The first week after general conference is over, and we're working diligently to apply principles taught by the prophet and members of the 12. President Monson's talk, "Finding Joy in the Journey" and Elder Wirthlin's remarks, "Come what may, and Love it" both resonated clearly to me. (A link to the 1st is included in the post title.) Fall break made it the perfect time to check in with our funny bone and ensure the whole family is loving this experience.
So, we started Monday with a family trip to the airport to pick up Sister Reed, a new missionary. She had the VIP treatment-lunch with the whole family. The little kids don't usually have the opportunity of meeting missionaries at the airport since they're in school and our groups are so big. It was fun to watch their anticipation as people emerged from the terminal-trying to guess which was her and being a little silly about it. The assistants even spent part of their p-day helping us welcome her to the mission. (Instead of spending time with another group of missionaries, they stayed and played ball with the kids-I'll post a slide show later tonight. Thanks Elders!)
This picture represents an attempt to stop and smell the roses, or at least stop and enjoy the wild life in our backyard. We have these crazy big butterflies that love our Mexican Bird of Paradise. They chase each other all around it. Elder Endemano was trying to get a good picture for me when this hummingbird joined the fray. The hummingbird chased the butterfly all over the bush, the kids were afraid he was trying to eat the butterfly. Fortunately, hummingbirds remain herbivores.
While fall break coincided with a mission tour/conference with Elder Wilford Andersen, we still still had some great family time. The kids joined us on a trip to Holbrook. We've made other posts about Holbrook and its claim to fame- so no pictures here, but we did go check out the wig-wam hotel once again. This time, we added to our repertoire with a stop at the Butterfield Stage Co. Steak House on Route 66. It was an experience. One we won't be repeating. We did get a great map of Arizona. Live and Learn. We tried, I tried, to convince the family that a trip to the petrified forest would be fun, but the missionaries foiled my plans. They said it would be more exciting to stop at the outdoor rock shop on the way out of town. (Guess which option we took?) Deciding that we didn't need more rocks, we didn't even stop, we just drove by slowly.
We also took almost all of Saturday to spend some time together as a family. I even convinced Mark to change out of his suit and into civilian clothes. The kids loved it, mom and dad loved it, even Lucky loved it. The only thing that would have made it better was if Jessica had been here. (She's in Chicago due back tomorrow. I guess we had a little taste of what next year will be like. I didn't like that part.) We even made a new friend-Rocky. Can you tell how big he is? Paws as big as my fist and double the average size of other huskies at 120 lbs. Wow-Lucky was a little intimidated. Poor Puppy.
It was a joy filled week!
So, we started Monday with a family trip to the airport to pick up Sister Reed, a new missionary. She had the VIP treatment-lunch with the whole family. The little kids don't usually have the opportunity of meeting missionaries at the airport since they're in school and our groups are so big. It was fun to watch their anticipation as people emerged from the terminal-trying to guess which was her and being a little silly about it. The assistants even spent part of their p-day helping us welcome her to the mission. (Instead of spending time with another group of missionaries, they stayed and played ball with the kids-I'll post a slide show later tonight. Thanks Elders!)This picture represents an attempt to stop and smell the roses, or at least stop and enjoy the wild life in our backyard. We have these crazy big butterflies that love our Mexican Bird of Paradise. They chase each other all around it. Elder Endemano was trying to get a good picture for me when this hummingbird joined the fray. The hummingbird chased the butterfly all over the bush, the kids were afraid he was trying to eat the butterfly. Fortunately, hummingbirds remain herbivores.
While fall break coincided with a mission tour/conference with Elder Wilford Andersen, we still still had some great family time. The kids joined us on a trip to Holbrook. We've made other posts about Holbrook and its claim to fame- so no pictures here, but we did go check out the wig-wam hotel once again. This time, we added to our repertoire with a stop at the Butterfield Stage Co. Steak House on Route 66. It was an experience. One we won't be repeating. We did get a great map of Arizona. Live and Learn. We tried, I tried, to convince the family that a trip to the petrified forest would be fun, but the missionaries foiled my plans. They said it would be more exciting to stop at the outdoor rock shop on the way out of town. (Guess which option we took?) Deciding that we didn't need more rocks, we didn't even stop, we just drove by slowly.We also took almost all of Saturday to spend some time together as a family. I even convinced Mark to change out of his suit and into civilian clothes. The kids loved it, mom and dad loved it, even Lucky loved it. The only thing that would have made it better was if Jessica had been here. (She's in Chicago due back tomorrow. I guess we had a little taste of what next year will be like. I didn't like that part.) We even made a new friend-Rocky. Can you tell how big he is? Paws as big as my fist and double the average size of other huskies at 120 lbs. Wow-Lucky was a little intimidated. Poor Puppy.It was a joy filled week!
3 comments:
ang! i loooove the shot of the butterfly and the hummingbird! i loooove hummingbirds! i miss jessica! we have been trying to do a date night. and we have some young women in our ward that have babysat for us before, but... we were just so comfortable with jess! i loved that she just innately knows what to do. i loved being in the ward with you guys and having your girls carry off my girls and them being totally fine with it! agh! i'm missing the bassett's!
Hey, we it's no fair. You may remember that we bought two Mexican bird of paradise plants in July. One of them just barely bloomed (three small blossoms) and then we had a couple of cold nights and the flowers wilted.
Oh well maybe next year. We may even try to get an early start with some new plants if these ones don't survive the winter. Of course we won't be around to enjoy any flowers.
Thanks for all the great pictures! Amanda you look GREAT! Love your hair cut.
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