July, where has the time gone!

It is once again time to send our contributions to the family Newsletter. We appreciate the efforts put forth by Gary and Bev’s family for our family reunion. I think everyone had a good time. We look forward to next year when Dwayne and Patty will sponsor our reunion I want to continue with Grandpa Gerald’s theme from last month.
I was born in Menan, Idaho. I am the third child for Jessie and Zena Hinckley. During those years in our family, we spent our summers in Rexburg and the winters wherever dad could get a contract to teach school. Menan happened to be the school for that year. In about 1936, we moved into Rexburg and Dad found other employment. We lived in a home not far from the Porter Park. When Dad was teaching school, I was sometimes in his classes. When we settled in Rexburg, I went to Washington Elementary. I remember the flooding of our playground so we could ice skate on the field. Rexburg gets cold enough for that.
In 1941, the United States had a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by The Japanese.
The United States began making war materials to fight the war. My father found a job in this war effort. We moved to Salt Lake City. There were now 8 children in our family. I attended my junior high on the University Campus in a training school. I graduated and attended East High School where I graduated in 1947. We lived in the Eleventh Ward which is where I met Gerald . After he served his mission we were married and that is how this Wilkinson group got started.

Ron and Maud Mary Family:
They are busy in Idaho!

Eric and Shannon Family:
Eric and Shannon WilkinsonWe have been keeping busy -- by mostly weeding our very large vegetable garden and other garden beds.Of course Eric is also taking two classes a week and gets lots of studying done while taking the front runner to and from work. Shannon has her hands full with the kids, trying to keep the house clean, and doing a lot of weeding. Her bee keeping hobby has Eric fascinated. He wants more bees now. Emma just turned 5 and has been so excited. The next day she wanted to know if she was going to school now. She had a birthday party with her friends for the first time and had lots of fun. Dallin keeps talking about the birthday party he's going to have and who he's going to invite. . . yikes. He tells people he is Mr. Incredible and Luke Skywalker. Dallin also tells his mom that he is her true love's kiss. What a prince charming! Lizbeth is the biggest climber. She is often quietly busy although she is also learning new words and can at times be very loud. If we ever come to your house, please make sure your bathroom doors are closed! We are the proud owners of central air now. So you can see our life is so exciting and fulfilling. To those of you man or woman enough to go to the Westover reunion -- see ya there!

Dan and Verna Family:
Our family really enjoyed the family reunion. It was so fun to see all the little ones who are growing up so fast and compare notes about what is happening. I appreciate Patti and Dwayne for accepting the reigns for next year. Patti says she is taking crisp dollars as bribery for the most popular date to hold it. So....
Dan is surviving through the hot of the summer in school. So am I. Tanya and Courtney now both have their learners permits. SCARY!!! Kara and Faith had their last ballgames this past week. YEAH!! I mean....Awwww too bad. They really did well. What else can I say? Happy 4th and 24th.
The Higbees

Robert & Jamie Family:
We had a great time at the family party. Thank You so much to everyone who helped make it happen. Our lives are starting to slow down a bit. All of the kids were involved in baseball, T-ball, softball and Robert helped coach Will’s team, so we had a very busy schedule. There were games every night and practices on top of that. The boys finished in June and Becca just finished her last game on July 1st (she did great by the way) so we have free time again. Robert is staying busy with work and all that it involves, he is also in the young men’s presidency so Davey and he have activities every Tuesday, and he is the ward scout master so he holds scouts every Wednesday, needless to say he is very busy. Davey received the priesthood on the 1st of June. We are very proud of him; he does a great job passing the sacrament. Our ward really needed another Deacon we are up to three now. Will has earned his wolf badge and some arrow points in cub scouts and will be receiving that at the end of the month. He worked really hard on this and did a great job. We are hoping to be able to go to reunion; we will just have to see if it works out. I have caught the blogging bug but I have made it a private blog, (I am not comfortable with just anyone being able to see the kids) so if anyone is interested in reading it send me an email at jkhigbee@hotmail.com and I will get you invited.

