julia and james

Julia and James working together on a valentine's day project.

Visit to Smithsonian

Kara flew in with her 10-month son Jacob to see James when he came home from his mission. As there was no school,we took a day outing to the Smithsonian museum.

Jacob's first metro ride

JAMES IS HOME!

James, at the end of his mission in Riverside, California.

It was almost midnight on January 12th when we went to greet James home from his mission.

Kara and baby Jacob had flown in for the occasion. It was so exciting to see how great he looked--with his shining missionary spirit.


The next night we went with him to be formally released as a missionary by the Stake President.

Then Thursday night he reported on his mission to the High Council--(his dad being one of the twelve High Council members.)

We heard about some of his experiences, and he spoke briefly in Spanish. We had a glimpse of how much he had grown.
It was time to take down his plaque from the church.

>Jacob is thinking about how he'll be a missionary like Uncle James someday.

Sunday we had about 50 friends over to welcomeJames home.





We put some of his mission pictures on the sunroom door.



Our family-- that were here. (Unfortunately Daniel and Erika had to fly back to school just a few days before he arrived.)

Annapolis Day trip

While Kara and her son Jacob were here in January we took a day trip to Annapolis, our pretty state capitol. Julia, Andrea, Dave and I were with them, but the sisters wanted some pics together.

A lookout point--with the capitol across the water


Standing at the downtown pier that goes out to the Chesapeake bay