Brigham City Folkman's Christmas

Greetings from all 21 of us to the rest of the Folkman Families. -- First time my family has all been together for Christmas in a long time, and of course Adam and Shala's Robert G. hadn't been there at all in the past. Thanks to everyone for coming and for your help with the wonderful dinner. We had a great time.

A Christmas Story

Merry Christmas!

Hi Family!

We're leaving in the morning for Utah. We're all looking forward to it. The kids can't wait to spend the holidays with all the grandmas and grandpas and cousins. I still haven't seen Adam and Shala's new baby, so I'm looking forward to that. Most of all, it will be nice for Troy and I to have some time off from work and be with the kids.

Hope you all have a happy and safe Christmas!

Love,

Troy, MaryAnne & Kids

Grandpa and Grandma Hunter

Here's a recently found picture of Grandpa and Grandma Hunter taken on March 7, 1969.

Merry Christmas!

One of my mission companions had this posted on her blog, and I laughed so hard--it was adorable. So here we are, Shane Carrie & Emma, the Christmas elves...dancing away.

Click HERE, and wait for the fun... :)

Back From Mexico

Jake here. It's been a while since I've blogged, but I just got back from a few days in Mexico with AJ's brothers and her dad. We drove down Baja California into a little fishing village called Erendira. We did some fishing, diving, surfing, blowing stuff up with M-80s and shooting Roman Candles at each other. Here are a few photos from the trip. I'll post a video of me in a parachute tied to the back of a pickup truck later.


These are from the day we spent fishing.

This is a taco shop. We ate loads and loads and loads of fish tacos. Very tasty.

This is where I took the best dump of my life. You just can't beat that view while taking care of business. It's actually several images I Photoshopped together into a vertical panorama.

So I finally figured out how to add myself to this blog. Since it has taken nearly a year to do, I have little time to post something now. But I hope this will be a start to keeping in touch with every one. Lindsay and I are doing great. It has been a long year thus far. I started back in the window tinting business at the beginning of this year and have been working hard at getting that going. Lindsay has been busier than every doing dance this year. We are hoping to start her own studio in the following year. As for the kids, Mekhi and Ava, they are growing too quickly. Mekhi is four and a half and is in preschool this year. He loves school and socializing. He is not taking after me. If I can get him obsessed with golf then that will be a start in the right direction. Ava is two and a half and she is a little princess (and Diva at times) and loves to be treated like one. She loves dollies and doggies and can not get enough of them. We still have our two corgis, I think. Since kids have been here I haven't really noticed if the dogs are still around and if they get fed. I do know that they are not getting bathed. Anyway, like I said, I hope this will be a start for me and keeping up with all of you.

October Fun

We've had a busy month! Ian and I ventured east to Bloomington, IN, and Chicago. We went to Bloomington to see one of our favorite groups, Nickel Creek, perform and then hung out in Chicago the next three days. It was fun to see where Troy and I used to live, take the train into the city, and eat Chicago's best pizza. We were on a quest to find the best live blues music and found it at the House of Blues, imagine that. We had a blast, ate the best southern food and heard an awesome blues band. They could have been the band "nobody leaves this place without singin' the blues" from Adventures in Babysitting.

Then the whole family had the best Halloween ever. We went to a pumpkin patch and picked out pumpkins, the guys went to several haunted houses and haunted corn mazes, Troy, Zach, & Josh went all out decorating our front yard, Troy and I set up our ever expanding Halloween village, and we had a Halloween party with 5 families and about 15 teenagers.

As for costumes, Sophie was a witch, Michael was "Bug Boy", and Josh was a caveman. (Anyone seen the SNL skit "First Person in the History of the World to Dance"? That was his inspiration, complete with glow sticks.)
-MaryAnne

Picking Pumpkins

Hi Everyone,

Shane, Emma and I found a cute farm not far from our house. We picked pumpkins, saw the pumpkin launch, and visited the animals. So cute-we had a blast, even though it was raining. I also attempted my first theme cake for Emma's birthday today. I got some great ideas online. She had a great day, although really she's still fairly clueless as to what all the fuss was about. We got her to say, "My birfday" a couple of times, but overall just loved the toys and the cake. It was fun for us. :)

Carrie

Peach Days Congratulations

As a purely recreational runner, my congratulations to Adam, Shala, and Linda for running in the peach days 10K. That's a pretty good run. My last official race was the triathlon I did the weekend before Carrie and Shane got married, and haven't been too tempted to try it again. I guess Maryanne is still running too?

