Merry Christmas from the California Jeppsens!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

Our whole family was able to make it to LA for the holidays. There's nothing like a rainy Christmas! We made it up to Mammoth to ski for a few days and then spent Christmas at home. We got pajamas on Christmas eve, stockings on Chrismas day, ate Mexican food at Chevy's on Christmas night (a more recent family tradition) and enjoyed being together.

Some memorable parts of this Christmas were playing the new game we got called Killer Bunnies. We played it over and over again. We also played the Wii and everyone enjoyed riding the mini Penny Farthing bicycle the kids got Mom and Dad for Christmas. What did everyone else do for Christmas! We hope you had a good one and we can't wait to see everyone at the family reunion in July!

Mandy's Mission

Mandy is serving on the island of Fogo. She will be there untill February. She says Fogo is a volcanic island made up of steep hills. She is basically hiking everywhere so goes. The roads are just rocks, dirt and waste. There are random dogs, chickens, and goates everywhere. You walk outside and suddenly you see five dogs running around and you get chased by a chicken. Yesterday during a lesson a goat walked into the house looked at us then left. The people don't have doors. They use sheets to divide rooms and for the front door. We have water most of the time sometimes it doesn't exist in the afternoon. We don't have any hot water but we have clean beds. The people live without what I would say are the basic nessesities of life, yet they all have t.v.s and cell phones. They love American culture. The women always greet you by kissing your cheeks (think French people). Well I thought maybe it would be like people kid around in America when thy fake kiss your cheeks, NO! They plant wet ones on you. I feel like my face has cooties. On Saturday I got to see my first baptism here. I work in two branches here in Fogo. There are four Elders in the same city as us, one set in each branch and then four other Elders are here in Fogo but a different area. Total of 8 Elders and 2 sisters here. Wierd thing about the work here, it is completely with the youth. Basically all of our investigators are youth.We apparently have a ton of adult members, but most of them are not active. Beacause of this we work a ton with reactivating members. In fact 60% of Fogo has actually been baptized but no one comes to church so now we have to seek out the members and bring them back. I will have my first convert baptism in November. I love being here. It is sooo different from anything I have ever known, but I'm learning and doing well. The language is the hardest part, the people don't speak Portugues, they speak Creole, so I really don't understand anything anyone says. Pray that I will learn fast! Love you all Love Mandy (Be good- it's worth all the blessings in the world:))

Hello

Just making sure that we are finally on the blog. We will start to put updates about Mandy and her mission now that she has safely arrived in Cape Verde. Acutually she is now in the island called Fogo.

Another New Blog

I've moved my blog to a new location, and I've updated my link in the sidebar.

Does anyone still read this?

Welcome to the Blogosphere

Justin is up and blogging. Check out his link in the sidebar.

Happy 30th Anniversary!

Happy 30th Anniversary to Jerolyn and Todd last week! We had this fabulous cake at a get-together at Grandma's house. Guess who made it? :)

Cafe Rio and Razor Blades

On Saturday, Mandy and I went to Cafe Rio so she could have her last fix before heading off to Africa. We both ordered salads, which should come as no surprise. What should come as a surprise is that I bit into a razor blade while eating mine.

I took the thing up to the staff, and all they did was say sorry. So, I wrote to corporate headquarters this morning. Here's their response:

"Thank you so much for the information about a recent visit to Café Rio. We take this situation very seriously. And I will contact that location and make sure that this does not happen again. Safety and food quality is a main priority here at Café Rio. You can be assured that this will be resolved as quickly as possible.

Thanks again for your time."

At the very least, reimbursement for the price of the meal seems reasonable under the circumstances. Apparently, Cafe Rio thinks otherwise. So, those of you in Utah, spread the word.

Razor blades are deadly. From now on, I think I'll go to Barbacoa.

U of U Olympic Marathoner’s Blog Offers Ringside Seats to Summer Games in Beijing

Thought this might be interesting to some of you U of U alum or fellow runners and hey Kelsey, she's a fellow Linguistics major at the U.


Aug. 6, 2008 -- Sports enthusiasts, Olympic games junkies and armchair travelers just got an insider’s pass to Beijing 2008.

Zuzana Tomas, marathon runner for the Slovakian team and Ph.D. student in linguistics at the University of Utah, is blogging from China about her experiences as part of this year’s summer games.

The web-based journal, www.runzuzanarun.blogspot.com , is up and running. Zuzana will be running in the marathon on Sunday, Aug. 17. Until then, readers can log on anytime to read her observations about traveling 6,000 miles to Beijing, getting acclimatized, continuing to train and prepare for the run, encountering other elite athletes from the world over and experiencing Chinese culture.

Zuzana came to the University of Utah as a graduate student during the 2002 Winter Olympics. Her qualifying race for the Beijing Olympics was the Houston Marathon in Jan., 2008 with a time of 2:39:26.

Log on. It’s the next best thing to being in Beijing.

Kelsey and Garth's slide show!

