Questions and Answers with Elder Hill #2

Here is another one....I loved it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDtHdI2lLQk

Questions and Answers with Elder Hill

Erik's companion took some video of Erik when they came home from the hospital. It is pretty funny to see Erik so 'loopy"!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA2X1UASfPQ

More Accident pictures

OKAY, so I didn't get the full story, apparently he was a little more 'beat up' then I was lead to believe. But since everything that was hurt will or already has healed, no worries!

Here he is with Elder Gonzales, they took some hilarious videos of him. He couldn't remember anything about the whole day leading up to his accident, so the Elder's were asking him questions and laughing the whole time. I am grateful they thought to video tape him, it made for some good laughs (sorry Erik)!!!

Erik's Bike Wreck

About two weeks ago we received a phone call from Erik's mission president. He was calling to tell us that Erik had been in a bike wreck and had received a few injuries. Apparently, he and his companion where riding their bikes back to their apartment and as he was going down one hill, quite quickly, to gain momentum for the next hill, he wrecked his bike. He hit his head and broke his helmet, so he had a concussion, and he broke his thumb on his right hand. No one really knows what happened, as Erik can't remember anything about the wreck, or the subsequent ride in the ambulance or time spent in the hospital that evening. His companion was riding in front of Erik, so all he saw was Erik sprawled on the ground when he turned around to see why he wasn't right behind him. We are grateful he was wearing his helmet and we are even more grateful that he wasn't hurt any more. He broke his thumb so good that he had to have surgery a week later, he now has two screws and a pin at the base of his thumb, but he has a had a great attitude about the whole thing. He was proud of himself the first time he was able to button his own shirt the whole way and he says it has made him work on his penmanship (which I am glad, because it was never good to begin with! hehe). Anyway, he sent us a few pictures today, so I thought I would share them, so you can all see the 'pain' he was in.

Here he is, after getting the stitches out and before getting his cast on. I am glad that he is happy about all of this!

You can see the screws and pin....ugh! Wasn't it nice of him to take pictures of his x-rays for us!

Here he is with President and Sister Mansell at Arlington Cemetary. They were both so helpful through this whole 'ordeal'. I am grateful that Erik had them to look after him, I really wasn't worried at all about him, because I knew he was being well taken care of. President Mansell told me that Erik was a little loopy at the hospital right after the accident and we had a good laugh together about Erik always being a little loopy, now he just had something to blame it on.

Yesterday (September 22, 09) Erik got to visit Arlington Cemetery with all of the missionaries that will be going home between now and February 17th (when he comes home!) He is right in the middle, you can see his nice white cast.

25 Years Together

Today, Blake and I celebrate 25 years of marriage together. These past years have been a huge growing experience, lots of lessons learned, lots of compromises and 'discussions', but mostly I remember the joy and happiness we've had together.

I remember the day we were married so vividly....kneeling across the alter from each other, promising to love, cherish and forgive each other, holding Blake's hand as he trembled and I cried, being so excited and thrilled to be marrying this wonderful man, being overwhelmed with the thought of 'eternity' and all that it implied, being grateful to be in the temple with our parents and most importantly being so in love with this man that I could hardly see straight.

I love him even more now, and am so grateful for all he does for our family! He has always provided for us, he honors his priesthood and fullfills his callings, he spends time with our children, teaching them and playing with them, he supports me in my callings and I know that he loves me!!

Thank you Blake, for 25 years of fun together and here's to 25 more!!! I love you!!!

OUR SUMMER

Our summer was busy, fun and productive. Between soccer games, scout camp, Helaman's camp, girl's camp, trek, hiking, moving kids to college, family reunion and Education week at BYU, we did get a little bit of rest, though it never seems to be enough. I have been lax on posting, so here is a huge post to make up for it. Starting with James on Trek. Every four years our stake takes the youth over to eastern Washington to Ensign Ranch. There they get to relive the pioneer times, eating and sleeping like they did. James had a great time this year, he made good friends, ate great food and came home absolutely filthy!! I've posted a few pictures from his week. Most of the ones I found of him were when he was eating or resting, I didn't see alot of him pushing or pulling a handcart!

Here he is with his Trek Family.

Skit night - always the ham. Yes, that is a plunger in his hand, don't ask me what he was doing with it.

With his family again - Brother and Sister Barbosa are his Ma and Pa.

This must be the beginning of the week, he is very clean.

One of the activities that happens during the week is the woman's pull. The men are all shipped off to go to war with the Mormon Battalion, and the women have to pull their handcarts by themselves. And of course it involves a long, steep hill.......

Then the men, dressed as angels, come to the rescue and help to get all of the hand carts up to the top of the hill. Here is my 'flying angel' coming to the rescue.

And finally, here is is, just chillin' with friends.

Okay, next is Nathan. He has had a very adventurous year, going to Japan, build boats, hiking all over Washington state and right before school started, he spent two weeks in Costa Rica. Here are a few pictures, sorry they are so small, I stole them off of his Facebook sight.

He spent the first week by himself, just going all over. He visited Montezuma, ate lots of rice and beans and didn't get robbed or sick. (You know I always worry, it is my job!) The second week, two of his friends from school met up with him and they did some more sight seeing. He zip-lined through the forest, played on the beaches and just had a fabulous time!

Just last weekend, he went with some friends to Zion's National Park in Utah. He got some gorgeous shots of the canyons and of course had a great time!

And then we had the 2nd Annual Olsen family reunion with all of my brother's and sisters. One of the things we forgot to do is get one big group picture, we were all together on Saturday at Lagoon, except for my brother-in-lay, Brian and Erik. Oh well, we will remember next year. Here are a few random shots.

My sister-in-law Kate and my sister Kathy. Both Katherine Olsen, funny huh?

My sister Becky and I.

Here is our family, minus Erik, of course. It was fun to have us all together! Only 5 more months and we will all be together again! yipee!!

One of my favorite pictures, Jay, Dad and Ken. For those of you don't know, there are 7 kids in my family. Ken is the oldest, then there are 5 girls, then Jay is the youngest. Ken was 21 years old when Jay was born, so needless to say, they weren't really raised together.

And finally, we spent the day at Lagoon in Salt Lake City. Here are my children, begging to be let out. Actually, we were getting ready to eat lunch and they just wanted me to hand their clothes to them over the fence and Grandpa couldn't resist snapping a picture.



All in all, it was great summer. Now here's to a great fall!