As promised...pictures of whit and I in Utah. The temple square pictures did not come out well at all...got to love disposable cameras and the fact it when through the x-ray machine at the airport doesn't probably help. But here are the pics anyway:

Jeff,
Just a reminder-two things
1 new blue or black IWCC jacket like the tan one you got me before.
2 a piece of the track that the power supply is attached too and the power supply
actually I guess that is three things but who's counting.
If you can bring them out this weekend that would be great. Because if you forget I can remind you to bring them the weekend you are out for the blessing.
Love and God Bless
Dad
PS Shan is recovering nicely from her surgery and she will be back to work next week if things proceed as they have been so far.

This picture is New Year´s Eve 2008. The tradition here is to eat a grape each time the clock chimes...so a total of 12 grapes. It´s not easy when they aren´t seedless. And as you can see by Davids face they weren´t that great tasting!

This is a few days later, David and I went to Cristina and Jonathans to play the Nintendo Wii...so much fun! Then we played some good old Rummy-O (or whatever it´s called). They liked it!

Great picture mom and dad....oh, the good old days.....

Bobby I know you already have it waiting there for me, but I just wanted to tell you that I can´t wait to get to Utah so you can give me my ODP sweatshirt! What a wonderful brother you are!!!

Love you all.

Bobby's pictures of a mystery party reminded me of a mystery party we had at the Townsends twenty five years ago. As Bobby said it was real fun and a memorable evening. Too bad we don't take the time or expend the effort to have more events like this. Fun. enjoyable, and people orientated.
Time goes by so fast. Tonight we are going to Ken and Kathy's 50th wedding celebration.

We wish a wonderful Birthday to Alexa Feb 1 and Brinley Feb 2 It is the start of a major Birthday season for the Ginn Family.

Whit and I showcasing the "Utah ODP" hoodies Bobby ganked for us.


Whit and I took Stacia and Landon Miniature golfing. It was their first time, we got some good laughs and decided to video them trying to put the balls in the hole...u should laugh...its funny! They got through all 18 holes and then we played in the arcade. Spilt slushies and all, we had a great time!

Click To Play

How to Host a Murder

I had never been a part of a murder!
We had an amazing evening hosted by Lori, with the Primary presidency and spouses(Gina is the Secretary). The dinner was awesome and the game was so fun. Just wanted to share our "Utah" fun with everyone.

Thanks Lori for a great night!

Gina & Bobby Jared & Lori Sal & Tom Nathan & Lori, (the Hosts)

This is an event were you are invited and given a "character" -we were told to dress the part and were given some ideas of how to dress - Gina was an Adult film star and I was a doctor. This is a little like clue and we all have some script and just enough information to carry on good conversation about who could have been the murdrer. No one knows who is the murderer until the final page where all is revealed. Fun stuff!

Patrice's parents brought their birthday present for Alienor today. The gave us their well worn but very good piano. It weighs a TON!


Alienor was excited! She can't wait to have some time to really sit down and practice. She loves playing the piano and has enough talent that she should go far - with lots of practice, of course. She played the right hand of 'We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet' as we sang during FHE tonight. We'll have to buy her a full sized hymnal. For right now, she'll have to learn all the Primary songs because all I have is a nice Children's songbook.

Here are some pictures from yesterday - Alienor's birthday. We had a nice lasagna dinner, or late lunch rather because it was almost 2 by the time we ate. We kept it low key because we're having some people over next Saturday for a real birthday party.

Alienor slept in spongey curlers so she could have curly hair for her birthday. She likes how it bounces when she walks.
Alienor needed a warm scarf, so she got one! She'll get the rest of her presents on Saturday.
Margot couldn't stay away from the cake. Funny how when it's their birthday the kids want everything for themselves, all the presents etc. but they can't seem to leave the others alone when it's THEIR birthday.
This is Alienor talking to Gramma Cass on the phone.

Jocelyn

Well, prior to you all giving me a hard time about the goatee...it was shaved off...as i was starting to feel as if it was no longer in my favor. I will likely be posting videos and images within the week. Hopefully they will portray me as, not a dirty old man, but a young strappling man. Seriously, the girl is wonderful. She makes me happy and she is slowly starting to allow herself to recognize her feelings...and even share them. I am super pleased with her.

The the second interview with the soccer club in Logan went real well. I am expecting a contract, as they asked my going price and needs. They seemed as if they can handle that. I am excited to have the opportunity to return to Utah and do what I love. Keep me in your prayers that the offer will be there and that the offer will be worth changing jobs and locations.

