Eliason Sacrament Meeting Program

John and I were delighted to attend the Primary Sacrament Meeting in Mark and Kristilyn's ward. (When any of the rest of you have special things, we would love to come.) Kristilyn was the music director. She was released and sustained as Second Counselor with the Young Women so this was her final time with the children. She is also responsible for the ward bulletin which was beautiful with the entire program including the names of all the children participating. It was a wonderful presentation complete with tone bells. James and Grant gave their first talks in Sacrament Meeting reciting scriptures. James' favorite thing was the "funny chairs"--the choir seats that flipped up. James shows his gear toy. The boys are fascinated with tools.

Mark helped the boys put new batteries into the air ball popper and they were excited. Mark is showing John the plans for the wooden shed he is building in his back yard. He has dug out the foundation and plans to put the building together third Saturday in October.

James and Grant are showing Dragon and Doggie how the gear toy works. Kristilyn and Mark fixed a lovely meal for us.

Saturday night Julie and I enjoyed attending the General Relief Society Meeting together here in our stake center with a light meal before. Julie got me started on a new program, Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 which has lots of tools but isn't as complex as the professional program. She is headed to Texas next week for meetings. We are so grateful that Jason has recovered from his severe allergic reaction. Sudden swelling and inability to breathe are serious problems.

We're much happier these days since Richard Keetch was able to fix our water heater. We were without hot water for 5 days and appreciate that blessing much more. Brent Wade and Stephen DuPaix replaced the toilet downstairs. How grateful we are for the skills of family members who bless our lives.

Last week was busy with call-back missionaries in the mornings and personal research in the afternoon. We enjoyed the Elijah Missionary Choir Fall Social on Monday night and a farewell pot luck luncheon for three who were going home from the training zone this month. We stayed late to help with a tourist group in FamilySearch on Thursday which is always a delight. The man I helped hardly knew the name of his parents but using cesus records we were able to get back far enought to even learn the name and death date of his great grandmother. He was so excited he just hugged me in appreciation. It was cute because his wife and my husband were standing right by us. We are excited to get to train Don and Pam Wall next week who are coming in next week as church service missionaries. Don Wall is our home teacher. We are always looking for missionaries. It is a wonderful work!

Alpine Loop Drive

We enjoyed a drive Saturday afternoon to see the autumn leaves across Traverse Ridge, over Alpine Loop, down to Cascade Springs, then down into Heber Valley. The leaves were beautiful. At Deer Creek Resevoir it was interesting to see the para-sailors on the water. I had other pictures to upload but the computer didn't cooperate.

Paige Johnson-Kjell Gerber Wedding

Tuesday, September 14, 2010 was a special day for the marriage at the Salt Lake Temple for Paige and Kjell (Chell). They received their endowments at the Mount Timpanogos Temple on September 10, 2010.

The Johnson-Rasband family.

Brent, Becky, Waylon, and Wyatt.

Ryan and Reva Rasband with their cute twins Andrew and Anthony.

The twins with Wyatt. It was their fifth birthday!

Sonja, Paige (granddaughter), and Rebecca (mom) at the bridal shower at Reva's home.

Kjell and Paige at their reception in Brent and Becky's yard. After their honeymoon in Kauai they will move to their condo in Orem when Paige will continue her education at UVU and Kjell will work with his father in his construction company.

George and Sonja Rasband visiting with Edie and Roger DuPaix and John Rogers. The yard was beautifully decorated including lights which came on at dusk.

Sonja Rasband, Kathryn Ann Rogers, Karen Keetch, and Edie DuPaix at Paige's bridal shower. It was fun to have many of our daughters and daughters-in-law with us to share the details of the courtship and engagement.

Labor Day

We had a fun Labor Day picnic at Sugarhouse Park with Eliasons and Burninghams. Kentucky fried chicken and melons are great together.

Mark and Kristilyn showed James and Grant the fine art of tossing a Frisbee.

In the end, Grant and James were just delighted to toss and catch a ball.

Julie, Jason, Mark, and Kristilyn did some remarkable stunts tossing and cating the Frisbee. Julie and Jason played soccer for a while. It's obvious that Jason has a lot more skill and experience because he can really manipulate the ball!

On Friday, Kristilyn brought James and Grant down to Temple Square so we could have lunch together at the Church Office Building Cafeteria. The twins loved the fries and "sholate milk." They liked watching all the big machinery build the skyscrapers on the City Creek Project but their favorite thing was riding the TRAX trains.

Labor Day Weekend

We're having a good Labor Day weekend. Saturday morning we did initiatory and an endowment at the Jordan River Temple then spent the afternoon running errands and working in the yard. John keeps the cars and lawn in beautiful condition. Today I got to teach Primary at the last minute about tithing. I had 9 in my class and they were exicted to have their own pennies to calculate tithing and to fill out a tithing slip so they could demonstrate to their parents what they had learned. On Monday we are looking forward to a picnic at Sugarhouse Park with Eliasaons and Burninghams in the afternoon with a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Green River watermelon. It was fun to have Grant and James greet us with “surprise” when we came home from the mission Friday afternoon. They are such cute little boys.

Keith, Kim, Talisa, and Kira went Denver on Friday and will return on Tuesday to visit with Mike and Desi and their family. I'm sure they will have a great time. John and I were over to their home on Thursday evening and Talisa is very excited about 3 days of pre-school this year. Kim had the 11 by 14 print of our family picture from July so that is now hanging above the piano even though Talisa wanted to put it in the toy room.

We really enjoyed Katrina and Neal's long letter, pictures, and telephone call. It is good to see some of the medical words in print instead of just hearing them. We loved hearing about Danial's antics. It was wonderful to learn that Cindy's hours have been increased. Daniel is excited about starting pre-school in another week.

We always enjoy calls and emails from Melody and Brandon. (Could you send me a picture of your new home from the outside? We loved the pictures of the interior.)

I had a very fun week last week teaching Suzanne Brinkerhoff, one of Keith's colleage's from Microsoft. She was able to retire when they closed the Draper office and is now a Church Service Missionary serving three days a week. Her assignment is the fifth review and final review of indexed data and publishing it on Beta so it will be available on the internet. She was a delight. She was like a sponge taking in everything I could teach her and she taught me a lot too! It was a wonderful week. The next two weeks will be more challenging. I have a young missionary who didn't know if he brought his genealogy information with him and couldn't remember his passwords to access information. He isn't really into computers but he does know how to type. His parents and grandparents are still alive so we have to go way back to extract information and he doesn't know names or places. However, he has a great desire to serve a mission and a strong testimony. He is the first missionary in his family. He is needed in the work and there will be a place where he can be of great service.

I got the CD's from Tiffany Keetch of pictures from the Whitlock Reunion so will be mailing those this week. It will be wonderful to see the Rasband family members for the bridal shower and for the reception for the oldest great-grandchild, Paige Johnson at a reception at her home. Paige and Kjell are being married in the Salt Lake Temple on September 14.