My parents are rockin' the Congo!!!

My mom and Dad's blog was featured in Mormon Times this week for their beautiful story of "street contacting" in the Congo. If you have a minute, it is worth the read. We are so proud of them and miss them immensely. Keep up the good work mom and dad!

Click here for Mormon Times article. See "Missionary Dream".
Click here to go straight to the blog post featured.

A Beautiful Day

Today we "buried" my uncle Mike Ward. What a beautiful day it was.

Some of the highlights include:
The morning mass at the St. Edwards Church that overlooks the Dana Point Ocean. The setting couldn't have been more amazing.

The "Celebration of Life" at the club. Uncle Mike would have loved it! A huge party with food, friends, laughter and tears.

Many fantastic men and women stood up to share their memories and love of Mike Ward. Men with great honors and ties to the community talked about how much they all admired and love Mike. Everyone talked about his compassion, service and commitment to those he loved. I got to stand and read a letter from my mother and father from the Congo, Africa where they are serving a mission for our church. It was a beautiful afternoon of tributes. Once again, we were packed! There were at least 40-50 people who didn't have seats, and the ballroom was full of tables!

But the very best part was being on one of the 15 boats (mostly sailboats) that went three miles out off the Dana Point Coastline, to join in the Internment at Sea. This was an incredible experience. It was so beautiful, peaceful and serene. Everything was exactly as Uncle Mike would have hoped it would be.

This video is from my little camera. It is not perfect, but I hope you can catch a small part of the beauty that surrounded us this afternoon.

Savannah 2

Our darling cousin's, "the Kirkby's" came to stay with us for a couple of weeks the beginning of January.

It was really fun to have SO MANY COUSINS throughout the holiday season. Our house was crazy and hectic, but it all seemed to work just perfectly.
Their Savannah is 3 and she adored our Savannah. They played and laughed together the entire time. They were so excited on the first night when they realized they each had the same p.j.'s.
Cousin Savannah called our Savannah "Savannah too" and it was precious!

Cole and Brighton LOVE LOVE LOVE cousin visits. Thanks to all the cousins who have made the effort to come and see us! We love you! Please keep coming and call and invite yourself to stay in our guest rooms!

Snoqualmie Falls

We had so many fun experiences while visiting the Dittbrenners in Seattle. They live about 20 minutes from these gorgeous waterfalls. It was BEAUTIFUL!! We bundeled up and had a terrific time exploring the area.

Brighton was having so much fun he kept jumping up and down. He is the blur!
We had such a great day!

Fishing in the Dark

Bill is a great dad. He and the boys did a little moonlight fishing at the lake while we were at the Dittbrenners this past week. The weather was crisp and cool. What a fun trip!



"You and me going fishing in the dark
Lying on our backs and counting the stars
Where the cool grass grows
Down by the river in the full moon light
Staying the whole night through
Feels so good to be with you"

They didn't catch anything, but they made some great memories.