Missionary Experience

Aubrey and I have really enjoyed working with the missionaries in the Lakewood ward this summer.  We were called as ward missionaries back in May and have been doing a lot of fellowshipping and I've been going out on a lot of exchanges.  Today was especially fun from a missionary point of few for me.  The Elder's gave me a call this morning as we were walking out the door to church and asked if I'd be able to give a lady and her two kids a ride to church.  I quickly dropped Aubrey and Cooper off at church and then  went to pick them up.  Cassie was her name and she had recently been baptized three weeks ago; she has a four year-old son named Juan who turns five in August and a 4 month old daughter names Jewel is only a day younger than Cooper!  From what I can tell she is a single mother but loves the church and got along great with Aubrey and I; we are going to make sure to include her in some of our weekend adventures from now on.

I ended up having to take Cassie and her family home after sacrament meeting because her daughter was running a fever and not feeling well and it ended up leading to my missionary opportunity for the day.

A pet peeve of mine is when people are stuck with car trouble and no one offers to help or they just honk and get angry when the troubled car is stuck in their way.  On my way back to church i noticed a late model Toyota Corolla limping through the intersection with flat tire.  After going through the intersection myself I flipped around and found them parked at the front gates of a cemetery, all three of them gathered around their flat tire looking clueless as to what to do.  I pulled up and offered my help and they were grateful.  It turned out that they were on their way to church themselves and were just a few hundred feet from their apartment when they realized that they had a flat.  There were women in their late 40's and a boy about 15 or 16 years old and they had just recently moved from Kenya.  While I was jacking up their car we discussed some of the World Cup activities and then our conversation migrated towards church since all four of us were dressed for it.  Turns out they were on their way to church as well and so naturally we each shared what church we were from.  They were impressed to know that our church was also in Kenya and after a few minutes of talking I put the missionaries number in the front cover of an old Book of Mormon that I had in my car door that had been waiting there for just such an experience.  The family was very grateful for the help with their tire and I was grateful for my opportunity to do a good deed and share the gospel.  The showed me where they lived as we had to get a lug nut wrench from their apartment because mine was too small and I intern informed the Elders where they lived as well.  Hopefully they will come visit us at church soon and some more good will come from this sunday afternoon's activities.

We are grateful for the opportunity that we have to be a part of the ward mission's efforts and look forward to more missionary activities while we are here this summer.  We challenge you to take some time to slow down and serve someone else, maybe you too can have a great missionary experience!

Finding his hands!

Today is Father's day and we had a nice dinner with Grandpa Dorman; Lisa, Cory, Katlyn, Roger, George and Linda all joined us for dinner and we had a great time.  Cooper on the other hand unsatisfied with his bottle decided that he would turn for the table cloth.  He's really starting to find his hands and likes to put just about everything in his mouth!  You can click on the purple text to find a video of Cooper in action.

Olympic Air Show!

Despite the lack of sunshine we've been having around these parts we still managed to enjoy most of the day outside this saturday.  Since we weren't going to be in Rexburg for the annual air show this year, we decided to go to one here!  The Olympic Air Show is held every year in Tumwater Washington near Olympia and we had a pretty good time!

The show held a wide variety of different kinds of planes for past and present and there was a lot of cool helicopters too; when we got there a super cobra was flying around doing some pretty neat maneuvers!

The air show itself was pretty similar to the one that is in Rexburg every year although the Rexburg show has a lot more acrobatic planes that perform stunts.  The Museum in Rexburg is also a little bit nicer as well; the advantage that the Olympic Air Show had over Rexburg's however was a bigger airport so there was a lot more room to get up close to the planes.  There was also some really neat jets at this air show; unfortunately when they started flying we had to take cover because they were extremely loud.

They made several super sonic passes at a very low level and we've never seen Cooper scream so hard!  We felt really bad for the little guy so we called it a day after the likes of the F-16 and F-4 flew over with their after burners flaring.  It was just too much action for little Cooper at this stage although it was really neat to see the jets break the sound barrier!

