Humpherys Brag Blog

Spring Break at Wheeler Farm

2010-04-10T11:48:00.000-07:00

Fun time with my sister, my girls, her girls, and their babes!

Kell's Home!

2010-04-10T10:43:00.001-07:00

Mark and I had the once in a lifetime trip to Argentina to pick up our Elder in March. We were able to see the beautiful sites where Kellen served. We experienced a different culture and language and came home very thankful for living in this country! But the best part of the trip was seeing our Elder in action as he met up with some of the people he had served and served with in the past two years. It was more than heartwarming to see how much love and appreciation they had for Kellen. He obviously fulfilled his calling with charity. It made the parents very proud. We're glad to have him home (even though I think we're getting less sleep than parents of a newborn). Kell...we love you!

At Paso de los Libros (Brazil is across the river)
Ecalyptus trees planted in straight rows along the highway.
Elder Humpherys and Elder Clark
Argentine dumpster (the dogs get to it before the sanitation department does)
Elder Humpherys and Elder Rios (from Buenos Aires)
Argentine anthills
A turtle on the side of the road
Elder Humpherys with some of the youth in Paso de los Libros
With the Branch President and his family in Posados

A family in the branch at Paso de los Libres
The Branch President and his wife in Paso de los Libros
His Argentina family...El Dorado
His Argentine Grandma at Paso de los Libros
Met up with Mitch and Sonnie at Iguazu Falls
Beautiful Iguazu Falls!

The airport welcoming group
With the BIG sisters at the airport
Meeting Seth for the first time at the airport

Fun with the babies!

2009-12-09T20:21:00.001-08:00

Baby Seth has figured out how to make noise with his lips

The girls with their babies

Emma, AKA Mini Mran

Addie sneakin that yummy finger into her mouth

Smiley Livvy

Gavin turned 6 in Nov--and got glasses!

What a cute bunch of babies!!!!

I can't believe how fast they grow. This is too fun, watching your babies have babies. Can't get much better than this.

Fall fun

2009-10-07T17:50:00.000-07:00

Little Seth 3 1/2 months

Happy hot-tubbers

Grandma & Baby Seth

Mitch & Sonnie at Cinnamon Creek

The Pences at Cinnamon Creek

Love the fall colors--favorite time of year!

Mark & Jann in the outhouse at Green River Lakes

Mitch & Sonnie at Green River Lakes (Flattop in the background)

On the lower lake at Green River Lakes

Cutest grandkids at Thanksgiving Point

It's been a great fall. Lots of fun times with kids and grandkids. Life's good for sure!

I LOOOOOVE SUMMER!

2009-08-10T14:03:00.000-07:00

Here we are by the front waterfall and pool. While we were snapping shots, the pugs came out and wanted to get into the picture--they weren't too cooperative though!

The most recent Pence shots...

Little 4 year old Emma

Sweet 2 month old Seth!

What a wonderful summer this has been...it's August 10th, my dad's birthday, my daughter's anniversary, my nephew's birthday and adding to it this year, my great nephew's birthday too. What a wonderful world...here's a couple of pics we took yesterday in the yard of the Pences and Mark and I. (By the way, congrats to the Dennis family, Jorge & Monica on son #3!)

What's up with Kellen?

2009-07-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

Elder Kell and his comp

Elder Kellen and who-knows-what behind him (?)

Is he easy to spot? Same fun-loving, life-living Kellen!

Elder Humpherys is a zone leader now and here's some of his zone
(they look like they have too much fun)

A few Argentina creepy crawlers!

Kellen sent a few pics last email (but didn't give captions) so that was a try at what's up with Kellen.

The latest summer pics

2009-07-26T14:56:00.001-07:00

Here's baby Seth with Grandpa (one of his first smiles).

Emma turned 4--a soccer net was one of her favorite gifts

We recently went to Lake Tahoe for business (and pleasure)

Summer Catchup

2009-07-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

Well, since last post, we hiked the Grand Canyon, had a new grandson, and camped with the family at Bryce Canyon! Here are a few favorite pics...Hiking down the canyon at dusk

Havasu Falls from above (Dan in the foreground)

Hiking through the rocks to the lower falls

Emma with her new baby brother

Proud Grandpa

Happy Grandma

The Happy Family!
The Clarke familyThe Pence familyHumpherys the 2nd (as Mitch calls them)Humpherys the 1stThe whole clanGrandpa & Grandma and the 5 sweet grandkids!

Dan's Graduation, Creighton University!

2009-05-20T20:08:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, we took our last trek to Omaha where we watched Dan's graduation and hooding ceremony at Creighton Dental School. What an accomplishment. After four intense years of school, Dan received his doctorate (DDS)! We were very proud. Only hours after his graduation, we were loading up the truck and trailer to move the Pences back to Utah where Dan will be doing a year long residency at the U. We moved them into a cute townhouse in Sandy. Happy days are here again!!!

