Mother's Day Weekend . . .

Mother's Day weekend was a fun event for the entire family. Susie had several family members that came to Utah and we spent the afternoon at the park in Lehi with Susie's Mom and Dad. It was a great evening and a wonderful opportunity to spend time together.

On the following Sunday, the girls were able to show off their matching dresses after we got home from church. It was a wonderful weekend of family and fun.

California Trip . . .

We spent the week in California to visit Mike's family and take Katie to Disneyland. We did all this prior to getting on a cruise to the Mexican Rivier. Pictures of the cruise to follow.

Mike in line, obviously very anxious to see Tigger.

Darin, Mike & Katie with Tigger.

Susie & Katie with Minnie Mouse.

Katie with Pluto

Darin & Katie having lunch near Tom Sawyer's Island



Mike & Katie reviewing the map of Disneyland



Papa & Katie on the Dumbo ride

Susie, Darin, Katie, Mike & his Mother at Laguna Beach, CA

Katie chasing down some rabbits at Laguna Beach

Mike & his Mother with Katie at Laguna Beach

Darin playing in the sand at Laguna Beach with Katie

Papa walking the beach with Katie

Katie's Birthday - 2 years old

We celebrated Katie's birthday this past Friday and were fortunate to have good weather. Aaron, Annika, Emmy & Alison joined us for a day at the Salt Lake City Hogle Zoo. It was a lot of fun and the girls all loved the animals.

After spending the day at the zoo, we had dinner out together and then came back home so Katie could open her presents and blow out candles on her birthday cake. Darin made a "train" themed cake as Katie is really into trains these days.

Swimming with the Family

We had Aaron, Annika, Emmy and Alison up a few weekends ago and the whole family went to the Recreation Center in Kamas, UT. They have a very nice indoor pool and everyone had a great time.

Its great the Emmy and Katie both like the water so much, and Alison seemed just fine.

Called to Serve . . .

As many of you know, Susie and I have been called to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We have been called to preside over the Chile Osorno Mission beginning July 1, 2008. We will serve for three years.

Susie is busy studying Spanish and is making great progress. We have classes twice a week at the MTC in Provo, UT and Susie has an additional Spanish class on the phone each week. We enter the MTC for the Mission Presidents Seminar on June 21 and expect to leave for Chile on June 28th.

The Osorno Mission covers the bottom third of Chile and is approximately 1,200 miles long and 40-75 miles wide. They currently have 161 missionaries serving in the mission. We are excited for this opportunity and look forward to meeting the people and missionaries of our mission. We will desperately miss our family, but are grateful for the opportunity to serve. We know that the Lord will bless our family as we serve faithfully.

More details to follow.

Quick trip to California . . .

With the hope of escaping our record snowfall for a few days, Susie and I drove to California to visit relatives and friends. Unfortunately, we ran into some record rainfalls for Southern California and even snow in some areas. Nevertheless, we had several beautiful days, and truly enjoyed seeing our family and friends. The rain made for some beautiful views, free of the typical smog and pollution.

The trip included stops in St. George to visit with my parents, Las Vegas to attend the LDS Temple and see Phantom of the Opera and Mama Mia, Santa Barbara to visit with Susie's sister Lisa and Newport Beach, CA. We traded our timeshare into Marriott's Newport Coast Villas and then enjoyed the area, including Disneyland and Laguna Beach and the new LDS Newport Beach Temple.

Unfortunately, we had to cut the trip short when Susie's Mother took ill, so we didn't get to see everyone we had planned on. Sorry.

Winter in Wasatch Valley

Plenty of snow here the past several weeks. In fact, we've had snow on the ground since back in November. The past two weeks it has snowed almost every day, which gives me the chance to break in my new Toro Snow Commander. The good news is we had a beautiful White Christmas and the new snow keeps things looking so nice.