Peter is 3!

Yesterday Wes was sick with a fever and majorly out for the count - he was weak and sleeping all day. "I want to go downstairs and play hockey, but I'm too weak..." He has a net set up down there to practice shooting. I took him in for a covid test. The kids came home, practiced, and since no once had school today, we headed up to PC to clean up and pack up and have one more sleepover. One last lazy day of vacationing. Kids watching cartoons this morning- 

Peter watched some entertainment in our room. A little boy in a big bed. Today is Peter's birthday!! He is 3 years old. We will celebrate once we get home. 

Wes didn't come up last night cause when he was able to finally eat in the evening and had some strength, he needed to get some school work done. We headed up and I was excited to let Corey know that I got THE best parking spot EVER. 

We've gotten good parking spots this week, which is always a fun cherry on top. It's time to pack up and head home. Corey and I got the ski stuff from the valet and loaded it all into the cars. Checkout was at 10. 

I headed home with the kids and Corey stayed up there and worked. At home, around noon, I got a pretty strong headache and was sure that I had covid, as headaches are a symptom of the Omnicron variant. I didn't go get tested though - I've got what Wes had Thursday, so we'll wait for his result. I was in bed for 8 hours today! 

Abi played "mom" for me. Peter's church teachers brought him by a gift - some fruit snacks and a Noah's Ark book. 

Then he took a nap in bed with me.

Abi made dinner - Chicken rice and teriyaki veggies. Thanks for holding down the for, Abbers.

The kids ate all their dinner cause they wanted some birthday cake. Abi made that too (brownies). Peter was still asleep, but I had strength to come down for some dinner and then I went and got him. He was not happy.

"Mom needs a picture, so let's all sing to the Birthday Boy!"

Then the kids cut up cake and Peter and I went to lay down again. He was feeling better later after Corey got home, and Corey brought by the presents from his parents. The boys were glad to help him open the gifts. Lots of cars and a hot wheels track!

He also got a blanket and cute dragon slippers.

And then they made a mess in my room. S'allright.

So that was today and that was our fun week at Park City. One other item of interest, Corey got a long text out the blue yesterday from Father David, our friend who is a Catholic priest, and after thanking Corey for the gifts he got for all of them for Christmas, he just went off with a lot of charges against our faith, like that it has satanic roots and that Joseph Smith was into the occult and is an adulterer. He sent some anti-mormon videos too. Corey's invited him to come visit places, like taking a tour of the Missionary Training Center and Temple Square, and we've shared things about our faith, but he's never shared his thoughts about it... until now! So this is interesting! I didn't see what Father D wrote but Corey sent me his response:

Father David,

So, I just finished reading the text – thank you so much for letting me know how you feel! I haven’t watched the videos yet, but yea, I’m familiar with the genre. I will sit down and watch when I am not quite so busy – probably on the weekend if I can force myself to wait until then! Thank you again for letting me know how you feel. I’ve often wondered what you thought about the church, so I am appreciative to get an unvarnished view. I’m not offended by anything you’ve said (though I may be by the videos ; ) ) and I appreciate your letting me know how you feel.

Since I take your opinion seriously and value our relationship (and thanks for the kind words about my family), I’ve gone through the text message and pulled out 28 separate assertions made so I can keep track of them. Below are the ones I agree with either completely or partially – the number is the row in my Excel file.

3 The LDS position on the creation is somewhat like the non-believing/scientific world’s position - which denies the Creator

7 The LDS church has a clear and unambiguous connection with Freemasonry

11 Joseph Smith was a polygamous and one of his wives (Helen Mar Kimball) was very young (14 when she got married to him)

12 There are some similarities between Joseph Smith and Muhammad

16 Mormons use the same or similar words as Christians, but those words mean very different things according to Christianity

26 Common sense contradicts "edicts" of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young on polygamy

27 The just feelings of women contradict "edicts" of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young on polygamy

Polygamy is a complicated (and understandably controversial topic) – so I’d like to defer that topic other than to say 1) many of Joseph Smith’s marriages were not consummated (as was probably the case with 14 year old Helen Mar Kimball) and there was no posterity except for from his first wife Emma 2) if polygamy automatically disqualifies Joseph Smith from being a prophet, then traditional Christians have some explaining to do regarding Abraham and others.

I accept your challenge (#10) to be “completely committed to the truth to sacrifice … for the Kingdom of God and the true and spiritual goods of Christianity”, so let’s discuss sometime soon!

My wife and I love Christ – and we have no problems with how he is portrayed in The Chosen – a medium we both are familiar with. We seek to follow Him, and I know you do too. Whether our commitment to following the Savior qualifies us as Christians to others or not, I’m sure that we can advance the discussion as we seek to follow Him. I am happy to meet with Chris again, but he didn’t seem to know that much about our church – am I wrong? Whatever you see fit for the next step is fine with me, but I like to go slow and address one concern at a time. There are ways to test some of the assertions made we could explore together.

In other news, we’ve recently let our extended family know that Tiffanie is expecting again with a little girl due near the end of May! I admit I’m a little overwhelmed with the continued work this will entail but we have reason to believe God has another soul to send our way and hope to measure up.

So! Should be a fun discussion! I was amazed, once again, how Corey is able to take all this stuff and break it down and itemitize it. Maybe I'll share things here or on my church-stuff blog if this conversation goes on for a while.