The week in pictures

Fall is my favorite time of year in my yard.  The weeds have finally stopped growing, the colors are intense, and my lawn looks beautiful.  I mowed it this week, so I was particularly proud of how it looked.

Posing for Family Pictures at Market Street (missing Stewart)

While I was busy mowing the lawn, Eric continues to build the garden boxes that will decorate our side yard.  Hopefully there will be an actually garden in them some day.

Just after this pictures was taken, Emma pulled out all the Zinnias and planted pansies.  I was sad to see these beautiful flowers leave our yard - but fall is here.

So glad these kids still enjoy doing this!

Letter to Stewart

Dear Elder Stew:
It seems I have all these great things to tell you during the week, and then when I sit down to write a letter, I’ve forgotten them all. Thank heavens for my desk calendar to remind me what I’ve done  It sounds like you’ve had some challenges as a new Zone Leader and with a new companion – nothing you can’t overcome – just things to help you dig deep and grow. Dad tells me you’ve been seeking his advice – he’s got great advice to give, I appreciate the way he looks at problems and looks for peaceful solutions. That’s bit ironic coming from a “litigator”. Grandma Maxfield also tells me you’ve enlisted her to be a pen pal to one of the Elders from Peru that needs some love and support. She’s so happy you’ve asked her to help, I’m sure it’s nice when you’re in your 80s to be asked to do things. Also, she has a talent for sharing her talents with others. Of course, everyone likes to feel needed and that their talents matter to others. I think that’s a wonderful aspect of service in the gospel, you enlist the people around you to work together to solve problems. In the process you help everyone involved from those who are being served to those that are serving.
Last night the YW watched a “Face2Face” webinar the church did for the Youth with the Piano Guys as their guests. This is the group of LDS musicians that takes their piano to places like the Great Wall of China, or the cliffs in southern Utah, and then films a YouTube video. They are a YouTube video sensation. Last night they had their grand piano on top of the conference center with a small, selective group of youth, along with 2 youth moderators that fielded questions. The questions came live via twitter and facebook, they were also pre-­‐submitted on the lds.org website and the audience even contributed a few. We had all the YW over here for dinner and then sat down to watch the live “fireside”. It was spectcular to think of kids all over the country and world participating. The views were amazing – they managed to get some sunset shots over the great Salt Lake as well as some shots with the temple in the background. The music they play is inspiring – last night they did a mash-­‐up of I Need Thee Every Hour and Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (our families favorite song since Maren sang it at Charlie’s baptism and Robby’s farewell and ROCKED it).
Well – the biggest news of the week was our trip to Snow Canyon and Irene announcing her pregnancy disguised in a scary campfire story. She’s due in May. That makes 3 babies this coming year. Catherine (boy), due end of December, Michelle (?) due April (I think) and Irene. Yeah!!! Love all these cute kids we have in our family. As for Snow Canyon – it was awesome, as usual. I don’t know if you remember much from that trip – the canyon is really small so it’s easy to get around and all the hikes are kid friendly, short and sweet. We first did a slot canyon just outside of St. George – it wasn’t a real slot canyon, more of a crack in a rock. It was so small that Dad’s belly didn’t fit and he had to turn around. At one point I couldn’t even turn my head from side to side. It was very short, thank heavens, because it gave me a bit of anxiety – Charlie did it like 4 times. Our campground was perfect! Away from all the other campers with a place for the kids to explore that led up a

