2 Lahtinen April 2010

Duncan and Mark at the U.S. Mint in Carson City Nevada

Duncan and Mark at Lake Tahoe.

Lake Tahoe with the snow coverd mountain and the lake below. The highest peak is 12,000 feet. Mark could be serving on his mission in the highest Stake in the World. It is located at 12,000 feet. You have to cross over a mountain pass at 16,000 feet to reach it.

Mark at Lake Tahoe. The water is really blue and so clear.

Mark and John were so happy to see each other in Reno. Mark has been at BYU the past 4 months and John in Spokane. We flew both brothers to Reno to meet up with the Mt Spokane Band and participate in the Jazz Festival. It was really hard for Mark to be at a Jazz Festival and not be playing with the band.

Lahtinen April 2010

Jane and Mark at the University of Nevada Reno Jazz Festival. Jane doing her uniform duties, Mark hauling instruments and John is in the background.

John in the "warm up" room. It was a bathroom/ dressing room.

John playing with the Jazz combo. They had been together as a combo for 2 weeks. One full practice with everyone there and one performance at the school concert. They took 6th place out of 22 combo groups. They want to do this again next year.

The combo group is a bunch of characters! But amazing musicians.

John playing in the Jazz I group. They took 6th place out of 24 groups. John received an "Outstanding Soloist" award. He also played with Jazz II because their lead trombone player did not come on the trip. John received an "Outstanding Soloist" award for his solo with them as well.

Spring Break 2010

We went to Fairmont Hot Springs near Anaconda Montana. We took the scenic route through Phillipsburg and by Georgetown Lake. These are beautiful places we had never seen before.

The Hot Springs had the most enormous pool I have ever seen indoors and a big one out doors too with a really fun water slide. The pool temps were 94 degrees and the hot tubs were 103 degrees. It snowed a little while we were outside, but the pool was sooo warm we had a great time.




Allison and Brandon didn't want to get out of the water.







The Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge was a very interesting experience. Lots of history about bad guys and good motivation to stay out of prison.


They had a really cool car museum too. Over 120 cars from the 1800's to the present. Our boys love Mustangs.




We went to Butte and visited the Mineral Museum. It sounded boring, but we all really enjoyed it. We were amazed at the collection of beautiful gems and geological oddities. It held everyone's attention for well over an hour.

We also watched a short movie on the history of Butte and the mining that has taken place there for over 100 years. There are over 10,000 miles (not a typo) of tunnels under the city. The entrances to these old mines are all over in the middle of the town. We counted about eight that we could see behind us in this family picture.




A good time was had by all.

march 2010 Lahtinen

Mark skiing at Deer Valley with the Paul Osborn family, as Mark put it "the most awesome place on earth! If you stand there for like 5 minutes, a staff member will come over and ask if you need anything"

Cookies in the dorm for good luck on the midterms, thumbs up to you too Mark.

Mark shaved with a real razor for the first time so he could be prepared for his mission. No "marks" were harmed in the taking of this picture.

John and his friends before trying to sneak into a catholic daddy daughter dance on a band trip...

John and his friends after getting kicked out of the catholic daddy daughter dance.

John was in the pit for the musical "All shook up!" this month. This is a picture of the kids involved.

John pretending to be a lawyer during Mock Trial in the tri-cities

John was the featured soloist at the Jazz Northwest festival.

John won his division at solo and ensemble, recieving a I which then qualified him to go to state. He also played his solo at the concert band concert.







Playing in the pit seemed a little more relaxing as John and his friends shared pizza and other goodies during the play. All in all, they performed a total of about 55 songs a night and performed 6 nights.

February 2010

John's schedule is so packed with activites that they often conflict. He and his debate partner Zack won enough debate tournaments to qualify for State. The State Debate Tournament will be held in Tacoma Washington in March. John and Jane will have to fly to the debate and back to Spokane so that John can play in the Wind Ensemble concert and compete in the Jazz Northwest Festival. John is also playing in the orchestra for the school musical and participated in the Mock Trial competition, as an attorney. It was held in the the Tri-cities.

We received a surprise visit from the Lahtinens. We got to visit with Darrel, Trish, Timo and Emma. We only get to see them once or twice a year.

John also played and practiced with the Greenbluff Ward Young Men's basketball team. John says he's not a very good basketball player, but he has a great time anyway. Duncan and Jane enjoyed watching the games.

We had a fun Superbowl party at Brent and Rosemary Osborn's house. John enjoyed spending time with his cousins Nolan, Justin, Allison and Branden Osborn.

John and Jane went with the Mt Spokane High School jazz bands to the Clark College Jazz Festival in Vancouver Washington. The jazz bands did very well. John and some of Jane's seminary students, in their tuxedos, crashed a Daddy Daughter Dance, that was being held at our hotel, by a Catholic High School. Sister Mary Ellen bounced them from the dance as the Dad's protested her actions. The Dads were impressed with the clean cut, nicely dressed, confident young men.

