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Two highlights this week: Trent was in the newspaper, pictured mowing the lawn. The lawnmower looks way too big for him, but believe me, he does a great job of it. Second was that Caleb and Trent ran in the Kids Triathlon on Saturday, and had a lot of fun. They are excited to do it again next year, and Alec will also be old enough to participate. He was bummed not to be able to this year. Trent finally got the medal he’s “been waiting for [his] whole life.” Visit the gallery for more pictures from the events.

Colin spoke in Sacrament Meeting today, on the topic of prayer. He gave an excellent talk on the blessings associated with prayer, starting first of all with Doctrine & Covenants 130:20-21:

20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—

21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

He related how during his time in Tonga, he learned to rely on prayer, and was blessed in many ways, but specifically with protection, knowledge, and comfort. Well done, Colin.

Today was also my dad’s birthday. We enjoyed dinner there with all the local Slades. I returned later in the evening for a game of Settlers, which I lost as usual. Darn robber.

It was also pleasure to meet one of my mom’s cousins and her husband, Gary and Valerie Stringham. He took voluntary severance from HP, and is now back working as a consultant for them — straight out of Dilbert. The conversation also turned to genealogy, and she related how at a family reunion, they talked about all the stuff the different people were doing. One of the family offered to gather it all up and put it on a website. The problem currently is that requires someone very technically savvy. I hope to be able to make that process very easy for any and all.

I had the privilege of participating in three blessings today. I did the annointing in all three, which was rather nice, actually. I still have lots to learn about priesthood service, especially in using my priesthood to bless my own family. I’m glad I have the opportunity.

It’s been a few weeks since my last update, so a quick recap:

Week 29: Caleb wrapped up swim team competing at the city meet. He missed qualifying for the state meet by .04 seconds - a bit disappointing for him, but all in all he had a great experience. All the boys are enjoying swimming, each is progressing a lot. Kim and I look forward (hehe) to many hot summer days of swim meets…

We also enjoyed a visit from the Daniels as they came through on the way to their new home in Utah. We haven’t seen them much the last few years that they’ve been in Virginia, so that was good. Our boys always enjoy being with cousins, and we hope that continues.

Week 30: I spent the week in Portland, OR at a conference for work. I enjoyed most of it, as it was generally interesting stuff and basically no responsibility for the week. I also enjoyed eating out at different ethnic restaurants (lebanese, ethiopian, chinese, thai, lebanese again … ) I’ve been to the Portland area now 5 times in the last 13 months, I think I’d like to go someplace else now.

Last Sunday, Kim taught / led the 5th sunday discussion for combined Priesthood / Relief Society. The topic was self reliance, and she is the food storage / production specialist for the R.S. She shared some good quotes from a few different talks — here’s the one I was most impressed by:

I should like to address a few remarks to those who ask, “Do I share with my neighbors who have not followed the counsel? And what about the nonmembers who do not have a year’s supply? Do we have to share with them?” No, we don’t have to share—we get to share! Let us not be concerned about silly thoughts of whether we would share or not. Of course we would share! What would Jesus do? I could not possibly eat food and see my neighbors starving. And if you starve to death after sharing, “greater love hath no man than this …” (John 15:13.)

Now what about those who would plunder and break in and take that which we have stored for our families’ needs? Don’t give this one more idle thought. There is a God in heaven whom we have obeyed. Do you suppose he would abandon those who have kept his commandments? He said, “If ye are prepared, ye need not fear.” (D&C 38:30.)

“Food Storage”, Vaugh J. Featherstone, Ensign, May 1976

Of course, the promise is that we need not fear, but it is not that we will not suffer. Preparation is what will allow us to call on the Lord with full faith in the time of need, but it is not and never has been a garuantee that we will be delivered from all affliction. But I really like the statement here that we are to do this because of obedience — we have no idea what the storage and other resources will ultimately be used for. It may be to see us through a time of unemployment, it may be to aide ourselves and others in the time of disaster, it may be to last us through months of famine. Or it may simply be to prove our obedience.

