In preparation for his mission, Elliot was able to receive his endowments in the Draper Utah Temple today. We had a nice group with Alan’s parents, Loren, Anne, Tess and Bishop Lundgren and his wife, Marla. It’s great to have so much support! It was a very nice experience and Elliot is excited to be able to attend several times before he leaves for Peru June 5th.
Apparently one of the things on Grandpa Wally’s bucket list is taking a ride down the Olympic Bobsled track. So during Spring Break, he invited Clark and off they went to Park City. Grandpa sat 2nd behind the driver and Clark sat 3rd behind him. Travelling at 88 miles an hour it only took them 55.6 seconds to get down the hill. New Olympic record?
After nearly 30 years, I’ve started working again. I’ve been hired as a substitute teacher at Waterford School. So far, I’ve taught Nursery 3’s (preschool), All-day Kindergarten, and 4th Grade. I’m hoping to be able to teach a couple of days a week, but the nature of being a substitute is rather like being on call…so we will see. I don’t want to hope that some teacher will wake up sick tomorrow, but it would be nice 😉
Clark has been practicing hard and this week was able to perform a marimba duet, play in a marimba quartet and play jazz piano with 3 professional musicians. Of course it all sounds better in real life, but we did record a couple of the pieces for your listening pleasure, should you be interested.
Fugace by Claude Bolling
Alborada del Gracioso by Maurice Ravel
Last night with the family gathered around and Kelsey close by, Elliot opened his mission call to learn that he will be serving in the Peru Cusco Mission, entering the Lima Peru MTC on Wednesday June 5th. He’s super excited about Peru and being able to continue learning Spanish which he studied for 6 years at Waterford.
After the big news at our house, he and Kelsey left for her house so that she could open her mission call with her family. She has been called to serve in the Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission. Also Spanish speaking and also entering the MTC on June 5th – she goes to Provo though!
Watch the video of Elliot opening his call!
Phillip is now a graduate student at Oregon State University, where he will be working towards a masters degree in creative writing and also teaching an undergraduate English class. He loaded up his car and he and I did the all-day drive (actually a really nice, but long 14.5 hour drive) on a Friday. Saturday we spent shopping for everything an unfurnished apartment calls for (like a bed :)). Then Sunday we went to his young adult ward, took a long walk on the beach together, and watched the CES Fireside with Elder Holland. Monday we saw a little more of Corvallis and the Oregon State campus, and then headed to Portland to spend a few more hours shopping at IKEA before he dropped me off at the airport to fly home. It was a great weekend…I loved seeing where he will be living his life. It seems very “Phillip.”
It’s hard to believe that we have been married 29 years! We celebrated with dinner and a date at the Salt Lake Temple which is where we were married lo those many years ago.
So now we have the token 4 generations photo…Wally with his son Alan, with his son Loren, with his son Kenyon. Cool huh?
Today we celebrated all our August birthdays: Grandma Pat, Anne, her mother Carol, and Toby. And we also marked the day with Elliot being ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood. What an awesome group of men we have in our family!
Monday, July 30th, our grandson Kenyon was born at 1:56 pm at the Provo Utah Valley Regional Medical Center where his dad, Loren, was born 27 years ago. He weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. and measured 20″ long. Both Kenyon and Anne are doing well and we are all excited and grateful that he is so healthy and beautiful. We are looking forward to holding, rocking, feeding and playing with him . . . we just wish they lived a bit closer!
Thursday June 7th Elliot graduated from High School. And since he has been attending Waterford School since Kindergarten, he actually graduated from 13 years at Waterford. Â He is definitely feeling like it is time to move on, and yet at the same time, it is all he has known and he will miss the campus, his teachers and his friends that he has known for so long. Now he has summer with the family and then he’s off to BYU for bigger and greater adventures!
