In Loving Memory

President Gordon B. Hinckley
June 23, 1910 -- January 27, 2008

As a tribute to our beloved prophet, we decided to record our memories in our journals today. We thought it appropriate to share some of our thoughts here as well.

From Ian:
Last night Grandma Tsukamoto called and said that President Hinckley had died. He was the oldest prophet that has ever lived. He was 97 and he would have turned 98 in June. His teachings were very good even though I never got to see him in person. President Monson will be our next prophet and we will sustain him next General Conference. President Hinckley is probably very happy to be back with his wife. I think he was a very great man and that he will go to the Celestial Kingdom. I know he loved every one of us. I love him too.

From Megan:
I only got to see President Hinckley once, when I was six. It was at a conference for primary children. He was a very great man. Before he became prophet, there weren't nearly as many temples as there are now. He is the only prophet I ever knew. It will be strange to have President Monson as our prophet. I know that we will miss him, but President Hinckley will be happier in heaven than down here.

From April:
I had the opportunity to meet President Hinckley at my seminary graduation in 1989 in Salt Lake City, when he was a counselor in the First Presidency under President Benson. His granddaughter, Heidi Pearce, was a member of the seminary council and was also graduating. It was surprising and exciting when he walked into the room, but also frightening to me since I was performing in a flute/violin duet ("I Know That My Redeemer Lives") for one of the musical selections on the program. He was such a loving, tender-hearted, humble man that I shouldn't have felt intimidated in his presence, but I did. (Fortunately the musical number turned out fine.) As each of us received our diplomas, President Hinckley shook our hands. He also commented to me on the lovely music. He radiated such a sweet spirit. We will miss him greatly.

From Kevin:
My confirmation of a prophetic calling came with President Benson, when I sat directly behind him at the funeral of my friend, Jeff Ball, who was shot with his companion while on his mission in Bolivia. I remember vividly how President Benson literally glowed, and I kept searching for the spotlight that must have been on him (of course there wasn't). The Spirit testified to me clearly that this man was a prophet, and that same Spirit has testified that every prophet of our dispensation is a true prophet.

I was at the same seminary graduation as April, so I also got to shake President Hinckley's hand, though for some reason it did not make a big impression on me (knowing me I probably did not want to be at the graduation ceremony). The things that stand out in my mind are President Hinckley's incredible optimism, his loving outreach to everyone in the world, his untiring work ethic, and his absolute dedication to the Lord and His Church. Truly he consecrated all his time and talents to the building up of the Kingdom.

While I remember much of his prophetic counsel I am anxious to review his talks (though there are so many!) and model my life more after his.

Spelling Bee Winner!

Congratulations to Megan, winner of the Scholar Level
of the CVHS 2008 Spelling Bee!

It must be genetic (her mom is a 3-time spelling bee veteran), or she's just plain smart (which we already know), or all her studying paid off. For the first time in her life, Megan entered a spelling bee and won it by spelling "radioactive" correctly (after her opponent misspelled it) and then by spelling "fairies." She was nervous, but she said her most difficult words were "villainous" and "civilian." Most of the children were eliminated within the first three rounds (largely due to starting off too quickly and making careless mistakes). Then Megan and Joshua (a 12-year-old) kept on going and going and going. We were thinking that the judges would soon go off the list, but Joshua made a careless error, and Megan took first place. Her prizes include a lovely blue ribbon, a $15 gift certificate to The Book Table (one of her favorite stores), and a free cookie coupon from Smith's Bakery.

There were four different levels of difficulty for the homeschool spelling bee this year. Perhaps next year, we'll encourage her to study the high school level list so she will have more of a challenge! Way to go, Megan!

ABC's by Erin

Kevin was able to catch Erin on video, singing the alphabet song. Megan has also been working hard with her lately, trying to teach Erin how to write letters.

Mush!

It has been a bit difficult getting back into school mode after the drama of December. Turning to local events for inspiration, we decided to do a short unit on Sled Dogs. As the highlight, we attended the annual K9 Challenge at the Sinks area up Logan Canyon along with friends Hannah, Sam, and their dad Brant. We arrived around 8:45 a.m. on a bitterly cold Saturday morning, with snow flurries and a fierce wind blowing. We bundled everyone in several layers and went to visit with the mushers and see the adorable sled dogs. Our favorite was Missy from Idaho who is the mother of most of the dogs pictured at left. She is the tan dog featured a couple times in the video. This was the second day of the challenge, and the dogs were as excited as ever. They were small, cute, and friendly, like we remembered from last year.

The event was running an hour behind schedule, so we had a long wait during which Erin became quite distressed over the cold. In spite of the toe warmers in her boots and hand warmers in her gloves, she ended up having quite the melt-down (or should we say "freeze-up?") and spent much of the time in the car with Mom and Dad taking turns staying with her. Meanwhile, Megan, Ian, and Hannah played on the giant snowbanks surrounding the parking lot created from the snowplows.

