Welcome Home, Elder Farnsworth

What a fun day as a family. I cannot believe it had been two years already and Tyler is coming home. Elder Farnsworth served his mission in Kansas and he loved every minute of it. The whole time he was gone we all saw how much he grew up. We all saw how much he loved the people of Kansas and how much his love for the Savior and our Heavenly Father had grown. It was a great time the whole week. 

 Getting to St. George for the homecoming was a real mess for everyone in the Farnsworth family.  First of all, Traci was suppose to leave Tuesday so she could help Mom get ready for the week, but as she and Jonathan arrived at the airport they told her her plane had been struck by lightning. They also told her the plane would be ready in the morning. She was not happy, but she went home and came back the next morning. When she got there the second time, they told her more bad news. The plane was not fixable and they would need to bring another one from Dallas and it wouldn't land until that evening. What a mess! Finally she got on the plane but missed her connection flight because of a delay. Mom and Dad were supposed to pick her up in Las Vegas but she did not land until almost midnight. Instead, she got a rental car and finally made it to St. George around 3:30 in the morning. 

Now for another crazy mess story that builds onto Traci's. We left Wednesday around 3 so we could see Tyler get home at the airport. We had a prayer before we left so we could make it to St. George safely and off we went.  Our trip was going really smooth with no issues until we got to the Manderfield exit and all of the sudden I heard a pop noise. I thought great maybe it was some ice falling off and hitting something. Then it happened again and again.  I pulled over to check the truck and I could not see anything or smell anything, so we went on. No more than another mile down the road I heard a big pop and lots of grinding and the wheels locked up. I was able to get to the side of the road with no issues thank goodness. When I got out again and looked, again I saw nothing. I got back in and tried to drive forward and the truck drove like the brakes were on. Great... My first impression was to call Rick and see what he thought. I thought they had left West Jordan around 12 to come down to St. George, but to an answered prayer of my little ones, they were in Beaver, just 9 miles from where we were. WOW!! They came to the rescue to help. Rick said after he looked at it, that it might be the transfer case.  Again, another transfer case problem... I thought. I was trying really hard to keep it together and not lose it. Well we got a tow truck and while we were waiting for tow truck, Dad came to the rescue and picked up my little family.  Dad and Mom were supposed to be in Vegas picking up Traci, but with her delay they were there to help us instead.  More answered prayers. While everyone was gone I got in the truck and said a prayer for me to help me relax and for a hope all will be okay. As I opened my eyes there was a car behind me. I got out and notice a gentleman asking if I was okay. He was a cop from California on a work trip. He said he had his hazards on to make sure I was safe. I thanked him and told him the tow truck was coming soon. He left and another truck came and it was red with EX on the plates. The guy got out and he said he was from North Logan Fire and he was going down south for a conference. It was my friend, Benion!  How awesome was that. Him and I got in my truck and talked until the tow truck came. This helped a lot with my nerves. Last but not least was the tow truck guy was Tiffany's cousin. I did not have to drive down with a creepy person. What a huge answered prayer.  A big testimony builder again. The stars were in alignment that night to help us get to St. George safely even with the problems with the truck.  After two days in the shop, the truck came out with a brand new transfer case and we came home with a $380 tow truck bill and a $2,500 mechanic bill.  I'm glad we are getting a good tax refund this year...but the truck runs fantastic now!

The main event of the whole week and the reason we all came together, came on Thursday afternoon. Tyler flew into the St. George airport at 1 pm and we were all there to meet him. The only person missing in the family was Sean. 

His best friends were all there. Aunt Cathline and Uncle Ron was there with Robert. As you can tell we were all ready for him as he got off the airplane. When we saw him, we lifted up the posters and yelled and hollered. The security let him through a door and Mom went in for the hug which she had not had for two years. Then it was Dads turn also.

Funny story. Paul tried to sneak in and be the first hug, but Mom physically booted him out of the way and got the first hug. Everyone had tears of joy to see him. He had never met Charlotte, Jonathan or Kari yet, so it was fun to watch them meet him for the first time. Jonathan was not to sure and did not go to him, Charlotte was like "Hi Tyler!" and went to him with no problem like she does with all men. Kari was young enough she went with no issues also. 

