Simply Sproul

Been way too long

2011-01-24T09:39:00.001-08:00

Well, as everyone knows we moved into our house in December. It has been lovely.
I started a new job, and got lucky enough to go to Italy with them. We went to Florence. The dentist I work for teaches other dentist's to place dental implants. We use a C02 laser, and the parent company is in Florence. He wanted us to go along to see the "vision". The vision was seen. Now we can tell all the dentist's who come through how cool the laser is, pretty cool hu?
We went to Sienna, which was one of my favorite days. It's just a cute, old little city. My sister Michelle served her mission in Italy, Florence being one of the cities. She told me of some places to see, and yummy things to try:) I must admit, trips without Matt are pretty much not near as cool as they could be.

Our choices

2010-07-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

OK, we need everyone's honest opinion. These are the colors we chose for our house. Its a little confusing, but our hardy plank siding stuff was already chosen for us. Its the 2nd one in on the top row, and the 1st one on the 2nd row. so.... They are both very neutral, but similar. I can't decide yet if that is a good thing or not. anyway, we put all these colors together, its the window colors, soffit and facia, garage color, and the shingles. What do you think. Are they all too similar, or what.... We both think maybe the rock is a little too yellow, because we saw it on another house, and it looked super yellow, ill upload that photo so you can kindof see. There other colors are all different than the ones we are getting so for me its just hard to picture what it is all going to look like on ours.

Family Fun

2010-04-29T13:57:00.000-07:00

The Sproul family!!!! It's so good to have Mom and Dad back.

Funny Kenzie, a little blurry, pretending it's Christmas. Thanks for keeping me laughing, always!!!

Park and Ole, playing Where's Waldo in the leaves!!!!

2010-03-06T02:03:00.000-08:00

One quickly learns in Spain, that in order to make a left turn one must turn right. A right turn is made into a roundabout and it is followed until one can make a right turn into the appropriate street.
When we entered the roundabout of our mission here in Spain, we were working with young adult members. As we traveled down the road a little further, we came to have responsibilities in the Missionary Training Center(MTC). The picture is of four young adult members from the Madrid Institute who are now receiving their training in the MTC. We feel like we have almost traveled the full circle in our roundabout in Spain seeing these young adults now dedicating their lives in service to the Lord and His children.
We are excited to see you all after we return home March 23.

Post card #2

2010-01-29T12:34:00.000-08:00

Maddy is the winner of post card #2. She is the second grandchild and granddaughter that is why she got post card #2. I can't believe we are to post card #2 already.

I wonder who will get post card #1??????

Postcards #4 and #3

2010-01-10T20:54:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I've been a huge slacker. Lily recieved postcard #4in November. I never did take her picture with it so here's a recent photo of her after she got back from a "girly girl" birthday party where they got their hair and makeup done. She slept with this hair do for 2 nights and it actually still looked pretty good on the third day for church.

Allie just got postcard #3 on Wednesday. She was very excited. Abby, you finally got it right!

See you all in 2 months!!!!

2009-12-20T07:18:00.000-08:00

At Christmas time, we will have lived here in Spain 19 months. There have been many lessons learned, but one of the most important is to be grateful. We have met many, many people who have less to be grateful for and yet they are.
For Thanksgiving we helped cook a turkey dinner for a Young Adult activity. No one had a roasting pan, so I cooked a turkey in a cake pan. It miraculously turned out nice and juicy.
We will spend Christmas in the Missionary Training Center. There are 5 Spanish missionaries who will be there until the 29th. We will fix them waffles, bacon and eggs for breakfast and have special activities planned all day.
May you be filled with joy as you celebrate the wondrous birth of Jesus.
Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous 2010. We will see you then.
Love,
Bob and Susan

Post Card #5

2009-11-17T08:38:00.000-08:00

Parker got post card #5!!! Molly was right, she is one amazing baby. Yes my Christmas tree is up. There is snow on the ground and it is Nutcracker week, so it is Christmas at my house.

Postcard #6

2009-10-12T13:01:00.000-07:00

Since the youngest grandchild got #7, Grannie sent #6 to the oldest. Can't wait to see who gets the next one!

