Back at it...

So it's been a long time since anything has been posted to the blog. I'm not quite sure where to start with everything that has happened since Thanksgiving of last year. There is so much. So I guess to get everything caught up and back in order this might prove to be a long post.

We spent Christmas in Portland. That was such a treat. Kate was just home from her mission and it had been quite a while since the whole family had been together.

Alexandria posing before the chaos begins.

Elizabeth in the thick of it all

The three kiddies excited for St. Nick

So Christmas was great (aside from the crazy driving weather) and we all had a wonderful time hanging out with Grandma Brenda, Grandpa, Jed, Kate, Luke & Emily, and Gordon.

Betsy survived her first winter in Heber City. I think Alexandria bore the brunt of that burden. She got to be dressed up like Randy (from "A Christmas Story") every day for school.

Alexandria in her get-up and Elizabeth looking on

Living in the mountains has it's advantages (arguably)

Unfortunately we didn't get as much snow as I would have liked, but it was enough to keep things interesting for a few months.

Alexandria and Elizabeth tend to feed off of each other, so they can get pretty wound up. The best part is that they get laughing pretty hard. You know it's serious when Elizabeth starts pulling a certain face...

It's hilarious!

Abram is quite the lady's man. No really. He knows just when and how to turn on the charm and it's always for the ladies.

Get a load of this...who can resist
rice cereal and camouflage?

"I know something you don't know"

Alexandria finished up Kindergarten and loved every minute of it. That had a lot to do with her fantastic teacher, Mrs. Winterrose. She was reading, writing, and doing math at a 1st grade level!

We are sad to announce that Alexandria no longer wants us to call her "Lady". That's a tough habit to kick since we've been calling her that for nearly four years. She has respectfully requested that we now refer to her as her super hero persona "Fire Girl". Don't ask because I have no idea where it came from.

Lady...er...Fire Girl striking a pose

As Fire Girl has stated to us, this summer has been endless fun. In fact, I think we have played our kids to the point of total exhaustion. They got to ease into summer vacation for a couple of weeks and then we were off to Virginia to see Grandma and Grandpa Millburn.

We stopped off at Virginia Beach for some fun in the sun.

Betsy and Abram in their beach bum attire

Busch Gardens turned out to be more fun
than I expected (I was secretly pretty
nervous about this part, but was great fun)

Hanging out at the marina collecting sea shells
(at least 20 pounds worth)

We had quite a crew, everyone was there.

The miraculous part of the whole trip was that we all fit inside the mission home for three whole days. That's quite a feat considering there were around 40 of us. I was great to see the mission home and the mission office. We got to meet the office missionaries and see the missionary work in action. I think everyone got fired up to open our mouths more than we have been. Alexandria particularly caught the vision. She had a large stack of pass along cards and they went with her everywhere. She wasn't afraid to give a card to anyone. I thought she dealt with the rejections quite well...she bounced right back and went to someone else. At Ronald Reagan airport in D.C. she saw a woman in a wheelchair and walked over to her and handed her a pass along card. The woman took the card, told her thank you, and began to cry. Go Alexandria! We are definitely encouraging here missionary spirit.

We ended our trip with Jessica's wedding at the Washington D.C. temple. That was a great end to a wonderful trip. A big thanks to Mark and Maylene for bringing us all together. It was a great time with lots of fond memories.

The D.C. temple is quite a sight

The newlyweds, Jessica and Jeff

Jessica and the nieces

Well Mark and Maylene, 5 down,
2 to go.

James telling his sister Lizzy a secret we'd all like to hear

After our extravaganza back East, we had a family reunion with my parents and my dad's side of the family. It was a fun three days in the mountains. We hiked, sang around the campfire, played games, and ate lots of great food. It was fun to see Grandma Brenda and Grandpa again.

We took the kids to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. That was a great experience. They got to get all dressed up and walk through the entire temple. Alexandria particularly enjoyed the baptistry. It was a great teaching experience and the kids loved it.

The Oquirrh Mountain temple in South Jordan, UT
More information at www.mormon.org

For Pioneer Day, July 24, we celebrated our pioneer heritage by going on a family hike. I thought it would be fun to hike to Stuart Falls (Stuart Cascades officially, but nobody calls it that). I hadn't made that hike since before Betsy and I got married. I remembered it to be fairly easy and figured the kids would be alright. Well, it turns out that the hike is 4 miles round trip. The terrain isn't bad until the end when it gets a bit rocky and steep. The kids did great, with a little help (thanks Kate), and we survived. Round trip was less than 2 hours (we even stopped and admired the falls for a while). I realized that I must have some Sherpa blood in me because on the way back I carried Abram (in the Snugli), Elizabeth (on my shoulders), and the backpack full of water, snacks, diapers, the kitchen sink, etc. Needless to say, I got my workout in for the day.

We made it to the falls
(this is prior to my fate as the Werrett Family Sherpa)

That just about catches us up to the present. We do have one announcement though. We are moving to Omaha, Nebraska. The journey to dental school is about to move into full force. Before you send congratulations, there is one catch. I'm not accepted yet. We did, however, feel strongly prompted that we need to pack up and move to Nebraska. I can't imagine why else we would be going there other than for dental school (I'm on the waiting list at Creighton for those who don't know). For me this took some nudging from Betsy and from the Spirit. It meant that I had to uproot my family, walk away from my job, and move 900 miles away with knowing for sure that I was accepted. I am gratefull to Betsy for being such a support. We feel like this is the leap of faith before the blessing. Please keep us in your prayers.

I've decided that I will be more dilligent in updating the blog. I apologize for the rather long delay, but I hope to at least be able to post updates on Sunday afternoons/evenings. Thanks for checking in on us and our sometimes crazy adventures. Until next time...