Christmas Thoughts

Well, it is the time of year that we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This time of year always makes me ponder what gift I could give Him and our Heavenly Father. I try to be more giving, more loving, more understanding, but sometimes fall short of that goal. This coming year I plan to attend the temple more often and to look for more ways to help others. As turmoil develops more and more in our world, I realize even more how much we need to recognize how much we need the help of our Father in Heaven and his Son. It seems that people don't believe in them so much anymore or the things that they have taught us. The commandments don't seem to relate to us; people say the scriptures were written for another people and another time. I believe they were written for ALL people in ALL times. The world has drifted away from God's word and His laws. Look at the evil in the world. Prophecy tells us it would be like this. The Last Days are upon us. Modern day prophets tell us that the world today is worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. I believe it, and that scares me.
May we all remember the reason we celebrate this season, and may we all remember the things that Jesus taught us about being kind and loving to one another.

Christmas Concert

Don and I went to Salt Lake City on Dec 2nd to see The Osmonds 2nd Generation Family Christmas Show. It was a great show filled with holiday fun! Their dad, Alan, was in the audience. They had a special surprise guest...David Archuleta(did I spell that right?) from American Idol. He was so cute, so short, and so shy! He sang "Oh, Holy Night" and another song with the brothers. I was able to chat with a couple of the boys after the show. This made us late for the train, and we missed it by a few minutes and had to wait another hour for the next one. We didn't get to bed until around 1:00am...way too late for us old folks!
Here is a photo from the show with David and some of the Osmond boys.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving! There were 12 of us there...Don, Sue, Brian, Jen, Liz, Nathan, Mike (Michael likes to be called Mike now), Megan, Scott, Jenalee, Eric, and Jen's sister Michelle. Jason and Tandi were in California visiting her family.


Megan blocking and Brian being tackled by his kids.
Don, Megan and Sue block the other team.

The kids had their own table with turkey plates to eat off of.

Boston

Don and his brother, Dave, flew back to Boston for some training for a new laser glass etching machine they purchased. I flew back a few days later with my sister-in-law, Theresa. Man, it was so cold back there, but we had a great time!




Plimouth Plantation (they actually spell it that way)
Dave, Sue & Theresa by Plymouth Rock.
The building around the rock.
Plymouth Rock
Sue & Don inside Trinity Church
Sue & Theresa freezing at Plymouth Rock
Sue & Theresa STILL freezing
Mayflower II
Trinity Church
USS Constitution (Old Ironsides)

Halloween

Here are some photos of Don and I dressed up for Halloween. We had a great time going down to the inner city to help hand out candy at our church's annual "Trunk or Treat" where the kids collect goodies from the trunks of cars.

Before going to Jason's for an awesome party, Scott & Jenalee came over to show us their "costumes" and share some important news with us. We are going to be grandparents again!!! Jen's card reads, "Feed me, I'm pregnant."

Mom's Birthday

I FINALLY got the videos from Eric. The candles wouldn't light, so we had mom pretend...
Brian with Nathan and Liz on the swings. Megan is trying to figure out what Davis is doing with the swing on his head!

Vegas

Last week we went to Vegas for a Glass Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center. We stayed at the Hilton, which was adjacent to the Center. On Tuesday night we rode the monorail over to the Flamingo Hotel to see Donny & Marie. They were awesome, as usual. It was fun to see them tease each other and joke about getting older. (Is it really a joke? lol) Poor Donny was sweating and panting and Marie commented that "ONE of us is in shape!". She looked good after losing 40 pounds.
Here is a photo of me and my sister-in-law, Theresa. (No, that isn't my butt sticking out...that is a trash can I was standing next to!)

Concerts

I won 2 free tickets to a Foreigner concert through AARP (don't laugh.) Don and I rode the Frontrunner train down to Salt Lake City to see them perform. They were pretty good for old guys! (lol) I wouldn't have paid to go see them, but hey, the tickets were free. There were old people like us there, and also lots of the younger generation. Next week we are going to Las Vegas for a glass trade show, and while there we will see Donny & Marie. There will be a lot of difference between these 2 shows! Those who know me know that I am an Osmond fan from way back, so it will be fun to see them perform again.

Sept Happenings....

