RUGBY:
* For a family never involved with Rugby before, we have certainly jumped into this sport with both feet! Dad became a coach for Aubrie and Lexi's team (Rocky Mountain 7-8th grade girls team) and Nathan played for the boys 7th-8th grade team. They practiced 3 days a week (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays) and had games each Wednesday.
* Rugby started back in the beginning of February and finished up at the end of May. Everyone enjoyed the season and found a new love for this sport! The girls' team decided to keep practicing throughout the summer and enter a big tournament in Salt Lake City on July 23-24th. They were blessed to get several donations and sponsors (including dad's company, Xylem) and were able to design custom jerseys and practice shirts (complete with their name and numbers on the back) to show up in style at the tournament!
* With Covid, there wasn't much advertising or recruiting for Rugby (specifically the girls' age group) and so they ended up being THE ONLY girls 7th-8th grade team in the ENTIRE state of Idaho! Most weeks they just scrimmaged themselves on game days but they did secure a chance to play a Utah team so in April, we traveled to SLC and played their first "real" game. We lost but gained a lot of experience and had a great time nonetheless! The boys teams weren't in the same situation and so Nathan was able to play different teams each week. He was always aggressive and played his little heart out - and even was awarded "Player of the Match" for the first 2 consecutive games! He plans to play for the high school this next season.
* At the end of July (the 22nd-24th) we traveled back down to Salt Lake with the girls' team to the- North American Invitational 7's Tournament. We left early Thursday morning and made it down there around 2:30 for the check-in. Then we went out to eat, do some shopping and then made it to Greg and Ann Adam's house (where we were staying) just before 8pm. They had made delicious shish-kabobs, brown rice, fruit and biscuits to feed us for dinner. We then visited for the evening and got to bed. We were up and out the door the next morning (packed with lunch, cooler full of ice and water and tons of snacks for the girls/team all thanks to Ann!) Over the next 2 days, the girls played 6 Rugby matches against teams from Arizona (we played this team twice), Florida, California (3 different CA teams - one from Long Beach and the other 2 from Sacramento). The scoreboard didn't reflect how hard the girls played (as we lost every game) BUT several times they only were down by 1 or 2 Try's and the girls really came together and played as a team! Especially since they had really only been able to scrimmage themselves throughout the season, being able to play against real teams gave them great experience! Dad coached them and was super proud of how they played. There were literally Thousands of people at this tournament (and teams from NY, Wisconsin, Georgia, Hawaii and even Guam!) The atmosphere was energizing and having 100's of games going on was something else! Who would have thought we'd have become such a big "Rugby Family" just since the beginning of the year!?
BIRTHDAY'S
* In March, we celebrated Ben's 19th Birthday. He requested a "Chicken Nugget bar with lots of different dipping sauces" and so that's just what he got! It was a simple affair with just the family and his close friends also joined. Can't believe my little Benny is 19! (and what's even more sad is that we didn't get a single picture from the night!)
* And if having Ben be 19 is hard for me to take in... Seth turned 23 in June! Grandma & Grandpa Carlson along with Aunt Kathryn, Leo and Ezra were all visiting so we had a family dinner and then had cake and ice cream over at the Blue Creek house.
* Aubrie and Lexi became official teenagers back in April! They invited their entire Rugby team over after a Saturday practice and had a party. They played games, went to the park, played volleyball, ate pizza and cake and got spoiled with generous gifts from their friends.
* Henry turned 1 in March! Can't believe it! Aubrie made a SIX layered dinosaur cake for him - it was just about as big as he was! haha... we also did a "Cake Smash" photo shoot which turned out pretty cute!
* McKendra turned 22 in July. It was on the day before we left for the Rugby tournament in SLC but we still treated her and August to a Birthday dinner/date while we watched Henry and did a "Birthday Tidy" while they were gone. After we got back into town we had a family dinner together and McKendra made a "Watermelon" cake that we all enjoyed!
House Guests
* We've had a full house with LOTS of guests these past few months.
