Kenneth C. Whitney Family Newsletter
Kenneth C. Whitney Family Newsletter
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News from Mom
Dear Family,
Is it really the end of March already? What happened to this month? I spent the first part of March dreading a primitive campout to Arrow Canyon with my young women. The weather threatened to be chilly, and when they asked me what the showers were like, I just knew we were in trouble. The Friday of our departure, the weather was worse than chilly. Ken looked up a national winter storm warning with snow in the forecast. That was it...I started calling to cancel, but they all seemed so determined that I was shamed into persevering. It turned out that each one depended on someone else, including me, to make them feel obligated to go. So we packed up, and took off. I made sure to pack Ken's "Eskimo coat" to keep warm, then I unpacked it so I could wear it the whole way. We set up camp, took a hike to the petroglyphs, and as we cooked around the campfire, snow began to fall. It was amazing. Still, none of the girls gave up, even when the bishop stopped by, no one took advantage of the chance to go home with him, not even his daughter! We slept warm all night, hiked up the canyon, learned some first aid and Dutch oven cooking, then packed up and went home. I considered it 100% successful. When I arrived home, Ken was quite worried, and perhaps even on the verge of coming up to our rescue!
I shared my dilemma over almost canceling with the bishop, and he confided that he had stressed over the same concerns all day. I felt reassured to know that I was not the only worry wart! He concluded that it would be good for the girls to experience some hardship in their campout so they could relate it to the fact that life will always contain hardship. I appreciated his wisdom because it made me feel the importance of not putting off our campout until a perfect sunny day. Life is full of imperfect days, but it goes on just the same. We all had a wonderful time that we will talk about for many years to come. It all depended on the positive attitude that each of us kept. With a positive attitude, you can turn anything into a good time, just like a negative attitude can turn the best of times into a bad experience.
Today it poured rain all day, and again we wonder if we're on the verge of another flood. The river's pretty high in Circleville, but luckily Dad's moved mountains of gravel around the banks to prevent further erosion damage. Still we're antsy to get up there and check on things this weekend. The school Paris trip is just a week away, so this will be our last chance for a while.
It's been a fun month, and we wish you all the best in April, and a Happy Easter.
Love & prayers, Mom
Mom poses with her courageous campers at Arrow Canyon. Can you tell it's freezing?
Sidney revs up the new Banshee, brmmmm, brmmmm!
Chris & Summer
Dear family,
Greetings from Logandale. This month has flown by so fast I feel like I just sent our last news. We have had a nice month. I guess I will start at the beginning. We blessed Sage Nicole Whitney on March 5th. We had Dad and McKay and Rod Gordon there to help. Leslie also had asked the neighbor Ken Paul to help, so when he stood up we had to smile. Sage was blessed by her Grandpa Whitney. He did a wonderful job although he did make me a little nervous when he said she was named after a pungent desert plant. After the blessing Mom and Dad made dinner and brought it over. It was so nice to visit with everyone. However Grandpa Bert was missed. I think we all felt the void. Sometimes at church I still look over at his bench and expect to see him. Anyway the day was a great success.
Leslie was in a school play "The Golden Goose." She played the innkeeper. Grandma made her an apron, so she looked perfect. She did a great job. She also was Willie Wonka for character day at school. Madyson got to go on a field trip to the Dentist office. She is now the official teeth brushing police. Bronson is so cute-he is just happy to be here. He is saying words now: words like water, up, down, hat, car. He is just so cute. Sage is wonderful. She is smiling and cooing. She weighs 9lb 8oz. I still think she is so small. (That won't last for long.)
Most of you probably heard that we had SNOW, that's right SNOW. I think most of the town was outside in their PJs. I know we were, and so were the neighbors! We have had a cold March, and we all have spring fever. We planted our garden, so I hope it doesn't freeze. We are gearing up for the fair and spring break. We are planning a trip to California. Well I think that is all that has happened. We love you all and hope to see you soon.
Love, Chris, Summer and the rest
In case you didn't recognize this growing-up little babe, it's Sage.
He's proud to be an American! Bronson waves his flag at the Veterans Day Parade.
It's Madyson...ain't she cute!
Leslie announces, "It's snowing in Logandale." And that's really a big deal!
