August 2010 - Haupt, Levi & Torrie & Family

This past July has been the hottest month on record for the commonwealth of Virginia. This goes to Torrie’s conspiracy theory that bad weather follows us wherever we go. The 4-month blizzard of Upstate NY in the winter of 2008-09, then the rainiest summer NY saw in 2009. Once we moved to Virginia the 4-month Blizzard of 2009-10 and now the hottest summer on record. To cope with our “interesting “ luck we’ve done a lot of swimming, our fair-skinned, German-descendant husband and father is a little put out that he doesn’t have the tan, that the rest of us have been blessed with, that’s what he gets for being a geek with an office job.

We spent the 4th of July with some families from the ward and had a BBQ and a mini fireworks show. It was a lot of fun although Torrie missed the huge fireworks show like the one at the Canyons Resort in Park City, UT that she enjoyed years ago. We found out Charlotte is a “pyro” and enjoyed the sparklers a little too much. No injuries though, what a blessing.

Later that week, Levi had the unique opportunity to go to Newport News, VA and tour an aircraft carrier and a submarine. He got a pretty extensive look at the inner workings, while the girls and I enjoyed some outdoor fountains. ( see video)
We’ve had lots of friends over to enjoy our pool with us and finally got up the courage to go night swimming and see the pool’s changing colors.

We’re looking forward to August and the beginning of the change to the best season on the east coast…. FALL!!!!!

Until next month

Love,
The Haupts

August 2010 - McClintock, Robert & Susan

Dear family,
This past July Aunt Susan had a most disturbing experience.
The Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Council organizes an event that takes place once a month called Second Saturday. Local artists can display their artistic work for the public to view after normal business hours. Because most local artists do not have a storefront to display their work many local businesses agree to let the artists use the local business as a display venue. The local business hopes the public will remember them or their goodwill and return to patronize the business, while the artist hopes the viewing public will seek out the artist for the work or talent they display.

Uncle Bob brought a number of his photographs to display at an auto body shop and then he and Aunt Susan decided to see what some of the other businesses had to show. By degrees, they walked into the most spiritually hideous place Aunt Susan had ever experienced. Rowdy people were milling around on the fringes but as one got further into the mass of revelers, those living spiritually empty lives congregated in greater numbers using the cover of the "mob" to sink lower into depravity with lewd dancing, contorting, and giving themselves over to the "moment". It was quite frightening. One could taste and most definitely feel the evil that reigned there. The Holy Spirit left us and the true nature and danger of the situation became quite apparent.

There is most certainly safety in the counsel of the Prophets to be in harmony with the spirit in order to heed his warnings. Had Aunt Susan been more alert to the spirit and less concerned about pleasing her companion's interests she might have been spared the experience. One might fall back on the old adage “Live and Learn" but that doesn’t cut it in better circles.

On a lighter note....the joint garden that Aunt Susan is tending is doing great! The vegetables that have been harvested and eaten are delicious! The weather has been agreeable most days and the Pioneer Day celebrations were great fun...because family was around and the children were having.

Grandma Anna is still slipping but she wakes every morning with determination to have the best day she possibly can.

Love to all,
The McClintocks

August 2010 - Mercier Cesar & Kelly & Family

On the 3rd, Jilina and I are off to CA and then to Utah on the 12th. We are so excited! If any of you are in So Cal or Utah during those times let us know so we can see you! Love to all and happy rest of the summer!

Kelly

August 2010 - Scott, Carlon & Kimber & Family

Well it has been a while since I have contributed to the newswire, but I am awake at 4 in the morning so I figured I should do something with my time. The summer kind of feels like it is just beginning for me although it is shortly coming to a close. The whirlwind that was Stake Youth Conference and Stake Girls Camp, that occurred only 2 1/2 months apart was successfully completed and it only took me about 2 weeks to feel completely rested afterward. Although, I complain about the lack of rest that occurred during these events it was definitely worth it. It is always wonderful to see the youth bond and grow spiritually.

I have my 20 year class reunion next Saturday and after 6 weeks of looking for a really great dress, I found it! Now, I am frantically trying to find the proper accessories to go with it. Oh, the trivial worries we women put ourselves through.

