Last week we got another grandbaby!  It's great to be a grandparent.  You love them like they're your own but someone else has all the responsibility. Of course, we're happy to help out but knowing someone else is really in charge is a good thing.  

A few days ago we said goodbye to our new missionary.  She is our first sister missionary and 6th missionary from our family, not counting my husband.  She got called to the California San Bernardino Mission, Spanish speaking, so today she left for the Missionary Training Center in Mexico.  She will be there about 6 weeks and then she will go to California. We said goodbye at our house and then her father drove her up to the airport while I got everyone off to school. We will miss her but think she will be a great missionary.  We are excited for this opportunity she has!

So one of my many goals for 2020 is to do 52 hikes in 52 weeks.  I purchased good hiking boots in 2015 (technically a Mother's Day gift) when I made a goal to hike Mt. Timpanogas.  And I did it.  Now this year, we bought our youngest two girls hiking boots with some Christmas money and so far we've gone on 3 hikes.  They weren't long hikes--our goal is a minimum of 2 miles roundtrip, and that's what we've done. Our first hike was the day after Christmas (technically not in 2020 but that's okay--we need the head start).  We drove up the hill by where we live and parked next to a portion of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. A lot of the hike was on a road called the Fire Road.  Maybe it's so crews can access the foothills better in case of a fire.  We also went off the road and up the hill a little ways.  It's a nice view of the valley.  Pretty easy hike.  3 stars for ease of access to our house, not amazing scenery. Our second hi...

We had a good Christmas!  Here's how I'm remembering it: On December 15, we had a special family Christmas dinner (I wish I had remembered to take a picture of the beautifully decorated table.)  After dinner we sang songs in the living room, then went to the family room to open presents.  We did it on this day because some members of the family were going to other places to celebrate Christmas. Later that week, we went to David and Stephanie's new house to make gingerbread houses.  We are excited to have them a lot closer. We also went to Susanna's last orchestra concert.  She got to be the concertmaster for the last concert in the BYU Symphonic Orchestra: On Christmas Day, those of us in town got together.  Since it snowed that day, we went in the back and put together some snow creations. After Christmas and over the school break, we did various activities like hiking: Cross-country skiing with cousins a...

Recently we had the chance to take family pictures with everyone all in the same state for about two weeks.  The weather was a little chilly and people were busy so we had to squeeze it in.  Here are some of them: