Elder Egan Part 2

We got into Salt Lake at 9:30 this morning:) It really hit me that Jon is now an Elder and he has begun his mission when, at the airport in Portland a man in line at the gate called "Elder....where are you going?"Here we are as we walk to the shuttle to pick up our rental car. I couldn't resist this picture.
Jon wanted to walk up to the Christus statue at the Salt Lake visitors center. We have taken pictures in front of it with our family every time we come to Salt Lake. Jon (oops...Elder Egan) gave me 5 pictures of him and this was # 4. He's so funny about pictures!!!
Everywhere we went on Temple Square, Jon was asked if he was headed to the MTC. It's such a small world....we met a Sister missionary that just served for 3 months in Vancouver in our Stake. She was from someplace like Russia (we can't remember where). She offered to take our picture together.
We had also asked if Sister Carnahan from our ward who is serving on Temple Square was there today. We were in the right place at the right time, as Sister Carnahan and her companion (from Brazil) came running down the sidewalk. She is on the right in blue.

I Love to See the Temple.....................

I'm going there some day. To feel The Holy Spirit, To listen and to pray. For the Temple is a house of God, A place of love and beauty. I'll prepare myself while I am young....it is my sacred duty.We have sung that song so many times before and today.... Jon went to the temple. It was a very special day. Here we are afterward in the atrium....same place we took pictures with Jenny 2 years ago when she went. Jon was very happy to be in the temple.....can you tell?? Here we are with Art and Marilyn and Alvaretta. Elaine came too, but had to get home quickly as she was headed to Idaho in the morning. We have been having fun preparing for "The Mission" I'll write more later:)

What to Post???

Well, even Richard was telling me today he is sick of pulling up my blog with his surgery pictures! There is lots going on here, but I haven't really been in the mood to blog. But.....for the sake of saying something new, here goes.In February Josh performed an ensemble in the local Solo and Ensemble competition. It was his first time on the high school level. He plays french horn during concert band season. (mellophone during marching season)
It was very fun....a little nerve racking for sure, but fun none the less. Here is his group. The girl standing next to him is in our ward.
This is the best group picture. Josh was hamming it up in all the others. Silly boy!!
And of course, I've been busy buying clothes for Jon for his mission. I took this picture and sent it to him so he could see what he was getting. He will be home on Saturday and then we will rush around getting everything done before we leave on the 27th. I will definitley keep everyone up to date on all of our activities during the next few weeks.

The Long Awaited Day Arrives!!!!

After years of waiting.......and wondering if we would have to wait yet again, Richard got a thumbs up for his back surgery. He was running a nearly 103 degree temperature up until the last minute, thanks to taking care of me for 4 days while I was sick, but there were many prayers and a Priesthood Blessing and everything went as expected:) We arrived at the hospital at 6am and they took him right back to pre-op.
Myrna, David, Marilyn and Alvaretta arrived a few hours later to wait with me. They are super teriffic sisters:) We had a nice visit and walked to the gift shop where the girls bought him some cards and candy.
The surgery went well....The damage was worse than the Dr. thought, but it was repaired just fine. It is SO AMAZING what they can do nowadays and that he could come home the very same day. We arrived home a little after 1:00pm simple as that. He is feeling great....no more leg pain. Grandma Rose made us a delicious pot roast dinner, Sister Sim made an enchalida dish for tomorrow. We had a nice visit with Aunt Adele when she came over with a book she had bought in Ireland for him to look at while recovering. Art and Marilyn came over with a strawberry milkshake and stayed to visit. There were lots of phone calls checking on him and now he can go to bed and have a good nights sleep for a change:) It was a great day!!

