Tis the Season

Family Home Evening--November 8, 2010

Luke 10:29-37

And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went to Jericho, and fell among thieves. . .leaving him half dead . . .

A priest . . .and likewise a Levite . . . came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan. . . when he saw him, he had compassion on him . . .and took care of him.

Which now was neighbour?

Then said Jesus . . .Go, and do thou likewise

Thank you for your example of service--particularly this time of year!

a few more events to remember

We hiked the "Y"

Never did that while we attended BYU, so that was fun and another check mark on our bucket list.

It's a much steeper hike than I thought. . .everyone did great . . .well Carson did okay:)

other news: Derek had a sandwich named after him at work

I would be embarrassed; Derek loves it!

The hospital chef and catering staff have won numerous awards for their excellent food--come visit and he'll take you to lunch. . .

maybe you can even try the "BIG D"

feeding the ducks at the pond

our little boy can't wait to own one of these

(only after he moves out of my house)

yard work

also note the pacifier . . . we are finally rid of it!

Derek's High Adventure with the Young Men

A visit with cousins before their move to Oklahoma

What cute girls (check out Camille's pose)

A trip to Steve's (Derek's coworker) cabin

a little archery

and some 4-wheelin'

Thanks Steve!

We also did some fishing over the summer

Carson patienty waiting for a bite

Camille's catch

The summer was nearing its end when the girls had their birthdays

First Camille turned seven

and then two days later Elena had her 5th birthday

Hmm. . one cat and then one dog cake . .could it be that is how they fight!?!?

Camille and Elena definitely have their fair share of fighting, but they also can't stand to be apart and can be so sweet and kind to one another. I hope they will come to be as good as friends as I am with my sisters. . .

We love our girls and are so thankful for the love of pink, babies, art, princesses, and all things girl they bring into our home!

We also celebrated Uncle Blake's graduation (yeah for DR. Jones) from BYU and enjoyed seeing cousins from Arizona!

And then school started!

Camille began 1st grade with Mr. Wheeler

and Garrett started 5th grade with Mrs. Cox

We said goodbye to summer with an Orem Owls (minor league) courtesy of our good Dover, DE friend Jason Badel and his lovely wife and boys

still playing catch-up

We visited the graves of Grandma and Grandpa Pack and Walker in Alpine

It was fun to see Michael and Niki's crew there as well as more extended family

We also participated in a couple parades with the hospital and our own Primary

And of course we tried to beat the heat at the splash pad a few times

Our abbreviated summer

As I mentioned before, our kids have year round school. That means our summer did not begin until 4th of July weekend. As soon as school was out we hit the road for Washington to kick off our short summer with Derek's parents

Its tradition to get some donuts at Krispy Kreme while we are in Washington. Although now we have one very close, the five years we spent in Kansas made us appreciate having a variety of stores close by and so this really was a special treat for our kids . . .


Derek and I took off for a couple days to Vancouver Canada without the kids. It was great! We were within walking distance of Stanely Park (1000 acres right downtown, dwarfs Central Park in NYC--but you get the idea), and because we have continued running Derek said, "let's get up tomorrow morning and run around the seawall that is part of Stanley Park." Did Derek check on the mileage? No. Was this suppose to be a vacation? Yes. How many weeks since we ran a marathon? Oh abooot (for you Canandians) 3. We kept running and running. 8+miles later I said forget it and we veered off the sea wall trail and headed inland to the city. Once we reached the street we walked back to our hotel.

While we were without kids, we took advantage and attended a session at the newly constructed and dedicated Vancouver Temple. It was beautiful!

Do I look bored?

Does Derek?

That is because of this.

Wow. Border Control.

Getting into Canada we waited for maybe a total of 30 minutes.

We waited all that time to be asked:

1. what is your business in Canada? vacation.

2. do you have any fire arms or weapons? No.

3. do you have any drugs? No.

I will now be peering in your windows and looking in the trunk. (I assume for the aforementioned items)

To get back into the US (on a Wednesday morning) we waited for 3+ hours.

Really.

We waited all that time to be asked:

1. are you bringing anything back from Canada that you purchased there. No.

2. are you sure? Yes; well, we do have this soda we are drinking.

3. what about produce? any produce? No.

4. are you sure? Yes.

please release your trunk and I will be peering in your windows. (looking for produce)

thanks have a nice trip.

Now I don't want to damage the agriculture market in the US, but even if we did have produce we were driving our car not our semi (oh wait we don't have a semi) so how much produce could we possibly be bringing with us?? Apparently enough to effect the local farmers.

Nice.

Oh Canada!

Thanks for a great kick off to our brief summer. We love Washington and visiting with the Vances!