Brandon & Suzanne Family:
We can't seem to remember what went on in June, it flew by. We quite enjoyed seeing the extended family. Keaton is at a stage where Brandon has to do everything with him and sorry that we couldn't get around to chat with everyone in the family. We only remember seeing Jeremy, Laura and Paul for what seemed a milli-second.
We are planning to go to Rexburg, July 23, for the Westover Family Reunion. We would like to see everyone there. It sounds like Anne and crew have done a great job organizing it. Anne, Suzanne does not want to be stuck in the Kitchen again, especially with that mean lady.
For Father's day, Suzanne and Keaton gave Brandon a picture story book. It has pictures of Brandon, Suzanne and Keaton. Suzanne also included quotes and other sayings. Also this month, Suzanne finally found something Korean that she can eat. We found it at a place called Myung Ga where we went with our neighbors for dinner.
We hope that everyone had a safe 4th of July. We watched the North Salt Lake City fireworks from our neighbors deck. Keaton touched a sparkler while it was still hot and that ruined the rest of the sparklers for him. Our neighborhood held the 3rd annual children's parade yesterday to celebrate the 4th of July. Keaton rode with Hannah in her Jeep. Hannah's mom decorated the jeep and put a sign together but she put Hannah + Keaton. Hannah's mom told us that her Baptist Minister Uncle told her to keep Hannah away from the Mormon boys. We are very happy that they moved in next to us.
Keaton and Brandon built a birdhouse at home depot. Home depot holds free craft times every first Saturday. Keaton got a work apron and a pin for building his birdhouse.
Have a good July!

Gary and Bev Family:
We had a great time at the Family reunion. Thanks to everyone who came and to all who brought such wonderful food! It was fun to get to see everyone and chat!
Our family has been busy while on vacation! Bev and Britany came to Utah June 18 and have visited Salt Lake, Cokeville, Pocatello, Logan, and Park City! Sometimes you need a vacation from your vacation!
The whole family came and staid in Park City for the 4th. It was a lot of fun to have everyone there. We shopped, swam, watched a parade, fireworks, golfed, rode the alpine slide, coaster, merry-go-round, climbing wall, etc, shopped, swam and shopped! Gary and Bev left July 6 to head back to the Arizona heat!
Dwayne and Patty Family:
We want to thank Gary, Bev and their family for the great job they did with organizing this year's family reunion. We had a great time visiting with everyone.
Dwayne and Patty: June has been a quiet month. I went to Girls camp the second week in June. We stayed at a ranch that was on the banks of the Snake River. We were able to go kayaking, and went for a 4 hour canoe trip. I helped with the cooking and couldn't believe how much food the girls would eat. We thought we had purchased enough food but apparently not, thank heavens there was a Walmart about 20 minutes away. At least we as leaders brought our supple of Diet Coke to keep us going.
Ben and Alissa: They are both staying busy with their jobs. Alissa was in New York City the first week in June. One morning she was working out on the treadmill in the gym at the Hotel, when she noticed some security men coming through. The next thing she saw was Barrack Obama was on the treadmill next to her working out. Not every day you get to work out next to a Presidental canidate.Ben is still working at getting his business off the ground. Jacob is enjoying going to school and playing with his friends. At the first of July they will be moving to a new place closer to the city.
Todd and Jade: They went on a Alaskan cruise during June. They had a great time, except that they both came home with colds.
Heather: Has been busy with work and has come home the last 3 weekends. ( She had a friend get married, her cousin had a farewell, and rode up with Steph when she came up).
Steph: Came home the last weekend in June to get her wisdom teeth out. She did well, except that the pain medication they gave her didn't faze her. Instead of sleeping she was awake. Steph also brought her boyfriend with her. His name is Ben. He is in the Navy and is a very nice man.