Trip to Utah

I've been home a week already and am just now blogging:) Though it wasn't the easiest trip it was good to be with family. As I drove to Gunnison I loved the snow that had fallen the night before. The mountains along the way were different than the ones we have at home, but majestic just the same.
Chris and Katherine and the kids arrived at the house early Saturday morning. They are growing so fast! Kadelyn is inching up on me.
LaDena and Natalie met us at the cemetery. They all had a long drive before the 9:30am graveside service. We all came back to the house and had a nice visit before they all headed home.
I couldn't resist taking this picture of "toothless Terran"....he looks so cute!
This is Jennys dear friend Katie. She is a real gem!! I bugged her because I wanted to see her house so I could picture where she lived. She was a HUGE help to Jenny through her trial....we spent some time with her and her husband on Saturday night watching a movie. Katie is going to school to become a nurse. She will be a very compassionate nurse:)
It was a beautiful drive to Salt Lake on Sunday morning...I took alot of pictures while driving. Jenny thinks it's a boring drive, and maybe I would too if I drove it alot, but to me it was beautiful!!

Peace

As I was saying my prayers Monday night before leaving for Utah, I had such an overwhelming feeling come over me assuring me that all would be well with my little girl and her baby. The Spirit confirmed to me that having the baby now is a tender mercy in her life. It was a feeling of peace and it enveloped my entire body.
Less than an hour later we got the call that her water had broken, and I wasn't sure I would get there in time.............
Little Timothy was just that....very little. It was a sweet experience to be with Logan and Jenny as they held him and said their goodbyes.
I bought this figurine for Jenny last November....it is titled "Guardian". I contemplated whether I should give it to her now or not, since I had been saving it to give her at just the right time. It is very fitting and though she held Timothy in the palm of her hands, this represents her feelings of motherhood and how much she loved this little one. She was and is his guardian.....and he is her angel.

Random......Dishpan Hands!!

I know this is really random.........considering I never finished blogging about the DC trip. Things have just been crazy at our house since we got home the day after the Inauguration and except for my missionary blog, I haven't had the energy to blog.
I've been taking care of Mom since Bob died....helping with everything that needs to be done after the death of a husband. We found her a new place to live and have been packing her up in preparation to move this week. Mom called me into the back room the other day and told me she wanted to give me something. I couldn't imagine what it would be as I took the boxes down from a shelf. It turned out they were some dishes they had bought which I had never seen. Mom knows how much I enjoy pretty dishes during different holidays and things and wanted me to have them. That night, I spent hours re-arranging my cupboard in the kitchen to fit them in. This is my cupboard. I really love it...it has a light inside. All the dishes were stacked on the bottom shelf for storage, but with these new dishes I wanted to display the pretty blue goblets she gave me as well, so I just went crazy rearranging by "color" on the different shelves.I thought it would be fun to display the glasses with the dishes on the same shelf instead of all on the same one like before.

Here are the ones she gave me. The blue goblets are BEAUTIFUL but huge.....they take up alot of room. Not all of the dishes are here because Josh wanted to used them to eat on tonight. He loves setting a pretty table:)
This is the Noritake china I got when I was married to Paul. Bill and Sidney Belle bought us most of it. We use these at Easter and other special holidays. The pretty dessert glasses were a wedding present. Today I am much more practical, and would never buy them, unless of course I found them at the Goodwill or DI.....and probably not even then!!These are my Christmas dishes. I LOVE Christmas!! I bought the dishes at the Dollar Tree....the glasses came from Dairy Queen about 15 years ago and the pretty goblets were from Arbys. I kick myself for only getting four of them!!
Now these are NOT in the china cupboard...but are in another one. These are our everyday dishes. Most people want clothes for Christmas, but I wanted new dishes one year, so Richard got me these. I found the cute placemats at the Goodwill....they're reversable:) The boys love eating cereal out of the huge bowls.
AND finally (are you still with me??)....these are some clear glass dishes that Sidney Belle gave me. They were Paul's when he died. I kind of resisted her giving them to me, but boy am I glad she did. We use these ALOT!! They are multipurpose dishes. In our family we have alot of "Special" dinners. I just put a co-ordinating tablecloth for whatever holiday we're celebrating and these dishes ALWAYS match!! We just used them for our Valentines Day dinner and in a few weeks we'll use them for St. Patricks day.
So now you have a history of my dishes......and so will our kids. If they end up with any of them they will know where they came from:) Is it any wonder I have "Dishpan" Hands!!