secluded canyon. We even had a covered pavilion with lights and electricity which was helpful when it rained Sunday morning as we were trying to pack up and leave. We took some great hikes – do you remember the lava caves? We did all 3 of them this time (last time we only did 1). It was a bit scary a few times as we passed young children down deep holes and over deep crevasses. It’s an excellent exercise in team building and trust. At the very end of the tunnel it opened up into a cave and we all turned off our flashlights and marveled in the COMPLETE darkness – freaky. It was so dark, that we all noticed a faint glow off in the corner and realized in was an abandoned, very old glow stick, but it still gave off enough light to penetrate the darkness. I’m sure there’s a good FHE lesson for that  The kids rock scrambled until their heart’s content. We climbed petrified sand dunes, rock canyon, rock overlooks. We played in two different sand dune areas – one with red sand, the other with white. The white sand was particularly fine; imagine the sand in an hourglass. We all took off our shoes and ran around and rolled down the hill. At one exciting point the children (while playing around the campground) found a TARANTULLA. All the adults heard was screaming girls, we thought someone was mortally injured. When Jared went running to investigate – the girls were running back to campground almost hyperventilating and the boys were pocking the poor spider with a stick. It was the biggest spider I’ve every seen outside of the zoo.
It was such good family time! Everyone was there except Blake (he just got a new job at Zion’s bank and couldn’t leave, Kelsey and her family, Brett and Brandon. Of course the cooking was amazing too. We had dutch oven enchiladas and BBQ chicken. We also did a beef brisket on the coals. Dad, Will, David, Jared, and Dave H. whipped up awesome pancake breakfasts every morning and Sydney only ate 8 pancakes because Brett wasn’t around for her to have an eating contest.
We love you and miss you. We include you in our prayers EVERY time we pray. We pray for your companion, your investigators, that you’ll be safe and listen to the Holy Ghost, and even that you’ll have fun! Have a GREAT week.
Love, Mom 

Letter to Stewart

Ciao Elder Maxfield;

            We love the Duo Lingo app here – All of us, (except Maren and Dad), including me, use it to learn and practice Spanish.  How did the Mangos cut and taste?  There’s nothing better than a ripe, in season mango.  It’s tomato season here – so when we are lucky enough to score some fresh tomatoes (& corn on the cob), we have BLT’s, corn on the cob – and them sometimes I make me a peach cobbler.  The ultimate fall meal for me.

            We are now in the heat of the school year routine.  Mid-terms have come and gone.  Parent Teacher conferences.  Test. ACT test is in a couple of weeks for Maren.  Do you miss it at all?  I still do sometimes.  Everyone is doing great in school – I’m a lucky Mama for that reason alone.

            Conference, as usual, was great.  It’s like Zone Conference for the members of the church.  A good boost to keep us moving in the right direction for the next 6 months.  I was super worried about President Monson though, he looked fragile and tired.  We asked all the kids what were there favorite talks.  Maren like President Nelsen’s talk on the strength of women in the church.  Charlie liked the talk from the Sister who couldn’t get her grandchild to stay in her car seat.  Emma liked the talk about the kids who got so dirty their grandma wouldn’t let them back in the house (she and Charlie like the stories with a moral).  I liked President Uchtdorf’s talk on keeping things simple.  I also like Elder Bednar’s tribute to all the leaders of the church who have died while he’s been an Apostle.  My favorite, new apostle talk, was from Elder Rendlund (?).  I’m going to have to practice up on the names of the apostles now that the familiar ones have passed away.  What was your favorite talk?

            We enjoyed our traditional walk between conference and ran into Mitt Romney and his wife – it was the longest conversation I’ve ever had with them.  We discussed her new book she’s promoting and how to open all the gates in the neighborhood so we could enjoy our walks.  It’s still weird seeing a celebrity like that in the neighborhood.  Sunday night we had our Maxfield Fall family birthday parties.  Grandma Maxfield gave everyone gifts, as usual, even if it wasn’t your birthday.

            How did your first Zone Conference go?  I’ll bet you’re a great leader.  I’m sure the newness of it all is very stressful – but that’s a good time to dig deep and seek help from the Holy Ghost.  It’s how the Atonement can make up where your abilities stop.  (I’ve had many church callings like that).

            I sent you the pictures of Emily coming home from her mission.  It was such a tender sight.  Caitlin was crying before we could even see her – and then when we saw here all the Bryson girls screamed and cried simultaneously.  Then they broke through the barrier at the airport and rushed to her.  I wonder what all the other passengers thought (and the SL airport employees – they’re probably use to it now).  Her sisters couldn’t stop hugging her.  I don’t remember my siblings missing me that much when I came home.  I’m excited to hear all about her mission when she reports at the end of the month.