Well, Don and I made a quick trip to Reno to deliver a trailer. It was a loooooong 8 hours each way. BUT...we got to eat at In-n-Out, so that made it worth it! LOL
When we got home, Don and his brother (also his business partner) took the guys that work for them and 3 of our sons fishing in Redondo Beach, Cal. The flight was short and the hotel was nice, but some of the guys got sick the first day out on the boat. The next day Don had pills, wrist bands, gum, etc to keep anyone from getting sick the 2nd day out. They came back with a ton of fish! We will be cooking some up tomorrow....
While Don, Brian, Scott & Eric were on the fishing trip, Brian's wife Jen and their 3kids came and spent the weekend with me. We went to an arcade and ate pizza, played games and had a ball!

More BD photos

Taken Saturday, August 30, 2008 in San Dimas, California. Eric hasn't given me his photos yet, so I will probably be adding more photos soon!

My Mom's Surprise 80th BD Party

We made a quick trip down to Ontario, California for my mom's 80th birthday. She was very surprised to see about 40 of us at the park to celebrate with her. Some of our family members I hadn't seen in many years and it was fun to see them again. Several friends came to share in the celebration, too. We took way too many photos to post here, so I am trying my hand at putting together several slide shows of some of the photos that were taken. Enjoy!!

Disneyland

The kids were so excited when I told them we would all be going to Disneyland for Christmas. Liz just about hyperventilated and Nathan gasped and asked, "Are you serious?". Michael giggled a lot and got quite excited. Megan wasn't sure what was going on, but she ran up the stairs yelling to her siblings something about going to Disneyland (as if she has a clue what that is! lol) You can be sure I will be posting lots of photos of that vacation!

Our Christmas Present.....

Don and I decided to take all our boys, Jenalee, Jen, Tandi, and whoever Eric invites, and our 4 grandkids to Disneyland for Christmas. (Actually, we will be going the week after Christmas.It will be great celebrating New Years Eve there!). Here are some photos of the grandkids as I was telling them on the phone about the trip. Do you think they are excited?

Whaz up with us?

Ok, I haven't blogged in awhile. We went on another camping trip (photos will be posted soon) with our Ward. We had a great time. Don did a wonderful job with a flag retirement ceremony. It brought a lot of tears to those who were there. Our country may have it's problems but it is still the BEST country on earth! We should be thankful for the rights and privledges we have here in America.

Don has been having fun riding his new Harley. I still haven't gotten on the back of it yet. I am so afraid of falling off or something stupid like that. I will just let Don enjoy it....

Mormon Tabernacle Choir/Osmond Family Concert

We went to the Friday night performance of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Pioneer Day Commemoration Concert with their special guests, The Osmond Family. It was a great concert, and Pres. Monson was there!

The choir sang several songs, then the Osmonds came onstage and sang some of their hits. Then Marie sang "How Great Thou Art". The choir then sang some more songs, and soon the Osmonds were back onstage. They sang more of their hits, and then Donny sang a beautiful song titled "Whenever You're In Trouble". He told a story about his son being on a mission and needing his help, then how his parents were always there for him, and how the Savior is always there for us. Next they sang "Through the Years" and they were all crying by the end of the song. The televised broadcast of it live on Saturday showed even more emotions as they realized it was their last performance of their 50th anniversary tour. When they sang "Are You Up There/I Believe", they brought older brothers Tom and Virl up onstage to sign the songs. The family joined the choir at the end of the show singing "Come, Come Ye Saints" which has special meaning to those of the LDS faith about the Pioneers who came to the Salt Lake Valley. Be sure to catch this concert on the BYU channel when it is rebroadcast.

After the performance, as we were leaving, we stopped at the corner to wait for the signal. Merrill was in a car that turned the corner, so we were able to wave and say hi. It brought back a lot of fun memories.

Camping in July

We went up the Ogden Canyon to Pineview Reservoir and camped out for 5 days. It was nice because it is so close to home (about 15 minutes) so we could run back and forth as needed. It was nice and quiet there and we are ready to head back when it is a bit cooler.

Week with the Kids #4

Here are some photos of us at home watching movies, blowing bubbles, and talking to mom and dad on the phone.

Week with the Kids #3

More photos from the Dinosaur Park................

Grandkids for a Week #2

More pics at the Fire Station. Grandma and Aunt Jenalee took the kids to the Dinosaur Park.