Call from the Mission Department

Thursday, December 10 was Kerry's birthday. We were just getting ready to run some errands when the phone rang. It was Sister Workman calling from the Mission Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She asked if we were still planning to serve a mission. Yes! Was my reply. She then asked "Could you leave tomorrow?" ummmm, yes! She was glad that we were willing and excited about serving. Of course, we didn't really need to leave "tomorrow" but it was her way and our way of saying we were ready. She told us that missions were beginning to open and that she needed our paperwork TODAY! We immediately phoned our Stake President (President Rawson) and asked him to re-submit our mission paperwork. It was submitted while I was still on the phone with him. 10 minutes later we recieved a text from Sister Workman that our paperwork had been received. Ten more minutes and I got another text from Sister Workman that our paperwork had passed threw two departments and was on her computer. She said "tell ELDER Denney happy birthday." We were on our way to receiving a mission call.

 I am going to begin using this family blog to record our mission experiences.  This is a trial to see if I remember how to use Blogger.  :) 

Day 6, June 1st.

Today was a great day on our vacation.  We started the day by sleeping in.  Ten soaked in the hottub for a while.   We went to two shows.  The first was the Pierce Arrow show.  It was funny.  It was a combination of rock, country, gospel, and comedy.  Then we ate dinner at Red Lobster and went to the Haygoods.  It is a family of  7 kids, 6 boys and one girl.  They were wonderful.  Nathan loved them, too.  They had pyro stuff, etc. It was a fun day.

Summer Vacation Day 5 - May 31, 2013

Today we slept in and had a lazy breakfast.  Kerry and I took a walk down to the lake.  It was steamy hot and lots of humidity!  Then we had lunch and went on our first drive into Branson.  First, we picked up all of our tickets and then we headed to the Showboat Branson Belle.  It was a dinner show that was fabulous!!

 The grounds were beautiful, too!

 This is the largest boat made for a land-locked lake.

 We were in the first row of this huge dinner theatre.

 Part of this show was a magician/comedian.  He was really funny and very talented.  We really had NO idea how he did most of his tricks.

 This is Janice Martin.  She graduated from Julliard School of Music and is an amazing violinist.  She also plays the piano and has a beautiful voice.  This show was called Made in America and was a combination of showtunes, tv tunes, gospel classics, and proud to be American stuff.  Nathan said "This can't be topped".  It was really, really wonderful even though this doesn't give it the credit it deserved.

I didn't post for day 4 because all we did was drive, drive drive in rain, rain, rain.  It was a long, stressful day but we made it safely to our resort and were happy to arrive :)

Summer Vacation Day 3 - Wednesday, May 29

Today was driving all the way across the state of South Dakota with one sight seeing trip through the Badlands.

We are staying the night in Omaha, Nebraska

Day 2 - Tuesday, May 28

Today we started out by going to Wal-mart to buy me some shoes.  I had forgotten that we were planning to hike and enjoy Jewel Cave and only brought tennis shoes.  Finally, off we went toward Jewel Cave.  This beautiful deer was right next to the road on our way to the cave.

 We saw beautiful sites and enjoyed a 1 hour 20 minute tour of the cave.  It was cold and interesting.

 Kerry and Nathan enjoying the cave.  Quote for the day from Nathan:  "I thought this vacation would be boring, but it has been really great so far!"  He enjoyed the cave.

 Today was also the day that mom had major surgery to remove part of her jaw so as soon as we were out of  the cave, we hit the highway to find service so I could check on the updates from Brian.  It looks like mom is doing better than expected.  They only had to remove a small part of her jaw, no coma, no tracheotomy, and we think she will be able to talk again!  Great news.

 Our next stop was Mount Rushmore.  We didn't stay long but we did enjoy seeing the sights.  We also learned that Thomas Jefferson wrote the first American recipe for ice cream.  Of course we had to buy some!

 Off to our hotel in Wall, South Dakota and seeing the "sights" in Wall Drug.

Well, it was overall a great day.  We are relaxing by 8:00 p.m. and ready for another busy day tomorrow.

Summer Vacation - May 2013

We hit the road around 8:00a.m. Monday, Memorial Day, May 27.  Our first destination was

Yellowstone National Park  

 We were able to enjoy the wildlife, although no bears.

 We also took a 3/4 mile hike to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  It was pretty cold and of course, I was ill prepared.  (Didn't realize that we were going to hike and of course didn't think about the temperature) :)

 This is called Lower Yellowstone Falls

Next, we took a little bit of a side trip to Byron, Wy.  This was a family history stop for Kerry.  

 This is taken in the Byron cemetery .  Kerry has several relatives including Grandpa Edward Denney's sister and his child.

 The Sidon Canal has family significance and Kerry wanted a photo of this sign that he could post on the internet when we get home.  There is one available, but it is not readable.

 We left Byron and drove to Lovell.  We had dinner at a local diner and then we took a drive over the mountain to Sheridan.  It was quite the drive!

We arrived at our hotel around 7:30 and enjoyed the pool and hot tub.  We had a great day.

Fun with Grandma & Grandpa

Hyrum and Amiee are with Bryken at the hospital, so Kyla and Tayven are having a fun day with us and a sleep over.  These are a few photos we took at the park.  Grandpa said that he wanted to show Kyla something he might never be able to do again because he is getting old, so I decided that I should record it for our posterity!  Haha

Bryken Elias Denney born April 28, 2012

Grandpa Kerry Denney, holding his 8th grandchild, Bryken.  

 We got a phone call at 12:57p.m. saying that the baby was on his way.  I got dressed, jumped in the car and drove very quickly to Hyrum and Amiee's house.  I got there around 1:05.   They left immediately for the hospital, after getting the car seats out of their car.  Bryken was born with no doctor, at 1:22 a.m.  He weighs 5lbs. 5 oz. He is 17" long.  He is very tiny and cute.  

 This is Tayven holding him for the first time.

 The new family of 5!!  Don't Hyrum and Amiee look GREAT for having been up all night??

 This is Kyla loving her baby brother for the first time.

 Amiee - mother of 3!

 This is me (grandma Brenda Denney) holding Bryken.  He is SO tiny!!  Just couldn't be more perfect.