Happy Thanksgiving

We've had a great week. It was our best Hill-Mulford Thanksgiving ever. We had Tammy's family here and she had everything planned perfectly (of course). It was fun for everyone! Those who came include Grandma and Grandpa Snell, Grandma and Grandpa Hill, Deb and Blair and family, Matt and Camille and family, Bev and her family (Ryan stayed home with Davis), Chris and Shauna and family, Steph and Reed and family. Altogether we had about 45 people. The menu included turkey, stuffing, potatoes, yams, green bean casarole, Dixie salad, and Kneaders rolls. Amanda worked on Thanksgiving Eve at Kneaders and about 50 people didn't show up to pick up their pre-paid pies. The management gave them out to the employees so we ended up with 3 Kneaders pies to go with the 5 or 6 others. We had our Church reserved from 11 to 2 and played BB, fat Albert, prison, and flag football. Before eating we sang Thanksgiving hymns and Grandpa Snell read from the scriptures.

We sang enthusiastically while Chris played the piano.

Everyone had name plates made with cookie dough, that was fun. We had five tables set up on the main room, and we even ate in the dining room. Each table went one-by-one for food without a lot of chaos. The meal was the delicious. I sat by Mom and my parents. What joy! The couples played the newlywed game and the single teenagers were the judges. We laughed a lot. Then we ate the pies.

Even Maddy and Jacque ate their fill. A day always to remember.

Happy Birthday, Jeffrey, Ben, Hannah, Heidi

This has been a big few days for birthdays. Ben and Jeff's birthdays are on November 20 and Hannah and Heidi's birthdays are on November 21. The only one we got to see in person was Ben. He and Emily came over for his birthday dinner of chicken alfredo, spinach artichoke dip on baguettes, salad, squash, and peanut butter brownies with Reese's Pieces ice cream for dessert. We are so blessed Tammy is such a great cook. We are grateful that so many wonderful people were born this week. Jeff celebrated by going to Maryland for Thanksgiving. Hannah has patiently waited to open her birthday package for several weeks in the Czech Republic. And I am sure that Heidi is celebrating with Juanita and Mark and Grandpa Ray in the Spirit world.



Here Ben is struggling to blow out the three candles representing 3 to the 3rd power years of life. He eventually, with Emily's help, got them all out!

Seth has been practicing the Spanish immersion dance and singing program for the past several weeks. Here he is with his partner. He is grateful that the program is over.

Here is Seth's class singing Vive Espana!

Life is wonderful,

Dad

California Dreamin

Tammy and I had a "dreamy" weekend getaway at the Dream Inn in Santa Cruz, California. I had to go to NCFR and so afterwards we headed down to Monterey Bay and my old home town.

The day was absolutely beautiful, 65 degrees and sunny. We walked the whole length of the beach and had lots of good talks and pure joy!

After seeing this memorial bench we decided not to take surfing lessons!

We even got to attend Church at the old Santa Cruz ward where I went as a boy.

We really enjoyed doing a session in the Oakland, California temple. It is our fifth new temple of the year and our 24 temple since we got married.

Fall Break

For Fall Break (aka UEA) we decided to get out of the house and do something. We piled in the mini-van and drove to Salt Lake where Seth did baptisms for the dead for the first time. Amanda, Ryan, and Mom went with him. Dad had to stay with Cam and Maddy because he lost his temple recommend. After the baptisms we all went to a Tabernacle organ concert and then to the Gateway to do mostly window shopping. We finished out the day watching the Joseph Smith movie and then went to dinner at the Olde Spaghetti Factory. Delicious!

The colors were beautiful so we went for a good Fall hike on the Bonneville Shoreline trail. Everyone enjoyed themselves, especially Cam!

Here is handsome Dad with the family!

October 2009

The Hill-Mulford family is back! We took a little moratorium on blogging for a few months because we believed that we had lost our camera. However, the camera was preserved and we began taking pictures again. We'll bring you up to date ever so gently ...

Amanda went on her first big dance at Timpanogos High School with Sean.

Ryan completed his Eagle Scout project. He master-minded a brilliant community service endeavor where in 181 volunteer hours contributed by more than 40 people spruced up Cascade Elementary school. The parking lot was re-striped, the lines were re-painted on the basketball hoops, the curbs were re-painted, and the basketball standards got a fresh coat.

Cam was the star artist at the project. He single-handedly repainted the handicap parking stalls. Amazing!