7.29.18

A fun story to share with you about Melissa and Chaz first. 

Melissa loved Disneyland. She wants to go any chance she gets. She has been there a couple of times with just friends. Chaz is not a fan. He hates long lines and lots of people- basically Disneyland. 

Last week Melissa and Chaz went to California. Before they left Melissa was talking to me and telling me how much she wanted to go to Disney and she wondered if she could get Chaz to go. She said she doubted it, but maybe.. She talked to me about this for 10 mins or more. 

Monday, I get this picture with no explanation.

At first I thought it was just a cute picture of them. Then, I looked at the background. Do you see it? Mickey Mouse? They were at Disneyland. He totally surprised her for a birthday present. Good job Chaz! 
And then the Hills family just barely moved to California. The Hills family was Melissa’s young woman president and she babysat for her often. She LOVES this family. They have been out of the country for several years and this is only the second time she has seen them in the past few years. 
Melissa and Chaz got to stay with them! And see her good friend Daneah who lives in San Diego. Melissa was glowing she was so happy!!!



Poor Keagan. His week wasn’t as great. He got his bottom wisdom teeth pulled. He has been miserable, but not too grumpy. He’s been out of it a lot. I won’t post his pics.. that might make him grumpy. 

I got to go up to girls camp on Friday with some other of our ward leaders. It was hot! But it was fun seeing all of our girls. We had 19 that went this year! Which is so amazing considering we only had maybe 10 before we changed boundaries. It looked like they were all having fun!



Tonight we had the missionary fireside. They have a couple of returned missionaries speak and a couple getting ready to go out. Keagan was asked to speak and we were hoping he would be up to it considering he just had his oral surgery. He’s still a bit puffy, but he did a good job. He said that he shouldn’t of done choir practice today. That hurt. 
Next week I’m teaching all the young women. Our theme this year for mutual is Peace in Christ. I love this theme. Ive challenges them to think of an experience that has given them peace in Christ and how they can rely on that experience to help them when school starts or times get rough. I’m excited to hear about their experiences!
Love you all!
Have a good week!
Sent from my iPhone

7.22.18

Today was such a good day. The only thing that would of made it better would be to have Melissa, Chaz, and Hazel here. Happy Birthday Melissa!

Keagan was sustained an Elder today in sacrament and received that priesthood tonight. Brother Moore came over from the high council and Ray was able to do it. What a wonderful spirit that was here. It was pretty amazing. 

Earlier today, Adam Cichoski (he served in our ward as a missionary 4 years ago) and his mom and Dad were here and came to our ward. They came over after church for dinner. It was fun to visit with them and especially that live in Las Vegas. They’re not in Keagan’s mission , but close to the border. 

My mom and Thom came over shortly afterwards. The Cichoski’s left and Makayla and her dad came over for Keagan.

After Keagan received the priesthood, a newer couple in our ward came over and needed a blessing. Ray gave the first blessing and Keagan gave his first blessing right after. It was so amazing. The spirit was so strong. That boy- man amazes me. He was definitely listening to the spirit. I cried more during that blessing than when he was being ordained. It was beautiful and sweet. 

So, we had a good night feeling the spirit and good company. Lots of laughs and some tears.

Keagan went to trek this week and had such a good experience. He’s been telling us some good stories! There was a ma that got stung 25 times! She had a blessing and Keagan told us how everyone was so quiet and Reverent and she then she was ok. 

Before trek, nice and clean


After, dirty and very smelly

Earlier this week I got to help rescue a friend. She had a couple of flat tires and I got to go pick her up an hour or so away. I felt bad that it happened to her, but it was such a fun adventure spending time with her and having dinner together.  I teased her that this is not what I had in mind when I asked in my prayers to be able to help someone that day. ;)

 To climb into my friends truck, I couldn’t reach and there was no stool, Ray found some bricks for me to step on to climb into the truck. Lol!

Washington is beautiful!

 Hazel loves lipstick. Haha

I don’t have a finished picture yet, but we finally painted our bedroom! We’ve lived here 13 years I think and never painted, always wanted to and have, had that yellow and a green paint swatch on our walls for a few years..
It looks beautiful now. 

Heavenly Father is so good to us. We are blessed and loved. 

Have a great week! 
Love ya lots,
Sis Shoop

7.15.18

Happy birthday Keagan! I can’t believe he’s 19 and leaving for a mission soon!

Tonight was a fun night. After church, we had his girlfriend Makayla and her family, the McCracken’s and my mom and Thom come over for dinner and cake and lots of fun visiting.  They all just barely left. We really like Makayla and her family and might be a little sad if this all doesn’t work out in a few years. ;)

This week it has been super hot for Washington. We got to have our yearly lake party with the youth at the Warning’s house and Friday night Ray and I got to go out on the boat with my mom and Thom. 

Being out on the boat and seeing all the beautiful scenery is really my happy place. I love the wind in my hair and the smell of the salt water. We go out in the sound near their house in Shelton and go almost to Tacoma. We saw the narrows bridge off in the distance. The sun was setting in one direction and Mt. Rainier was in the other. Heavenly Father gave us such a beautiful world!

The waves are from the boat. It was pretty calm out there. 



This is to kind of show you where we took the boat. We started in Arcadia and went around Anderson Island, that is what the red line is around. (I was having a hard time making the red line go to the correct places..)

This week we also went to go visit Dick and Noreen Kay. They live in Bonaventure in the Alzheimer’s wing. She is going downhill fast. She knows that she knows us, but doesn’t know our names and sometimes gets confused how she knows us or what age she is. At one point she was flirting with Ray. This made Brother Kay and I laugh so much... 
She has a hard time talking now. She will get 3-4 words out in a story she’s going to tell, but she will keep on talking and then her words will slur and then just be jibberish.  Those of you who knew her before know how much she loved to talk, so in one way it does make me smile that she just keeps on going. It is really sweet to see Bro. Kay love her and just be patient and listen to her. 