* McKendra's older sister (Mehra Smith) moved into our guest room with her 2 year old daughter, Lilly, at the beginning of April. She was leaving an abusive husband and the judge ordered that she couldn't leave the state of Idaho so we offered our house until she could find something. Mehra was also 6 months pregnant at the time. Her and Lilly just fit right into our family dynamics and having them here felt perfectly normal. Mehra delivered a healthy baby girl the middle of June (named her Avery) and about a week later she moved into August and McKendra's apartment in Meridian.
* When Mehra moved into August and McKendra's apartment, they all moved into the house with us as they waited for the Blue Creek house to be completed so they could move in. They were with us for just under 2 weeks.
* Kathryn and her boys came to visit the first week of May and we had fun just being together. Nothing too big was done during that trip but we worked on homeschool, finances and brainstorming of new jobs for Morgan!
* The week after Kathryn left, JR, Lori and Silas came for a visit. They are thinking of moving here to Idaho so they came to check it out and see if they liked it! We drove to a couple of outlying, smaller towns (Idaho City and Garden Valley) and while they were pretty and not very populated, they ultimately decided it would be too far of a drive into town/Boise (both being close to an hour away)... we then toured lots of new constructions home and met with builders. We all walked away with sticker shock and how much the housing market has risen! I felt discouraged for them and sick that they will have to pay so much for a house if they decide to move here for sure! On the bright side, I really enjoyed spending each day with them and driving around showing them the valley and the houses!
* The house REALLY got bustling the end of May/first part of June when Kathryn, Morgan and the boys, JR, Lori and their whole family AND grandma and grandpa Carlson all were here visiting at the same time (meanwhile Mehra and her daughter were still living with us as well)... JR and Lori came back to look at more houses and show grandma and grandpa some land plots, Kathryn and Morgan were here as a stopping point before heading the rest of the way to our Family Reunion (more on that later!) and grandma and grandpa were here to see the house they purchased for the first time and secure some of the supplies and materials that would be needed in renovating the house.
* After the Family Reunion/50th Wedding Celebration both Kathryn, her boys and grandma & grandpa came back up to Boise to stay with us while fixing up the house. Kathryn stayed another 2 weeks (leaving on June 18th) and grandma and grandpa stayed until July 8th!
* That wasn't all for the houseguests though - we had Marty Dinkel and his 2 sons come to stay while they helped renovate the house AND Stacey Dinkel also stayed a couple of nights when she was out to help Mehra with her new baby!
* After a few weeks where the house was quiet, Joseph and Sarah came down from BYUI for a weekend. We watched the Olympics, went to a movie and attended a picnic for Swiss National Day!
BLUE CREEK HOUSE
* In April, a house around the corner from us came on the market. It was a complete fixer-upper but in the right location and after a home inspection concluded it was mostly all cosmetic work that needed to be addressed grandma and grandpa bought it! (well, it wasn't quite that easy, there were multiple other offers and they ended up going well above the asking price - but they GOT IT!).
* It's definitely a Sellers Market here and so the seller had requested to be able to stay in the house until June 1st (even though they closed on the house and legally owned it on May 6th)
* That was OK, since it gave us the time to secure all of the materials and make a plan for what needed to be done to it. Here is the list of what all we did:
- AC fixed (which we found out on the day that they gave us the keys that it wasn't working)
- 1/2 entry wall shortened (was about 5 feet in length and reduced to 2ft)
- ALL kitchen appliances needed to be replaced (dishwasher, built in microwave, stove, fridge, sink and faucet)
- New lighting in the entry way, dining room and 2 bathrooms
- All carpet needed to be replaced with an added protective layer of Killz being applied before the new pad/carpet was installed
- When the carpet was removed from the front living room, we had to build that back up with extra underlayment to match up with the kitchen flooring
- Luxury Vinyl Planks installed throughout the main floor (entry, front room, kitchen and dining room)
- All new trim throughout the ENTIRE house! All new baseboards, door and window trims. We went with a flat 3.5" board for everything and a 4" board for the door toppers (that overhung the sides by a tiny bit)
- The two upstairs bathrooms (master and guest/hall bath) got a total make over! The vanities, toilets and flooring were all removed. New cement board was laid in preparation for the new 12x24' tiles (which Kathryn installed and did a fantastic job!), new luxury, free standing vanities with marble tops were installed , new faucets, new toilets, new lighting, new bath fixtures, new tiled backsplashes and finished off with matching tiled baseboards (that grandma installed!) The bathrooms now look amazing!!
