A VERY Special Day!!!!!

On July 1st, a VERY Special event occurred in our family. To celebrate what would have been their 59th wedding anniversary, Grandpa, Grandma, Dad and Bonnie were sealed for Time and All Eternity in the Los Angeles Temple.



Before the Sealing, we did Grandma's Temple Work. Amber did her Initiatory and was her Proxy while Dad and Bonnie were Sealed to Gandma and Grandpa. I was able to do her Endowment. Bonnie was Grandma's Proxy while she was Sealed to Grandpa. It was an AMAZING expierience to be a Proxy to someone who you knew and loved.




There were many people who came to help us celebrate this special occasion: Aunt Bonnie (of course) Uncle Mike and Chad came from Utah; Aunt Elaine (Grandma's sister) came from Chula Vista (near San Diego); and there were MANY friends from the Yorba Linda 5 Ward.




After the Sealing, we all went out for lunch at a restraunt called "Juniors".

It was a WONDERFUL day.

A Historic California YSA Conference

On August 8th and 9th, 10,000 YSA's from all over the state of California will gather at each of the 7 temples for a historic state wide conference. They are expecting 1,800 YSA to be at the Newport Beach Temple. Last night we had a Conference kick-off fireside to explain what will happen in the next 12 weeks leading up to the conference and the actual conference. In two weeks, we all will be divided into companionships and be set apart for a 10 week mini mission. We will spend the next 10 weeks focusing on finding, activating and inviting the less-active to this conference. We also be focusing on missionary work. All the YSA state wide are encouraged to do temple ordinances at least 3 times before August 8th.

We have State goals, Ward goals and Personal goals that we will be focusing on also. These goals are designed to improve us physically as well as spiritually. The State goals include: To have 80% of all YSA's attend the Conference. Have 30% of all YSA's bring a friend or a less active to the Conference. Have 10,000 Ordinances performed by August 8th. The Ward Goals include: Identify and visit every less active YSA in the ward. Challenge every less active to attend the Conference. Be Temple Worthy and perform at least 3 ordinances by August 8th.

On Saturday August 8th, we will all gather at the nearest temple (for us it is the Newport Beach Temple) at 5 in the morning to do sessions, sealings, inititories, baptisms and confirmations. After spending several hours in the temple, we will have several workshops to attend. In the afternoon, we will have a service project where we will be making 1,000 quilts (yes even the guys will be doing it too) state wide in 2 1/2 hours. The quilts will be donated to families in need. In the evening, we will have a dance.

On Sunday August 9th, we will gather for a special fireside where we will take the sacrament and have Elder L. Tom Perry as a special speaker. Robin and I are SO EXCITED for this conference. It will be an AMAZING experience!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA

You have been gone now for 15 months. We wanted to do something special for your birthday. Since you are not here we couldn't make or buy you anything. There was only one thing that we could think of that you would want more then anything. We finally decided to set a date to get your temple work done and for you and Grandpa, Dad and Bonnie to be sealed for time and all eternity!!!! The date we have chosen is July 1st 2009, which would have been your 59th Wedding Anniversary. We are going to have it done in the Los Angeles Temple, which is a special temple for you and Grandpa. We are going to invite many family and friends for this much waited for event. We are counting down the days until we are all truly an eternal family!!!!

busy days

I have been busy for the past 5 days doing fun things. On Friday night, I went to the Newport Beach Temple with my ward. I hadn't been to the temple for MANY months so it felt wonderful to go. The spirit is so peaceful and warm in the temple. The temple brought much comfort and peace into my heart. I am grateful and blessed to have a temple so close. Now that things are settled at home more, I will go there often.

On Saturday night my Young Adult ward had an activity where we played a life-sized Clue game. If you know the board game Clue, the activity was JUST like the game but in a life-size form. We all dressed in formal gowns and the men came in their nicest suits. We had a wonderful dinner where the cultural hall was decorated as if we were in a fine restaurant with candlelight and even name plates. The hosts and hostesses were also dressed up in the characters of the board game (Prof. Plumb, Miss Scarlet, Mrs. Peacock, Mrs. White, Col. Mustard, Mr. Green, ect.) During the dinner a "murder" accrued and we had to solve the crime. We had to figure out who the killer was, what room the murder took place in and what weapon was used. We had 35 minutes to search for clues in the several rooms that were decorated to look like the rooms on the board game (ball room, billiards room, kitchen, library, ect.). In the end it was Mrs. White, with the knife in the billiards room (I got 2 out of the 3 correct (I thought the weapon was the revolver). After the game we went to a members home to watch the movie Clue. It was a FANTASTIC night!!!!!

After church on Sunday, Robin and I went over to our friends house for a birthday dinner (I know our birthday was over a month ago but we had been so busy we hadn't gotten around to doing it) better late then never. Our friend made us lasagna that she made from scratch. It was SOOOOO good (lasagna is Robin's FAVORITE food). It was so nice to spend a few hours with our friend and her 2 daughters, Mackenzie 6 years old and Kiley 4 years old. Mackenzie read to Robin and I all evening from her book Cat in the Hat. It is SO wonderful to see Mackenzie read and begin to love books like Robin and I. Our friend doesn't like to read at all and doesn't enjoy reading to her kids. Robin and I vow to continue to encourage Mackenzies love of reading. Kiley kept drawing us pictures all evening and kept asking us how to spell I Love You Aunt Amber (or Robin) which she wrote on all of the pictures she drew for us. I LOVE those girls!!!!!

On Monday night the Older Single Adults invited the family to a waffle cook-out. They had waffles of every kind you could think of. The only waffles they didn't have, that Jason was really bummed about, was Mickey Mouse shaped waffles. Grandpa had a good, although difficult time at the dinner. He cried a few times when people asked how he was doing. He is kind of upset that he is considered single. Although Grandma is gone, he is still very much a married man. It was nice to see a lot of our church friends at the dinner. All in all it was a very nice evening. G-pa is talking about going to some of their upcoming activities (although he isn't single).

Tuesday night Robin and Jason both had the day off so we went to see a movie, Dad came along too. Bonnie really recommended Enchanted so we saw it. The only place where it was still showing around us (since it comes out on DVD in less then a week) was at Downtown Disney (a shopping strip at Disneyland). After the movie, we wanted to ride the Monorail around Disneyland. We thought that you could ride on it round trip but we ended up having to get off inside Disneyland (bummer). Since we had to get off anyways, we decided to go on a ride. After we rode the ride twice we got back on the Monorail and went out to dinner. It was a nice evening.

Well now that I'm a social butterfly, I have to figure out what to do for the next 2 evenings. Any suggestions????? Oh wait, I'm having Visiting Teachers coming over Thursday night so I need suggestions for Wednesday night.