            

Letter to Stewart

Dear Elder Stew;

            How ya’ doing?  From your letters it feels/seems that you are doing good.  I hope so – by now you’ve settle into Spanish Missionary life and probably can’t think of any other way of living.  That’s great.  Regular people life just keeps moving along.  Emily gets home Saturday night from her mission.  I just can’t believe it.  Brett and Suzanne are in Japan right now picking her up and having a great time seeing the country and visiting the people she served with.  I’m excited to see her Saturday night J 

            This past 2 weeks has been full of babysitting other people’s kids for me.  First it was Irene’s kids while she and Dave were in Mexico.  Then Bonnie’s Max while Bonnie went to NYC with Brandon.  Then I had Suzanne’s kids for the weekend while they are in Japan.  And this weekend I have 2 of Andrea’s kids while she goes to Chicago.  I guess this makes up for all the people who watched my kids while Dad and I went to Italy last fall.  Good thing all the kids were really good!  Even the baby Henry (He’s about 18 months now).

            Last night the YM/YW had a combined fireside with the Holladay South Stake by Brad Wilcox (He’s a religion professor at BYU, amongst other things).  In fact, he said he gave a fireside at the Madrid MTC this past year – and what was interesting is that he went through all the 12 tribes of Israel and had them raise their hands – every tribe was represented by the missionaries.  When he did that in SLC – he only got Ephraim and Manasseh.   He gave a great talk on our responsibility as “Youth of the noble Birthright” and what that means for us and our membership in the church.  It was a great fireside and a good reminder of the responsibility we have as member – where much is given, much is expected.  He also said something interesting about the  responsibilities of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh that I didn’t know.  He said the tribe of Ephraim is responsible for the physical growth of the church (keep paying your tithing!)  and the tribe of Manasseh is responsible for the spiritual growth of the church.  I love getting new insight into doctrine.

            I’m super excited for Conference – of course, Conference will have happened by the time you get this – but I’d love your feedback.  Favorite talk?  Personal Insights?  New Apostles.  In the paper today (Ya, it’s SLC), they had paragraphs from each of the current apostles describing how it was when they were called.  Most of them didn’t get called until the day BEFORE conference.  Wow!!! Can you believe that.  What stress that would be – how humbling.  Anyway, I’m excited to her all the news.  We have 2 soccer games on Saturday so we’ll be listing in the car a bit – thank heavens for the internet.

            There’s really nothing new of note – Jimmie is getting married  - he’s the boy Cynthia and Gary have been raising.  He’s marring a nice LDS girl in the temple, which is so exciting for Cynthia and Gary since they never new which direction his life might take.  This is a step in the right direction.  We continue to move along on the side yard – very slowly!  Dad is getting ready to build the pergola and garden boxes.  I think Saturday we’ll just go out and pull all the weeds and then cover the area with weed fabric for a while since we won’t be planting any time soon J  Love you tons!  Sorry my snail mail letters and getting fewer and further apart.  Let me know if you need me to send you anything.

Love,

MOM

Letter to Stewart

Dear Stewart -            

            How’s it going?  I love your great attitude, despite the challenges I’m sure you are having.  That’s the best recipe to successfully making it through this mortal existence.   I love the simple scripture that Man’s purpose is to have joy, despite hardship, trials, adversity, etc.  A good attitude is the best medicine – keep it up J

            I’m trying to get this letter out before I run Emma to dance – Mom the taxi driver.  The passat is still being repaired, so I’m shuttling Maren around as well.  I’ll be glad when she gets the car back so she can take herself to early morning seminary.  I admire all those teenagers around the world who don’t have the option of taking seminary in the middle of the day and MUST take early morning seminary.  I think in many areas it can start as early as 5:30 a.m.   The seminary program has been revamped to make it more of a preparatory class for life, missions, gospel living, etc.  The kids have to actually read the entire book of scripture that’s being studied (or at least some of it if it’s the OT) and they must pass a test each semester.  I suppose that’s a good thing with the world becoming increasing difficult to navigate and so many kids wanting to get into BYU J where religion actually goes on your transcript.  (Cassidy P. says her BofM class is hard – but she likes it).  I can see that some kids (& parents)  might not like this because they might be discouraged and not attend seminary – but I think it’s OK to expect more of people; they usually rise to the occasion.