Week 31: This week we got to go to the airport to welcome uncle Colin home from Tonga. The boys had been praying for weeks for Colin to come home safely, and asking when we would get to go to the airport. It was fun to see him, but very short as he and Grandpa and Grandma hopped in a car to drive out to El Centro for a Lofgreen family reunion.

I also flew out for the reunion on Thursday, leaving Kim and the boys at home. Last time we went to the reunion, Kim was pregnant with Alec, now she’s pregnant again. Considering the drive, the heat, etc, we decided it would be best for just me to go. The whole travelling part pretty much stunk (planes delayed both ways, driving to El Centro is just no fun), but I was very glad that I was able to go.

I didn’t arrive until 1am Friday morning, then Colin and I chatted until about 3am. Everyone headed to the beach for a day of sand, sun, and surf (a very unsuccessful day of boogie-boarding), then back to the desert for dinner and skits. Merrit, Colin, Damon et al were a riot in their rendition of Beauty and the Beast. We started Saturday with a breakfast at Kjersti’s and some music / testimony time to finish it off. I consider it a privilege to be together with that group and enjoy the influence of the gospel in our lives.

It’s pretty much impossible to stay in touch with everyone with any sort of regularity. But I really appreciate these opportunities to strengthen family ties, to learn about and from each other. We may go our separate ways and not hear much from each other for a few years, but I find great power in the relationships we have.

Saturday was Merrit’s birthday, so we Slades that were there drove into San Diego to spend the rest of the day together. After dropping off Kezia at the airport, we had mexican food for lunch, then drove out to Point Loma for some sight-seeing. It was a very pleasant, relaxed afternoon, though it was strange not to have a spouse or children around. Then back to the airport for another 9 hours of joyous airport-plane-driving to get home. It was worth it.

Our big fun for the week: we got a dog. We’ve talked about it for a while, and promised the boys we would do it when we returned from Israel… but since that didn’t happen, it was time to do it, to get things settled down before the baby comes. We adopted a dog from the Humane Society, after watching their website for new dogs. We ended up with a 8-month old ‘puppy’ who has already been house- and crate-trained, which is very nice. So far everyone has had a good experience. I expect this will be good for me, too, as she has quite a lot of energy and needs to be walked/run daily.

We finally had some rain last week, only to return to 100-degree weather this week. I went to the Stake Farm for service on Saturday morning at 6am — I was not thrilled with going so early, until it started getting real warm around 8am. It would have been much less fun if we had not started until 8am. But it was very enjoyable to serve and to associate with other members of the ward and stake. There is so much truth to King Benjamin’s statement that for every bit of service we think to render to God, He blesses us many times over.

I returned from the Stake Farm and walked to the swimming pool just in time to see the last 10 yards of Caleb’s last event of the swim meet, as he came from behind to win his relay race. Just one more meet to go and swim team will be done for the summer. Afterwards, Caleb and Trent each had friends over from the team, and they enjoyed water balloon fights in the back yard and on the trampoline.

The discussion in Priesthood today was on our spiritual heritage, and what it means to appreciate that, and use it as a source of strength and inspiration. Dana wrote recently of the great experiences she and Rob had doing a mini handcart trek with the youth of their stake in the Boston area. The pioneer heritage is a great source of strength for us in the church — even though the majority of the church membership has no direct pioneer ancestry. We read the pioneer stories, we re-enact their struggles and accomplishments, and in the process, we learn some of the same lessons and feel connected to those previous generations.

It is very much the same with our family heritage, and ties in with the lesson of the previous week on journaling and record-keeping. I am making more of an effort as an adult and a father to understand the history of my own family, and also to teach that to my children. In the process of learning and sharing those stories, I understand who I am, and I’m also better able to recognize the ‘tender mercies of the Lord’ in the lives of many generations before me. I hope I am able to convey some sense of that to my children, that their hearts will also be turned to their fathers.

In that vein, here’s a story I recently received from my mom about my great-grandfather, Edward Lofgreen (as told by my Grandpa Lofgreen’s sister Ola Lofgreen Timmons in 1986). When I shared this story with Kim and the boys, we all had a good laugh:

THE APACHE KID

On April 6, 1885, a seven year old boy by the name of Edward Theodore Lofgreen, along with his mother and some of his brothers and sisters, arrived in a small Mormon settlement in southeastern Arizona which was called St. David. Edward’s father, Peter A. Lofgreen and his brother had left Huntsville, Utah in the fall of 1883 to help settle this community before sending for their families.