2009-10-04T01:16:00.000-07:00

Feeling the influence of the Tower of Babel

There are 20 missionaries at the Spain MTC until half depart for their respective missions next week. We are seeing less and less North American missionaries with the 25% reduction in numbers being sent here. The 20 missionaries consisted of 8 Spanish, 1 French, 1 English and 10 North Americans. It made for some very interesting Relief Society, Priesthood and Sacrament Meetings.
But the language barrier is still even more challenging at Institute. When we were at an October planning meeting held in Spanish in September, one of the council members asked us a question. All either of us understood was if we were listos(ready) for milkshakes at a Friday night activity. We said. “Yes.” What I found out 5 minutes later was that we had said yes to buying and making milkshakes for the activity.
We celebrated Bob’s birthday yesterday by walking an hour to the beautiful Retiro Park(picture). From there we walked another 20 minutes to have lunch at McDonalds.
The milkshake activity was a nice way to finish celebrating last night. We usually have 30 at Friday activities, so we planned on 40. 50 came so the milkshakes were small. There are always those who come for the 8:30-10:30 activity at 10:00, but this time there was nothing left.
Institute now has a Saturday program. There is a religion class at 6:00 p.m. and then a salsa dance class when that concludes at 7:30 p.m. That means that we are now there Monday-Saturday nights(right now there are no classes Thursdays) and at the MTC Sunday nights. That should keep us busy the next six months.
We had a nice visit when my parents came in the middle of September. The picture was taken in Segovia in front of the 1st Century A.D. Roman aqueduct.
Fall weather has set in here, hope you are all enjoying it there at home.
Love to you all,
Elder and Sister Sproul

Postcard #7

2009-08-27T10:43:00.001-07:00

Maddy's prediction was right, Molly received postcard numero siete! We love you too, Grannie and Grandpa!

Cerrado por vacaciones

2009-08-23T08:08:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,

If you like the idea of one month of vacation, perhaps this is the place for you. At the beginning of August many businesses begin putting hand written or computer generated, at the most elaborate, sheets of paper in their windows indicating they are closed for the month of August(por vacaciones). The streets are noticeably less crowded, our neighbors in the building are gone and it is wonderfully quiet.
Institute has also been closed this month. Activities will kick off with a dance this week and classes will begin in September.
Thankfully the MTC doesn’t shut down in August. The president and his wife were at a mission president’s conference in England last week, so we spent a lot more time there.
Another group of missionaries is off to the field this week. What amazing young souls they are. Their love for Heavenly Father and His children is genuinely pure. How they touch our lives in such a short period of time.
Our 8th grandchild, Molly Elaine, was born on August 13 to our daughter, Amy, and her husband, Gary. Gary thoughtfully brought his computer to the hospital so we could see her on Skype when she was just an hour old.
Next month, we are looking forward to a visit from my parents.
Hope you are enjoying the winding down days of summer.
With love,
Elder and Sister Sproul

Molly

2009-08-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

I took this one this morning. She's such a great baby. Love you all!

The latest with us

2009-08-02T08:55:00.000-07:00

Summer has flown by way to quickly. We have gone on a few little camping trips, but nothing too crazy. Matt has enjoyed his summer off from school. He plays final fantasy seven almost every day. It takes a lot for me not to say anything. He loves video games, its not just a teenage thing I guess. He is excited to get on with school so he can be done. He only has one more semester of actual classes, then student teaching. Next year around this time, we will be finding our own place to live. This makes me both excited and nervous. We finally get to grow up I guess.

As for me, I am starting on my road to become an Aggie here at the end of this month. I am excited for that. It is funny how everything works out. I still love my job. My boss is great, and so are all the girls I work with. I truly feel lucky to have everything we have.

Love and miss you all.

Kenzie

Post Card #8

2009-08-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

Abby is the winner for post card #8. We are all so excited that it is only 8 months and Grannie and Grandpa will be home. Abby was so excited that she asked if she could sleep with the post card that night. She carried it around all day. 8 months will be here faster than we all think, can't wait to see you again, mom and dad.

