A Baptism in the Philippines

Cameron was able to perform his first baptism in the Philippines a couple of weeks ago. His mission president recently changed the rules that only members could perform the baptisms to now missionaries can do baptism's. So here is Elder Leavitt and his recent convert. We always love to see pictures of Elder Leavitt, and we are always surprised by how much taller he is than everyone else.
What a beautiful family. In order to be baptized this couple first had to get married. I guess this is a big problem in this country, and the missionaries worked hard to make the marriage happen. Who knew that it would be so hard to find someone to marry this couple. The missionaries had the town mayor perform the marriage it took several weeks of hard work, but they made it happen.

Elder Leavitt in his baptismal clothes. Another little problem is that the ward did not have any clothes long enough for a six foot person, so after cleaning out the font the missionaries had to track down baptismal clothes that would fit this TALL missionary. He was so glad they found some that fit, thank goodness there was another american missionary close by.

And this is the result of all the hard work of the missionaries. This beautiful family now has the gospel in their lives and can someday be sealed together for eternity!

This is who the missionaries are teaching now. This gas station attendant. They found out that the other attendant is an inactive member, so they kinda got a 2 for 1 deal. We love our missionaries and all the hard work they do so that others can have the blessings of the gospel.

Hangin out with the FAM in St. George

After my TRI everyone wanted to go out to breakfast. So we decided to head over to the "Bear Paw". There were about 16 in our group with all the kiddies, so we had to wait for a while for our table to be ready. While we were waiting, I took a walk with my niece's son Luke. The town square was across the street from the restruant, so we wandered around for awhile looking at all the interesting sites. Luke really liked this statue on the bench, he wanted to site by "Papa". What a cutie, I wish I lived closer so I could hang out with these cute kids.

This is Kandace and Ashely, waiting patiently for our table. Ashley had a touch of the flu, but wanted to hang out with us, so she toughed it out. What a sweetheart. Steve had his motorcycle in St. George and had his "Duo" rag on. Luke wanted to try on the "Duo" rag. I think he almost has the signal that the bikers give each other down. He would make a great biker someday! After breakfast we all headed out to Grandpa Leavitt's house in Diamond Valley to do some 4-wheeling. So this next picture is Elynn saying to Kandace "Kanzest you got holes in your pants". Elynn was quite worried for Kandace having holey pants. We did go shopping, but we didn't find any new pants for Kandace, maybe next time. So the day was perfect for a ride in the mountains. We took off from Grandpa's house and headed straight for our favorite spot in the hills. My cousin Sandy and her husband Jeff had a 4-wheeler too and we really enjoyed our afternoon of riding around.

Sandy and Jeff enjoying the beauty of the mountains.

Steve and me. I forgot I had my hat flipped backwards, it almost flew off my head. Steve had me do all the driving so he could stretch out his bad knee. so we both look like biker here.

Steve and Jeff. They learned while we were doing our TRI that they will both be having knee replacement within a few weeks of each other, They really were having some great chats the whole trip. Here is Sandy and me in our beautiful "Secret Spot". Sandy and Jeff enjoying the sunny day. Little did we know that why we were enjoying the sunshine Salt Lake was being hammered by a snow storm. Glad we missed it!

See how blue the sky was, we just kept going. We did finally have to turn around to head back in order for the guys to get ready to go to the preisthood session and the girls were having a "Girls Night Out" Austin arranged for a babysitter so we could all go to dinner and shopping.

This is where we ate dinner, "25 Main". It was delicous food, the price was great and the best part was there was a little Jazz band playing for us live, what a treat. After dinner we went out shopping and then because we had done a "Sugar Fast" for 3 weeks, we went to Cold Stone for Ice Cream. We really had such a wonderful time with our family, we only wish it could have lasted longer. We will have to plan another family outting soon. but at least we will have all the Leavitt's for Thanksgiving this year, so we can spend more quality time together and they can all do the "Human Race" with us on Thanksgiving Morning!!

My First TRI-SHAC Tri 2011

Once again I was challenged to a race, and you know me, I have to take on a good challenge. So in January I signed up for my first ever TRI. For my birthday in January Steve got me 10-weeks of TRI training, so I went faithfully to my TRI class every Saturday. And faster than I knew it the BIG day arrived. So here are the crazy pictures from the exciting event. I know, this is a terrible picture, but Kandace was so proud of her "INK" job that she got to do to me and my cousin to put our race numbers on our right arm and left leg. Sandy and me showing off our new "INK" arms. We set out all our race gear the night before because we had to be up and ready by 6:15 AM to head out to the race. I didn't get much sleep, I was pretty nervous, and had just couldn't sleep. Last night I slept like a baby!