St. David was not far from Tombstone, a wild and wooly mining town, and besides the business people and those working the silver mines, Tombstone was inhabited by gamblers, cattle rustlers, cut throats, and ruffians. Things were always getting out of hand. Quite often renegade indians would invade the town and surrounding
countryside,…stealing, plundering, and killing anyone who tried to stop them. One such renegade was the “Apache Kid.” He was a bad one.

One day word was received in St. David that the Apache Kid had been seen in the hills between St. David and Tombstone and that parents should keep their children close to the house and guard their livestock well. It was Edward’s job to take the family milk cow out in the mornings before school and stake her out where there was grass to eat, then bring her back in for milking again in the evening.

On this particular day, Edward’s father, who was the school teacher, dismissed his students early and told Edward to go for the milk cow before it became too late. When he arrived at the spot where he had staked the cow that morning, she was no where to be seen. His first thought was that the “Kid” had all ready found her and that she might be his supper that night because he had been known to butcher
cattle and eat what he wanted, leaving the rest behind. Tearfully, Edward began a search for her. It seemed he had been looking for hours when he finally spotted her quite a long distance away, and being barefooted, it took Edward a long time, picking his way through brush, goat heads, cactus, and thorns to get her back to the trail.

By this time it was past sundown and the shadows were getting long and ominous. Needless to say the boy was frightened, nervous, and anxious to get home.

Once back on the trail, the cow hurried on ahead leaving Edward to follow the trail alone. With thoughts of the Apache Kid on his mind, he was startled to see, on the trail ahead, what appeared to be an indian squatting on his haunches. “Good”, he thought, “his back is towards me so he hasn’t seen me.”

Edward moved out of the trail into the brush and waited for the Kid to get up and go. It seemed that he waited and waited, but the indian remained squatted in the trail.. What was he going to do? Edward had always been a pretty good runner so he decided that he would run as fast as he could and kick the Kid over, then keep going and by the time the Kid recovered from his surprise attack, he would be almost home or at least have a good start on him.

Mustering all the courage he could, he ran at break-neck speed, then pulling back his foot…”WHAM!”…he kicked with all his might, but he was unable to keep going. He fell to the ground, grabbing his foot and crying out in pain. To his dismay the Apache Kid turned out to be an old tree stump.

As Edward sat and nursed his aching foot he shed tears of pain, and yes…of relief also. Then he heard the sound of his father’s voice calling his name. He had seen the cow come in alone and becoming worried had come to look for the boy.

Luckily, Edward’s father was not only his teacher, but also the community doctor and he knew that his broken toe would get the best of care.

There’s still so much I need to learn about my family history. I’m very interested in contributing to the cataloging and sharing of all the archives we have. Even though much of the temple work may have been done already, there is still a lot of family history work remaining.

I neglected to post last week — we were recovering from our vacation to Yellowstone. We rented an RV, spent a total of 5 days on the road. It was a lot of fun, and as usual, it was great to come home. I’m glad I still had a 4-day holiday weekend to recover after the trip Some of the pictures from the trip are here… I still need to find a better way to share a larger number of pictures. Just haven’t had time to put something together.

We did the usual while in Yellowstone: Old Faithful, drive around, look at lots of geysers, mudpots, bison, moose, elk. It’s a beatiful place — and it’s huge. We also rented a boat and went out on the lake for a little cruise and a bit of fishing. The boys are enamored with the idea of fishing, but so far no luck in our several attempts. And I’m okay with that.

One of the best places we saw on the trip was Sinks Canyon State Park, just outside of Lander, Wyoming — we stopped there the first night on the way to Yellowstone. I’d recommend it to others traveling that route for a nice stop.

Monday night we had our first experience as a family at the drive-in. We saw Cars, which I thought was a great movie. We played a little frisbee in the parking lot while wating for dark, then I pulled the benches out of the van for some comfortable seating. Alec made it about half-way through before falling asleep on Kim. We thought Caleb and Trent had fallen asleep as well, but they were wide awake a the end, but not quite enough to stay for the second feature.

