Pioneer Day Celebrations and goodbye to the Jackson's until next time (More pictures!)

July 24

We had our entire family together (including Andy) for the first time in 4 years.  Now that Andy has completed his residency, he'll be able to vacation with his family.  We even took a family picture, but not professionally--and you can tell.  There is not one picture where at least someone does not look goofy.  Some of them looked goofy (on purpose) in every photo.

For our celebration of the 24th and to say goodbye to the Jackson family, we had everyone over for dinner, fun and fireworks.  The Vances brought their bounce house again and the water kept all the kids cool.  The only injury this week was a bloody nose when Effie's head bumped Avie's nose.  I forgot to mention that last week at the Gorge, Yuli's arm was hurt and Dan and Jieun had to take a late trip to Rock Springs (an hour away), to check out Yuli's arm.  It turned out nothing was wrong, but she babied her arm for about half of the following day.  

A few (actually a lot of) pictures from our celebration.  It's hard to narrow the pictures down to only a few when you have 37 people in your family:

Bridget and Todd; Bridget

Gunnar and Todd; Ila

Ruby and Ori; Yuna

Finn, Hyeji, Yuli and Greta waiting for fireworks

Bridget, Effie, Avie;  Elise

Bridget, Effie, Avie, Beverly

Caitlyn, Dallin and Yuna;  Catharine, Nick, Caitlyn

Bridget; Avie and Beverly

Hyeji, Yuli, Camden 

Finn; Yuna

Doyeon, Greta and Ruby;  Beverly

 

Later in the week we went back up to Flaming Gorge.  We met Nick up there for a day on the lake on Friday.  Roy and I left Friday night to get back to Centerville for a funeral of a ward member.  He was just three years older than Roy.  His wife had breast cancer and had just finished her treatments when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  He'd been sick for most of this year, but for some reason the doctors had a hard time with the diagnosis.  He even suggested pancreatic cancer to the doctor since his brother had died from it but was told he didn't have the symptoms for that.  He lived less than a month after finally knowing what he had.  Roy had ministered to their adult daughter who lives with them for quite a while, so he wanted to make sure we attended the funeral.  

 There have been a lot of hard things lately, with people we know.  I listened to a Podcast about Job this week.  One of the things that stood out to me was the emphasis on comforting those that stand in need of comfort.  When Job went through all his trials, his friends showed up.  They sat silently with him for a week.  That was comfort.  However, the minute the friends began to talk and try to make sense out of what happened, the argument began.  Jobs trials are outlined in just a few verses.  The discussion about why he had to suffer lasted for 40 chapters.  This is a lesson for us.  We always want to solve problems.  We think that if we can find the perfect verse of scripture or the perfect sentiment, we can solve everything.  However, sometimes the best thing we can do is to just show up.  The commentator said when he lost his mother-in-law it was unexpected and devasting.  He was with his wife's family.  They were all together suffering in their grief when he heard the lawn mower.  It was his father, mowing the lawn.  His father couldn't solve anything, but he saw a need and filled it.  We experienced similar expressions of love when Tom died.  Roy went to our home the morning following the accident to see how much damage there was and what we would need to do to repair things.  When he arrived, he saw pretty much the entire ward (on a Sunday morning) cleaning out the garage.  The relief society sisters were in the house wiping soot off the walls so we would not have to do any of this when we were finally able to come back home.  Roy came back in tears, he was so touched by that type of love and support.

Roy also wanted to get back home to support a couple of his young men.  Brothers who are passing in the night--one who is departing for his mission, and one who has just returned home.  There was a party Saturday afternoon for them, and Sunday they were both speaking.  

Before we left Flaming Gorge, Dan and his family arrived and we had a celebratory birthday dinner in honor of Nick and Effie.  Sara had prepared the food, but Nick cooked the dinner.  After we left, they all went to the park to attack a candy-filled pinata.  Great cousin memories, I'm sure.

I love this picture.  Effie is saying, "Wow, grandma is so cool."  I think grandma is pretty cool, too! I've only wakeboarded about 5 times.  I'm relaxing a little more each time I get up.

Effie loves to get dirty.  Above: Avie, Ori, Effie and Camden.  Yes, that is black mud on 

Effie.  She was black almost from head to toe!  Friday was her 6th birthday.  As I said above, she shares a birthday with her dad.

Roy and Avie (?); Ori and Nick.

From shortest to tallest: Avie, Dojin, Effie, Yuna, Ori, Hyeji and Doyeon

                                  The lighting isn't great on these pics, but they're cute!

 Below: Camden, Hyeji, Doyeon, Ori, with Dojin and Yuna on top.  Yuli in the background.

This is after we left.  Effie taking the first swing at her birthday pinata

Watching a late night movie: Ori, Doyeon and Camden; and a day on the boat: Effie, Yueji, Avie, Yuna, Ori, Doyeon and Dojin.

Yuna, Ori, Doyeon, Sara, Hyeji with Camden and Nick on the paddle board; Yuli driving the boat and taking it very seriously.

Two darling toddlers: Camden and Yuli.  They really love each other.

Saturday night we met Crista and Matt for dinner at Costa Vida.  They were on their way to deliver a check to Operation Underground Railroad, an organization that fights human trafficking.  Matt donated the proceeds from the pre-sales on his new book.  They are setting a great example for their children on serving others and sharing with the community.  On left: Todd, Matt, Roy, Ruby, Greta, Bridget and Ruby; On right, Matt with Timothy Ballard, founder of Operation Underground Railroad.  

Some of the family went to the Dinosaur Park Monday morning.

Jennie, Camden, Yuna, Ori, Effie Avi; Ori, Yuna, Hyeji, Beverly, Elise and Andy

There were a couple of cute things that happened while Elise was here with us.  We had just fixed a delicious dinner with corn on the cob.  We had a pot full of hot corn, but while we had shucked all the corn, we hadn't cooked it all.  Beverly usually loves corn, but though it was heavily buttered and salted (by Bev), she wasn't eating much of it.  Elise was surprised.  However, when she picked it up and took a bite, she knew why.  It was raw. 

The other cute thing was when Dan and Jieun arrived.  Elise was excited to see and hold Yuli.  Yuli, just waking up from a nap in the car, seemed all right to cuddle with her.  However, everytime she looked Elise in the face, she closed her eyes.  She'd glance around the room, then back at Elise and her eyes would close again.  I guess she was experiencing what they call "object permanance."  If she closed her eyes it meant Elise wasn't actually there.