Family Ties

June 18 - July 2 2006

Dear Family,
We have been home two days short of two weeks and have been so busy this is our first opportunity to update you. Once we got on the airplane after paying a heavy penalty for too much weight, we had an uneventful trip home and in fact it seemed shorter than we remembered going to Korea. Our joy was the excitement of being greeted by many members of the family who presented us with hugs, kisses and flowers and then as we had planned we loaded our truck and drove directly to Heber City. On an impulse, we stopped by the stake offices where President Hansen was conducting interviews and issued us our release and on behalf of the stake thanked us for our services.
We arrived at our cabin about 8p.m. in time to unload and unpack most of our luggage. The beautiful scenery and freshness of the air provided our first welcome home night of sleep. Everything seemed to be in good order except being overrun with vegetation in paths and driveway and required the better part of our next two days to remove.
Following our shopping trip to the valley on Friday, we were blessed with the arrival of Jared, Jacob and his finance Jarica and Janie and her intended Skyler and the next day the rest of Susan's family came and presented us with the gift of new deck furniture which was enjoyed by everyone when they came to the cabin on Sunday.
Our welcome home talks in church were shared with Elder Mark Houtz so our pulpit time was limited to about ten minutes each. We felt good about our talks and tried to believe the sincerity of many who complimented us. With family and friends we counted nearly seventy people of our family and former friends of our past and former missions. (The Bishop loved it) Because our space could only accomodate family, the Sorensons hosted many of our mutual friends.
Marie's sister, Lily, was brought to the meeting and then to the cabin by Kyle's wife, Debbie for a two week stay with us for the Cook Reunion on the 15th of July.
The next big event was the wedding of Curtis and Desiree who were sealed in the Mt. Timpanogas temple on Thursday, June 29th at 9a.m. This was the first opportunity your father has had to seal one of his grandchildren and it was a lifetime highlight to stand before family members and pronounce the sealing ordinance upon them. David and Desiree's father served as witnesses. Many of her family were present as well as members of Jan's family and those from our family were Dan & Ann, Ed and Debbie, Susan and of course, Curtis's brothers and sisters. Pictures were taken before our luncheon at the Alpine Country Club. David & Jan sang their traditional "What is Love" and Curtis and Desiree sang a humorous & delightful duet. The reception was held in the beautiful backyard of the Deering's friends. The newlyweds spent their first night at a plush new Swiss resort in Midway before traveling to St. George for a weeks honeymoon.
Susan who never misses an opportunity to be at family functions drove all the way from St. George to be with us for the wedding celebration. She also assisted us in ideas to redecorate the bedrooms of the cabin and finalize our trip to Fort Collins on July 24th to assist Nancy and Jeff in their move to Maine.
One of Lily's main purposes in coming early to the reunion has been to assist Marie in filling in needed information on family history and many of the spare hours have been spent accumulating this information. What a pleasure it is to have her participate with us in these family activities.
Saturday, July 1, we drove to the valley on many errands including the purchasing of gallons (and gallons) of paint to begin our decorating. We stayed the night in Highland and attended the church with Dave's family for the blessing of Matt & Debbie's son. Gavin Harold Hymas is the first great grandson to carry the Hymas family name. Matt pronounced a beautiful prophetic blessing upon his son. We were then hosted to lunch at the home of Matt and Debbie in Lehi. There was an air of optimism among Dave and all of his family in their employment and family activites.
Words are inadequate to express the joy that it has been to be with our family once more and feel of their excitement for life. Family, friends and our homey cabin brings to our minds that truly there is "No Place Like Home".