Ashley's Wedding

For a day in December, in the Tri-Cities, in the midst of brutal winter weather, Ashley picked a wonderful day to get married. Although it was still cold, the temperature had warmed up from the previous two days and there was no precipitation. She and Kyle looked truly like a couple. Here are some of the pictures we got at the temple. The open house is tonight in Lewiston and we will add some more from that.








A number of people were slipping and sliding including the photographer and Connor, but, not Ashley. We wondered why, until we spied her footware.

Snow everywhere!

Kelsey called us Friday night and told us it was snowing. Apparently some of the snow had left by Saturday, because it warmed up a bit and turned to rain.

However, Sunday morning she woke up to snow again. She took a picture at the house.
Meanwhile, in Idaho Falls, we also got snow. Connor, Chris and I got to shovel Saturday Night and then again after Church. Ironically, in Kent, church was canceled, but not in Idaho Falls where we actually received more snow and had colder temperatures (between 2 degrees and 5 degrees f).

We did a "progressive" block for church; we attend Priesthood and Relief Society in Matt & Amy's ward, Sunday School in Jennifer and McKay's Ward and Sacrament Meeting in Stan and Sharon's Ward. Before we went to Jennifer and McKay's for Dinner, Connor built a snow cave. He has really enjoyed being around all of this snow!

TSR Raceway

For his birthday, Connor's grandparents paid for him to go to TSR and drive the go carts. Chris, Matt, Colby, Ashlynn and Brinley went with us.

Chris, Connor and I raced the adult race track. Because I had to keep my hands on the wheel at all times, I could not take pictures while I was racing. So, I got some before.

After the first race, we watched Ashlynn and Colby race the Youth track. Everyone had a lot of fun. I was surprised at how much work it was. What a blast, though!

Between the races we went and played some of the arcades since we got tokens with our entry to do so. We all challenged Chris at air hockey, but, he managed to beat every one of us! My commitment to true sportsmanship prohibits me from talking about my feelings about my losses.

As mentioned before, Friday night it started snowing. There was snow and lots of wind on Saturday morning so TSR was not really busy. It snowed more Saturday Night.

Last Night was Chris and Lindsay's graduation. We started off with the Graduation Banquet.


Even Parker was awake for part of the time.

President Clark, the University President, addressed those in attendance. President Uchtdorf presided and spoke to us as well. He talked about how the Temple, that now sits just above the campus, is Heavenly Father's temple and that our bodies are his true temple and we should care for our bodies as well as we care for the Temple.

After the Graduation we took some pictures of Chris and Lindsay after they put on their robes and went to the Hart center.

At commencement, we heard from President Clark and President Uchtdorf again. President Clark told the students to serve faithfully in church callings. President Uchtdorft talked about families and about how the graduates should go forth into the world and serve faithfully. There were 42 couples that were graduating together including Chris and Lindsay.

After the commencement, we prepared for the convocation. We took more graduation pictures.



Henry J. Eyring, VP of the School of Business spoke at the Convocation. He talked about having an "Autopia" experience, referring to the car at Disneyland. He noted that there is a metal rail down the middle and when you try to go off course, the metal rail puts you on. He told of how he had wanted to be an investment banker and planned a trip to Wall Street the week of the stock market crash of 1987 and how that changed his direction to where the Lord thought he would do best. He said that we should look for those experiences and yield to the Lord's will and that if we did our part, the Lord would help us to stay on the course we need to be.

The diplomas (or rather the diploma folders) were handed out:
After the convocation, we took more pictures. The snow held off until we got back to Idaho Falls and then the wind really started whipping up.

Connor's Birthday

Yesterday was Connor's Birthday. Last week we bought him a new suit as one of the gifts for his birthday, so, I thought it would be nice to post a picture of him in his Birthday Suit.


Yesterday, we started off the day with the traditional birthday breakfast. Connor had requested an omelet with Orange Juice. It was a such a simple request.



Connor's main gift request was "guitar hero". As you can see, it was one of the few Birthday requests that actually gets granted in the Gessel household.


Connor also had a recital on Saturday. He did an outstanding job, unfortunately, the video did not and I had to make him stay in his recital clothes and play his selection when we got home. Here it is.





After the recital, Connor, Briana, Mike, and three of Connor's friends, Spencer, Jason and Alfredo, went and played Laser Tag. Jason fought me for my code name, James Bond, so I let him have it and simply went by 007. Everyone had a great time, I think Spencer was the high scorer out of our group.

We then came home and the boys challenged each other at guitar hero; I think Alfredo, who beat everyone, plays way too much. We then had birthday cake!


I was enjoying watching the boys play guitar hero, but, we had to cut the festivities short to attend another party in Bonney Lake where we exchanged Christmas gifts. I ended up with items of food, Laurie ended up with a blanket and Connor ended up with another Lava Lamp.

It was a very fun, but exhausting day!

Kelsey's New Apartment

Last Monday we helped Kelsey move into her new apartment. To date, she is the first of our children to leave home at age 19 and venture out on her own. But, with her cosmetology training and job, she is certainly capable of doing well. She is very excited about her apartment and it is a very nice apartment. We didn't take any pictures, but, Kelsey must have some on her blog.