In regards to our brother and Propeht, Gordon B. Hinckley; what a joyful moment for him, his family and us. As he is reunited with his wife and family members, brothers and sisters, we are reminded of how sweet the eternal plan truly is. As many people mourned for the popes death in recent years, we find ourselves celebrating the joy Gordon is feeling as he runs in to his wifes arms and returns. I am sure that he is already at work with her and his brothers. Gordon will always be cherished, for 15 years we looked to him for guidance and inspiration. The ability he had to look towards the future was remarkable. What a prime example of how badly we need a prophet in these later days.

On a personal note, it is no secret that I have been a President Monson fan since I was real young. As my thoughts toward Gordon B. Hinckley started to settle, I realized who will likely replace him. I am so excited to see how Pres. Monson will lead us, and in what direction he will compliment this church. What a great time we live in, to have a prophet of God leading and guiding us.

The translation is almos right. Just a few errors...

Jeff your girlfriend is HOT! But dude, that goattee doesn´t look good on you at all. You look like a dirty old man you with your little blonde girl! But you are lucky because when you´re 40 she will be in her prime!!!

Love you all.
keep smiling

Hi all,
We are all saddened at the passing of President Gordon B. Hinckley. He passed as a result of complications of old age at 7pm Mountain Standard Time Sunday the 27th of January in his apartment in Salt Lake City surrounded by members of his family. He was 97 years of age. During my lifetime I had 2 personal interviews with him while serving as a missionary in Japan. He was kind but could very straight forward in his counsel. He will be missed by the members of the church but everyone tonight commented on how joyful his reunion with his wife and his Saviour would be this night as he receives his commendation from the Saviour "Well Done Tho Good And Faithful Servant."
Love Ed Ginn

Hi Jeff, took Davids comment to church today to have translated. The combined effort of brothers Quayle, Lark and Bruce follows.

Jeff, your girlfriend is "wonderful"!! [maybe an ok word for buenorra] But uncle, you have got to get rid of that goatee, it does not favor you at all!! You look like an old green ________???? [the word pedrasta nobody knew] may mean old man or stepfather??? with your blond girl! But this is lucky because when you are forty she will be in her prime.

I take no responsibility for this translation. If there are errors it will be up to Cindi to clarify them.

Love dad

And from across the sea a happy birthday to Alienoir

HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY ALIENOR CASSANDRA DUFFORT

IT WAS FUN TO SING HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU THIS MORNING

AND TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!!

WISH I WAS THERE TO GIVE YOU HUGS AND KISSES!!

I LOVE YOU LOTS!!

GRANDMA CASS

Can someone please translate the spanglish for me?

So yeah, things are going well. Had 50 boys at tryouts last night and whitni is as cute as ever! Ill catchyou up at a later date.

You're up late too Cindi?!!
Jocelyn

I'm sitting here preparing for our Cub Scout meeting tomorrow at our house. We're doing knots. I was thinking about our last meeting and had to chuckle. We are definitely not the average LDS den, that's for sure. Last time we made bean bags for bean bag archery. While they were sewing up the hole in the bean bag, we read and then talked about different scenarios that they may be faced with and how they should act or respond in each situation. They were the typical 'what do you do when a stranger calls and you are home alone' kind of safety questions. Well, one of the questions was something like 'what do you do if one of the older boys at school offers you drugs?' Juan (Spanish boy, age 8) couldn't remember what drugs were so Tijmen (Tie-men, Dutch boy, age 10) pipes up and says they're something you can smoke and it gives you a headache and makes you a little sick to your stomach. He went on to say, 'yeah, my mom tried the kind of drugs that you smoke.' Then I said that drugs were not good for their bodies but that also they were against the law and that you could get in trouble with the police if you have/use drugs. But of course I pointed out that, yes, they are illegal here but they aren't all illegal in Holland!

I've come across this situation often here in Europe - having 'bad' things be acceptable, in society and the general mentality - and it only reinforces my testimony that the United States of America was THE ONLY place that the gospel could be restored. Even though the US is going to hell in a handbasket (thank you Gramma) at least we can stand up and remind society about what is 'right' and 'wrong' because our country was founded on the 'right' (yes, I know we had our imperfections such as slavery). To use France here as an example, their gov't is founded on laicity (sp? absence of religion) so how can you even stand up for anything moral when society doesn't even really recognize that there is a moral right and wrong, just legal and illegal. OK, enough of that.



Here are a few pictures from Margot's recent hospital stay. She has reflux so when she goes to the bathroom, urine goes up from her bladder to her kidneys. We've known since 2003 and she's been taking prophylactic antibiotics since then. With her doctor we decided to stop the antibiotics to see how she would fare. Well, she lasted a good 4-5 months, but she ended up with a bad UTI and spent 5 days in the hospital - Jan 3-8. I'm sure in the US they would have given me the antibiotics and sent me home with her but here they keep you. We couldn't keep her temperature down and it was at about 105 so I was glad to have some help.

