The Ogden 6: New Years Day

On New Year's Eve we all attended Kelly's funeral. It was a wonderful spiritual experience. Their family is in the same ward as Elder Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, so he spoke, and President Eyring of the First President spoke, also. That was really uplifting, but the most powerful part, I thought, were the testimonies given by Kelly and Kim's children and by Kim. The kids talked about different things their dad taught them that we should be doing to live up to his and our Heavenly Father's expectations. Kim bore her testimony to her kids that they are never alone and that our Heavenly Father will always be with him. Michelle and Kim talked about how much Kelly wanted to serve a mission and that they knew that he was happy and doing what he wanted to do. Both Steve and Kim talked about the comforting, warm feeling that had been with them since the moment of the accident. The family was amazingly strong and composed, and I think everyone who attended the funeral came away with a determination to live a better life.

Since everyone was here, we decided to get together the next day for New Years Day lunch at Mommer's and Grandpa's. It's been a while since the whole family has spent so much time together. It's been fun to spend time with the Texas cousins, particularly. Matt has had fun getting reacquainted with the twins.

Matt and Zach L.

Samuel H. and Abby L. playing with Eric and Robby S.

We hadn't seen Seth for a long time so it was good to reunite with him, too. Here is Seth, Steve L. and the back of Lauren L.

John and Steve S. talking shop. Steve is planning on applying to medical school in a year. He looks more like his dad every time I see him.

Kim holding her grandson, Rowe, and talking to her son-in-law, Judson, while Grandpa enjoys some of his yummy ribs and Rob and Jeanene clean up.

Here is Matt S. holding a weather balloon. He has a fun hobby with his friend where they send weather balloons up into the air with a GPS device and a camera. They get awesome pictures of the earth from thousands of feet up and then when the balloon bursts they track the GPS and recover the camera. To see some of the awesome pictures he's taken and learn more about it go to www.lorenzoswank.com. It's pretty amazing. Since he didn't want to spend the day tracking, though, he just launched the balloon for fun for the kids to see. They drew pictures and put their addresses on them and attached them to the tail of the balloon.