I remember the day I found out that I was going to have our first girl. After 5 boys, you can bet I was pretty excited. She was born after my shortest labor ever--slightly longer than an hour. She has been setting her own pace ever since. She has many great qualities--hard-working, ambitious, kind, adventurous, always wanting to do the right thing. She has always been eager to show she can keep up with her brothers and do what they can do. I think she's proved that!
Susanna is currently serving a mission in California, speaking Spanish. It's been challenging but she has continued to work hard and has learned a lot. We enjoy speaking with her twice a week and hearing all about how she's doing. Susanna has been a huge blessing to our family. We love her a lot and hope she has a great birthday!
Christmas 2004
With her friend Sage Gurney
Susanna loved to imitate the people she saw walking around with their Nordic walking sticks--very big in Germany
Turning 5 in Germany--she picked split pea soup for her birthday dinner
Kindergarten spotlight for her 6th birthday
When she broke her arm after climbing on a stool on top of a pillow
Dressed up for her kindergarten play
Turning 7, 7 days after Camille was born
Age 8, at her baptism
Right after her baptism
Age 9
Turning 10
Turning 11
At David and Stephanie's wedding
Age 12
Visiting her Grandpa Broadbent to get her patriarchal blessing, age 13
At Niagara Falls, age 12 1/2
Turning 14
Zion National Park, 2014
Susanna ran cross country for 4 years in high school
Turning 18
Going to prom
Graduation
Turning 19
Leaving on her mission, January 2020
Here's a video of her playing the piano at Christmas time, a few years ago:
On our way home from Palmyra, we decided to go a couple of hours out of our way to visit the recently opened Priesthood Restoration Site along the Susquehanna River. This is where we believe that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery received the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist which gave them the authority to baptize. This site also has the restored Isaac and Elizabeth Hale home where Joseph and Emma lived for a year as well as the home where Joseph and Emma lived on their own. We spent a couple of hours there and I wouldn't have minded a few more minutes but we had a long way to go that night. It's a beautiful setting, very much in rural Pennsylvania. However, on the day we were there, cars at a racetrack nearby were detracting from the peace and quiet. I'm guessing that's not as big of a problem on weekdays. The Hale Family was quite well-off for their day so their home was probably nicely decorated with wallpaper and carpet. ...
This is a juvenile fiction book about a young girl named Melody with severe cerebral palsy. Her body doesn't allow her to feed herself, speak, or do much at all. She's very intelligent with a photographic memory but she can't really communicate. Finally, in 5th grade, she gets a "Medi-Talker" which is a computer that speaks what she types in. Finally she has a voice. This book explores what it is like to be severely physically disabled but not mentally disabled. It seems like one of the most frustrating of all scenarios. She is completely aware of all the cruelty (subtle and otherwise) that her classmates inflict on her because they don't really want to include her in their activities. One of the saddest moments in the book comes when she realizes that every one of her special ed classmates is kind, where the "normal" ones are not. Who really has the worse disability? The book was a quick read and fairly enjoyable. Wha...
On Memorial Day this year, our family went to the Provo Cemetery, as we do almost every year. We spent some time at the Hansen Family plot which contains the grave of my 2nd great-grandparents, Peter and Mary Hansen. They both emigrated from Denmark with their spouses to Utah. My grandfather lost his first wife Ane to cholera on the plains outside of St. Joseph, Missouri, along with three of his little boys within a very short time--about one month. It's a sad story but it's also one of admirable resilience. He brought his one surviving son, Jorgen, to Utah. He married his second wife Maren (Anglicized to Mary) some 9 years later in Utah She had been married before but lost her first husband at an unknown date. I wish I knew more about her but she left very few records, although I could do more research! Peter and Maren had 6 more children together. The youngest two were twins, Enoch and Ephraim. Ephraim is my great-grandfather and is buried in California. He is the father of ...
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