Proud wife, parents & parents-in-law after the hooding

Emma loved the cap

Doctor Dan getting his congrats kiss

Definitely an accomplishment for Marianne too!

Sonnie (AKA Sonlet) Graduates from USU

2009-05-10T18:04:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday (May 2), We watched Sonnie Leak Humpherys graduate from USU. She graduated with a dual major--Elementary and Early Childhood Education. We are so proud of her. She's everything we've ever hoped and prayed for Mitch to find in a wife. He picked sooooo well (and without any help from his mommy even)!

Sonnie & Mitch leaving USU Spectrum after the ceremony
(love the pink jellies)

With the Clarkes
(notice the Education building in the background)

Proud Parent-in-Laws

There's the diploma (except it's empty till August)

It rained (poured) all day long. Sonnie marched through unrelenting rain for the procession earlier Saturday morning. She said her cap got so drenched that it curled under on the edges. Later that afternoon, the sun peeked out for the first time for about 10 minutes just as the Education ceremony ended and right in time for a few good shots.

Spring Break

2009-04-15T18:41:00.001-07:00

Hi folks,
It's been a while...not as long as some times though. We had a great spring break...I was out of school for a whole week this year! YaHoo! We went to southern Utah, northern Arizona and circled around through eastern and central Utah. We visited some cool places that we've not been to before and some old favorites. It's great living in Utah where there's a magnificent vacation within a day's driving. We spent a while with Clarkes on Addie's birthday and Easter. Mark wants to raise chickens so we have a few more animals to add to our farm--baby chicks. Fun times!

Livvy and one of the chickies

Gavin named this one "Cheep"

Addie named this one "Addie"

The pugs are curious about those noisy fluffy things

Here's my farmboy

They ARE pretty stinkin cute!

The Pueblo ruins at Navajo National Monument in Arizona

The ruins are behind me

The natural bridge at Bridges National Park

Sitting on the ledge of a DEEP canyon at Canyonlands National Park
Yes, my hands were sweating and I was light headed as I walked to the edge!

The "Toadstools" near Kanab

The Latest Updates

2009-03-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

I keep waiting for more pictures to update my blog with and I haven't any! So thus, a stale blog. But Kellen sent a couple of new pics...

Elder Humpherys is now serving in Corrientes, Paso de los Libres--right on the Brazilian border. He is also very close to Uraguay. His new companion is enthusiastic and eager to work hard. Kellen is serving as District Leader and the 1st counselor in the branch presidency. His area is nicknamed the "dead province". In his words, "I think there might be a Grand Apostacy here...but in the mean time, me and my Perubian comp will keep on trying to baptize humans with big smiles walking down the street!"

Goofy smile, uder his sombrero

Soccer on P-Day

A giant Argentine beetle

Sweltering in the heat (with a friend on his shoulder)

Catch Up Time!

2009-01-11T14:30:00.000-08:00

WOW! I can't believe it's been since October that I last posted a blog. I'm a slacker, yes. So it was a great holiday season with the whole family home for a few days during the vacation weeks (except for Elder Teen of course). It was a blast. We played board games, played wii, played in the snow, played doll houses, played race cars, just plain played, played, played!

I graduated (YAHOOO!!!) from USU with my masters in Instructional Technology on Dec. 11--nice little bonus!

We talked to Kellen for almost an hour on the phone Christmas day and soaked in his love for life and the gospel in Argentina. What a great kid (actually, "MAN") he is.

Here's some good SMILES from December...

Gavin's all smiles with his new Planet Hero dude

Mitch & Sonnie say "smile"

Smiley baby Livvy

Emma proudly smiles with the ice castles

Addie smiles with her "Ellie"

Emma and Grandma smile to be together

Mark, Jann, & puggy smiles

My sister Julie, my parents, & I smile at graduation!

That's my family smiling with me

The Latest from TEEN!

2008-10-01T19:21:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd share some pictures Kellen sent from Argentina. He's doing so well. We love to hear from him every week. His happy optimistic attitude along with his strong testimony shine every week in his emails. From his last email, "I love the gospel so much. It's always so amazing how the spirit affects teaching, happiness, and everything."

Scrubbing down the apartment.

Walking the streets of ElDorado.

Enjoying the wildlife.

The family Suarez (they call him Teen!)

Not his favorite meal yet--intestines!

We love our missionary. Thanks for your prayers. He always thanks everyone for support.

Yellowstone with Mitch & Sonnie

2008-08-15T20:55:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday through Sunday, we visited Yellowstone for a last get-away before school started. Mitch & Sonnie came with us. We camped at madison campground in Yellowstone for two nights then at Jackson Lake for one night. It was beautiful as usual. We did a few hikes, saw the hot spots, but the favorite was when we soaked in the Boiling River up near Mammoth one evening. I'm going to be teaching science this year instead of math so I was especially interested in all the information about microorganisms in the hot pools--I've never noticed those before!

