Boys trip to DC

Poppa Keith and Jeanene invited Owen, Troy, and Micah to visit them in DC. They had a fantastic time, with a lot of stories and pictures to prove it... here is a sampling!



Traveling solo on the plane for the first time...
they really haven't traveled by plane too much since we depend on our BUSHBUS. 

It did not inspire too much confidence when the airline fixed a problem with duct tape...



They had the best time visiting sites and hanging out with their grandparents! 
We were all jealous back at home...

PoppaKeith and Jeanene's visit

We love PoppaKeith and Jeanene!  We improved Boggle skills, enjoyed a trip to the Juarez temple, experienced a night out with adults (including the adult children... wha!!??!?), visited the El Paso Art Museum, ate yummy pizza joints 😋 , pre-celebrated the twins' birthday with them eating a ton of food at Famous Dave's, and were thrilled at lots of good chats and time together!







The Art Museum...

I love love love love love this piece!




They had a wonderful display of animal art too!

An artist knitted gold sweaters for all these bees...

A visit with Poppa Keith and Jeanene

We loved having Poppa Keith and Jeanene visit us from Virginia.  We had a lot of fun together!  The kids were able to have some special outings.  The older children also prepared a very beautiful and delicious meal for us on Sunday, complete with musical entertainment!


Poppa Keith got some fun videos of the kids when they took them out for longboarding and Jumpland!

The temple

On January 15-16, our family went to Albuquerque for a temple trip.  Bob, Jonas, Leslie, Owen, and Troy performed baptisms for the dead on Friday while I watched the little kids.

We met up with Grandma and Grandpa for dinner at Denny's.  Then we played in the pool and hot tub at the hotel and played games after drying off.



The next morning, Bob and I took our oldest son Jonas to the temple to receive his endowment.  It was a very sweet morning filled with memories from so many years and yearnings for future experiences in the temple.  We love the temple, and were so excited to share our testimonies and times in the temple with our son.  We focused on feeling the Spirit and it was a beautiful session with instruction, comfort, guidance, and preparation for all that is to come soon in our lives.

We were grateful to have Bob's parents and my mom and Pa Dave in attendance.  We look forward to having my dad and Jeanene come in February for more family time and temple time.

Jonas' Eagle Court of Honor

We were blessed to have all our sets of grandparents in town for the weekend.  We arranged Jonas' court of honor and Evelyn's baptism for that Friday/Saturday.  We enjoyed our time with everyone. We are so proud of our Eagle Scout!

We had a lot of other good times this weekend too with trips to a couple of parks, 

visiting in our home, 

and even sneaking in an awesome conversation with Leslie in fulfilling a Personal Progress requirement about faith.  (Yes, she's doing it again...!)

Thank you, dear grandparents, for coming to visit!

Mamma's Wedding

We took a quick trip to Utah to celebrate Mamma and Dave Madsen's wedding on June 7.  

We enjoyed a lot of time with family!  

Congratulations to Mamma and Dave!  We love you!

More Pictures of Mamma and Dave












We also got a family picture...

Love the green mountains too!  Thanks for the hike, Blythe!

I'm just going to throw this one in.  

Gideon. 

 He is so funny!  

Mom's Sealing to Geoff

While we were in Utah, my mom was sealed to her late husband, Geoffrey Thomas.  

It was a beautiful and healing experience as we turned to the Lord and His Atonement, 

trusting in the eternal and diverse nature of families.  

Great-Grandma

Great-Grandma and Evelyn

Leslie, Jonas, Kenzie, Holden

Great-Grandma and Bob

Gideon

Reuben and Evelyn

Maren, Henry, and Micah

Circus!

My dad treated us to a fun day at the circus!  

We had an awesome time!  

Thanks PoppaKeith, for letting us celebrate your birthday with you!  

A great squinty-sunny day, and sticky cotton-candy kid fingers marked up the lens...

:)

Christmas 2012

Ahhh, Christmas!  Love it!  This year we were blessed to be near family, and my dad and Jeanene came over for Christmas morning.  We had 2 delicious breakfasts and enjoyed the kids' enthusiasm and some relaxing time after the presents were all opened.  I love being with my family!

Great Wolf Lodge

We had an awesome Christmas present from PoppaKeith and Jeanene... 

 a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge!

Photos are hard to come by when you are having too much fun to take them, but we got some fun water pictures.  Owen, Troy, Jonas, and Leslie were off on big slides so we didn't see them much, therefore they are un-represented in our pictures!

Thank you PoppaKeith and Jeanene for our AMAZING and FUN trip!