Happy 80th Birthday!!!

-The Happy Smith Family!-
Kim, Mom & Dad , Debbie, Mick, Lisa and Pam


We celebrated Mom's 80th birthday at Kim and Guy's house on Sunday.
We had a nice time visiting with family and enjoying good food.

We are grateful for the 80 years of life that mom has enjoyed.
She has a kind and giving heart. She loves her family and would
do anything for them. She is a very talented seamstress and has
made many dresses over the years for my girls.

She makes cute blankets, burp clothes and animal snuggles
for all of the great grandchildren.
We each have receive crocheted blankets and wash clothes from her.

She has made beautiful porcelain dolls for each of us.
She enjoys working on her crafts and is very good at what she does.

These are just a few of the material gifts that she has shared with us.
She has also shared her love of family and the gospel with us.
She is committed and dedicated to what ever she does in life.

We all feel so very blessed to have this wonderful woman in our life as our
Mom, Grandma and Great Grandma.

We love you Mom!!
Happy 80th Birthday!!!

-Siblings posing for a picture-

-Mick being shown some sisterly love!-

Missionary Update

It is hard to believe that it has been almost 2 months since Brianna left on her mission.
She is doing well and loving missionary work.

She went to Texas but feels like she went to Africa instead.

She has been teaching people from Africa and learning Swahili!

We have a blog set up for Brianna that we are updating weekly.
http://www.sisterbriannasmith.blogspot.com/

This is a private blog. If you would like to view her blog

email me ctr4ever81@gmail.com and I will add you as a reader.

August 1959 was a very good month and year!!!

We had a very busy month but had a lot of great Celebrations!!

Melissa took these great photos of our recent celebrations.
I was to busy with other things to even think about taking pictures!

First my parents celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

We had an "Ultimate Soda Shoppe" open house for them. They love the 50's so we served ice cream sundaes and Root Beer floats. Mick was a great "Soda Jerk" and provided humor for the guests. We had great 50's music playing that my brother, David, prepared for the party. Mike and Ike's, hula hoops, 50's cars and gas pumps helped complete the party. Melissa put together a great music video on my parents life and we had that showing at the "Movie Theatre". My dad has a garage with old car's and 50's memorabilia. Every one had fun walking through "Route 66". Jennifer did a great job on the cake and it was delicious. My sister's, Debra and Amy, also helped in so many ways to make this day special for my parents.
I have been so blessed with good parents. They have set such a good example to me and my family of love, kindness, and service, ect. It was a fun day celebrating with them and their guests.

Mick's 50th Birthday Celebration!!!


A couple of days after my parents party we celebrated Mick and Kaylie's birthdays.

Mick reached the milestone of the big 5- 0 and Kaylie is 17.
We had a Mexican fiesta with family for dinner. Thanks to everyone for helping with the dinner! Especially Rachelle for saving the rice! We then had friends come to help us celebrate Mick's birthday and also honor him for receiving his PhD. from the University of Nebraska. We had the graduation march playing as he walked up and down among the group. Mom and Dad Smith then presented him with his Degree. It was a nice evening spent with family and friends. Melissa made a fun video for Mick with some great music, pictures and stories from family and friends. Jennifer was the cake queen of this past weekend. She made both Kaylie and Mick's cakes. They looked and tasted awesome. We were so happy that almost all of our children were able to be there. Carly was able to come for my parents 50th but had to miss Mick and Kaylie's party because of classes and distance. We missed Brianna at both events but are so happy with her missionary service in Texas.

I am so thankful for a wonderful husband. I have been so very blessed to have him in my life.
50 is not seeming very old. Mick just gets better with age! I hope to be celebrating many more birthday's with him.

Pioneer Trek

The last week of July we went on trek with our Stake.
Mick and I were a Ma and Pa.
We had 7 children in our family.
They were a great group of kids and had good attitudes.
We walked over 25 miles in 3 days.
We had a great experience at Martin's Cove.
It wasn't easy but we learned many
lessons while we were there.

My handsome pioneer with Martin's Cove in the background.

Our trek family.

Preparing for our daily walk.

Here are a few "pictures" that have been impressed
into my mind during this experience.

~Loading the buses for the 6 hour ride to Wyoming.
We were fresh and clean, excited but a little apprehensive.

~Coming into our camp after walking 3 miles.
The wind was blowing like crazy.
It took everyone in our family to set up out tents.
It was a struggle but with a group effort we did it.

~Oscar the Dog
Good watch dog that follows our trek group.
Protects us from the Coyotes at night.

~Walking into Martin's Cove.
Wondering how the pioneers did this in the cold and snow.
Sacred spot. So many died here.

~Crossing the Sweetwater.
Cool and refreshing for us.
Cold and Bitter for the pioneers in October.