A whole ecosystem of microbes!

In their own little ecosystem.

Yep, it's hot.

Here we are at the falls after the hike around Jackson Lake.

Lots of cooool microorganism stuff!

Mitch & Sonnie around the Canyon area.

Finally some new stuff

2008-08-06T10:40:00.000-07:00

I know I've been a slacker on the blogging lately. Please excuse (and ignore) all the boring stuff previous to this entry. It was required for my class this summer. My family all just left me this morning and I'm reminiscing my summer fun. I'll go back to school in a week--wow, what a fast summer it's been. We've spent time with the Clarkes, Mitch and Sonnie, and Pences have been here for about three weeks. It's been great. The Pences are fun house guests. We've played games, gone places, and just hung out.

Grandma and Emma on the trail around Tony's Grove Lake

Grandpa and the Clarkes on Tony's Grove Lake

Emma's favorite way to wade in Logan River

Pences on Tony's Grove Lake

Grandpa and Addie on a little hike

Gavin and Grandpa on a bridge over Logan River

Emma, the 3 year old princess with her castle cake Marianne made

"Wait for me Daddy" on a hike up Logan Canyon

Krissy and Livvy on the hike up Logan Canyon

Check out Apture!

2008-07-08T14:55:00.000-07:00

I've just put a new feature on my blog...it's called "Apture". It allows me to make a rollover for certain words that I want people to be able to automatically link to. It's cool...try some of my links on my previous blog entries.

Last Day 5520

2008-06-20T08:42:00.000-07:00

Today Julie shared some information about Skype, a free source for internet to internet calls for Skype users. If a call is made from a Skype user to a non Skype user there is a small fee. The advantage being not only cost but the ability for video as well as audio.

Rob showed us Picasa, a free photo sharing and editing site. You can also order prints and make slide shows from your albums. Iphoto is a mac based free program that allows you to (among other cool things), make and order photo books. Windows Photo Story is a free quick slide show program limited to only photos.

We discussed current issues in DE including accreditation questions from university to university. We also talked about the difference between making individual accommodations on a university level compared to the public schools.

This has been a very enlightening course, making me feel more confident in incorporating a few of the vast amount of tech tools into my teaching.

More 5520

2008-06-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, today we started off experiencing Second Life. It was amazing. Anyone can join. You create a character with any attributes and do anything you want. People can build, sell, buy services or products. I am very hesitant about introducing my students to this site for the fact that second life characters have no real life identity and can do some really crazy and illegal acts.

Our class discussed DE evaluation and assessment involving three aspects: students, faculty, and administration. It was concluded that DE is progressing and is just as rigorous and effective as F2F. Christie had a nice presentation about Web 2.0 and MySpace. I looked up Kellen on MySpace and found that he's got a huge Disney pic that I need to get off cause of the copyright scare we got this week. I guess I'll have to get his password from Argentina! Janet helped us explore Instructional Archetect, a program allowing teachers to create a webpage directly linking them to educational online resources.

2008-06-19T08:05:00.000-07:00

Sample Movie 5520

2008-06-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

Wednesday we learned how to make a simple movie with imovie. We then reformatted it as a podcast and uploaded it to our blog. Vwa-la! Here it is...

2008-06-18T16:07:00.001-07:00

Today we discussed cost effectiveness of DE with an IM chat session again. That was great except I got kicked out of the session several times so my contribution was very MINIMAL!

We learned some really cool tools again. One new thing that I know I'll use is the apture.com site. It will allow me to have "roll over" to open little windows to the sites and links I have on my webpage. We looked at the possibility of using edublogs especially for the classroom.

Today we also learned about Connect Pro (Breeze) and Captivate which both have a free 30 day trial period. They allow professional looking, interactive, animated presentations that could be used in an online course or virtual classroom. The costs on those programs are quite expensive though--from $700-$10,000 depending on how many users and locations are used.

We all set up Facebook accounts and had a lot of fun with that. I have MANY more "friends" after today. Our class has a wiki beginning today that has ideas of what our final projects for this class might be. I'll be watching for some good ideas coming from my cohorts because right now I really have not a clue what to do! More tomorrow...

INST 5520

2008-06-17T15:30:00.000-07:00

Hi Y'all,

I've been taking an IT (Instructional Technology) course this week. We've been learning about current tech issues and experiencing using new tech tools that will have applications in my classroom.

Today we learned about OCW (open courseware)-free, online classes available to anyone with the desire to learn and who has access to the technology. MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is probably the largest resource for open courseware, offering thousands of classes covering a variety of subjects!

