Yesterday was my birthday!  It was a good day with my husband working hard to make it a nice day for me.  The weather was surprisingly cold and rainy but my house was warm.  I enjoy many, many blessings and I frequently wonder why I have been given so much. Yesterday I thought about a past birthday from 22 years ago which happens to be an historically significant day.  That day--September 23, 1995--was the day that the president of our church read the brand-new "The Family: A Proclamation to the World"  at a conference for the women of our church.  It is a much-needed document on what we believe about families and how important they are.  At the time it didn't seem that significant but as families become less and less meaningful to the world and society continues to deteriorate, it seems prescient. This is a picture we took right around my birthday in 1993 right before Scott had a ruptured appendix--another very stressful time in my life. ...

Two weeks ago, my daughter's class went to Timpanogas Cave National Monument on a field trip.  It's a challenging hike to get there and I was a little worried about her making it so I decided to go with her in case she needed help. But in order to go on the field trip, I had to get fingerprinted!  It cost me $55 and about an hour to go to the district office and get this done.  I found it very annoying but the district has decided to require all school volunteers to do this so I didn't really have a choice. We took the bus to the visitors' center in American Fork Canyon and I ended up sitting next to a woman of Armenian heritage.  It was cool to talk to her about Armenia with my son being there. Next we hiked up to the cave.  The hike is 1.5 miles with an elevation gain of about 1000 feet.  It was a warmish day but we were in the shade for most of the hike so that helped a lot. As soon as we got there, we started our tour: This is called a colum...

A few weeks ago our family toured the Missionary Training Center in Provo.  The MTC has been around for a long time but recently they added some new buildings and they opened it to the public for tours. I really enjoyed the tour.  I especially enjoyed the art and quotes on the wall which I found inspiring.  It made me realize that I'd like to use that more in my home too. First we toured the old MTC buildings and then we went into the new ones which provide more space for classrooms, sleeping and study areas as well as space for larger meetings.  The new buildings have more natural light and also have the new technology for the classrooms.  Many missionaries get iPads when they go to the MTC because they will be using them in their missions.  Most of the foreign missions do not have them. This is a picture of Dan Jones preaching in his native land of Wales as a missionary. Approximately 22,000 missionaries enter the Provo MTC each year. Al...

Today is August 31, 2017, and exactly 50 years ago my parents got married! My parents got married in the Oakland, California LDS temple on August 31, 1967. Here they are with both sets of parents. My parents are having their own private celebration today but a few weeks ago, we--their children--gathered together and celebrated with them.  We had to do it a few weeks early since traveling before school started was a lot better for my brother and his family from Kansas.  I also had a brother come from Boston and a sister from Idaho.  I should give photo credit to my sister Heidi who took most of the pictures at the open house. Mom and Dad, August 11, 2017 Just one brother and his wife are missing from this picture of my parents' 11 children and their spouses.  My grandmother is also in this picture. Right to left:  SIL Melanie, BIL Aaron, Sister Liesl, and SIL Michelle. I am the oldest child and this is my next sibling, ...

Last week we drove up to Rexburg, Idaho for the Great American Eclipse of 2017.  Since my husband is a physicist, we made plans a long time ago to attend.  I decided to turn it into an opportunity to visit a few more temples.  So on Friday night we drove up to Idaho Falls and visited that temple which is quite lovely and stayed in a nearby hotel.  In the morning we did the River Walk along the Snake River which is very scenic. Saturday morning we drove to Rexburg and visited that temple after dropping off our children at my sister's house who lives quite nearby. It turns out to be true that Rexburg is always windy. We spent the rest of the weekend visiting with my sister and other visitors and relatives--Sunday night she had 29 people sleeping at her house.  It was a fun weekend!  My sister and brother-in-law did a great hosting all those people.  And we were glad the sewer system and the electricity didn't fail with all the extra peop...