year end school activities- May 09

Wow: May is busy when you have a quiver full of children who are school age. Dallin graduated from Snow College with honors. Taylor was inducted into the National Honor Society and had a solo in the choir performance. Morgan played percussion in the band concert, and he had a solo in the 8th grade choir. Jaden and Morgan both sang in the Jr High year end choir performance to our delight. Like Nate, Taylor and Dallin had great dates to the Art Ball. We had so much fun as a family (and had parent bragging rights) with our children this spring. Hailey was very busy and less than a week after her semester ended she went to Zions Ponderosa, a destination resort just east of Zions National Park, for a paid summer internship as an event coordinator. Alas, we don't have pictures of her because she left so fast, but we will post several when we post our Italy trip we took the first two weeks of June. Enjoy the pictures and videos. Morgan is in the hat. (I took some better videos but they are on my video camera.)

nate's amazing 30 days

Nathan had an amazing last 30 days. He graduated from Seminary where he served on the seminary council and gave one of the two student speeches at graduation. He graduated from high school with high honors and received academic scholarships to Snow College and BYU-Idaho. His picture was in the local paper several times for his many accomplishments and the year book had dozens of his activities. He had a great senior year. He took a beautiful girl to the Art Ball with Taylor and his date. He received his mission call to Rochester NY--Spanish speaking. We opened his call in our back yard with dozens of friends, family and neighbors. It was exciting and emotional. He went on a senior trip with Hailey, his mom, and his dad to Paris for 3 days, Venice for 3 days, Florence for 3 days, and Rome for 5 days. It was amazing. Finally, he was sustained to receive the Melchizedek priesthood on Fathers Day during our stake conference. Our hearts are full as we think of the blessing he has been to our family. We are attaching a few pictures of these events, except the European trip which will be posted later.

Jaden and videos

Jaden says there isn' t enough about him on our blog site and so I am posting him in action last March. He is quite a nice shooter. He also struts a little when it swishes.

Lighthouses and Michigan

Michelle has always loved lighthouses for their beauty and the messages they bring of warnings, danger, light, hope, service, and stewardship to name a few. When we went to Michigan, we saw several which had been restored located on the banks of the second largest Great Lake, Huron. We are posting a few pictures of them and also of other beautiful areas of Michigan. We hope you enjoy them in some small way as we enjoyed them.

More pictures from Spring Break: Parks and Monuments

Here are a few more pictures from our April trip to Southern Utah.

spring break and michigan trips, etc. 3-5/09

What a crazy two months. We had an amazing spring break in April to southern Utah. We drove a thousand miles and saw Hovenweep Nat'l Monument, Four Corners Geographical Site, Valley of the Gods, Monument Valley, and Natural Bridges Nat'l Monument. While it snowed in Springville, we enjoyed mild weather with some wind and unbelievable scenery in some of nature's most incredible places. We drove to the headwaters of Lake Powell, where the mighty Colorado and the ugly Dirty Devil Rivers meet at the overlook of Hite marina. We stayed one night in Bluff at a wonderful bed and breakfast, and woke up after the second night to a flat tire in Hanksville after hitting a jack rabbit the night before. We drove home through Capitol Reef National Park and then on to Ephraim where we saw Dallin's last performance with the LDSingers. It was a great trip. Nathan and Taylor went to Preference dance with two cute girls in March and Nathan went to the Junior prom in April with another beautiful girl. Morgan and Jaden went to two merit badge pow wows in consecutive months, one at BYU and one in our stake. Last week, Kevin took Michelle with him to Michigan where he had a deposition in Ann Arbor. Naturally, he elected to go early and drive 800 miles to see a state he was unfamiliar with. We drove up the Lake Huron Coast from Detroit, went to the Mackinaw Bridge over the straight between Huron and Lake Michigan and took the ferry to Mackinac Island, an amazing small island that outlawed motor vehicles 80 years ago. Everyone rides bikes or horses there. We rode the ferry there, took a carriage ride and toured the Grand Hotel, one of the world's finest hotels. We saw dozens of lighthouses and drove back to Detroit. After spending one afternoon seeing GM's headquarters and the river front of the Detroit River, we finished our trip in Dearborn visiting the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. The last two are amazing. The Museum is as large as any Smithsonian and has 100 years of cars, planes, trains, farming equipment, and an area devoted to Liberty. We saw the Rosa Park bus, JFK's limo where he was assassinated, the rocking chair where Pres Lincoln sat the night he was assassinated and dozens of other amazing artifacts. The village had homes of famous Americans and reconstructed working pioneer shops such as a printing press, saw mill, grist mill, pottery plant, glass blowing plant, and other delights. We even got to ride in a 1914 Ford Model T, touring model. It was a blast and an education. Kudos to Henry Ford who wanted his posterity to understand life in the 1800s and early 1900s in America. Dallin graduated with honors from Snow College and Hailey is off for the summer to Zions Ponderosa, a destination dude ranch, etc near the eastern border of Zions National Park. Nathan should get his mission call this next week. We are enjoying our lives and hoping our good fortune continues.

family picture