            We have Irene’s Luke and Henry while they are in Mexico this weekend – I’ve forgotten what it’s like have an 18month old around (yes, he’s that old now J).  He’s a really good baby and very pleasant, just busy and requires constant supervision.  Luke is good too – but a little fire”y” – it’s the red hair, that hasn’t changed much.  Last night I left Sydney in charge of the baby and Charlie in charge of Luke while I went to YW and Dad when to Scouts.  Everything went great until Luke had a tantrum because his block tower was accidentally knocked over.  Charlie called me crying because he didn’t know how to handle the situation.  It was funny.

            I wish I had monumental news to reports or deep insights to share – but we are just doing the day to day living.  I did start my Institute class up again, and I’m grateful for that 90 minutes of gospel thinking in the middle of the week. It’s nice to reflect and ponder and be grateful on a Monday J  This week I was reflective of the magnitude of the calling of the Prophet Joseph Smith.  Although I have a testimony of his divine mission and calling as the prophet of the restoration sometime I fail to realize the supreme significance of his foreordination and importance in “The Plan” for us here in this mortal existence. 

            OK – I’ve been working on this letter for 3 days (not that you’d be able to tell) – and I keep getting interrupted.  So, as incomplete as it is – I’m still sending it.

Love you,

MOM

Letter to Stewart

Happy Sabbath – right now your Grandma and Grandpa Frazier are only a few hours from you in Paris, France. They have spent the past week cruising along the Rhine River and now they will be enjoying Paris this week. Grandma was super worried that if we tried to call her it would only be because something bad had happen. I tried to explain that the world has shrunk and communication is so easy, that just because her phone rings, she shouldn’t panic. She even went to the effort of getting an international data plan for the time she was gone. She’s also getting very proficient with instagram and is posting multiple pictures daily which has been really nice for all of us to keep up on what she’s doing.
The rest of us here in the USA are enjoying a nice Labor Day weekend with various yard projects and of course on Monday, we’ll do our family hike – however, this year it will need to be shorter than usual, since Dad and I plan to take a long bike ride that morning (only 2 weeks left to the big race – hallelujah). I’m not sure if Dad told you our Saturday yard projects, but they (it) was intense, some background information is required.
We inherited a large piece of Granite that was cut from the Temple Quarry when the SL temple was being built. It was abandoned in Holladay in what became Grandpa Walker’s yard. Grandma Frazier used it as a table for tea parties when she was growing up. When Grandpa Walker built his home on Cottonwood Lane in the 1970’s he incorporated it into the steps that led to his back yard. When his house was torn down, the stone was discovered and given back to the family. Dad and I thought it would be a fun center piece in our “grove” by the hammock and drinking fountain.
About 4 months ago Dad and I rented a small backhoe to move the earth around on our side yard and while we had the machine we moved the stone down to our yard (that’s another story completely – it took us 1 hour to drive the machine to Grandma Walker’s home, get the stone, and bring it back). Yesterday, we attempted to move the stone about 5 feet into a better, more desirable position. Remember the flagstone we moved together? This thing weighs 10 times as much as the flagstone, it’s about 2’x2.5’x4’ and dense granite. So, in order to move this, we put on our Physics brains and used levers with appropriately sized fulcrum points. It took us over 90 minutes to move this thing 5 feet. We tried rolling it on logs (too heavy – it just crushed the wood) – we couldn’t figure out where to hang any pulleys or we would have tried that. It took all (literally) of Maren’s and Dad’s weight to lever the rock up a few inches then I would slide rocks underneath until enough was off the ground that we could slide or roll the stone by twisting the lever along it’s fulcrom. We filmed the entire thing so Maren could get extra credit in Mr. Summerhay’s if she needs it (which currently she doesn’t since she has 110%). We then marveled at all the big stones that were moved without the help of modern cranes – the least of which is the SL Temple (i.e. Stone Henge, The Pyramids, Machu Picchu – they didn’t even have the wheel in the ancient Americas – right?). We finished off our night with dinner at the Pi Pizzeria (hey – it was a math day, so it only made sense).
The big news at church is that we’ve switched our sacrament meeting to the first hour of the block. We had a hard time figuring out if people were out of town

today or just very late. Sacrament meeting was very sparse when we started at exactly 9:00 a.m. There were a few very nice things about this though – it was VERY reverent at the begging of our meeting and we started Young Women’s on-­‐time, and with 100% attendance (at least with those that were at church that day). The weird thing was that after I left Young Womens and managed to walk down towards the RS room – EVERYONE had already left the building and there was no-­‐one to sit and chit-­‐chat with. I guess everyone was starving and just wanted to get home.
Hope you’re doing great – I’m so happy that you get to meet such wonderful people all trying to be there very best on the other side of the world. That’s one of things I like the most about the gospel; good people trying to be better every day. Have a great day!
Love you, Mom 

Letter to Stewart

Well - still no printer, but at least the desk top is back and working and ALL the pictures were on the back-up.

