The Jackson's Yearly Visit, etc.

I was in such a hurry to finish and post my previous letter, that I missed a few important pictures and a story that Elise shared at the baptism that I felt should be in the letter.  I could go back and add it, but then no one will read it.  So, at the risk of making this newsletter too long, I will put share that story and those pictures here.  

Sara took these darling pictures of Foster on her blessing day (and Foster with her mommy).

The following is part of the talk that Elise shared at Ruby's baptism.  She spoke about the Holy Ghost and she shared this experience that she had while traveling to Utah a couple of days earlier:

"Sometimes we have experiences where the Lord talks to us, but we don’t listen and then later find out that we should have heeded that voice. These experiences sometimes make me feel bad, but I think that they are very important, because one of the greatest things you will learn how to do now is to listen and to follow the spirit. When I have experiences like that, it reminds me of how the spirit speaks to me. This week, as I was preparing to come to Utah I had a lot of thoughts come to mind. I had thought to pack sandwiches for the plane, but instead decided we’d have plenty of time to buy some lunch before we took off.  Another thought I had was to bring the stroller, and the other distinct thought I remember, happened as I was falling asleep the night before our flight, and that thought was that maybe we should leave earlier. Unfortunately the only thought I followed through on was bringing the stroller. As we drove the two hour route to the airport, just as we were nearing our exit, a really bad wreck happened in front of us and blocked the entire five lane freeway. We sat on that road, not moving an inch for about 45 minutes before I remembered to pray. We were all anxious and our eyes were watching every move of the emergency vehicles when the thought came to me to pray. I prayed in my mind, but then another thought came to ask Maverick to pray.  When I asked him to pray he prayed to make our flight on time so we could see Grandma and Papa. Not two minutes after his prayer the traffic started moving. The Lord also offered us some tender mercies like complimentary valet parking, and because I had followed the spirit on bringing the stroller, we were put through a smaller, shorter line for “assistance” in security. We made it to our gate with enough time to use the restroom, but not enough time to get food or refill our water. Fortunately I had packed snacks, but we were pretty hungry by the time we got to Utah.  I was grateful for this experience. It reminded me of how the spirit speaks to me. When Maverick prayed I felt the comforting influence of the Holy Ghost and knew we would make it. When I had received those thoughts the night before, I realize I had experienced the warning influence of the Holy Ghost."

Along with the happy event of the blessing and the baptism, we have some news that has been a little more difficult.  Crista shared this text with us from her most recent pre-natal visit:

"I just had my 20-week ultrasound and they found that our little guy has a cleft lip, possibly a cleft palate.  We didn't get the best look, so I will be going back in a month for another ultrasound to get a better look.  

He may have trouble nursing and I may have to deliver at Primary Children's.  The surgeries are very successful, so we are hopefult hat it won't affect his future too much.  It's a lot to take in, but I wanted you all to be aware since he will look different.  

If you could pray that it is just the cleft lip, and not the palate, we'd really appreciate it.  The palate is more serious.  

 We are grateful that the rest of his body looked good and his genetic markers looked good.  Thank you for all your love and support.💕"

From President Russell M Nelson: "Seek and expect miracles. 

Moroni assured us that “God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.” Every book of scripture demonstrates how willing the Lord is to intervene in the lives of those who believe in Him. He parted the Red Sea for Moses, helped Nephi retrieve the brass plates, and restored His Church through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Each of these miracles took time and may not have been exactly what those individuals originally requested from the Lord.

In the same way, the Lord will bless you with miracles if you believe in Him, “doubting nothing.” Do the spiritual work to seek miracles. Prayerfully ask God to help you exercise that kind of faith. I promise that you can experience for yourself that Jesus Christ “giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.” Few things will accelerate your spiritual momentum more than realizing the Lord is helping you to move a mountain in your life."

We will expect miracles with this little baby.  I'm sure we will see them, though, as President Nelson says, they may not be exactly what we have in mind.

One week following Foster's blessing, the Green's welcomed Cub Ricky Green into their family (on Father's Day!). The kids came up with the name Cub (and Adrienne and AJ loved it), and Ricky is the name of a golfer they like.

Cub weighed 8 lbs. 10 oz. and was about 21" long.  

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Speaking of Father's Day, we want to honor all the father's in our lives.  I am so grateful for my dad.  He was always a great example to me.  He was kind and honest in his dealings and he worked hard to make his relationships right--even when he was hurt deeply.  He knew scriptures and history and rarely wasted his time reading anything else.  Because he was such a great father, I found it easy to believe in a loving Heavenly Father.  I admire that my dad was always willing to grow and change.  He was a different father to me than he was to my older siblings, and he was an even softer grandpa.  

I think that Roy has been an equally wonderful father to his children.  He loves all of you!  He has always made sure that we had plenty of fun together as his desire has always been to keep his family close.  He also has a strong testimony of the gospel and has been eager to share that testimony.  Roy is the best example of someone who serves others willingly without any expectations of receiving anything in return.  He also makes an effort to learn people's names and to make everyone feel like they are important.  

I also see my sons and sons-in-law striving to be good fathers to their children.  I know that raising children can be difficult, and I know each of you have your own struggles, but I'm so happy that all of you try so hard to be good parents.  

