A Family Reunion of Sorts

As is quite often the case, times of transition and change bring about family gatherings and celebrations. Our trip to Utah was one of those times. Although we were missing a big part of our immediate family, there were a lot of cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents there.
Emily, Stephanie, Steve, and I made the trip to Utah on August 26th to take Emily and Stephanie to BYU. Megan and Nate were troopers and stayed home with Evan and Ginny for the six days we were gone. With the help of some good neighbors and friends, they got to where they needed to go and did just fine. Thanks guys. We got Emily moved into her dorm on the first day (well, kind of) and ended the day with an eventful trip to the Springville Wal-mart that will not soon be forgotten. Gotta love road construction.


The next day, as Emily got started with her new student orientation, we got to work looking for an apartment for Stephanie. We checked out a number of different places and she decided on The Enclave. She is renting from and individual condo owner and the apartment has four girls in it. Each girl has her own room and the bedrooms and bathrooms are on the floor above the main living area.


We also got to spend some time with Janelle, Scott, and Alan each of these days. What a sweet little guy his is. He is now smiling, talking, and just plain a lot of fun to be around.


Friday morning, Janelle, Stephanie, Steve, and I went to the Provo temple to do an endowment session. What a treat!! It had been years since Steve and I had been to that temple and it was so nice to go there with our two daughters. Emily stepped up to the plate and watched baby Alan so that we would be able to go. Thanks, Em.


That night, Janelle and Scott went to a concert for Scott's birthday. We also had been invited to a picnic at the Allen home in Orem. Brother Allen had served as our stake president years ago in New Jersey, and invited all the NJ folks past and present to come over and have a bar-b-que. Since there were so many people taking kids to school, etc., it was quite a good amount of people. We got to have Alan there with us for a while and it was fun for everyone to see him. This was also the first time many of the people had seen Stephanie since she had returned from her mission.....Lots of hugs.
































































Saturday was spent moving Stephanie's stuff in. She had stored some things at Janelle's, but the majority of stuff was at my sister Jeri's home in Idaho. She and her family drove down and brought it all for us so they got that stuff moved in too. In fact, the whole Idaho crew came down for a little family reunion in Utah. Grandma and Grandpa Tucker, Jan and John and their whole family, Brian and Annjennette and their kids, and Jeri and Frank and their kids. Also, Bruce and Jenny and family and Jake Himes came from Highland and Provo too. We spent some time together Saturday night where the kids swam in the pool at our hotel, and the adults/older kids visited.
On Sunday, we gathered at Janelle's church for Alan's blessing. Lets just say we filled up about 5 center rows in the chapel with all of our crew and also quite a number of people from Scott's family. Pretty impressive for one little guy. He was a very good boy during his blessing and he looked so nice. Good job, Alan.



Afterwards, we had a picnic style lunch in the yard area in front of Janelle's apartment. Everyone just visited and had a nice time. Even though it was a short get together, it was so fun.

Bruce, Brian, Dad, Mom, Jill, Jan, Jeri

Jake Himes, Bruce, Jenny, and kids

Jeri, Frank, and kids

Jan, John, and family

Brian, Annjennette, and kids

Austin Strobel, Jan's oldest son that just returned from his mission to Brazil, also drove down that morning. Very fun to have our two recently returned missionaries at the party.


We missed having the younger kids and Geoffrey with us, but it was a very special time to see lots of family and get our girls settled in. Now it's time to get the new school year started. Whew!!!

Have you seen "The RM" ?

The good news is that we got our Hermana Foulk home from Las Vegas on Saturday night. She is healthy, trying hard to get used to the non-mission life, and our same old Steph.....only way focused and even more wonderful than before she left. We are so happy to have the next few days to spend with her before she starts BYU.

The bad news is that even though the kids made some fabulous signs, we got balloons and flowers, and got to the airport a full hour before her flight landed.....

.....We were in terminal A.....

......and she came into terminal E. :(

What a great, supportive family..right? She was very understanding and we did manage to get a picture of our family at the church building where we went on the way home so that she could be released by a member of our stake presidency. (Thanks Pres. VanDerwerken)

We stopped after that and had dinner with Grandma Foulk, Aunt Tracey, and Uncle Chuck...and then came on home and spent some time together that evening.

