In Georgia with Elise

 I've been in Georgia since Thursday helping Elise with the kids.  She has had some health issues since Harvey was born so she's been going through the testing rigmarole.  Before I got there she had already had her heart checked (she found that she has a slight regurgitation which is somewhat common in those who've had heart surgery).  After I arrived she had an endoscopy and colonoscopy, and next week she'll have her gall bladder removed.  Lucky for me, Harvey is a happy baby and seems to love his grandma. 

Harvey, practicing with a bottle so I can take care of him.

 

Bevy at the football field

Mav

Elise, Harvey, Mav, Bev and Andy

Max

The above pictures were taken at Max' football practice.  

This picture was drawn by Max.  He's very talented

These artists are in Utah, of course, and are also very talented.  Jieun gave them all a watercolor lesson.  Dojin is going to be very artistic.  At three he's very meticulous with his paints and colors.

Roy had so much fun with Brewster on the Miller race course, that 
they went again.  This time Matt went along.  I think he loved it--after he
figured out why he couldn't get his car to go faster than 50 mph.

Effie finally got to start pre-school.  it
 was delayed by a week because of the lovely wind storms we had.

Caitlyn taught the family a new game.  One of these is from Flaming Gorge, and one from last Sunday night.  Somewhere in my file there's one with Nick participating.  They're all pretty much the same but feature different kids.

I have been thinking during my scripture study time this week about spiritual experiences.  We are told in the scriptures to remember.  It made me think back on some of our experiences of being blessed or protected.  Often we move on without recording these experiences.  The two stories that came to my mind this week are from quite a few years ago.  We decided in June 1998 that we were going to accept Roy's company's offer to move to Utah.  Roy would head up the development team in the project they were doing for the Utah State government.  We had two months in which to prepare everything for the move.  The company was moving us at their expense, but we had to decide what to do with our vehicles and our boat.  I wanted to ship the car, and use the van to drive to Utah because it could easily pull our boat (a 21 ft. Four Winns) and then I wouldn't have to drive. Roy, however, always generous, had already promised that the scouts could use our van to drive to Philmont.  They didn't want to rent a van as they would have to keep it parked for the two weeks and pay for each day.  I told Roy that circumstances had changed and we probably needed the van more.  He won the day (as usual in these types of situations), so the scouts took our van and we rented one for the move.  The plan was to stop in Philmont and change vehicles on the day that they were planning to return to Georgia.  This meant that we had to drive two vehicles all the way to Utah.  I wasn't thrilled.  We couldn't pull a boat with the rental, so we attached our boat to our small, Mercury Sable station wagon.  I drove the rental, and Roy drove the car.  We made it to Philmont without incident.  I have to admit I complained that I had to drive so far.  In New Mexico, we changed vehicles with the scout group as planned and were quickly on our way.  After driving for a couple of hours, the van started acting funny.  We had had it carefully looked over before moving--even replacing the transmission.  Well, the transmission was under warranty...but it went out on us.  For a few minutes we didn't know what to do, Roy was scheduled to start work right away and we had all six of our children with us.  I suggested we put everything we really needed in the boat, and move the boat hitch back to the car.  We then called a repair place and waited for them to arrive.  Once they came and got the van, we proceeded on our way.  We stopped for the night in Hall's Crossing and took the boat out the next day.  It was a much needed break and we had a good time.  I remember the last hour or so to Hall's Crossing we were very low on gas and there hadn't been a gas station in miles.  We were praying that we could get to a gas station somewhere...we turned off the air conditioning to try and preserve the gas we did have.  Our prayers were answered.  The point of the whole story is that the Lord was watching over us.  We didn't have a two week delay in New Mexico while the van was fixed--which we would have if we hadn't let the scouts take our van.  This way we had two vehicles which gave us an alternate choice to staying with the van.  Roy was worried about all the stuff we had to leave in the van unattended, but I have to admit it never even crossed my mind.  Roy also had to buy a plane ticket to return to NM two weeks later to retrieve the van, but it was much more convenient than having had to stay there.  We knew we had been blessed to make it safely to Utah in a timely manner.

In the 2nd story we were all in a large 15 passenger van (a different one) on our way to Lake Powell--again pulling the boat.  We had gotten a little bit of a late start and it was starting to get dark.  On top of that it was raining.  Roy had a thought pass through his mind, "What would I do if a deer ran in front of me?"  He went through the scenario in his mind, planning each step of his reaction.  We had a large vehicle and a large boat and a lot of weight.  He knew he couldn't swerve to miss the deer but would have to hit it.  He would put the brakes on, but not slam on them.  Not much later we were heading up a hill.  When we hit the peak and began to go downward, a herd of cows (black cows) were crossing the road.  We hadn't seen them because of the crest in the hill.  There was no way Roy could miss these cows.  He reacted exactly as he had previously decided he would.  We killed two cows (three because one was pregnant), but the family was safe.  One cow wasn't quite dead, but we had no phone service so we drove until we had a signal then called the sheriff and told him what happened.  He drove out there and put poor cow out of her misery.  We also found out that our insurance would have to pay for the cows.  We thought maybe the farmer would go get the cows for the meat, but no, they were still lying there when we went home a week later.  Again, we were grateful that the spirit had prompted Roy to plan his reaction to the upcoming accident.