And of course Hazel is always making us smile and laugh! She wanted Melissa to lay beside her. She’s a good mom! What a goof Hazel is! That thing she has is a back scratcher. 


There is someone named Melissa Denton running for office in our area. So funny. Melissa says she gets pictures of this sign all the time from people. Who knew that there could be two Melissa Denton’s from the Olympia area. 

This week is trek for our stake. I’m excited to hear Keagan’s stories at the end. 

Lots of love to everyone!
Sis Shoop

7.9.18

Keagan got his mission call! Las Vegas West, he leaves October 3 and it’s English speaking.

That was the most exciting and happy thing this week and for quite a while!

I felt so bad for him when he didn’t get it Monday, I thought for sure it was coming! It had said sent for a while. We thought of course it will come when he’s gone and camp Helaman. We had gone out with him every day possible to the mailbox and I took pictures and not a white envelope! I teased him that when it came, I was going to take a selfie with it. Well.. as soon as I opened the mailbox and saw it, I burst into tears (no surprise, I know) so I didn’t take a selfie with it. With him being a zone leader, he was able to take his phone because they had to do some presentations with music and stuff for their calling. I told him I would text him as soon as it came. I think I only texted him once or twice and tried calling him, but his account is hilarious. “When I opened my phone there was a million messages.. from my mom”. Haha.

We Immediately changed our plans as soon as I got a hold of him and made plans to bring it to him. I went to go pick up Ray and then we met my mom and Thom along the way. 

We got there and had to wait about a half hour for their devotional to start. They have a tradition of throwing out hostess goodies at the beginning of their activity. It was fun to watch, but it felt like forever! He finally was

Called up to the stage and then he had to wait until we got our phones ready!  What a great experience! 

We only stayed for a little bit and left soon after he read his call and got a couple of pictures and a hug!

Camp Helaman is such an amazing thing. Keagan’s birthday is next Sunday (the 15th), he turns 19. Because we held him back before he started school and where his birthday falls, he was lucky enough to be able to go to 4 years of Camp Helaman.

Camp Helaman has helped him gain a stronger testimony and get ready for a mission. He amazes me constantly with his strong testimony. Several times when he was telling me about camp Helaman, he would say things like, it was such a blessing because... 

or I know Heavenly Father blessed is by...  One that I remember was he telling me how as a leader they had to check on everyone before they went to bed. Most nights he didn’t get to bed until well after 1 am. And then he had to be up by 6. Well in our family, including Keagan, we need our sleep and if we don’t get it, we get very grumpy! As he was telling me about the little sleep he got, he said something to the effect of, I can’t believe how little sleep I got and I could still function, it was definitely a blessing!

I love him so much and it is definitely going to be another one of those happy/sad things when he goes!

I hope you can open the video. It’s a fun little video I made of him with getting his call. It’s a about 2 mins. I put it on YouTube, too, but wasn’t sure if missionaries can have YouTube. 

Have a great week! 
Love ya!
Sis Shoop

7.1.18

We spent most of the week in Utah. I love visiting, but this week was way too hot! It was in the high 90s and one day hit 100! Yuck! There’s a reason I live where I do. 

We have Melissa and Family and no extended family in Utah, so when we’re there we love to visit our friends and returned missionaries. 

We got visit Jennie Klumker (She’s doing well!)

We also got to see Jared Oliphant and his wife Julia. 



Tuesday we got to see our good friends, the Gough’s. They used to live in Lacey. I remember passing my kids as babies to their teenagers. They moved to Shelton a few years ago and this past year served a mission at Temple square. When we got to see them they had just completed their mission and were getting ready to leave in a couple of days to their new home in Idaho. 


Our friends Shaun and Kathy Herbert. Ray knew them from Pennsylvania. I met Shaun when were all at Ricks together. Shaun was a witness at our sealing and his date was Kathy. They had just started dating and we went to their wedding the next summer. Hazel ran up and wanted to be in the picture. She’s a charmer! 


Melissa has been wanting a backpack for Hazel to go on hikes with her. She found one when we were there and Hazel loved it. She called it her car seat. 


She’s almost perfect.. except her napping. It took her about an hour to finally give it up. So sweet when she’s alseep. ;) and awake!


This is the view from Chaz’s parents front yard. They are always so kind and gracious in letting us stay with them when we are there so we can afford to come see Hazel (and of course Melissa and Chaz) more often. 


On the way home we stopped at Twin Falls. It is beautiful!



One of my favorite places to stop on our driving is multnomah Falls outside of Portland. It was a nice welcome to the heat of Utah!



When we got home Ray put a ceiling fan in our bedroom. He’s awesome!


Oh Hazel! Love her so much! Her new swim suit!!


Keagan’s mission papers are sent!!!! We’re hoping to get them tomorrow. Especially since Tuesday he goes to Camp Helaman. 
We’ve checked every day since we got back (Thursday evening). 
Funny story- We’ve been checking every day, the mailman vehicle makes a distinct noise so we can tell when it comes every day. So, we run out and I take pictures. (It will probably come when he’s gone and we won’t get pics)
Yesterday when the mail came, we run out there and... he pulls out a big white envelope. My heart...  and then.. it’s an envelope from our insurance. Hahahahaha 
Melissa said, Heavenly Father definitely has a sense of humor. I was a little mean and texted her the pics first and then the story. It only took a few seconds after the pic. Hahaha


Love you all! Big news hopefully next week!!
Sis Shoop