2013 AGLE FAMILY REUNION

And the fun continues . . .

 All the wonderful food Kristin planned and prepared.

 Writing a letter to Hermana Agle in Chile.

 This his how you make Mexican S'Mores

 Smear the tortilla with p-nut butter, add miniature marshmallows and then chocolate chips. Wrap and seal with aluminum foil and cook on the grill. Yummy!

 How cute is that. JP and McCoy.

 A little badminton.

Good night.

LET THE FUN BEGIN

2013 AGLE FAMILY REUNION

The family began arriving Sunday afternoon and soon everyone who was to arrive that day - - did! Whew!

Eddy modeled the front & back of his shirt.

Adam gave us a "gun" show

 He amazed his Grandma & Mom

 Zaynzley entertained herself going up and down and up and down and up and down the stairs!

She entertained her great Aunt January.

 B-O-B

 Ashlee

 Actually Erik, it was more like this. . . 

The 3 Graces

Seldom separated. 

Pretty Dano.

THE BIG EVENT IS ALMOST HERE

Just some of the food! It's going to be good!

Making a list and checking it twice.

and here's an update on the Pagoda

 Beautiful roof

Great Job!

THROW-BACK THURSDAYS

It's "Throwback Thursday" again.

Yes, this was quite the band. Uniforms and all. Drummers, horn tooters and a couple of tambourines. All the little boys were in love with the pretty majorette, especially the second little boy on the left.

GREATER ROLFE DAYS - 150 YEARS

Ken was in Rolfe, Iowa for the big celebration and helped his one sister put on the final touches for her house that was to be in the Parade of Homes, and the other sister with some much needed projects. Here's what Julie wrote:

Can you believe the day is finally here.  It has always seemed off in the distant future.  We worked until 11:00 last night and I am up at 5:00 to finish cleaning.  It will be a happy day after 3:30!  Ken has been a lot of help and with him here I was able to attempt wallpapering the bathroom.  It didn't go smoothly but it is done! Hope at least a few people show up. 

Ken got to use his favorite new tool, a power washer. He did the whole outside of the house and then helped vacuum inside and other tasks.

 Julie needed a little extra boost to reach the top.

 Done and done!

Beautiful!

They did show up. Ken knew they would and so he bought a ton of cookies to serve and they had nearly 200 people tour their home.

Here's a few other pictures:

 Upstairs guest room.

  Living room.

How about Ruth's "obi"!

3 Seasons room.

Then Ruth wrote a little about Ken's visit.

Ken got a TON of nice things done for me. 
I now have a toilet that flushes, a screen instead of glass in my storm door (nice breeze!), a suspicious hole patched in my attic (it didn't go all the way through, but now I am no longer suspicious, which is a PLUS), a patched bay window roof in my entryway, the air conditioner unit is out of my bedroom window (I only need/like it when we're going through a heat wave when there's no cooling off), my lawns mowed and the edges trimmed, and perhaps nicest of all, a NEW GATE for my backyard! Well, maybe not nicer than having a toilet that flushes, but close!

For the gate, previously I'd have to unhook two chain link sections that were crudely "twist-tied" together to open up a large section to get the riding mower through. Not only that, the twist ties left a gap  large enough for Teddy to escape, so even though I have a fenced back yard, I'd have to stake Teddy back there giving him very little freedom. Teddy's still quite the escape artist so I won't trust the backyard quite yet, but the crude "gate" was the biggest point of escape. As soon as Greater Rolfe Days is over and the town is less crowded, I'm going to test the back yard and see how secure it is with him. 

Ruth, basking in her newly mowed lawn

Saturday was the big parade. Ken took a few pictures.

S

 Parade route.

 This man built this to honor his wife who is a cancer survivor, or "U can survive".

 New gathering place in Rolfe. Julie & Scott had a lot to do with this.

Ruth took advantage of all the visitors to Rolfe to promote her new website. The book launches soon!

at

HERMANA AGLE UPDATE (AKA ARIA)

For those of you who don't follow Aria's Facebook page (now administered by her Dad) here's a little of what is going on in her world.

 She has finished the language training and is now in the "mission field". Here she is with the Mission President and his wife.

 Here' is the whole group.

Here's an excerpt from one of her letters:

I loved reading all the good things that are happening, and I am so glad you went out to Iowa for my dear Aunties. Sometimes I think that relaxed life would be ideal. I love it. Plus fireflies, that is pretty dang magical if you ask me!!! I haven´t even ever seen them but I think that it would be super duper spectacular. Jus sayin.’ 