It was pretty funny to watch other peoples kids too though and we realize that Cooper wasn't the only little one and sometimes not so little one that wasn't enjoying the sonic booms coming from the jets.  The first pass the the F-16 made startled about everyone on the field as it came from behind the hanger that most everyone was standing around and we were all looking the opposite direction thinking it would be coming over the trees.  When it came blasting over the hanger with it's afterburner blazing it shocked everyone and even brought several 9 or ten year olds to tears!

CLICK HERE for some F-16 footage!







ENJOY THE PICTURES FROM THE AIR SHOW!

This rescue helicopter is apparently very rare; it was really fun to watch fly because it has two rotors that spin in alternating directions.  They almost look like they'd collide and the thing would never get off the ground but it did!

I think that Cooper is trying to be smooth for the ladies in this photo!

More Laughs From Cooper!

Click here for more laughs from Cooper!

And a couple cute pics to boot!

Let's go Jeepin!

Another weekend has come and gone here in Washington and we weren't about to let it go by without having another fun family outing!  George and Linda were kind enough to offer us a day out in their jeep for a few hours.

We took a ride over to Lake Washington and cruised around Mercer Island; it was fun to admire some of the fancy homes and pretty scenery, there were also a ton of cyclists on the island and it made us think of Grandma and Grandpa Johnson!  While we were on the island we came across a nice little beach, unfortunately we didn't have our swimsuits and we most definitely didn't want Cooper to experience his first sunburn.  So we spent most of our time in the shade and let Cooper experience feeling the sand between his toes for the first time which he seemed to really enjoy!  It was the first day this summer that really had nice weather so we were quick to take the top off the jeep and get some rays!

After circling the island and enjoying the scenery we jumped on I-90 for a brief stint and drove around the temple grounds; then on our way back we decided to cruise around down town Seattle which was a lot of fun especially with the top off.  We tried to avoid the freeway as much as we could as Aubrey's hair was flying violently in the wind and the visor on Cooper's car seat wanted to fly away.  Cooper didn't seem to mind however because he slept most of the time.  Aubrey had a great time with the camera while we were driving around Seattle, I think she secretly wants to be a photographer.  Enjoy the pictures from this weekends family outing!

Before the day was done we could tell that our drool covered cooper had just about enough of sitting in his car seat so after feeding him his bottle we decided to let him take a brake in the back of the car before we headed home.  He was sitting up so well that it almost looked as if he could ride all the way home that way!

Growing stronger day by day!

Cooper is getting bigger and bigger and with each passing day he shows a little more personality.  He was giggling all night long tonight and even took a ride on dad's shoulders.  He's getting so fat now days that it seems he has no neck and the majority of his mass is his tummy!  Enjoy some of the pictures we've taken of him recently.

Real Men Wear Pink!

We were looking for some new running shoes for Aubrey when came across a new outfit for Cooper!  The gray pinstripe pants are still too big and because Cooper has no neck we couldn't button his top butting to let him wear his tie.  He still looks really cute in his new pink shirt!

A day on the beach!

Since most of our weekdays are spent working and doing homework we really make sure to dedicate some time on the weekends to go out and do something fun together!  This weekend we decided to head over to Ocean Shores and check out the beach!

It was a nice 75 degrees or so in Tacoma but the coast was quite a bit cooler and pretty windy so we ended up in jackets and wishing that we'd worn pants rather than shorts.  We still had a great time though and the wind ended up being a good thing because there were kites everywhere; it was a real treat.

There were kites of about every shape and size imaginable there and some were up so high that we noticed them quite awhile before we got to the beach!  There was one part of the beach that was set up for acrobatic performances to music for some of the kites and that was pretty fun to watch as well; Cooper wasn't quite sure what to make of it all. 

Because it was a little cold we kept Cooper bundled up pretty good in his stroller but we did get him out and let him enjoy the beach a little bit for himself.  

  

Although it wasn't the warmest day we didn't feel a day to the beach would be quite complete without getting some ice cream; so of course we did get some and we splurged on a little bit of salt water taffy as well!

At the end of the day Cooper was pretty tuckered out; so tired in fact that his head kept flopping over on his chest.  All in all we had a really great time and we love our family excursions on the weekends!  It seems that Cooper is doing something new everyday and we love watching him learn and develop; we're looking forward to letting him loose on the beach once he's learned to crawl!