Halloween!

Today is the Halloween Parade at school. The boys looked very cute and it's always a fun little parade. I think I've been attending it for the last 12 years or so. I'm not sure I've ever NOT gone in those 12 years... Anyway fun tradition. Friday was the school trunk or treat, and sat was the ward trunk or treat. So the kids have way too much candy... Tayla's mom did her eyes for the school party and on sat. Kirsten had to work so Tayla told me she'd do her own eyes cause she didn't think I could do them. Well.... I was a little put out, cause maybe I couldn't do them like her mom but I could do them... :) that little girl... I love her!

Kimberly Garrison.....

So I have to make a post about our "other" daughter... Kimberly Garrison our neighbor.. I'm cleaning Chloe's room and I see this on the wall. I just had to laugh. Kim really is good though, on picture day she came over early to curl Chloe's hair even though she had late late start that day. She is very sweet. And we joke about having a her picture on our family wall. We love Kim!

Haley's Declaration of Independence

I get on our family pc this morning and find Haley had left a homework assignment up. After reading through it I thought I'd post it. It's mostly accurate. :)

Declaration of Independence

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one to dissolve the unhealthy bonds which have connected them with one another, and to assume the laws that nature and nature's God entitles them, then it also becomes necessary for one to declare the purposes which impel them to dissolve those bonds.
I hold these truths to be self-evident; That all men deserve the right to receive a healthy amount of sleep at night; that all men deserve the right to go to bed by ten o' clock p.m.; that all men deserve the right to not get up any earlier than six o' clock a.m.; that all men deserve to stay fully awake in all of their school classes; that all men deserve to have pleasant dreams as they sleep that will not cause them any sleep loss; that all men deserve the right to not have to deal with crying infants in the dead of night; that all men deserve to remain alert throughout their work or school day, even if they are at home.
The history of the present offender (namely, sleep loss or tiredness) is a history of repeated offenses.
It has caused the victim to become grumpy and impatient with friends and family members.
It has cause the victim to nod off during important school lessons.
It has caused the victim to develop irregular sleep patterns that include taking long naps after school and arising at five o' clock a.m.
It has caused the victim to lose their train of thought while speaking to another person.
It has caused the victim to become slightly incoherent while speaking to another person.
It has caused the victim to answer multiple questions wrong when called on in school.
It has caused the victim to have red and itchy eyes throughout the day.
It has caused the victim to display random and loud outbursts of craziness.
It has caused the victim to develop headaches and colds due to poor health, as a result of not receiving enough rest at night.
In every state of these oppositions I have tried to think past the tiredness. I have tried to go to bed earlier. I have tried begin mountains of homework earlier in the afternoon. I have tried to arise from my bed later than five o' clock a.m. I have tried to sleep through the entire night without waking once.
I therefore, the victim, solemnly publish and declare independence from sleep deprivation and being tired every day. I declare being well rested every day. I utterly dissolve any association with tired eyes, a tired mind and a tired body. As a free person from tiredness, I have full power to coherent thoughts and a good attitude and regular sleep patterns.
To support this declaration, I pledge my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor.

Road Trip

Ok so this past week Jeff and I drove to Charlotte North Carolina. He got back on as a contractor for the same company he worked for all last year. I'm no happy about him being gone every week, but at this point he just needs a job. I know him being out of work all summer has been a blessing so he could spend time with his mom before she passed away.
Anyway, we drove a car back to help with expenses. It was three days in the car. But it was so nice to spend that time with him. He is my favorite person to spend time with! And NC is beautiful. We had a really fun time, and after 3 try's to get home I was finally able to get on a plane and come home on Sunday. I was having issues with my connecting flights. My kids survived, and all was well when I got home. In fact they had dinner on the table waiting for me. So sweet! And Chloe had made the bread sticks, which were very yummy! I had 4.. :) So here we go again... another year without our Jeff. But I'm grateful for the job! Very grateful!

concerts, concerts, and more concerts, Playing dead... and THE BOY!

The last couple of weeks have been busy in our household... Cory had two concerts last week. He is in a choir class that meets on his own time during intervention. I'm so glad he joined. I think he'll have a good time and he has a nice voice. Haley loved choir in JR. High and I think Cory will too. Then he had a band concert,he plays the drums. This year is a new band teacher that he isn't too thrilled about, but they did a good job. And I hope he'll stick it out.

