Temple Day

Caleb went to the temple today for his first time.  He is getting ready to leave on his mission to New Mexico next month.  Also Kim went to the temple for her first time.  She is getting ready for her wedding to Isaac.  A lot of us went up to Seattle with them so it made the occasion really special.

 

This is the Seattle Temple.  It was a sacred occasion and we were happy to be able to share it with them.

This is the angel Moroni who's statue stands atop the temple.  He is blowing his trumpet inviting people to come unto Jesus Christ and accept the gospel.  Visit the church website for more information:
http://http://www.lds.org/

Spokane Again

We made another trip up to Spokane.  We were picking up Caleb who finished his first semester at BYU Idaho and is coming home to get ready for his mission.  We had a fun visit, we got Caleb okay, and there was snow.

 This is our grandson Ashton who likes to dress up to play in the snow.

 This tree in the front yard was beautiful with the white and the red.

 Evan and Molly in front of the Christmas tree.

 James and Molly.

The one bad thing was the toilet.  I tried to fix the handle and change the interior for them and ended up causing a leak which we could not get stopped.  We left with the toilet broken and leaking water.  Sorry.

Ancestor Stories #3 Einion of Harlech Castle

One of our ancestors was the Constable of Harlech Castle in Wales.  His name was Einion and he was born in Carniarth, Wales in the early 1400's.  Einion of Carniarth is my 18th great-grandfather (back 20 generations).

 Harlech Castle in Wales.

Front entrance to Harlech Castle.

Entrance to the inner castle.

 A view of some towers.

 Up on top of the walls.

 A view of the interior courtyard between the inner and outer walls.

 A sketch of the castle.  Note the inner and outer set of walls forming a castle within a castle.

The grounds and some outer perimeter walls.

Thanksgiving at Nathanael's house

We had Thanksgiving this year at Nathanael and Mary-Anne's house in Lehi, Utah.  It was a long drive but well worth the trip.  We had a lot of fun and it was great to visit with everyone.

Here's Nathanael carving the turkey.  Mary-Anne did an outstanding job preparing the Thanksgiving dinner and it was so good.  We ate so much the whole time, it was so delicious.

Here's little Jacob, our cute little grandson.

I tried to get a closeup with Jacob but it looks like I scared him a little.  He's very friendly and loves to play.

 

Isaac and his fiance Kim got to join us, although most of the time they were mostly paying attention to each other.  They are getting married in less than a month.

Our grandson Dallen came with us.  He kept us company on the long drive out from Spokane and it was nice to have him along.

 On Thanksgiving morning Nathanael wanted to go play football. 

 Dallen and I were watching while Nathanael and Caleb played.  Caleb is in the blue shorts.

Unfortunately it didn't end well as we had to make a trip to the hospital.  Nathanael got hurt real bad and actually broke five ribs.  It's going to take about 6 weeks to totally heal.  I felt real bad for him.

 Jacob's favorite pastime seemed to be playing with cars.  He rolls them all around. 

One day we went out to BYU Provo and Isaac showed us around.  We also saw the apartment where he and Kim are going to be living.  It's unfurnished so if anyone has extra furniture they need things.

We also stopped at BYU Idaho and Caleb showed us around and we saw his room in the dorms.  I don't have any pictures but we got to stop by Tianna's house and visit twice on the trips out and back and went to church with them.

Thanks Nathanael and Mary-Anne, we really appreciate you opening your house up to us and being such great hosts during Thanksgiving.  We had a wonderful time.

Caleb's Mission Call

Caleb received his mission call from President Monson to serve a mission in the New Mexico Farmington Mission.

He will be going on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for two years to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ

The boundaries of the New Mexico Farmington Mission cover parts of four states - New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah.  It covers a lot of land.

Most of the mission is Native American reservations.  It's a new mission just formed two years ago and the church news report said it was formed with the intent to put renewed emphasis on Native Americans.  Here you can see some of the reservations that are in the mission.  The biggest is the Navajo Nation.

Caleb will report to the MTC on January 16th.  Congratulations Caleb, we are very happy for you and proud of you.

Squirrels

We got a new squirrel feeder from Mom and Dad.

 Our big gray squirrels are so large they can hardly get inside.

On Sunday I counted seven squirrels in the backyard.  They've been very busy collecting and hiding food and we see them digging around in the yard all the time.

Museum of Flight

Jacquelyn and I went to the Museum of Flight to see the Space Shuttle display.  It's so close to where I work that I walked over there and met her during my lunch break.

We had a good time together.  This is a picture from inside the Shuttle Bay looking up at an Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) booster just coming out of the shuttle into space.  The IUS is built by Boeing and was used to take satellites up to higher orbits.  I worked on that program for 5 years back in the early 90's and got to be in a Mission Control station down at Kennedy Space Center for a Space Shuttle launch.

 Here's my beautiful wife next to an astronaut suit.

 We also took of tour of an Eisenhower/Kennedy era Air Force One.

 The Presidential Conference room inside.

Also saw a large number of airplane displays.  Jacquelyn got to sit in the cockpit of an SR=71 Blackbird spy plane.