Joseph Photo Dump

I talked with Joseph today. It's always nice to hear from our first born. He sent me some photos. This one was my favorite. 

A friend out there told him that he looks like Fix it Felix, and he really does!! Right up to the blue shirt and everything! He just needs to be holding a hammer there instead of a phone. Pretty funny! So, here's the photo dump from Joseph's camera roll. They went out to Gettysburg last Sunday.

They've been able to see some other things around the area, like this work of art in the city of brotherly love - 

Ben, Joseph, and Spencer below.

A friend from church named Moo who is awesome. Moo is a convert and only been a member for a few years. I wonder if Joseph and Moo are twins?

Lego Shake Shack Meal and Joseph's meal.

Joseph shared a collection of fun and interesting welcome mats. 

Well, I guess some of them were not "welcome" mats...

A few others said "Please remove your shoes. The Dog needs something to chew on" and "Hello from the other side", "Hit me baby one more time - the Door" and "Please knock so we have time to clean up." He also had a pic of a van license plate that said "TWU WUV", ha! Fun stuff. So Joseph is going to Guatemala, cause hey, we should all just go to Guatemala! Actually Joseph's trip isn't a last minute idea like Corey's. Joseph has been planning this for months. So he's going to fly down there this week and be there for 2 weeks, then fly back to Philly on Aug 23rd and then he and Hyrum are gonna start their trek home on Tuesday Aug 24th. On their way out at the end of April, they visited missionaries. This time on their way home, they are going to make it a little church history tour, starting with a short 2.5 hour drive to the Priesthood Restoration Baptismal Site. (Short compared to the full length of the journey they need to take.) I've never been there. Next, another 2.5 hours to Palmyra and Sacred Grove. I'm happy that we've been there. I'm not sure of their sleeping/camping stops, but after Palmyra they'll go to see the Kirtland Temple, then a 9.5 hour drive to Nauvoo, next 5 hours to Winter Quarters, and the last day, they'll book it home in 13 hours and hopefully arrive on Friday the 27th at night. 

Oh another fun thing - some of our used-to-be-down-the-street neighbors, the Hardings, were called as mission presidents and just happened to be assigned to Philadelphia, so Joseph, Hyrum, Talmage and his wife, our neighbor Zeb, and other friends all went over there for dinner a few weeks ago. Now that the Hardings are in the swing of things they can entertain non-mission guests.

The pest control gang went over again today because the Harding's son Nelson, who also went to Skyline like our kids, just finished his mission and is home now, so that is really fun that they were able to go see him. It was a nice and lovely Sunday for us here in Utah today too. The kids jumping on the trampoline.

A good thing from tonight was that we actually got our our Book of Mormon books and each read from them, instead of just reading the scripture verses on the tv screen. I like books in my hands better, although the screen is more convenient with the kids. It's all good. An update on the other older not at home right now kids in our family - Wes is doing well in Guatemala with Corey. We'll hear from Ethan tomorrow. Melodie's new day to call ("preparation day" = "p=day") is on Wednesday, so we're looking forward to hearing from her and how her first week in Brazil has gone. I attended a temple Prep class online with Hyrum today at 1. He will be going to the temple on September 2nd. Here is when Joseph went to the temple, and when Mel and Ethan went. I am happy that the temples are opening up! It was nice to go there on Friday. I feel like I still hardly know anything about it, so I've been glad to take the temple prep classes with Hyrum. We've been doing that every week for the past few weeks. Also I was listening to the Follow Him podcast for next week covering Doctrine and Covenants section 88 and WOW! Part 2 of that episode was really great in helping me understand more. A one sentence summary of the temple endowment (49:46): "It's the power and capacity to come into the presence of God and receive a fullness of His blessings." Joseph and Hyrum at the Philadelphia Temple for baptisms in May.

And Joseph (with Ben and Spencer?) It's a little blurry, the guy on the right also looks like it could be Talmage.

It's nice to get photo updates with these older kids. The happenings of their lives don't always make it onto the blog here. I told Joseph he needs to start his own blog, and added a "Your children will thank you" plug, but he didn't seem interested. Maybe facebook photos and Instagram pics are enough for kids nowadays. I'm ok with that as long as you write more than one sentence. Give it a paragraph or two, words are important. Ok, well that's all from me. Life is good.