Hal and Diana Family:
From the Jensen'sSorry we missed the Wilkinson get together. We were in charge of the Pickett Reunion on Friday and it took all we had. (We crashed on Saturday)We felt that we just needed to stay home and relax for a day. It was a busy month.Hope you all had a great time.This month.we were able to spend a week with our granddaughter McKendry and really enjoyed having her. Then later in the month., we had Paul for a week. That was also a great week in which we just had fun with him.We love doing the grandparent thing. My goal is that all my grand kids (and future grand kids)? will get to spend some time with us each summer.We also got together and had family pictures taken. That is a challenge in any family. Thank you to Jessica for arranging that. Life is great staying home. I look forward to the time I can retire and just stay home. This has also been Hal's month to conduct at church. That means that he has to make arrangements for every Sunday,seems like he always gets the fifth Sunday to arrange, that really keeps him busy.But I want to say, he did a great job. Every Sunday turned out a Sacrament all would remember.OK, not one person went to sleep.I walked the aisles to make sure.If anyone was found napping, they did not receive library materials that day.By the way, I am the librarian.I'm sure everyone has been wondering what great thing is happening on July 15.( Doesn't that sound like something Grandpa would say), well for me it means that I will turn the big 50. That is not something I look forward to. I know many of you wanted to come and surprise me but I will not be home, so maybe catch me on the 51 birthday. We are talking the four wheelers and heading for the hills. Probably be gone all day.Well that's it. Have a great July 4th.

Jeremy and Laura Family:
Paul is receiving speech therapy services for an expressive speech delay through the Provo Early Education Program. He was tested to understand at a 3 year old level, but only speak at a one year old level. He just turned 2. We have high hopes that our flooding him with good language modeling and giving him a verbal play by play of everything we're doing will help him get caught up. He is darn cute.
We sat for Jensen family pictures this month. We're excited to see how they turned out. Check our blog for updates and when we get the pics, we will put them up.
Jeremy has started his first graduate class through USU online and it seems pretty easy. Lucky him.
Laura is nearly half way through her practicum work, which is teaching reading, math, social skills, and art/PE/music to 2-4th graders who are in resource during the regular school year. It is a challenge planning lessons, but very good experience. She also goes to class two nights a week. She will finally have her certification after student teaching ends just before Christmas, which happens to be a good thing for the Jensen family since they are expecting baby #2 for New Year's.

Josh and Jessica Family:
Not much new with the Josh Jensen's. McKendry cut a good part of her hair off this past month! Two weeks before we had family pictures with Josh's family. We covered it up with a headband. There are pictures of it on our blog. Connor is starting to walk more then crawl and he is everywhere. He is a little monkey and climbs on everything. Josh is loving his new motorcycle and drives it everywhere. He is getting some nice farmers tan from it as well. He is also getting a little promotion at work and since I'm not really sure exactly what he does and what his new responsiblities will be I can't really say what kind of promotion it is but I know he will be working in marketing more and still be working on the website. I am still training for the marathon and getting huge calfs! That is what a lady at church told me. Quote "Man your calves are huge". I will choose to take that as a compliment. We did go up to Provo a couple of weeks ago and have family pictures. I want to thank Josh's family for coming and sacrificing to make it to pictures cause it meant alot to me and I can't wait to see the results of them. I think they will turn out really good. Well that's about it for now. We are really looking forward to the 4th and feel bad that we didn't make it to the family party this year but maybe we will see everyone at Thanksgiving!?!

Kelly and Stephanee:
Hey Fam.... Life in St George is good. Just wanted to say thanks for everyone who supported us during our wedding in April. Sorry we couldn't make it to the reunion last weekend. Kelly is still working at Learnkey and I'm enjoying being unemployed until the hubby starts to get angry for not having extra income....haha :) No just kiddin.....I'm watching my sisters kids while she and her hubby work. That way I'm earning some money for us. We are looking forward to spending the 4th in Richfield with Mother and Father Jensen. No kids yet, but SO excited to have some one day...We are enjoying being Sunbeam teachers for Primary....it is making us wonder if we want kids.....more of a birth control thing for us than anything :) St George could NOT be HOTTER! We are very thankful for the person who invented AIR CONDITIONING!!! If you want to know what else were up to.....you could always look at the blog. I'm good at keeping that updated!
Love, da Jensens (Kelly and Steph)

It's Party Time!!!