Runner up

2009-07-20T19:44:00.001-07:00

Close, but Ole looks a lot cuter....

Grand Canyon

2009-07-19T15:00:00.000-07:00

I believe there are some photos existing of the boys "hanging on the edge of the Grand Canyon", but Ole's hanging on by only one hand. Beat that boys! :)

2009-07-03T10:08:00.000-07:00

Dear family and friends,
Since we are not home to observe the 4th of July with a family picnic or fireworks, let us celebrate by sharing appreciation of our country with you. Bob recently said that we may not have as much money as last year but the U.S.A. is still the best country in the world. Living away from home makes it easy to focus on the abundance of advantages and freedoms our country affords.
But inventiveness and creativity are alive everywhere. Let me illustrate by telling you the “Mystery of the Missing Black Plastic Garbage Bags.” It was approaching the witching hour at one of our recent 70’s theme Institute dances. I was thinking about cleaning up(what’s new?). Bob went off in search of the large black plastic garbage bags. There were none to be found. We even had the security guard looking for them.
Some time later I looked up. There were the garbage bags folded over lines strung from the side walls to the center of the room. Toilet paper streamers are also common, but they are never used down to the last roll.
And what do you do when there are volleyball standards but no net for an Institute sports night? Packing tape stretched back and forth, back and forth, between the poles makes a very sturdy and effective net. Sometimes we feel like we haven’t yet left the high school scene.
The highlight of the month of June was a visit from Melanie and Adam. We traveled by Metro, bus and on foot to see many of the sights of Madrid. They battled jet lag the whole time without complaint. We hope that in the rest of their trip in London and Paris they had more opportunity to relax.
We are counting our blessing this 4th of July. Every one of you is one of them.
Love,
Elder and Sister Sproul

2009-05-31T08:23:00.001-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,

This month we have happy departure news. Krista, a U.S. citizen, came to study in Spain in the fall of 2007. She met Kenny, an immigrant from Bolivia, at Institute. A year ago when they decided to marry they began the COMPLICATED process of applying for a fiance visa for Kenny. The final interview was held at the U.S. Embassy May 13 and Kenny was granted his visa. Just in time, for the couple will be married in the Logan Temple June 27.
Others are finding the financial crisis devastating for them here in Spain. Nefi, a Peruvian immigrant but obviously not a convert, told us recently that he came here because the economic situation is so much more promising. He claims Peru is 50 years behind Spain, yet not finding work here he is contemplating returning to Peru.
In spite of their challenges these are people of great faith. We love them and “rejoice in the greatness of their hearts,” as we do yours.
We had fun riding bicycles with these Young Adults at one of Madrid’s huge parks on a Saturday. We weren’t the only ones who hadn’t ridden in a while.
We have a group of 35 wonderful missionaries in the MTC right now. All but nine will depart for their respective missions on June 2. Only four will come to replace them. Apparently that is the way it will be from now on, because the brethren have decided to reduce the number of missionaries by 25% in Europe.
Yesterday we spent a great day touring Salamanca with President and Sister Hill of the MTC. The university which is the Spanish equivalent of an Oxford or Cambridge was constructed in the 13th century. There is also a beautiful Roman bridge which was built in the first century. A golden sandstone is used for most buildings in the city, old and new, so it is one of the prettiest we have seen in Spain.
We hope you are all enjoying spring. We send our love to each of you.
Elder and Sister Sproul