There were lots of family hugs and pictures. Emily was way excited to see Tyler.  She and Tyler go way back. She has always had a soft spot for Tyler and as you can tell she missed him and was happy to see him. 

All of his best friends he grew up with were all there to see him get home. It was funny to see them all react and be around each other. Tyler was going down and hugging all of them and then he got to Sammy and skipped her. Oh it was funny to watch. She was expecting a hug and a hi, but nope none. I thought at first he did not want to hug a female yet until he was released. But there was another girl he knew and he gave her a big hug. We all looked at each other and thought oh boy that is funny. Finally he went back and gave Sammy a hug. Needless to say we all laughed.

After all the hugging and picture taking we all headed out side to the cars. I went and got the trail blazer to put Tyler luggage in. Yes we were driving my parents car because the truck was in the shop. As Tyler was coming out, Dad pulled up in his new Dodge MegaCab truck which Tyler had never seen. The look on his face was priceless. He had no idea Dad bought this truck. He was way jealous. Once we got the drool off his face we took off to Golden Corral for food. What a great idea. We all got to talk to Tyler and have fun as we ate. 

Tyler was not released until 8:30 that night, so he had his shirt, tie and his mission tag on all day. Once we got home we talked and played around until 8:30 and Tyler, Mom and Dad left to go to the Stake President's house to get released. We all could tell he was nervous and not sure. About an hour later they came home and I opened the door to see him and he looked devastated. I took him by the hand and pulled him in for a hug. I knew what was the matter, and I knew what was wrong. He told me when the Stake President asked him to take off his mission tags, there was this feeling that left him and he did not want to lose that feeling. I told him as I hugged him, you will be okay and it is time for your next part in life. I also said, "Don't ever forget that feeling and how you felt on your mission. You know you gave it your all with no regrets we are all very proud of you." I could tell Tyler was a different person, he had truly grown up in many ways.  It was fun to see this first hand. Before he got released, his friends told him they would see him at 9 to take him to Denny's.  When Tyler got home, however, he called his friends and told them not tonight. He made the decision on his own. The old Tyler would have jumped all over the opportunity and left. I was proud of him.  We spent that night as a family hearing all of his fun mission stories and seeing all of his mission pictures.  It was a fun night.

The rest of the week was spent having some fun in the sun.  We are glad to go to St. George for a week in the sun. We were all tired of the snow, rain and clouds. We took the bikes and hiking backpack for Charlotte. We were ready for a good time. We went to the park on Friday.

The kids had a blast at the new all abilities park near Tonaquint.  This park has a lot of cool slides, swings and other fun toys.

They especially loved the zip lines.  They each took turns on the zip line and loved it when Tyler would push them really hard so that they could go even faster.

 The kids also had a blast riding their bikes and seeing the ducks. I was able to take these three kiddos to see the ducks and this was the first time I had seen this many ducks. They were all super friendly. The kids were able to go up and feed them with their hands. They thought this was the coolest thing ever. There was a really mean swan that I was giving a hard time. It kept eating my foot and getting mad. The kids laughed. We all had a great time until around 3 and then the rain and hail came down hard.  It hailed so much that the ground was covered in white.  It looked like it had snowed.  We were disappointed that the snow had followed us down to St. George.  But thankfully, it soon melted.

While we were there Cole had his birthday and we went to wish him a happy birthday.

 He was so excited to play with his cousins and eat his cake. They put on candles that would not blow out. I was funny to watch his face when he thought the candles were out and they light back up again.

On Saturday the weather was finally nice and we all took off on a hike. There was an Indian petroglyph site just outside the Arizona strip. 

Of all the years we have lived in St. George we had no idea this area was even here. It was a good hike for the kids. They all had a great time climbing and seeing the cool pictures. What a great day to be outside.

Charlotte loved her backpack and being outside. There was some really cool places to hide and little caves the kids posed in for us. Emily was loving this area. She had so much energy and it was good to get all of it out. 

There was also a big rock at the end of the trail that all the of the cousins climbed up on, with the help of cousin Chase. 

We played around until it was getting a little cold and then headed back to the house to get ready for Sunday.