View Larger Map

Please click on the blue link above that says "View Larger Map" to see better directions. The Park is located in Riverton Utah, (yes that is a change to what we said earlier). It is located on 12400 South and 1000 West. You will turn east on 12400 south into a neighborhood, once you are on 12400 south, just follow it all the way back, and you will dead end into the park's parking lot! I tried to show that you will get off on the 12300 south exit from I-15, the same exit you take to go to Grandma and Grandpa's, only you turn west instead of east off the exit.

And here are the updates!

Our contribution to the June family newsletter will consist of a historical review of Grandpa’s high school years. Gerald Allen Wilkinson lived in Navco, Alabama (a suburb of Mobile) with his parents, sister and brother when he attended Murphy High School from 1943 to 1947. You may recall that the United States’ active involvement in World War 2 was between 1941 and 1945. His high school years were from the middle of to shortly after the end of this war. Some veterans enrolled in high school after 1945. Murphy High was located about ten miles from Navco and there were no public school buses available, so transportation to high school each day was by car-pooling with other Navco students.
Murphy High was the only public high school in Mobile at that time. There was, however, both a Catholic high school as well as a private high school in the city both with a sizable enrollment. All three of these schools were segregated (whites only) and I suppose there was a colored high school but I don’t recall anything concerning it. Segregation was in full swing at this time but wasn’t an issue with either the white or black population. Mobile has a strong Spanish heritage and this is reflected in the architecture of Murphy High buildings. Admiral Pineda, a Spaniard, discovered Mobile Bay in 1519. The Spanish failed in their colonizing efforts of Mobile but the French succeeded in 1711. Mobile became an English colony in 1763 after the French and Indian War. The Spaniards reclaimed the city in 1780 and held it until the United States acquired it in 1813 as part of the Louisiana Purchase.
Gerald enjoyed his time at Murphy even though he was a small fish in a large pond. There were about 700 in the 1947 senior class and over 3000 total students. Interestingly enough, there were only about 6 or 7 LDS students in the entire student body. Mobile had an LDS Branch of less than 150 members with an average attendance at church meetings of 50-60. Gerald graduated, with honors, May 29, 1947 and left with his family the next day headed to Utah.

Grandpa & Grandpa

Ron & Maud Mary Family:

Hello family, this is Anne. Mom is recovering from surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff and to shave off some bone spurs. She started writing this email but it was taking her a long time so I took over. She had surgery on Tuesday the 20th of May. Grandma brought us dinner. It was delicious. Then the relief society president brought us cookies. They were fabulous. Mom is feeling much better. The first couple days were a little rough and she took a lot of pain killers. It was kind of entertaining. She has been sleeping in the recliner in the living room and Karen has been sleeping in there also to keep an eye on her. She is doing much better now though. She has been up and back to her old self except for the fact that she can't really use her left arm. She will be in a sling for about 6 weeks and she is doing some physical therapy.

Dad is doing great. He has been trying to keep up with work and church stuff. He loves having Karen home to tease. He is excited to go to Idaho and we are hoping to get the Internet to work up there so he can come and visit us more often. For those who might not know we are getting ready to go spend time at the Westover Ranch this summer. For anyone who hasn't been there in a while you should come up and see us. It is kind of fun.

In Brent and Melissa's family you have already heard the best news. Elf is going to officially become part of our family on July 16th. Then on August 9th, it will become officially forever. He is such a fun little guy. Bear and Bug are doing well. They are busy playing outside with their friends and tending the garden. Bear is excited to be out for summer vacation and Bug is excited to go to Idaho. Bug graduated from preschool and is ready for kindergarten. Bear is taking care of Eric's chickens while their family is on vacation. It has been an adventure. Brent and Melissa are also doing well. They have been going to classes for the adoption and they have passed their background checks. Woo Hoo!