Oh so mission life, here we go  earlier this week...hmm...funny story first. So our suspicions were confirmed...I indeed do not have...a British accent. But how did this knowledge come to light you may ask? Well it happened on Wednesday morning, Hermana Braun and I were walking to our next cita, when we heard from behind us an "excuse me!¨ then a little girl on a bike passed by which was followed by a very polite "thank you!" I must say I was rather impressed with this Chilean girl`s Spanish! So my companion and I continued on and we noticed she had stopped to pet a puppy. We caught up to her and she explained that her English was that good, well because she was indeed British. I gotta admit it was so weird explaining we were missionaries in English…haha.  I felt funny not speaking Spanish (or my attempted Spanish) but anyway, we continued chit chatting and I told her about how you graduated from England and how my Aunt was British as well.

 She was excited about that and we eventually got to the subject of coming by her house. She was more than happy to accept us coming by (I think for want of company alone, poor thing with no one to talk to!) and we were just writing down her address when a rather concerned father called out to her. She biked ahead to go talk to him and we began bustling over as well. Although we were not too far off, we could hear their conversation quite clearly. She told them we were English missionaries (I think she really meant English speaking, perhaps I confused her) and she asked if we could come by their house, he said very loudly that no we indeed were not coming!

When we had actually gotten over to talk to him I said my, well you know, rather cheery `hello!`and then he said (rather pompously if you don´t mind me saying) ¨No Camilla, that is definitely not an English accent, that is an American accent." We attempted to ask him to come by and he just said not in our American dreams. So yes father, I indeed do not have an English accent. However I do have American dreams  and that is something to be happy about hahaha. Secretly, I am rather glad I do not have to get rejected by an Englishman everyday!

 While she was out shopping what should she see but her Mother's namesake store!

 New fashion statement!  PJs?

Aria said that she really wanted this coat, but she didn't buy it. Then, as a HUGE surprise, her district fellow missionaries bought it for her for her 21st birthday. I think she is happy.


And to bring you up-to-date on the Firepit Pagoda

The roof is taking shape!

WE ARE SIX

JP celebrated his birthday with a fun party. They waited until Dad could be here to enjoy it. Looks like a lot of fun.

That was some birthday party. Lucky boy.

STEVEN'S EAGLE SCOUT PROJECT

Here's a report about Steven's Eagle project by his Mom: 

Yesterday we had Steven's Eagle Project. It was a big one. Steven basically upgraded the entire Beniun Canyon Campground. He did three projects: made a clearing for activities, repaired an unsafe bridge and put electric lights in the bathrooms. Sophie and Ken will really appreciate that at the next Daddy and Daughter camp-out and being able to go to the bathroom at night with lights. 

A well deserved smile for a job well done!

Steven put me, Nathan and Joshua Brown on clearing the brush from the campsite area.

Nathan

Joshua (?)

Steven, granddad, the Bishop, Brother Reoch and a couple of the other boys worked on the electrical job. This involved digging a trench from the utility shed (that had electricity)  to the bathrooms. We then cut pipe and ran the wires through it and put more pipe up the wall into the bathrooms. Then they put in three lights (boys, girls, and outside) and two light switches. It was really hard. We almost couldn't get the wire through the pipe.

The last job was really hard. We only had about twelve people (not counting JP and Sophie). Steven put Davis and his friends (who all worked extremely hard) on the repairing the bridge.

Sophie brought people water bottles and JP played in the creek.

Joshua Brown and Sophie both got stung by stinging nettle weed, but other than that and one cut, there were no injuries.

 Everyone worked so hard. I had a great lunch for everyone, but it was a really tough project. Steven and Grandpa did not get home till 9:30 that night. That's a ten hour day. In fact, only two people who worked on the Eagle Project made it to Church at 9:00 the next day (Me and Jerremy Woods). The Bishop, Steven, and the Reoch men all stayed home.

I felt a little bad that we nearly killed the Bishop! 

We missed Ken. We really missed him when we couldn't get the electrical wire through our pipes. But, we did figure it out eventually. I sure Ken would have gotten us there sooner, but we did it.

The Church campsite hasn't been improved for years. Going to the bathrooms in the woods at night in the dark is not fun. They did a first rate job with all the wire running inside PCB pipe to protect it from rain and animals. The bridge is much safer and the clearing is a lovely spot. I am so proud of everyone, especially Steven who did a great job running everything.