A Guys' Weekend

I had the great opportunity to get reaquainted with some of my favorite people in the world this weekend. Here are the 6 of us who served together in the Washington, DC South mission around 20 years ago. They are (Top L-R) John Manning, Frank Christianson, yours truly and (Bottom L-R) Vance Mellen, Dave Dobbins and Dan Perdue.

John Manning was kind enough to host us in his beautiful home in Henderson for four days of basketball, food, golf and lots of "catching up". Thanks to John and his wife Joanne (hope that is spelled right) for being so gracious in letting us take over their home for the few days we were there. It was so nice to see all of these guys again. Sometimes after a long absence, it can be awkward getting caught up and wondering if you still have anything in common. Not with these guys. They are just good men that made me feel welcome and like it was just last week when we were serving as missionaries together. They are a very disparate group that come from very different backgrounds but I was touched by how all of us had such an incredible respect for one another that allowed us to talk freely, share openly and laugh much.

Thanks, guys for a great time. I am counting down the days until next year. Here are some good pics to laugh at. Vance got way too into discovering the sushi Bar.

On the last day, Dan treated us all to a Sushi Buffet. It was new to me- but was a great treat. Vance took this silly picture, but then with his great skills on the computer "enhanced" his misery and distended belly. Vance still has that warped and unique sense of humor. Kept me laughing the entire weekend.

Finally- here are Dan and Vance with their differing boxing styles.

In all- it was a great weekend. Heard they all made it home safely, so that is always a good thing.

Ashley

Sorry for the sidetrack on posting about the kids. This is Ashley. She is pictured here preparing to go in for her first ever Solo competition at the high school with her clarinet.

We are very proud of the fact that she worked very hard and practiced well. She got a I+, just below the highest score possible. She played a piece called Aria and Scerzo. (I am sure that I spelled that wrong).

Ashley is very focused and works hard at all she does. She is a great student, too. She loves to cook, is our crafty one and also loves to read. She is good at "getting it done"- whatever the "it" may be.

She is our Ashers and we are so happy she is in our family

Haws Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Roots - Family history

We all knew it was true, but here is concrete scientific proof that Ashley is really Eileen, Jr. They are so much alike in many ways. The other kids are pretty close to mixtures between us according to this analysis. You can try it for free by clicking on it. Try it, it is fun

A night with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra

Here are Kayla and Ashley, posing at a private reception after a wonderful concert we were privelaged to attend by the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. The gentleman with them is the Music Director and Conductor of the Symphony, Guillermo Figueroa. He is a very kind man that was very gracious to the girls. He is originally from Puerto Rico.

With him in this Picture with Kayla and Ashley is Melissa Pena, who was a featured soloist on the oboe at the performance. She was magnificent in her rendition of the oboe part in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #2.

We spent most of our time, however getting to know this man, Krzystof Zimowski -the concert master and first chair Violin. He was so good to the girls and we were fascinated with his story. Born in Poland when it was under Soviet Control, he started playing the violin at the age of 6 when he heard musical pieces on an old American made Pioneer radio that was dropped by american forces into his village. He took a job some time later in Mexico City as a violinst for thier national orchestra, and then was not able to get back into Poland to get his wife without the possibility of being stuck there forever. Instead, he stayed in Mexico and worked to get his wife out, who was an opera singer. They then moved to New Mexico and he has been with the Symphony ever since- starting as the 8th chair of the second violins. Now he is the concert master and a wonderful musician. He made us all really appreciate freedoms and privelages that we often take for granted as Americans.

We were very happy to have been able to have this wonderful night together on a Daddy/Daughter date and hope the girls will remember this special evening for a long time.

Joshua

This is our buddy boy Joshua. He is now 8. This is the picture of him at the District Spelling Bee. He had won the Bee at Red Rock Elementary and did pretty well here, although he was out in the third round. We are proud of him, though.

Joshua loves school and is a good student. He also loves Medal of Honor video games and cub scouts.

He and I are making our first pinewood derby car and will be racing it in a couple of weeks.

Joshua is a very stable part of our family. He does not stir up much and gets along pretty well with the rest of the kids.

Tyler

Thought I would spend a little time telling you about each of our kids and what

they are up to or like to do.




Tyler is 6 and is very full of life. Here he is in a tight squeeze- Actully trying to stay warm. He is active in everything he does. He is in the first grade and is getting the hang of reading. He loves math and being the class clown.



Tyler loves to do anything outdoors- but that got him in a little trouble this last month. He was sledding with his brother on a snow day and took the wrong path down the hill in our back yard. On the first try he hit a cinder block wall at the bottom of the alley and blacked his eye. It actually broke the orbital roof bone of his right eye. After a night in the ER and then back the next morning, they were afraid some pretty serious damage had happened to his eye muscles, so they flew him to Albuquerque to Presbyterian Hospital. He was checked over by a bunch of specialists who determined that it would be best to not do surgery but rather wait. That was the best decision- within a couple of weeks the swelling went down and he was back to normal. Very scary for Mom and Dad, I will tell you that.

Tyler is a great part of our life and we love having him in our family. He is a very loving guy (As you can tell from the other picture with the cheerleader).

Salt Lake Trip

Here we are at Salt Lake temple waiting for my nephew Jared Woodson and his new bride Annie to come out and take pictures. We are very proud of Jared for getting such a great gal to marry him and especically that it happened in the right place. We wanted to make sure our kids got to see how wonderful it is to be around the temple with the hopes it would increase their testimony and resolve to marry in the temple some day, too.

That trip was very fun and we were able to see many wonderful things there. We went ice skating, which was a riot to see. Kayla really started to get the hang of it eventually- but the rest of us were still pretty slow going by the end of the day. (And Mom and Dad were exhausted, too!)

We were able to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform portions of Handels' Messiah at Music and the spoken word. Tyler and I did not get to go into the auditorium as it has an 8 year old cut off for entry, so we went into one of the "cry" rooms- and there were plenty of kids that did not make the name obsolete. It was still a great event and then we went to sacrament meeting over at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was President Gordon B. Hinckley's ward and he actually came. We got to see his sweet face as he came in and slipped out right after the prayer. It is hard to believe that exactly 4 weeks later he would pass on the to the other side of the veil. We really will miss him.