Minnesota

We make our way to Minnesota each summer as well to spend time with the Gordhamers and friends from our neighborhood and church. This summer we stayed with Lora (Joseph's sister), Jeff Gunderson and their family out in Jordan. They have a fantastic garden that we enjoyed fresh produce from and even got a turn at weeding. Below is our real life cabbage patch doll, Ella. The Gunderson's have a little pug which Ella adored. She spent hours chasing the dog and trying to be one herself.



We spent several fun afternoons in our old neighborhood on Games Drive with the Kraft Family. Abigail and Maggie love to play with Madeline and Haley.


With an apple orchard, a boat, a barn, motorcycles and go carts, and cousins galore, there is always something fun to do. Abigail and Maggie had a great time lip sinking and performing musical numbers with their cousins. Xander was in heaven with the boy toys.

Happy 4th Birthday to Alexander! We celebrated his birthday at Lora's house with an extended birthday party and huge cake. Xander waited a long time for this day to come and was really excited to open presents: Nerf guns and transformers.

We enjoyed a family Fourth of July campout at Cleary Lake. We all dressed for the occasion to take a clan picture. It is tradition to do a silly shot along with the more serious ones. It is a lot of fun and has become a tradition almost every summer. Unfortunately, I caught a bad flu the first day and spent the whole weekend sick in bed, missing the picture, fireworks and most of the cam pout. The kids had a wonderful time though watching the skits, playing in the river, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, and ending the weekend with a spectacular firework display out by the casino. Such good times.

California Summer

Each summer we undertake the major exodus to the US. This entails packing 4 kids up for the summer holiday and boarding a jumbo jet to spend 15+ very long hours to reach California, with a stopover in Japan. It is an absolute nightmare but there is no other way around it. Luckily, we soon forget it happened while we spend a wonderful summer among family and friends.

This past summer holiday began in California with a trip to Disneyland. It was the first time at Disneyland for half of them, and the first time they remember for the older girls. I mostly watched with Ella on the sidelines, resting my pregnant body.

A trip to California always entails lots of beach time and walks along the bluffs. The weather is always perfect in the summer and the kids can spend hours on end in the sand and water. Alexander became buddies with his cousin David and we are lucky Joseph and Tracy live close to my parents and Xander was able to see David often. All my sisters came to California at one time or another. Kiersten and Alessa were there for awhile with Tasha and her girls. Abigail, Maggie, Afton and Eliza make up a perfect foursome. Grandma got the sewing machine out and the girls had fun making rag quilts and doll clothes with Grandma. Cami and Kara also came with their children for a week, bringing along a new cat and some cat drama (Grandma already has two cats and they didn't all get along.)

Most of the time, the kids played happily on Grandma and Grandpa's hill in the tree house, swinging, visiting the horses, in the garage playing the wii, swimming in the jacuzzi or waterfall, or eating fresh popped popcorn in the loggia. You couldn't find a better place to spend the summer and create some fun memories.

We spent a fun morning at the marine institute in Dana Point, enjoying the displays of fish and other marine life in the area.

School Days

Here are some final school year pictures. Abigail and Maggie both had a fantastic year at their school here in Singapore. A few weeks ago they have a program called student led conferences. This is where the student leads their parents through their year with a portfolio containing samples of all their academic work and progress. Then they take us around to the different specials: art, PE and music. Pictured here are Abigail and Maggie on the climbing wall in the gym. They are also pictured next to their art in the art show that the art department puts together. Maggie is pointing to her piece and Abigail is standing by the cakes with slices--her piece.

Abigail is with her Achievement Day group. I am the leader for her age. (There are actually 13 girls so they are split into older and younger. ) We had fun making summer flip-flops last week. And below she is modeling her "Chewer Trainer," her invention she made for the invention convention at school (kind of like a science fair, only with an invention.) You wear it at dinner and it reminds you to keep your mouth closed while you are chewing.

Xander at his school. He is with his teacher Miss Christina. Some of his friends at the activity table. Also a picture of him writing his name on the board with his friends Iman. They all have to write their name when they come in.

Here is Xander with Laoshi his Chinese teacher in the classroom. (Laoshi has two tone marks and literally means teacher in Chinese.) She does their Chinese circle time.































Putting his shoes away and at the play yard.

New Stuff

Well, our anniversary is over and so I wanted to post something else now. Here are some pictures of the kids that Joseph has taken recently. There actually weren't that many to choose from--just shows that we aren't getting the cameras out much anymore. Joseph has been so busy at work and has traveled these past weeks. He flew to Houston via Moscow for a total of 24 hours on board an airplane. Whenever I think I am having a hard time going solo with 4 kids, I just think of that and realize he isn't exactly having a picnic either. He also was released as gospel doctrine teacher in the ward and is now in Young Men's again, as 2nd C working with the Teachers. This is the 4th ward/YM Presidency he has been in now. I knew it was coming sooner or later. Gospel Doctrine teacher is a dream of a calling for a spouse though--no meetings, activities, camp outs, youth conferences, firesides, etc. Just built in scripture study every week. He is happy with the YM though and there is a good reason why he is always asked to work with them.

I feel like I am counting down the days for school to end more than my daughters. Every morning when the alarm goes off at 6:30am I think, 1 more down, 13 to go. (That is how many school days are currently left.) Only 26 more lunches to pack, 13 more afternoons of homework to get through (minus weekends and the last day actually,) 13 more buses to catch and so on. They have both had a fantastic school year and I can hardly believe it is coming to a close. They have matured a lot and grown physically. I can't do Abigail's hair anymore if she is standing up. I have also had fun introducing the girls to things that I loved as a girl. We recently acquired the first 3 seasons of the TV show Avonlea and we have fun watching it together on the weekends when Joseph is traveling.

