A Farewell to JT

            Three generations of missionaries,

       Germany,  Russia, Hong Kong

Today we went to Layton to attend Elder JT Eborn's "Farewell".  He spoke in sacrament meeting in his ward and will be entering the MTC on Wednesday, December 30, 2009,  just two days after his 19th birthday.  He is a spiritual young man and is well prepared to assume the duties of a missionary.  He will have a challenge with the new language and culture, but as he said in his talk today: Love is the key.  JT is a very lovable young man, and has been since the day of his birth.  He has an infectious smile and a sincere testimony of the gospel and love for others.  These things will serve him well for the next two years as he works with the Russian people in the Russia Novosibirstk Mission.  We are honored to have JT as a part of our family and I'm sure the Lord is very happy that JT will be serving His people as a misionary in Russia.  Since Jason was born, and as the other children came along, I often felt a bit overwhelmed with the responsibilities of fatherhood.  It is an awesome responsibility, and I sometimes feared I was not as good as I should have been.  After sacrament meeting today one of the Stake Presidency in Jason and Rene's stake came over to me and introduced himself.  I was proud to ackowledge JT as my grandson.  Then he told me something that has given me cause for reflection.  He said: "You never know how good of a father you have been until you see your own children raising their children."  If that is the case, maybe I wasn't so bad after all. I'm sure your Mom played the biggest role, for which I am greatful.  Thanks to all of my children who are doing such a wonderful job of raising our grandkids.  We love you every day more and more.  God bless you,  JT. and your family during all of your lives, but especially as you serve these next two years in Russia.

Sisters?? Well almost.!!

During our Bear Lake years together  (35 five of them), we made lots of very good friends and had some wonderful expereinces as we raised our family surrounded by good , honest, down-to earth people.  We have been pleased to see many of them often and even work side by side in the Temple with many of them.  Iris was away form her family for most of the time, but she had one particular friend, who became just like a sister to her.  They still talk often, exchange gifts at Christmas time, and spend time together whenever they can.  Bonnie stopped by to wish us a merry Christmas a couple of days ago.  We miss her and all the other good people of the Bear Lake Valley, who were so instrumental in our lives, and count ourselves as very blessed that they were there when we were raising our family.  We hope and pray that they are all well and that we can keep in touch.  It really is not very far away so there shouldn't be many good excuses.

Iris and her good friend Bonnie

2009 Christmas Party

We had our 2009 Christmas Party last night, December 23.  It was wonderful to have all forty of us together.  This is no easy task and we very much appreciate all of you for making the effort to be there, especially those who had to drive so far and rearrange you busy schedules so that we could all be together.  It may not happen again for a long time.  Also a special thanks to Jason and Rene, for organizing and making this occasion so special for each of us.

We would like to wish each of you a very merry Christmas, and the Lord's choicest blessing for each day of the coming year. You areour greatest joy and we love each of you more than we can express.  Just thank you all for being you and living your lives as you do.  God bless you each and everyone.

A few snapshots from the Christmas Party 2009.  Sorry I didn't get you all, but there will be a family photo forthcoming with all forty of us.

Mason and Melissa dancing at the Christmas Party

Shana and Sam showing that they feel the joy of Christmas through their smiles

Two cousins who don't see each other nearly as often as the would like.  Thanks to Stephen and Candice for making the long trip over from Peblo, Colorado.  Our prayers were answered and the forecast storm didn't really materialize.  Their jouney was long but safe.

Justin and Chalisa at the Party.  There is joy.

Alison and Avery.  Every likes to make faces at the camera.  That seems to be something of a family trait.

Now there's a happy couple.  It's so great to have them around.  I hope it's for a long, long time.  We'll see.

Rene has a kack for getting people to love her, especially me and the other little ones.

Mason can be the life of any party.  He love's to get involved and he's good at getting others to do the same.

 What a wonderful quality for a ten-year-old.

To Russia with Grandparent's Love and Thanks

Today we had a wonderful experience for which we are deeply greatful.  At one o'clock this afternoon Grandma Iris and I went up to the Temple with  the names of eighty-four of her ancestors, which had been cleared for temple ordinance work.  We deliberately had chosen forty-two females and forty-two males at this particullar time for a special reason.  One of the best parts of the experience was that Elder Jason Taylor Eborn was with us and that he had the opportunity to baptize his grandparents, Grandpa Bart and Grandma Iris, as proxies,  for these deceased relatives of his Grandma Iris.  He did a wonderful job and we were so happy to have him with us and to intorduce him as our missionary grandson, who will soon be off to the Russia Novosibirsk Mission to share the glorious message of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people in that far off land.  We are honored to have a grandson who is so anxious and worthy to be involved in this great work.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is for all people, the living and what we have come, since we have been actively working in the temple, to call them, "the living dead."  That is truly what they are.  Indeed, all of us fit into the category of the living dead unless we have become as Christ would have us be.  As JT was here at our place this afternoon, he was standing beside our  December Calendar with it's picture of Mary and Joseph and the Christ child.  I couldn't help but think at that moment,, that the Savior came, as a child, and grew from grace to grace, to fulfill a mission and "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man"  Now our first grandson is off to do his part in this great mission.  What an honor it is to have him in our family, and what a privilege it is to be able to do our part, here at home, to be supportive of him, through our prayers and through our own actions, as we try more perfectly to understand and live the real message that we celebrate during the Chritmas season and throughout the year.  JT will be a great missionary, and we will all be better for his service and our prayers and actions in his support.  Thanks for this special day, JT.  We will always love you.

