President and Sister Carter Return Home

Just wanted to share a few pictures of our recent reunion with our wonderful returning mission president and his wife, President Rees and Sister Eva Jean Carter. We celebrated first with a surprise barbecue at Elder Jonas' home in South Weber. The barbecue was delicious. Many thanks to Ashley Kohler and Aaron Gerber who organized it...with a lot of help from a lot of people. I truly think the Carters were surprised to see all the missionary faces looking at them (or they didn't let on if they weren't surprised). It was so fun to see everyone and to meet some of those more recently returned ones I didn't get to know, but serving in Armenia seems to create an almost instant connection. There were even a few couples getting ready to serve and we all assured them it would be a challenging, but well worth it, experience. I'll try and name those I can remember.

Artur Minasyan, Aaron Carlson (teaches at the MTC currently)

Senior couples who have served in Armenia and Georgia

The core of the party...making horavatz

Paul Stephenson, Braydon and Miriam Santo

Surprise!! President and Sister Carter

View from the deck of the missionaries with President and Sister Carter

Miriam Dever and Julie Crego

The newly married Mr and Mrs Young, she is aka Aubrey Brower

Amanda Cornwell and Karalyn Crawford

Sona and Derek Lowe, Telyn Peterson, McKay Hatch

Michael Pulsipher and John Franklin Zebley, III

Sona and Derek Lowe

Lisa Ferguson and Lance Stutz

Sunday, was a spiritual feast as we listened to President and Sister Carter report on their mission. They shared with us some of the many "miracles" that had occurred while they served including the formation of the first Stake in Armenia on June 16, 2013.

After church, we gathered together again for more eating, talking and celebrating as we shared a potluck luncheon. Their family had organized and put it all together. We enjoyed delicious chicken salad sandwiches and a lot of side dishes brought by everyone else.  A group of missionaries that had sung together in Armenia did a reprise of the number. It was a great weekend.

The Youngs

Justin and Jordan Jonas, Ross Garner, Michael Pulsipher

More convo's

Lance Stutz, Aaron Carlson, John and Gloria Rich

The Elders making beautiful music once again

Peterson Family Oregon Reunion 2013

What a fun time we had as we reunioned as a family in Oregon...the birthplace of all our children...and a favorite place indeed.

The week started out a little earlier for me as I drove up to Oregon with Rob and Tamsen and their 4 children on Wednesday, June 26th. Thursday, I was able to go to the beautiful Portland Temple with my two sons, John and Rob, and their wives.

Julie, John, Patti, Rob, Tamsen at Portland Temple

Friday, the 27th, we all met up in Lincoln City for 4 days of beach time. We stayed in a couple of nice homes a short walking distance from the beach.

View of ocean from Lincoln City Beach Home

View of beach home from the beach

Sunset view from beach home

First order of the day upon our arrival was a visit to the beach to do some clamming on the low tide. We got about 250 which was ample for the delicious chowder John concocted.

John and I going after the clams, a muddy business

Liv with her "catch"

Rinsing and cleaning the clams

Going after the clams with shovels and clam guns

Not quite sure what I'm doing, but having a good time

Another low tide found us visiting Boiler Bay and finding "treasures" in the tide pools. The hike up and down was a bit tricky as it was not a smooth path, but one filled with boulders. I had sore muscles afterwards, but it was worth the hike.

Boiler Bay

The "Boiler"

The trail to access Boiler Bay

JaneAnne, Patti, Berit and Alisa at the tide pools

Alisa and Matthias with a star fish

Berit enjoying the tide pools

We took a walk to hug a very huge tree. There was lots of beach time and family time, singing and playing games. It was great!

Leif, Stuart and Merit at the root base of the BIG Tree

The BIG tree

The family holding hands and surrounding the BIG tree

Cousins all aboard the playground train with Rob

Lots of kids and Uncle Mike playing in the sand

Liv loved the water and sand

A great big game of Scum

King Anders in our game of Scum

Cousins braving the rather cool Oregon surf

The girls, Emily (21) and Jana who celebrated their birthdays at the reunion

This is a picture we were able to get of all the participants: First Row (l to r) Zach, Sue, August Andelin, Berit Olsen, Liv Peterson, Kiefer Andelin, Alisa; 2nd row: David Olsen, John, Joseph, Tosh, Anna, Patti, Kate, Mike, Berit; 3rd Row: Hewitt, Leif Olsen, Emily Stuart Maughan, Burke Peterson, Delaney and Davis Maughan; 4th Row: Tamsen and Rob, Julie, JaneAnne, Anders and Jana. All children (JaneAnne, John, Jana, Rob, Alisa and Sue) are there. Just missing one grandchild, Jake, who is serving a mission in the Benin Cotonou Africa mission. We missed you, Jake!

It was quite a change to move from beach house to campsite, but the views were no less beautiful...just different. We spent two nights at Eagle Creek Overlook on the Columbia River. We used to do a lot of camping as a family so was like a return to former years. We ate a lot of good food, including a fair share of s'mores. We also celebrated some family birthdays: Jana, who is used to going camping on her birthday, and Emily, who celebrated the big 21st surrounded by her family.

Stuart takes a turn keeping track of Kiefer

The view of Bonneville Dam from our campsite

Jana cooking on her new stove

JaneAnne and Patti help out with the pancake breakfast

My tent and the group gathering building

Sue with the twins and a good helper

View on trail to Punch Bowl Falls

Hiking along with two year olds somewhat under control

Punch Bowl Falls

Anna crossing the clear water at base of falls

Patti, JaneAnne, Leif, Anders, Berit and David at Punch Bowl Falls

The family taking a break at the bottom of the falls

Making bubble snakes, a fun activity for the grandchildren

Anders probably had the biggest snake

Burke preferred making a beard with his bubbles

Merit really got the hang of making a snake from bubbles

Cousins making a giant pile of snake bubbles

We arrived back at John and Julie's and got ready to celebrate the 4th. The barbecue food was great and the fireworks later in the evening were fun to watch.

Cousins enjoying swing time in John and Julie's big backyard

It was such a fun reunion and about the last thing I did before I left was to bring a little Oregon home with me. Who can resist making jam when the berries are so plentiful and so delicious. We picked Tae, Raspberries and Marionberries for a few hours and then made 19 batches of jam. Should be enough to have and to share.

Patti filling her bucket with marionberries

Batches of jam ready for the freezer

More jam

 The day I arrived back home, I was able to visit the Pincocks as they finished up their training prior to leaving for the mission to Nauvoo. It was so fun to catch up and share memories of our time together.

Elder David and Sister Connie Pincock with Patti

 A funny picture as we are in our serious mode to start the storage room cleanup. This can be a useful, if not a somewhat painful experience.

Sue, Patti and Zach in their serious poses