Matt and Kenzie

2009-05-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

Grand Ol Canyon Adventure
WARNING: long post, if you don’t want to be bored, just scroll down and enjoy some pictures!!!
Wow. Matt and I had an amazing time on our little weekend getaway. It was quite the adventure as always, but that is why I love our time together so much. Friday we left around noon and drove straight to the camping spot. Our luck started when we got there. There was only 10 camp spots to choose from, and 9 of them were taken. We snatched up the last one, and set up camp. We decided to put up the tent, start dinner, and walk out to the rim.
We stayed out at the rim for a good 20 minutes. It started sprinkling a bit, so we decided to go back. As time went on, the rain really started coming down. All the sudden we see a blue bubble, which looked A LOT like our tent, blowing in the road. Well, low and behold, it WAS our tent. The wind had picked up so bad it blew our tent down. Mind you we had put the stakes in, put all our stuff in the tent, and put rocks on all 4 corners. The friendly campers chased it down for us. HOW EMBARRASSING!!!
Well, the next day we decide to do the hike “Lava Falls”. We were both excited about that. About half way through, I just about had a break down because I was so terrified. It was truly the scariest thing I have ever done. Every step felt so unstable, I could not handle it. I truly felt like if I made the wrong step, I would cause this huge rockslide and kill myself. At some points, I was crawling, literally crawling like a darn quadruped.
Finally, I got to a point where I just told Matt that if he wanted to finish, then I would wait for him to get back. He told me it would be about an hour.
We both went our separate ways, and boy am I glad about that. About 10-15 minutes after he left, I ran out of water. I sat on a rock and waited, waited until 2 hours had passed. I was freaking out. I had my funeral planned. I was sure that he had fallen, ran out of water, and could not move. I was sure that we would be found the next day and our lives were over.
Right about then, I saw the greatest thing ever. Matt’s blue shirt. The sight of it was amazing. I was so happy. I started yelling his name so he could see that I was ok. He finally was able to see me, and eventually he made it up to me. I have never EVER seen him look so tired in his life. He would take 4-5 steps, and have to stop. Poor thing was exhausted.
The 2 of us made it out alive, a few cuts and scrapes and even a few cactus needles stuck in his leg. (Which actually he didn’t even find till the next day ???)
I am sure you guys are probably thinking that I am exaggerating or whatever, which is completely understandable. However, I had never been so terrified. I truly offered about 10 prayers for comfort. As corny as it sounds, I think there was a little divine intervention going on in helping me to decide not to finish. If I would have kept going, my water and his would have been gone a lot sooner, and who knows what would have happened. I am one stubborn girl, in other circumstances I would have finished to prove my point that I could. I feel lucky that I didn’t.
Anyway, I have rambled on long enough, you can enjoy some pictures now, but I just wanted to tell the story.
We ended the trip with a night in St George. We spent some awesome time with Rob and Karli, which was well needed. We love you guys!!!

VACA

2009-05-22T07:40:00.000-07:00

Matty Pooh and I are headed to the Grand ol Canyon today. There is some hike that he wants to do that goes down into it??? Should be fun, and scary all at the same time. I love you all. I hope everyone is doing well.

Happy Birthday Matt

2009-05-18T14:29:00.000-07:00

I know this is late, I meant to get this done weeks ago. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT!!! We were all so happy to be able to spend your b-day with you.

Pretty crappy day

2009-05-14T00:27:00.000-07:00

Go to britskysbattle.blogspot.com to learn more.

Thanksgiving will never be the same!!!

2009-05-01T10:17:00.000-07:00

To find out why you will have to check out my blog.
love you all,
Mel

Lloyd Family

2009-04-02T18:02:00.000-07:00

This post is for Parker. Parker drew this picture of Grannie and Grandpa on their mission, to use in sharing time at church. He tried to hang it on his door Saturday, before he even got to use it at church. I had to call his primary teacher to make sure he would get it back after they were done using them. I think he misses his Grannie an Paga, just a little bit.

Lloyd Family

2009-03-26T16:29:00.000-07:00

We just spent the week in Phoenix. Adam had a work event down there and we all tagged along. We spent a couple days swimming at the hotel pool and the rest playing with cousins. We went to a Spring Training game, which was a lot of fun. The Dodgers were playing the Royals, unfortunately the Dodgers lost. Parker was very excited because Adam caught him a home run ball.

Here are all the kids dressed up after church. They all had a great time playing with each other.

The big girls gave the little girls makeovers, my favorite is Allie's blue mustache. Thanks Amy and Gary for letting us stay with you over the weekend. We had a blast.