Madyson loves baby Sage.
Dad guides son on down the big slide, or, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Melanie and Andy
Dear Family,
The kids have a piano/ violin recital on April 8. Andy signs paperwork on April 3rd; he is leaving for Bellevue on the 2nd. We partied through March, celebrating Andy's b-day at a dental retreat. It was really nice to leave the kids for a night and spend some time with friends. We stayed at the lodge on Daniel's Summit and snow-mobiled the next day. Then the next weekend we went to Soda Springs in ID for more time with friends. We took the kids along, and they loved spending all day in the snow. My friend talked me into running in single digit weather. We had icicles hanging from our eye lashes. Yikes! I have pictures; hopefully I can find them and send them soon!
I attached a fairytale that Michael wrote, it will make everyone laugh. . .
Love, Melanie and everyone else
Once apon a time there was a castle. There was only one problem, there were three rats. Other than that everything was normal. The rats were growing up, it was time for them to move out of their Mom's house and build their own houses. The first rat built his mouse-hole in some cotton. (You might think that's crazy, but that's the way it goes.) The second rat built his house out of toothpicks. (At least that's better than the first rat.) The third rat made his mouse-hole in the young prince's throne. He must have been the brains of the family.
There was another problem for the rats, it was the fire-breathing dragon named Spike. When Spike was guarding the Princess, he got a glimpse of the cotton on the Princess' bed. He didn't just see the cotton, he saw the rat's tail. As soon as the dragon saw the rat's tail, he blew fire at him. And that rat ran so fast it looked like he left his tail behind. He was running so fast not even a bald eagle could tell where he was going. (Answer: He was going to his brother's house.)
His brother was angry with him. The first brother begged to stay. Finally the third rat made up his mind the first rat could stay. You are probably wondering what happened to the second rat, but, we'll get to him.
While the Princess was eating lunch she saw that rat. She started screaming with fear. She yelled, "Spike!" As soon as Spike heard the screaming he came rushing in. The Princess told him where the rat was hiding. Spike was running out of fire. Then that rat went running just as fast as his brother. And you know what, he was going the same place. (What twins.)
And when he got to his brother's house the exact same thing happened: his big brother was angry and the poor rat begged to stay. (Yah, yah you know the rest.)
Then finally the dragon found out where the third rat brother lived. One day Spike was getting sick of the Princess' complaints so he went where the Prince's throne was. He huffed and he puffed and blew great flames, but in less than a second those flames ran out. Thankfully for the rats, they all lived happily ever after. The End.
By Michael Atwood
Martha & Jeremy
Hello Family,
While you guys were freezing your toes off in Logandale we were sweatin' up a storm in Disneyland. There were actually heat advisories the days we were there. The highs were in the upper 80s with humidity up the wazoo. You can tell how hot we are in all these pictures by our sweat-glazed faces! Despite the heat, we were all swept away in the magic. One of my favorite parts was seeing the pure innocent joy of the boys meeting Mickey Mouse. Both Lyle and Rumm were in awe, then they couldn't stop giving Mickey hugs and kisses. Mickey was so good with them and played it up big time. I stood there and cried. Disneyland is so magical with children. The boys walked around on a cloud all day. Jeremy got pretty excited too. I guess I did too.
The rides were a blast, but I thought poor Rummy was going to throw up after those spinny rides.The boys really hung out together at the Swiss Family Robinson tree house. I daringly went on it alone with the boys. Those two toads just chummed together the entire time, and I followed behind chuckling all the way!
Our hotel in Orlando had the coolest swimming pool. It was very big and not too deep and had a little waterfall. The elevator was right by it, and the boys kept wanting to jump in. We were too tired to go swimming the days we went to Disneyworld. The day we checked out, we finally let them play. The boys and I swam for a good 2 1/2 hours! They wouldn't stop. We had to finally pry them out of the water!
Jeremy got Lyle some sunglasses that had Buzz Lightyear on the corner. Lyle wore them around Disneyworld like he was the man of the day. We outfitted the family in special Disney shirts. Lyle wanted to wear his the other day to playgroup. When he got there, all the kids made a big deal about it. Lyle just stood there proudly/cooly and said he got it from Mickey Mouse. Then the Mom there said, Well Lyle, it is a pretty cool shirt. Lyle looked at her cooly and said, I know! The boys is unshakable!
