Lahtinen November 2010

We started out the Month of November with several Jazz Festivals. John is in the middle of this picture. This band is really good and has earned many awards already, and the jazz season has just begun.
John received "Best Soloist" at the EWU Jazz Festival. His trombone section also received "Best Section", at the same festival. Excellent musicians.
Thanksgiving was at our house this year. Grandma and Grandpa Osborn cooked the best turkey yet. Their homemade stuffing was excellent! We fed 23 people. It was an enjoyable day, but we missed Mark. They do not have Thanksgiving in Peru.
We got lots of snow in November, setting records. All the ski resorts are open. We are sick of shoveling snow already! John is wearing the alpaca hat that Mark sent him, from Peru. Mark says he knows the lady that sheared the alpacas, carded the wool, and made the hats. Not sure if he is pulling our leg, or if he really does know her. Hard to say. There are no tags in them.

Lahtinen October 2010

Happy 17th Birthday John! John received a new bass guitar and amp for his birthday. He plays the bass guitar in his band "Armchairs for Ecuador".

Jane has loved working with the marching band for the past 6 years. It has been hours and hours of time, but she has loved all the associations with the parents and the kids. Jane will really miss them next year.

We finished up marching band forever, both John and Jane. The band's final performance was their very best of the season. It was sad as John passed on the leadership responsibilities to the Juniors for next season. John hugged his Mom and thanked her for all her hours of service to the band and to him. Both John and Jane cried.

We now have 21 students in our Seminary class. 5 of them are non-members.4 of them are taking the missionary lessons. We are stuffed into our little room, but love being together. It is a rowdy class with powerful testimonies. This was a lesson on "putting on the armor of God".

John's band "Armchairs for Ecuador" participated in "Trunk or Treating" also. Here, they were learning music to sing in Sacrament meeting the next day (without the painted faces).

Our Ward participated in "Trunk or Treating" this year. We had a huge bag of candy, but it was gone in 20 minutes. Huge turn out.

St. George Trip

Recently, we took a trip to see Tarzan in St George at an outdoor theater. It was a lot of fun. We spent the next day in Zion National Park. We hiked an awesome hike called Angels Landing and spent a little time in the Zion Narrows. It was a great day. Ryan has a football injury which made it hard for him to hike. LaDawn and Ryan went to the St. George Temple while we were at Zion NP.

Osborn Creek Area

We recently enjoyed a visit from mom and dad. They came to see Tyler's Marching Band, participate in Tyler's Eagle Scout Court of Honor and to see Ryan play football. I think they enjoyed all of that. On Monday and Tuesday of their visit Dad and Paul drove to Escalante. Dad wanted to find Osborn Creek, a tributary of the Escalante River and a canyon where Grandfather Osborn farmed and raised cattle. We had a map and a determination to find it. Finding Osborn Creek was not easy due to a lot of undergrowth. We had to cross the Escalante River multiple times and at some point crossed paths with a cougar. It was a great adventure. Here are some photos from that trip.





Osborn Creek Area

Brent's Fam Summer 2010

Nolan received 8 merit badges at the summer court of honor following scout camp. Five of those were earned at scout camp. Brent spent the last two days of scout camp with Nolan and had a very enjoyable time with the boys.





We went to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington for vacation this summer. We drove to Seattle the first night and then took the ferry across the sound the next day and drove to Port Angeles. There we drove up to Hurricane Ridge. This is the top of one of the mountains in the Olympic National Park. Over 5,000 ft in elevation. The views of the other Olympic Mountains were spectacular as the clouds pushed up and over the peaks. We could see across the Straight of Juan de Fuca to Canada. There were lots of hiking trails that we enjoyed in the tops of the mountains. We almost wanted to break out singing , "The Hills are alive....." Maybe not.






The next day we drove around the peninsula to explore the ocean, waterfalls and big trees in the Park. There were some amazing sites.













We spent the night in Forks, WA of Twilight vampire fame. We saw no vampires, but while eating dinner, Justin found out where the town got it's name.







The next day was spent exploring the tide pools along the Pacific coast. We saw an amazing amount of sea anemone and star fish. We also saw crabs, sea otters and the World's largest spruce tree. WOW!







We got to Ocean Shores in the afternoon. It was 57 degrees with a light drizzle. The water had to be 10 degrees colder than the air but the kids couldn't get enough of playing in the surf. Glad we brought our wet suits.










The next day we drove to the Mt St Hellen's visitor center and then drove up the Columbia River Gorge past Portland and stopped at Multnomah Falls. Further up the Gorge, westopped in the middle of nowhere to see a replica of Stonehenge built in 1921 by a local man who built it as a memorial to the young men from his area who had died in World War I.








Five nights in five different hotels and 1400 miles. Sounds kinda awful, but we had a great time!

Lahtinen September 2010

September 1st Mark left the Lima Peru CCM and headed to the "field". He is living in the city of Huanuco, Peru. It is high in the Andes Mountains. It is a town of 300,000 and Mark is the only "white boy" in the entire city. Mark is 6'2" and they are all around 5 feet tall. His companion is the one in the navy blue shirt. The other two are another companionship that hiked with Mark, on his p-day up to the top of Mt San Cristobal. Mark says his legs are tired from tracting up and down the mountains and his legs are tired from swatting mosquitoes.

This is Mark and his companion on top of Mt San Cristobal. His companion is Elder Farias.

John is back in school. Senior year at Mt Spokane High School. He has lots of AP classes, lots of band and marching band, Debate, Young Mens and youth activities and his own band too. Busy, busy young man! And he loves every minute of it.

Mark has participated in 2 baptisms while serving in Huanuco. This one, Mark performed. The young man is Russel and is 16 years old. He has LDS friends who introduced him to the gospel

John's band "Arm chairs for Ecuador" played for the Stake Youth dance. They were very well received by the youth and by the adults. At least 1/3 of the youth that came were non-members from the Mt Spokane High School Band. John plays bass, trombone, and sings in this band. They have been asked to play at the Older Single Adults dance on New Years Eve. During marching season, it is really hard for them to find time to rehearse. They write their own music and it sounds really good.

John's band buddies. The three of them are seniors. They have a great time in marching band, as well as Jazz band, Wind Ensemble and Pep band.

Jane keeps busy keeping the Mt Spokane Band program in all their uniforms. She has uniform duties at every performance, from football games, to competitions and concerts. Jane is also planning all the details, and collecting payments for the Band's trip to Anaheim, this April. Jane has 18 in her Seminary class this year. Three are non-members

Duncan was called to be the Ward Mission Leader. That responsibility has added to his stress, as he works long hours seeing patients, assisting the Scout Committee and trying to keep up with the Family schedule. Thanks Duncan for all your hard work and diligence!