We also discussed many issues relating to IP (intellectual property--sharing of educational ideas and how this works with cc (creative commons) and copyright laws. We learned how to use IM (instant messaging) as a discussion tool as we discussed faculty effectiveness in DE (distance education) in a fast paced 18 member chat room.

Don't you love all the acronyms?! :~) (and the emoticons). More to come tomorrow...

Topaz Mountain & Omaha Trips

2008-06-08T15:54:00.001-07:00

Elder Kell at Iguacu Falls Argentina

Dan and Emma on the giant slides in Omaha

Gavin at the transcontinental RR monument in Omaha

Livvy with Grandpa at the Omaha Zoo (petting zoo)

Grandkids at the Winter Quarters Monument--Omaha

Sonnie & Mitch--rockhounders at Topaz Mountain!

Gavin and Addie roasting marshmellows at Topaz Mountain.

Topaz Mountain & Omaha Trips

2008-06-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

We've had a couple of great trips with the fam lately. The first was with Mitch & Sonnie and the Clarkes at Topaz Mountain May 23-25. Topaz Mountain is down in central Utah about 45 minutes from Delta. It is in an ancient volcanic area where you can find little pieces of topaz if you dig in the mountain and also if you just sift through the sand in the wash area. We took a detour on the way home to find the Dugway Geode Beds. Mark and Mitch dug in the 95 degree sun trying to find geodes while Sonnie and I just wandered through the previously dug areas and found our own geode treasures.

Our next excursion, May 31-June4, was with the Clarkes (Eric absent) on a 16 hour journey to Omaha to visit the Pences in their little condo. It was a houseful. Marianne was a lovely hostess and we fit in all the famous Omaha sites in just three short days before we took the 16 hour return journey. We visited the Winter Quarters Temple, the Omaha Zoo, the Omaha Botanical Gardens, the giant slides in downtown Omaha, then took a trek to the Pizza Machine (a buffet pizza place with amusement rides, arcades, race tracks, mini golf etc)--a Chucky Cheese on steroids as Kristen called it. But the favorite place for the kids was just in Marianne and Dan's condo complex's playground. What a great time we had with the girls and their babies (for sure Dan too).

Kellen's latest news is that he's had intestinal discomfort (if you know what I mean) ever since he arrived--no fun. But he's managed to keep in good spirits and has visited one of the largest waterfalls in the world, Iguacu Falls, in Argentina on one of his P days. He's our missionary hero!

We are truly blessed to have such amazing children who've made such good choices in their lives thus far. We love them.

Baby Animal Days

2008-04-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

Gavin and Addie came to visit at Grandpa and Grandma's house for a couple of days during Grandma's spring break. We went to Baby Animal Days at Jensen Historic Farm on April 11. What fun!!! Here's some cute pics...

Grandkids on the fence.

Addie with the baby chick--so soft.

Gavin finds out how hard a calf can suck.

Gavin with the baby pig.

Pony rides!!!

Addie loved the bunnies?!

Gavin with the toads and turtles...Nothing like little boys and toads.

I hope they call me on a mission!

2008-03-30T17:22:00.000-07:00

Mitch & Sonnie's Wedding

2008-03-30T16:35:00.000-07:00

Easter Weekend

2008-03-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend with Clarkes in Provo where we had a fun little Easter egg hunt with the grandkids! On the way home, we took a detour past the MTC. It was great to be in range of our "Elder" son. He's loving it. Mark is harvesting scrumptious salad greens from the greenhouse and we'll soon have a fresh pineapple to enjoy. I promise we'll get better pics from the wedding as soon as they are ready...anticipation!

Grandma and Baby Livvy!

Zeus loves to be in the greenhouse. He's sitting by the basil, parsley, and oregano.

Soon the pineapple will be ready to be harvested

Mark in the greenhouse with his lettuce (notice the cucumbers, lettuce and and tomato plants growing with hydroponics)

Elder Humpherys (second from left in the back)

More pis to come later...

2008-03-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

Big Days

2008-03-13T12:42:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it through the big days. Mitch & Sonnie were married and now live happily ever after. Kellen is now Elder Humpherys and lives in Provo for a couple of months before moving on to Argentina. Mark & I are empty nesters. So far it's not such a bad thing!!!

The latest at the Humpherys' home

2008-02-16T21:08:00.000-08:00

Mitch and Sonnie

Elder Kellen Mark Humpherys

Since our last blog, we've had some real excitement. Kellen got his mission call to Resistencia Argentina. He leaves March 5 and is ultra ready! Mitch met the girl of his dreams, Sonnie Leak. He and Sonnie will be married four days before Kellen leaves, March 1. What a couple of weeks we have in store. Kellen's mission farewell is February 24 at 11:00.

The Humpherys Brag Blog

2007-11-05T19:58:00.000-08:00

Well, Mark and Jann have jumped on the bandwagon and created their own blog. This ought to be a great way to show the latest pics. So we'll give it a try...