Lahtinen June 1-15, 2010

This year's MSHS Graduation was held at the new McCarthy Center at Gonzaga University. The band sounded great as usual. The seniors don't play with the band at graduation, so we always wonder if the band can pull it off. Every year the under class-men arise to the occasion. John is the top dog now, as if he wasn't before!
My Seminary class had 17 students this year. 7 of them were seniors and graduated Seminary. Out of 17 students 14 read the Book of Mormon cover to cover and 14 memorized the 25 Scripture Mastery scriptures. All 7 of my graduating seniors memorized all 100 scriptures. My class was asked to sing at graduation. We sang "Lead Kindly Light" with a verse of "I Need Thee Every Hour" in the middle. We ended with the last verse acapella. It was beautiful. Lots of musical talent in this class. Most are in Jazz Band or Jazz Choir. We loved studying the Book of Mormon this year. This was my 5 th year of teaching Seminary.
We went to Bainbridge Island, WA to Emma Lahtinen's baptism. She was baptized in a pond, by her father, Darrel Lahtinen (Duncan's brother). The service was held in a barn that literally, they backed the tractor out of and set up chairs. It was a beautiful day in Seattle. It rained all the other days we were there, but not the day of the baptism.
The beach was beautiful and the sky was clear. We could see Seattle across the Sound.
The Lahtinen Clan

Front row: Darrel, John, Timo, Emma. Middle row: Grandma L., Amanda Smith Back row: Duncan, Grandpa L., Teresa Smith, Trish

Lahtinen May 2010

The Lilac Parade this year had beautiful weather. MT Spokane High School was chosen as the Honor Band to start off the parade. These are our parade uniforms. John is a Junior in High School.
The Spokane Osborns met to celebrate Mark receiving his Temple Endowment. All the adults were able to attend. Even Grandpa, who was recovering from his broken orbital bone and injured knee. Brent and Rosemary were the witness couple. After the Temple session, we all met at Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner. Our friends, the Assmus' also accompanied us to the temple and dinner.
We were blessed to have one last rendition of "Bugler's Holiday". Mark will be on his mission for the next two years, so we will be missing a trumpet player. They play so well together.
What a great time in our lives! Nothing better than having a child make righteous choices.
Mark was excited to receive his Temple Endowment and to be home from BYU for the weekend.

Catching up on Events

April Third and Fourth were General Conference. April 4 was also Easter. The four Osborn (Lahtinen) families couldn't decide when to have Easter Dinner. So we decided to have dinner following the Saturday afternoon session of conference. The priesthood holders would then go to their meeting and we would have dessert after they returned. I took this picture before the men and boys left for their meeting. It was thrilling to see the two grandpas, two of our sons, our son-in-law, and three grandsons ready to leave. I took this picture before they left.

The children, who were too young to go to the meeting, had an egg hunt after the men and boys left. They had a lot of fun.

While Dad was in Salt Lake City for the genealogy conference, I had a sleep-over with Maygan and Allison. We went to dinner at Wendy's, then came home and watched the move, "Pollyanna", and ate popcorn. The girls polished their fingernails and toes and fussed with their hair. Here are a couple of silly pictures from our night together.

On April 24, the High Priests Quorum of our ward had an outing at Palouse
Falls State Park. Grandpa and I took Allison and Justin with us. It was about a two hour ride through green rolling hills. It started to rain soon after we arrived.
Allison and I got soaked so we ate our lunch in the car with the heater going. These are a few of the pictures I took while we were there.

On May 12, Dad tipped and fell on the sidewalk at the Family History Center. He injured his right cheek, the orbital bone on his eye and his left knee. On Monday, May 17, he had surgery. It was a 2 1/2 hour surgery. He had three incisions: one in his eyebrow, one inside the lower lid of his eye, and one inside his mouth. These are some pictures I took before surgery and after. His face is healing nicely, but he is still having much swelling and pain in his knee. Tomorrow,

June 2, he is to begin physical therapy.

On Saturday, May 29, we went to the Spokane Temple with Mark Lahtinen to receive his endowment. Dad went, even though he was in a lot of pain. We left as soon as the session was over so I didn't get any pictures at the temple. However, I think Jane has some she will share.

We came to our house after the temple session and had a lunch. All of the Spokane Osborns and Lahtinens and friends of the Lahtinens,the Ossmuses,
came. Dad was in too much pain to eat with us. This picture includes everyone except Dad.

May family fun

Recent family updates: Maygan (9) Will turn 10 this week! Won a state award for the 2nd year with the PTA Reflections competition. She finished her last season of soccer and is looking forward to starting up tennis. She is running for school secretary.

Hyrum (6) Finished up his first season of soccer and is really good at scoring goals! He loves to swim and is excited for swimming lessons this summer!

Emily (3) got new sunbeam teachers. It rocked her little world but she is adjusting. Loves to play and not takes naps but gets super grumpy without them. She will perform in her first hula recital tomorrow!

Chris (13) Ran for school president. Has been performing with the school jazz band. Earned his Deacon Duty to God Award. Marched in his first parade.

Julene just finished high school tennis season! Helped the middle school band so they could have a little flag team at the Jr. Lilac Parade.

Bryan turned 40. We had a fun party to celebrate. Got a new calling in the ward as the choir director.

As a family we went to Seattle for a weekend to go to get Maygan's award. We "rode the ducks" tour of Seattle. It was so much fun! We also went to the Rain Forest Cafe and did a lot of swimming at our hotels. It was a great little vacation.
We also spent a different weekend in Walla Walla and went to the fort there as well as checking out the Whitman Mission. We love spending time together.

Lahtinen April 2010 cont.

We moved Mark from his dorm at Helaman Halls over to The Spanish Language House. He will stay Spring Term there. In the house they can only speak spanish. This will give Mark 6 weeks of speaking Spanish before he enters the MTC on June 30, 2010.

This is Mark's dorm room at Helaman Halls. Mark is sitting at his desk. The RA is at his roommate's desk and is roommate is standing at his bed. This is where Mark spent the past 8 months of his life. He LOVED it there. So many great experiences.

Mark and is Roommate Brandon. Brandon is from California and is going on his mission to Mexico City North (a new mission). Mark is going to Lima Peru East. This roommate was a great match for Mark. They got along great.

This is Mark in front of Budge Hall in Helaman Halls.

Mark in Carson City Nevada. This is an unground museum that wanders through tunnels that were mined.

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.