The group that went to Russia - 2009

Don and Eve, Jack and Leona Kofoed from B.C., Kent and Sharon Chappell from New Hampshire, Warren and Sue Wainwright from Calif, Glen and Shirley Spunaugle from Oklahoma, Dennis and Cherry Good from B.C. and Arnie (not in picture) and Marion Lyon from Calif.

Red Square, Lenin's Tomb, St. Basil's

St. Basils, built by Ivan the terrible in the 13th century. It was said that he had the designer's eyes gouged out after it was built so he could never build another cathedral as beautiful. It was pretty awesome. The history here on Red square was amazing.

This is Lenin's tomb. It was locked this day so we couldn't see the body but it's still on display, 85 years after his death.

These are all the Kremlin. This is Red Square.

Russia Pictures

Their everywhere!

Russia

We had a fabulous trip to Russia with 6 other couples, Warren and Sue Wainwright, Arnie and Marion Lyon from California, Glen and Shirley Spunaugle from Oklahoma, Jack and Leona Kofoed, Dennis and Cherry Good from British Coumbia, and Kent and Sharon Chappell from New Hampshire. We were on a river boat cruise that started in St. Petersburg and ended in Moscow with quaint little Russian villages along the Volga river. We crossed Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega which are the two biggest lakes in Europe. One of the Villages, Kizhi, was an island pretty far up north on the Volga. We were warned to stay on the path as they island had a "Viper" problem. Oh yea....I stayed on the path. I fret over the gofer snakes here at home....I definetly was going to stay on that path for vipers. We saw the russian ballet, Swan Lake in St. Petersburg. Don actually only slept through 3/4. The russians have an odd thing they do, they come out and take bows at intermission, Don put on his coat because he thought for sure it's over, he was sooooo dissapointed when he realized that it was just intermission. He kept his coat on well into the 2nd half, wishful thinking I think. We had meeting in St. Petersburg at the sister workers bach and it was very very special to meet that little group of friends. They fed us lunch then we had a little testimony meeting, which was special to hear those Russian testimonies, then we were back to the ship. The sisters were able to spend a little time touring with us when Stephanie was not in school. Moscow was incredible. A huge and mostly wealthy city. 13 million. We met Enid and Lyle Dean who have a condo there and the brother workers and had wed. meeting. The Kremlin and red Square were a once in a life time memory for me. I could have spent a week just sitting there soaking in the history. So much history. We saw the old KGB building. The russians have a saying, the building is the highest place in Russia, from the basement you can see Siberia. :) Russia was not someplace I ever thought I would place high on my places to see list, but we are so glad to have been there. What a country. What an awesome trip!

Alaska Wedding

My sister Diane and her three kids, Linda, Kenny and Jeff.

Ginny and John cutting the camo cake. (Their both in the Airforce.)

"We are family, I got all my sister's with me." (and our mom :)

We had a fabulous time at my great-niece's wedding in Anchorage. My sister Peggy and my mom met the rest of my family, my other sister Diane and all her kids, up there. My niece Linda arranged a great house for us all to stay in so it was just a fun weekend to be with family. We usually only get to catch up in splurts but being together for the weekend we were able to spend lots of time, and considering we are all pretty diverse religiously and politically we did well. And of course Ginny looked beautiful and were just so happy for her. She's a sweet sweet girl, just back from Afganistan, and so deserving of this big day.

50 years ago. I'm on the end on the left, Linda is 3rd from the left, Jill is 2nd from the right.

Today.

I had lunch today with my 2 best friends in Elementary School, Linda and Jilly. It was so much fun to see them. I've seen them off and on throughout the years but mostly off. We've promised to have monthly lunches. It was just really nice to get together and talk about times of such innocence. Like our rebellion in Jr. High against having to wear skirts so a bunch of us girls got together and decided we were going to rebel and wear pants. Except only Linda and I did.....or whenever a new Beatle album came out we would race to Jill's to play it on her record player. We literally grew up together.

Random Pictures

These are just random July pictures of the kids and g-kids. We are so lucky to have them all live so close and see them often. Mia is just starting to want to dress up with Chloe and Scarlett and Luke and Lijah are getting into playing with the trains. Savannah is still just being very sweet. and of course the big guys are solving all the worlds problems outside!