- The whole house got a fresh paint job. We went with a light tan called Maison Blanche and the trim was a high gloss Ultra White
- All windows were scrubbed, shined and new 2" faux window blinds were installed
- The fireplace was scrubbed, sanded and painted with the high gloss ultra white paint
- Front door got a fancy new door handle and lock, as well as the back door
- Several bedroom doors got new brushed nickel door handles
- New garage door openers as well as a wireless entry keypad on the garage door
- All doors and door jams had to be repainted in the high gloss ultra white paint (they were originally like a cream color and looks old and yellow next to our new paint and trim!) Several door jams had to be repaired with wood putty and sanding before being painted. In the end, they look great!
- One door had a huge hole in and needed to be completely replaced
- The stair handrail got a facelift and changed from honey oak, to a dark walnut stain (that matches the new flooring) and the spindles got freshened up with a coat of the high gloss ultra white
- We added bead board painted "Interesting Aqua" to the back and side of the peninsula in the kitchen (this turned out sooo cute! and we all love the color! Eventually, all of the bottom cupboards will be painted this color but we just did the bar for now)
- The lawn also needed some work - 18 sprinkler heads got replaced! and the whole system needed a tune up with adjustments and a new control box was installed to keep it running smoothly!
- Weeds were pulled, trees were trimmed and plants/flowers pruned. We put a couple of weed killer applications on the lawn as well as 2 applications of Huma Green and fertilizer.
* We got the keys on Tuesday, June 1st around 11am and then that evening EVERYONE went over to help get some demolition done! JR, Lori (although Lori found out quickly that she couldn't breath very well in the house and so wasn't able to stay), Silas, Ben, Nathan, John, Shandy, Kathryn, Morgan, Seth and Grandma all went and we started ripping out all of the baseboards and trim and carpet in the front room to be ready for Marty and his boys to start work when they arrived the next day. There was no AC in the house (and it had been in the 100's!) so we were all dying! We opened up the windows, had the music blasting and multiple hammers going (aka - we were making a lot of noise!) which all came to an abrupt stop when the neighbor came over and asked up to be quiet.... at 11pm. Oops! We profusely apologized and have since gotten to know them better and are on good terms! It probably didn't hurt that August took the neighbors on either side pizza the next day to aid in the apology.
* Wednesday, June 2 we were all going to be leaving to Burley for our Family Reunion/50th Wedding Celebration. We needed to wait until Marty and his boys got into town so we could go through the house and make sure we were all on the same page for what needed to be done. They got into town around 6pm that evening and after going through the house we took off for the reunion!
* Between Thursday and Monday (when we returned) they had done quite a bit (installed the new LVP, ripped up the carpet from the family room, downstairs bedroom and hall, painted the main floor, painted and installed the new trim in the living room and dining room. It looked like a completely different house!! We were stoked and ready to continue working - which we did morning until night 6 days a week for the next month!
* We hired Jake Ronneburg to help with the bathroom installation of the vanities, toilet, faucets and light fixtures - he came out a few evenings after work to get that done!
* We also couldn't have gotten everything done with out the help of Kelly and Kim Perry! They were life savers and spent many evenings at the house (in fact, there were a few nights that Kelly, Stephanie, grandma and mom were all at the house working until 2am or 3am! CRAZY!) They did everything from electrical, plumbing, installation, trouble shooting, teaching mom how to cut all of the baseboards at the right angles, door hanging, window blind installing, Sprinkler system re-do and many other little things that needed attention from someone that knew what they were doing! We felt so blessed to have their help!! Stephanie also came a few nights and helped with the cleaning and getting things ready for the kids to move in!
