APM FALL BBQ

WE HAD THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME!

We had about 40 adults and 18 children join us for a backyard BBQ September 25.

It was such a loving group of people!  We know we were meant to be in each other's lives!

Paulsens and Fairbanks visiting.  Fairbanks have a baby in the NICU to this is a tender time.  They are amazing people!

Richard and Avril Mortensen checking out the Mission Flag in the APM ROOM of our home!

Daniel and Ashley Jones and Ashley's sister Allison just home from her mission to Ohio.

Our sandbox area is huge...and perfect for a big group of mission grandkids!!

Andre and Courtney Gaspar watching their twin boys play in the sandbox area.

Cutest boys ever!!

Aryssa and David McBride with Lily.

Lily's face after trying watermelon.

Scott with Heather (Belnap) and Tanner Ostler. 

Jesus and Mandy Castro...I did not get their adorable baby in the pic :(

Some RMs checking out the Mission Quilt in the APM Room.

(Crystal Turner)

Here is a pic of Jesus with the baby!

Richard and Avril Mortensen along with Amy and Joseph Barley.  10 weeks to delivery for the Barleys!

More cute sandbox buddies.

Daniel and Morgan Shurtleff visiting from Minnesota just happened to be in town!  Yay!

Creative kids in the sand area.

Alex and Andrew Pehrson with one of their cute kiddos.  Griffin was in love with the sandbox.

Alex Cordero with his little guy.

Nama and Courtney Kamissoko's kiddos, Alexa and Benke in the sand.  This is familiar territory for them since I teach Alexa in Pre-Kindergarten this year.

I missed photos from Brooke (Zollinger) Murphy's family and Dane McFarland and Kamissokos and Albrechts and Caleb Brown and Crystal  Turner.

My phone died.  Poor excuse.

We loved this get-together and are open to any you would like to schedule but we will do this again next fall for sure!
 

APM July 2020-September 2021

I'm pretty sure I am missing photos of other interactions during this very long and interesting time.  But here are a few that I could find to document!

Covid Wedding Receptions are a real deal this year!We sure loved seeing Daniel and Ashley Jones at their reception in August of 2020.

We did the "elbow to elbow Social Distancing just for fun!

We had a fun talk with John Kroger one evening and he shared some photos of his sweet family!

He is living in Missouri but is good to keep in touch.

We love seeing our RMs as parents!

We have surprise visits every now and again from Conner Albrecht...and this time with fiance Sarah Jensen.  Yup, they met at an APM BBQ last summer and at this visit in March 2021 were set to be married.

We were invited by our own Lise Bennett to come speak at the U of U Institute last March 2021.  It was a really fun day for us to get to share some thoughts with some great students, but best of all, to connect with Lise again!  She is an amazing friend!

April 2021 Conner and Sarah got married and I got to attend their reception.  So happy for these two APMers to get together forever!

 

Receptions are happy places, and especially when I get to run into other APM RMs!

Saw Shannon (Magee) & Daniel Newbold 

And Aryssa (Hutchinson) McBride with their new baby, Lily and husband David.

Made.My.Night.

April 2021 Scott and I took a trip down to AZ so I could help my friend Dana with their new home in Prescott Valley and we of course, had to see our wonderful RM couples from the area!

We met up at Waldo's Tacos, a tradition that worked well for Covid to be outside as well.

We love these people so very much!!

In July, I was with my grandkids at Thanksgiving Point and ran into Melissa Lechner Dickey and her kids!  Best surprise ever!  There is something magical about seeing RM's with their own children!

We got to have our friend Kathy Turville come stay for a few days and that was a great excuse to invite over some RMs for a Sunday Sundae party!

With Joseph and Amy Barley

With Katrina and Scott Richardson and their cute baby Mylah!

Juan Castanos and his wife Monica

Paul Wilson

Mikey, Hugh and Brooke Zollinger with baby Jack along with Catie Paulsen (her sick kids kept the rest home)

Alexa, Benke Courtney and Nama Kasmissoko with Kathy

Caleb Brown

August we were so excited to get to go to Brandon Johnsons reception after his marriage to Claire

We love going to some BYU away games and we love seeing RMs that love this as well.