2009-03-21T00:14:00.000-07:00

Dear family and friends,

Our life is defined by the going and coming of missionaries every three weeks. We become very attached to the North American missionaries who stay for six weeks. We have also found that we become very attached to the Europeans who stay for only three weeks of missionary, non-language training. It’s a privilege to serve amongst group after group who are so genuinely committed to bringing their fellowmen to Christ.

We experienced a very sad departure recently. A very sweet, hard-working Institute student was deported back to her native Bolivia. The one consolation was that she does have family there.

Our Director of Institute, Elder Lopez, has been giving a series of lectures on the history of the Church in Spain to celebrate the 40th anniversary of preaching the gospel here. They have been very well attended.

Every seat in the house + was taken when Elder Bednar came to Madrid in February. He, of course, is a very powerful emissary of the Lord.

In our travels we have been to the birthplace of the beloved Cervantes and the ostentatious burial place of the dictator, Franco. Still lots to see in Spain.

Love to all,
Elder and Sister Sproul

Baby Pedersen

2009-02-23T16:30:00.000-08:00

Well, here SHE is! Check out our blog for more details and a video. Love you guys!!!!!

Spain

2009-02-06T01:55:00.001-08:00

We still divide our time between responsibilities at the Institute and MTC, but our assignment continues to evolve. Bob now serves as a veil worker when we go to the temple with the missionaries each Thursday morning.
We have also been trained in the Outreach Initiative which has been instituted in much of Europe. It is designed to have 18-30 year old members help reactivate and bring that age group to Christ. There are lots of changes to be made which we will work on little by little.
January’s highlights included a spectacular display of fireworks on New Year’s Eve which we viewed from the 7th floor MTC roof with the missionaries. This month Madrid was caught off guard by a once in ten years snowstorm. It closed freeways, schools and caused buses to pull over and let their passengers out and stranded.
Last week we went to a spectacular castle which began construction in 1217. Hopefully, the picture reflects the grand scale and how well it was camouflaged.
We send our wishes for many blessings for you in this new year.

Kaylee Got a Nose Job!

2009-02-04T13:16:00.000-08:00

Kaylee had surgery on her nose this Monday. Everything went well and she can now smell. She wasn't this smiley when she got out of surgery but she was very brave.

Also, Kaylee took 3rd place in the 4th grade essay contest. Check out our blog to read her prize winning essay. You're not the only nerd, Matt! :)

Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!

2009-01-28T21:22:00.000-08:00

Here is my collection. There ended up being over 300 (some of the soft bodied insects are in vials so you can't see them here). I used to be able to tell you the order and family of every one but I've already forgotten many of them. Yes, I am still the nerd of the family.

Matt and Kenzie

2009-01-02T20:29:00.000-08:00

This is the car after our attempt to take my parents to the Grand Canyon today. We are in St George right now and both my mom and dad said they had never seen the Grand Canyon. So, Matt and I being the smart couple that we are have a bright idea. "Jump in the car, we will take you." About 10 minutes into the trip, I notice that there is quite a bit of snow. I must say that I said to matt" I’m worried we won’t get to the top with the roads like this" I thought that the rocks would be too icy or something like that. "No big deal, we can get there, It’ll be fine he says". So on and on we drove, splashing through the mud and the muck for about 3 hours, slipping and sliding the whole way. Well, you all know that fence where that guy has the signs that say "I don’t call 911" yeah, we got there, and the snow no longer was plowed for us, just a dead end right there. You have got to be kidding me we both said. No kidding involved, seriously. (According to Matt we were only about 5 miles away.) So, needless to say, we turned around and drove home. Just like that, the trip was ended. (Well, except for the whole drive back :) Oh, I almost forgot, the part that made it even more interesting is that we didn’t think to check the windshield washer fluid before we left, and we ran out of course. Our drinking water became the windshield fluid by me opening the sunroof and squirting the windshield with it. A few times that even backfired and it came back in the car and got us muddy as well. Ugh. How frustrating. Actually it was funnier than anything. No worries everyone Matt and my Dad took the Tahoe to the carwash for about 2 hours and cleaned it up real nice. Meanwhile my mom, lil brother and myself went to the outlets. What a fun day. It’s not a trip with out an adventure right? I feel bad my parents didn’t get to see it, but nonetheless it’s another good story to tell. Now we are watching Cool Hand Luke. It’s alright. "What we have here is a failure to communicate" Ha Ha its funny. Anyway, enough out of me, see ya’ll later.