Trent also had his first experience mowing the lawn — he almost finished the back yard. Caleb’s done it a couple times before, but now he’s graduating to the front lawn. It’s nice to have the boys start to take over things like that, but somehow the work for me and Kim never gets any less…

Tuesday was the 4th of July… we spent a few hours at the pool, the normal Parkwood pool party that’s a lot of fun. Jeff and family came over in the evening to watch Germany and Italy in the world cup semifinal match — Italy won 2-0, scoring in the last two minutes of overtime. It was a fun game to watch, even though the result was not so ideal. We decided to have a quiet (and early) night at home — we’ve never yet taken the boys to the park for fireworks on the 4th. We should probably do that, now that they’re getting older (but not so old that doing such things is totally uncool)

Thursday night, we enjoyed an evening of dinner and game-playing with Shea and her fiance, Burns (from Brazil). I managed one of those rare victories over my mom in Ticket To Ride, so it was a good time.

Saturday was swim meets and the usual Saturday fun stuff. I went to the Humane Society to find out about adopting a dog… we’re making steps in that direction, though neither Kim nor I am thrilled with the idea. But you get to do a lot for your kids that you are not thrilled with. We’ve been blessed with some much needed rain (and cool temperatures) this weekend, and that has been very pleasant.

Today our discussion in Priesthood and Relief Society was on journal-keeping, following the example of Wilford Woodruff. I hadn’t realized that much of the history of the church that we have comes from his records. Journaling is one of the main reasons for these weekly updates, but there’s lots more that I need to record as well, such as blessings and ordinances, and other events in my family and in the church.

So, on that theme: we had a special stake priesthood meeting this evening to call a new counselor in the stake presidency — Joe Goodell was called to replace Jeff Thomas as second counselor, who is moving to Maine. Dad and I drove over together, it was nice to spend a few minutes with him.

More pictures for the week here.

The big adventure of this week was having Caleb and Trent go with Grandma Slade to visit cousins in Salt Lake. Having just Alec at home has been interesting — it’s been nice to have 1-on-1 time with him, but it’s also been challenging, being reminded how much the boys do with each other and the dynamics of that. Caleb also had his first swim meet, and Alec completed his first level of swim lessons — all the boys love the water, and we love the pool.

Today I spoke in sacrament meeting… that’s definitely not something I enjoy. But it is good to be asked to serve in that way (as long is it’s not too often).

This week we’ll be on vacation — we’re renting an RV and going to Yellowstone. So hopefully we’ll have lots of fun experiences to report on next week.

Caleb attended boy scout day camp this week. He had a lot of fun, especially with the archery. I remember that being my favorite part of day camp as well. I was able to get spend one day with him and the other boys, and we had a lot of fun together. One of the other adults and I decided to let them end the day with a water fight — also a lot of fun, but then we had to deal with getting the wet boys home. Not so much fun.

Trent was able to attend Vacation Bible School with his friend as well. He had fun doing crafts, learning songs, and seeing lots of cool and wacky things around us in the world. Alec started swimming lessons, and he has really taken to the water. We spend a lot of time at the pool, so that is a good thing.

Today was Fathers Day, and Kim and the boys got be a new pair of birkenstocks. I agree it’s probably time, but it will take a long time to break in a new pair to where they’re as comfy as the old ones…

I really enjoy being a father, by the way. My kids are awesome, of course. And it’s definitely a treat to be a father in partnership with their mother!

Not too much to report on this week.� Definitely into the full summer schedule with swim team, swim lessons, swimming at the pool (we like to swim, btw).� Kim hasn’t said it outright, but she seems to be looking forward to fall already, for the more predictable, ordered school schedule.� All the boys look great with their summer tans, and it seems they’ve each grown inches in just the last few weeks.

I’m staying very busy with work, at Intel and otherwise.� I had a paper accepted for Intel’s internal technical conference again this year, but this time only for publication — I don’t get to go present it.� But it’s very good to be involved with other parts of the company, and that’s definitely one of the things I’ve really enjoyed about working at Intel so far.� There are design teams spread around the world, and we are really encouraged to interact with other teams.� It means some travel, which I do enjoy somewhat.� If I could do all that and still be home with the family every night, it would be perfect.

