In Case You Haven't Heard..

We're pregnant! We're excited to give Isaac a little sibling. The baby is due March 7, 2009.

IT FINALLY CAME!!

We have great news! Zach got his mission call - to the Philippines-Naga mission! He leaves October 1st. Although traditionally it's just immediate family opening the news, his friends have been inviting each other and their families over to join in the celebration - so that is what we did - several friends and their families, as well as a few on speaker phone gathered at 5:00 p.m. today and joined in the news! It was great having friends that have played such a huge part in his life here for this special time. He has taken Spanish for four years and loves languages, so he is excited that he gets to learn Tagalog - the official language there. I'm so excited for him, but I must admit, I keep thinking "Wow, the Philippines, that is so far away! But, that's the mom in me, I guess. Edward can't stop smiling! It brings back warm memories of his mission and the people he served with. We have already heard from a few people about them knowing people who went to the Philippines and how they loved the people and the land. An exciting time, to be sure! We wanted you to share in our happy day! :)

Oh the World of Blogging

Hey, thanks for inviting us on this blog! Hopefully we can update with some good news soon.

Christian with a fork

So this is Christian. He's almost 15. The fork is an important part of a picture of him because he can rarely be found without one. He's leaving us for the rest of the summer to work at Camp Loll, a scout camp near Yellowstone. As excited as he is and as happy as I am for him, I am going to miss him a lot! He is an awesome babysitter and general helper. He was supposed to leave a week ago, but there is too much snow up there to be able to get in!(do you believe it?!) Hopefully he'll get up there sometime this week.

What do you think?

Hey guys, just a quick question. Should we make this a private blog so only those who are invited can read? or will that limit things too much? I just wanted to get everyone's opinion before I do any changes.

Thanks! I'm loving hearing from everyone. I sent invites to at least one member of everyone's family, so hopefully the families we haven't heard from will be popping up soon.

Love you all.

jjacd

Eric and Sarah

Here is a picture of us.....most of you have probably seen it on my blog, but in case you haven't here we are. Hopefully others of you will post pictures. It took me a while to figure it out - call me computer dumb!! But I finally got it!! It's a little different than my blog - easier actually. Anyway, this is us and I will post pictures of the kids later.

Good morning!

Hey, if no one else wants those tickets, Sarah, we'll take them!

Sounds like some fun times in Salt Lake for lots of you - there is a lot to do here! In fact, we're planning to be tourists here for our mini-vacation. We're getting a hotel downtown (so it's more of a vacation for me) and just play for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. With the free trains downtown, we thought we would save on travelling gas and spend the money on things more enjoyable. Between the planetarium, climbing wall, hiking, church sites, and plays downtown, I think it will be a really fun vacation.

We are holding our breath for Zach's mission call . . . could be any day now!

The Family Blog

I agree this is a great idea, and if I ever figure out how to put my thoughts in writing maybe I will be able to contribute. ( I hope we all can)

We really enjoyed the thoughts and photos of Claudia's funeral. We felt bad we were unable to attend. She was truly a special person and touched the hearts of so many. She always showed the good about every situation. She will be missed, but remembered.

Carolyn and I were in Salt Lake this weekend too. We went for a quick visit to Aaron and Karli. They have such a fun family. We went to a dance recital for Jael. (She is becoming quite the little dancer). That was friday evening. Saturday we went to Wheelers Farm. It is quite a place, old farm houses and barns, all kinds of old equipment and lots of animals. They have several ponds (the kids loved feeding the ducks) and lots of room to run or just sit and relax. It was a fun weekend. (as it always is when the grandkids are involved - and anyone else we happen to see.)

Oh, by the way, Congratulations Jonathan on a job well done. We wish we could have been there to enjoy your day, but we did think about you.

Thanks for all the news, and keep writing.

Randy

The Rest of The Story.....

I love this family blogger idea - I hope everyone uses it and we can learn a lot more about each other!!

Anyway, since Kris wants "my story" I will tell it!! We actually had a great time at Lagoon - we got there around 10:30 (they open at 10:00) in the morning and since we had already got tickets at our hotel, we were able to walk right in without waiting in any lines and there wasn't a ton of people there yet, so the waits were pretty short - we played and ate and played and ate and got soaked on Rattlesnake Rapids and the Log Ride. Tyson was literally scared to death to go on all the rides, but we were mean and made him go anyway. We kind of made the mistake of starting out on the old rollercoaster, which is a bit rickety. We should have started out in Kiddie land and worked our way up to the scarier ones. But surprisingly enough his favorite was the Wild Mouse, which to me is one of the scarier ones. Anyway at appx 3:00ish the power went off, we lucked out and didn't get stuck on a ride when the power went off, we were all taking a bathroom break, so then we just relaxed in the shade for a while and had a snack, within about 1 hour or so some of the rides started running again so we went on a few more and within about a 1/2 hour later pretty much all the rides were up and running except for a few anyway, like Rattlesnake Rapids closed for the rest of the day. We had a great time and left about 7:30 and went and finished checking into our hotel and went to the Outback for dinner. There were a few rides we didn't get to go on mostly because by the time the power came back up the lines were quite long and there were a few that Tyson really didn't want to ride and we didn't push him, such as, the Rocket, and Wicked - I think they may have been a bit much for him since he is only 6 years old. But they gave everybody that was at Lagoon that day a good return deal. You can take your tickets from that day and go back again anytime between then and June 30 for free. So, if anyone is interesting in 4 tickets to go to Lagoon, let me know, and I will send them, (I'm guessing they will work for whoever) I don't see us going back up again within the next 2 weeks - we're lucky if we get up there 1 time/year!! Anyway, that is "my story" of our day at Lagoon. On Sunday we did a bunch of things too (I know it was Sunday, but with our own business now, we have to take our vacation when we can get it) Anyway, we went to the zoo, the Airplane Museum in Layton, which if you haven't been is totally awesome and it's a great free activity - Tyson absolutely loved it!! And we also went to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden, which if you have little kids and haven't been there that is also totally awesome - lots of fun activities for the kids. We had a good weekend.

