Sorry that it has been a while since I have made an entry. We are on the new early schedule at church 9 til noon. After priesthood and relief society we (mother and I) hurried into our classroom and stacked up all of the chairs accept for the few for our class members. We taught our lesson in grand style and ended our class with prayer and then finished stacking all of the chairs and rushed into sacrament meeting. We enjoyed a nice fast and testimony meeting and after it was over our relief society president came up to me and asked if I remembered that we had changed meeting schedules and that we were on the early schedule. I replied well of coarse I remembered I was here on time. She said that the first ward relief society president had contacted her and said that they had no chairs set up for their relief society meeting. Then it dawned on me what we had done and was I embarrassed. I'm sure that none of you had any adjustments to your new schedules.
Item 2: It is our 44th wedding anniversary on the 17th of this month. We thought it would be great if our kids and in law kids could go out to dinner together with us on Saturday the 19th. Not wanting to exclude any but not wanting to burden any. We would love to gather all local for sure. As a side note on our anniversary, Uncle Eldon called me this morning and asked what year we were married. I told him 1964 and he said good I only have 6 more years to live and then I can pass the sun dial on to me. He then reminded me that Uncle Ariel gave my dad this sun dial on his 50th anniversary and had that engraved on the sun dial and then dad had it engraved for Eldon's 50th anniversary and he said that I was the next in line to be married 50 years and that he wanted our family to have it and that it had a better chance of staying in the family and continue to be passed along. It really touched me. He said that he now has something to really live for and look forward to.
Item 3: Family vacation this year? I love Pineview and yet it is so convenient that some have not given it the commitment we would like so we can all be together. This last year we seemed to get people in shifts. If we can't commit to a week then lets settle on the length of time that we will all be together. We have three families that are going to be moving this summer. Les and James and Tiff and Ryan and James and DeDe will all be moving this summer. Is this summer going to be impossible to plan a family vacation together? Now is the time to reserve space if we are going to do it and get the best spots.
Item 4: Family gift exchange? Some have suggested that we change the rules for our gift exchange. I have enjoyed it the way it has been but if we need to look at it and make some changes, I would like some feed back. I am also interested in the the grand kids input.
Item 5: We have not heard back from DW for JS but just think it has been the holidays. We will keep you posted as new developments occur.
Item 6: If there is no response to any of this 08 is cancelled.
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Yay for a new post! Because I don't want '08 cancelled (we've worked waaaay too hard to get here), I am responding! Yes, we will be closer this summer (July/Aug). It will be hard to know when, or even if, James will be able to get away. However, I would be willing to bring the kids for a three-day or so vacation (sniffle, sniffle for James). I would probably prefer August, as we will be getting settled, but I am flexible. Not as flexible as I'd like, but I'm doing Yoga, so there's hope. :)
As for the gift exchange: I, too, have enjoyed the way it's been done. However, it seems like it's getting harder and harder to fit everything in. Part of me thinks, "life will calm down after this year." Another part of me thinks, "when has that ever been true??" Another part of me thinks, "Let's just buy our gifts, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!!" Another part of me thinks, "Good grief, how many parts can one person have???!"
Since this is already long: funny about the chairs. Cool about the sundial and Uncle Eldon. Let us know about DW and JS.
About family vacation, my kids remember a certain tantalizing post on the family blog about Lake Powell houseboating in 08. They keep asking about it.
Anyway, we love the Pineview trip and would love to be there with everyone. I will have to take at least one class that is only offered in the summer (I know, what kind of whack-job administrator came up with that schedule?!), so I will have less flexibility than I have had in the past. Unfortunately at this point, I don't even know what day of the week that class will be held on. (As I write this, I'm wondering if your assessment that this summer is just too crazy may be right.)
I like the gift exchange. I think it's great that the kids like to give to (and sometimes even make things for) each other. If it simplifies things to give couple to couple instead of person to person, I think that's fine. But I think the kids would really miss out if we just gave family to family. That's just my two cents.
Thanks for FHE last night. It was great to be together.
My 2 cents on family vacation: let it go this summer. Then plan our big Lake Powell houseboat vacation for 2009.
Maybe this summer we can do something really fun for the grandkids party - one day of fun.
Also, we need any dates already spoken for from each family, i.e., yw and scout camps, etc.
Linda (since this is Dad's blog and I'm not his mom.)
