While we have many - here are my favoritist (love that word again) that come to mind:
Our black puppy
Conan came back to us. He was a Guide Dog puppy we were raising for
Guide Dogs for the Blind, but he was disqualified due to some elbow dystocia. So Kelsie and I made the 24 hour trip to Boring (yes, it's really called that), Oregon to pick him up on New Years Day. We drove 12 hours straight there, picked up one excited wiggly black lab, ate dinner, and drove 12 hours straight back in the worst snowstorm imaginable.
Karianne graduated from the nursing program at BYUI and came back home to live with us again! It was wonderful to celebrate with her, and we loved having her back home again. We all celebrated with her when one month later she passed her
RN boards and started her new job at Primary Children's Medical Center. Way to go Karianne! Now she's working and completing her bachelors degree in nursing - Busy girl!
After 28 years of houseboating at
Lake Powell, we finally found just the houseboat for us. It's call the "Sunsation", is a little bit older, but still has all the comforts of home. We share the boat with 10 other families and have one set week per summer, and the option for use in the spring and fall. We spent our first week on it during the summer and had just the greatest time ever!
This wasn't to exciting but it was certainly memorable - I remember Norm calling and telling me that Cory had been injured on his bicycle. While traveling to work (a combination of Trax and biking) he had been hit by a car, pushed off the road, and landed on his head and shoulder. Thank heavens for helmets! His only injury was a broken clavicle. What a miraculous blessing! He had a couple weeks off work because he couldn't use one arm, and then was back into everything, including riding his bike to work - go figure!
We consider
Kelsie finally cured, healed, and over her bout with Mono. She had a rough go of it this last year trying to keep up with school, get good grades, communicate with teachers, make up assignments, go to bed early, take lots of vitamins and other elixirs; play
softball just enough to keep up with the sport but not jeopardize her health, work part time at both Jamba Juice and the Orem Owls, and still maintain any kind of a social life when you have to go to bed like at 8:00 pm every night. You go girl!
Karianne waited and waited for her ideal apartment to become available
in the Salt Lake area so she could move closer to her work at the hospital. (You know as a night RN myself - I worried about the long drive home for her after a night shift!) She outlasted all her potential roommates who ended up making alternate plans. Finally, the perfect situation came along. A remodeled house just east of Westminster College with six beautiful LDS roommates, a good ward and a private bedroom. We got her all moved in and decorated her little bedroom adorably, and she is living happily ever after.
We had the wonderful opportunity of taking my niece
Chellese through the
Salt Lake Temple in preparation for her temple sealing in the St. George Temple. She is beautiful, and is marrying
Evan, a wonderful guy who seems just right for her. We all felt the spirit so strongly, and I'm so grateful to have been able to be part of those special moments in her life.
On September 26th, Norm and I celebrated 28 years of marriage! Because I was involved in several out of town conferences for my work at Alta View Hospital right before and after our anniversary we didn't get to celebrate until the middle of October. But we spent two nights at the Zermatt hotel in Midway Utah and it was beautiful.
All of my family - my whole big extended family - got together in
Las Vegas for like the first time ever. It was the first time I can think of when every single grandchild was off work, out of school, healthy and able to come on vacation with the family. The kids absolutely adored spending so much time with their cousins. Especially their cousins from La Verkin that they don't get to see very often. We spent hours prowling around Las Vegas in the dark, watching the fountains at the Bellagio, riding the roller coaster at the New Yorker, shopping and more shopping. By day we spent lazy days hanging out at the pool, laughing, playing games and just having a great time.
My cute as can be, daughter-in-law,
Cami nearly cut the end of her finger off with an Olfa cutter while quilting away in her apartment. We're so happy to report that after many weeks of pain, dressing changes, medication, and time off from crafting of all sorts - it has healed up so nicely without the necessity of a skin graft that many medical professionals thought she was going to require.
Our miraculous little blue
Toyota Corolla is still being passed from kid to kid.
Dustin had the great opportunity to drive it around when he was a senior in High School back in the year 2000. Then it bypassed
Cory, going straight to
Karianne when she got her drivers license in 2004 with nearly 250,000 miles on it. It lasted her many years driving back and forth to Rexburg Idaho which we thought would never happen, then passed on to
Cory who needed a car for a while while his bike was being repaired after his biking accident. Finally, with 280,000 miles it fell to
Kelsie (in her senior year of high school) to drive to Orem and back every day. It's still parked in the driveway and running perfectly!
Norm had the shortest church calling ever! He was called as the
Young Men's President in September, was just getting everything organized, getting to know all the Young Men, coordinating all the activities between the Priesthood arm, Scouting and the Young Men's program, and then in December they released him! They called him to serve in a Stake position on the
High Council. It was a devastating release for many, and we're still waiting with faith to realize the blessing that's sure to come. But Norm just loves to serve - and he serves with all his heart in any position.
And last but certainly not the least -
Dustin graduated from
Utah Valley University with a degree in
Business and Finance! We're so proud of him. He has accomplished this great goal while working more than part time over the years, changing his major once, serving a two year mission to the New York South mission, getting married, and moving three times. Yea Dustin!
Congratulations and we can't wait to host a big party to celebrate with all your family and friends!
It's been a wonderful year, and we look forward with great hope, faith and love for all our wonderful family, friends, and neighbors who are wonderful examples to us, surround us with greatness, and give much more than we can ever return,
to a wonderful year ahead in 2009.
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