Lloyd Family

2008-12-29T14:08:00.000-08:00

This year our family read the Last Straw book. The kids liked the story so much that they asked if we could do that with our family. They had a lot of fun doing it. Parker was convinced no one had him the first week, because I do everything for him anyway. I had to remind him that he hadn't picked up his room, or made his bed the entire week. I had to remember to lay out his jammies like in the book then he thought someone was doing things for him. It was also a great opportunity to get the basement cleaned up. Once they found out they would be able to put straw into the manger there wasn't any complaining about it.

Thanks for starting a great tradition, Mom. This is now something we will do forever.

2008-12-23T07:03:00.000-08:00

Ole got baptized this Saturday. It was a very special day.

2008-12-19T09:04:00.000-08:00

My best friend Britney got married yesterday. It was a very special day. In the temple it was very emotional and bitter sweet because it is the one year anniversary of our friend Cas passing away. Cas's mom was there in the temple and the look on her face was just sad. Britney’s face, however, was not sad at all. She was glowing just like any bride should. Anyway, it was a good day. It was good to spend time with Matt and remember our wedding day. By the way, Matt officially finished his semester yesterday, so both of us are now home free for a few weeks. Hopefully next semester isn’t as stressful. We are looking forward to Christmas and can’t wait to see you all. (Mom and Dad, you will be here in spirit I’m sure) Well, love you all. BYE

Christmas in Spain

2008-12-14T14:17:00.000-08:00

Was there a Christmas eve when you, like me, went to your bedroom window to see if you could catch a glimpse of Santa and his sleigh? When I couldn’t find him, I then switched my attention to seeing if I could figure out just which star was the star of Bethlehem.
I won’t be searching the skies this year, because in Spain the Reyes Magos deliver the gifts on January 6. The travel by camel, not by air. I don’t have to look for the star of Bethlehem any more either for I now know that the light of Jesus Christ shines everywhere in the world.
We rejoice in the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and wish you and your families every joy of the holiday season.
Institute activities will be winding up the week of the 15th. Christmas projects have included decorating Christmas cards for less active members, making and sharing Christmas cookies and a talent show.
Our Christmas will not be the same without friends and family, but we expect it to be memorable. Since we also work at the Missionary Training Center, we will spend Christmas eve and day with the young missionaries there. There are supposed to be about 15 staying during Christmas.
We have planned a couple of excursions to see lights and a display of nativity scenes. We will also make a trip to the Prado to view a Rembrandt exhibition.

Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo
Con carino,

Susan and Bob

Lloyd Family

2008-12-09T16:16:00.000-08:00

We are back from Mexico. It was fun, we didn't do much which is nice. I finished 2 books and started a 3rd. We went snorkeling one day, saw tons of fish and swam with sea lions, it was great. One night we went on a sunset dinner cruise which was also really fun. We mostly just sat by the pool and relaxed.

This picture is for dad, Adam wanted some armor pictures. It's also his I spy picture, can you see the "booby?"

Lloyd Family

2008-11-24T13:39:00.000-08:00

Nice, who added the playlist??? I love it. Rob, Karli, Matt and Kenzie, thanks for coming this weekend. It really meant a lot to her, so thanks for being so supportive!!!

Lloyd Family

2008-11-06T12:25:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween!!! I am not sure why it has taken me so long to post this. But as you can see we have a Ninja, Asian Princess????, and Snow White. Maddy and Parker both chose their costumes without the help of mom, not really sure what they were thinking. The kids all had a good time trick-or-treating this year. It was a nice night so they stayed out late. It was so nice that I sat out on my driveway with my neighbor and passed out candy. It was a great night for all.

Boo!

