Sunday With Jacob's Family, Sea World, Senior FHE

I set up my camera on a shelf in the living room so we could get a family group photo and these two girls could not resist. They tried out the timer on themselves. Cuties!!

Here's the whole bunch of us.

More photos outside before we headed off to church.

We chose a church to attend in Escondido so we were closer to the Mormon Battalion Historic Site when church was over.

The children (and Jacob) settled in for the beginning of the story.

Jacob was the one modeling for the group what a Mormon Battalion soldier looked like.

Glen showed the grandchildren the relatives both of us have who are listed in the Mormon Battalion roster.

I stopped to admire the beautiful flowers on our way out of the building to pan for gold.

Our tour guide just happens to be the sister of Jacob's first missionary companion. Small world!

Elder and Sister Hemingway, the new director and wife of the Mormon Battalion Historic Site, stopped by while we were there and we were happy to see them.

Elder Hemingway offered to take a picture of us in the covered wagon. It was so nice of him!

I think the expression on Emma and Natalie's faces say it all--the Mormon Battalion is a fun place to visit and you go home richer than when you arrived.

Once back home we had Sunday dinner and then it was popcorn time!! The furniture was rearranged like a home theater so they could watch a Disney movie together.

Another thing they like to watch is the pictures on our computer screen saver. They especially love it when a picture of one of them pops up.

Claire and Luke had fun building cages for the stuffed animals.

The Thomas children love eating their grandpa's French toast for breakfast.

Claire was looking so cute for her day with the family at Sea World.

I tried to get them to cooperate with taking a family photo in front of the palm trees before they left for the day.

By the time everyone had assembled, a little someone wasn't in the mood to be posing for a photo any more.

This was a cute picture to receive later in the day as they were having fun vacationing while Glen and I were doing our usual preparation day activities.

We took a walk by the Flower Fields to see how they are coming along. Pretty!!

 The field next to the blooming field is also now showing some good color.

Glen was unable to get all his missionaries' letters finished on Monday because we were busy entertaining our senior missionary couples that evening at our FHE.

(back row) Elder and Sister Kopenhefer, Elder Sattley

(middle row) Sister Christensen, Sister Radford, Sister Atkinson, Me, 

Sister Sattley, Sister Coverston 

(front row) Elder Christensen, Elder Radford, Elder Atkinson, Glen,

President Burgon, Elder Coverston

The incoming Radfords have now replaced the outgoing Christensens. We get attached to our new friends and wonderful helpers and then it makes it sad when they leave us.

Jacob's family did a superb job sneaking in the house and going right upstairs to put themselves to bed while we were having our senior FHE dinner. After everyone left, Jacob enjoyed eating some leftovers.

This picture is a little crazy because the bottle is so prominent. I was taking a picture of the bottle to send to Rebecca and I decided to put her brother in the photo so she could enjoy it more.

Quotes of the Week

We must cultivate true humility, not the ability to appear humble, but the sacred gift of true humility.
--Richard G. Scott

To live greatly, we must develop the capacity to face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and triumph with humility.
--Thomas S. Monson

Of all the blessings we can count, the greatest by far is the feeling of forgiveness that comes as we partake of the sacrament.
--Henry B. Eyring

The family is the most important unit in time and in eternity and is ordained of God.
--Quentin L. Cook

New Missionary Training, Jacob's Family Comes to Visit, Temple, Zoo

This is our newest batch of missionaries with their trainers, two days after they got here, so we could do some training with them.

The next day Jacob's family arrived from Omaha. Jacob has been here before, but it was the first visit for the rest of their family.

Good thing Sarah brought some of our old toys with her to leave here for the grandchildren to play with. They have been put to good use.

We went with Emma, Natalie and Laurie to the temple to do baptisms for the dead.

The flowers on the temple grounds were very beautiful as usual. These are my favorites.

The purple ones were Natalie's favorite.

 Emma really liked the pink flowers.

The girls wanted a frozen yogurt treat when we were finished. It was a treat to be with them at the temple.

The next day was zoo day. The girls got in their animal print socks to get prepared for the excursion.

Maps are critical once inside the zoo as every child knows.

The koala bear is Natalie's favorite animal. We made it our first stop and saw them awake and moving around and eating. It was amazing. They have always been sleeping whenever we have been there before.

We saw a few other animals before Natalie decided she'd had enough and wanted to go home. She had gotten sick right before their trip and she hadn't fully recovered.

Glen and I offered to take her home early so the rest of them could stay at the zoo. Glen had the great idea to catch the bus so we would have less walking to do to the get to the front of the zoo. It WAS a great idea until the bus driver told us the stop we had just gotten on at was the stop closest to the front of the zoo.

We rode the bus around the zoo for 45 minutes just to get off at the very same stop we got on and still had to walk the full distance to the front of the zoo.

Logan and Claire were showing me their stuffed animals.

 In case anyone is wondering, Claire's favorite zoo animal is the panda bear.