No one shines brighter on this earth than our own President Gordon B. Hinckley!

I cannot in any way take credit for this post. My cousin, Becky, emailed it to me and since I hadn't done a tribute yet, I decided to share this. I especially love the last quote! I have loved so many of your tributes, they have been fun to read these past couple of days! I will miss this sweet man!

President Hinckley always uses his cane, just not much for walking.

See what I mean. He was told to carry a cane and that's what he does - he carries it.
Elder Russell M. Nelson is at far right.

Not all of us have such a fancy pointing stick as President Hinckley at the Kirtland Temple.

We marveled at the contrast of Joseph Smith's visit to the White House to meet with President Van Buren and President Hinckley's visit to the White House to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given a United States citizen.
The White House, Washington, D.C.

President Hinckley said that "Sister Hinckley would have loved this event."

The White House, Washington, D.C.

You just can't help breaking into a smile when you are around Gordon B. Hinckley.

Kirtland Temple.

President Hinckley is patient with all the photographers who are constantly taking his picture. He did say to us one time, in a quiet tone , that "if all the cameras in the world were thrown into the ocean, there would be a great flood." Kirtland Temple.

Who can resist President Gordon B. Hinckley's warmth?

Kirtland Temple.

President and Sister Hinckley were just the trademark of happiness in Ghana..

No one could keep their eyes off of them. Their warmth was infectious.

Their kind waves of the hand always made everyone feel loved.

Accra, Ghana

These two are love birds, no less. Kirtland, Ohio.

I'll never forget when President Hinckley invited his precious wife to the stand in Moscow and introduced her to the 2,000 present as his "Babushka.''

It brought the house down - they loved it. Moscow, Russia.

When we first published it, one woman wrote to us and said,

"If people don't believe Mormons are Christians, just have them look at this picture of Sister Marjorie Hinckley." I so agree.

Nauvoo , Illinois.

How blessed we are to live during the administration and ministry of President Gordon B. Hinckley.

Nauvoo , Illinois.

You were generals in the War in Heaven and one day when you are in the spirit world, you will be enthralled by those you are associated with. You will ask someone in which time period they lived and you might hear,
"I was with Moses when he parted the Red Sea," or "I helped built the pyramids'" or "I fought with Captain Moroni." And as you are standing there in amazement, someone will turn to you and ask you which of the
prophets' time did you live in? And when you say "Gordon B. Hinckley" a hush will fall over every hall and corridor in Heaven, and all in attendance will bow at your presence. You were held back six thousand years because you were the most talented, most obedient, most
courageous, and most righteous.

Elder Boyd K. Packer

November 2007 Highlights

November was packed with so many events, I thought I'd just do a brief highlight of some of our favorite things we did...

Fall Festivals

Free Face Paintings

Free Hayrides...

...which we did twice!

Brig finished playing a fun soccer season.

Kaitlyn performed at the State Fair.

Her cousins and Hilary were there to support her, plus we had a little fun afterwards!

Crazy Hair Day at school

Just couldn't pass this one up- love my boys!

The Ultimate Softball Challenge- Collins Family vs. the Worthen Family

Our team mascot, Big Boy

Puttin on my game face!

Brig's first time at bat- he actually made contact with the ball too!

The Collins' were good losers and nice enough to stick around for a photo of all who participated. Way to be good sports in the eye of defeat! :)

My niece, Emma, had her appendix out and was in the hospital for a week.

...And I didn't take one picture at Thanksgiving. All of my family were able to be together on Thanksgiving Day for the first time in a few years. We had more than enough food and watched a BYU Basketball game. No matter how much work it is, it so worth it. I am so thankful for my family! This year was bittersweet knowing Hilary was going to be leaving on her mission. She will be missed at next year's feast.

Hilary goes to Boston!

So, as soon as our ship was in harbor and we could use our cell phones again, I called Hilary thinking she already had her mission call. I was so glad to hear she hadn't got it and that it would probably be the next day, so I would be able to make it. We literally came straight from the airport to my sister, Syd's, home to be there for the unveiling!

We all had guesses of where she would go. My mom and Wesley guessed Boston. My mom thought it would be a fun place to be with Mitt Romney running for the GOP nomination! Boy was she right, hopefully with both things!


Hils opening her call- how exciting!

Boston, Massachusetts, leaving December 19, 2007!


The Worthen Family, 2007

She is going to be missed greatly, especially by her nieces and nephews, but what a wonderful example she is setting for them! Love you Hilary!