2008-11-05T10:50:00.000-08:00

Hi All! Here's the Halloween crew. The kids had a great Halloween. We started it off with our street pot luck BBQ, which had a great turnout. Then Gary's dad took our kids and Gary's sister's kids Trick-or-Treating.

2008-11-02T15:10:00.000-08:00

Special day for Madylin Francis. Maddy got blessed today and we had a little get together at my sisters after. It was fun. Her dress is so special. My grandma crochet it from top to bottom. It is the prettiest thing ever. I even called her and asked her to make me 2 for the future. In case I have twins one day:) (NO, I am not announcing anything) Any way it was good to be with the family.

And this is Cavington. He is my brother Ben's little boy. He is the toughest little boy I have seen. He isnt even 5 months old, and he is well on his way to walking. So so so cute.

Matt and Kenzie

2008-11-02T14:45:00.001-08:00

Matt and I went out a few weeks ago
with Zack and Lindsey down to Thanksgiving Point. It was fun. Its always fun with Zach around. You never really know what to expect with him:) We went through both David Archuletta (I have no idea how to spell his name, nor do I want to look it up) maze, and the haunted one. They were equally lame. We still had fun taking pictures and being out.

This one made us laugh for a good half an hour. Every time we hang out with Zach, it is a mystery what he is going to do. Zach is so fun and I am glad Matt has funny friends. Sorry you all have to see that picture, but I know it will make you laugh. Good ol Zach.

I cant figure out how to rotate this one, so enjoy it sideways. Love you all! Hope you had a great Halloween.

The Pedersens

2008-10-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

So Here's what's been happening in our neck of the woods.

Our friends played a little joke on Gary and decorated his truck to reflect his "inner loyalties". He modified it slightly and drove his truck around like that for a week.

Over our fall break we went to Mom and Dad's and met a few of Gary's friends from high school. It was fun to see them and their families. We played a lot of Rock Band that weekend but we're still not as good as you Matt! We also took the kids to see Big River at Tuachan. It was great. Here's a pic of the kids with "Huck" and "Jim". If you've never seen a show there I highly recommend it.

2008-10-26T14:39:00.000-07:00

Segovia

Spain

2008-10-26T14:34:00.000-07:00

Hello family and friends,
Vacations are over and mornings are turning chilly. The institute is in full swing again, and we are busy. We are there every night Monday-Friday.
Bob teaches two classes of Book of Mormon in English. I have a History of the Church in English and English classes two nights a week. When we are not at Institute we are preparing. We have handbooks for the church classes, but none for teaching English.
What is most satisfying about our experience here is the associations with the students. They don't have much materially. Their treasure is the gospel, and they know it well.
As usual, Bob has his following of boys. This time they are a bit older. With his little bit of Spanish and their little bit of English, they can communicate and even laugh at each others jokes.
Everyone loved conference. We watched it on the internet so we could hear it English. There were satellite broadcasts in Spanish in the stake center, but we wanted to be able to understand every word, not just the percentage we get of the Spanish we hear at church every week.
As of a couple of days ago, we have a second assignment. Bob has been called as the counselor to the president of the MTC here. I am the Relief Society counselor. So we will be attending devotionals, firesides, and singing with the missionary choir in the temple square Sunday nights. Bob will teach priesthood and the president's wife and I will alternate Relief Society lessons. I won't have much time at all now to think about missing family. How great it is to be able to associate with some of Spain's wonderful youth and a new group of dedicated missionaries every 6 weeks.
We did get to visit some amazing sights last month. We went to Consuegra in the La Mancha area where we saw windmills like Don Quixote "fought". In Segovia there is a well preserved stretch of Roman aqueduct built without mortar in the 2nd century A.D. It is an architectural marvel.
Love to you all,
Susan and Bob

Matt and Kenzie

2008-10-07T20:42:00.000-07:00

Grandma's Grapes finally grew in our backyard. Tasty! There's a lot more where that came from. Come and taste em......

Isn't she sweet

2008-10-06T12:33:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite picture, as of late. Abby looks ridiculous, I am not sure what she was trying to do but it was not cute. Adam and I had a good time this weekend with Robby and Karli on Friday and Matt and Kenzie on Sunday. We need to plan a family get together in St. George in the near future. Any thoughts as to when would be a good time for everyone???

