Prep for Trek

We've been working hard at preparing spiritually and physically for our youth pioneer trek including lots of conference talks, indexing, reading & watching & talking about pioneers, walking, running, etc.  Bob and I will be going as Pa and Ma, and Jonas and Leslie are old enough to attend this time. This past Saturday we took ALL the kids out for a 4 mile hike in the undeveloped areas of our surrounding El Paso neighborhood.  We had our stroller for Gideon and Reuben and we called it our handcart and took turns pushing it.  We also took Lucy with us and she loved it.  The kids loved giving her water by dripping their water bottles into her mouth, but then they were thirsty...
It was good practice since it was super sandy and really hot! Everyone did well and we are excited for the real thing coming up at the end of this month.

I am a child of God

This was the theme of our week's of school, chosen by Reuben.  We had fun with I AM poems, selfies, and various activities.

Here are some selfies:

Monuments

The kids studied different American monuments this past while... They presented papers and power points, and a physical representation of their monument.  While studying monuments, we realized that temples are also monuments of our faith.

Check out the substitutions in these definitions:

"Landmarks tell us about the people who built them and how they lived their lives.  Some landmarks were homes to kings and emperors.  Some protected their countries from enemies.  Some were built to remember important people who had died.  Landmarks tell us about what was important to the people who built them.  They tell us what those people valued most."

Temples tell us about the people who built them and how they lived their lives.  Temples are homes to kings and queens.  Temples protect us from enemies.  Temples are built to remember and serve important people who had died.   Temples tell us about what was important to the people who built them.  They tell us what those people valued most.

We also were able to learn that our bodies can be monuments as well...  How do we take care of our bodies?  How do we live our lives?  They are homes to our spirits.  Our bodies can protect us from Satan and our enemies.  Our bodies are to be used in remembering Jesus Christ and serving others. Our bodies can be a "living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1) and tell others what is important to us and what we value most.

It was a cool learning and teaching moment.  It is awesome to think of how many monuments to our faith we have around the world!

Here are the pix of their monument creations:

Evelyn made Liberty Bell cookies:

Micah reported on the Statue of Liberty:

Owen learned about the Golden Gate Bridge:

Troy taught us about Mt. St. Helen's.  While not technically a monument, it is a national landmark.  I didn't get a picture of his molten lava chocolate cake, cuz it was GONE!!!

Bob turns ..... 41... !

We celebrated Bob's birthday with an entire weekend.  It was pretty busy with seminary graduation, teenage double dates, school projects, and a ward talent show, but we fit fun events in through the weekend.  We had cake twice, we saw the movie San Andreas, we ate at a Mediterranean restaurant, worked on our picnic table, and enjoyed playing Settlers of Cataan and Boggle.  His presents didn't arrive until Monday, so he had to wait until then to open his new Apple Watch, bonsai tree, magnetic silly putty, and new cufflinks.

Seminary Graduation/ Completion

On May 28, 2015, Jonas graduated from seminary!  He spoke at the ceremony and shared his strong testimony.  We are so thankful for him and his example.  He is pretty incredible.  Leslie completed her second year of seminary and is currently organizing a ward seminary musical number, Praise the Man, to be shared this summer.  She's amazing.

In their mini yearbook created by their seminary teacher, Jonas said, "My testimony was strengthened when I trusted and relied on the Lord and my relationship with Him got stronger."  Leslie's favorite scripture mastery was "D&C 76:22-24 He Lives! and JSH 1:15-20 because it was really awesome to memorize".

We are thankful for seminary and all that the scriptures teach us!