We had a whirlwind two weeks with the Jackson family and it went quickly!  Elise always packs in lots of fun activities for her children while she's here, and luckily she has a lot of siblings to do things with so I can stay home from some of them. 😀  A couple of days after the baby blessing, Roy and I, the Jacksons, and the Nick Rasband family (plus Yuna) headed up to Flaming Gorge.  Elise and Andy always like to spend part of their Utah vacation up there when possible. 

On the way to Flaming Gorge we stopped for dinner in Evanston. This is a "wanna be" Benihana type restaurant.  They actually do a decent job considering it's Wyoming.  They were very good at entertaining the kids while preparing our meals.  We had a lot of fun.

All the kids were treated to cotton candy at the end of our meal.  I'm sure
that was their favorite part.

Elise and Andy;  Sara, Nick, Yuna, Ori, Avie, Cam, Bevy, Effie, Mav,

 Harvey, Elise, Andy, Max, and Roy.

On the trip up we were treated to this beautiful rainbow!  It managed to predict the weather for the next few days.  We had quite a bit of rain while we were at the cabin.  That meant alternate activities from the lake and boating.  Below are some pictures from the dinosaur quarry and park in Vernal.  

At the cabin

Cam and Harvey.  They were friends--for part of the trip

Ori, Cam, Bev and Avie, Mav, Max, Yuna, Effie and Harvey

Cam, Max, Harvey, Yuna, Mav, Effie, Ori, Grandpa, Bevy and Avie

Andy, Nick, Effie, Roy and Elise

We also went to the movies in Rock Springs one day because of the weather.  

Here they are giving grandpa a hug for being the cruise director!

 Luckily we had the theater all to ourselves because Cam and Harvey were definitely done after the first 2 hours (the new Guardians of the Galaxy was 2 1/2 hours long), but it was okay because they could run around the theater.

Here is one of the moments where they were friends

This new firepit enabled us to make perfectly roasted marshmallows and perfectly cooked hot dogs!

Harvey and Cam entertaining themselves in the cabin

Below we have some pictures from the two days we were able to get lake time.  There were boats out, but we opted to play off the beach.  We had more people than our boat is technically supposed to handle, and we knew we for sure couldn't fit all of the toys.  It was also questionable weather and pretty cool, but it's amazing how warm 65 degrees can feel if the sun's out.

I took a turn on the paddle board.  I was sure I would be balanced enough to prevent a dip in the cold water--but I was wrong!  It was shocking for a second, then it was all right.  It was slightly less cold than I expected.

Lucky for Roy the weather was often good enough for side by side rides

Yuna, Mav, Avie, Max, Bevy, Ori and Effie

Cam and Harvey

Roy with Max and Mav--Ori in the background

Max, Bevy, Yuna, Harvey, Mav, Effie, Cam and Avie;  Grandma getting a rare kiss from Harvey

As we were approaching "Devil's Slide," while driving home from the Gorge, we told Mav and Max to watch for the Devil's Slide.  As we approaced it we said, "look now!"  They got a good look at the long crevass between two equally long rock formations.  Mav's response:  "Would you break a bone?"  We laughed.  I think if you tried to slide down that, you'd break a lot more than a bone.

The Jackson kids and Camden really love dinosaurs, so after we got home from Flaming Gorge, several of the families met at the dinosaur park in Ogden (I stayed home).  They stayed for hours.

Doyeon and Cam; Max, Ruby, Ori, Bevy, Harvey, Mav, Dojin,
Avie, Hyeji, Yuna, Effie, Greta, Todd and Bridget

I wasn't at this game, but I did change Ollie's long pants into knickerbockers.  I guess that's the more cool look these days.  He was really happy with them.  Ollie continues to hit home runs and win games.  Finn won some events in his golf tournaments and if he keeps qualifying, he might end up doing an event at the Masters in Augusta.  Gunnar is also playing a lot of golf.  Even Ila has her turn at sports playing T-ball and taking tennis lessons. 

As a last hurrah, Elise and Andy put on a birthday party for Max with pizza, cake and ice cream the night before they left.  Max turned 10 the next day (the traveling day).  

You can see from all the pictures how much the cousins love being together.  I just hope it will continue as they all become teenagers and then adults.  Right now it's chaotic when we have everyone, but it's wonderful, too.  

Andy and Elise always make an effort to visit Grandpa Rasband when they come to Utah.  

You'd think that after Flaming Gorge and after saying goodbye to the Jackson's the fun would be over for awhile...but you would be wrong. Roy had different ideas.  Roy, Nick, Yuna and Ori, went on a wild ride Saturday.  Devil's Playground was a beautiful area and I think Roy will work hard to convince me to go with him to see some of the beautiful geographic features they saw.  The rest of the letter is more pictures...All of them are of Nick, Roy, Ori and Yuna, so I won't label most of them.

Roy said that most of the formations they saw had these interesting "vertebrae" type markings.

You can see how much fun these rocks would be for kids to explore.

This is a mine shaft.  The cave went in about 25 ft.  It looked like they never found what they were hoping to find, so they didn't continue digging.

Roy stalks the people using the cabin.  He took this picture of Caitlyn learning
how to ride Dallin's dirt bike (I don't approve!--of the motorcycle--the stalking is okay😀

And that is the end of this VERY LONG LETTER!