This past weekend Kristen worked all weekend long, double shifts. So we had the twins and Reese. In our house Reese has become to be known as "The boy!" Where's the boy?" "Who is watching the boy?" You have to be on that kid 24/7 or he is clogging the toilet, drawing on the wall, ripping books, putting lotion all over himself. So this weekend he ripped a book, and got into the toothpaste and Lexie's Hydrocortisone cream that a friend gave her (sorry Brenda!) and he rubbed it all over himself... He also got into the bodywash in the bathtub and was rubbing it in his hair... He makes me tired....

Last week Hayden and Tanner found a baby gecko, and when Lexie asked them what they what they said it was a baby gecko and it was playing dead... Well it might not have been dead then but it was later after they put it in some lemon juice. What is it with boys... Sheesh!

Remembering...

Jeff's mom passed away last Friday the 16th at about 3:30 pm. It has been a very hard 3 or so months since she's been sick. She had a hip replacement in June and it's been down hill from there. She got pneumonia, and had MRCA in her hip socket. Jeff and I had the opportunity to fly up to Provo, where she had been moved too, to see her on Friday before she passed away. While it's been a very hard experience for everyone, it's been spiritually uplifting also. Chloe has had a sweet experience, and Jeff and his brothers and sisters have all had peace and comfort. The funeral was held yesterday up in Grand Junction, and Jeff and his siblings all had the opportunity to speak. It was a perfect meeting. I know Syd would have loved every thing about it. During the viewing Lexie didn't want to go in the room, and Dick, Jeff's dad, didn't want to be in there either. He did come in, telling me that Syd would be mad if he didn't. Then before the family prayer Lexie came in also and sat in the back by her grandpa. He later told her how much that meant to him. Today when he talked to Jeff he told him how Chloe had left a little note for him to find after we left. This had been really hard on my kids, they loved their grandma Smith. In fact this past spring break, when given the choice between Disney Land and seeing Grandma and Grandpa Smith, they chose Grandma and Grandpa.

Darin and Kirsten also came up with us, and that was a fun ride. All together in one car for 11 hours. But I have to say it was one I'm sure my kids will always remember. We haven't ALL traveled to Grand Junction in years and years.

It was a sweet funeral, and I'm grateful for Syd in our life, she was a wonderful person, always giving, never judging, and always listening. We all wrote on a little pink paper heart a little note to her and then we put it in her casket. My kids all wrote such sweet things. She will be missed very much! Can't say that enough.

Dick and his only living sister Ruth.
Jeff, Alan, Lynne, Dick, Sue, Steve, Craig

Dick with all the grandkids, only one is missing.

Brooks, Erin, (Sue's children, missing Daven) Haley, Chloe, Cory, Dick Lexie Kirsten, Emilee (Lynne's daugher,) Darin, Kelsey and Brett (Lynne's daughter and son in-law)

Sue and Jim and Erin and Brooks

Teluride, (We had to stop and take pictures, no one wanted to because we had been in the car all day) but I'm so glad we did!

Panama, Panama, Panama

Well, here it is, my last night in Panama. In all likelihood, it will be the last time I ever an here the rest of my life, unless I can talk Mandy into coming here with this group the next time they come here, which will not be for at least two years. It has been a great adventure, filled with the Spirit, renewal of old friendships, making new friends, really having my Spanish take off and have a little fun speaking Tule Gaya (Kuna). I will never forget this experience and am very grateful that I have been able to participate. Yesterday was a great day. We got up quite early and drove to the Panama Temple. We did a session (in English) and I had to complete the final part in Spanish. I should have done the whole thing in Spanish, would have been easier. The temple was beautiful, something I was never sure would be seen here in this country in my lifetime. It was cool to see the chapel that is on the same property, which is where I attended church in my last area. I met a man in the temple (one of the ordinance workers) who was from the island of Ustupo and I am pretty certain that I had met him out there. After the temple we checked out of our first hotel and moved out to the Gamboa Rainforest Resort, which is located very near where the Chagres River enters the canal. This place apparently was a US Military R&R location, meaning that military personnel could come here by themselves or with family and have a great time. It is incredibly beautiful, glad to see how tax payer dollars were spent many years ago and now turned over to locals to run. There were lots of arranged tours, but I did not have lots of money so I just wandered around on my own. My favorite tour was the "Nap Tour", which was absolutely free and worth way more. I have seen some wildlife here, mostly capibaras, birds and lizards. I did not get to see any of the monkeys, but did hear some howlers this afternoon while I was out walking around. We depart tomorrow morning for the flight home. It has been a lot of fun and very worthwhile but I am also honestly ready to go home. I miss my family! I am glad that Monday is a holiday so that I can spend some time with my kids prior to their having to go back to school. Thanks for tuning in, hope you have found these last several days interesting as I have shared this experience. Hasta la proxima. first picture of the Hotel Lobby and some rooms from down by the pool Second picture of a big iguana that was handing out by the pool this morning Third picture of the family of capibara's, much bigger bigger than they appear, I would estimate the biggest one to be around 80-90 lbs. Fourth picture is of the pool area, really beautiful