Hi everyone!

I put together a slide show of our favorite images from Kelsey and Garth's wedding day! Let us know what you think :)

ENJOY everyone! We had a wonderful time with everyone - thank you all again for everything!

xo - Shell

HERE's the LINK to the full res version: http://www.ivystudiosphoto.com/simpsonwedding

And here's the slideshow:

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Garth Simpson

Wow, you plan and plan and then the day comes and goes.

Congratulations Kelsey and Garth! It was a wonderful whirlwind day celebrating your marriage. Welcome to the family Garth! You did well, Kelsey. You did well, Garth.

Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us. It was a wonderful time to come together as family and we appreciated everyone's love and support.

Shelly and Brand0n, the pictures on the computer were incredible. We got so many complements on them. You are such a talent and it was so fun to see the results that night. Thank you, thank you!

Here are a few non-professional pictures of the day for those that were there and for those that weren't. For more pictures and Amy's perspective, be sure to visit her blog.

Thanks again everyone and congratulations to the happy couple.

"Resting" and "relaxing" the night before the big day!

Mr. and Mrs. Garth Simpson are introduced...

At the wedding luncheon...

And the reception...

I can't believe it!

Dear Family,

I can't believe that I just figured out how to post to the family blog.  Just in time for all the new and fun happenings in each family.  Isn't it fun celebrating with each other!  We are certainly a blessed family.  

Yesterday was dad's birthday and I reflected on all the fun we had growing up with such wonderful parents.  Mom and Dad, thank you for laying the ground work.  

It rained in  Phoenix and I remembered the family sitting on the balcony to watch the rain in Bountiful.  It has always been a great experience stopping to look and enjoy each other and the views of the world.  I see more and more the "older" I get that our parents (grandparents and great grandparents for some) have set the most wonderful example.

Anyway, as this month is here there is a celebration in each family.  Congratulations to Shelly and Brandon for their new little edition, Kelsey and Garth who will be off on a wonderful adventure soon, Camber for completing her residency, and Mandy who will be off to lands new and unknown.  What a fun celebration time!

Mostly, each of you light my life on a daily basis.  Thank you to all.  I love you, Brenda :)

Camber's Road

Camber's long road has achieved another milestone. We dropped her off at college 10 years ago. It was difficult to leave her behind in KC. She spent 6 years, year round in getting her BS and MD at the same time. It was a new and exciting time for her. At times she felt it would never end. Before you know it she was married and getting her degree. One picture shows Camber and her father testing driving a sports car, she settled for a Tercel instead. The graduation pictures were the conclusion of her KC road.

It was off to Rochester, NY. It was time for her residentcy. Med school was hard but the 90 hour work weeks were harder in many ways. Shifts that were always changing, it was hard to get a normal sleeping schedule. At times she felt like she was always tired, never quite rested. The 24 hour shifts take their toll at times. She learned much and gain confidence in her abilities. If there was difficult case with a child she was called on many times to handle it because of these skills. While in Rochester they added to the family, Sylvester and Sadie. They are great company. During this time there is always a need to have interests outside of the work, in Camber's case making quilts was one of these.

Congratulation Camber on your perserverance and your accomplishment of getting through it. The page is now turning to the next stage of your life. Congrats and job well done!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Camber's

Dylan Steven Ivy

Here is the first of many pics of Dylan! Wanted to share a couple - we are downloading the rest of the files from our other camera and will have more later!!

Here are his stats:
BORN JUNE 14th at 10:30PM, 9lbs. 2 oz., 22 inches.

He is a beautiful baby, with such a wonderful temperament! We are SO blessed... he is just the perfect addition to our family. Aiden is amazing me with how much he loves his little brother and what a big helper he is!

We are looking forward to seeing most of you at Kelsey's wedding in August! Dylan will be making his first plane ride at only 6 weeks old!

Love you all - and we will post some more pics soon!

xo - The Ivy Crew

DC Trip

We had a great trip to DC with Camber and Caleb. We saw all of the sights. It was Caleb's 1st time in DC. The WWII is new since Camber was last there. We saw the FDR section for the 1st time. It was a great weekend to be there, Memorial Weekend. There was patriotism everywhere. We also saw a play a the Kennedy Center. There were hundreds of thousands of Harley Davidsons there for Memorial weekend. The name of the Veterans group that rides motorcycles is Rolling Thunder and they were everywhere. They had a PBS event for Memorial day on Sunday evening. We were leaving on Sunday morning and found out that they do a dress rehearsal on Saturday night. We go to see it and it was great. The MC's were from a couple of TV shows and Gladys Knight was one of the performers. One picture is at one of the memorials, another is a great garden in Georgetown, Jerolyn by the Harley she road and the other Harley I got a great dsicount on. (It was not bad except fo the smell of the various varmits that were attched to it). It was fun for all!!!!!

A cute pic of the fam...

Hi everyone!

