Ode to Pioneer Day

This is a post I decided to post as a way to show my appreciation for Pioneer Day, which is a day celebrated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on July 24th every year to honor and remember the early saints for their arrival to the Salt Lake Valley and the sacrifice the early members of the Church made for their religion.

I chose to make an ode to the early pioneers by posting the all the temples we've been to. Now how does that even apply to Pioneer Day? What in the world do our temple trips have to do with honor the early saints as opposed to us bragging about the temples we've been to?

Well, the answer to those questions is thus: The early saints also began work on and even completed the construction of temples back then. They sacrificed so much including time, money, supplies, commuting, health and many other things in order to work on temple construction and some still didn't even get to step foot in the temple they spent a huge chunk of their life working on. They pressed forward despite being ridiculed, ostracized, and alienated and did so with faith, obedience, and love for what the Lord commanded them to do.

Visit the following link to learn about the purpose of the temples. The website does way better than I ever could.
http://www.lds.org/temples/purpose/0,11298,1897-1,00.html

So without further ado here are a few pictures of the temples Lois and I have been to throughout our lives.



Newport Beach, CA temple
San Diego, CA temple
Rexburg, ID temple
Nauvoo, IL temple
Redlands, CA
Logan, UT temple
Cardston, Alberta, Canada temple
Fukuoka, Japan temple
Idaho Falls, ID temple
Salt Lake City, UT temple

Seattle,WA temple

Spokane, WA temple
Provo, UT temple

Portland, OR templeBoston, MA temple

Medford, OR temple

Most importantly we need to remember to honor our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who has made the ultimate sacrifice for us all and has made it possible for us to serve in temples around the world. His work is going forward. The following quote comes from a talk, given by President James E. Faust who was the Second Counselor in the First Presidency of the church, titled The Restoration of All Things. He said "Our majestic and beautiful temples now dot much of the earth. President Gordon B. Hinckley has stated of these temples, '“There are only a few places on earth where man’s questions about life receive the answers of eternity.”' The solemn mysteries of where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going are answered more fully in the temples. We came from God’s presence and are here on earth to prepare to return to His presence."

I just felt that this would be a good and different way to celebrate Pioneer Day!

Our trip to the Cardston Temple

On our way to the Canada to go to the temple we decided that we wanted stamps in our passports from Canada. So Kenya, Lois and I have a stamp. It took longer than we thought, but in the end it was worth it. This is Kenya's first stamp in her passport! Definitely not the last!

This is picture of the Cardston, Alberta temple. Lois's parents were married here. This is my second time being at this temple. Kira watched Kenya for us while we served in the temple. It is amazing! But then again, all the temples we've been to are amazing in there own way!

Here are some pics at a store in Hungry Horse, MT when we were on our way home from the temple. She loves animals! Watch the videos at the bottom. They are a hoot...well beep actually!

On the way home from Klamath Falls

Here are two of the nicest stewardesses ever. Terri is on the left and Gretchen is holding Kenya. They fell in love with Kenya and Kenya fell in love with them! We shared 2 flights with these amazing ladies and Kenya loved them!




Here are some photos of our trip home after the reunion. Kenya like to travel in style when going to and from gates. People thought is was the cutest, most fun thing ever!





Here is Kenya and some friends at our 4th of July family reunion watching the fireworks!

More Family Photos and Goodbyes.

This is always the saddest part of the weekend and no one wants it to come. We missed saying bye to a large portion of the crew who left before we got to Robert's parents house that morning. We already miss all of you! We hope everyone got home safely and enjoys the rest of their summer. I would love to put names for all of these pictures and I think I could, but I am horrible at spelling names.

Happy 4th of July!

What a view! This was flying from Portland to Medford. Kenya did amazing on both flights! She did struggle with the drive from Medford to Klamath Falls. Can't really blame her because she had been up since 4:30am and confined when traveling the last 3 days!
Aunt Christine and Kenya! What a cute pair!
Getting ready the day before and the day of the war. Tons and tons of water balloons and guns. When they were filling them with water the day before about half of the balloons were popping. That scared Kenya a bit, but she got over it. She loved seeing the hoses and running water!


Our family picture for the day before the action begins.


These next pictures are of family and friends hanging around during the BBQ and waiting for it to get dark to start the fireworks.

Yummy! Loving Grandma Draper's BBQ pork ribs!



James and Tia Draper enjoying BBQ.
These are cute kiddos are some of Robert's cousin children. We thought that her little girl resembles Kenya a little bit. In the bottom picture they had had a fudge pop!

We had a blast and the fireworks were great and LONG! Kenya really enjoyed it. She fell asleep around 10pm and the show lasted until about 10:30pm. She slept right through the last 30 minutes or so. Thank you so much a everyone for coming!!! It would not be the same without having you all there. We already can't wait to see everyone in 2 years!

Another Draper reporting for War and for Summer time!

Here are some pictures of Kenya training for the The 4th of July this year!

***WARNING!!!*** DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE CUTENESS OF THIS CHILD! DOING SO WILL RESULT IN HUMILIATION OF THE SOAKED TYPE!

(Well we tried to upload some videos at the bottom displaying her Expert H2o training, but for some reason Blogger must have switched to powering the videos by YouTube and for some reason they don't upload! Videos uploads are on delay until further notice.)


