Mourning the loss of a great man

We were grieved to see the breaking news tonight about President Gordon B. Hinckley's passing.

He was an amazing man and the utmost example of selfless service in our time. We are truly sad that he is no longer here with us, yet at the same time we can only imagine the amazing reception being held for him on the other side this evening.

We are happy that he and Sister Hinckley get to be reunited. And without a doubt, he is sure to be hearing the words, "Well done, thou true and faithful servant" from our Savior Himself. Amanda talked of the choirs of angels that must be heralding his return, too.

Personally, I was pondering the idea that one of those on the other side of the veil there to greet him had to be the Prophet Joseph Smith. President Hinckley often spoke of his admiration for Brother Joseph and his looking forward meeting him some day. Now that day is here, and I can't help thinking which of them is looking at the other with the greater amount of admiration! They both did truly amazing things in this final dispensation. They served at the helm during truly unique eras of history for both the Church and the world.

Here's to a truly great man and an inspiring leader. We will miss you, President Hinckley!

Here's a link to the LDS Church's official news page: LDS News

Thank you!!! Justin's new guitar!

For Christmas and birthday this year, when asked what he wanted for gifts, Justin made the request for contributions toward something he also wanted but never had splurged on for himself: an acoustic guitar!

Thanks to parents in Utah and Pennsylvania, siblings in both states, and grandparents, that dream is now a reality! And after some intense studying and shopping, he found the one he wanted for a pretty good deal through Musician's Friend. (They have GREAT customer service, by the way.)

Here are a couple of pictures AND a funny little clip! (I've got LOTS to learn.)

Doggie Door!

In spite of our being blessed with a smart puppy who has been a very successful house training pet, we decided to make it even easier on us by installing a doggie door! Here are some pics...

Will's a good helper!

So is Mommy! :)

Can't you just hear his thoughts? "I think I could probably fit through here myself!" Both of 'em can, as a matter of fact.

"Winter wasteland? I think you mean winter WONDERland!"

So yeah, this weekend we decided to refinish our hardwood floors because of Monday being MLK Jr. Day (another day I love being a banker). But lo and behold, we didn't get to focus all of our energies on the floors because IT SNOWED A FOOT. These pictures were taken a couple of days LATER... so just imagine not being able to see the driveway OR the sidewalk, even though they'd both been shoveled 4 times. :)

Our adventures in NYC!

For Christmas/birthdays, Amanda and I decided to give each other a trip to the Big Apple to see Wicked on Broadway! It was a BLAST and one AMAZING show. We got to sit about 8 rows from the stage and felt like we were right in the production. Here are a few pics from the day trip to the city.

We were SUPER blessed to have Em & Sua offer to take our kids--not just for the day (Saturday), but for Friday night & Saturday night, too!! Not only that, but they let us take one of their cars for the 90 minute journey between Lititz to Trenton! THANKS you guys!

Brandon and Kev joined us for the trip up, and we got to spend the whole time minus the show together. This is a picture at the lovely parking garage right outside the Trenton, NJ, train station:


Catching the train bound for Penn Station:




"Ew, what's that smell, Kev?"


Our studly new RM brother, B:


After arriving in Penn Station, we spent our best $7 on day passes for the subway/bus system. We never messed with the busses because life "on the surface" was nuts so close to New Years. But the subway system rocks! We headed south first to Ground Zero. This photo was taken just after grabbing a sandwich at the Essex Cafe:


Then we walked south to Battery Park where we saw the WTC Memorial (this sculpture was IN one of the towers and they saved it in its damaged condition as a memorial to 09.11.01) tons of handbags for sale, and the Statue of Liberty from a distance...






Then it was time to head back uptown. We caught the subway and took it to Times Square.


We have never been in such a crowd... It took us 20 minutes to walk one block up there. We tried to walk over to Radio City Music Hall and something was going down over there. Brandon got a couple of NYPD with attitude telling him to "get back on the sidewalk" as we were all walking down a closed off 51st St. We went around the block and visited H&M, which was worthwhile simply because we got to use their restrooms.

From there we went to the "ticket lottery" to try our luck at getting front and center (in which event we would have given Kevin and B our other tickets), but we didn't have that fortune. Kev and B split from there for their own little adventure in SoHo. After some pizza at a local place, we went over and saw our show!


The show was simply mahhvelous! We can't wait to see it again when it travels through SLC. Kev & B met us at the subway station right by Gershwin Theatre, and we timed our arrival back at Penn Station perfectly enough to catch the "early" (11:14 p.m.) train back to Trenton, arriving there at a quarter to 1:00, then driving home. What fun memories!!

Cute pic from the holidays...

We hope Aunt Amy and Unca Kev don't mind our "borrowing" this picture from their blog... but we claim 50% vested interest in the subjects, so we did it anyway! Isn't it a cute picture? Yes, those are little monkeys on their Christmas p.j.'s... very appropriate, in our opinion. Good choice, Grammy!