Spring Break

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

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!

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!

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

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

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!

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.