Anyway, in September Mimi starts Kindergarten and she is out of her mind, excited about it. I can’t wait, as I won’t have to pay for Pre-school anymore.

We are very excited, as well, as Kelly and Jilina will be visiting us in a few days it is so fun to have them visit us in California. Well, that is all that I can think of for right now. Hope all is well with everyone.

Love,
Kimber, Carlon and Mimi Scott

August 2010 - Westover, Mel & Carol

Well, we just walked in the door from Heber, Utah. We just spent a week with Mel's family in Heber, where we had a family reunion. It was really awesome. Tuesday night the whole family got to go in and see Niel get set-apart as a musical missionary (Tabernacle Choir). Thursday, the older kids and some adults (Mel and I included) went to the Jordan Temple and did baptisms. After that we went to the Utah food bank and did a service project. Thursday night we went to Deer Valley and watched the Choir rehearse for the performance for the next night. We sat on the grass directly in front of the choir. It was AWESOME. We even sang along with them (not that they heard us). As usual, lots of activities and singing at night with the Westover clan. A very musical family.

Crystal and Jeff and family visited us July 13. We had a great time with them. We went to the Sequoias, had a bar-be-que at Erica's, again our musical family did a lot of singing and playing of the piano. We also watched some of our old videos of Thanksgiving and Christmas. We got some great laughs out of it.

We also spent a weekend with dad and Susan and the boys in Sacramento, and are planning on going back in about a week. The boys are getting so tall.

Spent Fourth of July with Adam and Erica and the girls. I think Ava spent most of the night running around in circles as she squeeled at the fireworks.

Mel and I are so grateful for all of our blessings. We are especially blessed to have such wonderful talented families, children, and grandchildren.

I have to report to school on August 16, (Cassie's birthday) so I have two weeks left. Still a lot of get done before the summer is over. Everyone have a great August.

August 2010 - Wilcox, Todd & Tracy & Family

Dear Family,

By now most, if not all of you know that I am expecting my third child. It has been long overdue, but it really did take me four years to get the courage up again. I am expecting anytime now to stop being scared and start being excited! (No really, we are excited.) It has been a bit rougher this time around. I have been so sick, but thanks to some strong medicine and some tips from Torrie, I think I have it under control now. Alexis wants a girl and Brenton a boy. We'll find out in about 7 more weeks. I am confused about what I could be having because I am so sick (like I was with Alexis), but I am not emotional like (I was with Brenton). So maybe if it is a girl she won't cry at the drop of a hat... one can only hope!

Alexis was baptized this month, which was so exciting. It was very cool to see how excited she was! We had my mom and Todd's mom give the talks, (which were so great!) And the grandpa's were the witnesses. My mom also lead the music and basically ran the show for me! Thanks again mom! I love you! After the event we had every family member in town come over for a belated birthday lunch and baptism celebration.

It has been a good month and we have another exciting month to come. In August Kelly and Jilina are coming to visit! We can't wait!

Love,
Tracy

August 2010 - Woodward, Kevin & Tammy & Family

Dear Family:

These past couple of months have been somewhat eventful at the Woodward home. This time of year, much of what we do is centered on the youth of the stake.

Reaching back to May, we enjoyed a dance festival which was presented by 300 of the 535 youth of our stake. The event was featured in the Church News. It was an event that was very successful among our youth. The stake presidency has run into a number of parents and youth from the stake at various places around town who ask when the next Dance Festival will be held. It appears that this may be destined to become a triennual event.

In early June I enjoyed a week of camping in the mountains with the 14 - 18 year-old young men of the stake. This is a high adventure activity we have every other year called Aaron's Camp. The camp itself sits next to beautiful Lake Wellington at about 9,000 ft. One unique thing we do is set our clocks back an hour during the week, allowing it to get light and dark earlier in day. At that elevation at that time of the year, once the sun goes down it can get pretty chilly pretty fast. However, it makes a world of difference getting up in the morning with the sun already up. We typically have about 85 adult leaders for our 200 young men. Not a bad youth/leader ratio. As much as the young man enjoy the camp, I think the adult leaders enjoy it even more. With all of the bishops, young men leaders and stake presidency members in attendance, it becomes a regular venue for offsite training.