The next day, Stephanie spoke in our sacrament meeting and gave such a wonderful talk. There were a number of Stephanie's friends who came to hear her and it was great to have them there to help welcome her home.
The rest of that day we just spent time together talking and playing games with the family. What a great day.

We will leave on Wednesday for Utah....Steve, Jill, Stephanie, and Emily. It will be a fast five days there filled with finding an apartment for Steph, getting both girls moved in and spending some fun time with Janelle, Scott, and baby Alan. Can't wait to smooch those chubby cheeks. Life is very good.

Missionary Update - Elder Foulk

Geoffrey has been serving in the Albania Tirana mission since October of last year. He spent almost three months in the Provo MTC...

and then traveled to Albania the first part of January.

He has loved the people there and has learned a lot...not the least of which is the Albanian language!!! He has served in Vlore,

then he served in Durres,

and he is currently serving as the mission secretary in the office in Tirana.

Each assignment has been a new adventure. He has had some great teaching experiences and has been able to be a part of a number of baptisms. Right now he is learning a lot about the way a mission office runs and is working very closely with the president. We love getting his letters and the great photos he sends. Go Elder Foulk!!!

Missionary Update - Hermana Foulk

It is such a great thing to have two missionaries serving in the field. Stephanie has been serving in the Nevada Las Vegas Mission since Feb. 2008. She has served in Kingman, AZ and in various areas of Las Vegas. In December she even got to witness an actual snowstorm in Las Vegas. She has grown to love the people so much and has been blessed to see some of her families go through the temple. How cool is that!! Her time is quickly coming to an end and although she is not anxious to leave her mission, we are so looking forward to her coming home on the 22 of this month. She will be here for just three days and then we are off to Utah...Steve, Jill, Stephanie, and Emily...where she and Emily will start at BYU. She will also get to see her new nephew, Alan, for the very first time.

Fun in the Poconos

We had a really fun family get away in late July. We were invited to go to the Poconos by our good friends, the Sikahemas, along with several other great families. It was so fun. The kids were able to go swimming, go to a water park, try golfing, and go horseback riding, too. We ate all our meals together and had some great multi-family time.





Highlights included that really yummy salad, the cloudburst at the water park that sent us running for shelter, the testimony meeting (where Evan fell asleep on Nelson's lap), the prize ceremony, and, of course, Evan leading "Do As I'm Doing" with a glow stick in the dark. It was a great family vacation that will be remembered for a long time.

One of the Greater Evan Moments

I just wanted to share a funny thing that happened a few weeks ago during Sacrament meeting. Little things like this happen all the time, but I am terrible at writing them down. This one was unforgettable, though.
As is quite often the case, I was playing a little game with Evan during church to help him keep quiet. The dot game was our game of choice on this particular Sunday. It was his turn so he had taken the paper and had it for a little while. Pretty soon he hands the paper to me and as he is trying to get past me to the aisle, he says, "Mom, I need to go to the bathroom, so I put the game on pause." I looked down at the paper and tried to keep from cracking up as I see that he has carefully drawn the "pause" (ll) symbol next to our game. Amazing how these young brains work!!

Here is a photo of Evan on a recent Sunday. He is standing in front of our tomato plants and is wearing a missionary tag that he got in Primary.

It's GREAT to be GRANDPARENTS

Alan Robert Robertson was born to Janelle and Scott Robertson on June 20th, 2009. He weighed in at 8 lbs. 1 oz. and was 20 inches long. He, of course, is absolutely beautiful and is such a good baby. He was a little jaundiced for 3-4 days and had to sleep in a little "Billi-bed" that keeps constant light on him. He slept really well in the little bed and between that and mommy's milk...he whipped that silly billirubin thing.


Jill was able to go out and spend about 10 days with Janelle, Scott, and Alan.



Grandpa Steve came for four days in the middle of Grandma Jill's time there.


Great Grandma and Grandpa Tucker even got to come down from Idaho to see their new (and first) great grandbaby.


We got to do all the fun things like hold him and change him and even go on some walks with him. It was hard to leave that sweet little boy and come home, but it is good to know that we are heading out to Utah again at the end of August. Can't wait!

On the day that Alan was born, Steve, Jill, Megan, and Nathan were able to go to the Manhattan Temple to do baptisms for the dead. It was Nathan's first time going to the temple and was an especially nice place to be as we waited for word about the new baby.