Fun Ship, Carnival Cruise, October 19-26, 2007

Our friends, Alice and John Nuckols, had emailed us earlier in the year about this great deal of cruise. So we paid for it without really looking much into it. I was even a little negative about going because I get sooooo motion sickness- yes even to this day. (For those who have known me since I was little, this has been very evident- I pretty much would barf every trip to the lake, father-daughter outings, even to Fiesta Mall I would get sick!!) Anyways, I totally recommend it, the money you spend for what you get is phenomenal! We had Hilary and her friend Shawnda watching the kids at home, which was so perfect. They are already like my kids mothers and it was just so nice not to have to worry about the kids. We ended up not having phone usage on the cruise, which I was unaware of until we actually got on the cruise. So I felt bad that we didn't keep in contact with them. Some friends of the Nuckols brought their lap top and were able to call home using an internet program (which was sooo much cheaper- internet minutes vs cell phone minutes- no comparison). They said we were welcome to use it if we wanted to. So we finally did after being on the water about 4 or 5 days. We only talked about 5 minutes, but it was good to hear their voices. And we learned that Hilary would be getting her mission call probably the day before we got home. I was bummed I was going to miss her opening it. Anyways, the cruise I totally recommend. We did everything we could- especially the free stuff, it's kind of nerdy, but once you start playing the games, it gets kind of fun, and you really start to know some of the other people on the ship as well. Thanks to the Nuckols for letting us know about it, we had such a great time with you guys, and hope we can do it again someday! Just one more quick note, I really just wanted to tell Lonny thanks for the trip as well. I love traveling with him. He just is a good travel companion. He has the travel smarts to get around in unfamiliar places, can usually speak the language, even if he doesn't speak the language, and is just easy going and ready to do anything and try anything. I think there was one day I counted he had eaten more than 10 different kinds of meat... in ONE DAY! Is totally disgusting to me, but at the same time, I wish I had the guts to do it. (I know you're dying to know what meats they were, here it goes: Escargot, rack of lamb, caviar, salmon, veal, beef, chicken, and we totally can't remember already, but there were others!) I always feel safe being in unfamiliar places with him. I hope we have more chances and more money in the future so we can travel lots more places! I love you Lon!

Surprise! We're off to Disneyland- October 7-9, 2007

We decided VERY last minute to surprise our kids with a trip to Disneyland for Fall Break. We got a cheap price for a nice hotel and it included park hopper tickets for 3 days. So Sunday morning, we woke the kids up at 5am (with the car already packed with their clothes, etc..) and told them we had a surprise so they needed to get dressed and get in the car. They were too tired to argue. We didn't tell them how long we would be in the car. After about 4 hours they figured out we were heading to California. At one point one of them mentioned Disneyland, and then one of the other kids reminded him that Disneyland was too expensive and we weren't going there! They figured we were going to Balboa and the Beach, and so we let them just keep thinking. We checked into the hotel, which had a shuttle service to Disneyland. We were close enough to Disneyland that their were banners on the streets, hotels, pretty much everywhere you looked. Lonny and I were cracking up, because the kids had no clue. We literally got off the shuttle in the parking lot between California Adventures and Disneyland, and they still had no clue. We got our tickets at will call, and they were still asking. A worker walked by and I said for them to ask her where we were. The worker looked at them and me smiling, and she said "You're at the happiest place on earth" Which really wasn't any help. We walked past the ticket counter and they saw the entrance to Disneyland and said, are we at Disneyland? Almost scared to ask, we had them so convinced there was no way! We shook our heads yes and they started jumping up and down. It was so fun for Lonny and I to see their excitement, it was worth the million quesses the whole way there! Some of the highlights of the 3 days we were there...

-Our kids were big enough to do most of the rides. Bobo couldn't do as many, but he really didn't care as long as he got a cotton candy instead.
-They all got picked to participate in a story telling with Jasmine and her Prince and then got pictures afterwards with them.
-They all got picked for Jedi Training, which they loved. Brig and Kaitlyn got to fight Darth Vader and Macy got to fight Darth Mal (have no idea how to spell that).
-The 2nd night, the boys were tired, so me and the girls stayed by ourselves and ventured over to California Adventures for the first time. We only had time to do California Screaming- which we all loved.
-We loved California Adventures and will spend more time there the next time we go!
-Lost Bobo for 45 minutes, the longest 45 minutes of my life. He wandered during lunch, we were eating by a play area and the kids were done eating, so they went to play while Lonny and I continued eating. We got distracted by the "Year of a Million Dreams" people passing out Dreams lanyards for everyone. Bobo refused to come and get one, so we only got 5- which was enough for all our children, so we were OK with that. A few minutes after they were gone I asked Kaitlyn if she could see Bobo still playing. She never came back with her answer, so a few minutes later I decided to go check (really, I am not a bad mom, it was a pretty confined area and I was watching, plus his 2 big sisters were over there with him as well.)I couldn't see him. I checked a few of the surrounding areas, nothing. Lonny is of course in the bathroom at this point. I have 3 other kids playing, all our food, stoller, camera, money were at the table. I kept looking around, trying to keep all that in sight until Lonny came back from the bathroom. As soon as I saw him I told him I couldn't find Bobo and that I was going to look further. As soon as I started my search I saw an employee. I decided to ask him how long a child needed to be missing before they did something. He didn't even answer my question before he radioed another area. When he got off, he took me to a meeting spot and said they've never lost a kid and that it will be fine. I got Lonny to the meeting spot and continued my search to no avail. I came back to the meeting spot pretty much ready to lose it. A lady on a near by bench was witnessing what was going on and asking me about it. I answered her questions as it was keeping me from completely freaking out. A few minutes went by and she said, "Is that your son?" And I turned around and he was in the arms of his Nursery Teacher from Primary. I lost it. She said they had made a wrong turn quite a ways back and were trying to see where they were so they could hook up with the rest of their party and saw this little boy in the middle of the pathway sitting on the ground eating cotton candy, and thought he looked like Bobo. She realized it was him and went up to him and asked where his mom was, and he said, "I got candy". She picked him up and went to an employee and they said they'd take him to us to see if this was him. She said she'd keep holding him to take him to his mom since she knew us. He was never scared, which was a blessing, because most of my freaking out was thinking that he was freaking out realizing he was lost. He had wanted cotton candy and went and got it. It was a good lesson. We will never go again without some kind of identification in each kids pockets with our cell numbers so if lost, they can reach us!