Kira's Blessing

Dearest Family,

We've enjoyed all of your emails, blogs, pictures, and telephone calls and especially your visits. I'm just going to briefly cover last weekend so I have a record of it and use your cute commentary to fill in the details.

Mike, Desi, Emily and Mordecai arrived from Colorado on Thursday evening. It is amazing to see cute Mordecai walking. He did crawl for us and we did get to see him scoot around on his bottom. They slept at our home Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. They were went over to visit with Keith's family to meet little Kira for the first time.

Friday we had the day off. Mike's family, Felicia, John and I went to the open house of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. Emily was excited about going to the temple to marry her daddy. During the tour she need to use the potty and fortunately we were near the baptistry so they let her go there. When we came out, Emily stood looking longingly at the font and asked if she could be baptized right then. I told her that she had to wait until she was eight-years-old. What I didn't realize until sister came looking for us, was that Emily had taken off her sandals, left them on the floor, and was ready to wade right into the font. It is a beautiful temple!

John and I picked up Melody and Brandon at 1:00 PM at the airport. They had been up since 3:00 AM to get their early morning flight. They spent the rest of Friday and Saturday afternoon with Brandon's family. Both of his sisters have new babies. His brother's family was here from Texas and his parents were down from Boise. While we were at the airport, Desi, Felicia, and Emily got pedicures.

In the afternoon we went up to Temple Square and had a chance to show them the third floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building where we work. We walked around Temple Square, went inside the Tabernacle then toured the Conference Center. In the evening they went to a Bainbridge barbecue and fireworks.

Saturday, July 4th, I went to the West Jordan parade with Eliasons, Melody and Brandon. Brandon's brother, sister-in-law, and nephew joined us there. The Roberts then went with their side of the family and the Eliasons took the twins home for naps. Mike's and Keith's families went up to Brighton to Silver Lake for a little hike. Julie and Jason helped his brother move and hung out with the Burminghams until evening. In the evening they came up for dinner, fireworks, and stayed overnight, sleeping on our new inflatable mattress. Everyone but the Roberts came for dinner. Pizza for dinner and fireworks were very fun thanks to the fireworks from Desi and Mike. Emily, Grant, and James didn't like the noise of the fountains, etc, that were lit when it got dark so they were happy to stay inside and watch "Bolt," a Disney movie with me and watch the fireworks through the glass door.

Sunday was Kira's blessing. It was a very special meeting to have all of the Rogers family that was in Utah there as well as many of Kim's family. Kira is a beautiful baby. Incidentally, all of the Rogers sons and sons-in-law wore yellow ties from Julie and Jason's wedding. It wasn't planned but it looked great. Keith's blessing of Kira was tender and thoughtful. Later in the meeting both Keith and Kim shared their testimony. The spirit was very strong as we considered what a great miracle it is to have both Talisa and Kira in our family. We have been so very blessed. Afterward we had a lovely dinner over at Keith's home. The new swing set was the prime attraction. Talisa and Emily seldom left the swings. Mark was the Pied Piper blowing bubbles. Mike and Keith tossed the little ones up in the air which they loved. Jason and Brandon are favorite playmates. Brandon went down to Provo in the afternoon for his sister Brittney's baby girl's blessing. In the evening we had a good visit here with Roberts and Burninghams playing games and learning about Julie's project last semester for the Church History department. It is truly amazing. Be sure to check out the link that she included in her email! Mike's family slept over at Keith and Kim's on Sunday and Monday nights.

On Monday, Keith's family, Mike's family, Melody and Brandon, Kristilyn, James, and Grant went out to the Kennecott Copper Pit. The twins were enchanted with the "dumping trucks." They had lunch together at Keith and Kim's. In the evening we went over and said good-bye to Mike's family. We appreciate so much that they would come and visit us. It's harder with a young family and we are so happy that they came.

On Monday we were back to work. The new missionaries didn't have their luncheon on Friday but had it on Monday. We trained other missionaries in the morning then provided the music for the luncheon in the JSMB Relief Society Room. I played the piano for 30+ minutes while people were gathering, John sang "Come Unto Jesus," then I played "High On A Mountain Top" as the closing musical number. We enjoyed a lovely luncheon and heard our new mission president, Dennis E. Simmons speak. After that we ended up training our new missionaries until 4:00 PM. My student has little experience on the computer and no experience with PAF, but she purchased a flash drive and we are working to organize and document her family history. John is working with a young elder.

Mike, Desi, Emily and Mordecai returned to Colorado on Tuesday after taking Desi's Grandpa Pehrson to breakfast. Life continues at a fast wonderful pace. We're eager to have Neal, Katrina, Daniel and Anna arrive from New York on Thursday night. Melody and Brandon leave for Missouri on Saturday so we enjoy any time together we have. As Grandma Rasband used to say, "We may get tired, but we never get bored!"

More later. We love and value each of you.

Mom and Dad Rogers