As I said earlier Eric and Shannon and their family went on vacation. They went to Nebraska to visit Shannon's sister. Eric has been working on his garden. It is huge. Shannon has become a bee charmer. She looks very cute in her bee costume. Emma is getting ready to start kindergarten. Dallin is still catching all the chickens. Lizzy is up and walking around. She has become a little tornado and she chases the chickens (the chickens usually out run her).

As for me, I have moved out of the house I was renting with my roommates. I am hoping to buy a house in the fall. Since I spend most of the summer in Idaho I decided it would save me a ton of money if I didn't have to pay rentor utilities. My roommates found another girl to take my spot. Her name is Annie. We thought it was kind of funny. Anyways, most of my stuff is in the garage. Oh yeah, we also fixed up mom's garage for her. We built shelves and painted/sealed the floor. We got the walls and ceiling painted too. Well, I should say half painted. We got half of it done then mom had her surgery. We are hoping to get it finished in the fall. But now that the garage is all nice and pretty I stuffed all my belongings and furniture into that half of the garage. Grandpa saw it before we filled it up. He can tell you how pretty it is. So, anyways, if you know of any cheap houses in Davis County that I could buy, let me know. I can't wait for school to get out. As of tonight (which is May 28th) I only have 2 days of school left. Hopefully I can survive.

Karen is doing great. She finished the semester at Utah State. Now she is at home and is being all crafty. She is glad to be away from weird roommates. She stole my book The Host which I bought when it first came out. She says it is a great book and she is enjoying it. She has been very helpful to mom. The physical therapist showed her how to do some exercises with mom and so she has been making mom do her exercises.

Amy has been working hard on making rugs. She loves this new craft. She is pretty good at it. She has discovered the kits don't always have enough yarn in them so she is often trying to match colors, which can be difficult. Amy is excited to go to Idaho and to mow the lawn. She has been extra nice to her dad since father's day is coming up (wink, wink).

Niki is also busy helping out with the house. Because mom has only one good arm Niki has become the resident chef. She is actually a really good cook. She makes lots of different things. She is going to take the summer off of work and be our cook up in Idaho. She is going to interview for a job working as a teacher's aide tomorrow. Hopefully it will work out for her.She is excited to spend the summer with her favorite sister (I'm not tellingwhich of us is her favorite sister).

Brent Melissa & Boys:

We are doing well and are so excited for summer! Bear just finished 2nd grade and is looking forward to kids club starting. Bug graduated from pre-school and will start a summer kindergarten program next week. Bear and Bug are playing baseball and loving it! Elf is trying to walk, he wants to keep up with his brothers, when he isn’t playing in the dog food or dumping whatever he can onto the floor! In all our spare time we are enjoying the warm weather!

We are looking forward to the family party at the end of the month!

Dan & Verna Family:

The Higbee family is doing well. We just expanded our family to include 12 year old KuRanda. We don't know how long she will be with us, but so far so good. She is a real trooper and we love having her. Lacie is now officially out of foster care but living with us as a renter. We are thrilled with that. She graduated as an honor student from Emery High School and Tanya and Courtney graduated from San Rafael Jr. High.

Sunday, June 1 Davey will be ordained to the Priesthood and become a deacon. We are so proud of him.

John and Liz believe they have sold their video game store and are now ready for bigger and better things.

Brandon, Suzanne & Keaton:

The month of May has left us quickly. Brandon has been busy helping people move and working on the yard. In May, Suzanne had to have a 2nd set of Cortisone shots for her back (it has caused her pain since Keaton's birth). Even with side effects from the shots, Suzanne and Keaton are enjoying spending time with our next door neighbors. We just got back Friday from our yearly stay at Snowbird. Suzanne's parents have had a timeshare there for several years now and Keaton enjoyed the swimming, resort activities and the snow. Suzanne enjoyed getting out of the house and Brandon enjoyed the time off. We hope everyone has a great summer and congratulations to all that need to be congratulated for something.

