Happy St. Patrick's Day

The past week flew by. We had a pretty exciting Sunday last week. Our family was asked to speak in sacrament meeting and everyone, including the boys participated. We all spoke on the same subject. By all accounts everyone did well and Mom and Dad we very proud of the boys for overcoming their fears and giving their talks.

Monday was also exciting as we got our pool pass. We have been once to swim and Andy has gone each morning this week. He has made some new swimming friends and reports that he is enjoying getting back into the swimming routine. The boys had a great time swimming with Dad and are looking forward to the next trip.

Andy's big homicide trial begins Tuesday. He is nervous and has been working quite hard and a lot of hours to get prepared. Andy was in Salt Lake City on Saturday participating in our Stake Temple Day. He made a trip out in the morning, stopped at Costco for some supplies and then was back in Elko in time to go to work for a bit.

Gail's Relief Society event went very well and she is glad it is over. Now she can get back to the other things she has been meaning to get to. Gail is looking forward to Spring and this past week we had some real spring like weather. We are all actually pretty excited to have warmer weather so we can get out and explore.

That about sums up our week. We hope you all are well. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Yet another wonderful week has passed in Northeastern Nevada. Really not much has occurred out of the ordinary this week, other than we are enjoying having a precursor to spring arrive. The weather has warmed up and we have had beautiful sunshine. Andy saw some flowers popping through the ground this week and quite a few robins have returned to the area. We are anxious for our first spring in the desert. We are all looking forward to enjoying the outdoors here.

The boys continue to do well in school. Last week we had an IEP meeting for Matthew and for the 1st time Matthew's grades have actually gone up. We are all very excited. Nikolas continues to do well. This week he asked if he could do gymnastics again. Now we need to find a place. Gail continues to work at the daycare center and prepare for the Relief Society birthday celebration this Tuesday. She will be glad once this is over. Andy continues to enjoy his job. He was paid a nice compliment by one of the clerks at the local court. She said she enjoyed seeing him in Court as he is one of the most professional attorney's that appears. Andy's big trial begins in a week and once that is over he will be glad.

We hope you are all well and best wishes until next week.

Grandma and Jim Arrive.

We have enjoyed a wonderful week. Andy's Mom and Jim arrived on Tuesday and that evening there were a few presents to open. Matthew was extremely excited with the Lego Batman he received and you can see that Nikolas was a bit disappointed until he was able to open his present.

Then it was Matthew who thought things were a bit unfair. Nikolas was able to use the clubs while Jim was here. It only took one day until the clubs were moved to Andy's car for safe keeping (Actually to prevent Nikolas from swinging them around the house).

Mom and Jim went with the boys to their school on Wednesday and were a big hit with the stacking cups and drumming they did with Matthew and Nikolas' classes. It was great to have Jim hear as well to the soothing sounds of the King's English (the new england accent). We also got to do some exploring. We drove out to Lamoille a cute little community south of Elko. It sits at the base of the Ruby Mountains. As you can see from the pictures, we in fact do have trees in Northern Nevada. Andy's Mom particularly enjoyed the Presbyterian Church in Lamoille.

Matthew and Jim enjoyed a bit of a snowball fight.

We all sampled some great Basque and Mexican food during the visit. Overall, it was a great visit and even though they left today we really miss them and look forward to seeing them again.

That about sums up our week. We hope you are all well.

The Ground Shook

Our past week was eventful to say the least. First of all, for those concerned, Elko was spared the brunt of the 6.0 earthquake. The damage was contained mostly to the community of Wells, which is 50 miles west of us. There was quite a bit of damage in Wells, but thankfully no one was seriously hurt or killed. The geography of the area slowed down the force of the quake, so by the time it reached us we had a little shaking. I was the only one awake when the earthquake hit. It rattled our apartment, but nothing fell from the walls or the cabinets. We appreciated all the calls of concern received from friends and family.



In addition to the earthquake we enjoyed a nice visit with Gail's parent's over the weekend. Matthew built a toolbox with Grandpa and we got to do some shopping. It is always nice to get together with the family. We ended our trip with a visit to Grandma Bates which is always wonderful. We got in late Sunday evening and I think all of us we tired from the weekend's activities because everyone was in bed early and slept in this morning.



