Cornbelly's Halloween Outing

On Wednesday evening we met Brian and Jill and their family, Kristen Joel and Jenna, Kevin and RaShelle and their family and Kyle at Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. Here we are getting ready to go into the park. It was a beautiful evening, just perfect for an outing with the kids. Everyone loved the activities, especially the hayride and the corn maze in the shape of David Archuletta.

Sydney loved playing with this digger. Do you think she'll be in the construction business when she grows up?

Bekah pumped water with this old fashioned pump.

Ride 'em cowboy Cole! By the way, he managed to rope the "steer." Yee-haw!

These three little Princesses posed in their chariot. The two blondes are Ella and Bekah. That's Abby on the end.

Jenna LOVED the little ducks. She kept saying "duckie" and would splash the water to make them go down the trough. They she would gather them all up in her arms and carry them back. It was so cute! She is starting to warm up to Grandma and Grandpa.

We're not sure if Josh won the race, but he had lots of fun pedaling around the track.

Wow! How high can you go! Here's Kevin and Michael jumping on a huge balloon-like trampoline.

Brendon and his Dad played tetherball.

Here's Abbey in her little princess costume.

I have one more picture of Samantha, but I can't figure out how to get it in this spot. HELP ME!!

At Last We Added Something!

Okay, okay, we've been taking a lot of grief for not posting anything for a while, so here we go.... Hope you enjoy this.

Samantha's Grandparent's Day

We went to Samantha's preschool grandparent's day in September. The group performed for us and then we made a craft together.

Four Wheelers

Marcia Warner invited the members of our book club to go to her home in Glenwood for an overnighter. It was so much fun! The house is over a hundred years old, but has modern conveniences, like running water and bathrooms. We sat around and ate and visited until late at night and then got up early for a morning of four-wheeling in the mountains. I think we sould get a couple of these!

Emma's Baptism

Emma's baptism was very beautiful. Grandpa Tolley gave the talk on baptism and Mark's mother gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. Emma was so happy and we were very proud of her.

Celebrity Car

Jill rented this car for the week. We called it the mafia car because it was huge and black. We were very comfortable and felt like real celebrities.

Popeye's Chicken

The first thing Dad wanted to do was to go to Popeye's Chicken for lunch. We loved the extra spicy with a biscuit on the side. Yum.

Lynn's Progress Report

Report from Lynn in Papua New Guinnea:

The official launch date for the immunization campaign was April 1 but nothing really launched. Nineteen of the 20 provinces are still in the planning stages.

The National Department of Health (NDOH) conducted a meeting with health officials from the 20 provinces last Thursday and Friday (3rd and 4th). Provinces are like states in the U.S., each with a governor. The meeting was a follow-up from a September, '07 meeting wherein all provinces were encouraged and challenged to start their campaigns in the first quarter of '08. Only one of the provinces, an island province, started its campaign and it started in March. The other provinces were instructed to come to the meeting prepared to submit their campaign dates. The dates for the National Capitol District (NCD), the area in which the Church will be serving, are going to be June 2-July 4.

I met with Priesthood leaders from the mission and the two Port Moresby districts last week. Brother and Sister Ward from Public Affairs were also present. The stake presidency from the Port Moresby Stake was unable to attend so I met with them this week.

I have reviewed a proposed organization with President Funake, chairman of the PNG Welfare Council, and with Brother Stebbings. They are both in agreement with the organization. A Specialist/Coordinator is being called who will be working with the local health officials in coordinating the Church's role in the social mobilization effort. He will be the liaison between the Church and the health officials. He will also coordinate our activity and report to the Welfare Council.


The letter of introduction of the Church was finally sent from NDOH to health officials at NCD. We will be meeting with the NCD people early next week to discuss what their plans are for social mobilization and to discuss how we can help.

The jingle was translated into Pidgin and Motu. Six Primary children practiced singing it this past week. We went to a recording studio today and produced five versions of the jingle and messages to cover broadcasts for the entire country. We invited the chairman of the NDOH social mobilization committee to drop by the studio and meet the children. He did so and was very pleased with what had been produced so far. He is a former radio broadcaster (20 years) for NBC here in PNG. We will deliver the recordings to selected radio stations next week. I was soooooo proud of our Primary children and the members we used for voice over messages. I thought they did a great job as amateurs in a professional business--the recording business. They tried to teach me Pidgin and Motu but some people are a little dense and I'm on of them.

Things are still moving alog--slowly, but in the right direction

Fish and Chips at Manley Beach

You can't visit Australia without going to the beach and having fish and chips. It was a beautiful day and an unbelievable view.

Jill on the Sydney Harbor Bridge

A popular thing to do in Sydney is to climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Jill decided to do it. Here she is enjoying the view at sunset.

Koala Bear

Isn't she cute?

Ecidna

This is an Ecidna which is also called a spiny anteater. They have long noses to help reach down into termite hills for bugs. Their babies are called puggles.

Tasmanian Devil

This is a Tasmanian Devil. He kept running around and around, just like in the cartoons.

Baby Kangaroo

This mother kangaroo has her baby in her pouch. The baby is called a Joey. She let us get up close and feet her and pet her. She loves ice cream cones.