We "Staged" our bikes and gear for a quick transition area then we found someone to take our pictures. Austin wasn't there yet, so we didn't get a picture before with her. All three of us got to swim at the same time, sorry I don't have any swimming pictures, my support team missed the swimmimg portion which was okay with me, my swimming is my weakest event. After the swim we ran out to our area, I slapped on my biking/running gear and we were off to the races!

Although I never actually saw Austin on the bike, Kandace did snap some great pictures of her biking. She did great on the bike portion.

Here I am on the biking, not a fancy fast bike, but hey it worked for me. Although there were plenty of hills on the bike portion, I didn't really have to hard of a time. Guess it pays to go to TRI training classes.

Sandy on the bike portion. We started out together, but I passed her and we waved everytime we saw each other.

Next was the running. I started out a little wobbly. It was weird to hop off a bike and start running. Even though I had spent months practicing I had never actually gone directly into running from biking, it was a weird start, but after a few minutes I was fine. The weather was perfect and I felt pretty good.

Kandace caught Sandy on her run too.

And this is Austin, finishing the run as we were starting the run. She finished way before me! She did soo good!

I promised my sister Linda I would run the last mile for her, so the last mile I kicked it up a little so she could have a good run. I told Cameron I would finish HARD for him, so once I saw the finish line I sprinted to the finish line for him.

I did it! I could hardly believe it was over and I was feeling so good. This is me waiting for Sandy to come in. I had everyone cheering me in at the finish, Thanks Austin, Cody, Ashley, Jon, Debbie Steve, Kandace, Jeff and all the kiddies! It really helped me to finish HARD!

Here are Sandy and me at the finish line. Everyone else had left so we didn't get a picture with Austin. We went and checked our offical time of the race, I finished in 1 hour 44 minutes and Sandy finished 1 hour 55 minutes. We were 6th and 7th for our age division. Not bad for a couple of 29ish year old cousins . After the race we ate, changed and took off on the 4-wheelers for the afternoon. I will try and get all those great pictures posted for next week. Thanks to my wonderful family and friends for your great support that carried me through this crazy adventure. Sandy and I already have our next crazy adventure signed up for, in August we will do the "Great Urban Race"! We are looking forward to another challenge!

Spring BREAK!!! AKA the BEST 24 Hours!

First of all, I am a slacker for not blogging for a few weeks. I know that life gets busy, but at least I am finally back at the computer. So a week ago, Courtney's cute room mate that we call "Life Size Bridget" called to say that she was on "Spring Break" and wanted to come to stay with us for a few days. So we planned a day to spend together and had such a wonderful time. Cute Bridget showed up at my door at 8 AM Thursday morning, just as I was putting on my weeding shoes to go out and weed for a minute. She offered to help me weed and plant some blubs that I didn't get in last fall. We worked in the dirt for about an hour. Then we decided to take a bike ride. Since I have been training for my first TRI for the last 3-months, I try to go on a 10-12 mile bike ride on my day off. My great friend Margaret let me borrow a bike, and off we went on our bike ride. We had a great time and got some serious exercise. I can't wait for it to get warmer so we can get some more rides in. When we got back from our bike ride, we did the Jillian "30-day Shred", another thing I have done everyday for the last couple of months. Yes, after these activities we were stinky and tired. So we both hopped in the shower, had lunch and headed out shopping to get a couple of more goodies to send a package to Sister Leavitt for Easter. ( Don't worry Elder Leavitt, I have your back too!)

Our goal for the day was to have Courtney's package in the mail before the post office closed. We DID IT!!! Everything we got actually fit in the package. That was a miracle too! So reaching our goal of getting Court's package off, which was just .03 oz shy of the 4 lb limit, we were able to come home and PLAY!!!!

We had to make TACO's for dinner, in Courtney's honor. They were sooooo GOOD!

Here's Bridget and Tasha showing off their taco's...YUM....YUM! After dinner we sat down to watch a chick flick, when Bridget suddenly had this crazy notion that we should make cookies. So we stopped the movie and made cookie dough, watched for a few more minutes. stopped again to bake the cookies.....and.......

Bridget making "Andes Mint" cookies.

On the cookie baking break we also had Tasha put on a "Brother McDonald" piano concert. Yes, I was totally spoiled by Courtney's great friends. As I sat and listened to Tasha play I was kinda sad for a minute, because we were doing everything that Courtney would be doing.....but it was nice to know that her wonderful friends take care of us.

Tasha playing the piano and Bridget, the professional "Page Turner"! The concert went for about an hour...a whole hour of Heaven on Earth! It was so relaxing.

Kandace and Bridget.....what cuties!

Mamm K and Bridget, I LOVE this girl! We did finally finish watching our Chick Flick, but after that I had to head to bed, to be able to get up for work a 3:30 AM. We had the BEST 24- hours together. Bridget had to leave early the next morning, as she was heading back to Cedar City. I loved spending "Spring Break" with Bridget! In fact, I have signed us up for the "Great Urban RACE" in August, just so she will come and spend time with us again. Of course, she will be stopping in on Mother's Day....Right Bridget? Thanks for the fun day.