* On Friday, July 2nd - August, McKendra and Henry had their first night in the house! We weren't 100% done, but done enough for them to move in! McKendra's younger sister, Merhanna, also moved into one of the extra bedrooms and they have been enjoying it very much!!
* The house looks NOTHING like it did on that first day! Sadly, we don't have any "Before" pictures to show how bad things were - the carpet was sooo stained, the walls filthy, the trim shredded from cat and dog claws and just an overall look of neglect. It now looks AND smells like a brand new home once you open the door. It really is beautiful in every way and a far cry from that first impression where both grandma and grandpa thought "What have we done!?" hahaha
* Sadly we didn't take ANY "Before" pics and very few "During" pics... so the below collage is pretty much all that we have... Then following are the "After" photos.
CARLSON FAMILY REUNION & 50TH WEDDING CELEBRATION
* 2 years ago, we decided to do a big family reunion in conjunction with grandma and grandpa's 50th Wedding anniversary. We weren't sure it was going to happen with COVID still being a thing but in the end, we decided to go through with it!
* We rented out an AirBNB in Heyburn, Idaho (just outside of Burley) that had 3 levels and was right on the Snake River. It was a really nice home with space for us all and we loved being all together!
* Everyone arrived at different times on Wednesday night (with us being the last to pull in after 2:30am)
* Thursday morning we made a quick trip into Burley to the Walmart to pick up some food. Then we ate lunch and headed up to Albion for a day trip. We stopped at the Albion cemetery to visit the graves of our ancestors buried there. MaryJane met us there and then went with us up into Howell Canyon to Bennett Springs (which is where Grandma and Grandpa got engaged). After spending the afternoon up there together (visiting, taking pictures and hiking a little bit) we headed back down to the AirBNB and had a yummy taco salad dinner courtesy of JR and Lori! We spent the night visiting and having fun with each other.
* Friday we got up and packed picnic lunches and then headed up to Twin Falls and made our first stop at Shoshone Falls (also referred to as the "Niagara of the West") The falls weren't too overflowing but it was still pretty to see. We then went to Dierke's Lake and swam for the afternoon. After the lake, we hit another waterfall (that you could literally walk behind!) and were amazed at it's splendor and power! Back at the house, we were greeted with a delicious dinner of Sloppy Joe's from Kathryn and Morgan. We then all got changed into our coordinating clothes and took family pictures in the backyard with the Snake River as our backdrop! With everyone's children getting older, it was painless, quick and we got some great shots!
* Saturday morning, John had to go back to Boise for a special leadership training meeting with the Apostle - Elder Garret W Gong. He came back totally inspired and shared his thoughts with all of us for the night devotional (see notes below in "Spiritually Speaking" for his thoughts on this training meeting). The AirBNB had kayaks and paddleboards that you could rent - so of course we did and spent Saturday afternoon playing in the water! Everyone had a great time cooling off! Jared and Hope were in charge of dinner that night and ordered a bunch of pizzas - which of course was a hit!
* Saturday evening was the BIG 50TH WEDDING CELEBRATION honoring grandma and grandpa and their posterity! We decorated in gold, had little gold cups of nuts and chocolates, sparkling cider with gold champagne goblets and a sugar free jello cake that could be enjoyed by everyone! The party started off with each of the children (JR, Shandy, Jared and Kathryn) sharing thoughts about grandma and grandpa (the highlight being an impromptu skit by Jared and Kathryn depicting their early courtship and marriage - it seriously was priceless and everyone was bummed that it wasn't caught on video!) We then all got sparkling cider and made some toasts to grandma and grandpa and got refreshments for the video! It was then time to watch a slideshow video that Kathryn worked so hard on that had pictures from their dating years all the way through the present! It was beautiful and brought back tons of happy memories! After the video, grandma and grandpa shared some thoughts and then we closed out the night outside dancing to the VIRGINIA REEL! It really was a splendid and memorable evening. I am so grateful for the examples they have been to me my entire life - examples of faith, integrity and how an eternal marriage should be! I love them!
