Connie is 10 days into recovery from her left knee replacement and is doing well, has pain and sleeps a lot.  She is going to physical therapy and has been good about it.  She isn't sure that she wants to do the other one now, but that may change if this is successful and she heals up pretty soon.  She does not get out much except for therapy but she has a good attitude and is pleasant.  Thank you for all the prayers and well wishes.

IT ALL STARTS MONDAY

Monday Mike and Allie get here at midnight, Kyle and Samantha at 2:40 am and Ash and Cort will get here in the evening sometime. I do not know if Cali and Joey are coming here going to Joey's family but they are all leaving for Rocky Point Tuesday morning for a couple of days. We are hoping to go down for Rob's baptism if they can work out the arrangements and permission. The rest of the group and these earlier arrivals come back to our house on the 26^th and 27^th so that we will have 7 couples plus us and 23 grandchildren for a few days. We are psyched.

Time to Get Started Again

We have had a couple of Christmas celebrations with the whole family at Mazatlán, again at Mazatlán and at Las Vegas.  This year we are preparing for one at our Gilbert home.  We are putting everything in to it that we can.  We have extra room if we need it, have been buying food, and various other things to make it a good time.  Our biggest desire, other than that our family enjoy the visit together, is that we are able to take a family picture.  All seven married couples appear to be able to attend, and we have 23 grandchildren with no one that we know expecting, so this could be a picture that would be good for a while.  Mike gets out of law school and they are coming, Linh and Isaac are coming from South Carolina, Kyle and Sam from Oregon and the rest are coming Orem and Lindon.  Marion has chemo on the 23rd but we think they will be able to come on the 27th.  We are really excited.  I have decided to start blogging again so we can keep in touch a little better. 

Remodeled bath by Kent Adams

Grandma Jone's bathroom is remodeled and we have Kent and Sue Adams to thank for it.  It was a big job but we got it done.

Alaska

 We were gone about 12 days with Pam and Gil Greer, actually a present from them, to Vancouver, then up the coast to Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Anchorage and Fairbanks Alaska.  We stayed in the Princess lodge at Mount McKinley and then another Princess lodge on the other side of the mountain, where they call it DENALI.  We saw bears, glaciers, wildlife, mountains, rivers, and beautiful landscapes.  The mini suite was fantastic, the food excellent, the travel easy, the company superior and no motion sickness.  We are going to do this again.

 

Big Changes at Easy Street

Take a look at these two pictures and tell me what has changed.  Yes, Merle showed up this morning and took out ONE scrub.  Thank goodness it wasn't two.  Then he crushed the satelite dish with his mini backhoe and no more dish.  Mom's roses are blooming and we are ready for guests.  Sam and the kids are going to come Friday and Mike and Allie will come sometime this next week.  We start as Columbia River Temple workers on Saturday and we will learn English and Spanish and serve during the time we are here.



Emigs and Earls

Jason's family came first and stayed a couple of days, then Joe & Cali came with their family.  They stayed with Joe and Lori for a couple of days but came over when Ashley's group showed up.  We will get them up in the morning.

4 Wheeling

Can you even imagine Connie and I 4 wheeling and ATVing?  Me neither!!  But it was fun and we road like 26 miles in each direction.  We were gone for a long time and saw alot.  The weather was great and it was a little scary.  But we were with Keith and Vickie and Kent and Sue-- great time.

IT's ALL ABOUT THE VISITORS

We have been here in Gilbert since March 1st and have had people here all of the time.  We love it.  Mom Earl and Grandma Jones came with us after our 3 weeks in Mazatlan and our return to Moses Lake and then Utah for C.J's funeral.  Mom Earl has spent time with her sister Norma and we have visited with the Pikerds, Jeannie Leavitt, Lori (wife of Dusty Leavitt) and Lori Nelson Worsley.  Kent and Sue Adams came at the beginning of the month and have been our liberators.  They have cooked, cleaned and fixed everything in sight.  Plus we have gone to the temple together, gotten up and walked in the mornings and just generally had a delightful time with them.  Then Justin came for one night and Isaac and Linh came through for a short visit on their way to San Diego.  We ate a couple of times with Steve and Renee Coombs and then Dick and Sandy Merrill (Plus we have seen them a couple of times in the temple) and we have been with Keith, Vickie, Davey and Danny Cutler almost every day since we have been here.  We have been eating all together most nights.  We also had a visit from Jerry and Deanne Anderson, Loris Anderson and Ronda Bruce.  What a wonderful retirement this has been thus far.  We are looking for Cali and her crew next month plus Kaelynn and her group on their way to Disneyland.  We are buying beds, blankets, sheets and pillows like crazy.  WE HAVE ROOM, COME VISIT.

5 Brothers in Mazatlan

 Much better when the girls are added. 

Congo Connie

This is the first time in a long time that we had all five brothers together, along with mom, all of Jeff's children and their spouses or special friends, Justin, Angelique, Dougie, Marion and Savana Jones, Grandma Jones...In short it was a real party.  We loved it.  Most played a lot of water volleyball.  We all ate alot and enjoyed the best weather ever.  I could get used to this retirement thinig.