Gary & Bev Family:

Gary & Bev - May has been a quiet month for us but it seems we keep busy. Gary is really busy with work. The division of Helix Electric he opened here in Phoenix has really done well. They even moved to a bigger office. Way to go Gary! Bev just stays busy at home. Going to lunches with a group of ladies and doing family history with the new family search.

Riley & family - keeping busy with sick kids, school, baseball, softball, PTA, & work. Chesley had closing ceremony for her softball. She has done very well this year. She also made All-Stars HOOOORAY!!!

Britany & Family - busy with plumbing problems, sick kids, swim music & dance lessons, & work. Maya had her first dance recital.

Kellen & Family - they also stay busy with Olivia and work.

We look forward to seeing you at the Wilkinson Reunion the end of June!

Britany:)

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

We hope this newsletter finds you well and most importantly that you have been practicing your organ skills. Oh do we have an offer for you! We recently attended an Arizona Diamondbacks Major League Baseball game. While there we met a nice fellow by the name of Bobby Freeman. As you can see from the attached pictures, he plays the organ at the baseball games. When Gary started talking to him and mentioned his parents love of the organ, he made him an offer. Please consider his job offer to play as substitutes at the games that he is unable to attend.
If you must decline, know that you will be receiving an autographed copy of his picture (addressed "To Gerald and Donna"). This is a true gem!

Sincerely,

Jeremy, Britany, Maya and Kenyon

(Oh and Gary who did all of the "groundwork" in bringing this phenomenal opportunity to you!)

Dwayne & Patty Family:

Dwayne and Patty: Dwayne has been taking the missionaries to the temple once a week, and has been helping them with a woman and her daughter who have been taking the discussions. The daughter will be baptized June 14. I have finished up with school for the year and will enjoy the summer vacation time.

Ben and Alissa: Ben is closer to getting his business started. Ben and Alissa took Jacob to his first pro baseball game. He had a great time, and decided to take a nap in the 7th inning.

Todd and Jade: Todd is out of school for the summer and enjoying the break. Jade loves her new job.

Steph: Is coming home for a few days this month and we are so... excited to see her and spend time with her.

Heather: Is working hard and getting ready for college life. She loves the ward she is in and is meeting new people.

We are looking forward to the family reunion and visiting with everyone that will be there.

Hal & Diana Family:

Jeremy & Laura Family:

Jeremy and Laura are doing great. Laura got a full tuition scholarship to finish her program this fall. She also sold her wedding dress to a very grateful girl in Tooele. Laura also got another calling to add to her librarian standing. She is on the compassionate service board and is the lady who arranges for meals to be brought to families who need them. Paul got a shiny red tricycle for his birthday. He had a blast playing on Grandma and Grandpa's new swing set. Jeremy finally had success with the grill on Memorial Day and we had some good BBQ chicken and corn on the cob. Jeremy is glad that American Idol is over and he has his wife back on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. We visited Ma and Pa Jensen in Richfield where the men folk went four wheeling in the hills and the women folk and baby folk ran errands and kept house. It was very nice.
-laura, jeremy and paul jensen

Josh & Jessica Family:

This part of the Jensen family is about the same. We are going on a camp out with Jessica's side of the family the last weekend in May. She is very excited and hopefully it will be lot of fun. We are also getting family pictures in a few weeks. We haven't had a really good family picture since before Kelly went on his mission and there have been three sister-in-laws and three babies added to the family. Crazy how time flies. Jessica did take me on a little surprise campout for my birthday. We went to Kolob and we fished the next morning. I caught about 4 fish in an hour and a half so all in all a good morning. That's about it. Jessica starts her marathon training on June 2 and is really looking forward to that. Hope everyone has a great month and Happy Birthday to Kelly on the 13th!!

Love the Josh Jensen's

May Mayhem!

Thanks everyone for the updates, I love it, and I know you all do too!

Grandpa & Grandma:
Dear Family Members,
April was a busy month for us retired people. We spent many hours Screening Preschoolers eyes for Lazy Eye We had about 12 children who struggled to see the chart. We hope the parents will follow through and go to a doctor to check our results. You who have children who will attend Kindergarten or first grade this year, will need to have this done. I believe this is part of the Kindergarten registration. We hope this is done for you.

