Working Together: March 2010

Well, no more are we down under - it's been a tough transition in some ways and great to be back with the family in all ways. So much has happened in the last few months and we just have not kept up with blogging at all! Must change our ways. Won't try to catch you all up with all the ins and outs of life since our return, other than to say we are now in our new home, almost unpacked (if you don't count all the boxes in the garage)and have two new members of the family living with us.

We went to Colorado to visit Kim and family and had a wonderful time with them - it was hard to believe we were back in the U.S.A. We enjoyed being with the girls and had fun in Colorado Springs and Pueblo. We went to a cool hands-on museum and took some photos for posterity! We also enjoyed the whole family together at a "welcome home" reunion in Idaho and had a ball with everyone. It was gorgeous weather and the kids enjoyed the little lake at the park and the bigger kids enjoyed games and bbq-ing and we all enjoyed eating and visiting.

We had fun at a concert given by the kids at AmyLynne and Kayty's school - our girls did a super job of singing and dancing and Remington had the place humming as a stage manager. Unfortunately, I had the camera on the wrong setting, so the photo is a bit dark and grainy. Hope you can see our two beautiful girls.

We then took a trip to the Sawtooth Mountains and the White Cloud Mountain Range. Absolutely awesome country and we really enjoyed the time together.

Two weeks after we moved in we went away to Florida for a couple of weeks with some friends, came back and just seem to have been running ever since. Keeping busy with family history of course and have been blessed to be around our own family here.

Four exhausted DisneyWorld travelers - Merlin, Sharon, Glenys and Bob

A beautiful night view of the Florida Orlando Temple

On one of our jaunts around the area, Bob decided he wanted to stop in Lyman, Wyoming, to see if we could find the cemetery (heck he was with me, I have a nose for such things) and look for the gravesite of his great, great grandmother, Severine Madsen Rasmussen. Not only did we find it, it was a wonderful surprise to also find a hand-hewn grave marker still in place, alongside a lovely new one. He was thrilled to say the least - it was really exciting.

We are happy to report that AmyLynne is still her happy, beautiful, smiling self and we are grateful for the miracles in her life. She is on a fairly new, experimental anti-body treatment at present which attacks the protein the cancer tumors need to live on. She has a CT scan next week and we will find out how successful it has been for her. She did develop five new tumors in her lungs after the incredible, extensive surgery she went through just weeks ago to remove a large tumor in her abdomen/chest area, which included the removal of 4 ribs. But, true to her usual form, she was back at school only 2 weeks after the surgery and running and playing with Kayty and her cousins. She truly is remarkable and very, very blessed.

We had a wonderful trip with the family to Disneyland last week, so we could all spend time together and enjoy each other's company, especially AmyLynne's. I will put some photos at the end for you to see. It was especially nice to enjoy the 88 degree weather! Makes us even more anxious for warm weather to come our way. Disneyland was pretty busy especially as more and more local kids got out of school for their spring breaks. As we tried to keep track of where everyone was and watch taller heads in our group in the mass of humanity, we did wonder just how much money must pass through the Magic Kingdom.

We are excited to have our daughter Kim and granddaughter, Ella come and visit next week and have lots of fun plans, especially with Easter in the visit.

We are busy serving in the temple and as service missionaries at the church cannery in Boise. We had a wonderful visit with one of our young missionary friends who served in Australia with us, Aaron Gremmert yesterday. He, along with his mother, brothers Jacob and Noah stopped by the cannery on their way to Utah from Washington. It was so good to see him and to catch up on his busy life since his return in February. It was lovely to meet his mom and family too.

Our two new family members are very popular with the grandkids, although our daughter Nathlie seems to have a pretty good soft spot for them as well. We met Milo and Maggie (Aussie names of course)at the Idaho Humane Society and just knew they were meant for us. They are 12 week old Blue Heeler puppies, but they are red instead of blue! We think they have some labrador mixed in and they are loads of fun and wonderful company. Most of the time!!

We have spoken three or four times since our return about our mission and we have loved being able to re-live it. We had such a remarkable experience and loved the work of digitising records for the Public Record Office of Victoria, as well as meeting and teaching people. The gospel of Jesus Christ has provided us with our most precious possessions, our testimonies, and the comfort and peace only it can bring. We love the people we worked with, especially our very own volunteers at the PROV and the PROV staff we grew so close to. We are grateful we still hear from everyone and that they still love us! We sure do miss them all. We appreciated our Mission President and his wife very much and of course, our incredible supervisor in Sydney.

We miss riding on the train and the tram, we miss meat pies and fish and chips and sausages! Glenys especially misses being able to drive around the areas of Melbourne and taking pictures of the homes her ancestors lived in (or where they used to be). We miss our friends and the meetings at the Essendon Historical Society and at Marysville Historical Society. We miss the Vic Market and the trips on Saturdays with our friends the Purdons - we saw more of Melbourne than we ever thought existed. We miss our excursions to the country with dear Paula and Cliff and we miss Glenys' family, it was an extra special treat to be able to serve in the same area her parents, sisters and brother live. And we miss MILO and CHERRY RIPES! Just before we left our mission, the tourism board came up with a new theme - "A City Surrounded By Nature - Melbourne". So true. Have a look at the short video at the following website: http://www.visitmelbourne.com/ and you will understand why we miss it and the work we did.

Well, better get the pics uploaded (or is it downloaded?)so you can see our adventures in Disneyland. If any of you reading this still have photos of our leaving Melbourne, could you please email them to us? Thank you. Have a wonderful day - blessings upon each of you. With love, Bob and Glenys

PS KayLynne has uploaded several photos of our trip to the CaringBridge site if you would like to see those as well. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/amylynne

Enjoying the Snoopy Ride - AmyLynne and Kayty in the middle, Josh on the right end.

A Special Moment in Time: KayLynne with AmyLynne

All of us kids: Back row L-R: Glenys, Bob, Shawn; Middle Row L-R: Hayden, Andrea, Nathlie, Joce (head turned), Preston, Troy; Front Row L-R: Joshua, Austin, Remington, Dylan, KayLynne; Very front Row L-R: AmyLynne and Kayty.