When the officiators called out, "Mushers! 15 minutes!" we started walking down the trail about 1/4 mile in order to have a front-facing view of the dogs as they came running. The snow was deep, and sometimes we sank all the way up to the hips. Kevin was finally able to convince Erin that she wanted to see the dogs run, and he carried her out on his shoulders shortly after the first couple of teams left. We watched 10-12 teams (we didn't count too carefully, so we're not certain exactly how many there were), then walked back to the parking area and saw a short demonstration of skijoring. Unfortunately, our camera batteries died as we were taking video of the dog and skier, so we can't share that part.

You will get a better feel for our experience if, before watching this video, you go stand outside barefoot until your toes and hands are numb.

Humanitarian Aid Project

The past several months, we have been collecting items for hygiene kits to donate to the LDS Humanitarian Center. To quote from their website, "In a typical year, the Latter-day Saint Humanitarian Center will ship about 12 million pounds of shoes and clothing, 1 million hygiene kits, and 1 million pounds of medical supplies to relieve suffering in more than 100 countries." Periodically we will hear about the aid rendered in disaster areas, and we wanted to help in a small way. Our goal was to make ten kits. For each of these, we needed to obtain:

• 2 unbreakable combs (no sharp handles)
• 4 toothbrushes (packaged)
• 1 tube of toothpaste (6-8 oz., no pumps)
• 2 bars of soap (approximately 4 to 5 oz.)
• 2 hand towels (new towels, approximately 15" by 25". Please do not use dish towels or washcloths. To sew towels, serge or zigzag the edges of terry cloth to make a 15" by 25" towel.)

Here are the children with our stash of supplies, ready to pack into 1-gallon ziploc bags (Erin enjoyed playing with the combs):

Assembling the kits:

Ten kits packed and sealed!

We ended up giving them to a family who is traveling to Nicaragua to pick up a missionary son. The Mission Home had asked them to bring supplies to help the missionaries and members there, and the supply list included hygiene kits. We also donated some children's clothing and some toys. We hope to see their photos upon their return.

Stay tuned for the school kit post (hopefully it won't be too far in the future--we have to finish sewing a few bags for those)...

If You are Reading This, You're a GENIUS!

Kevin's cousin, Emmy, posted a link where you can evaluate the reading level of your blog. Here's our result (we did NOT fabricate this). We actually think it's due to having a few Latin names of animals.

Owl Rescue

On our drive back to Logan on 31 December, April spotted a great horned owl sitting in the snow on the side of the highway in Sardine Canyon. We thought it was odd the owl was out during the early afternoon. Kevin guessed it had been hit by a car and had a broken wing. He then decided to rescue it and took Erin's blanket, threw it over the head, and caught it. We were amazed by the gorgeous yellow eyes--they were so beautiful! It was a magnificent creature. We were also surprised how calm the bird was, but perhaps it was in a state of shock. We drove it home (with the children fearing that the police were going to pull us over and give us a citation for having an illegal bird of prey in our possession), put it in a small dog crate, and tried to feed it some mice (which it refused to eat). We thought it was worth taking to the Raptor Recovery provided by Mountain View Veterinary Clinic, but unfortunately the left wing was badly shattered and they were not able to repair it.

Sledding!

We were able to go sledding several times due to the great snowfall SLC received and due to our proximity to good parks with hills. Aunt Janell already gave a fun account of one of our sledding trips (which is good because we didn't take our camera that day). Here are some photos from a different day at Sugarhouse Park.

After going down the hill once and getting snow in her face, Erin decided it was more fun to sit in the snow and eat it.

We probably shouldn't mention the time that Kevin took the children through the hole in the backyard fence to go sledding in the Country Club Golf Course (Kevin's childhood haunt). They stayed until dusk when a security guard came by and suggested that it was time to head home.

Holiday Catch Up

As you already know, the best part about the holidays was having Grandpa Young with us.

We spent almost the entire month of December helping out in SLC and adding to the chaos. Here is Ian showing off some ginger snaps he and Mom made especially for Grandpa. (Ian had to taste a sample before going out to play in the snow.)

Grandma Young and all the grandchildren posing by the Christmas tree before going to church

On Christmas Eve we had a nice dinner at the Young's, complete with roast beef, baked potatoes, yam casserole, and authentic figgy pudding.

Cousin Carrie spent hours making the figgy pudding. Look what a work of art:

(Our contribution to this lovely dinner was cleaning the house, setting the tables, scrubbing the potatoes, and helping consume it.)

On Christmas morning, Megan and Ian woke everyone bright and early at 7:00 a.m. Even Scotty wasn't up quite yet (he'd partied hard the previous night at the Sutherland family party). They waited while Scotty ate his oatmeal and Grandpa also got some food, then it was present time!

Round two occurred later at Grandma Tsukamoto's house. Uncle Tim surprised everyone by flying in the day before.

Dinner was at Aunt Nancy's place with more food, fun, and games. Both Megan and Ian performed their recital pieces for the traditional family musical program and we attempted singing a few carols.

We also had time to visit with Great-Grandma Young a couple of times. Megan and Ian serenaded her one evening playing the piano for her, which she really really enjoyed. Every time Megan would finish a piece, Great Grandma would say, "Play another one! Keep playing!"

Cousin Dagny returned from her mission to Brazil on 29 December, and we heard her report the following morning. Dagny is pictured on the far left, her older sister Emmy is in the center, and a random friend of theirs whom we do not know is on the right.