John did well at the Eastern Washington Music Educators Solo and Ensemble Competition this year. He took first place which qualified him to go to State. He will not be able to participate in the State competition because it is the same weekend that the Mt Spokane Jazz Bands are going to the Reno Jazz Festival.

Mt Spokane High School's Jazz CHOIR asked John to be the featured soloist on his trombone at their choir concert. He had never practiced with the choir, but managed to pull off a beautiful solo with the choir singing behind him.

Spokane Falls held a Jazz Festival at the beautifully renovated Fox Theater. John was a featured soloist on a ballad with the Mt Spokane Jazz I Band. The trombone section stepped to the front of the stage and played a college level trombone solie which they had memorized. It wowed the crowd.

Grandma and Grandpa Osborn, Grandma and Grandpa Lahtinen, Duncan, Jane and John all gather at Duncan's office to watch Mark open his mission call.

Mark is so excited, his hands are shaking and his heart is pounding out of his chest. We have never seen Mark this excited about anything before. It made us all smile.

As he reads where he will be serving as a Missionary for the next two years, Mark gets a huge smile on his face that does not go away the entire hour we talk to him. He reads to us, all the instructions, from shots, to the 3 pages of items we need to purchase and fit into 2 suitcases 44lbs maximum.

Elder Mark William Lahtinen will be serving in the Lima Peru East Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He will enter the Provo MTC on June 30, 2010 for 3 weeks of training. Then he will fly to the MTC in Peru for an additional 6 weeks of training.

Mark will be staying at BYU for Spring Term. He has been accepted into the Spanish Foreign Language House where he will be living and working on Spanish conversation with his Resident Assistant who is a native of Peru. He will not be allowed to speak english or watch anything (TV or movies) that are not in Spanish. Mark hopes this class will help him improve his Spanish quickly.

Mark has prepared for his mission since he was a tiny little boy. He saved his money, carried his scritpures to church and wore a white shirt, tie, suit and missionary name tag.
He can hardly wait start teaching the gospel to the people of Peru.

Bryan & Julene family February updates

Just a little note about this post . . . As I was doing some administrative activities on the Blog, I noticed that our post was saved to draft and never got published. So, here is our February updates. March is still coming. Bet you can hardly wait.

Christopher-

Started teaching a boy trumpet lessons at the elementary school. He is a kid with behavioral problems and the school they were looking for a volunteer to work (supervised) with this boy. Christopher was the only one to volunteer and is doing a great job. It's great to know that he will do great things even when we aren't pushing him in the right direction.

Maygan-

Had more hula performances, continues to practice for math is cool, loves to make bead projects. Finshed playing basketball and had a great time.

Hyrum-

Is a great basketball defender. He makes really great faces when he is defending.

Emily-

Story of the month. Emily saw a lady smoking up on a landing of a building. She asked me (mom), if I saw the "witch" up there. She had to cover her nose the whole time while we were in the area. She told me that she doesn't like witches. So the lesson is don't smoke if you don't want to become a witch.

Bryan & Julene

We went to Mexico to belatedly celebrate our anniversary and to visit the Bickmores who are serving as the temple president and matron at the Veracruz, Mexico temple. We went to the pyramids and Bryan designed a t-shirt that he wants to have made. It reads, "I got burned and the Temple of the Sun." Julene will not be allowed to wield the sun screen stick again, as she ended up drawing a "W" or possibly an "M" on my forehead when the burn set in.

We loved having lots of time to read, play games and speak Spanish. We got to go to a fun parade and had even more fun trying to leave the parade early. We also visited the site of the Cinco de Mayo battle. The Veracruz temple is just like the Spokane temple. It was wonderful to get to know the people there.

This is a picture of us in what is supposedly the first home of Hernan Cortes in the new world. Notice the tree roots growing up through the walls.

January Highlights

PTA Reflections
Hyrum and Maygan both entered the PTA Reflections competition. Hyrum made a video of his friends. His friends and his mom are what he finds beautiful. He won a district award and it will be displayed at CV Days at the Mall. Maygan won best overall for her choreography and will advance to state. She wrote a hula dance. We are proud of both of their accomplishments.

Christopher:
Middle school basketball is fun for cousins. Christopher and Nolan are both playing J.V. basketball at Horizon. Christopher still plays the trumpet in the Jazz band and reports that band is his favorite class at school. Christopher has just started his second year of debate. I guess that good debaters run in the Osborn family, huh John.

Maygan:
Our sweet Maygan continues to sing in the choir at school. She joined the math is cool team at school. Maygan is playing basketball and scored two baskets in her game last Saturday.

Hyrum
He still loves school. He is becoming a great reader. He has just started basketball and is pretty cute.

Emily-
Emily is becoming quite the little Hula star. She has been performing with Maygan at retirement communities around Spokane and has been stealing the show!

We love our family and are happy to be part of the Osborn Clan!