(Future) Principal Thompson!

Hi all!

Here is the quick Thompson update.  Rich is attending Idaho State University studying accounting and will be done in 2 years. Kaley (14) started high school – eeeeeekkkkkkk.  She is dreaming of driving soon and loves going to the church dances.  Rachel (days from 12) is counting down the minutes until her first time in young women’s.  Katon (8) loves 3^rd grade and especially the Wii.  I am teaching; it’s my second year and I still love it.  I had a temporary lap of sanity and took advantage of a wonderful opportunity to start on my masters.  What was I thinking?  I am going through a program from Utah State University and will get my masters in Education Administration and will be done in a year.  Yep that’s right I could be Principal Thompson someday. That pretty much sums it up.  Hope you are all well--take care!

Hunsakers are doing swimmingly (literally)!

In September we celebrated our 50th anniversary.  We had been together as a family at Island Park, ID, in July for several days in a lodge there;  we thought that was our celebration.  However, the children got together and sponsored a celebration for our friends on our actual day, September 1st. 

In January we became great-grandparents and it's been fun to watch our older daughter revel in the joy of being a grandparent.  She's also been a super missionary mother as she's kept the packages and the love flying from here to Chili and to San Diego.  Their second daughter returns next week from a very rewarding mission at the San Diego Mormon Battalion Center.

We just returned from spending a week in Hawaii with three of our sons (Paul and Devin are two of them) and their families.  Sixteen of us enjoyed a dream vacation with perfect weather, good health and safety.  We had reservations at the Navy Lodge last Wednesday, just a couple of miles from the ceremonies honoring the 70th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. [Note from Shannon: this is the swimmingly part!]

Life is good, and we treasure the memories we share with each of you.  Best wishes to all of us in 2012.


(Photo: Paul and Angela are on the left with their two children;  Devin and Leanna are next with their four;  Derek and Jennifer next with their two boys.  Derek was on a mission in Mexico while we were in London.)

Belated Greetings from Lori!

Sorry I have not yet sent an update. Fortunately, no address change for me - which meant that today I was able to see the lovely photos of the Tammy Woods family (May I say, stunning, Tammy?).

I am still in Boise, ID and continue to work as a Social Worker at the Cancer Care Center at Saint Alphonsus. I am teaching a Social Welfare class at Boise State University this semester as an Adjunct faculty member. This is a first for me and is exciting & scary (94 students, wow - and how about that Bronco football team!)

I have a relatively new & wonderful love in my life - I met Sharene Gossen on my first blind date ever, back in November 2009 after living about a year as a single girl after Dana and I split up. Sharene is wonderful - and I am hopeful & confident this is the relationship that will last. She is a Physician's Assistant working in Endocrinology. She and her lovely dog have moved into my house - so we are a 2 person/2 dog family these days. We just spent a few weeks in Sharene's home state of Minnesota (Brrr!) on the farm where she grew up. I bravely tasted squirrel (yes, squirrel - cooked in a crockpot) - and also ventured into the pig barn for a very smelly tour.

2010 was a great year that included 2 trips to UT (One to Bryce & Zion, another to Lake Powell & Capitol Reef), and good times with friends and family.

Special thanks to Shannon for keeping everyone in touch and for organizing the annual updates. It's pretty remarkable, really - we were all at 27 Palace Court many moons ago - and I'm impressed by how well everyone has stayed in touch. It has been fun to read the updates on the blog. My how time flies, lives change, and families expand!

Much love to everyone!!

Enjoy the Blog!

Feel free to make comments. If you're not currently on the blog (but want to be), e-mail me your blurb and photo, and I'll put it on the site asap.  --Shannon

Howard Family: Did Ya Hear About the Ash Cloud?

Once upon a time, Travis and I were enjoying a romantic, luxurious, culturally stimulating river cruise along the Rhine (Note: I highly recommend this trip. Use Uniworld or Avalon!) . . . And then the Icelandic volcano, lovingly known as Eyjafjallajökull, erupted and spewed dangerous ash all over Europe--which stranded us in Switzerland for six days, post-cruise.

