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)

Day 7 A BIT OF HEAVEN (in St. George)






DAY 7 A BIT OF HEAVEN (in Las Vegas)


Las Vegas temple


Lots of flowers


GREEN grass!!!  so soft, they had to walk barefoot in it



Tuesday, April 6, 2010

DAY 6 CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME!

Today was planned as a shopping day.  The outlet malls and the grocery stores with promises of Gluten Free foods......   It was a very disappointing day.  The girls had a bit of fun with some of the goofy stuff they found, but wished that at least one store sold cute, modest dresses.  And the gluten free store proved to be an even bigger disappointment.  I had heard that Trader Joe's had an 8 page list of GF products that they carry.... turns out that most of it is made in a factory that also produces wheat products, so they can't guarantee against cross contamination!  Are you kidding me?!?  How does that qualify as GF then??  crazy people.





The best part of the day was when we realized that the outlet mall was one mile from the California border, so we drove one and a quarter miles farther than originally planned so that the girls could say they have been to California, and we can say that we have driven the I-15 from Canada to California, not bad.  (wow, talk about a run on sentence - it's getting late....)
this is the 'Welcome to California' sign