The Amazing Women

Garden of the Gods is the place to take pictures. Here are two of many taken during our now infamous sisters' trip. The picture is missing Heidi- she needed to give Olivia a little break from the constant commotion. As you can see these young women of mine (Heidi included of course) are able to lift mountains... but here are a few facts about this group of amazing women you might not know-

They are mothers of a total of 23. They possess 3 BS degrees, 2 AS degrees, and ALL have college credit. Their many talents include- cooking, gardening, photography, budgeting, basketball, soccer, walleyball, beading, decorating, scrap booking, card making, sewing, singing, playing the piano, clogging, cake decorating, writing and much more. They live in Montana, Idaho, Utah, Oregon, and Washington. Additionally, they have lived or will soon live in Florida, Arizona, Connecticut, Alaska, Oklahoma, Colorado, Georgia, Texas, California, Illinois, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Africa- and maybe more. Missions served (including by sons and husbands)- Central States, England, Santa Rosa California, Detroit Michigan, Johannesburg South Africa, 2 to Venezuela, Jacksonville Florida, and Charlotte North Carolina. They were married or sealed in the following temples: Cardston Alberta Canada, Idaho Falls, Portland Oregon, Mount Timpanogos, Johannesburg South Africa, 2 at Billings Montana, and Salt Lake City Utah.

a little secret... one of them LOVES to read. So much so that she might have missed her flight to Denver. No worries...

a little delay but some of the sisters remained behind to wait for her , they piled into the second rental car and all was well.

There you have just a little bit of family "trivia", but nothing trivial. We are so blessed to have this wonderful family united eternally by the blessings of the temple.

WIRELESS PARENTING

Day #2 we took a trip to the Castle Rock Outlet Mall. (day 1 was travel day.. .story later)We were ready for serious shopping-money and credit cards in hand.

A quick stop at the food court. Fred finds the sign on the table. Quite amusing- but believe me nothing was free!!

I noticed how frequently someone in our group was on the phone talking to children or reassuring harried husbands. I snapped a few pictures, but wasn't quite quick enough to get everyone.

Once a Mother...

Just girls

Our girls secetly planned a trip to Colorado Springs to suprise us for Mother's day. After Kelli heard me saying I didn't think it was a good idea to plan surprise visits (Well maybe I did say it more than once!) she contacted the rest of the gang and WARNED them. They decided they should let us know. I am SO glad they did. It gave me something too look forward to and I had such fun thinking about it from the minute I found out. My beautiful girls, 7 daughters (some by birth, some by marriage- all by covenant), my dear Mom and one little bitty granddaugther named Olivia. We had a wonderful time. This group photo is in the front of our house.

I better warn you... there are more pics to come!

I am the LUCKIEST woman in the world.

Family Time!!!

You may think we are pretty boring grandparents because the "family visit" posts always look the same. Well, think what you want- but our philosophy is you can't improve upon perfection. So here it is... ITZ, Memorial Park, Redneck bathtub and Garden of the Gods. Same agenda- different family. We so enjoyed having Kevin, Heidi and the kids spend a few days with us. We loved meeting little Olivia for the first time, and getting reacquainted with Ashton and Chloe. We are so glad they came... and so sad they had to leave.

Here we are with two young Missionaries at the Eisenhower/Johnson Tunnel in Colorado on our way to Moab Utah -quick trip to take care of some business.

Traveling with these fine young men was so much fun. They fired questions at Elder Fairhurst, pretty much nonstop. Although most of the questions were fairly serious and of a doctrinal nature, never forget that in some ways these Elders are still kids.

So I got quite a kick out of some of the questions.

Like... "Elder Fairhurst, have you ever been to Area 51?

Do they really keep aliens there?"

Or... "Elder Fairhurst, do you believe there is such a thing as Big Foot?"

We do so LOVE those young men, but after all

"boys will be boys!"

Smith Family visit

We had a great time with the Smiths. Here is the obligatory

Red Neck bathtub picture. The family picture was taken at

Memorial Park on a lovely spring day. Molly was demonstrating

her new found talent, you could call it nostril trolling!

We Believe in Miracles

I truly believe in miracles. Some people think miracles are always mysterious and unexplainable events that defy the laws of nature. Although that can seemingly be the case sometimes, I believe miracles are simply evidence of God's hand in our lives and his tender mercies toward his children. We had such a miracle in our mission, and we are so very grateful.



Two of our young missionaries were involved in a serious accident. The picture above shows the mangled remains of the destroyed truck. Per doctors reports they could have easily been killed. Both were injured. One fairly seriously. Amazingly, they are both going to recover. That is a miracle. Other evidence of miracles from this experience? Elder R opened his eyes and found himself in a field after the impact, of which he has no memory. He heard Elder H calling to him from a distance. He was calling for a Priesthood blessing. Elder R could not stand but dragged himself to minister to his missionary companion. They were eventually transported to different hospitals due to the nature of their injuries. Medical professionals at both hospitals that attended to them were members of the church, providing the additional comfort of common faith. One of them was not on her scheduled shift, but was covering for a co-worker. Elder H was placed in the Mercy flight to be transported to a larger hospital. He asked the Pilot to pray for him. The Pilot answered he had never prayed, so our young missionary who was suffering critical injuries taught him to pray. Two missionaries from a neighboring mission stayed in the Hospital until after 1 am so they would be available for Elder H when he came out of surgery. The elderly driver of the truck they were in refused treatment until he knew the young missionaries had been tended to, despite the fact that he was suffering from a compound fracture.
That is not all, but hopefully its enough for you to see why we are so very grateful. God often works his miracles through his children who are willing to hear him. Our hearts are filled with love, we are humbled by the constant care afforded to these two young servants of God, our Faith is confirmed once again.