The big event was the wedding for Kelly and Steph. We saw their apartment this week. It looks great. We wish them well . Their blog gives good details of that event.
We congratulate Brent and Melissa on their adoption proceedings. We look forward to those events.

If any of you have not seen the Movie "Emma My Story" Be sure and see it. It is in Movie theaters. We have also been following The Joseph Smith Papers that is on Ch 14 at 8 pm . Sunday nights These are papers found from both our church and the reorganized church.. They tell of other record kept by Joseph Smith. Did You know he wrote 3 accounts of the first vision? Did you ever tell of an incident in your life the same way three times? This is the same idea.

We enjoy St George And stay very busy but we also enjoy being in Draper. We enjoy drop in visits from our family members. We saw both of the Jensen boys and hope we will see some of you up north. I have said this before. We really enjoy your blogs Keep up the good work.

Our flowers are out in St George. This is really a pretty time of the year. We are about a month ahead of Draper as for as the flowers go. I suppose this will also effect hay fever.

We are both well and enjoy every day.

We encourage all of our family members to write a note for this news letter.
Keep up the good work. Tricia.
We Appreciate your work.

Love from Grandpa and Grandma.
Grandma is the scribe for April

Ron & Maud Mary:
Our family hasn't done anything super exciting this last month. We are just trying to get things done so we can spend the summer in Rexburg.

Karen is finally done with school for the summer and is thrill that it is over for this year (she had some "interesting" room mates). Anne has 3 1/2 weeksleft of school and is very jealous that Karen is done. As you can tell we are all very excited for school to be out and summer started.

We are also excited that Braden will officially be part of our family on July 16th.Then in August will officially and eternally be part of our family.

Eric is also done with school and is excited for the month break that he gets. Now he can work in his yard all he wants. He is going to take some classes this summer though. If you haven't looked at their blog, you should and see Shannon's new hobby. We think it is great as long as we don't have to get near them.

We are also glad that Grandma and Grandpa are back in Draper now so we can see them more often. We hope you all have a great month of May and enjoy the last few weeks of school.

Dan & Verna family:
We are all really excited for the end of the school year. Lacie will be graduating on May 21st, Tanya and Courtney will have their "promotional exercises" from 9th grade on May 20th.
Dan has finished another semester and will begin his summer semester soon.
Verna has been busy with year end stuff at school with Math Core Tests. She also received a new calling after having been retired for the past 6 months in Ferron Creek Ward. She is now the official Relief Society Chorister and permanent Lesson Substitute.

Brandon, Suzanne & Keaton:
Happy Cinco de Mayo!

April flew by for us but we can't seem to think of anything to report for the month. We continue to hold our Nursery callings faithfully and Brandon does his best to sing during singing time. We had a next door neighbor move and we welcomed a new family to the neighborhood. They are from PA. They lived in Korea for a year while the husband was serving in the Army. They have a 5 year old daughter that Keaton enjoys playing with.

Yesterday, we attended a regional conference. It was a nice brake from having to keep 18 two year olds content. We are excited for the Wilkinson family get together and this is to say to all that we will be there.

April was a sad month for us. Suzanne's Grandpa passed away after holding on for so long for his loved ones. He was a World War II Veteran and we watched as he was given a five gun salute and we listened to the bugle call taps.

On a lighter note, unfortunately I was not able to use any bereavement days because the funeral was held on a Saturday. During that time, we also heard that Grandpa Wilkinson was not doing well due to a bout with pneumonia. From the sound of things from my mom and Diana, I thought maybe I would get a chance to use bereavement after all but we are extremely happy that that was not the case. Also, we learned that Grandma Higbee was not doing well and again I thought that maybe bereavement was meant to be but happily it has not.

We again like to congratulate the newlyweds Kelly and Stephanee. It was nice to see both of you. Hopefully you do not fall off the face of the earth like your other siblings.

