Mission Reunion-Happy Birthday Dad

I just wanted to wish you a very Happy Birthday Dad. I hope you have at least 25 more with us.

Last night I went to my mission reunion. I can't tell you how great it was to visit with old companions, elders that were my district and zone leaders or those who served in the same ward as me. It was great to see how President (Elder) Jensen and his wife Kathy and the children had grown. This was our first reunion in 13 years and I am grateful for the opportunity that I had served. We had 2 hours to socialize and then we ate and then we went into the church and sang our mission song, had a prayer, recited the Standard of Truth (I haven't recited that in 14 years but luckly most of it came back to memory) and then President and Sister Jensen spoke. They then opened it up for some of the missionaries to get up and share testimony/memories. Then we closed with the hymn God Be With You Until we Meet again. President Jensen in his talk said he learned something new this time while reading the Book of Mormon about the allegory of the vineyard found in Jacob. He said that one sentence stuck out to him about when the Master of the vineyard asks "What more could I have done for my vineyard?" He then challenged us to ask ourselves what more could we do for our personal vineyard (ie work, family, church calling). All I can say is that it was a great boost for me to see people from one of the greatest moments in my life and I was able to share it with my husband.

We are looking forward to next week and the opportunity to make more great moments in our lives.

Love
Laree

Slacker!

Okay, I have been a bit of a slacker and have not written for a while. I apologize. I am getting excited for the cruise. I can't wait. I love all of you very much and hope that all is well. You all mean a lot to me and I am happy to be part of this family. I am glad my parents taught me how to work and to be kind to others. I hope I will continue to follow both these teachings.

How are my scouters doing? :-) I just couldn't pass up asking the question. I hope to be invited to a double Eagle Court of Honor in 2010 the 100th year of scouting. If you work hard you could both get your Eagle Boards of Review on the 100th anniversary. That would be way cool! Good Luck!

Love Bryan

My Job

I just wanted to share some good news and fill you in on what I am doing down here in Provo.I do not know how many of you know, but I started an internship with Northwestern Mutual after I graduated from BYU. Jobs were very hard to come by and I thought it was going to be a great opportunity. So far it has been. I am a financial representative for them. We work with individuals, families, and businesses, and help them evaluate where there financial security is. We help them decide what their goals are and then help them make sure they are moving to those goals in the most valuable ways.It has been a very rough start and hopefully it will pick up, but it has been rewarding during the little work that I have done. The good news I wanted to share was that the new financial strength ratings came out and Northwestern Mutual has once again received the top ratings from all the rating agencies, making it the strongest financial institution in this industry. It is exciting to work for a company that has such a powerful presence and adds such value. I just wanted to make sure my family knows that as I continue with this company that I would love to help you in any way that I can, and that you might be able to help me by thinking of people you know who could benefit from looking at were their financial security is and wanting it to get to where they have goals for it to be.
I love you all and take care.

Happy Birthday Shawn & Charlie, Happy Anniversary Karen & Shawn, Bryan & Michele

We just wanted to wish a Happy Birthday to Shawn & Charlie. We hope you have a great one. Also a Happy Anniversary to Karen & Shawn and a belated Happy Anniversary to Bryan & Michele. We hope you all have a fun filled day. We love all of you.

The Packard's

Happy Anniversary Bryan & Michele

I know it's the 11th but I thought it was the 10th so that's got to count for something. Hope you had a wonderful day.....and an even better night. (he,he,he) Great....now I just made the blog "R" rated. Love you guys...you're one of my favorite couples!!!!!

Happy Birthday

Chelsea,

We hope you had a wonderful birthday! It will be nice having you back in Idaho for a little while so that we can see you!

Love
The Packard's

Happy Birthday Chels!!!!!!!

I almost ran out of day....but I still have 45 minutes to wish you a happy birthday!!!! I haven't been able to get on to the blog but I wanted to wish you a h.b. so I thought I would just try again and see what happened and ....wallah! Hope your day was great and you were spoiled rotton! You're a doll and I'm so glad you're part of this big crazy family. We LOVE you!!!!!
Karen

The Big 24!

Happy Birthday Chelsea!!!!

Happy 4th of July

I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July!!!!

Today we are leaving for Park City for a week! But, I wanted to let you know that I talked to a friend in our ward today that went on the exact same cruise we are going on. They got back two weeks ago. Here's some things she said:
*Get on the boat early to avoid lines and you can explore the ship and get your bearings before you actually leave.
*On Monday find the naturalist named Kathy to give you inside info about what you will see in Alaska.
*Bring jackets. It was especially cold on the morning that you go through Tracy Arm. They got to the deck at 5:00 am to see the sights and were glad that they did so that they had something to lean on. It got crowded. It was great views of glaciers and they stood there for almost four hours because they didn't want to miss anything.
* 17th floor has a disco where it is the best place to see where you are going. (windows all around)
*They booked all their exursions when they got on the boat. Seemed safer to them although other people were being adventureous and just taking off to find whatever!
*These opinions on the exursions are from her and the people that she talked to on the boat.
Definately do the train ride at Ketchikan (everyone's favorite)
Don't do any gardens at Victoria, they did a bus ride in town and it was okay.
Don't do any whale watching, everyone that did that was disappointed. Don't pan for gold or do the fish hatchery.
People seemed to really like the Mendenhall Glacier tour and hike to a waterfall. Our friends did the totem pole and lumberjack show at Skagway and said it was well worth it.
I think that is about it.
Happy 4th of July!