Weekly news from Vancouver

Not much has been going on with us here in Vancouver. We are hearing a lot about the Winter Olympics that are going to start this week in that other Vancouver--and we wish we could go--but it is not going to happen. We will watch it on TV--but it brings to memory the time we went to the Winter Olympics in SLC eight years ago. Cameron was just leaving the MTC for Hong Kong and we just found out that our good friend, Becky had cancer. Thankfully she survived treatment and is still with us and Cameron served an awesome mission.
We just got some good news a few minutes ago. Chase just found out that he has been accepted to BYU-Idaho and he and Shyla will be moving to Rexburg next summer to start school there in the fall. CONGRATULATIONS to them.
Like I said --not much going on with us this week. I made several trips to the Dr. for various reasons and everything is pretty much up to par for me. My liver is still huge with 10-12 cm cysts and a CT scan just showed that there may be a cyst on one of my kidneys. The dr. doesn't seem to be too concerned and I will get re-checked in 6 months. We went to see Avatar on Saturday and that was pretty awesome. We didn't see it in 3-D because the theater we went to didn't show it in 3-D--but it was still awesome. I was more impressed with the scenery and the technology of the Avatar's than the story-line--but the whole thing was still pretty fun to watch. I would recommend it.
The super bowl was yesterday--but really--who cares. It doesn't really matter much in the whole eternal scheme of things. While studying in Alma this week for my Institute class I came upon a thought about faith from President Joseph Feilding Smith. "If we want to have a living, abiding faith, we must be active in the performance of every duty as members of this Church". Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin taught, "Faith exists when absolute confidence in that which we cannot see combines with action that is in absolute conformity to the will of our Heavenly Father. Without all three--first, absolute confidence, second, action; and third, absolute conformity--without these three, all we have is a counterfeit, a weak and watered-down faith". I am trying to do better about understanding what my Heavenly Father wants me to do with the time that I have left on this earth. I know that in order for my faith to be strenthened, I must do all I can to obey the commandments and serve in my callings. My hope for my family is that we can all try each day to gain a stronger faith in the things that really matter. Love, Mom

Trip to the Olympic Penninsula

The weekend started with a camp-out with the Young Women of our Ward in the lodge at Camp Merriweather on the coast near Tillamook, Oregon. Baxter even got to go and he loved romping on the beach. He didn't want to get his feet too wet and didn't like the taste of that salty water when he tried to drink it.

Saturday we brought Baxter back home to stay with the Elders and unpacked our camping clothes and changed to our traveling clothes and headed up to Marysville for some scrabble playing, eating, and hanging out with Rick and his family. On Sunday after attending church to hear Josh give his homecoming mission talk, we headed south to Edmonds to catch the Ferry across the sound to Kingston on the Olympic Penninsula. We hadn't ever been on a Ferry before and it was lots of fun.

This is the upper deck which is inside with comfortable seats and even a snack bar. The ride only took about 25 minutes.

The view from where we were sitting in our parked car. We were on the upper level for cars and sitting on a steep slant with 3 cars in front of us--and then the water.

I am standing outside on the upper deck in the front of the Ferry. It was a little breezy--but not too bad. I can't wait for all the family to come do this with us sometime.

The view as we were coming into port in Kingston.

Just a couple of miles from Kingston is this little restored port village called Port Gamble. They used to ship a lot of logs out of here. There were a lot of cute little shops but we didn't spend much time here because it was Sunday and the off season and not much was open.

The Post Office in Port Gamble.

The bridge crossing more of the Sound from Port Gamble to the rest of the Olympic Peninsula.

We spent Sunday night in Port Angeles. Some of the events in the book TWILIGHT took place in Port Angeles. They weren't really filmed here--but the people in Port Angeles like to say that this is probably the movie theater where Bella and her friends went to see a movie.

This is where Edward took Bella to dinner after rescuing her from the sleaze gang of guys. Business is booming because of all the Bella and Edward fans that want to eat here. We didn't try in because it seemed a little pricey.