MISSION CALL!!!

The call came.....the time was set.......
3:45 our time ......we gathered around the phone and waited for the phone to ring. While Jon gathered with his friends in Rexburg, Jenny and Logan gathered in Gunnison and we gathered in Vancouver with Grandma Cameron, Aunt Debi, Josh, and Nadya, grandma's caregiver. Dear Elder Egan, you are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Missouri St. Louis Mission.Lucky for us we had a map of Missouri, having gone on a church history tour last July. We didn't go to St. Louis, but found it quickly on the map.
The mission takes in Missouri and parts of Illinois. He is to report to the Missionary Training Center in Provo Utah on April 29, just 5 days after his 19th birthday. It will be a busy few weeks before he leaves, coming home from Rexburg on April 11th.Jon is going to be an awesome missionary!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRL!!!

Life has been in a whirl since Grandpa Cameron passed away and I nearly missed blogging my favorite girl's birthday SO..... I grabbed a few random pictures to share a few memories. Time is speeding by....She turned one so long ago....
then before I knew it she was cleaning the bathroom...she had such a way with doing her chores. I remember taking this picture of her singing with her rubber gloves on like it was yesterday:)
....and spending months learning to dance latin style for the dance festival. Now she is married in her own brand new home (lucky girl) and a baby on the way. Like I said....time is speeding by:)
HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY JENNY!!!

Homecoming

I wish I had taken my camera out for our arrival home today. As we walked past the security gates into the main terminal at the airport we were greeted by friends and family , television cameras and more. I got teary eyed as we heard the cheers for our kids. Josh was pulled over right away and interviewed by a local radio station KEX 1190, so he missed the television cameras. After the months of preparation, the trip has come to an end. Before I tell about "Inauguration Day" here are some pictures of our time in DC. This is as close as we could get to the Lincoln Memorial. It's hard to believe, but there were tons of people in front of us...so many we could easily have been lost in the crowd and separated.
This is how the mall looked on Sunday morning...not many people. Just 4 hours later it was nearly PACKED with people....250,000 people from this end to the front of the Lincoln memorial on the other end. You can see the huge television screens. Obama's motorcade going to the Arlington National Cemetery...we got out of our busses and took pictures. Notice the officers are standing at attention.
The Washington monument also before the concert started and people came in droves. The Lincoln Memorial is where the concert was, and it is on the other side of the monument.
As we waited on Monday morning in the very frigid outdoors to get into the National Archives, Josh and some others passed the time by playing a game .
Some of our chaperones, braving the cold waiting to enter The Archives.
This does NOT do justice to how many porta potties there were. They say there were 5,000, but it looked more like a million. They were EVERYWHERE!!!!

Day 3 and the Declaration of Independence

Another wonderful day!!
As I write it is nearly 10PM and the kids are out in the hotel parking lot practicing, so I have to hurry before they get done.

It was very cold as we waited in line to get into The National Archives, but well worth it:) We saw The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence and The Bill of Rights to name a few. The Constitution was worn and fading. I so thought of Jon and wished he was here, because all of those things mean so much to him.

We spent a few hours walking to the memorials......The Lincoln Memorial was closed to walking up to because of concert yesterday, but we did get pictures. We saw the Vietnam Memorial, The world War 2 Memorial (which was absolutely beautiful and moving). As we walked the memorials, loudspeakers were re playing the concert from yesterday, and Denzel Washington gave a very moving speech, and my friend Michelle and I were crying as we felt the patriotism of our country. We didn't make it to the Jefferson Memorial because of our time restrictions, and we were sad at that, BUT we decided NOT to complain about it since after all, we are here to march for The President of the United States.

This evening we went to a Midevil Dinner....a BLAST!!! The kids really got into it.

I forgot to mention as we drove in on Tuesday night the first thing we saw was The Washingtonb Temple. It was so beautiful!!!!