The whole weekend was a blast being with family and being there for Tyler's homecoming. His homecoming talk was amazing. He did a great job. The night before he was so worried about life and what he was going to do next. He did a great job for a couple of days with the transition of being home and then it hit him Saturday night. He was afraid of following his friends and falling away from the church. We assured him he was stronger than he had ever been. It was a good conversation to have with him as siblings. When Sunday came he did a great homecoming talk and the Spirit was strong through his whole talk. When I saw him up there, I saw a true man who grew up in so many ways. After church we headed back to the house for the open house and food. It was good to see other people from the family. 

We all had a great time. But all good times have to end, it was time to head home. We are proud of you Tyler for being a great missionary, brother, and uncle.

Snow!!

It is the middle of February and we finally got our first big snow storm of the winter.  It has been a very mild winter this year and we thought we had escaped the snow but Mother Nature had other plans for us.  

These pictures were taken on Saturday.  Notice that there is no snow at all and the kids only have light jackets.  Emily and Charlotte had a great time coloring their stump.  Yeah it was a gorgeous day on Saturday.  Temperatures in the 50s and I had a nice 3 mile run outside in the morning.  

Then BAM! this is a picture of what happened on Sunday:

It snowed all day on Sunday and dumped a foot of snow.  I guess you know it isn't winter in Cache Valley until it dumps a foot of snow in one day.  We are just going to have to get used to it.

Since Monday was President's Day, there was no school.  The kids decided to take advantage of the day off and play in the snow.  There was so much snow that it went clear up to their knees.

They had a great time rolling round in the snow and trying to build snow forts.  The snow was too powdery to form into snowballs so we could not build a snowman.  Even Charlotte had a good time in the snow for a little while.

There was so much snow in the backyard that our slide was covered halfway up.  The kids tried to slide down to push the snow off but they ended up getting stuck.  They did discover that they could jump off the slide into the snow and have plenty of cushion for the landing.

Charlotte tried to scoot her way down the slide with the help of Logan but didn't make it very far.

The older kids could play outside in the snow all day and never get too cold but Charlotte was not loving the coldness after a while.  Mostly I think she hated not being able to walk in the deep snow.  It pretty much covered her whole body.  She just wanted to go inside or be held.

The snow buried the kids when they jumped in it.  I took one video of Colby running and jumping in the snow and when he landed, he was up to his waist.  Needless to say they had a great day playing in that cold stuff.  Now Mr. Winter, we've had our fun so please bring back Spring!

History Fair, Valentine's, and Pink Basketball

This week has been full of different activities for our family.  From the History Fair, to Valentines Day, to a breast cancer awareness basketball game at USU.  That is just to name a few things.  

First lets start with the History Fair at the elementary school.  This year's theme for the History fair was "Leaders in History." Rather than put together a poster board or report on the person or event in history, the school decided to do a Wax Museum.   All the participants dressed up like their historical figure and put together a one minute speech about that person.  During the History Fair, the students stood as still as they could until someone stepped on the button in front of them.  Then they came to life as their historical figure and gave their speech.  It was really fun to her all of the speeches from the kids and learn about their historical heroes.

Emily wanted to do the History Fair really badly this year.  In fact she had been planning her project ever since the beginning of the year.  The person she decided to portray in the Wax Museum was none other than her favorite author, Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Emily absolutely loves the whole Little House on the Prairie series and has read them all as well as many of the biographies on Laura.  She did an amazing job writing her own speech as well as memorizing it and performing it that night.  

Here is Emily (or Laura) with her friend Ayzleigh.  Ayzleigh was one of her heroes, a famous barrel racer that was paralyzed in a car accident and then retrained herself to ride horses and barrel race again even being paralyzed.  This was a fun night.

Right after the History Night, we raced right over to the Mountain Crest High School to watch Emily sing with her choir in the high school's choir concert.  The elementary school kids sang with the high school kids in two songs.  It was a good concert.

They next day was Valentine's Day.  This was a very busy day for us.  Russell and I helped with two classroom parties this afternoon.  First we had a blast with Logan's preschool party.

I didn't get any pictures of the party games only of them eating snacks.  We played "Don't Eat Cupid" and then we shot Cupid's arrows into a bowl.  (This was the kids shooting Q-Tips through straws.)  They also read a love bug story and drew and colored their own Love Bugs.  It was a fun party and even Charlotte got in on the action and got her own cupcake.