Just for kicks....more pictures from Elder Leavitt

Elder Leavitt sent these pictures home last week. There are some fun ones. It made me think of when my brother David went on his mission to Argentina, we would only hear from him about once a month and maybe every six months get a picture or two. I think we are soo lucky to be able to hear from Cameron every week, and get so many pictures of what he us doing every couple of weeks. Enjoy the pictures, and Elder Leavitt...keep them coming for us to enjoy! I guess this is the entrance to the cave they went to.
Elder Leavitt on a cool bridge by the cave.

At the cave....you can totally tell his mother did not dress him. Where are his hiking shoes????

Okay....a face that makes Mom SMILE! I Love this picture!

I guess he had to do some push-ups to get ready for his next picture.....

Wow....such BIG Muscles! He sure is getting stronger, he didn't use to hold up boulders with a single hand!

I am sure that he is selling the GOSPEL! I tried the number...but no one answered. They must be soo busy with this new sign, the calls are rolling in!

A handsome group of young men. Not sure if this is his branch or what.

Elder Leavitt having fun with the kids again. I looked at the old tire for a while and thought that this little boy probably spends hours having great enjoyment with it, I loved that thought!

Elder Leavitt said this is a road they walk down everyday. Such a beautiful sight!

And this last one is Elder Leavitt crashing on his bed after a long day. He is so blessed to have a bed. We know he is working hard, and also having a little fun. We are so lucky to have such great kids. Hopefully Courtney will be able to send some pictures home soon. I do post her email weekly on her blog, check it out if you haven't read her emails! Have a great week everyone! :)

Double the Leavitt's, Double the FUN!

This weekend we had a special treat...Austin and Cody with their four beautiful girls came to stay for a couple of days. Cody's Grandpa Okuda had his retirement party on Friday, so they came Friday night and left on Sunday morning. We all had a great time and it was so nice to just have some noise in the house again. I talked Austin into going to my TRI training class on Saturday morning. I had asked Kandace that if the girls woke up to make "Mickey Mouse" wafffels for the girls, something that Courtney normally does for us. When we walked in from our workout, we could smell WAFFLES!
So I have to tell the funniest story. Everyone is eating waffles and visiting. And I hear "Ouch, Ouch, Ouch, Ouch....." I look over and Elynn is cutting up her Mickey Mouse waffle and everytime she cuts his ears, eyes, nose, she is saying "OUCH". Yes, we all started laughing. I so miss little kids around the house. They always make you laugh!

After Kandace had finished making the kids waffles, she stole Macee. Macee is the best baby ever. She loves everyone and is so easy going. It was just so awesome to have these girls around. Saturday durung the day, Austin and Cody and the girls went to Coalsville to visit Cody's 91 year old Grandma. His parents and siblings all met there to. There was alot of snow up north and the girls had a blast playing in the snow. (Austin, get your pictures posted on your blog!) We planned for a dinner together after they were done. We had Casey and Tineke and Grandma and Grandpa Haupt come too for dinner.

While we were waiting for Austin and Cody to arrive, Steve and Casey showed Grandpa how to go online and watch movies on Netflex. they made him do everything on his own. Now Grandpa is ready to cut loose, and watch movies.

When the girls arrived, they were all wet and cold from playing in the snow. I suggested putting them all in the tub before we ate so they could get warm. So I ran the jacuzzi and they were so happy to have bubbles and warm!

Kennedy even put on goggles to swim under water.

They had way too much fun blowing bubbles. Cute Leah had a wash cloth and cleaned up their mess as they made it. She is a good helper.

Kandace and Austin had fun snapping shots of everyone all night. Here I am smiling for Kandace.

And Kandace and Austin took pictures of each other taking pictures. We just had a nice night at home and hanging out. I made pulled pork. Cameron's recipe. I was nervoust to make it, since Cameron is a PRO, and I had alot to live up to. All in all, everything was yummy. We are enjoying the leftovers today! Nice!

I did get to take a few pictures, here is Kandace and cute Macee.

Grandma Haupt and Macee. Macee loved snuggling with Grandma.

After dinner the girls made us cookies. I had promised Courtney that we would make cookies with the girls. She always does this with them when they come. So we did our best to keep that tradition going. Steve actually took over the cooking with the girls. Elynn was the first to dive in, she knew that she was going to make cookies, and all through dinner asked if it was time to make cookies yet?

Elynn is ready to go...she washed her hands and put on her apron before making cookies!

All three girls going to town rolling cookie dough balls. After the first batch went in the oven Steve showed them his favorite thing to do with cookie dough....eat it. Elynn loved that idea! You should have seen her cheek full of cookie dough.

We are soo glad that Austin Cody and their cute girls came to entertain us and have fun for the weekend. We hope they come back again soon!!!