Gotta go, the kids are done. Josh is on an end....his horn is silver with a big bell.

Love you all......

Day 2

I'm unable to post pictures from this computer....BUMMER!!!
Our Day in Review:
Cool Things about today:

1. Arlington National Cemetery - we saw the Kennedy Gravesites

2. Smithsonian Mall was INCREDIBLE!! We were all able to wander at our own leisure.
I think my group went into 4 museums....we got to see Dorothy's red slippers, gowns of the past first ladies, planes and spaceships, The Hope Diamond....to name a few.

3. There was a HUGE concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial...there were 1/2 a million people...There a huge screens set up all over the Mall as it's called where you could watch it. It was HARD not to get caught up into the whole thing.

4. We saw Obama's motorcade as it went by to Arlington National Cemetery. Our busses were stopped and like 30 police cars, motorcycles, and secret service cars were in between his limo. We were able to get out of our busses and stand along the sidewalk and take pictures.

Which brings me to the UnCool thing about today:

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the changing of the Guard was closed because Obama was going there.

Great Day....Very exciting......Awesome experience!!!

We've Arrived!!

Well, it was a VERY long day. We flew from Portland to SanFrancisco where we had a long layover. Everywhere we went people were congratulating us and wishing us luck in the parade. Josh had a pretty hard time of it with his anxiety, but we got through it. On the second leg of our flight, we met an angel lady named Helen, who visited with Josh and she got the airlines to take Josh up in the cockpit and meet the captain before the flight. There was a delay while they took fuel off the plane, apparently it was too full.
We arrived in DC just before 10:00. We are now in our hotel, where they fed us pizza and got everyone settled.
Tomorrow is a busy day!!

We're Off.......

Stay Tuned.....
I'll try to blog while in Washington DC:) If not, see you when we get back:)
Okay, so I need to change the date...and I'm posting 5 hours before we actually leave, but you get the drift!!

Parade and Proclamation

Seventy Six Trombones led the big parade.............
Well, maybe it was not TOO big, and there were only SOME trombones........today the city had a very short parade with OUR marching band as a send off to the Inuagural Parade. Grandma and Grandpa Cameron came. Richard was on the street cheering the kids on. I waited in the park with G&G for the band to arrive.
The kids started off from an elementary school down the road from this city park. They were escorted by a veterans colorguard and some vietnam veterans on their motorcycles. They marched into the park playing their song "Washington My Home" our state song.
There were dignitaries, speeches, free Krispy Kream donuts and an official proclamation declaring next Tuesday, Jan. 20th, Evergreen High School Marching Band and Colorguard Day. This is our director Mr. Kuske, thanking the city for the outpouring of support they have given us.
Cousin Jane was very sweet to come and support Joshua and the band. It had been a beautiful day, but by now it was getting quite chilly. We were all getting cold.....a small sacrifice:) The kids got back onto busses, and we headed back to the school, loaded up the equipment and our luggage (it's being driven by truck to save money).... then the kids ate pizza and MORE Krispy Creams!! We're flying out bright and early Saturday morning.
I'm so glad Josh will have this experience AND that I will experience it with him!!!

Christmas has come and gone, New years has passed........

While I have been very flakey about posting, I have loved reading everyones blogs even though I haven't had any motivation for posting. Call me LAZY!!!

Our Christmas was very nice...it was a most beautiful white Christmas, snowing a good part of the day. We spent time with both sets of Grandparents on Christmas Day as well as our Christmas Eve tradition with Art and Marilyns family.
I was whining about not having a snowman so Jon and Josh built me one...isn't he cute????


The boys ended up in a snowball fight and dragged me into it in the process.

AND....this icicle was 40 inches long that was hanging on Art and Marilyns house.
AMAZING!!!

You may be wondering why my blog is patriotic. Just getting ready for Josh and my trip to the Presidential Inauguration as he marches in the parade with The Evergreen High School Marching Band. We leave in 11 days!!!