The boys are anxious for the arrival of Grandma Mierins and Jim. Every day they keep asking about how many more days until they get here. Hopefully we will have some spring like weather for them.



That about sums up our past week. We hope you all have a great week.

Happy Valentine's Day

Another wonderful week has come and gone. All continues to go well in the high desert. We see signs of spring, which is always great. This morning we saw and heard some song birds so spring cannot be that far away.

Gail and the boys continue to be well. Gail was busy this week getting ready for an upcoming Relief Society Conference as well as her job, which continues to go well. The boys are eagerly awaiting visits with their grandparents. They are excited to see all them which will occur begining next Friday.

Andy had one of the busiest weeks since we have been here. On Wednesday he had a preliminary hearing for a man accused of a heinous sex crime. It was difficult to do and it was the first time he has struggled with his job. He just keeps in the back of his mind he is making sure the system we have established continues. It wasn't easy. Friday was the big trial day in Wendover and he did OK. Nearly everything ended up settling. Once he was done he drove on to Salt Lake City to see a friend and then drove home early Saturday morning.

We hope all is well with our friends and family.

Spring Will Soon Be Here, We Hope.

Another wonderful week has passed for us here in the high desert of Northeastern Nevada. The biggest news of the week was Matthew's Blue and Gold banquet and Nikolas' new hobby as an amateur dentist. As you can see below, Nikolas has taken to pulling his teeth out. We were at the Blue and Gold and Nikolas returned from using the bathroom to announce he decided to pull his other front tooth out.

Matthew had earned two belt loops and we are very proud of him. The theme was the Chinese New Year and we enjoyed a nice dinner and presentation on China.

The weather has warmed up quite a bit and we are told that Elko actually has a spring. Unfortunately, it will also have a wonderful mud/slush season thanks to the wonderful caretaking of our apartment building. Lest any of you thought we were kidding when we complained of no plowing you can see from the photos below that despite the sidewalk being clear there is about 6 inches of ice on the roadway. The past few days have been sunny and in the 40's, next week it is supposed to reach the 50's. So by the end of the day we have a nice slushy mess and by morning we have ice. When we asked about perhaps plowing as the snow melts, we were told by the maintenance guy as he drove by on his trctor with a plow, "Why, just get good snow tires." Yeaaaah.



Andy and Gail continue to do well. This upcoming week Andy has quite a few trials, which he is looking forward to doing. We hope all is well with our friends and family.

February is Here.

We are in the midst of what is considered the first significant snow storm of the winter. It started snowing Thursday, stopped a bit and then picked up again yesterday and has not stopped. Looking outside it appears that we may have about a half a foot. This does not sound like much, but considering the City of Elko budgets $50,000 a year for plowing iand plowing entails pushing the snow into the middle of the road, so everyone can drive through it creating a brown slush, it is significant. Thursday the snow got so bad the road connecting Elko with Spring Creek, the adjoining community, was closed.

We are all doing well. Gail was supposed to go to Salt Lake City Thursday night to do a Pampered Chef show and then visit with a friend Friday. Due to the snow storm blowing through she was unable to go. Hopefully, she will be able to reschedule soon. She is enjoying her new work schedule as it allows her to be home with the boys in the afternoon and all day Fridays.

The boys are enjoying living in Nevada. The have done more sledding than ever and this past week was the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. The boys got to go to school in their best cowboy gear and Matthew went on a field trip to hear some of the performers. The boys continue to do well in school. Matthew is enjoying cub scouts.

We enjoyed a nice visit with our good friend Bill this week. He was in town on business and it was great to see him. Andy knows him from his mission and he was one of our witnesses at our wedding. Living here has allowed us to reconnect with many of our friends, which we like. Last Saturday we also hosted our first dinner party and it was nice to be able to do so. We invited one of Andy's co-workers as well as a family from our ward.

Andy has been busy as always and enjoying the world of criminal law practice. His case load has picked up and over the next several weeks he has quite a few trials. He is planning to attend a forensics conference in Las Vegas in April. The science behind his cases is always very interesting.

We were all saddened by the passing of President Hinckley. Thankfuly, we were able to view the proceedings over the internet. Gail and Andy got to watch and the boys wandered in and out.

That about sums up our past week. We hope you are all well.