Robert, did you do all the yard work yourself? I'm impressed. We enjoyed seeing the house when we were down there this summer. I'm impressed by the lack of ferns and moss, but you've got to plant some trees.

Kevin

And the Nobel Peace Prize goes to.....

Jake posted this over on the Lyons family website yesterday, so I thought I would share it here.

His comment was "I thought I would beat my dad to the punch on this one."

To which I added: Prov. 22: 6"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. "

The Knighting of Elder Eyring

For those who didn't see this.

Brigham City Update

We're behind on our posts, so I'll try to catch up. We really enjoyed everyone's updates. It's nice to know what's going on. Especially enjoyed the pictures from Nauvoo. Those are great experiences that David, Kathy and the Kristine and Marcos' family are having.


Here's a quick snapshot of our new home on the north side of Brigham City. We are settled inside, and have the sprinklers in and the yard almost levelled, another 10 yds of dirt coming tomorrow, and the fence is going up in the back. Rex figures he has died and gone to heaven as he gets to take long walks on the country road adjacent to our house every day, quite a change to his previous confinement to the back yard at the old house.

















Adam, Shala, Abbie and Robert have have moved into their new condominium in Spanish Fork. No pictures yet, as the outside "yard" area is still under construction, but they are pleased and excited to have a place of their own.


Going back to Peach Days in Brigham City, September 8: Linda, Adam and Shala all ran in the 10K on Saturday morning and all finished strong. No one is more impressed with their motivation than I am. I forget the exact finish, but Linda finished second or third in her age group as I recall, and Adam finished in 51 minutes, well before the parade began, a pretty good performance for a casual runner.

Oh, yes, and of course Mom (Iantha) and Linda's Anna rode on the Senior Center float. Anna is in the pink dress, waving, in front of Iantha in the dark dress and her Red Hat.

So all is well in Brigham. Everyone stay in touch.

Update from Seattle

No new pictures, but I thought I would update you on a couple of things. First, Luke didn't get his job at the airline in Bellingham, as they had forgotten he would not work Sunday's. However, when he went back to the fish processing place on the Lummi Indian reservation where he has been driving a delivery truck and gutting salmon, they took him back, and put him in the office to do the bookkeeping for them. Needless to say, he doesn't miss scraping fish guts with an ice cream scoop, and this will be good experience for him while he pursues his accounting degree.

Wet weather has come early this year to the Seattle area, so watch for more flooding stories, windstorms, and snow storms. Not quite the nice gentle fall that we are used to here.

Quick note about conference last weekend. For me, it was probably the most personally significant one in terms of impact on me as an individual. There were lots of great talks, but the standout moments for me were Elder Wirthlin talking about charity and service, while Elder Nelson was supporting him while he was having his back spasms, and the news conference Saturday between sessions with Pres. Eyring, long a favorite, and Elder Cook. David, great look with the beard. Now just don't go off all fundamentalist on us. :)

Fall in Seattle

We are trying to take advantage of the good weather before we lose our chance. We found a favorite park, that has toddler trains to play on only a few minutes from our new house. It's a good way to spend an afternoon.



Love the pageant stories from back East...if you know the dates for next year...I vote anyone who can, let's go back and see the sites and watch the new pageant! A family reunion! What a wonderful experience--we might even be able to get a backstage "look" since we've got such great connections.

Nauvoo in a Nutshell

Now that the kids are settled back into school and our normal routines have started again I finally have time to write about some of the experiences we had this summer while serving as Performing Service Missionaries in Nauvoo. While it meant that we would spend a good share of our summer in Nauvoo and miss scout camps, family reunions, weddings, soccer practices etc., it was definitely worth every minute and every penny.

Mom, Dad, Marcos, the kids and I all started out for Nauvoo June 26th, no matter how many times we make the trip the 7+ hours across Wyoming are the longest, most boring part of the trip. The bright side is it makes the remaining 13 hours easier because you as least have some scenery. We stopped in Liberty at the Jail then on to Far West and then we stopped by Adam -Ondi-ahman and claimed our spot for the Resurrection.

We usually rent a home in Nauvoo but this year we decided to rent a condo where a lot of the cast and crew were staying. Part of the Nauvoo experience in the past has been just surviving rehearsals in the heat. We warned other new cast members about the extreme heat and told them what items to bring with to be prepared for the humidity. We ended up looking like wimps because the weather was wonderful, we actually could have used jackets a couple of times, but of course I didn't bring any.