Dad is standing at the end of the pier of Port Angeles with the Olympic Mountains in the background. It was all so beautiful.

A rangers information cabin close to Crescent Lake. We were thinking about taking a hike up to a waterfall--but decided we didn't have the time. We want to go back sometime soon to do it. This is on the road between Port Angeles and Forks.

The sign that Esme Cullen leaves for visitors that come to the Cullen house in Forks. It is really a bed and breakfast place that visitors can stay in. The owners leave a message from Esme on the white board outside the house every day.

The beach at La Push. This is where Jacob and his Dad lived and where he and his friends jumped off the cliffs. It wasn't really filmed here and it is not safe to dive off these rocks. There is a Quilleute Village right there and some camping spots. It is very pretty.

Dad finally let me take a picture of him. This whole area from Port Angeles to Forks is in a beautiful rain forest. It is not just this green in the winter. The rain forest gets an average of 16 FEET of rain each year. In Vancouver we average 16 inches. So many places to explore!!

This sign is outside a little convenience store about a mile from the beach at La Push. On the other side it says something about Vampires Welcome.

Enough said. Forks High School. It is going to be torn down soon so it is good we got out picture there. The outside high school scenes were really filmed at Kalama High School about 25 miles north of our house in Vancouver.

Bella's truck outside the Forks Visitors Information Center. Inside one can get a map of all the TWILIGHT points of interest in the area.

It was a fun trip. We could have done a lot more --we would have liked to have continued down the coast but we were running out of time so after leaving Forks we headed back home. Hopefully soon we can go back. I hope everyone who reads this blog will have a good week and your prayers will all be answered in the way that you want them to be. This morning in Sacrament Meeting the talks were centered on President Monson's talk about "Have you done any good in the world today". I decided to challenge myself to consciously try to do one nice thing for someone each day and record it in my journal. Saturday we had a Stake Relief Society Conference and it was dedicated to providing service in our community. After gathering together and hearing some remarks from our Stake President, we were given the choice of 20 different places we could go in the community to provide service. They included singing in nursing homes, preparing meals in homeless shelters, cleaning and painting, etc. Most of my friends had just about decided that they weren't going to go--but I called a couple of them and we went anyway. We ended up going to the Vancouver Genealogical Society--that I didn't even know existed--and cutting vital information(births, deaths, marriages, etc.) out of the local paper so they can be copied and put on file for anyone who wants that kind of information for their genealogical research. We only stayed for a couple of hours but it was fun and good memories were made that we would have missed if we had all stayed home. The lady at the center was just thrilled that we would come to help her. Like my Grandma Hanks used to say--if you skip a meeting or fireside you might miss something that Heavenly Father wants you to know. I know this is true. Have a good week. Love, Mom

Future Jazz man

Here's the highlight from JK's last game.

Joseph's First Birthday

Here are a few pictures from Joseph's 1st Birthday.

Here are the boys after lunch. Jordan insisted that he wanted to come home for lunch so he could be with his brother.

Here's his first cake.

Not sure what to think quite yet.

It didn't take long before he was digging in.

Cameron's Grown-up Christmas List

UP DVD (widescreen)
A Quick Cam or some sort of camera for my computer to use on Skype
An ITrip for my Ipod Nano
Kris Allen CD
New Michael Buble CD
Itunes Gift Card
Angels and Demons DVD (widescreen)
Amazon Gift Card to use for my Kindle


That's a start for now.

What we've been up to in Nebraska

Here are some pictures from our neck of the woods. These first few are from when Mom, Ashley, and Jonny came out to visit.

Kris, Jordan, and Jonny working on a fire truck as part of a free kids class at Lowe's.

Okay, this is a tough one, but which one of these two is six years old?

Jordan and Grandma

Jordan sitting in the Creighton helicopter that landed in the parking lot.

Jordan and his friends Dallin and Michael with the ball toss games they made at the Home Depot kids class. This is for Chase, who isn't very pleased when we choose to go to Lowes. But we are not a respecter of home repair stores.

