Picnic at the Mission Home

A mass exodus is about to take place in the Geneva Ward.  Sadly we will be saying goodbye to nearly 60 people.  Ouch.  Before they all left we had a terrific activity at the Mission home.  The yard was large enough to let the kids run free.  The house was built in the 60's by the Iranians.   Once it was built they felt it wasn't grand enough to meet their needs.  They actually built twin homes facing each other.  The one you see in the pictures is used for offices and missionary apartments.  The other is the Mission President's residence.  President Peterson told me that President Hinckley took a nap here in the 80's and after requested the property not be sold.  Many properties have been sold, luckily we still have this beautiful place in Geneva.  Thanks President Peterson, we had such a lovely time with so little effort.

My kids love the elders.
Nothing like a great game of "Red Rover."
We invited our friends JiSoo and Sung Yoo.  They brought their friends.
I got to man the barbecue until some men arrived.  Why is it men always control the barbecue, but not the stove?

Hannah Montana's Geneva Fan Base

Elsa has two passions, dancing and drawing.  Both of them seem to put her into an alternate universe where no one else should dare enter.  She's very happy there.

While I was in Chicago my friend Michele introduced me to Hannah Montana.  Of course, I'd heard of her.  We even watched the show while staying at Euro Disney.  To our surprise, we liked it.  Michele's daughter and Elsa's dear friend Brynn, sent us home with the soundtrack to HM's latest film.  Elsa couldn't stand it.  Suddenly the floor was no longer enough to feed her passion for dancing fame.  Here she is posing on her newly built stage.  

Standing ovation please.

Pickin' Berries!

I love to tell new people I meet about being a child growing up in Oregon.  The fresh air, the unpredictable weather, the child labor force.  Before the migrants from Mexico came up to pick strawberries, they sent the children out.  School ended in time for berry picking to begin.  The bus would pick us up at 6:30 in the morning, luckily we were at the end of the route.  We'd unload with our sack lunches and then be assigned a row to work in.  I remember sitting with my best friend and chatting the hours away.  Mostly daydreaming about what fabulous thing we'd buy with all of the money we were making.  We'd work until about 2:00 PM  and then they'd take us home.  This routine would last about two weeks, three if we were lucky.  The last day they'd drive us to Dairy Queen treat us to lunch and ice cream and give us our cash.  My grand total, usually a whopping $100.  Those were good times.  Such a shame the children today can't earn their own living for a couple of weeks.

These memories flooded my mind when I drove past a local u-pick berry farm.  There was no doubt what our free Wednesday morning would now include.  I knew they'd love it. . . they did.  Henry who is Mario Kart obsessed sums it up best, "Mom, I even enjoyed this more than Mario."  Of course he did!

In all of my excitement to be the first ones at the farm (I wanted them to have the thrill of putting their chilled hands into the dewey leaves), I left my camera at home!  Such a bummer.  However, here is a record of our loot.  We managed to eat half of those berries fresh!  Including two strawberry pies.  The other half is now some very delicious strawberry jam.

Mom's in Chicago

Last week was fun-filled for the Christensens!  I flew to Chicago on the 10th to attend to some landlording.  Luckily, more of my time was spent with wonderful friends and lots of shopping.  I had such a fabulous time.

Greg stayed home with the kids for three days and the weekend.  I think they had a pretty swell time as well. . . (maybe he'll update this post with the events in the photos)!

Hi. This is Greg with an explanation of the pictures. These first two were taken at the Nyon beach/swimming pool where Henry and Elsa spent the early afternoon collecting shells and the late afternoon screaming at Ansel for dumping them back into Lake Geneva when they weren't looking. (That white mountain in the background, by the way, is Mont Blanc. It was an incredibly clear day.)

The pictures below are from a picnic we had with friends. 

Events at this picnic that were not photographed include:

1. Elsa pooping her pants.
   
2. Elsa finishing the job on the grass while I tried to change her into Ansel's backup underwear.
   
3. Elsa stepping in her own poop once she had Ansel's underwear on.
   
4. Ansel pooping in his pants after Elsa had donned his backup underwear.
   

Good times. Good times.