Anyway, now that I have wrote a book here, I will stop and let someone else have a turn. It's fun to see what's going on in everyones lives!! Have a great day - I check everyones blogs often, so keep this going, it's fun!!

Sarah

Lagoon . . . Not!!

Because of Jenni's (Hi!) and Lynda's (Hi!) comments to my last posting, I have to tell "the rest of the story." We were on our way to Lagoon, everybody psyched to have a great day. We got there, the parking lot was totally full and they were filling up the overflow lot, and as we were pulling into our parking spot, I really felt like maybe we shouldn't go - my thinking being huge crowds, 90 degree weather, and getting there a lot later (1:30) than we usually do. After talking about it, we finally decided to not go. Instead we went to Cheesecake Factory and a movie. Later on the news we heard that one of the transformers blew, riders were stuck on rides, and that it was a few hours before they got everything up and running. I think we made the right decision on that one! We'll try another day! (We need Sarah's story now . . .)

Aunt Claudia, etc.

I agree with everyone else, Aunt Claudia's funeral was so nice. A peaceful feeling, knowing a wonderful lady had finished her "turn on earth. I will remember her for her cheery disposition, her sincere concern with how I was doing, her ability to make you feel like you could tell her anything and she would help you in anyway she could, and her love of the gospel and family history, among other things. It was so good to see relatives I hadn't seen for quite awhile. Although it's kinda sad we do it only at funerals, it is a wonderful way to keep in touch and catch up on each others' lives. I've been involved in five LDS funerals in the recent past and, although sad, there is always a feeling of sweetness and joy in knowing that the person is enjoying a wonderful reunion on the other side. We're so blessed to have the knowledge of the Gospel! We travelled to Twin Falls a week ago to pick mom and dad up for the funeral and to do a little work around their house for them. They stayed at our house through Tuesday and it was extra special having them at Jonathan's homecoming from his mission (we were so proud that Jonathan was able to give a talk and play the piano so well!). We enjoyed having you, mom and dad, we should do it again sometime! Enough of my ramblings. We're off to clean the church, then off to Lagoon for a fun day!

Great Idea!!

I'm experimenting here since I've never done this, but I love the idea! Hopefully it will catch on with everyone in the family.

This is not a Dunn blog!

What a great idea Jenni! Thanks. Now to everyone else don't allow this to be just a Dunn blog! We Dunns talk to each other fairly regularly and we want to hear from the rest of you too! I wonder how you all are doing and I even promised my mom about a year ago that I would start some kind of newsletter(which I obviously did not do). A blog is a much better idea anyway.

So I look forward to hearing from you all soon!

They're home!

Hi! It's Shawna! We just returned from getting Mom and Dad (Grandma & Grandpa) home to Twin Falls. They were glad to get home and hope to stay there for a little while, but I'll bet they'll be "hot to trot" if some exciting event is going on somewhere.

We attended Aunt Claudia's funeral and what a beautiful event it was. She so exemplified a person ready to leave this life and meet her maker. I hope I can meet death so sweetly when my turn comes along. Angela, Marcia, and Ron, we are with you and Dan (who was unable to attend). Please don't hesitate to call on us if you need any help! We love you! (Oops--maybe they aren't on this, but the thought is still there!)

Thanks, Jenni, for getting this fun thing started, and join in everyone! It'll be fun to chat about the weather, politics, religion, upcoming events, etc, etc, etc! While we were in Denver, we talked with Uncle Gordon, Barbara, and Brad about the blog they have and heard them talk about "stirring up the pot" to get some talk going! Sounded kinda fun! Of course, they have people in their family who have strong feelings about politics, etc. But as I think about it, I think we have a lot that way too! So everyone put in your 2 cents worth, or start a discussion! Makes for an interesting day! Love you all! Shawna

Aunt Claudia's Funeral

Not that this is a fantastic first post, seeing as it's a funeral, but Dylan and I were able to attend Aunt Claudia's funeral. Karli was kind enough to watch my older two kids so I could go.(Thanks sooo much!) Anyway, what I heard of the funeral was really special. She was so kind and I will miss her. Here are a few pictures I took at the cemetary. I wish I would have gotten some more formal pics~ Hope you are all doing well!

Welcome to my crazy idea!

Hello everyone, this is Jenni~ As I'm guessing you already knew. Anyway I got the idea from my friend. All of thier cousins and aunts and uncles etc. are able to post what's going on in thier lives. I thought this would be a great idea so that Grandma and Grandpa can keep updated and we can all be in touch a little better. I know that I'm always wondering how everyone is doing, and thought this could be a fabulous way to share fun family news and pictures from events etc. So, I know I don't have everyone's email addresses, if you could send an email to me with other people who may want to contribute to this blog, I can add them so they have access to the blog.

I do want to mention that this is a fun idea, but we need people to actually make posts to keep it alive and not old news.

I love you all and hope we can make this blog work! If you need help figuring out how to post, let me know! I'd be happy to help you learn how to upload pics, video or whatever.

Jenni