Xander has been going to a preschool that is made up of more local kids. He has really enjoyed it and grown socially as well. Singapore's school year goes from January to December though and so Xander is leaving in the middle of it which makes things interesting for when we return (and for billing purposes.) Basically, he just takes a 2 month holiday. Ella is getting over croup but is otherwise well. She is an active, smiley little thing. Her favorite things are "gog" (dog,) "orse" (horse,) and "uh oh." That is pretty much all she says. I think she is too busy to bother talking much. She will officially start nursery in 2 weeks. Now whether or not she will go is another question.

Xander climbing at the park.

Ella ready for bed, wearing her favorite blankie.

Abigail's 3rd grade class made a quilt--each student painted and quilted one square. Then they all got to take it home for a night.

Cute Maggie at the park.

Maggie's class did a Habitat Luau performance. They danced to the Beach Boys "Kokomo" and all presented their reports on tropical animals (Maggie chose a Sloth.)

11 Years

If we had a song, it would be the one you should be hearing now--Secret Garden by Bruce Springsteen. I think it has stuck over the years because it was the song playing on the radio the Spring of 97 when we started dating at BYU. And it kind of captures how our relationship started. Joseph was determined and persistent, certainly patient. I was reserved and contradictory, certainly hard to get to know and even harder to get close to. Those were somewhat confusing times, mixed with a little bit of nostalgia and magic; and it is strange to think back to how it all began--to see that it, we, really worked and to see just how far we have come. (Including this picture. It is a digital photo of a photo, taken in 2002 with the first digital camera we owned.)

So here are some memories over the years, a tribute to our marriage for you to peruse and for posterity to enjoy.

I'll start at the beginning--Winter of 96. Without dragging out all the details, we were in the same ward but didn't really exchange so much as a "hi" until we were paired together as a Big Brother/Big Sister through BYUSA. That is how we first got to know each other and it wasn't exactly the conventional way of mutual interest, attraction, dating, etc. After months of this, Joseph called me one afternoon in the Spring of 97to ask me to go to a swing dance at the HFAC--fine arts building on campus. (It probably doesn't even exist anymore.) This was strange--a date. I accepted and we had fun together. After all, it had become quite natural to just hang out with Joseph without worrying about trying to impress him, or wondering what he was thinking about me.

So we started to move in a new direction, managing to spend a lot of time together without officially dating. We still took the little boy out each Saturday for BYUSA. Joseph showed me his favorite sandwich joint in some old basement off Center Street. We would eat sandwiches outside the old capitol building on the grass. He taught me how to country dance at Jake's, and we met in the library and did homework together. We spent time hiking around Rock Canyon and sitting on a huge rock there as the evenings grew warmer. Then school was over and Joseph was going home to Minnesota for the summer to work construction. I was flying home for the two week break before coming back for Spring term. Joseph drove with me to the airport and was then going to drive my little red VW Fox back to Provo for me. It all seemed kind of anti-climatic. Joseph dropped me off at the curb and said goodbye. He slipped a letter into my hand and said, "light reading--for the plane." I'm sure I mumbled, "thanks," or something. And then I went to check in and he drove off--or so I thought. I was riding the escalator up to the gates in what I remember to be a fairly deserted airport. And I heard someone call my name. It was Joseph running past the ticketing and up the escalator. "Wait I forgot something," he was saying. Then he caught up to me and said, "I forgot this." And he kissed me right there at the top of the escalator. That was it. Then he ran back down. Now that I think about it, he was probably worried my car would get towed. It wasn't our first kiss, but it was definitely the beginning of something more meaningful. Oh yes, and that letter wasn't exactly "light reading." Thus began a summer of correspondence via good, old-fashioned letter writing. I still have the bundle of letters he wrote me bound with a rubber band, sitting at the bottom of my cedar chest.

There are many more pieces that make up this picture but I will end at the beginning. Joseph likes to tell the engagement story. It too is rather unconventional and quite entertaining--at least his version is.

I thought I would also note some of the other memorable anniversaries we have shared over the past 11 years. We spent our first anniversary where it all begin: the San Diego temple and afterwards enjoyed a lunch at a great Mexican restaurant nearby, complete with dancers and serenading. On our second anniversary we went camping in the Shenandoah National Park out in Virginia where we were living at the time. By then we had Abigail. It was the first and last time I've ever been camping with Joseph. Luckily, we now have children more than willing to accommodate his camping preference. We hiked, saw deer, and even a few of the yellow and black rattlers out there. For number 3, we ate dinner at the Blue Iguana across the street from our little condo in Fairfax. We always observed a stream of patrons at that small restaurant and wanted to try it, that is until we saw the price. But we splurged on our anniversary and even went to see Pearl Harbor in the theaters afterward. I'm sure we did something nice for 4, 5 and 6 but they have slipped my mind. Now number 7 I remember because I was very pregnant with Xander and I spent our anniversary alone while Joseph traveled in Romania. I guess it was my gift to him. He had to go there on business, but was done on Friday. However he stayed over the weekend of our anniversary and spent 2 days in his old mission areas, attending church in the branch he had served in for 1 year. He did bring me home some beautiful handmade vases, which I did set out to display and now 2 are broken . . . We went to Belize for number 9. That was quite spontaneous and fabulous--very memorable. And number 10, that's a big one, we ate dinner at The Raffles Hotel here in Singapore in what is called The Tiffan Room. The hotel is a spectacular building of the British colonial era in the 19th century. And what will we be doing this Saturday on our 11th anniversary? This is great: a Singapore 1st Ward BBQ.

All in all, it's been a pretty good 11 years.