Mom and Jill at the Botanical Gardens

Here we are at the Botanical Gardens in Sydney looking across the harbor to the bridge and the Sydney opera house. For $165 you can walk up to the very top of the bridge. We decided not to do it. Instead, we spent a lovely day at the botanical gardens and then took a tour of the opera house. It was rainy for a while and then the sun came out. By the time we got home our feet were very tired. What a great day. Meanwhile, Dad is in Papua New Guinea working on getting the measles song translated and recorded this week. Things are going very slow there. He was scheduled to come back on Tuesday, but had to change his reservation and stay a few more weeks. Gotta get it done before he leaves.

Welcome to Sydney

Jill arrived on Sunday morning and it was two hours before she came out of customs and immigration. I was very glad to see her. She stayed awake for church (all three meetings) and right up until evening. The next day she was all adjusted to Australia time and we started having fun.

Aboriginal Friends

Here I am with my new Aboriginal buddies. Aren't they cute? The one on the right was playing the diggerie-do.

Dad's Report from PNG

Dad's report from PNG

I have attended planning meetings this week with the National Department of Health (NDOH) steering team for the immunization campaign and with the national social mobilization steering team. Both teams have made me feel very welcome and have shown good interest in what the Church can add to the campaign. The NDOH committee is made up of members from various departments in the NDOH along with representatives from the major organizations the Church is partners with in the measles initiative (the World Health Organization [WHO], UNICEF, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention [an organization headquartered in Atlanta Georgia that is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services]).

The social mobilization committee wants to adopt the musical jingle we played at the meeting in Sydney as the national theme song/jingle for the campaign. It will be played on radio stations throughout the country. We wrote a script for the voice-over message that is now going through the bureaucratic process for approval. It's only 4 lines long but you'd think it was an amendment to the constitution. As soon as I get the final approvals we'll go into production and get some Primary children to sing it in both English and Pidgin. I'm not sure if the words are going to fit the music in Pidgin but we'll give it a try. A member of the Church is working on the translation.

The biggest challenge in the campaign is going to be the National Capital District which includes Port Moresby. One of the main contributions the Church members can provide in the district will be to conduct Rapid Assessment Surveys in areas where immunizations have been given to make sure all applicable children have been vaccinated. We did the same thing in the Philippines campaign. It's an important part of the campaign here and the area we will probably focus on for Church involvement. I will be asking for permission for our members to wear the Helping Hands vests instead of ID badges we have usually provided for all volunteers, members and non-members, in other campaigns. We were allowed to use the vests in the Philippines. Campaign officials prefer to have Rapid Assessments done by "independent" people not connected with the NDOH so I think the vests would be appropriate.

Officials in NDOH are writing letters of introduction for the Church to the appropriate province and district officials. That should be done next week.

Things are still moving along a little slowly but they are moving in the right direction.

Meeting the Members in Papua New Guinnea

This is Dad with some members of the Church in Port Morsby. Check out the outfit the bishop is wearing. (He's the one on the left, holding the baby). Who do you think looks more comfortable--the Bishop or Dad?

Riding the Camels

One of the single sisters really wanted to go ride the camels at Nelson Bay, which is about a three-hour drive north of here, so off we went, early Friday morning. It took a little courage to get on the camel, but it wasn't as difficult as expected. They just knelt down, we hopped on and then they raised up. It was easy. The camels have really, really long legs. We went out across the sand dunes and then down to the beach and our leader, "Rod" took us out into the water a ways. It was really fun. One little boy in our group was about 8 years old and was scared spitless. He screamed his head off for about the first 10 minutes, but then he stopped, so we were all happy. My camel's name was Auzzie. She had a bolt imbedded in the top of her nose. You can see it if you look close at the picture.

Aunt Susan's Cookbook

Look what I found in Nelson Bay! We climbed the stairs to the lighthouse, watched the ships sailing in the bay and talked to the volunteer harbor safety crew. Then we looked around in a little gift shop and I found this book of recipes written by Susan Locke.

Notes from Australia

We spent last weekend exploring around with another couple and had lots of fun. Now we are busy at work. Lynn gave a presentation to the area folks yesterday and then flew to New Guinea this morning.

Snowy River Mountain Cave

We went to a beautiful cave in the Snowy River Mountains. Here we are walking down to the cave entrance

Herding Kangaroos

Sister Carey invited us over to her place to see her Kangaroos. Here she is herding the kangaroos over to meet us. They were a little shy.

Cornered Kangaroos

Does it hurt to pull their ears?

Please Don't Kiss Me

We told the grandkids we would get a picture of us kissing a kangaroo, but this one wouldn't cooperate.

True Bird Love

Sister Carey really loves those birds.

Australian Bird

We visited a lady who kept this funny looking bird in her house. It looked like a big head with legs.

Leaving it all behind

It's time to head for a warmer climate.

We hear it's 92 degrees in New Guinea today

We're Off Again

Our next assignment with the measles immunization campaign will be in Papua New Guinea. We will be leaving next Tuesday, March 4 and return on Tuesday, April 22.