Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to all of you, we hope you are having a wonderful day. We have had a very nice day even though we miss all of the family. We had a fun party for Christmas Eve . The man wearing the Grinch shorts is our Director Elder Longson. It was his white elephant gift and they dared him to put them on. We all had such a good laugh over this. They will be leaving for their home in Lake McCall, Idaho, the first of next week and Elder and Sister Freeman will be replacing them and will be here the middle of January. The Longsons have been here for almost three years.

This morning we had a big breakfast all together and then we put on our warm clothes and drove up into the Cove in the rovers. This is the Longsons last week here and they really wanted all of us to go up there and remember the pioneers. It is about 30 degrees today and the wind is blowing so hard. We bundled ourselves up in our new hats and gloves and scarfs and socks and headed out into the cold.

I am still having trouble figuring out how to place pictures so I will have to work on that. The pictures from the top down were taken in the cove. The first one was taken in the area where those who died were buried. Sister Longson is reading comments from one of the Apostles. A few feet from where we are all standing was where Pres. Hinkley walked and stood for a long time and then turned and said, "this is very sacred ground, many are buried here." After her reading we all knelt on the ground and a prayer was said. What a special moment that was. We then walked down through the Cove. If you look to the left of where we are walking you can see the area where they camped for four days and nights. The temperature is warmer in the Cove. As we walked out of it you could really tell the difference.

The picture on the right is the view as we were walking out of the Cove. The next picture is of the big buck deer and his lady friends that were watching us. We see so many deer and antelope here.

We love you all and are so excited to have you come this summer so we can share all of this with you. Try and plan ahead and give us a date so we can make arrangements for treks. It is pretty crazy here in July so June might be a better month to come. Guess we had better go, we have another party tonight!!

Love, Mom and Dad