All the kids started school on Wednesday. 

Sydney is a big 6th grader at Cottonwood Elementary; this will be my last year at that school.  She has Mrs. Wagstaff - so now, along with Mrs. Jordan, Mrs. Wagstaff has taught all 4 of my kids that went to Cottonwood.  Sydney got a call from the GT office 2 days before school saying that a spot opened up at the GT Magnet program if she wanted it - she didn't, which I completely understand.  it's her last year at Elementary and she doesn't want to start something new.  That's something she'll have to do next year anyway when she starts 7th grade.  I told Sydney that I'd give her $20 if she learned how to solve the Rubik's cube without following the directions.  She is so determined.  She wrote down all the algorithms and memorized them over the last 3-4 weeks and now she can solve the cube w/out help. She's amazing. 

Emma's 8th grade year will be great.  She has a bunch of new teachers that I'm not familiar with - but she's in the GT classes which at least guarantees good kids around her.  Yesterday she was telling me she was concerned about her math class; she said it was too crowded and not a good learning environment.  Today she met with her counselor and switched it for another period - same teacher; just a better group of kids.  I'm always so happy to see my kids fix their own problems.  It's a life long skill that can't necessarily be taught in a class room.

Charlie had a bit of drama on the first day of classes.  He picked out a pencil box with a lock on it.  I told him he had to leave the key at home and keep the pencil box unlocked at school.  I must have told him that a dozen times - even the morning of the first day of school.  Well....as you might predict he accidentally locked his pencil box and when we got to school he couldn't find the key.  He cried in the car for 5 minutes begging that I take him home to get the extra key.  I told him "no" - tough lesson for an 8 year old to have.  He found Max B. and borrowed a pencil and made it through the day.  His spanish comprehension is pretty good - he just needs to practice speaking.  That's where you can help him :)

Maren only has 3 AP class this year (instead of 4) - she changed her AP American to the standard American History class and I'll think that'll be a better fit for her.  She'll have AP Calc, Physics and Art History which will keep her plenty busy.  She's going to have a fun Junior year.  She gets to go to St. George with the Tennis team next week and then in the Spring she gets to go to SF with the AP Art History Class and Disneyland with the Choir.  If the Debate team plans a tournament out of town - she'll get to do that too :)  They have a new debate coach though this year, so we'll see.  I guess you had an adventurous Jr. Year too because you lived in D.C. 

I'm so excited to start digging myself out of all the things that didn't get done over the summer.  I'm also going to get our 72 hour kits up to date!  However, in the next 4 weeks I've got to finish getting ready for a 100 mile ride that Dad and I are doing up in Coalville.  It's taking a lot of time as I need to bike for 6 + hours a week.  Today I road up to Snowbird - it was a killer!  (entry Level I). Suzanne came with me - it's fun to have a sister that will do things like that.

I promised I'd let you know how Blake's homecoming was.  It was great!  He was really honest about where his life was before he left on his mission - and in between when he came home.  He really had to reach deep to discover his testimony and put all his faith in the Atonement.  I think because of those two things he was a very compassionate and powerful missionary.  He's working really hard to keep the spirit with him every day - which can be hard in the monotony of every day living. This Sunday we'll go to Mason Graham's homecoming - wow!  Didn't he just leave.  And, I also noticed that Tanner VanLeeuwan has completed his mission.

I'm excited to hear about your new area, companion and district.  Change is always a good thing to keep us motivated and charged!  That's why I like the 4 seasons - each has something to offer and give reason to set new goals and find new projects.

Costco Run at the Beach

Newport Temple

Too many feet in this car

Lara - selfie

Frazier Fun Friday - Battle Creek Falls - Charlie