Turns out that April and May were the driest on record here for northern Colorado… We’re praying that the pattern doesn’t hold as we move into summer. It’s been pretty darn warm so far.

The boys are very excited to be done with school, on to typical summer activities: jobs in the morning, spend the afternoon at the swimming pool. Oh, and build traps and whatnot to catch snakes, rabbits, or anything else they can dream of in between.

Swim team practice starts tomorrow for Caleb, but first he had to wrap up the soccer season with the city tournament. Caleb’s team was undefeated during the season, and they won the tournament as well. The best part was that Caleb’s good buddy, Joseph, scored his first and only goal of the season with about 30 seconds left in the championship game to give them the win, 2-1. Actually, I guess the best part really was watching the parents after Joseph’s goal.

Kim is generally feeling much better, though very exhausted. The sun takes a heavy toll on her, but all Alec has graduated to the big pool now, so she get’s to be right out there with him every afternoon. The boys ask for a daily update on the size of her tummy — “let’s measure it!” — We’re all excited about what’s coming, but she has to make it through the summer first.

90-plus-degree days like we’ve had this weekend make her grateful that we’re not in / going to Israel — in case anyone hadn’t heard, the trip is off. There are definitely mixed emotions about not going, but we are certain that things will work out as they are supposed to. I hope to go out for a week or two myself towards the end of summer.

The other exciting event of the week was buying a new car. I took my old blue car in for a simple oil change, but the mechanic said it would basically do more harm than good — we’ve been keeping that car limping along for a few years now, but it finally reached the end. I was surprised I was actually able to get some (small amount of) money for it on trade-in. It will be good to have a reliable car again.

Image gallery for this week.

I’m writing this week from the airport in Denver — waiting to go to Portland, OR for a couple days. I was just there all of last week — I got home about 1am saturday morning. It was a very productive week for me, working with some of the same guys I’ll be working with in Israel. But it was hard to be away, especially since Kim is still not feeling well at all. Fortunately she has good friends who have offered a lot of help. These two days are just a continuation of last week… I’m glad I was able to go home for the weekend.

We had Grandpa take some pictures of us after church today, for Kim. She stayed home from church today, hoping to get as much rest as possible. Not a real fun Mothers Day for her.

For the boys, I brought home a collection of golf discs (special ‘frisbees’ for disc golf), and we went out to play for the first time Saturday evening. I’ve played lots over the years, but it finally occured to me that the boys are old enough to start playing, too. We’ve got an excellent course right down the street and Edora Park, and we had a great time. Alec just enjoyed throwing his disc into the basket when we got close enough, but Caleb and Trent really got into it. Kim wasn’t feeling well enough to walk with us, but that won’t last forever. It’s aweseome to be able to do fun things together.

I feel bad being away from home with Kim not feeling well, and I know she’s been very frustrated about not being able to do what she wants — and what she wants is to be a great mom. She devotes a lot of energy to our boys, and so it’s hard when she is constantly wiped out. But even when she’s laying on the couch, she’s laying with the boys watching TV, or reading books, etc. I honor her for her constant dedication. It was said in the last general conference that the ability to nurture and love is a great spiritual gift given to women, and Kim definitely exemplifies that. I am very privileged to preside over this family.

It’s getting time to board, so that’s all for this week… More pictures here.

I’m writing this week from Hillsboro, Oregon… I’m here on business for the week. Kim’s really not been feeling well the last few weeks with her pregnancy, so we’re all hoping that this week goes better. I get to fly home Friday night and turn around and come back for two more fun-filled days next week as well.

Kim and I went to see Les Miserables on saturday. The company was great, but the show was very disappointing — mostly because it was much more lewd than I remember. Sure, that’s part of us growing up and being more discerning. But I think it was definitely staged with very poor taste. I guess we can count on the world’s standards to continue to decline.

Not much happening with the boys this week. Trent got to go to the zoo for a school field trip. Caleb and Trent are both very anxious for school to be out. Alec takes good care of Kim when she’s not feeling well.

No news on Israel yet… We’re still assuming we’re going.