She was admitted on a Friday evening. Come Monday morning we found out that there was a 'craft' room with lots of games and crafts to do. So we spent Monday and Tuesday crafting.

Margot made a mask with lots of bits of felt.

The dumbest thing about the hospital stay was that they put the IV in her RIGHT hand so once she was feeling better - by Sat. night/Sun. morning - she was 'handicapped' with her right hand all bandaged up. I will definitely speak up next time.
Margot wanted me to show the little toilets they had so we took a picture - she thought it was SO funny to be taking a picture with the toilet. We were in the children's wing. Well, come to think of it, it's a children's hospital so the ER is for kids, everything is for kids.

I hope everyone is doing well. Have a great weekend! Jocelyn

Jeff, tu novia esta buenorra!! Pero tio, tienes que quitarte esa perilla que no te favorece en nada!!! Pareces un viejo verde pedrasta con tu niña rubia! Pero que suerte porque cuando tu tengas 40 ella estará en su mejor momento....

Well Jeff, this is what David said to me when he saw the picture of you and Whitni (spell check on the name?!?!) Part of me hopes you can translate it because you´ll get a kick out of it. The other part thinks it might be better if you don´t!!

Love you all. See some of you very soon!
hugs and kisses.

Well dad, Whitni was not a huge fan of that picture, but that is all I had on the camera phone. We did take a bunch more with a disposable camera and we hope to finish it off this weekend...so next week i will have some more. Whitni's 14 year old sister took a picture of us when we were in Idaho for an afternoon. She explained that she would much rather have this picture on display. And honestly, I like this picture a lot. It is a good one of both of us. Have a great day!

I thought we would all like to see a better picture of Jeff and Whitney so I put the little picture in photoshop lightened and sharpened the image and vola! You can actually see how cute she is and how cute but scruffy Jeff is---much better I think. I agree none of you are dead but we all are very busy----but that is no excuse for not adding your info every now and again. Thanks Jeff and Jocelyn.
Love Ed

Well, I agree with Jocey, alive...not dead.

It seems from the moment I got back from Utah I have been busy, busy, busy! The good news...I get to head back to Utah in two days:) I got back from the Christmas break and have been working on four very hard things.

1-Playing fireman for Council Bluffs Futbol Club
It always seems that at this time of year I get to do some troubleshooting for the coaches and parents. Parents not happy, coaches not knowing how to resolve concerns on their own. It is a blast to be in the beginning stages of developing a functioning soccer community. Thursday night I had to conduct a counciling meeting with one of our coaches, because of his lack of desire to conform to the u.s. soccer federations guidelines we had to release him (this is never a pretty sight!) Last night I had a parents education meeting. I spent all day Thursday putting together a powerpoint presentation for parents. The powerpont was titled: THEY PLAY. I COACH. YOU CHEER...with an emphasis on the YOU CHEER part. I had to address the state of our club, the maturation process that the club is going through and explain the role of the parent. It is always fun telling parents how to be good "soccer parents." It is the nature of the beast that I am in :)

2-IWCC Recruiting.
I have been on the phone a lot with players in Utah. I am planning on seeing a number of boys this Friday, so I have been contacting club coaches while coach Benett has been calling high school caoches. Hopefully we will have some quality boys show up.

3-The girl.

Still going well, progressing and learning more and more each day about one another. She is starting to learn how to prioritize me. Being that she has very little experience in the dating/courting process she is nervous and scared. However, she is progressing with the idea of "us" and I am real pleased with how things are going. I am excited to spend some time with her this weekend.

4-I actually enrolled in 6 credits of classes. I am not really excited, as it takes up a lot of my time. However, I am ready to start tackling that obstacle now.

Love and miss you all!

I thought I'd respond to Bobby's comment about being dead. I think, on the contrary, we are living too much! This last week I've felt like I'm on the verge of dropping one of the many things I'm juggling. And then today when I think I'm about to drop it, somehow Heavenly Father is kind enough to bless me right at that moment so the thing disappears right before it hits the ground. Or at least that's the mental image I have of it. At the risk of sounding self-important (I HATE saying I'm busy) I thought I'd share what I'm juggling right now. Besides, it helps me feel like I'm actually accomplishing something. Let's see... not in any particular order...

• Alienor, Guillaume, Margot, Perceval and their 'upkeep.'


• the house and it's 'upkeep.'