Thanksgiving

2008-10-03T07:51:00.001-07:00

This is Thanksgiving in Utah
This is Thanksgiving in Arizona

Any Questions?

Hey, I know it's a long way down here but anyone is welcome to come to our house for Thanksgiving. The more the merrier!

Happy 24 Cas!!!

2008-09-25T23:25:00.000-07:00

It was my sweet Casimir's birthday yesterday. Talk about a emotional day. I went to work and thought about her all day. I was emotional about many things all day (one of them being that I failed my anatomy test with excellence). The second thing was Cas. Her mom had given us friends invitations about a week ago to her birthday party for last night. All day I contemplated if I even wanted to go. Matt and I both had a lot going on, so I was trying to justify not going. I decided to be a "tough girl" as Matt would say, and we went. We showed up at her house and my tummy got butterflies. We walked in and there were pictures of Cas everywhere!!!!! There were balloons all over that later that night they let off up to the sky for her. (We left before that part) Her mom had asked friends and family bring her favorite desert which is peach cobbler. Yum!! We each wrote a memory of Casie down and looked at photos. Her mom stood and asked us all to sing happy birthday to her daughter. She asked that whenever someone could, to please start the song, because she couldnt bare to. Talk about heartbreaking. Her poor mom had tears rolling down her face the whole song, along with half the rest of the crowd. Anyway, the point of me writing this post is to say that I miss sweet Casie. She always had the cutest smile on her face, and I miss it! I love you all and I am thankful for all of you!

Robby and Karli

2008-09-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Thanks Kenzie for putting this together! Well, we have finally gotten back in the swing of things after the wedding and amazing honeymoon! School and work dominate my life but my classes are so great! Robby is enjoying not having school and is spending a lot of time with friends and on campus. We have been pondering the idea of going to a Dodger playoff game in a couple of weeks. We'll see if it works out ;)

Well, I guess that's about it for now. We're excited to see Mel and Adam in a couple of weeks for the BYU game! We hope to see everyone else soon! Hey, so what are everyone's plans for Thanksgiving? Robby and I are up for anything. St. George anyone?

Oh one more thing! If anyone would like to go see all 477 of the wedding pictures you can go to www.bnbphoto.com then in the upper right hand corner there is a "Customer Login" click there and you should see Robby and Karli's Wedding.

Lloyd Family

2008-09-22T14:48:00.000-07:00

I don't have anything exciting to post for now, just wanted to thank Kenzie for doing this. I did add a link to our family blog. I think I will have to update both, my personal one will probably be a little more in depth. So you can check it out whenever, I just have to add Kenzie's email address to the list and you all will be able to access it from this blog, if you sign in, I think.

The Pedersens

2008-09-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

Hi All! Kenzie, thanks for setting this up. I think it will be a great way to stay in touch. I just need to figure out what I'm doing.

So here's what we've been up this last month.

Kaylee and Lily are playing soccer and Ole's doing flag football. Those afternoon games in the Arizona heat are pretty brutal but it's starting to cool off. I think the high this weekend is only 99! They have fun and that's all the matters.

In August we celebrated Allie's 2nd birthday. I can't believe it's been two years already. She's getting so big.

Gary and Ole went to Michigan to watch the Utes play. They had a great time in the Big House.

As far as Thanksgiving goes, we're sticking around here this year. Anyone is welcome. November in Arizona is perfect.

From Matt and Kenzie

2008-09-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

Hello to all! Welcome to our new family website. I thought this would be a great way to keep each other updated. Add anything please, pictures, blogs, you know the drill! I wish it had some type of calendar so we could enter birthdays and such, but oh well. I guess a good way to do this, is say for example I was Mel, my post would say :Lloyd family, or mine would say: Matt Sproul family, so on and so forth. that way others that read it know which family is writing. Anyway, more will follow. Matt and I are doing just great, school and work is our life for now. We want to plan something for thanksgiving, what is everyone doing????? love you all. post post post!!!!