Take care! Love, The Tanners
Lyle and Hyrum look pretty cool in their awesome sand castle.
"We can't believe it's really Mickey!!!!"
Check out those Tanners at the Magic Kingdom in Florida!
Martha and Jeremy wind their day down as the sun sets over the Atlantic. Isn't that to the east?
Becca & Nick
Whew, we're still counting down until graduation over here. Nick just started his last six-week rotation today. Then he has a week to wrap up assignments, then graduation! Then a couple weeks later he can take the boards. We went small town shopping this month to the Gila valley a.k.a. Safford, Thatcher, Pima (there is a bundle of little towns nestled together there- those are the biggest). Nick's Grandma Bryce took me for a drive around the towns while Nick worked at the Safeway in Thatcher. I really took a liking to Pima and Nick really likes the pharmacist at that particular Safeway. (He used to live in the trailer park with us.) We got pretty siked up about the idea of moving to a small town. . . Then Safeway basically told Nick there is really no way he could work at that store as long as the pharmacist he really liked was working there. (Nick is working out a "no Sundays" deal and the other pharmacist has the same deal. So Safeway would rather higher someone who wants to works Sundays.) So we're looking to just stay put for a while. Nick does have his sights on a different pharmacy he just finished a rotation at. So for now we'll stick with Safeway until Nick's dream job opens up.
Kids have been fun this month. We have more proof that Estelle has been holding back on us. She has been talking perfect English. She brought Nick a book, opened his hand, put the book in his hand, closed his hand over the book, and then said, "Read book," just as plain as day. One day for lunch I handed her a roll. She then looked me squarely in the eyes, held the roll out back towards me, then said, "butter." So I asked her if she wanted butter and she nodded enthusiastically, "yes." However, speaking is her absolutely last resort. She'll do just about anything else to make her requests known.
Jonathan is becoming more and more silly. He loves to laugh and make others laugh, I guess he's always been this way. In church the bishop made an announcement about what a success the ward barbecue was and how great it was to just let the kids run free around the park. Jonathan started cracking up and between laughs he managed to say what was so funny, "kids, ha ha ha, free!!! Ha ha ha , free kids! ha ha ha, running free kids! ha ha ha ha." We were actually sitting in the third row that day. . . He still enjoys making Stelli laugh by tickling and tackling her. Although he has also learned how easy and fun it is to tease too. Sometimes I see him running around the house with her doll while a frustrated Stelli chases him screaming (actually I hear Stelli well before I see her). I've had a pretty good month too. The doctor told me I still need to take it easy and no vigorous house chores etc. So I've been slowly trying new chores and tasks and have come to the point where I'm able to do just about anything with out any evidence of over doing it. I am staying away from lifting though I do lift Stelli daily now. I am careful about how I do it though. This month I also passed the big nauseating moments of first trimester. I have tons more energy and feel much better.
This month I also discovered that the responsibility of the reunion was waiting to hopefully rest on me. So I've picked some dates and am working on a campground outside Williams, Arizona. Dates are: August 10th, 11th, and 12th. Sunday the 13th I thought we could head to Logandale and crash Matt's homecoming talk. . .
We love you all!
The Bryces
Sweet little Stelli's daredevil antics keep her parents living on the edge.
Jonathan loves his play school.
Big brother Jonathan takes care of little sister Estelle on his lap.
Estelle loves to play model and tries on whatever she finds.
Jonathan helps his dad finish the music room.
In fact, Jonathan's just a pretty handy helper.
Jonathan and Estelle are always ready for a roadtrip.
Jonathan and Estelle take a tangle on the rug.
McKay & Keresa
Sydney is surprising us with all the funny things she does. She is learning lots of "words"(thank you sounds like "deed-doo"). Her new funnest game for Dad is chasing her around the house, and she runs away excited/frightened that I will catch her. She can hardly stand it when she hears me getting near her and yells out with excitement.
Keresa's pregnancy is coming along without any problems. She is feeling as healthy and energetic as always.
