Stephen's first Missionary splits!

Inspired by his older cousins (Cannon on his mission in Arizona, and Sterling's recent trip to Trinidad with Uncle Sterling where he did missionary splits), Stephen told our elders about his cousins tonight at dinner, and they invited him out to do the same thing... AND HE DID! What a feeling -- watching him bike away with these 2 fine missionaries... very hard to express those emotions! We were so proud that he hopped right on his bike and took off.  I wanted to follow him in my car... 8-)  (I didn't)

Spending the night with Aunt Tiffer is the best -- Kas lost a tooth and forgot her contact case, but Tiff took care of it all...

right after she came and taught a missionary class to our YW! She rocks!

 

Loving going to HP with Dad for "Take kids to work Day"

 

 

CBAW:  Cousin Backyard Airsoft Wars

Nighttime conversation between Maxwell, Kenny, and Mel after they were in bed:

 

K: Mom, were you ever in the navy?

Mel: Nope, I sure wasn't. Why do you ask?

K: Well, it was one of my favorite things when we went to Nauvoo and I got to stand up with Papa when they thanked all the military people at the end of that show, and he was in the navy.

Maxwell: No Kenny, Grandpa spied on the Russians.

K: He did? What does that mean?

M: I just know that my Dad told me that he spied on Russians and couldn't tell anyone about it, and it was a big secret.

K: Hmmm. {pause} Mom, did Grandpa have a sad childhood? (Like, what was the connection there? Maybe that if he had a sad upbringing, he'd move into a delinquent career like spying??)

Mel: No! He was a great little kid, and grew up doing all kinds of fun things, and was a cool dad. I remember when I was younger, he raced me all the way from his office to the car one day and he totally beat me, and Grandma told me he was the strongest man she's ever known.

M & K: Wow. That's so cool.