So today was our first day her post-clinic and it was a really fun day. We took a boat ride down the Panama Canal from Gamboa, which is where the resort we are moving to for tomorrow for the last two nights, through the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks, under the Bridge of the Americas and clear out to the end of the causway in the Pacific side entrance to the Canal. It was really cool to get to go through the locks and go on the trip. I took a ton of pictures, far too many of the same things from different angles in some cases, but still very cool. The first picture is of me right after we got on the boat. The Canal is obviously behind me looking toward what is called the Gaillard, or Culebra, Cut. It is where the workers had to cut through the continental divide and really represented the hardest and most dangerous part of the project. The second picture is of the one lane bridge over the Chagres River at Gamboa. I had driven over this bridge when I was down here many times. The river is the one that feeds most of the water for the canal and is the only river in the world that flows to two oceans. The third picture shows the rocks and how they had to cut through, something that they did in terraces to avoid landslides. In the forground is Elder Martino with Brad and Jan Porter on the right had edge of the picture. The next picture is of the hardest part of the cut. On the left is what they called Gold Hill and on the right is Contractor Hill. The French originally started the project and intended to have the canal all be one level from Pacific to Caribbean. They got to this mountain and started on the side to the right, Contractor Hill. The work was very dangerous and the workers were dying and running away, while their investors were getting discourages. So, someone started the rumor that they had discovered gold in this area and a bunch of investors bought interests in the project and new "workers/gold prospectors" came to help dig through a hill that they unknown to them had no gold in it. Bummer for them. The bridge in the frame is called Centennial Bridge and was not there when I was down here before. It is a beautiful structure built by a German company. The next picture is us entering the Pedro Miguel lock. We entered in front of another larger ship and took advantage of their passing to go through the locks, mostly on their dime I imagine. An interesting note, it takes 52 million gallons for one end to end passing of the canal and as we did approximately half, we were part of 26 million gallons of water flowing today. When the cargo ship is not one of the great big Panamax (maximum the canal can handle) the put other smaller ships in at the same time. I have also included a picture of the Miraflores locks. We ate dinner in the building on the left, the one with all of the tourist looking and waving at all the tourists (us) in the boat. I had been to these locks several times when I was down here, but certainly not from this angle. The next picture is of the Bridge of the Americas, which is technically the beginning of the Pan-American highway. The bridge was here when I was here and I must have crossed it 50-100 times. After passing under the bridge I took a picture of the skyline in the background with what is called the causeway in the foreground. The causeway is basically a road that was created by back filling part of the bay with lots of the rock taken from the Gaillard cut, which acted as a break for strong tidal currents and helped shield the canal entrance. I used to be able to drive out on the causeway even though you had to have military base access (had to go through Amador Naval Station) because we were clasified as "Ministers in the Zone" and as such had access passes to all bases. Not many missionaries in my time got to go on the causeway. The last picture for today is of the Balboa chapel. I lived in the back of this chapel while assigned to my last area, which was called Balboa. The area is sadly quite run down now. We did some shopping across the street in an artisen mall and one of our people missed the busses back to our hotel. He had spent all of his money so only had enough to take a bus, which took him about 2.5 hours to get home. Fortunately he had served a mission in South America and was young, so he was able to make it back to our hotel. I do not know that I would have had the guts to do that. I took about 160 pictures today, again some are almost duplicates. Tomorrow morning we go to the Panama Temple very early, return to check out of our hotel, and then go to the resort. I would like to just sleep as I am dog tired, but who knows if I will ever get back here again, so I will likely go exploring on Saturday with a group of people. I love and miss you guys and cannot wait to see you.