Merry Christmas!!!

Thanksgiving is over and I hope it was wonderful for you. Getting together with family is one of my favorite activities. Mom is staying at Lori's for now and we are spending a lot of time there. She is getting weaker, thinner, and sleeping most of the time. Remember her blog will give you many more pic and details of how she is doing.

Christmas Concert this year is a week earlier, so life is a little busy right now. But it is a good thing it is early, because Grma Iris has arranged for all of her family to go to Hawaii for Christmas!!! It will be fun to post those pictures of a warm and family filled Christmas when we get back.

We hope all is well with you and that the source and purpose of this season is in your heart and mind.

Merry Christmas
Brent and Jan

A month later

Wow, has it really been a month since the last post? A lot has happened in that time. Mom has been staying at our house with a couple of trips to my sisters in Utah Valley for a few days each. She is really doing quite well, especially for a lady who was suppose to be dead a month ago. Hope you have been keeping up with her blog, It can chronicle the whole journey for you.

In addition to Mom and her adventure, our street has been under construction. We have not been able to get into our driveway for over 2 weeks. So we are parking up at Mom Petersen's and walking back and forth. We now are the proud owners of a sidewalk and cement driveway. We don't have a paved road yet... in fact today (snowing) it is pretty muddy and really a mess, but hopefully when it gets done in a few weeks.... it will be really nice.

Jess and Drew have moved into their new house... It is on the hill in North Salt Lake. And this last week, not only J&D started at a new ward, but Kim started going to her home ward, and Brooke and Q and their family started going to their home ward, also. It has been a transition week....

Dani has been spending every spare minute she has making calls for Prop 8 in Sacramento. Life is not boring is it!!

Happy Election Day.

For those of you who don't know

Mom is in the hospital and is going into surgery today to remove a blockage in her small intestines. This will be a quick (ha-ha) fix so she can get her "trunk" (NG tube) removed. She is also dealing with stage 4 (4 out of 4) Ovarian Cancer. To get the whole scoop on her we have created a blog to keep you up to date..... it is bettyspeakman.blogspot.com . You are more than welcome to visit it.
She is always the life of the party and we are definately having a party in her hospital room!!!
Thanks for all your love and support.

Families

Hi All -

Just wanted to post about a website. www.protectmarriage.com It is the website for those in support of Proposition 8 that is on the California ballot this fall. It will make it so that marriage can only be between a man and a woman in California. Californians could really use some help with it. Go to the website and read about it and if you can donate to the cause.

Thanks,

Dani

Summer is wonderful!!

However it is almost over.... technically it is, but we are trying to stretch it as far as we can.

Brent just got one of his dreams to come true......... He has always wanted a Ford Mustang and he finally got one.

Here is L taking a ride in the "tang" she thought it was really cool to be riding in a car with no roof!!

We also got to go on a cruise to Alaska during the last few weeks. It was a wonderful experience... someone said "it was like being in a National Geographic" it was so beautiful. Here we are in Ketchakan when we got off the boat for the first time

Then after seeing an awsome logging show we went kayaking across the channel





In Juno we canoed across a lake to the Mendenhall Glacier.... what an experience that was!! it was HUGE and that waterfall we named the little Niagra...... we loved it!!

Yep, Brent has returned to politics. Fortunately for us, he didn't have to run or do a campaign ... He was appointed to replace our past mayor who had to resign because of an out of town job. So for the next 18 months he will be working 50 hours a week, 20+ hours of mayoralizing, and choir volunteering. It should be an interesting time. He has a lot to bring to the table for the city, so we are excited to see what he can do in that short of a time period. Should be interesting.!!!

dumb

I really don't like that "SLIDE" program I used for the kayaking in E Canyon. If I could figure out how to delete it..... I would. But since I can't and you don't want to see all the advertisements that come with it..... just X out of it in the upper R corner and you will be able to see the pics, but not the adv.

Sorry

4th of July Weekend

We had a great weekend!!!
Dani flew in to help Kim paint her new place and go kayaking with her Dad. They floated the river on Friday and then on Sat. They went to Causie with the rest of the Family and had a great time floating the lake.

Summer Continues

As you can see, We had another great kayaking weekend. We went to East Canyon and Brent paddled around the lake and the river. He especially liked the little rapids that he got to zip through.

Then while enjoying the rest of the weekend at the Homestead Resort, we drove to the top of Snake Creek Canyon and found this beautiful waterfall.

Needless to say it was a great weekend.

More Toys

Dad really loved Kayaking with Dani.... so much that he wanted his own.... here are pics of his maiden voyage with his new Coleman Kayak.

Then I got brave and decided to take a paddle on the little lake/pond in Uintah right next to the river. What a beautiful day!!