* Sunday, we zoomed into our Meridian West Stake Conference since Elder Gong was going to be speaking (and we thought that would be much easier to watch on TV vs trying to get all 27 of us to church! haha)... we had issues with the volume but the speakers were great and inspiring and it was an uplifting morning. That afternoon, we headed into Burley to a big Williams Family Dinner at Uncle Garth and Aunt Sam's. They recently purchased Grandma Williams house in Burley and it was really fun to be back in that home! All 6 of the Williams Siblings (grandma Carlson's brothers and sisters) were together and most of their families were able to attend. There were close to 100 people that came! It was so fun catching up and visiting with cousins and relatives that we hadn't seen for years! We stayed late into the evening and finally got home after 11pm.
* Monday morning, we got up, cleaned and checked out of the AirBNB by about 10am and headed back to Boise. We made it home shortly before 1pm and not too long afterward, the kitchen appliances were delivered by the store we had purchased them through. This wrapped up 5 days of being all together, celebrating grandma and grandpa's love and making new memories for us to reflect on in the future!
LIVING ROOM RENOVATION
* Back in January we contacted a company to give us a quote on redoing our living room. We were wanting to take out the current oak built ins and put in new cabinets on either side of the fireplace along with some floating shelves. We were wanting our brick fireplace replaced with stone (that went all the way up to the ceiling) and then hang our TV above the fireplace to free up another wall to bring in another couch (which started the whole renovating process- us needing additional seating for our large family!) Anyway, fianlly in March he got back to us and quoted us $17,000!! What!? I quickly got another quote and it wasn't much better (came in at $15,000!) so... we decided to use the money we'd saved for it and invest in some good tools and DO.IT.OURSELVES! Obviously we had to rethink our design to fit into things we felt we could realistically do and then... we began!
* We decided to leave the oak built in and just repaint it White and update the cabinet hardware - we also took out several of the shelves so it didn't look as cluttered. We weren't going to build a symmetric built in on the other side of the fireplace and so we thought a built in bench (one where the lid could lift up and reveal storage for all of the blankets and pillows that seem to make their way into the living room would be best and useful!)
* The biggest obstacle was going to be the red brick fireplace - what do to! I researched several different techniques that we could do to the brick to update the look and at the end of the day we decided to just paint it (brick by brick to look like a gray brick had been used with white mortar). I have to admit that I was a bit hesitant and worried it would look cheesy and dumb! But I figured it was just paint and we could either repaint it completely white or eventually tear it all down and put up the stone.
* With our new plan in place, the girls and I got to work! We repainted the built in, repainted the brick (which turned out fantastic and better than I had hoped!), John built us a new fireplace mantle and stained dark, we had power routed behind the fireplace wall so that we could mount the TV and placed HDMI ports behind the cabinet doors to house the boy's Playstation out of the way!
* Our friend, Stephanie Jordao (who is a fantastic carpenter) came over and helped John with building the custom bench seat (which also turned out awesome!)
* We got new PLUSH carpet installed (which we all love!), another full couch for additional seating, a new TV and soundbar and now we're just waiting on a new light fixture and replacing the trim (which both of those will come in the near future.. hopefully)
* I'm very proud of what we were able to accomplish and do and love the new look!! We just need to put some artwork up on the walls for the final touch :)
GIRLS CAMP
* Our Ward's Girls Camp was Tuesday, June 15th - Friday, June 18th. Mom was the Camp Director and it was the first year of Camp for Aubrie and Lexi (since last year it was cancelled due to Covid)
* Our Theme was "I Know Who I Am" and we were at Pinetop Camp outside of Idaho City
* Tuesday was a day trip to Twin Falls to visit the CSI Ropes Challenge Course. Aubrie, Lexi and mom's time was cut short there as Lexi had an accident where she hit her head and ended up to the ER via an Ambulance! We called dad while in route to the ER and I'm sure he was a bit freaked out to hear that we were currently in an Ambulance! The Ward had chartered a bus to head to Twin and so dad had to come pick us all up at the hospital. We were so blessed that she only had a concussion and needed to lay low. Dad picked us up and we traveled back to Boise together. Lexi went home and rested and mom met the rest of the ward at the Stake Center to finish the activities for the night.