We made a lot of new friends,and met up with old ones. We were able to go with Nick to do baptism for the dead in the Nauvoo temple which was a wonderful experience. Satchell was able to star as Wallace once again, he, Nick and Demi made many great new friends. We found out that the clothing of the 1840's really suits Dad, but does not go well with my hips. Mom and Dad not only were able to act on stage and do a good job, but they weren't half bad at dancing either. Dad was asked to be in charge of the construction of the Nauvoo Temple that we build on stage, it's actually quite heavy and dangerous, but his construction skills really came in handy.

There was a lot more opposition this year then ever before, we had someone burn down one of the cabins by the wagon rides, another one started by the visitor center, and one in the quarry. As well as graffiti on the church vans. One night a truck load of Mormon haters drove past the condos yelling and throwing fireworks. Dad started helping with Security so we could protect the stage and the Grove over night. He and Marcos spent most of the night driving around on golf carts scaring off raccoons. Dad did such a good job they've asked him to come back next year to help again.

I think the biggest accomplishment this year was the amount of missionary work that was accomplished. I think that was the reason for the nice weather. In most of the pageant that are put on by the church you may get 200 referrals and consider it great. This year we were able to get more than 5000 non-member referrals. We recently heard from one of the sister missionaries who reported that 75% of the referrals are allowing the missionaries to come and share a message. She said normally only 10% would allow the missionaries to come. We had a lot of fun meeting people and sharing the gospel. The kids would have contest with their friends to see who could get the most each night. We've already had several baptism that have come from people who just happened across the Pageant.

I've probably gone on to long already, there is so much I could share about our experience this past summer but it would take chapters. We're glad that we had the experience once again, and that mom and dad were able to share it with us. We look forward to more in 2009 (the"NEW" Hill Cumora Pageant).

We've just started rehearsals for Savior of the World, Satchell (while technically still too young to be in the play) has taken over Nick's role as the Beggar. He's so excited for the chance even though he only has one short simple line. We've had him up at the conference center with us ever year since he was born so this is actually a big deal to him to have a speaking part. If anyone is interested tickets go on sale Oct. 30th but the sell out really quick. Our family will be performing on Tuesday and Saturday nights through November and December.

The other great news about Savior of the World is that it will be preformed in Spanish this Easter season. Marcos has helped with the translation and will help with the production. This is a great opportunity for all the Hispanics in the area to participate.

Sorry I went on so long I guess it wasn't really a nutshell.

Kris Menendez

Which one was Jake?

Sorry, couldn't resist. By the way, Zach's not the only one having fun with music this summer. He plays bass in a nerd band, called "The Stay on Targets". Recognize the reference, Troy? (Hint, Star Wars, Episode IV). This is a picture of my new guitar, bought from a guy with too many tattoos and too many guitars. I only helped him on the guitar part. Anyway, I am trying to polish (find, cultivate, develop) my jazz and blues skillz. Just wish I had more time for it.

Since we got back from our desert vacation, I've been in rehab for a torn hamstring, and just finally this week got back to running and playing early morning basketball again. Kate's back to teaching, but most of her day is now working as a math coach with the other teachers, on a Microsoft grant that will last three years. She's not having to bring home anywhere near as much work, as she really only teaches two safety net math classes.

You know what Jake's up to, Luke & Lindsay are now both employed. Lindsay is working at T-Mobile, so they get cheap phones, huge piles of minutes, and ridiculously low rates. Luke starts next week working for Allegiant Airlines at the Bellingham Airport, and gets free flights on any carrier flying out of there. So do his parents, we've been told. More on that later.

Carrie, Shane, and Emma beat the mortgage meltdown, and got into their own condo last month, so we miss having them with us, but they're only 15 minutes away, so that's not bad. Tom & Jamie are still planning on getting married, probably next May, and Pete and Becca are doing well. He hates working for Sears now, and Becca got a better job at a local family run appliance store, so Pete's thinking about moving on, after, what, fifteen years of working at Sears?

Wish we could see more of you all, but we do what we can. Post more pictures!

Kevin

Braegger Update

Loved to see your "brush with greatness" there Jake. I never would have guessed that Gary lives in Utah. Is he LDS too, like Steve Martin and Lionel Ritchie?

Well, it's been quite awhile since we've posted. The biggest change around here is that Ian has been living with us since May. He ventured east in hope of finding a job after graduating from USU, and seems to have found one that suits him well. We'll let him share the details about it, if you haven't already heard about it from our parents. It's been fun having family close by for a change, I think it's been 13 years since we've lived near family. Although he'll still be in Denver, we'll miss seeing him every day when he moves into his own apartment.

