It's that time of year when you sit and quietly reflect on the past year's triumphs and lessons and the goals you'd like to focus on moving forward. Unfortunately, with a busy December and my husband and boys all home for the holidays, there's not much quiet or time for reflecting. I'll do my best though.
Kent and I have been living our best lives and taking the kids to many temple open houses. We took the kids to see the Manti Temple Open House in March which was truly special since we were married there 21 years ago. We also caught the Taylorsville and Tooele Temple Open Houses. We enjoyed being Ma's and Pa's as the two oldest boys attended Trek (a pioneer reenactment) for the first time. Some highlights of the year came from family time with a temple sealing, a missionary farewell, and two missionary homecomings, seeing the Big Ben Steam Engine in July and Kent's former Mission President who came with his wife in October.
This year Marlies (me) learned to love winter more because of a heated vest Christmas gift and a consistent effort looking for winter beauty by taking photographs during the cold months. Some of my highlights were seeing the Northern Lights for the first time, joining Braxton for a choir tour to New York City, getting Family Pictures, and switching jobs to be a reading teacher at Marshal's School...which I love!
Braxton (18) has had a busy year with senior activities like prom, choir (with the New York choir tour), and high school graduation! So proud of him! There was also a lot of work preparing for this fall. He surprised us by switching plans in June when he decided to attend Snow College a hundred miles south of home. He has since successfully finished his first semester of college and has just started a job at the local movie theater where he will work a couple of weekends a month so we'll be happy to see him a little more next semester.
Cort (14) found a love of music through playing the trombone with his middle school band. We enjoy seeing him light up when he talks about instruments and all he is learning! This summer he attended FSY (a worldwide church camp) which allowed him to make some great friends. He then enjoyed attending young men's camp (our local church camp) where he overcame the tire swing jumping into Bloomington Lake and enjoyed 9 square in the shallow water of Bear Lake on the north beach. He's in 8th grade and loves school and the many friends he's made there! At school functions it's so much fun to watch him interacting with his friends!
Marshal (9) played soccer last spring and again this fall. He has grown a great love for football this year as he played flag football for the first time in the spring and made it to the championship game. While everyone was at Trek he loved hanging out with his two cousins who helped him develop a new enjoyment for pop-tarts. At the end of the school year, he surprised us when he was randomly selected to receive some college scholarship funds from the Road to Success because of the many hours spent in an online read-a-thon (mostly at school). This fall he started 4th grade at a new school in the ALPS (Advanced Learning Placement) program. We love this change!
We hope you all have had a wonderful year and feel the love of our Savior!
Happy New Year!