* Wednesday morning we all met at the church ( we had Lexi stay in bed for the day and had dad bring her up to camp later that evening) and we started off with doing our Service project where we made fleece blankets for children at the hospital, packed up the trailers and then had and early lunch before heading up to camp.
* We arrived at camp just before 1pm and then we got everything set up (all of the girls were in tents) and then we spent the afternoon cooling off in the swimming pool.
* After dinner that night, we went on a hike for a mountain top devotional - it was super hard and straight up a mountain but we all made it up there safely and had a great devotional! After we got back, we did skits and then Lexi and Dad arrived!! It was great to see them and all of the girls were so excited to have Lexi back and were so concerned about her (they even had stopped what they were doing at the Ropes Course and had a prayer all together in her behalf)...
* Thursday morning started off with morning yoga, breakfast and then another (longer, harder) hike! Lexi needed to not exert herself (and there were a couple of other girls that were a little injured) and so I stayed behind with all of them and ended up working on my Sunday school lesson that I'd be teaching the following Sunday. When they got back, we had lunch and then we had camp crafts (painting, making bracelets, stamping, etc...) We then let the girls have some free time - most ended up going swimming for the remainder of the afternoon. The Bishopric arrived during that time and then after another delicious dinner by our awesome camp cooks, we sang camp songs and did some awards and then once the sun started to set, we started our more Spiritual events for the evening. We had a "Tree of Life" Devotional that the YCL's put on (where they each represented a strong woman throughout Church history who "knew who she was" - the first sister missionary, a mother of the Stripling Warrior, Emma Smith and a Personal ancestor to one of the YCL'S and then we ended up at a tree lit up with Christmas lights. The final YCL shared a devotional about holding to the rod (like each of the women in the presentations leading to the Tree of Life) did. We then went straight into our Testimony meeting which was very spiritual and both Aubrie and Lexi shared their testimony.
* Friday morning after breakfast, we cleaned up camp, loaded up and started to head home. We stopped at a lake/beach area for lunch and swimming and then arrived back home by about 2pm.
EASTER
* Easter was on April 4th this year - which also happened to be General Conference (which is always special!) Conference was 100% virtual again (no people were allowed to attend the conference in person)
* The girls were the only ones to dye Easter eggs this year - and like always, they turned out cute and creative!
* We had August, McKendra and Henry come over for an Easter Basket and to watch Conference
HEALTH JOURNEY
* Back towards the end of April, Ben had gone into Crunch fitness with the intent of canceling his gym membership (since he hadn't used it in a very long time and felt it was a waste of money). Before letting him cancel, they asked if he'd meet with Sean - the Fitness Manager - and he walked away with a renewed commitment to health and had signed up for a Personal Trainer to meet with 3x's a week for 6 months! Sean gave him a detailed meal plan and Ben was on fire! Mom helped him meal prep for the week and since that day (less than 3 months ago) he's lost over 50 pounds!! He's at the best place (Mentally) that he's been in for years! and he's feeling soooo much better all around!
* Ben's fire and determination (and results!) inspired mom and dad to join on this health journey with him and so they made an appointment to meet with Sean. They both walked away with a year membership to the gym and a Personal Trainer for each of them (meeting 2x's a week) and a detailed meal plan tailored for each of them. It has been just 2.5 months and they are each down over 40 pounds and feeling stronger than ever! Their Trainers certainly push them to work their hardest and the results are starting to show :)
JOHN & ANNE CELEBRATE 50 YEARS
* We had another 50th Wedding Celebration to plan for - this time for Grandma and Grandpa Vogt!
* Their Anniversary was on July 3rd
* We rented out a Winery called Sol Invictus in Star, Idaho. We had most of the family there in attendance (roughly 40 came to celebrate)
* Dad's Mechanics wife was hired to be the caterer and she prepared DELICIOUS food and the whole evening was very professional
* Dad and Lexi put together a video of all of their kids (and their family's) being interviewed about their thoughts/feelings/memories of grandma and grandpa -- this was certainly the highlight of the evening! It was very well done and was super meaningful to grandma and grandpa
* We are so blessed to have TWO sets of parents that are such great examples of marriage and unity!