What a summer we had; it went by way too fast. One of the highlights was the trip to Bear Lake for the family reunion. It brought back lots of memories and it was great to see everyone. I hope we can all make it out there again in 2 years for the next one.

We also went to Flathead Lake, Montana for a week. Troy has lots of family there and it was one of the most relaxing vacations we've had. It's one of our favorite places. The kids got a little spoiled swimming from dawn until dusk, riding the jet skis, and going on boat rides. I think Zach's favorite part was when he got to jump off a 30 ft cliff into the water and Michael's favorite was beating Troy 3 times in a row at shuffle board (I don't think Troy was letting him win, either). The only downside was all the smoke from the wildfires. We could barely see across the lake because of it, but it made for some gorgeous sunsets.

The last highlight of the summer was our trip to the State Fair where Ian and I took the boys to see Weird Al in concert. It was awesome, we had such a great time. Al puts on a fantastic show and it was perfect for Michael's first concert. While we were at the show, Troy and Sophie explored the fairgrounds. From the looks of her, Sophie had a lot of fun hanging out with Troy; she had a chocolate dipped ice cream in one hand, cotton candy in the other, and remnants of other goodies on her clothes. She was really happy about seeing all the farm animals, it was a Charlotte's Web kind of day for her.

Now we're all back in school and working. Troy's teaching 4 nights a week at the law school this semester, so we don't see him much. Zach is running cross country and Josh is on the track team, so we don't see them much either. Sophie started kindergarten and just loves it, and Michael is adjusting to life as a 4th grader (harder homework and more of it).

Happy Fall!
Troy & MaryAnne

Gary Coleman

Here I am with Utah's finest celebrity. He lives in Santaquin believe it or not. I sold him two macs.

Jake

Family Vacation (Well, at least two of us)

Most of you have heard that Jake & AJ are back in Provo, having decided not to reside in Flagstaff after all, and are still deciding where Jake will go back to school (UVSC and Western Washington in Bellingham where Luke & Lindsay are seem to be the top two options). Still, we had fun on the way down, and then Kate & I made stops at the Grand Canyon, Arches, and Goblin Valley on the way back. This picture is of all of us at Bryce Canyon on the way down. We made a quick 1 hour stop there.

This one is at Walnut Canyon near Flagstaff, a set of old Indian ruins (Ancestral Pueblo, formerly Anasazi), pretty well preserved. You have to climb down 240 steps to get the level the ruins are on, loop around a little island in the canyon, and climb 240 steps back up.


We said goodbye to Jake & AJ after Walnut Canyon, and then Kate & I were off to the Grand Canyon, where, in spite of living in Utah all our lives, we had never been. I think it had something to do with the 5000 foot drop to the bottom of the canyon, and six small kids. We camped at the campground, took the shuttle buses to the various viewpoints, and just enjoyed the views. At one point, being the bird nut that I am, I was watching some huge bird soaring around the canyon, probably a thousand feet below us, and couldn't make it out to be any kind of vulture that was supposed to be there. I finally decided that it looked like a California Condor, one of the two or three rarest birds in the world, but I thought that wasn't right. I only knew of them being in the southern California deserts, and told Kate that I needed to talk to a ranger. She pointed out that there was an article in the little newsletter they give you when you enter the park about reintroducing the Condors to the Grand Canyon a few years ago, and that it probably was. It was still pretty cool. They have a 9 foot wingspan, and are very impressive in flight. Last thing that night, I locked my keys in the trunk of the car back at the campground. The only set of keys to the Impaler that we own. That cost us about an hour in the morning, and $60. We got new keys made as soon as we got back to Ogden, and I now carry one in my wallet.

We also made stops in Arches, which I hadn't been to in about 11 years, and at Goblin Valley, where Kate had never been. I'd been there two or three times with the boys and the YM over the years, but it is a pretty incredible place, and way out of the way. Well worth the trip, though. Here is one picture of Kate and I, and another of just the scenery. It was hot there, probably about 105, but we don't know for sure. If you saw the movie "Galaxy Quest" with Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver, that is where they filmed the desert scene.


Kate has more pictures, and I hope she will get some posted, but I wanted to at least say Hi. It will probably be a while before we get back down to Utah, so hopefully we'll see some of you at Christmas.

Kevin & Katie