Now, before you role your eyes in lack of sympathy for any person stranded anywhere in Europe, please know that during this crisis, we had NO IDEA how long planes would be grounded or when we could secure a flight reservation (since we were fighting against 1,000s of other stranded passengers in a very unorganized first-come-first-serve transportation process) to return to our darling and distressed sons.

To make a long and stressful story bearable, I will summarize and say that we DID indeed get home, and in that fateful interim, we also got to spend two unexpected days in London (where Travis was pick pocketed on the tube, but that's another story entirely), and it was sunny and warm (our consolation for being marooned--or for being robbed?) Still, I love London and was really happy we had trip insurance to cover the expensive London hotel and the even more expensive Swiss spaghetti!

Another adventure (though more certain and probably less exciting) was our move to Gilbert, AZ, in June. We are in a very family-friendly town with cornfields next to Targets (so charming!), great schools, and a temple under construction. Our boys (Spencer, 15--with a driver's permit; Nathan, 13; Nicholas, almost 10;  Joshua, 5) have adjusted well. Travis is pretty busy working between 3 hospitals. I am doing some editing work from home. Spencer is becoming quite talented at the guitar. Nathan loves fencing! Nicholas just aced the gifted placement math exam. Joshua is almost literate and just lost his first tooth.

Gilbert Family: How Do They Do It All?

The Gilberts are happy to be celebrating the 2nd Christmas in our Bountiful home.  We love our life in Utah but still have heartache for all the friends we moved away from in Rexburg and Boston.  We love this time of year to reconnect again with so many dear friends.

We live in a busy household!  I'm not sure what is more consuming, our seven children or a husband running two companies.  Clark was asked to step on board the Deseret News earlier this year to get it running more efficiently.  This would have been a big job in and of itself but he was asked to do this while at the same time continuing to run the church's media company, Deseret Digital Media (over deseretbook.com, KSL.com, and deseretnews.com).  I'm glad it's him and not me because I'm not sure how he responds to so many emails & employees while keeping up with a changing newspaper every minute of the day.

When I think of all of this, I am happy to be the one who is chasing after our seven very active and energetic children (James-14, Paige-10, John-8, Emma-5, Mary-3, Grace-3 and Lucy-2).  It is always a new challenge as our kids go through new stages. Sometimes I feel a little bit split with a couple of children still in diapers but also a teenager and everything in between.  Beyond work and family, we keep busy with skiing in the winter, football in the fall, swimming in the summer, and as much travel as we can sneak in here and there.  We are planning a trip with our oldest children to London this summer and really looking forward to showing them the great city I fell in love with almost 20 years ago (can it really be that long??).

I love when I run into our Study abroad friends here and there.  Just tonight, Rachel Pike's adorable daughter Savannah got a run for her money as she babysat our little girls while we went to a show with Kristen Lee and her darling family. I felt like I was re-living study abroad all over again!  I love hearing about all of you and once in a while getting to be together.  Hope this holiday season finds you all happy!!

Woods Family: "Would Somebody Hold This Baby While I Type?"

I can’t be witty or fun in this update due to baby #5 hanging from my arm 21 hours a day, every day.  That’s right.  Baby #5 born September 7 of this year, the first day of school.  A fourth girl! (My poor son Leo!)  While she is fabulous and delicious, she is not a sleeper and is currently aging me every minute of those 21 hours.  I’ve decided this is what they do to torture POWs in wars—send newborn babies to wake up the prisoners every 2 hours for months to make said prisoners feel guilty for momentarily resenting the adorable babes who woke them because they are so freakin’ cute and helpless.  I love her.  Her name is Spring Beverly (Beverly is my mother’s name). 

Other than that, I have 4 children in 4 different schools (pre-school, elementary, middle, and high school) and it’s currently kicking my touschey.  I sold my card business, and when I have time, I write.  Or shower.

I love seeing Justin Bentley around these parts but we could use some more company so come on down to the beach!

(P.S. look how well Taylor is aging.  Nary a wrinkle and his weight hasn’t fluctuated.  What?  Not fair.)