Two Fun Weekends in a Row

On January 17th Russ and I drove down to Portland to spend the night with Kristy's family.

Friday we got to go to the Portland temple & then Saturday we took the three oldest kids out for a 

couple of hours to give Kristy and Wes some time to themselves. 

Later that day we attended Jazlyn's dance recital (which is why we went down).

We've been to several over the years and its fun to see how much she has progressed.

Unfortunately we had to leave right after the recital to attend two wedding receptions back at home, but we're glad we made the effort to go.

Jazlyn is the cutest one in the group!!!

Last week Russ took an extra day off work and we went to Utah. Some of the fun things we did was go to breakfast with Grandma Larsen, my parents & Lindsey's family.

When I was in Nicaragua with Jared, Elder Anderson came to our Stake Conference. He told Russ he felt bad he didn't get to meet me and when we were in Salt Lake to stop by. Russ took him up on the offer. It was really nice to be able to have Jared, Lindsey, Tyrel & Tytyn accompany us. What a special  experience for our family. He was very gracious to let me take some pictures.

Russ and Elder Anderson

After our meeting with Elder Anderson we went to Tucano's for a late lunch/early dinner.

Talk about tons of food….all of us were so full.

Tytyn and Tyrel 

Jared and Russ loving all the meat!!

From Salt Lake we drove to Vernal and spent a few days with Lindsey's family. We picked up Jared from BYU after his classes on Friday and he got to go with us. We went to the Dinosaur museum which Tytyn loved. Jared had never been before and really enjoyed it also.

Tytyn is such a happy little boy.

Bet you've never seen a dinosaur with snow on it.

After the museum we drove 20 miles outside of Vernal where a big "dig" site is. This is a huge rock wall where there are many dinosaur bones still in it.

Jared standing next to a dinosaur femur bone.

Tytyn & Russ touching a real dinosaur bone.

Sunday we got to go to church with them. Look at these four handsome guys!!

Here's a profile shot of Lindsey at five months. We can hardly wait!! They've decided not to find out what they're having.

Tytyn with a big piece of ice in front of their house. 

In the past two weeks I've gotten to see all of my kids and grandkids, except for Jacob. What could be better than that???? I LOVE hanging out with them!!

By the way Jacob, Elder Larsen just got transferred to Monroe, which is just south of Richfield.

He is excited to be in a rural area again.

Reflections of 2013

As I reflect over 2013 there are many things that I am thankful for and just thought I would share a few of them. They aren't in any certain order, but have all touched my life in some way.

Thankful that I could talk to our missionary twice this year!!

Having my parents come up and visit for a week.

Visiting the Tetons was definitely a highlight for me. They are beautiful!!

Good times at the Lake house with people we love.

The birth of Shelten Russell Braithwaite

 Being able to go to Central America twice to help out the good people there.

This was one of the YM Jared baptized on his mission & now he's

getting ready to go.

Being healthy enough that I can still go hiking with my BEST friend. Here we are at Annapurna Base Camp.

Seeing our first grandchild, Jazlyn baptized.

Finding out Lindsey is expecting in May!!!

Taking our Hindu guide to church with us in Kathmandu and seeing the light of the gospel get him so excited. It was the highlight of our trip to Nepal.

Still being madly in love with this guy after 32 years of marriage!!

Happy New Year!!

I'm not really quite sure where the month of December went, but Happy 2014 to all my dear family and friends. We had a very quiet Christmas this year. Since it was in the middle of the week, Wes and Kristy couldn't come until the weekend. We've been able to have Jared here for almost 2 weeks now and its been fun to have him home.
First thing on Christmas morning we were able to Skype Jacob on his mission. He looked so good and sounded so happy. He even admitted that it was going way to fast. He loves serving in St. George right now and has been there the past 4 months. After our chat with Jacob we had two sets of missionaries and a recent convert from our ward, Wayne Douglas, over for Christmas Brunch. They always bring a special spirit into our home. Later in the day we also Skyped with Lindsey and her family and it was fun to see Tytyn so excited about all his new treasures. The rest of the day we just ate junk (waaaay too much), watched movies and relaxed.
Other than the 3 of us getting the flu over New Year's and me getting Hives for a week we've had a pretty good time together.

                                           Our missionaries at Christmas Brunch & Wayne
                                              on the back right who we've grown to love.
                                           

For Christmas I surprised Russ and got him a new Glock.

 He's been looking at them for a while now and I knew he

was going to buy one, so decided to surprise him.

One of my BEST Christmas gifts was from Jared, 

washing my windows that needed it desperately!!

Jared and Matsen also restocked the firewood in the garage.

Papa reading stories to Kelsten

Jazlyn reading to Grandma

It was great to hear the piano being played again in our home!

Russ volunteered to "watch" Shelten while we played a game with the kids.

Over Christmas we had our friends the Woodburys from Draper,

Utah visit us. We met them on our Humanitarian trips to Central

America. We had dinner & then showed them the video of Nicaragua 

that I just finished making for the group.

Wes had to go home early to work so he missed out on this family pic.

We're grateful they could come and hang out for a few days. 

I hurry and took this cute picture right before they headed home.