At the conclusion of Aaron's Camp, I experienced a great deal of physical discomfort just under the ribs on the right side. This was something I had felt off and on for about six months. I seemed to get it every time I had Italian food. I had told myself "no more Olive Garden or California Pizza Kitchen". Previously I had spoken with the doctor about it, and he told me that it had all of the markings of a gallbladder that would only continue to give me increasingly levels of grief. We had made plans to go to Philmont, NM to attend a week-long LDS Scout Leadership Conference at the end of June. Those plans were simply overcome by events. We scheduled surgery a week after Aaron's Camp. We were at the surgery center for a total of seven hours of which the surgery itself took only two. All went well under the steady hand of the Dr. McCann. Things went even better once I got home under the loving care of Tammy. Within a few days, I was up and slowly back at it. The Oliver Garden and California Pizza Kitchen are back on the radar.

Two weeks after the surgery, Tammy and I went to spend two days and a night with the young women of the stake at their annual Girls Camp. The young women have a brand new camp facility called Camp Joseph, about 80 miles to the southwest of us in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It has a very definite Restoration theme. Each camp area is named after faithful women in church history. A day before the camp, our Area Seventy arranged for a dedication of the facility. We had about the same youth/leader ratio at that camp as we did with Aaron's Camp. Next year we will have the chance to spend the entire week with the young women at Camp Joseph.

The summer is always fabulous in Colorado Springs. That's all I will say.

Lots of love,

The Woodwards

July 2010 - Picture of the Month

Haupt Family at the local dollar theater watching "How to Train your Dragon"!

July 2010- Executive Office of Ken Woodward

Dear family,

The highlight of the month of June at executive headquarters was the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the settlement of Franklin, Idaho (June 15, 1860). The celebration was a glorious event.

Because of what might have been, it would not seem inappropriate to occupy a little space in this Newswire to review some little known, but important, historic facts.
During the highest level of Lake Bonneville the land where Franklin is located was within an arm of the lake 700 feet below water surface. That part of Lake Bonneville is shown on official maps as Cache Bay. Then there occurred one of Al Gore’s global warming periods. Evaporation exceeded precipitation, Lake Bonneville receded to what is now Great Salt Lake, the water backed out of Cache Bay leaving a highly fertile lake bed now known as Cache Valley. Through direct revelation from above, Franklin was located upon the most desirable part of the Valley, and as you know, is now known world-wide as a modern-day Shangri-la. (Aaron, that means earthly paradise.) Had all these events not occurred, I would have had to have been born somewhere else east of I-5 and what that would have meant to the rest of you is only speculation.

Except for the above, our household has been involved in only a limited amount of activity since the last report. We were planning to attend a ward picnic which had been publicized in our ward bulletin for at least two months, but was cancelled the last minute because of fear of a strong wind----which didn’t develop. The pioneering spirit of the local saints overwhelms me. Can you imagine William Woodward deciding to return to Box Elder because the day he arrived in Franklin there was a little summer zephyr blowing out of Maple Creek canyon?

Three of the ten weeks of the school summer vacation have passed and the most memorable trip Zack and Josh have had thus far was a trip to the dentist. But on the positive side Superior California has been experiencing excellent tomato growing weather.

The rich Fresno grandfather has scheduled a 7 to 10-day visit for the boys to his estate beginning the end of July. He calls it a vacation. Isn’t the phrase “Fresno vacation” an oxymoron?

Our combination house cleaning professional/ boys’ hairstylist has resigned her lucrative position with us to move to Michigan to pursue other interests. It was a good arrangement while it lasted, but her tenure was far too brief. If I could find a woman who showed any amount of house keeping talent and a reasonable interest in helping me raise two teenagers I would marry her. But then, any woman who came even near meeting those qualifications should be in an institution.

Love, Dad

July 2010 - Cannon, Adam & Erica & Family

Hello.
I can't seem to remember much about this month so I am going to talk about a few things and pretend like it all happened last month.
Lilah is a perfect baby. No crying, just smiles. Ava has gone from a crib to to a big girl bed. This has increased her level of sneakyness by alot and I am so proud of her. Annika graduated from pre-school and Maja was baptised. I have been waiting since 1996 when I left for Sweden, to baptise someone. I still work and Erica still runs the house.

