Quick trip to Portland, Oregon

On Friday, April 15th, at 6:00am Blake, Randy, Courtney and I hopped in the car and headed toward Portland, Oregon. Randy's best friend, Michael Packer was getting married in the Portland Temple on the 16th. We drove to Twin Falls and met Jared and Nikelle for breakfast, then continued on our way. It was a long drive, but we arrived near Portland at about 6:00 pm, then it took us another hour to get through the rush hour traffic in a downpour to finally arrive at our hotel.  We stayed at the Fairfield Inn less than a mile from the Temple.


Saturday morning, we went to the Temple for Michael and Alexis' sealing. It was a beautiful ceremony, and a beautiful temple. 

Blake & I near a beautiful flowering tree.

Randy & Courtney

Near the pond in front of the temple.

Mike and his beautiful bride coming out of the Temple.

Best Buds

Funny story...Courtney wanted to get a picture of the Temple sign, so we waited in the car while she went across the street to get a picture, then cars started coming, so she ran back to the car. She didn't know that Randy snapped this picture from the car.

After the sealing, Packers invited us to a real nice luncheon at Olive Garden right by our hotel.  After eating all we wanted, we decided to take a ride to the coast. It was about a 1 1/2 hour drive. We went to Cannon Beach, and saw Haystack Rock.  Randy loved the beach with real waves.  It was a beautiful area. It was pretty windy and chilly, but beautiful.

This is Haystack Rock.  The tide was low, so we could walk right out to it.

Some more rock formations. Looks like a picture from a calendar.

There were all kinds of "creatures" stuck to and under the rocks.  We saw some starfish too.

Randy checking out the waves.

This sailor greeted us as we walked down the lane to the beach.

Tsunami warning signs.

Randy on an actual beach!

We stayed at the beach for about an hour, then drove back so we could make it to Mike and Alexis' reception. They had a program, Mike even sang a song to Alexis. It was really nice. We got to blow bubbles on them as they left the church.  

Sunday morning we went to Sacrament Meeting, then started home. We got to Boise about 7:00pm, and stayed in the Residence Inn. We got up early Monday morning and were home by 11:00am. It was a very fast trip, with lots of sitting and riding, but it was really fun and I'm so glad we went.

We were amazed at all the moss on everything.

On the way home, we saw this herd of big horn sheep right by the side of the freeway. They were pretty cool.

We also saw this beautiful waterfall right off the freeway.

Jared's Mission Call

In January, Jared told us that he had decided to serve a mission.  He said he wasn't going to tell anyone else until he had received his call.  We have been very good at keeping the secret, even though it was hard.  Only a few people besides just our immediate family knew, not aunts and uncles or even Grandma Purcell.  The papers were sent to Salt Lake on Feb. 24th. We waited, and waited and waited and it finally showed up in the mail on Monday, March 28th.  Well, Jared couldn't come home from Twin Falls until Saturday!  I had to hide it so I wasn't too tempted to open it!  Finally, after General Priesthood Meeting on Saturday night we all gathered for the grand opening!  Cindy was on Celia's video call, and Courtney was on speaker phone because she was in Utah.  


Drum roll please.....Jared will be serving in the Missouri, St. Louis Mission!  He enters the MTC on May 25th!  We are so proud of you Jared.  We admire your courage and your willingness to serve the Lord!

Conference Weekend

Last weekend was the LDS General Conference.  As luck would have it, Blake had two tennis matches on Saturday, so we didn't get to hear/see much of Saturday's sessions.  After his first match, we went over to Brian and Celia's.  Celia had bought some pots to plant some seeds in, Maden thought they were the best toys ever.

He stacked and unstacked them over and over and over and over.

Blake and Celia played their next match at noon, I stayed with Maden so he could have a nap.  When they came back, we went to Wingers.  They came to our house later so Brian could go to Priesthood with Blake.  Jared came from Twin Falls and met them at the Stake Center. Jared's friend Nikelle came with him, so Celia, Nikelle and Maden and I just hung around waiting and waiting for Priesthood to get over.

Maden found some more stacking toys at my house.

Priesthood seemed to take forever!  Finally, it was over, and the men all came home.  Randy had been working, so he came down after work.  We were all gathered in anticipation of Jared opening his mission call!  The big white envelope had come on Monday, and I had to hide it so I wouldn't just stare at it all week.  It was a very long two hours for Nikelle to stare at it during Priesthood!

Jared will be serving in the Missouri, St. Louis Mission!!! He enters the MTC on May 25th!

Brian, Celia and Maden stayed the night, so we got up on Sunday and had Monkey Bread and watched conference.

Jared and Nikelle and Baby "watching" conference.

Brian and Celia "watching" conference.

Blake "watching" conference.

Maden entertained us all during conference!

Nikelle taught Jared to play "Called to Serve" out of the simplified hymn book, so he gave a little recital. It was very fun, Thank you Nikelle.  Maden had to help.

Brian gave a little concert, too with Maden's help of course.

It was Celia's birthday, so we had BBQ chicken and rice upon her request. Then we had cake and ice cream.  

I think it's a great birthday when you get to stay in your jammies all day!  I hope Celia thought it was a good birthday!

Spring Break?

Randy and Jared both had spring break the same week, even though they go to different schools, so Blake, Brian and Courtney took some time off work and we all headed to Garden City Utah, more commonly known as Bear Lake on Monday, March 21st.  We stayed at the Worldmark resort.  Brian and Celia and Randy and Courtney fixed some really good meals.  I appreciated having them do a lot of the cooking!  Thanks guys!  On Tuesday, Brian, Celia, Randy and Jared went out into the fresh powder.  It had snowed all night and there was plenty of it!

Brian in deep!

Just stopped in the powder.

Randy pointing something out.

Jared resting.

Even saw a lot of deer.

While they were out in the mountains, Blake and Courtney and I were entertained by Maden!

He sat on Grandpa's lap and sang songs and played with Grandpa's comb and pen.

He loves my camera and would come running as soon as he saw it to put the lens cap back on.

He thinks my reading glasses are funny.

He had a grand time opening and shutting the cupboard doors.

Wednesday, just the men went out on the machines.  It was a bright sunny day, so Celia dressed Maden up in his snow clothes and we went outside.

He wasn't sure what to think of the mittens. 

He really wasn't too happy about it all for a little while.  He didn't even appreciate that someone had made a snowman for us.

Finally we took him to the sidewalk, and he decided it was kind of fun.

Celia wanted him to pose for a picture, he didn't like that idea too much, but it's a really good picture of Celia!

Brian, Celia and Maden left on Thursday morning, so the rest of us went out on the sleds. It was snowing and fogged in the mountains, so we couldn't see very good and didn't stay very long.  We went back into Garden City and had pizza at a little restaurant.

This picture was actually taken on Tuesday. we didn't take any on Thursday.  But Jared had a great time in all the snow!