Our anniversary happened in March, so Keresa planned a surprise date. We went to a restaurant referred by Keresa's family called Hash House-a-Go-Go. It's kind of creepy, like some ride at Disney land with all the themes and decorations, and there is weird farmish music. The relative recommending the place told us it was "farm food, but twisted," whatever that means. When we got there, their sign said Hash House-a-Go-Go-Twisted Farm Food. Original review eh? There were only 8 or 10 items on the menu. They were things like steak, ribs, fish, chicken, pot pie, etc. The food came out on these giant plates that were way oversized. The entree had a huge pile of mashed potatoes to the side and weird non-edible plants thrown over it- like shredded up corn husks, a stick off a sage brush, other weird things. So we ate. Probably we won't go there anymore.
The next item on the anniversary agenda was also a surprise. Keresa had me put my seat all the way back and close my eyes while she drove us to the place of our next destination. We drove around and she made many turns to confuse my senses so I wouldn't know where we were. Finally she admitted the turns were to confuse me, but she was a little lost and would need my help to find the surprise. We finally landed at the Venetian hotel, whose show right now happens to be Blue Man Group! We thoroughly enjoyed that.
We also found time this month to visit Logandale and ride around with Chris and Summer and their kids. Grandma and Grandpa hosted us and provided a nice spread as usual: more hamburgers than a wedding party could eat and 4 or 5 choices of crackers or chips, and of course orange juice.
We are looking forward to the reunion. We'll be seeing you all.
Love, Mk kgw srw
Madyson shows cousin Sidney how to slide down the sand dune. Leslie, Madyson and Bronson trek out in the desert.
McKay and Leslie come in from a ride up the mesa.
Sidney tells her mom that 4-wheelin's hard work, then she conked out.
Elder Matt
Querida Familia,
New tasks as Zone Leader of San Cristobal:
In San Cristobal, the cell phone always rings with stories of our 28 missionaries calling in sick, or problems, or riots, or getting kicked out of their house, and so on. Here are a few little functions from my first week:
Transfer Day Riots
So transfers were on Tuesday. Around noon, the guagau picked me up and all the other campo missionaries heading towards the capital. About 30-45 minutes from the capital, the guagua stopped under a bridge on the pista, and let us out with our luggage and the purple San Cristobal truck pulls up with my new companion. He says that after we finish taking around the new missionaries to their houses, we have to go out to Palanque Beach to check on the missionaries there. Apparently, one of them was supposed to be transfered to the capital, but they couldn't go in to extract them because a trucking company was in riots and had blocked off the road. After three atempts of driving in (it's about 45 minutes from San C.) things had cooled down enough the the truckers had opened one lane of traffic. We went in and extracted the missionary, dropped of the other missionary's new companion, and were back to San C. However, the transfer guagua was long gone and we had an elder who was due to be deep in the capital hours ago. So deep into the capital we went! We called up his new zone leaders, arranged and rendevous, and went back home with time to still teach two charlas before the night was done.
Canastica House Confusion
In the Canastica area in the zone, the four missionaries just moved to a new house and apparently the previous missionaries left the house in a wreck, down the kitchen sink! Literally! So Thursday we went there and had the dueno yell at us for about half an hour. Then we went and picked up the Canastica maid to vouch for real damages made by the missionaries, made up damages, things that the church is responsible for, and things that just aren't our falt. Cranky domincans are not very fun to talk to. In the end, we walked away with a fair sized list of damages and a big oven fan. We need to find someone in town to fix it. I guess. The ruckuss took our whole Thursday morning, the time when we usually plan for the week. So we planned on Sunday afternoon.
The Fumigator
So our zone, San Cristobal, stretchs from the beaches of Palanque, to a northern Campo called Cambita, and almost all the way to the capital in the ports of Haina, plus all the pueblo inbetween. Tomorrow, the mission fumigator will be knocking on our door to for us to carry him to all of these places and teach him how to find them. So that will most definately take up all our morning and the rest of our kilometer limitation on our truck. Sorry mission office, but duty calls! Rumor has it that we're getting a new truck this friday anyway, what's a few more kilometers anyway?
Con Amor, Elder Whitney
Elder Winni enjoys lunch in a typical dining room under the shade of the banana trees.