 

And the Winner is

I'm not the kind that goes around entering every contest I can find, but WorldMark Resorts, which we are a part of, sponsors a photograph and essay contest each year.  I have taken about twentyfivethousand pictures since I got my first digital camera, most of which were just memory keepers and certainly nothing to take special note of, but out of the twentyfivethousand I have thought to myself, maybe a half a dozen or so were actually good enough to submit to some sort of photo contest.  I picked one I took  of Jason flyfishing in the Wind Rivers last summer and sent it in just for the heck of it.  Low and behold our WorldMark Destinations Magazine shows up in the mailbox the other day with my picture on the front cover.  I had won first prize and with it 10,000 World Mark Credits.  That's about a weeks vaction in any of their 60 plus resorts.  We'll take it.  I guess it never hurts to try.  I must be a pretty good judge of pictures or I wouldn't have been able to pick that one out of the thousands.  Maybe it was just because Jason's backside was showing.  He really is that awesome.

Following the Aggies

Many years ago when I was attending Utah Stae University, I attended every single game.  In short I became somewhat hooked on the excitement of Aggie games, football and basketball.  I've followed them ever since, always checking on the scores and hoping they did well against the Cougars and the Utes as well as all the other teams.  When I was at USU they had some exceptional teams.  I was there when Merlin Olsen was playing football along with a host of other future NFL players and even their coach ended up as the head football coach of the Denver Broncos.  I was there when the basketball team was rated number eight in the NCAA Division one polls and the seventh rated Utes came to Logan for a game in the old Nelson Field House.  I remember standing in line on a cold winter's day for hours to make sure I could even get into the Fieldhouse.  The game was won by the Utes by a single point. When I got home from my mission in Germany I picked up where I had left off.  The football team was not as fun to watch, but basketball was every bit as good.  These were the days of the great Wayne Estes.  I knew him personally and talked with him on many  occasions.  I was there that February night when he scored 48 points against the University of Denver.  I will never forget the shock of hearing that he had been elctorocuted after accidentlly running into a high power electric line after stopping to help the victums of an automobile accident at the corner of Fourth North and the USU Campus after the game.  He was scoring about 35 points per game and pulling down tons of rebounds.  He was incredible to watch and an incredible person.  My heart along with all who knew him  and follwed the Aggies was very heavy for a long time.  Many things have change since then.  The Spectrum took the place of the Nelson Field House.  The football stadium has been enlarged and modernized.  The studentbody has more than trippled in size.  One thing, however remains, once an Aggie always an Aggie.  The crowds were very much into the game back then and they still are.  USU and the Aggies make Logan a special place in the minds and hearts of thousands of people.  In no small measure, that is why we feel at home here after moving to Logan last year.  Tonight we went to the USU basketball game.  It was fun to be a part of the cheering crowd, even though the Aggies lost for the first time on their home court in more than thrity games,  It was also good to see Jared, now a sports reporter for the Deseret News, occupying one of the best seats in the house.  We love to read his articles and follow his writings no matter what he is covering.  He does very well at all he does and we are constantly getting compliments about his writing.  We are proud of him and his family and all they do.

Aggie Basketball Game.  Note the cheering fans and especially the "Distracter" , the fat guy with his shirt off, under the opposing teams basket.  Aggie fans will do anything to help their team win.

Jared, hard at work behind the scorers table reporting on the Aggie game.  Check out his articles in the Deseret News or at deseretenews.com.

Celebration Time, Come On

The Holiday Season

I love the holiday season, the sounds of music and laughter,  the the smell of turkey stuffing and pine, the sight of smiling faces and loving people, the feeling of gratitude for all of our material and spiritual blessings and the chance to be together and to reach out to others less fortunate.  I suppose, if we are in the proper frame of mind, everyday should be cause for celebration.  These are just a few of the moments captured on film (what's that?) that bring joy to our lives.  Believe me there are many, many more, but there is such a thing as too much,  Maybe I've already crossed that line.

Grandma Iris and our sweet little Tristan celebrating his very first Thanksgiving with the family. We are greatful for him and all the rest of our wonderful grandchildren and their families.

At Thanksgiving we were espcially thankful to Ammon and Alison for their gracious hosting of the whole clan. You'd have all been welcome at Grandma and Granpa's house, but it certainly would have been a lot more cozy/congested.

Alison and Ammon's home is laid out just right to accomodate a large crowd, and that we have become.  Thanks again to Ammon and Alison!!!!

It was good to see Kinsey Amanda too.  It's been a while since we have been around her much.  She is so involved in school and life in general.  One thing's for sure, she's getting more beautiful by the minute.

I am greatful for the bounties of life that are so plentiuly provided for us.  Not one of us has to ever go hungry as evidenced by the array of wondeful pies that were available to us on Thanksgiving, and to think that it is just a part of what was left after we had already gorged ourselves on Turkey and all the traditional delacacies of the season.

And then there is the simple joy of being together and knowing that we belong to an eternal family, we are not perfect by a long shot, but we are better people because we have each other.  It was also our last Thanksgiving with JT for a while, as he will be in Russia for the next two years.  We missed Stephen and his family, but are looking forward to their being here with us during the Christmas season.  It is difficult to get everyone together as we are all so busy and involved in things, not to mention scattered around a bit, though not bad.  As Rene'once commented:  "We may not have it all together, but together we've got it all."

My last post was of Ryan anfd me up Emigration Canyon following the age-old tradition of getting our own Christmas Tree from the mountains I love so much.  I love to be out in the mountains, when the air is crisp and clear and the snow has covered the pines and forests.  It is a bit of a task to select the perfect tree, but it never fails that the effort is rewarding in and of itself, and now just two days later, the fresh tree stands in our living room as a symbol of the Christmas season.  I always try to find underlying smbolic meanings in everything.  They are especially plentiful, as we get into the true Spirit of Christmas.

We hope all of  you are happy and healthy and that this Christmas season is filled with joy and gratitude for all that we are and have.