A Thanksgiving I will Never Forget

This Thanksgiving was one that I will never forget. John Jones passed away that day and many lives including mine were changed. John Jones was an amazing man who was in Medical school out here in Charlottesville with Ryan. He and his wife were in our ward at church and our good friends. John was a shining example of a wonderful husband, father, missionary and friend. He passed away in a caving accident in Utah. We found out the day before Thanksgiving that he was in trouble and followed the story online all through the night and into the morning when we discovered he’d passed on. My heart broke and I was devastated. I know John was an amazing person and he is happily reunited with Heavenly Father, but it still doesn’t seem right for such a wonderful persons time on earth be cut so short and for his sweet, beautiful wife Emily to be left with such a long rode ahead of her.

I can’t speak enough of Emily. She has shown so much strength, grace and faith over the past week and is truly, truly inspirational. It is my earnest prayer that Heavenly Father continues to give her strength and comfort and let her always feel his love and presence. I love her so much, and think the world of her. I hope she knows I am here for her as well as so many of her friends.

Emily and John have a little 14 month old and Emily is expecting another baby in June. If you’d like to help Emily raise her children you can donate to the John Jones Memorial Fund here.



The past month we’ve been able to snap some pretty cute pictures of Lincoln. Here are some for your viewing pleasure.




Ryan and Lincoln with matching hair….Ryan was trying to look tough, but Lincoln doesn’t do tough face, just happy. One day we went and took pictures at the Rotunda on Campus. It is so beautiful in the fall. We will really miss it here.















Wendy, Harley, and Anderson came down for Thanksgiving. It’s always so good to see them. Love you guys!

Our good friends the Mudricks came down Thanksgiving weekend too. It was great to see them, and the guys had a great time watching the BYU game. It was Lincoln’s first. Thanks again for the T-shirt Rob and Rebecca!

Happy Halloween and Blessing Day!!

This has been such a great week. So many fun Halloween festivities all week long in beautiful Charlottesville and then Lincoln's blessing day yesterday. The blessing was wonderful. Some of our good friends from work and school who aren't members of the church were able to join us and the spirit was very strong. Ryan and I both bore our testimonies and thanked Heavenly Father for Lincoln and the wonderful blessing he is in our lives.

Lincoln wore the same outfit Uncle Harley cousin Anderson wore on their blessing days. Thanks Kings.

Wendy Harley and Anderson came up for the weekend. We had a great time at Carter mountain and trick or treating that night.

On Friday Ryan, Lincoln and I went trick or treating on the Lawn at UVA. For four years I've been hearing how fun this is and I finally experienced it myself this year. It was packed with a million kids and families all dressed up and in the Halloween spirit. I was a little embarrassed because Ryan actually wanted to collect candy for Lincoln. Obviously Lincoln can't eat candy, so basically it was Ryan, a 28 year old, holding a baby to collect candy for himself. I watched from the wings.

This year we were all Greek Gods. Lincoln was baby Hercules. Scroll down for family pics.

Lincoln was pretty tired from all that trick-or-treating and candy.

We also went to two great Halloween parties and had a blast.

Zoro and Princess

Siamese Twins

Mother Earth and Father Time

KISS

Ed and Jillian from last seasons "The Bachelorette"

Emily and John in 30 years if they keep gaining weight at the rate they did over the past year.

Kelly and Zach from "Saved by the Bell"

And finally the Greek Gods Zeus, Athena and Baby Hercules. Thanks mom for the costumes. Your the worlds greatest seamstress!

Rarely do I cook and never to I cook creatively so I was really proud of my pumpkin bean dip pictured above.

Outer Banks Beach Trip

Ever since we moved to Charlottesville three years ago we've been hearing about how great Outer Banks North Carolina is and every year we've wanted to go check it out but never have. Last week with Toby and Alesha and a huge group of our friends we finally went. I must say it lived up to all the hype. It was beautiful.

One of the greatest parts of all was a the rockin' deal we got on this place. It was so nice fully equipped with a heated pool, hot-tub, game rooms, movie rooms, two kitchens, elevator...it was awesome. A big thanks to our friends who planned the whole thing and did a great job at making it super affordable.

It is the off season so the beaches were barren, but the water was still surprisingly warm.

We climbed up to the top of a light house by our place and the view was spectacular!

Here's the view from the light house. You can see our beach house in this shot.It was Lincoln's first time to the beach and I think he liked it.

One day we went to Kitty Hawk and visited the Wright Brothers Monument. For those of you like me who need a little brushing up on there US History and don't remember who the Wright Brothers are, they were the first people to successfully invent and fly an airplane and Kitty Hawk is were it happened. It was actually really cool. They had little markers exactly where the first plane took off and landed and a nice visitors center with a massive replica of that initial plane. We also listened to a very passionate tour guide explain all about the details how that flight came to be. It was very educational.

Lincoln Flying in front of the replica.

Later that day we hiked up the tallest Sand dunes on the East Coast. Some how they look flat in these pictures, but they were actually really tall. It was cool. There were lots of people flying kites and the weather was really beautiful.

Toby and Alesha treated us to this super swanky restaurant right on the beach for dinner. It was pretty awesome.It was a great way to end the summer.