I know that the Lord does care about us.  As I read 3rd Nephi I thought about him talking to each of those present at the Temple. He did not talk to them as a crowd.  He talked to each of them individually.  He showed each of them the nail prints in his hands and feet.  I know he knows us personally and watches over us.

Wind storm in 2020

What's going to come to mind in the future when we all think back to the year 2020?

 Just when we thought 2020 couldn't get any worse (after a pandemic, an earthquake, riots, political unrest, and personal trials with the health of some of our family and extended family) we were hit by hurricane level winds in Davis County.  Apparently we built our home in the wind tunnel in Centerville.  We lost power about 9:00 am on Tuesday morning, and didn't get it back until Wednesday night around midnight.  Luckily, I have a very prepared husband and he was able to connect our house to a generator that ran all of our refrigerators and freezers, lights and some larger appliances (if we were careful to do one thing at a time).  On my way home from the rec center on Thursday, I had to detour twice because of workers--either tree removal crews or electricians.  There are downed trees everywhere.

These three pictures show why we lost power.  This tree fell across 4th east close to our home--apparently taking power lines with it.  Look closely at the picture below and see how the roots came completely out of the ground.

At least all these heavy winds gave Roy a chance to serve with both his Ham radio license (communication) and also helping some of the neighbors.  He hasn't had a chance to get to the problems in our own yard yet.

Our neighbor's fence.  Unfortunately the tree branch belonged to us.

We haven't had any fires nearby, but they have several in UT county.  Dave sent us these pictures from the fire near Springville, behind his home.  Fires are another devastating addition to 2020.

Even with all the natural disasters and the political unrest, we can have peace in our homes and love and unity within the family unit.  

There are good things happening in 2020!

Oli, leading his football team to victory.  Adrienne says he really
wants to switch to tackle football, but she REALLY wants him to
keep doing flag football.  

This is Wednesday evening, the day following the windstorm.  
 You can see that we were a little chilly while watching Oli's game.

Gunnar was chilly, too.  And maybe a little bit bored.

These Rasband children were entertained this week when they got their own chickens.  Their good friends moved to Washington State and sold them the chickens, complete with coop, etc. for $150.  That was a good deal.

And Caitlyn was able to spend a few days with her fiancé and his family in Lake Powell.

And we can't forget the new baby born in April (Harvey) and the two new babies (coming to the families of Nick and Dan) and a December wedding.

We have a lot to be grateful for!

Happy news

 This past week we studied Samuel the Lamanite in the Book of Mormon.  I was going to just post this video, even though all my family has seen it (it deserves to be recorded in our family news), and then end the letter.  However, we have had too much going on in our family for me to limit this letter in that way.

We celebrated Gunnar's 10th birthday on Aug. 31.  Often we are out of town on his birthday because it usually falls around Labor Day, but this year it was a week before.  Adrienne made a killer malt ball cake.  Gunnar's gift from Roy and me was one he helped to make.  We planned to make it for his 9th birthday, but it took us a while longer than that.  

the present that Gunnar helped make

Gunnar with his birthday cake, and a cool candle.

We took our last trip of the summer to Flaming Gorge.  It was Dan's turn again--he's the lucky one who got to go with us twice (I'm not sure the others would have really wanted a second trip anyway, it's a lot of work for them).  We had one day on the boat.  We zipped down to Wyoming and let everyone wake-board who wanted to.  The weather was beautiful, but it was the most crowded any of us have ever seen Flaming Gorge.  I think that because of Covid, there's not a lot to do but go camping/boating, so everyone is doing it.  Plus, it was Labor Day weekend.  It's quite a bit less crowded on the Wyoming side, but it takes an hour of boating to get over there.  We went to the same cove where we paddle-boarded a couple of weeks ago, but this time we had to share it with a couple of large boats.  We veered to the right and luckily we couldn't even see the other boats.  When we have children with us, going to a beach/cove is their favorite thing to do.  They love to go play in the mud.

Dan, Sunday afternoon nap

Sunday walk along the canyon rim

Dan and Dojin enjoying breakfast together

Sunday, we were still at the Gorge.  We had our sacrament meeting, then went on a trail for a Sunday walk.  It was quite hot, even in Dutch John.  I imagine Centerville was really hot that day. 

Later that evening, Dallin and Caitlyn slipped away for a walk.  She came back with a ring on her finger!!

They are  hoping to get married in the Temple on the 19th of December.  As things stand right now they are only allowed to invite about 14 people.  Hopefully that will change so we can invite our siblings.  Dallin Anderson is our next door neighbor.  His dad was previously in our Bishopric (we got a new bishopric a week ago Sunday).  We have heard a few surprised comments from people in the ward, because this is their third round of dating.  They are both really happy.

In about a week and a half I will head out to Augusta to take care of the Jackson kiddos while Elise gets some medical tests and has her gall bladder removed.  

Max in the mask Jieun made for him.

Beverly in one of her more interesting outfits
(although many of her outfits are interesting)