To you Jazz fans out there. Why can't Korver shoot well in the playoffs and what's up with his defense?

A funny story to end. Saturday, I worked in the backyard and Keaton was doing his best to help. On a part of our walkway, I noticed a couple ant hills and I was trying to use ant spray (killer) and of course Keaton wanted to do it. I wouldn't let him so Keaton started stomping on the ant hills. I grabbed Keaton's hand and tried to pull Keaton away and Keaton fell. He then proceeded to cry and I took him inside because I could not console him. I left Keaton with Suzanne and went back outside. As Keaton was walking off to wash his hands. He turned to Suzanne with tears in his eyes and sobbing as he said, "Daddy pushed me." He has since forgiven me and we are buddies again.

Last of all, Happy Birthday to all the May birthdays and if you don't get a card from us. We probably forgot to mail it. Until next month...

Gary & Beverly Family:
April has been so mild in AZ. We have enjoyed this spring. Temps in the 80's and cools down nicely at night. No 100's YET. Bev and Gary have been busy doing Young Single Adult activities. Gary has golfed. Bev as joined a book club, so is busy reading to stay caught up.

Riley and Tricia are busy with kids, school, softball and baseball. They are looking forward to summer to have a break from chaos! Chelsey has been nominated to play on All Stars, we will find out if she makes it on June 1. Corbin is loving baseball and Keegan and Kaylix love cheering for both Corbin and Chelsey, and everyone loves being outside, when the weather cooperates!

Britany and Jeremy are doing ok. They have had a lot of flu going around in their nieghborhood and one of them seems to get it everytime. Also if you look on their blog, they are having some water problems. They are surviving.

Kellen and Camille are glad that April is over. Kellen is done with finals and will be graduating from the U. They are still waiting to hear where they will be next year for grad school.

We hope everyone is planning on attending the Wilkinson picnic! We will make Food assignments in June's Newsletter. See you in June
* We wanted to know how many people will be attending the summer party, but right now, only 9 people are coming! So, here is what I want you to do this time, please leave a comment at the bottom of this post, and tell us how many people from your family will be coming. If you are not coming, you can either tell us or not, don't worry, you won't get any hate mail for saying no!

Dwayne & Patty Family:
Dwayne and Patty: Dwayne has been busy with his church calling as Ward Mission Leader. He organized a mission blitz in our ward to find the inactives and the non-members. It was very successful, and the bishop and stake pres. were very impressed with the success that they had. I have been busy with End of Level testing at school, and trying to decide what colors to paint the remaining rooms in our home. We found out the other day that we are going to be grandparents again. We are so...... excited.

Ben and Alissa: Both Ben and Alissa have been busy with their jobs, Ben's new business is getting ready to get off the ground. They are also staying busy with Jacob who is an active 2 year old and has learned that famous word " NO ".

Todd and Jade: Are all settled into their new condo. Todd is finishing up his first year of nursing school and is looking forward to the summer break. Jade will be starting a new job as front desk Manager at the Washington City Community Center. They are also expecting their first child around Thanksgiving time.

Steph: Is enjoying the warm California weather, and staying busy at work. She is coming home for a visit in June. I am so..... excited to see her.

Heather: Is working for a dentist in St. George and loving her new job. She has been staying with Todd and Jade but has decided to move into off campus student housing. Her and Jade are happy that IN and OUT has finally opened up in St. George. Now if they would only put one in Salt Lake.

Hal & Diana Family:
Hello family, Thanks to all of you that came and supported us at Kelly and Steph's wedding. It was fun to see you.
Life is crazy right now for me as I get ready to end another school year.
Everything is going great with our family. We are looking forward to summer and maybe getting to go somewhere, haven't figured out where or when but somewhere.
Hal and Diana

Jeremy, Laura & Paul:
Jeremy got accepted to USU grad school in Rehabilitation Counseling. He starts part time this summer as a distance student. Paul will turn 2 years old on May 18. Hooray for these big accomplishments for the two boys in our family.