~Women's pull.
The men left us for the Mormon Battalion.
Talk to the young women- We can do hard things.
Looking to the hill.
It is steep and sandy.
The men and young men silent, watching us
pull our handcarts.
Watching the women ahead of us.
They are strong and make it to the top.
Other young women come back down
to help them.
"As Sister's in Zion we'll all work together".
Our families turn to pull our wagon up the hill.
It is so hard. Harder than I could have imagined.
I'm praying for strength and pushing the wagon
from behind.
I pass Mick and he gives me a thumbs up for encouragement.
It was so hard...but we made it to the top.
I can do hard things!

~The Storm
We made it to camp and had a wonderful dinner.
The sunset is beautiful.
We can see rain in the distance.
We gathered our family in our tent.
We get settled and begin a discussion.
The wind, lightening, thunder and rain come.
It is very scary.
We feel so unprotected.
But we are together and are silently praying.
Our tent rips and pole breaks.
Now we are getting wet.
How could the pioneers have endured such weather?
After the storm we discover our other tent was ruined.
We all fit into a dry tent.
We talk of our experience.
Letters are shared from home.
The youth in our family are so happy to receive
their letters and some shed tears.
It was a tender moment.

~Final Trek
We are a little weary.
Sore feet and blisters.
It is amazing what duct tape can do.
Walking a fast pace.
Can't keep up!
Put into the wagon for a couple of miles.
Disappointed that I didn't walk all the way.
I am so thankful for my trek family and
group captain.
They pulled me along!

~Last 1/2 mile.
I walked the last 1/2 mile of our trek.
I was very sore and tired.
I felt a sweet feeling of peace as I finished.
I shed a few tears that my journey was done.

I am Grateful for the experience.
I am glad that I didn't have to do more.
I am thankful for the sacrifices of the early pioneers.

Top 5 Recent Events

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activities!
Here are our top 8 picks in no particular order.

1. Brianna entering the mission field.
She will be an awesome missionary in Lubbock, Texas!
The curb drop off at the MTC wasn't as bad as it sounds.

2. Tuesday night, before Brianna entered the MTC, all of our children and spouses went
to the Provo Temple. Carly and Kaylie went to the Baptistry and the rest of us headed to
the Sealing Room. My parents were also able to join us.
It was a sweet experience being there together as a family.
We were able to do some family names and that made it especially nice.

3. Brianna was set apart as a missionary by our Stake President after we left the temple.
This was a special event and we feel so blessed to have another missionary serve from our family.
We are so thankful for Ruth and Elizabeth Pratt. They watched the
8 grandchildren while we participated in these two great events.

4. Monday night we did our 2nd annual slip and slide. (I will have to post pictures later)
We had a fun time as a family and only a few minor bumps and bruises!

5. Sunday went to Grandpa and Grandma Spencer's house for a farewell dinner for Brianna.
We had all of the family there, minus 2 nieces.
It was a wonderful meal and so nice to visit with family.

6.Celebrating the 4th of July.
We had a great BBQ with Grandpa and Grandma Smith, Kim and Guy and family.
We came home with 3 large bags of cherries from their tree. Yummy!!!

7. Here we are in our Algae green shirts coloring for
the EFY service project. We had a great week with the youth in Ogden, Utah.
We were so surprised to have youth from many different states and countries there.
Mick is a wonderful session director and
I just have a lot of fun mingling with youth and counselors.

Posing with Kaylie on game night in our Hibiscus EFY shirts!
Mick looked extremely dashing in his shirt!!
We were glad that Kaylie was able to with us again this year.

8. Mick and I celebrated our 28th anniversary on the 11th of July.
We went to the Hale Centre Theatre and saw "Singing in the Rain".
Our children gave us season tickets to the Hale Centre for Christmas.
We loved the musical. It was probably one of the best we have seen there.
We had a good Chinese dinner afterwards.

On the way home we saw a rainbow in the sky.
This is especially meaningful to us on our Anniversary.
On the day we were married, just as our outdoor reception began, it started
to sprinkle. It stopped and was replaced with a double rainbow.
We always felt that was a sign of Heavenly Father's approval of our marriage.

Melissa called us later and said "did you see the double rainbow tonight?"
We felt once again that this was a special sign of our union!

We are so thankful for friends, family and most of all each other!

A Little Bit of Heaven!

Brianna received her endowments Saturday in the Draper Temple.
She looked beautiful and the spirit was so sweet.

My favorite part was being in the Celestial Room with the family.
I was the first one in the room and was able to see everyone
as they came in. What a great experience!

It definitely was a little bit of Heaven here on Earth.
It would have been even better if Jared, Jennifer, Carly
and Kaylie could have been there with us!!

We were so happy that both sets of Grandparents were able to come.

Our family in front of the Temple, which included both
sets of grandparents, and Mick's sisters, Pam and Kim.
Carly and Kaylie watched Carson while we were in the Temple.

I am so very grateful for the gospel and for our Eternal Family!!

I Love to see the Temple

Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple


We went to the Temple open house on Wednesday.
It is a beautiful Temple!

It has been a blessing to go to two temple open houses
in the past five months.

Standing in front of the Temple you can look across the
Valley and see the Draper and Jordan River Temples.

I love to see the Temples dotting the land!

We also celebrated Carly's 18th birthday on Wednesday.
Can she really be that old??