We even got her training for eating BBQ on the 4th!
Kenya's going to be ready for fireworks too! Grandpa and Grandma Evans assisted in her preparations by allowing us all to be present to test out the merchandise for their fireworks stand, Master Blaster Fireworks!The next couple of pics are how she's preparing for swimming in Oregon, whether it be at a lake or pool or the coast!

We got word that Grandpa Draper has a riding lawn mower that has a little trailer hooked to the back of it just for Kenya to go for a ride around the yard in. I will count this as some good preparation! Can't go wrong with a good, old fashioned, Radio Flyer wagon!

Here's she is with the face ready for battle! She's using those big, brown eyes to peer into the souls of all who should oppose her! The look may not strike fear, but it will be enough to make enemies drop their guard long enough to get soaked!

This and Kenya

I tried so hard to get this on video, but failed.
Today Kenya and I were dancing in the living room and This was just sitting there watching us. Kenya walked over and picked up one of her front paws and started moving it like she was trying to dance with her. SO CUTE! This took it for a little bit, but then pulled her paw away and walked away. I then got my phone to record it and asked Kenya to do it again. She did, but stood directly in front of her so I could not get the shot. By then This had had enough and Kenya was starting to pull her tail and trying to pick her up, so I decided they had both had enough.
Later Kenya was going down for a nap and she would not stop insisting that she needed her kitty!! This was laying on the chair sleeping and so I set Kenya next to her and gave her her blanket. She told me to "shhh" because kitty was sleeping. Then I told her to go to sleep with kitty. I went and sat down on the other side of the room and Kenya began to space off. This's tail was wagging and before Kenya spaced out she was feeling This's tail with her hand and it was actually helping put her to sleep. When I made a noise and Kenya noticed the tail again she was scared of the tail. She didn't know what it was and started crying a little bit. I walked over and uncovered This (because Kenya had covered her to go to sleep) and showed her it was the kitty. It took her a second, but then she said "Oh" with a big smile on her face and started giggling.

Memorial Day Weekend fun!

In this picture: Sam Hammond holding Sammy Evans , Sarah Hammond, AJ Hammond holding Mikhail Evans, Rachael Hammond, Matt Hammond trying to Harmon Evans still, and Kenya Draper front and center. What a good looking bunch!

We had lots of family at my parents house for a birthday party weekend. All but 2 of my siblings were there and all but 2 of my parents grandchildren. We sure missed them. We celebrated 6 birthdays: Amy, AJ, Jayde, Mom, Aaron ans Alyxana. We camped, had campfires and wonderful bbq! Thanks again dad and Aaron for the yummy food!
Kenya loved going down to the creek and playing in the water. She got to stand in it and throw as many rocks as she wanted it the water. Throwing is a fairly new skill she has perfected. It only took a day or two before she could really get some distance with a object. Now we are learning that throwing is only for outside.

We just love being with family and think it is so important. We are trying to make sure Kenya knows her family and understands the importance. We teach her that God has given us our families and that families are meant to be eternal! We are so excited go to Oregon for the 4th of July to see our other side of the family. We are so blessed to be able to travel and to live in a time where travel is so easy.
I just has to put this picture up. She is so darling and her eyes in this picture sure give a look that melts my heart. Her sad puppy face!


This is Kenya yesterday playing on uncle Chris's computer.

Sunday 5/23 Visiting Family

Sunday was our last day in California and we were able to see some family. We went to church and then to lunch with my sister Amy. What a blast we had with her even if the time was short. While waiting for lunch Amy and Kenya played in the fountain. Of coarse that is what Kenya was doing because it has running water.

Then we went to Robert’s grandmother house in Oakland right before we had to fly out. This was quite the adventure. She is 93 years old and Kenya was born on her birthday. Grandma Banks was so excited to see Kenya and was one of the main reason we took this trip. The reason we have no pictures of them together is we were occupied by other things, including the police. Grandma was happy to see us and Kenya and it was all worth it. Here is the story.

I told Robert to go to the door and knock while I got Kenya out of the car because I knew it would take her a while to get to the door. He did and when grandma opened the door this really loud siren went off. Yep, gma forgot to turn the burglar alarm off. So, we get inside and I don’t think gma notice the noise. We asked her for her code and she did not know it. Sure enough just a few moments later the phone rings and it is the alarm company. Well, gma could not hear them and she gives me the phone. I tell them I don’t know it and she said she does not know it. Then I give the phone back to here. The whole time the alarm is still going off. I finally shuts off and then gma asks Robert to open the door because it is to hot. Rightfully so! So, he does hoping it doesn’t go off again. It does, and then minutes later another phone call. Same thing, gma cant hear, she give me the phone, I explain and tell them they have to talk really loud, and give the phone back to gma. I am not sure what happened, but gma said it will all be okay and when we asked her about them sending some out she told us they were going to. So, we were able to visit for a short time. Robert was on the phone pretty much the whole time with different relatives trying to find out who knew the code. We still did not figure it out, but shortly before we left a policewoman stopped by and checked. She was very nice and chatted a little with us and then left. Gma was sad to see us go and sad it was such a short visit, we were too. It could have been better had out visit not been so “alarming.” Thanks for the memory Grandma Banks!!

Then off the return the car and to the airport. Once again, can you guess? Kenya was great! She had some fun in the plane climbing the seats before we departed and slept on the flight. What great planning and tricks we have for traveling! We stayed with our friend the Norris that night and left midday Monday to return home. What a fun vacation! Thanks again everyone who we visited