• homeschool for Guillaume and Margot, plus the various activities for the kids - mainly practicing for piano, flute, clarinet.


• YW pres which is lessons every other Sunday and activities every Friday evening. If I don't do the activity then it doesn't happen.


• Ward nursery teacher which is just a small lesson every Sunday.


• Stake nursery leader which isn't too demanding. I'm preparing a presentation for the Stake leadership meetings during Stake conference.


• Cub Scout leader which is an activity every other Saturday morning.


• I'm working on a cross-stitch


• I read lots of books, to the detriment of my sleeping habits!


• I heard through the grapevine that they are going to call me to be the YW camp director for Girls Camp this summer. Luckily I haven't heard anything official in the last few weeks so maybe it won't happen! I told the sister that told me (couns in stake YW pres) that the stake YW pres would call me as revenge for having criticized the camp last year.

Wow, I put it in a list and it actually doesn't sound like I'm doing very much. Well, I still feel like it's a lot. This past week I spent probably 20 hours preparing a YW/YM combined activity for Friday night - it was a murder mystery dinner party. Then this morning I was supposed to give a talk in sacrament meeting - as well as the nursery lesson and YW lesson. Well, I had been so busy during the week that I hadn't prepared anything for it. And Saturday night I ended up falling asleep on the couch around 8 so I gave up and went to bed early. This morning I prepared a quick talk, obviously not one of my best, and we went to church. I winged my talk and it didn't turn out too bad. Then it turned out that all 4 of my YW were absent! So Heavenly Father sent me a tiny miracle to get me through the rest of Sunday!! YW was the ball I was about to drop but which vanished before it hit the ground. Thank Heaven for small miracles.

So what is everyone else juggling? Although I love to see what everyone is doing and am glad to hear about your day to day activities, I'd love even more to find out what you THINK about what you're doing. I always want to write about the things I think about but then I think it's too personal and nobody would want to read it. I'd probably sound like a coock - that's coooooock, don't know how it's spelled! Well, maybe I'll start writing stuff anyway and if you want you can throw tomatoes at me - if you can throw that far!!!

Have a great Sunday. Let's see if I have any pictures to post.

This is Christmas Eve dinner at Patrice's cousin's house.

This is our new family tradition- the kids decorate the Christmas tree because Mom doesn't like to have to do it. They had a ball. They used decorations plus odds and ends of ribbon and anything else they could find that was 'pretty.'

Opening presents on the 'veranda' which is enclosed but not heated like the house so it's kind of 'outdoors' still.

Yes, I love the frosted look. This is looking out our kitchen window to the northwest.

OK, I've gotta get going... BYC in half an hour!

Love you all, Jocelyn

No long term damage from the snowmobile outing! Someone needs to take some time and post something new. Are you all dead?

Gina--Thanks for the videos.

Bobby do you have any lasting damage from the 10 foot fall?

Saw the opening of the Sundance festival tonight---wondered if Bobby is hauling anyone important this year?

Hope you are ready for us all to descend on you for five days. Mom and I and Cindi and David will arrive 11:15 pm on Feb 28th Thursday. We are going to rent a van to help out with the transportation problems. Gina-we will help with the food. Marie even says she will help cook so we don;t have to spend so much on fast food. Spaghetti, Lasagna, tacos,stew whatever.Be ready to let us help make this a great time, I will try and not break anything this time I really want to enjoy my family.

Mom and I will come back Monday night. C and D are staying 'til wed morning so they can play baby sitters while you take Gina out for your 8th anniversary on Tuesday. Remember just you two!!!!!! BOBBY!

Love Dad
Love Dad

STACIA LANDON MILENA SNOW TIME
WINTER BIKE RIDING

CHURCH TIME

CHECK OUT THESE TALENTED KIDS!

Ginn kids playing

THIS IS THE MOUNTAINS ABOVE THE CABIN. IT'S NICE TO HAVE RICH FRIENDS! THANKS BUD AND WADE ZOLL!

Here is a video of Bobby's snowmobiling trip.

I was invited to go backcountry snowmobiling. We had radios and avalanche beacons but no maps to tell us were the cliffs were. THIS 10 FOOT DROPOFF got me.

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY TO

SHAWNNA AMBER NORMAND

I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU A LOT!

WISH I WAS IN VIRGINIA TO GIVE

A BIG BIRTHDAY HUG AND KISS

TO MY CALIFORNIA GIRL!!

LOVE, GRANDMA TATA!!

