Quotes of the Week

 To each member of the Church I say, keep on the covenant path. Your commitment to follow the Savior by making covenants with Him and then keeping those covenants will open the door to every spiritual blessing and privilege available to men, women, and children everywhere.

--Russell M. Nelson

Charity has staying power. When you love someone, you do not give up on them.

--David A. Bednar

In Him, we find cause to do good, reason to be good, and increasing capacity to become better.

--Gerrit W. Gong

One who feels gratitude and accountability to the giver of life will live much differently from those who feel no obligation to the One who paid for their sins with His blood and redeemed them from death.

--D. Todd Christofferson

Brooke's and Eli's Birthdays; Don's Funeral

Brooke celebrated her 15th birthday on June 3rd and Eli's 12th birthday was the day after. 

For Eli's birthday, he got some nerf guns. The planned activity for that day was a nerf gun war with all the cousins.

Pizza birthday party. Jeff really delivered on this one!!

We celebrated both birthdays with an Oreo theme. Brooke is such an Oreo lover that she had her birthday candle stuck inside the stuffing of an Oreo.

Eli had an Oreo ice cream pie.

We had to take time out in the middle of the birthday festivities to attend Glen's brother Don's funeral. 

There were a few photos on display at the funeral. I just had to take a photo of this photo because it is one of Glen's favorites. 

It so wonderfully illustrates how Glen stands a full head taller than any of his siblings. His parents would be in the short line-up as well.

It was time for an updated photo of the siblings in birth order. (Dave, Maurine, JoAnn, Bonnie, Barbara and Glen)

Dave and Connie Thomas.

Ray and Maurine Hull. 

Dave and Bonnie Ziemski.

Rich and Barbara Dunn.

Jacob was so kind to take time out of his vacation to come be with us at the funeral. My parents also went to the funeral which we thought was so sweet of them. We could feel the love and support from our loved ones.

We invited my parents and Nani to Sunday dinner. Sarah and Jacob were both busy preparing the delicious Monterey chicken, bacon-cheesy potatoes, asparagus and M&M cookies for dessert. 

This was Sarah's contribution. Jacob grilled the chicken and made the potatoes. What a yummy feast!!

I don't remember why Ben's family was not there for the photo, but this is proof they joined us at some point that day.

Glen had a golfing afternoon with some of his childhood buddies. 

Turns out Glen is not as spry as he once used to be. He came home moaning and groaning after pulling a stomach muscle on his second to last hole which turned out to be his last shot of the day. He well remembered that golf game for a good week afterward!!

(Glen, Randy Bambrough, Kevin Jensen and Kenny Jensen who have the same last name but are not related)

We had yet another diversion during our full household of family members. We attended the wedding of our missionary Matt Shields to Hannah. She is a wonderful girl and combine the two together and they are a powerhouse couple. 

Stay tuned for more Thomas family togetherness...

Quotes of the Week

 Father's Day is joyful for most but sorrowful for some. Gratefully, each of us can communicate with our Heavenly Father in prayer. He is never absent but is every-welcoming. Our Heavenly Father is perfectly loving, perfectly understanding, and perfectly capable of helping us to meet any challenge we face. On this day, may we honor Him and strive to emulate His example, doing our very best, day after day.

--Russell M. Nelson

His message was and is a message of hope and belonging--a testimony that God our Heavenly Father has not abandoned His children. That God is among us!

--Dieter F. Uchtdorf

He invites each of us to be a good Samaritan, less judgmental and more forgiving of ourselves and of each other, even as w strive more fully to keep His commandments.

--Gerrit W. Gong

We cannot wait for conversion to simply happen to our children. Accidental conversion is not a principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

--Joy D. Jones

Jacob's and Sarah's Families Come to Town; Puzzles; Cook-out in the Canyon

School's out!! Summer's here!! It's vacation time!! Sarah's family burned their school work in honor of summer vacation.

Then they jumped in their car to take a vacation. Not long into the trip, they ran over something and it ruined their tire. Luckily Jeff was able to change it and they made the rest of the journey to our home on their doughnut spare tire.

Jacob's family had made a safe drive from Omaha to our home arriving before Sarah's family got here. Whenever family members come to town, that brings the locals (Rebecca's and Ben's families) to join in on the fun and festivities. 

The family had such a great time working on puzzles when we were altogether last time, so Rebecca brought some more puzzles and the work began on a huge 1000-piece puzzle.

The puzzles was so big and had so many pieces that two tables were needed to work on the project.

There were other, more young-child-friendly puzzles going on as well.

The cousins liked to congregate together. 

Let the competition begin with a good game of Crew.

Competition continued with Jacob and Sarah racing to see who could cut their sections of a watermelon the fastest.

Grill time with grandchildren as observers.

True to form, Jonah was often found all dressed up and engrossed in his make-believe world. 

We had lots of mealtimes with the crowd of family members. Abe's family had not come to town as they were here in the winter.

Brooke got a hankering to make a cake roll-up dessert which she shared with the family. We were impressed with her creation.

And the puzzle was completed!!! Nice work, family!!

Another puzzle was begun. This time a smaller puzzle with half the amount of pieces.

As per tradition, we went to Mueller Park Picnic Area one evening and had a hot dog/marshmallow roast over the fire. It was so green and beautiful.

Jonah loves Spiderman and used his roasted marshmallows to make it look like he had spiderwebs coming out of his hands.

More puzzling was going on after the children got showered to get rid of the smoky smell.

Everyone loved working on the Disneyland puzzle.

The puzzle got completed, but I didn't get a photo of it before it got put back in the box.

One night we were going to have Mandarin for the adults and Panda Express for the children; but, alas! Mandarin was closed for several weeks so we all ended up eating Panda instead.

Oh look!! A third puzzle has been started.

More Crew was happening into the late hours of the evening.

So much playing and fun going on that it was hard to say good-bye and good night in the evenings.