Here we are with those cute preschoolers and all of Logan's best friends.

Next we rushed over to the elementary to help with Colby's first grade Valentine Tea.  During the Tea, the kids learned how important manners are and how to treat each other with the proper respect.  Each boy was paired up with a girl and they had to use proper etiquette and manners for the Tea.  It was fun to watch.

Colby was not excited to have to be paired up with a girl but he was even more upset because I made him wear his church pants and nice clothes to school.  We went the rounds and I finally told Russell to talk to him and teach him how he is supposed to dress when he is going to something nice with  girl.  After the little 'Man-to-Man' chat, Colby still wasn't too excited but at lest didn't fight me anymore.  He was partnered with his friend, Sunny, and the two of them had  good time at the Valentine Tea.  They were cute together.  The only problem was that anytime I tried to take their picture, both of them made funny faces at me.  Finally after what seemed like a million tries, I got one good picture of them.

After school all the kids wanted to do was look through all of the Valentines they received from their classmates.  Mostly they just wanted to eat all of the candy.  We had them hurry through their homework and then we were off on our family Valentine date.

We went out to eat at Chili's and had a  great time.  The food was really good.  The kids ordered these funny drinks that were blue and had Swedish Fish in them.  They were called something like Deep Blue Sea or Under the Sea or something like that.  They loved them and the drinks were pretty good until later on the Swedish Fish started to disintegrate in the carbonation of the blue Sprite. Then they turned really gross.  After we were done eating, we headed to the USU Spectrum Stadium to see the Girls' Basketball game.

It was a pretty fun game to watch and everyone played really well.  During the first quarter break, Emily got to be part of the entertainment on the court.  She got to participate in the "Dress like an Aggie" game.

She had to put on a full sized Men's basketball jersey as well as these huge basketball shoes and run down the court and back before the other contestant in order to win.  Well of course Emily won.  She won a signed poster of all of the Girls' Basketball team.  She was pretty excited.  So now here is the funny story.  The boy she was competing against had a sort of wardrobe malfunction.  He thought that he had to take off all of his clothes and then put on the basketball jersey rather than just put the jersey over his clothes.  When the announcer said, "Go" the boy started pulling down his pants and almost had them completely off before his dad ran out and stopped him.  Meantime, Emily is in shock and not knowing if she should keep going or wait for this boy to get dressed again.  We all were yelling for her to keep going so she took off running in the huge clothes.  She fell once at half court but got right back up and raced to the finish.  We were all just laughing so hard at the little boy but cheering Emily on the whole way too.  It was funny.

The main reason we went to the basketball game this night was because it was their annual "Pink" basketball game where they honor breast cancer survivors and raise awareness for breast cancer.  During the halftime, I was one of the six breast cancer survivors that was recognized that night.

While we were on the court being recognized, they announced our names and how long we had been in remission.  I was the most recent with 4 months in remission all the way up to the last lady that was 15 years in remission.  It was definitely a touching experience and I felt very inadequate. 

 I am always in awe with these other breast cancer survivors.  They are so awesome and seem so put together and I am still struggling with anxiety over the whole thing.  They are also so friendly and supportive.  I don't know what it is about them but we instantly became friends and I love them all.  

After the game, Emily got to meet some of the basketball players and even got her picture taken with one of them.  She was in heaven.  This was a really fun night.

Here are a few random pictures from this week:

For some reason, all of the kids like to gather in our room in the morning while I get ready.  Emily does her funny poses for the camera. Colby shows off his latest Lego creation.  Logan does the Dab, and Charlotte does her own thing rolling on the bed or begging me to give her some "Pretty" (lotion).  These are some crazy kids.

Here are the many faces of Charlotte.  She learned to ride a motorcycle this week.  She thinks it is pretty fun but the bike is still slightly too big for her so she has a hard time getting off.  She would much rather be pulled in the wagon.  Charlotte has also discovered that she would rather feed herself than be fed which usually results in very messy eating.  But she loves it.

Finally, this smart boy passed off another reading level.  He has now passed off the Reading for all Learners levels 1 and 2 and is now moving on to the Yellow books in level 3.  He was so excited to receive his certificate and book.  He has read this new book multiple times already.  He always reminds me that he needs to do his reading like the other kids.  Good job kids.