* The only thing not so good about the evening - IT WAS BRUTALLY HOT!! and most of the evening was spent outside on the winery's patio area.
MISC PICTURES AND EVENTS
* Finding out that August and McKendra are expecting another baby!!! We are so thrilled! In June, they found out that it will be ANOTHER BOY!! How exciting!
* After about 6 weeks, we had to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa Carlson - it was sad to see them go!
* Helping August and McKendra move into their new place
* Celebrated several Holidays - Mother's Day, Father's Day, Memorial Day and 4th of July
SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING
* We had General Conference back in April and it was a very spiritually uplifting weekend! It was all Virtual again but that didn't take away from the power and influence the speakers had.
* The Temples are starting to open back up! Here in Idaho, we have personally opened up from Phase 2 to Phase 3 (which means ALL proxy and Live ordinances are now able to be scheduled). There are still limited openings for attending and sessions are kept small but it's a step in the right direction! It's quite hard to get an appointment as they are booked out weeks in advance (and when the Temple releases new spots, they fill quickly!).
* With how limited sessions are, dad and mom still haven't been able to go - BUT Aubrie and Lexi have been able to go on FOUR separate occasions! Twice with their YW class, another time with a family in our ward and a 4th time a Rugby teammate (Sage Young) invited them to attend with her and her family. Sadly, our printer has been down and so they haven't been able to take any of our direct family names - but they have been able to help out several families in our Ward with their family names.
* It is truly a blessing at how well (Mentally and Physically) Ben is doing! We feel so blessed that he is coping and dealing with life so well these days!
* Another blessing and tender mercy is Nathan read his first chapter book this summer! He is so proud of his efforts (and so are we!) He finished a "Secrets of Droon" book and immediately asked for Book 2 in the series - yay!! We know that Heavenly Father has been with him on this VERY long journey of literacy with Nathan and has blessed his hard work, perseverance and effort! We also know that the one-on-one tutoring of Grandma Carlson has been very influential and priceless in his growth!
* Dad had the opportunity to attend a Leadership Training where an Apostle was in attendance! Elder Gerrit W Gong was the speaker at a Multi-Stake Leadership. This was actually during the 50th Wedding Anniversary/Carlson Family Reunion in Burley and so he drove home for it, attended and drove back to Burley all in the same day. He came back inspired, fired up and filled with the Spirit. He was able to share with the family some of the highlights that were taught. Here are some of those thoughts:
1) Balance - Alma 29:3, D&C 10:4, Mosiah 4:3, 9 - We are men. Focus on what you can do. Be intentional.
A. Delegation - gives others an inspired opportunity to grow
B. Loaves and Fish - we do the best we can and trust the Lord to do the rest
C. Prioritization
2) Ministering - Sisters, older sisters, those who are not tech savy, marginalized, children with challenges. Mosiah 2:11 - We are called to be leaders, we are not better. The effort is ours, the outcome is the Lord's. Ministering interviews - we minister to the minister
3) Unity - Mosiah 18:21, Alma 13:18, Words of Mormon 1:18, 1Ne 15:25 Those who seek mercy should be merciful
4) Priesthood Blessings - Dallin H Oaks April 2010 - Healing the Sick. Five steps of a Priesthood Blessing - Annoint, Sealing, Faith, Words of the prayer, Will of the Lord. The blessing we can give is to receive a blessing. Get the husband to give a blessing even if he is struggling. Blessings are done by Authority not Power.
5) Preparing for the second coming D&C 50:22-26
It was a great experience to be taught by an Apostle and three Seventies. There was such a strong spirit there and I walked away spiritually nourished. We had Elder Gong, Elder Terence M. Vinson, Presidency of the Seventy, Elder Gifford Nielson of the Seventy, Elder Kenneth J. Firmage of teh Seventy, Meridian Temple President Robert H. Sainsbury, Boise Temple President Kirk L. Jenkins, and Boise Idaho Mission President Martin J. Nygaard.
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