Met Caleb Brown at the Las Vegas game against Arizona.  

And, as we were walking in, we met up with our own Zach Jensen and his fiance London

Then, about a week later, we were meeting up at the Provo City Center Temple to congratulate Zach on his sealing!

 

March to June 2020 Pamdemic

HI FRIENDS!  So...we sort of have not really seen many of you in person due to this SOCIAL DISTANCING THING
(Sign we found up in SLC while walking with our daughter)


And this DISINFECTED TIME of our lives.












But that does not mean we have not been thinking of  you!

So, here is an update about us and a couple of great RM interactions in person over the last couple of months.
So, March brought on a new world for us.  We made it back from a trip to New Jersey...barely.  This is me in a deserted airport in Newark.  Scott flew back the day of the SLC earthquake and got rerouted for a long time! HA!



Our relationships with our grandkids and most of our adult kids became totally online and a few trips were cancelled because we can not go see them or they cannot come see us. (WA and NJ and UT are not highly sought after places to travel about now)
We miss seeing them in person so much!

Scott started working from home and I had to quit teaching my Pre-K classes.

We started walking a LOT in our area and discovered the amazing wetlands just south of our new home.
This is Scott looking at a pelican flying.
We have become as our kids term it
BIRD NERDS!!!







Since I was not teaching, I organized tons of photos online and also became involved in the PROJECT PROTECT for Utah and helped sew masks for hospitals. 

I also sewed masks for pretty much all of our family including all my kids, grandkids, some siblings, nieces and nephews.

That was a very fulfilling project and I am so grateful that my Mom taught me to sew!

One of my favorite fabrics was this "TACO DOG" fabric that my nieces and nephews totally got dibs on!

So, back to the bird nerd thing...Scott and I had no weekend plans so we made a few trips to new places including the Bear River Bird and Wildlife Refuge up by Brigham City.

You can see we have become bird photographers as well!

Truly stunning to see so many cool birds up close and personal!





OK...up close and personal has moved outside for our local kids.  We meet outside and sometimes have MOVIE NIGHT in the backyard.  If anybody wants to schedule a movie night with us, that is an option!

This is random.  One day this little guy literally dive bombed us in our front yard.  We grabbed butterfly nets and Scott easily caught him and we used a Pre-K bird cage from our play pet store.

He is a noisy little bugger and gets taken to time out when Scott has online Church News meetings, which is often.

Another outing to ANTELOPE ISLAND.  We went hiking once there with some of you RMs, but went back to hike a different trail and I got a pic of the photographer in action taking shots of a buffalo.
It was a long but very lovely hike.

OK...this has got to be one of the BEST THINGS of our quarantine.
We got to attend a private sealing with Melissa Chord and Andrew Fairbanks in the Payson Temple.

It was one of the most spiritual feelings to be in that temple knowing you were one of only 15 people total there including the workers.  God does know "the one" and cares for their needs!
Made our YEAR to be there for that special day!

Our daughter Breanna is a wonderful activist for human rights and we got to invite her to come to a great rally held by BYU.

I had just "happened" to meet up with our friend Stacey Harkey at the gym the day before and he told me about this.

It was a WONDERFUL evening listening to and trying to understand better our brothers and sisters of color. 
We are trying hard to become better covenant keepers so that we can "bear one another's burdens that they may be light."


We encourage you all to become involved and educated on how to be a better ambassador to ALL for the Savior in real life.

More bird nerd outings, this time WAY OUT THERE to Fish Springs, UT.

Trying to do our part by donating blood!

And, our most wonderful outing last weekend to celebrate the wedding of cute HAILEY BEAZER to Kole Randall.
They did the cutest "Drive-In Movie" theme drive-by Open House and I forgot to snap a picture so this will have to do!  But they looked so happy! 

We love you all SO MUCH!  Please do not hesitate to reach out if we can be helpful, if you want to schedule a movie night or visit...and we will look forward to a BBQ and renewed dinner parties when this pandemic has lifted.
In the meantime, BE SAFE, WEAR A MASK and know you are VIRTUALLY HUGGED!