Thank you Jocy for sharing that experience. It sounds like it was a great outing and a real memory maker for the youth. It is great to see that some priesthood leadership exists in Europe and is willing to help the youth and youth leaders have such wonderful experiences. Anyone else have a good item to share? We love what you post.
Love Ed and Marie

I was a leader (with 3 other adults) over one of 6 groups of youth. This was my group in front of the temple after our baptism session.
I just love the frosted tree look.
This was all the youth and a few leaders, taken from a second story window.

That's about all for the moment. I'll try to post again soon to share a few pictures from Christmas and New Year's Eve.

Best Wishes for 2008!

Jocelyn

I went to a 4 stake youth conference from Dec 26-29 near the Schwarzsee (black lake) in Switzerland. The 4 stakes were Nancy, Lyon, Geneva and Lausanne. There were about 160 youth there which was overwhelming for many of the youth present. There were spiritual workshops in the morning and 'fun' activities in the afternoon. It was well organized (especially for Europe!!) and the kids had a good time. It snowed before we arrived and we had clear weather the whole time. You couldn't ask for a more beautiful backdrop! We stayed in Swiss military barracks that they rent out (the Swiss military is like a citizens militia so they don't need their facilities all year long).
Here are some of the youth from our stake. We went on a night walk our first night and had these huge 'candles' to hold. It was pretty but I was worried about someone's hair catching fire!
The night walk, leaving the 'conference center'.
I chose to go snow shoeing on one of the afternoons. We took a ski lift to the top of the mountain and then hiked down. It was totally fun! And it was cool to be so far away from 'life'. It felt as if we were miles and miles away from anywhere. In the foreground is my friend Christine from our stake. We met at girls camp this summer and met up again at youth conference. It was fun to have someone to 'hang around' with.
I took this looking down on the lake. You can't really tell it's a lake from this distance. Beyond the green trees, and before the 'blue' trees is the lake. It was really big and totally frozen. One of the activities was ice skating on the lake. I even saw a horse drawn carriage/sleigh on the lake. During our night walk we walked across it which was a little spooky because we hadn't really seen it up close during the day so most of us were a little nervous. It was actually the first time I'd ever been on a frozen lake before. It was cool.
Each group of youth went to the Zollikofen Swiss temple once during the conference. It was about an hour away from where we were staying. I like the trees when they are 'frosted' so I thought this was a pretty picture with the partially frosted pine next to the temple.

Liz really enjoyed dessert and finally a picture of all of us at the beach

Here are pictures of the Hillman's visit with us Christmas 07.
The only picture that really needs a caption is Cassy's----
Oh! thank you Lord for Maries wonderful Rolls ---- AMEN
MMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi all.
Thank you for putting the videos on the blog mom and I just love them. I printed out the blog to save it in a paper format for the future and I noticed that the videos didn't print. They just left a blank spot on the page so in the future if it is possible put one still picture before or after to set up or explain the video. Had a nice chat with Marion the other day. She is busy with her four kids and living the life of a widow since Bishop Norton is so busy with being a lawyer and the father of the ward. She and Brian had the missionaries over for Christmas and Derek Bunker (Elder) a member of our ward and son of Bill Bunker is serving in their ward. She said after dinner they gave dart guns to her kids and the missionaries and they ran all over the house having a great time shooting each other. It made her happy that she could give the missionaries a feeling of fun and home but the next day she was finding darts all over the house. She likes having the missionaries around as examples for her kids.
Nathan called today and said he had had an interesting time working in Iowa for the Mitt Romney caucus. I'm hoping that he will tell us more about his political adventure in Iowa.
Jeff called and talked to mom and gave her the latest update about Whitney Davis. Hope he will bring the rest of us up to date. He can spare the details but a short overview would be interesting. My leg is not healing and hurts every step I take so sometime in the future I will have to have it redone. Mom and I both have chest colds. Mom's is affecting her breathing pretty much but we are both at work every day. If you can't play hurt they take you out of the game. We are not ready to be benched yet!
Well, make time to add a line or two to this family history.
We love you all and pray for you every day. Love Mom and Dad

Jan 1st 2008 snow day in the backyard!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

What did you do this Holliday season?

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!
TO
ALL OF THE FAMILY
WELCOME 2008 MAY WE ALL HAVE A HEALTHY,
HAPPY, SAFE AND PROSPEROUS
NEW YEAR.

It is a little after midnight here on the west coast so the new year has come to all of us except for Jimmy in Hawaii. It will come to him also in a few more hours but I can't stay up that late. Hope you all banged a few pots and pans in Virginia Ginn's memory she loved new years and the bottle rockets on the beach,along with shouts of the happy people on the beach and the smell of the fires on the beach. Especially since she could enjoy it all from the safety of her balcony.
My best to all of you,
Love Dad, Grand-pa Ginn