

If you missed it, check out the talk by Elder Rasband in the Priesthood session of General Conference about calling missionaries at http://www.lds.org/  I'm having difficulty linking it here right now, but it's not hard to find.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Day 8 COVE FORT

After we left Cedar City, on the way back to SLC we stopped at Cove Fort which is just a mile off the I-15.

It was a great place to stop, go to the bathroom, stretch our legs, and see something neat for about half an hour.  You can also picnic here.

In 1867 Pres. Brigham Young asked Pres. Hinckley's father, Ira Hinckley to be in charge of building a fort here.  It was a way station for weary travellers, an important telegraph station, and the pony express used it as a postal station.  There were two stage coaches arriving daily, it was a busy place.

Thick walls. 

Original trees still growing (but definitely getting old).  Six rooms on the south, and six on the north, each with a fireplace and separate outside door, but the rooms are also connected with a door inside from room to room.

The telegraph

very cool old stove.  the bread pans in the upper right corner of the picture are huge... making a 5 lb. loaf of bread.

the blacksmith shop out back that Ira Hinckley ran.  He learned the trade back in Nauvoo when he was young.

actually Brigham Young's hat.  Made from beaver pelt 

the kids were totally grossed out by the 'art' hanging on the wall.  Made from human hair, called hair art.
You can see the sillouette of a woman wearing a choker neclace (profile view facing left), all made from hair.



This was Ira Hinckley's family home before coming to Cove Fort (it was moved here from Coalville when the fort was refurbished).


After Cove Fort we drove to Provo where we found our friend Mackenzie who is going to school at BYU.  We went for lunch at Hogi Yogi, fulfilling another long time dream of Marissa's, hahaha.
Kenzie, Emma, Erica


Jenna, Missy

at Kenzie's university housing


the MTC........
Ross may be here in about 4 months....

Provo temple


Off to SLC to stay at the Little America for the next 2 nights

Day 7 A BIT OF HEAVEN (in Zion)



cool cactus and driftwood at the gates to Zion National Park

This is called "the 3 Patriarchs"  referring to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

the colors aren't great in the pictures because we had to ride on the tour bus to see the 'scenic route', so most of the pictures are thru the tinted windows.  (in the winter, before April 1, you can drive it in your car.  We were there ON April 1, and we had to take the bus.  The AMA tour book says you can drive it until AFTER the Easter weekend, which wasn't for a few more days.....)

The larger rock is "the pulpit", and the smaller one is "the alter".  Incidentally, the formations were all named by a Methodist minister way back when.



Wild turkey (to the left of the tree)

leaving the area


Such a pretty place.  We would love to go back with more time to be able to hike around and follow some of the trails. 

(We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Cedar City, new, nice, and warm cookies, rice krispie squares, and water bottles for everyone as we checked in)