As I sit here waiting for the birth of our son... I thought you all night enjoy a couple of pics that we took a few weeks ago! Our due date is less than a week away... so we are (I AM) so READY for Dylan to make his arrival! I can't wait to meet him. Next post will be with good baby news and some pics of him!

xoxo - The Ivy Crew

Hey We're Here...fianlly

Hey everybody we finally got on the blog. If you haven't already heard Mandy got her mission call to Cape Verde an island country about 300 miles off the west coast of Africa! Temperatures range anywhere from 69 degrees at night to 85 degrees. Usually its mid-70s so Mandy's excited to escape a cold winter this year (watch it will probably be the coldest year Cape Verde has ever had). She leaves August 13th and will be speaking Portuguese and possibly picking up a little of an African language spoken there. More details to come.

Michigan Trips

Thought I'd put up a few pictures since Kelsey and my parents have visited me here in Michigan recently. Kelsey posted about her trip on her blog if you haven't read it and want to check it out. It was fun having her here, especially since she was actually living out here at this time last year. And it was nice to have my parents come out here again. Here are a few pictures from the visits.

Kelsey and I at Bronner's Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, MI. This is the biggest Christmas store in the world - and Kelsey is all about Christmas so no trip to Michigan is complete without a trip to Bronner's :).

Miniature golfing at Putterz. This was for Kelsey to make up for bowling the day before, which I won, twice, hands-down. She beat me at miniature golf, though (just barely).

With mom and dad at Greenfield Village. Henry Ford transported and rebuilt historical sites from around the United States so that people can come and see the invention and innovation he thought had made America great, all in one place.


At Frankenmuth again (which, besides being host to Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, is a little German town settled by German immigrants in the 1800s).

The house where Kelsey lived last year. It's located in the "student ghetto" near campus, so it's probably best that mom and dad only got to see the outside :).

BIKE TO WORK WEEK

Hey everyone, it's bike to work week. What does that mean? Simple, leave your car keys at home and pull that bike out of the garage. With the ridiculous gas prices (thanks OPEC), now is an ideal time to discover the benefits of commuting by bike. No sitting in the long line of cars at every stop light, no road rage, no wasting money on gas (which is basically 4 bucks a gallon here), and a good workout to start your day.
Working in a bike shop, I have recently seen such a huge increase of people buying bikes to commute...the number of people buying commuting bikes has really been astonishing.
Sick of the high gas prices? Don't complain, stage your own personal protest, ride your bike. Trust me, it's worth it and the trend is rapidly growing. It's your choice to pay for gas, but it's not the only option. It's all about supply and demand.
So, at the end of bike to work week...join the thousands across the nation who feel the freedom of 2 wheels and infinite gas mileage.
See you on the road!

Answers

answers will be posted on the "Summers" page for anyone that got stuck.

74 hidden bands

See if you can find the 74 bands represented in this 'hidden' picture.

Sponsor Me at March for Babies!

I'm Engaged!

Hi everyone!

I've been told I need to do this, so here it is. I'm engaged! I'll be getting married on August 2 in the Los Angeles Temple to Garth Simpson. Some of you have met him already and the rest of you will eventually. I'm very excited and I hope you will all be able to come to California because I would love to have you there.

I hope you all are doing great and that life is going well. Grandma had a family party at her house yesterday which was a lot of fun. We ate orange chicken, played (or attempted to) Outburst and enjoyed each others company. We missed all of you who weren't there. However, every family was represented, so that was good.

Be sure to keep us all updated on exciting things in your life! I love to hear them and I'm sure everyone else does too. Have a great week!

Our Special Weekend

On March 29th we were sealed to Will. It was a wonderful day. The following day he was blessed at church. We are so grateful and happy to have him a part of our eternal family!

Aunt Camber made a beautiful quilt with all the quilt squares that everyone sent. This is a picture of the large quilt...there is also a baby sized one. Thank you so much, we love the quilt and all the contributions everyone made.

2009 Family Reunion Estes Park YMCA

Hey everyone. My parents just sent out an email about the 2009 family reunion and so I thought I would post a link to the Estes Park YMCA website so people can check it out. Hope you are all having a great week.

http://www.ymcacampchiefouray.biz/home/our-locations/EPC/EPCrecreation

Better to post late than never - Mammoth 2007

Christmas time is always a special time. The past two years have provided the opportunity for Kelsey and me to share some quality time together in Mammoth just before Christmas. Although Amy, Eric and Sean were also invited, for various reasons they have been unable to accompany us (work, other friends visiting, etc.) Colette likes this time to put the finishing touches on Christmas preparations so she is happy to have me out of the house. So, Kelsey and I go and do our thing. Our 2007 Christmas trip could not have been better. The resort had been lacking in snow and we were concerned that we might need to cancel. Never fear, the snow gods came through and blessed the mountains with more than four feet of fresh snow just before our arrival. Even better, the snow stopped as we arrived in town and we had fresh snow and sunshine for the two days we were there. Here are some pictures from perhaps two of our best days on the ski slopes. We wish you all could have been there.