BACK IN SLC

We had all of our family except for Mike, Allie, Kyle and Justin, (plus Grandma Jones, Keith and Vickie) at the Salt Lake City Airport to see us come in back home. Nothing compares to coming home to family. All of these pictures are on Ashley's blog. Thank you family. We just finished the most wonderful church assignment we have had to date.

Interim President

Calvin and Gayle Clegg have been approved by the first presidency to be the interim president of the MTC. He was a mission president in Portugal and she was a counselor in the general primary presidency of the Church for 6 years. They were missionaries here in Spain at the time of their call. We know them well. He was FBI for many years in South America and he was missionary companions with President Donald Tenney, our temple president and Charles Eberhard one of our temple missionaries. Small world. This is our final MTC post. Connie is a little trunky. I am a rock.

All About Eating

Starting at the left: Jona Neidhard (teacher) can eat more than any human I have ever met. Sister Dremeaux is going to Paris, Miguel Motta is from Portugal but served in Paris and is a teacher. Christian Bruno is our other Italian teacher. ME: old, fat and tired. Elder Aldo Pauari from Tahiti gave me a necklace that I can just barely stand up under. When he hugged me the shells crashed into my chest and almost punctured my lungs. Elder Curzola is from the north of Italy on the border with Austria and goes to Rome. Christmas in the MTC is about letting the staff and cooks off and having Pres and Sister Earl do all the cooking, cleaning and all that other stuff. This is very nostalgic because that is what it is all about at home too. We did crepes for the 24th, and we did a full on turkey dinner for Sunday the day of Christmas (we invited the Ebys, Eberhards and Pres and Sister Tenney). For the New Years weekend we did Dominos pizza and then on Sunday Fetticini. We stayed up until midnight although it was hard to find things to do. One week left.
OH YES, go cougs.

Hot Fudge Tuesday

Some of our teachers and leaders: Efrain Lopez, Manuel Arjona, Brian Pickup, Christian Bruno, Mikel Lizzaralde, Daniel Esposito, Eva Suarez, Soraya and Josefina Martinez, just some of our teachers receiving and enjoying a mug of hot fudge sauce for Christmas. We were going to Cadiz for a couple of days, but with the news from Isaac and Linh and just being overall a little tired, we decided to stay home and make something for the people here, thus the hot fudge. Last week Jeff, Lisa, Kevin and Chase Fairchild came to stay a day or two and we had a good time with them. We have less than 3 weeks left and we are ready to come home. We have just three missionaries here in the MTC and our classes are held in our apartment, as the big room is being remodeled. The classes are more like FHE (however without the treats and frequent trips to the restroom). We love our friends here and we love the missionaries but we have been away from home now for 4 years and hopefully someone will be glad to have us back in the States. To us, our dedication to the work of the mission of the church is bigger than anything else. Only our love and dedication to each other comes close to that. We trust in the plan. Otherwise Christmas makes no sense and has no purpose.

Many are Cold but few are Frozen

We have 17 Russian/Ukranians, 5 Italians and l North American here and the Russians from Siberia say "many are cold but few are frozen." That just cracked me up. We have had 30 Russians thus far and I have found the 12 tribes of Israel. The scriptures say the 10 tribes will come out of the North, well 2 of these missionaries are from Zebulon, one from Issachar, 3 from Dan, 1 from Simeon, 2 from Manasseh, 2 from Ephraim, and have had Asher, Levi and Judah. The Lord does things in a very natural way. Love these kids.

Nortons & Nielsens

Kylie & Eddie Norton and their friends Connor and Marielle Nielsen came from SLC to visit Madrid and then Rome/Florence on a fall trip. We know the Nortons from our Perpetual Education days in Lima, where they came to intern for the summer. We visited the normal places, Toledo and Segovia, plus Avila, Madrid and Manzanares el Real. We have 17 Russian missionaries, 5 Italian missionaries and l North American going to Spain that just happens to be good friends with the Nortons, so we took him with us to Manzanares. Still having a great time!!

Theodore Bunker Boice

I wanted to add additional pictures so I could have my beautiful daughter looking beautiful, plus who can resist a bum shot and a big brother shot?

Theo was born on the 22nd of November 2011 at 4:16 pm in Orem Utah and came in at 4 pounds and 6 ozs. This is probably the most prayed over little one that has come and his is beautiful. Thank you to the cousins who fasted for Theo.

el Meson Candido- 500 years of Eating History

We had a great visit with Jason, Britney, Jeff and Becky. They were off to see the South of Spain but we got to take them around to some of the places here in Madrid. We love our family. We spent a lot of money for marginal food at the Meson Candido because it is about 500 years old and we wanted to say that we had eaten here. Jeff, Connie and I had eaten there in 1978 but we had to accompany everyone else. Lots of atmosphere and excellent company.

Don Quixote and the Windmills

The castle is located 30 miles south of Toledo and was on the ridge of the wheat plains of La Mancha where Cervantes found his inspiration for Don Quixote (or Don Quijote)

The windmill blades are covered in cloth and the blades are moved to face into the wind.