Adam, Erica, Maja, Annika, Ava and Lilah Cannon

July 2010 - Haupt, Levi & Torrie & Family

Its hot in the good ol' south east and we're still loving our pool. Both girls are doing so well swimming. We've only had one minor catastrophe that involved both girls jumping at me and we were solo in the pool (Levi was on trek, that story to follow) Charlotte was pushed straight to the bottom. Emma was in floaties because she was supposed to be jumping next to me while I caught Charlotte. I got Emma out of the way and reached for Charlotte, when I brought her up she wasn't even coughing or sputtering, she was just fine, what a natural. Whew! Levi also got a Tivo for Father's day which is been helpful in keeping movies for the girls and eliminating our need for movie rentals.

Levi helped as support crew for the youth conference trek that took place at the Marriott Ranch in Hume, VA. He was of great assistance even driving a sick girl home early (about 2 hours) when no one else could. I know that his service in his calling is a great blessing to our family.

We're just hanging out and enjoying the lazy river, if any of you get jealous enough come on down! we have a third vacant bedroom....

until next month,

Charlotte, Emma, Torrie, & Levi



we obviously have too much play jewelry..... I can't see charlotte's arm anymore

July 2010 - McClintock, Robert & Susan

Hi Family,
My, oh my. June started out on rather an unusual note.

One of our cars was "egged" overnight one weekend. What made the incident so irritating was the fact that the very car that was the object of the assault had been hand-waxed that very day. Uncle Bob's quick thinking cleaned up most of the muck so that it didn't become scrambled egg later that day while sitting in the church parking lot. The smell of cooked egg is still with us whenever riding in that car. Over the last several weeks Aunt Susan has found more egg; on the bottom of the front door, on the front window screen, on the post near the front door. It's not that the "eggers" came back its just that we didn't find all the egg that day because it was Sunday and we were on our way to church when it was discovered. We can report that egg allowed to cook and dry in the sun is REALLY hard to clean up after the fact.

The rest of the month has been quiet. Maybe the Independence Day Holiday will give us more to talk about next month.

Love to All,
The McClintocks

July 2010 - Mercier, Cesar & Kelly & Family

Jilina and I will be in Southern California and Utah during the month of August. We are very excited to see family and get back to the west coast. We have been busy with travel softball and swimming lessons. We hope all are doing well and enjoying the summer!

Love,
The Merciers

July 2010 - Westover, Mel & Carol

Mel and Carol

I don't want to miss this month like last month. Mel and I just got home last night from Cleveland, Ohio. Quite an interesting trip. We went there for the ACN international convention. As usual it was awesome and we learned a lot. On Monday Mel and I decided to go to Kirtland, Ohio and see the historic sites. We took public transportation because we had a 7-day pass. The train took us to Windmere and then we got on the bus. Very Scary. We were the only two white people on the bus. We decided it was probably a good idea to sit next to the bus driver. Then we got off that bus and got on another one. Again, Very Scary. We drove through areas that were condemned, bullet holes in windows, businesses all boarded up. The only thing that was open was the hospitals and the schools. It made me very aware of how blessed we all are. Very happy to be home.

We are still very busy in our business. IF ANYONE NEEDS A CELL PHONE, ADT., SECURITY, SATELITE TV (DISH, OR DIRECT) WIRELESS AIR CARD, LOCAL LONG DISTANCE, PLEASE TALK TO US FIRST. WE CAN USUALLY SAVE YOU MONEY!!!!

I have been enjoying my time off from school. I think the older I get, the harder. Then when I have conferences with some of my parents, and they are so very grateful for what has been done for their children and their disabilities, I know how worthwhile it is to get up everyday and drive 30 minutes to school. We are excited to have Crystal and Jeff and family come and visit us. Anyone else in the neighborhood, come and visit. Have a happy Fourth of July and a great month!!

July 2010- Woodward, Kevin & Tammy & Family

The Kevin Woodward household is recovering from gallbladder surgery. My dad is recovering well and he was in excellent hands. They will re-surface next month.

Torrie