I have had a wonderful Fall so far! I got to drive up to Rexburg with Jennifer and Elizabeth and visit with Jopes, cousin Holly Nelson, Uncle Kirt and Aunt Brenda. We had a great time staying at their home and exploring Rexburg. (I will have to rely on Jopes to upload more pictures of that, since I think most of them are on his camera). (see pictures here)

Then it was Halloween and Jennifer and I dressed up as a cowgirl and an Indian. Too fun!

That next weekend, with the help of the Hord family, I was able to fly down to AZ and surprise my family on the 1st. On Friday, I went on the Father/Daughter campout with my Dad and sister (you can see a picture of them with some of the YUMMY teryaki sauce we picked up on the way). It was fun to spend time with my family and visit my home ward (and mission prep class...it is the BEST). Joseph and Elizabeth Hord were also down there that weekend (trying out for the Easter Pageant). The three of us flew back to Salt Lake on the same flight and got lunch together (Wendy's) after arriving back in Provo.

This past weekend, my cousin Becca and her husband Reid were able to fly out for a visit. Some family friends hosted a baby shower for Becca, and it was a lot of fun. Reid's mom did the food, so of course it was amazing, and they had a lot of great people there. They also had a really fun and creative activity at the shower. There were several plain white onesies and special fabric markers for people to use in decorating them! It was great! I took a couple pictures of my cousin Lauren's masterpiece. Ü

The next day, I spent mostly up in Highland. Grandma and Grandpa Jamison spoke in church (wonderful talks, of course!), and we sang "This is the Christ"). Then we had a big lunch together after church (mmmmm!). One of my favorite parts was sitting in the family room and going around the circle getting updates from everyone's families! Too marvelous! I just wish I had taken pictures with the camera I had brought!

Today, I got to go with Becca to the BYU Museum of Art (one of our favorite places to be...lots of good memories Ü). You can see a picture of us in front of the building that a nice girl (enjoying her lunch on a bench nearby) was nice enough to take for us. We looked at almost everything in the building, and we also got to visit briefly with two of her (well, our) former art history professors. We then headed across the street to meet up with Reid for lunch and ice cream (delicious, of course!) at the BYU Creamery. Happy day! ...And a beautiful one. I am also including a couple shots of the fall leaves and blue sky taken today in the courtyard of my building.

I hope you are all having a fun fall!

You can't help but just smile when you see this photo!!!

What a great looking duo.

I am so blessed to have such great aunts and uncles. Kirt and Brenda offered to take me down to Provo with them. They brought Steven and all of his luggage and helped him get settled in his apartment for school at BYU. Melinda was also coming up with my mom to move into an apartment. My mom was hoping I would be there, but didn't know if I had actually made it. At first she only saw Brenda, Kirt, and Julie. However, I surprised her by carrying some of Melinda's things inside. That's when mom saw me and I got a very surprised looked from her. It was great and it made my day. We had a wonderful weekend. The majority of these pictures are from Sunday evening with Paul and Becky and the gang. You can see them all by clicking here.

[Here are the pictures from Diana's camera for the same events. -joe]

The Church News has a list of newly called temple presidents. Here is one of note! (Attached is a pdf file of the page out of the Church News)

Melinda has been looking around for a car. She counseled with the family expert, Ric, and then we searched online and tested out new ones. We drove to look at a 2006 Honda Civic with less than 13,000 miles (about 40 miles away!) and it was love at first site.

So here she is...and her new car. She won't actually get the car until early next week but the deal is done and as you can see, she is happy.

Her dad had a great time shopping with her (I couldn't talk her into a pickup truck!) Wonder if I can talk her into loaning me her car!

Check out these first photos and movies from Mike in the MTC. We have also had some wonderful letters, we have scanned them and you can find them here and here.

May 24 Melanie is ready to graduate
It was nice to have the ceremony in the afternoon instead
of at night. Afterwards Melanie went to the all night party at the school and then on to the movie "Pirates 3"
that started at 3:00 a.m. She and some friends went to breakfast afterwards. She got home around 8:00 a.m. and slept for a few hours. Then she was up and off to work for a while. Needless to say, she returned to bed as soon as she got home from work.

Ric and Matthew on Matthew's special day.

This is a photo of our tree on its last day! We pulled it up and replaced it with a little bitty new one.