We're planning on dinner on the 19th. That sounds great!
OK, here's my vote for Pineview: Please plan without us. If it turns out that we're still here and can go, we'll be there!
Here's my vote for Christmas: Natalie mentioned a very cool service project idea that I thought was really great: We choose a sub-for-Santa family, then meet early morning one day and do all the shopping wrapping, etc. all together in one day with a big meal at the end. I think it sounds wonderful. (Even though we may not be in town, we'd still participate from afar.)
I think it would be a fun day and a good experience for all the kids to hang out with cousins all day, yet be engaged in an act of service.
The other thing I like about it is that there doesn't need to be a lot of preparation before that day. There is so much to plan and prepare for during the season, it sounds wonderful to just get together and do it all together. Perhaps we all bring a roll of wrapping paper, scissors and tape.....that sounds easy!
I don't know if we will be able to commit to a week anywhere this summer. With youth conference (pioneer trek for 14-18 yr olds), mini trek (for 12-13 yr olds), Rough Camp (Hollee is ward rough camp director), Oakcrest, Scout camp, Weblos camp, choral camp, fourth of July with extended family, our anniversary and some other family plans, I don't know yet when we will even breath this summer. We always try to come up if possible, but it seems to be gettting harder every year. I wish I could commit, but I'm expected to be at the youth activites when possible and so I don't have the summer figured out yet. We though about boycotting some of the church activities, but our kids would miss out on some great experiences, so . . . Plan on us trying to come up for a day or two. If you're there over a weekend, we can probably plan for a three day weekend.
Gift exchange. We need to talk to our kids about changing this, but Hollee and I like the idea.
We will be there on the 19th. Congrats Mom and Dad on 44 years. You know they say the first year is the hardest, so it's also pretty cool that Natalie and I are at 1.625 years already.
As for summer vacation, we are down with most anything. We really liked Justin's Flaming Gorge (spelling?) idea, but I think that one already got shot down. We understand that there are a lot less boats on the lake during the week, but it is harder to get work off. A three day weekend might be a better option for us.
As for Christmas, we were just thinking that it might be fun to come together to provide a christmas for a deserving family. We could find out the needs of the family as early as we can, and plan a couple of projects. We could work together on the projects and then get together and purchase other things the family wants/needs. If the grandkids still want to do an exchange, we could do that. Just an idea. I enjoy working on projects for our family, but it does seem to be getting harder to come up with gifts for siblings that will be useful and needed/wanted.
I love Jesse and Natalie's sub-for-santa idea. It's awesome!
Congrats Mom and Dad on 44 years. That Sun dial thing is cool. I would like to hear more about it.
Sorry we can't make it to dinner.
I like Jesse's comment on Christmas gift exchange. It does seem really hard to make stuff for our siblings when we all really have what we need, but at the same time it is a cool tradition. I think the kids will want to keep the gift giving up, but the Sub-for-Santa thing sounds really cool.
I have no clue where we will be this next summer. I can guarantee that it will be either really easy for us to be there or it will be really hard. I love Pineview and it is DeDe's new favorite lake in Utah but I do understand what you are saying dad about the convenience thing. I really liked Justin's idea about trying Flamming Gorge. We would probably be able to make it on a 3 day weekend. I due graduate in August though.
Before Natalie and I take all the credit for the great sub for santa idea, I think it came up in a conversation we were having with James and DeDe. It was just as much their Idea. Glad to get that off my chest.
I loooove the sub-for-santa idea! I hope that we change to this!
I think we should do a sub for santa or service project rather than gift exchange...kids included.
I think everyone who is coming to the dinner Saturday should bring a 2 minute presentation as to what their family thinks should happen for vacation and christmas. No powerpoint, please. Flip charts encouraged. Puppets mandatory.
Well, you said you wanted input from grandkids so:
Apparently I'm not invited on the 19th (sniffle sniffle)
Lake Powell is pretty much my favorite place in the world. Houseboats are pretty much my favorite things in the world. My Crowley relatives are pretty much the coolest people in the world.
No pressure.
I don't really care what we do as far as the Christmas tradition goes. As long as we get together, I'm good.
Sorry Josh,
Parents should either represent kids's interests at the dinner on the 19th. Or kids should record a 2 minute video presentation of what they think should happen. The videos will be watched and judged and a small ceremony will announce the winner.
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