Jordan and Joseph enjoying a book together.

Jordan lost his first front tooth about a month ago...

And then lost the other front tooth two weeks later.

Yes, that's snow. On Oct 10. Well, before the start of winter. We got about 3 inches that didn't stay more than a day (thankfully)

Joseph, looking as cute as ever.

Joseph in one of his favorite spots (under his bounce toy)

The harvest in Vancouver and other miscellaneous things

Does one ever have enough tomatoes? I think not and this is only a VERY small sampling of what is still left in the garden. I do have to admit that Dad has grown some pretty big and beautiful tomatoes this year. They are the best that we have ever had. Our Stake President challenged us all to grow a garden this year and we have been very blessed. Wish you were all here to help get them all canned.

Cameron and Kelly at Mystic Falls in Yellowstone Park. I really liked the owl hat and thought about buying one but it didn't look as good on me as it did on Kelly.

Cameron and Nick after swimming in the Firehole River. It was a nice, hot, sunny day and a lot of fun. The last couple of years when we have gone in August the weather has been too cool to swim.

Elder Becera mowing the lawn. He is one of the Elders living with us now and is the 4th one we have had since we started housing the Elders in January. He is a very humble hard working Elder and comes from Sandy, Utah.

Making Chili Sauce

I was trying to iron (I know--a strange and unusual sight) and Baxter wanted to help. He jumped into my lap and tried to get up on top of the ironing board.




I have decided to try and be a little more active with this blogging thing and use it to keep everyone updated on what is going on around here. I used to try and send a family e-mail around every week but kind of got out of the habit so I want to use the family blog to try and keep in touch with everyone. I may even try to figure out how to post some pictures. I would rather do it on the blog rather than facebook because facebook is so "out there" for everyone to see and the blog is a little more personal. Anyway--here we go. This past week has been a week of making chili sauce, rain, bottling green beans from the garden, more chili sauce, monthly book club luncheon, sun, walks with Baxter, Enrichment night, service in the temple, making salsa, Mutual, more sun, more tomatoes made into Salsa, MRI on Dad's knee, Institute class, skinning more tomatoes for bottled tomatoes, Dad drinking yucky stuff the day before his colonoscopy, the colonscopy, stopping at Joe's Farm for onions, peppers, and garlic to make more Salsa, a long nap after being under anesthesia for a colonoscopy and for being the wife of the one who had the colonoscopy, a campout at Camp Currie with Young Women, more walks with Baxter, rain that shortens the campout, more Salsa, a disappointing BYU game, cleaning the church, and preparing a lesson on overcoming temptation for Young Women. Whew!! Tomorrow we are going to start all over--except that this week I get to fly to Chicago to see Jonny, Ashley and Cubby and then to Nauvoo--one of my favorite places in the whole world, and then to Omaha to see Kris, Cami, Jordan, and Joseph, and then to Salt Lake to listen to the prophet speak. Woo! Hoo! (and see Nick and Cam)

This is is my thought for the week: It is part of the dedicatory prayer given by President Monson for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple: "In a time of departure from safe moorings, may youth of the noble birthright carry on in the traditions of their Parents and grandparents. They are subjected to the sophistries of Satan. Help them stand firm for truth. Open wide to their view the gates of learning or understanding, of service in Thy kingdom. Bless them with a lengthened view of their eternal possibilities." To my children, who are all youth of the noble birthright, let us never forget the sacrifices of those who pulled their handcarts through the snow and left their homes and sacrificed many physical possessions to make a better life for us all because of their testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May we all have a lengthened view of our eternal possibilities and look for the personal revelation that is promised us. You all have a patriarchal blessing with blessings and promises. Claim the blessings that have been promised you through your worthiness. I love you all. Mom

Ok--I tried my best. I couldn't get the pictures to go where I wanted them so I obviously need some more help. I will keep trying. Shalom

PS--the lesson was for the Mia Maids on 'overcoming temptation'--not overcoming temptation for young women.